The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spends billions every year delivering assistance to various countries around the world, sometimes for the purpose of promoting social causes abroad. USAID told Congress in August it planned to spend $1.5 million in Latin America and the Caribbean on various LGBTQ causes, including raising awareness of LGBTQ individuals and promoting coordination of various organizations that protect the minority group, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told the DCNF, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject.

A congressional committee issued a freeze on the $1.5 million funding package, the source told the DCNF. But USAID is choosing to ignore the hold and move forward with the initiative; an incredibly rare and nearly unprecedented move, as holds are typically honored.

USAID plans to use the $1.5 million for more than supporting LGBTQ individuals; it includes funding for litigation against different Latin American and Caribbean countries if they supposedly discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, the DCNF has learned. Some of these nations have the highest percentages of Catholics or Christians in the world, according to World Population Review.

The funding will also promote coordination between LBGTQ organizations and other minority groups, such as organizations representing African descendants, indigenous groups and migrant-focused organizations, the DCNF has learned. Funding is also included for the creation or dissemination of materials for journalists to promote anti-violence against LGBTQ people in the region.

Though the $1.5 million was allocated in a 2023 Development Fund (DF), it isn’t clear how much of the funding has been spent to date. It’s part of a larger $6.5 million package for LGBTQ initiatives across the globe, including in the Middle East and Africa regions, the source told the DCNF.

The congressional hold only applied to the $1.5 million portion of the package, but USAID ignored it and moved forward with the spending plan, the source said.

USAID has a $45 billion dollar budget for fiscal year 2024, and in addition to putting that to use in aid or assistance delivery operations, the Biden-Harris administration also uses the budget to promote seemingly left-wing causes across the world, such as in the case of LGBTQ initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Some of USAID’s activities have been criticized by lawmakers as a waste of money or politically charged.

In other cases, USAID funding isn’t properly tracked and risks ending up with American adversaries, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan or Hamas in Gaza.

Featured Image: Flickr/Official White House Photo by Erin Scott

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Iran launched hundreds of missiles into Israeli territory — most, but not all, of which were intercepted — in retaliation for Israel’s attacks against Tehran and Hezbollah in recent weeks and months. With the war against Hamas in Gaza largely coming to a close, Israel’s primary focus is now on combating Iran and Hezbollah, two much larger adversaries that threaten to throw the already chaotic Middle East region further into turmoil, national security experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Hamas is a shadow of its former self. Israel is going to continue to try to eradicate them, but it’s sort of a guerilla campaign. Hamas is being starved and smoked out. I suspect that you’re going to see Hamas go underground somewhat — more figuratively than literally at this point,” former State Department official Gabriel Noronha told the DCNF.

The Iranian strike is one of the latest developments in the ongoing regional conflict, though it is undoubtedly not the last. Israel has yet to respond to the attack but, military spokesman Daniel Hagari promised on Tuesday there would be “consequences” for Iran.

“Iran made a big mistake – and it will pay for it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin said during a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

It’s not clear what route of retaliation Israel may choose to take, although it reportedly had warned Tehran on Monday — ahead of the missile salvo — that it would go after Iranian nuclear and oil facilities if it were attacked. Former Israeli intelligence official Avi Melamed told the DCNF he didn’t anticipate Israel would strike nuclear or oil sites, but that other major infrastructure — such as military or logistics sites — would be targets.

“Non-kinetic” methods could also be employed by Israel against Iran, Melamed said.

“That’s my estimation for the features of the expected Israeli response,” Melamed told the DCNF, noting that the timing of such a response would likely be sooner than later.

U.S. military assets positioned in the region provided defense to Israel during the Iranian strikes on Tuesday. U.S. officials have thus far declined to comment on what Israel’s next move might be, although they have similarly warned of “consequences.”

It’s unlikely that the U.S. would participate in a joint attack against Iran, but officials have vowed that more defenses will be provided to Israel if need be, and Melamed told the DCNF that an Israeli response is at the very least likely being coordinated with U.S. officials.

Israel is also facing a challenge in Hezbollah, Iran’s largest and most capable terrorist proxy network. Hezbollah began firing at Israel over the Lebanon border last October, out of support for Hamas’ invasion of Israel at the time, which ended in the murder of approximately 1,200 people and lit the fuse for a broader regional war.

“It’s clear that Israel is determined to rid Lebanon of Hezbollah,” senior fellow at the Strauss Center and former Pentagon official Simone Ledeen told the DCNF. “Do the Israelis need to get every single one of those Hezbollah fighters? No, of course not. They need Hezbollah to lay down their arms and surrender… the Israelis [are] really focused on getting to that objective.”

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has heated up rapidly in recent weeks. Israel has carried out sweeping airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and remotely detonated thousands of the terrorist group’s personal communication devices in September, sending explosions sweeping throughout the country.

Israel killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday, creating further chaos for the group and raising alarm in Iran. Now Israeli forces are conducting a series of ground raids over the border in southern Lebanon, in what could be the prelude to a larger ground invasion.

“From all accounts that I’m seeing, the next phase is, you have to launch a ground invasion and take out as many Hezbollah operatives as possible,” Noronha told the DCNF. “Hezbollah will bite back hard, and it’ll get pretty ugly, but it’s not entirely clear where this goes from there.”

As things stand, Israel is essentially in a multi-front conflict with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Iranian-backed terror groups scattered throughout the Middle East. Arguably the least threatening actor right now is Hamas, which has been thoroughly weakened since last year. Israeli forces have killed nearly 18,000 Hamas fighters since last year, according to the most recent estimates, which is about half the manpower the group started with when it invaded Israel in late 2023.

Several Hamas leaders have also been killed or assassinated since last year. The group’s prime leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been in hiding from Israeli forces in tunnels underground Gaza, which Hamas often utilizes for operations. Many sections of those tunnels have been destroyed by Israeli forces, however.

“They’re going to be the resistance force for what they will label the Israeli occupation of Gaza, probably for a long time,” Noronha told the DCNF. “But it won’t be warfare. It’ll be an insurgency.”

Israeli forces have wrapped some of their operations in Gaza, although the prospects of a full ceasefire with Hamas anytime soon remain low. Though questions remain about Gaza — such as who will rebuild or govern over the region when the war ends — the conversation is shifting to Iran, Hezbollah and other Western adversaries, especially in light of recent developments, experts told the DCNF.

“You see the shift right now,” Melamed told the DCNF, pointing to Iran’s strike against Israel on Tuesday and the risk of an even bigger Israel-Iran standoff. “Those ramifications are much bigger than the ramifications of the story of Israel and Hamas. At the end of the day, they’re all part of the same story. But the significance of the ramifications of an Israel-Hezbollah collision, and an Israel-Iran collision are far bigger than they are in comparison to Hamas.”

As for the U.S. role in the current state of affairs, the Biden-Harris administration has been working for months in trying to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and more recently between Israel and Hezbollah; those efforts have largely failed. Biden-Harris officials have often urged Israel to refrain from military operations and instead sought diplomatic off-ramps to resolve the multiple conflicts, though the U.S. continues to provide defensive assets for Israel and has not spoken out against a possible response from Israel against Iran.

The Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy in dealing with Iran and the Middle East more broadly has been criticized by some as misguided or incompetent. Iran has raked in hundreds of billions of dollars in recent years from oil revenues made under the eased sanctions of the Biden-Harris administration, and additional billions from sanctions waivers. Iran uses its funds to back various terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

On Hezbollah, former Pentagon official Simone Ledeen told the DCNF that the Biden-Harris administration should provide its support behind Israel’s efforts to defeat the terrorist group, but didn’t have high hopes that would be the case.

“What should we do? We should be voicing our full-throated support for Israel and providing them everything that they asked for in order to achieve a total victory in this war, full stop,” Ledeen told the DCNF. “What will we do? Nothing, practically nothing.”

The IDF and White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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Israel targeted Nasrallah in a significant airstrike against his bunker on Friday, marking the latest blow to an increasingly weakening Hezbollah, which has been attacking Israel since last year. Khamenei had reportedly warned Nasrallah that Israel was going to try to kill him and urged him to flee Lebanon in the days prior to his assassination, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran had already been concerned for years that Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, had infiltrated Tehran’s ranks, the outlet reported. Following Nasrallah’s death, that concern has grown larger — and Iranian officials have become worried about Khamenei’s safety, officials and sources close to the matter told Reuters.

“The trust that held everything together has disappeared,” an Iranian official told Reuters.

“[Khamenei] no longer trusts anyone,” another source close to the Iranian regime told Reuters.

Authorities have opened investigations to see whether some Iranian officials or members of Iran’s military are compromised, another Iranian official told Reuters. The investigations are particularly centered around officials who travel or have family outside the country.

Authorities are reportedly suspicious of Iranian military members who have recently been in Lebanon, one of the officials told Reuters. One of the military members had recently been asking about Nasrallah’s location, raising eyebrows among other officials. That individual was arrested, along with several others, the official told Reuters.

Khamenei’s warning to Nasrallah — which was made through an Iranian military messenger who was with Nasrallah at the time of his death — followed a sweeping, targeted attack by Israel against Hezbollah, the official told Reuters. Thousands of Hezbollah operatives’ pagers and walkie-talkies randomly exploded in late September, which was likely an orchestrated remote detonation by Israel, although the country hasn’t claimed responsibility.

But Nasrallah — who often operated in bunkers underground in Lebanon — felt at the time that he was safe and trusted his security officials to protect him, even as Iranian officials relayed their concerns about his wellbeing, the official told Reuters. Khamenei made a second offer via his military messenger for Nasrallah to relocate to Iran, but Nasrallah expressed that he wanted to stay in Lebanon.

Following Nasrallah’s assassination and the devastating blows Hezbollah has recently suffered, the security situation with the terrorist group is now so fraught that they can’t even hold a public funeral for Nasrallah, according to four sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.

“No one can authorize a funeral in these circumstances,” one Hezbollah source bemoaned to Reuters.

Israel is expected to retaliate against Iran following a sweeping missile attack launched by Tehran on Tuesday, which largely failed due to interceptions from Israeli and U.S. forces. Though the timing and nature of a retaliatory strike isn’t clear, Israel has promised that there will be “consequences” for Iran.

“Iran made a big mistake – and it will pay for it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

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Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah terrorists abruptly exploded in southern Lebanon and the country’s capital of Beirut on Wednesday, according to Reuters. It marks yet another blow to Hezbollah, which the day prior had a large number of its terrorist fighters’ pager devices abruptly explode, causing thousands of injuries.

The devices that detonated on Wednesday appeared to be walkie-talkie devices rather than pagers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The size and scope of the attack are still unclear.

A #Hezbollah walkie talkie explodes at a funeral today in #Lebanon after yesterday’s exploding Hezbollah pagers. pic.twitter.com/b8TIfUUBKq

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) September 18, 2024

Israel is believed to be behind the coordinated and remote attack on Tuesday, though that has not been confirmed by the Israeli or U.S. governments, according to multiple reports. Explosive devices were reportedly planted into the pagers before they made their way out of a supply and manufacturing chain — which initially was suspected to be in Taiwan — and were shipped to Hezbollah in recent months, according to American and other officials who spoke to The New York Times.

The Taiwanese company in question has denied that it produced the pagers, saying that they were manufactured under license by a company based in Hungary, according to Reuters.

The walkie-talkies that detonated on Wednesday were reportedly also shipped to Hezbollah in recent months, a security source told Reuters.

Significant damage appears to have been made to a motorcycle after a Hezbollah radio exploded. pic.twitter.com/57JfoWDmaQ

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) September 18, 2024

Hezbollah has frequently attacked Israel since Oct. 7, the date Hamas invaded Israel and killed roughly 1,200 people. The Hezbollah attacks have created a turbulent situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border and prompted Israeli forces to launch cross-border counterattacks.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly told a U.S. envoy on Monday that the time for a diplomatic solution had “passed because Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” according to Axios.

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The patents were granted in fields such as semiconductors, chemical engineering, nanotechnology and biotechnology, and all were funded at least in part by the U.S. and one China-based investor, according to Reuters. The revelations come alongside debates over whether the U.S. should withdraw from the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, a bilateral research deal between the two countries that has fallen under some criticism for allegedly giving too much benefit to China.

“It’s alarming that U.S. taxpayers have unwittingly funded over 1,000 patents claimed by Chinese entities, with the Department of Defense accounting for nearly 100 of these patents,” Michigan Republican Rep. John Moolenar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told Reuters.

Americans Now Losing To China On Most Critical Issue Yethttps://t.co/ZzS5fixwOM

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 10, 2024

Among the patents listed were 197 in the pharmaceutical sector and 154 in biotechnologies, which are both highly strategic fields for both the U.S. and China, according to patent data reviewed by Reuters. It wasn’t clear whether the patents were shared by U.S. entities or other individuals.

The funding was provided by agencies including the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE) and four agencies receiving financial backing from NASA, which itself cannot directly cooperate with Chinese entities under U.S. law, according to Reuters. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also provided funding to help create 356 patents, more than any other agency.

It wasn’t clear what specific projects were protected under the patents, according to Reuters. There wasn’t an indication that the patents were funded by the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, which is the framework deal penned in 1979 to jointly conduct research between the two countries.

The U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement has fallen under scrutiny for allowing China to collaborate and glean from research that could help upgrade its military capabilities, according to Reuters. The deal expired in August but has been given multiple extensions, with the latest extension having ended on Tuesday.

DOD, DOE and HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The federal corporate tax rate in the U.S. is currently 21%, as enshrined in former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But Harris seeks to move the tax rate to 28% to draw in funding for plans she would have as president, mirroring a proposal made by President Joe Biden in March, according to NBC.

A 28% corporate tax rate would be “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share,” Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer told NBC in a statement on Monday. “As President, Kamala Harris will focus on creating an opportunity economy for the middle class that advances their economic security, stability, and dignity.”

If passed, the law would bring in roughly $700 billion dollars worth of taxes over the next decade, according to projections provided by the Congressional Budget Office. It is lower than what Harris initially proposed during the 2020 presidential race, which would have raised the corporate tax rate from 21% to 35%, where it originally was before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were passed, according to NBC.

The 2017 law is set to expire in 2025, and Trump has said that Democrats will be “under tremendous pressure” to renew the cuts, warning that failing to do so or making “it impossible to renew” will “destroy the economy,” according to NBC. Trump has also vowed to slash taxes even further should he be elected president in November.

“Instead of a Biden tax hike, I’ll give you a Trump middle class, upper class, lower class, business class big tax cut,” Trump told a crowd at a rally in New Jersey in May.

Singer told NBC that Trump’s policy ideas would “drive up the deficit” and “increase taxes on the middle class,” linking him to the “extreme Project 2025 agenda.” Trump and his campaign have repeatedly said that they were not involved in the creation of Project 2025, a set of sweeping policy proposals put forward by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

Harris’ proposed tax hike is among the first of her policy proposals put forward by her campaign since she announced her candidacy in late July. She laid out her vision for American economic policy in a rally speech on Friday, but specifics or cost estimates for some of her ideas have yet to be provided.

Harris is likely to be appointed at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week as her party’s nominee. The convention will take place from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Harris has quickly become the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential race, having captured major endorsements and roughly $80 million in new campaign donations since President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would not be seeking reelection. But Harris’ inexperience and policy stances make her unqualified to conduct serious national security and foreign policy, raising the risk that she will be comparably poor or worse than Biden on such critical issues, former U.S. officials and defense experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Kamala Harris was a foreign policy and national security novice in 2021 and still is, even after a concerted effort to beef up her credentials on the international stage,” Michael Bars, former White House senior communications advisor and National Security Council official, told the DCNF. “Things will only get more perilous for the U.S. and our allies with Harris in the Oval Office.”

Since becoming vice president in 2021, Harris has mostly been in lockstep with Biden’s approach to foreign policy and national security, according to multiple reports.

In an open letter with over 350 signatories, as obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday, former foreign policy and national security officials applauded that Harris had met “with more than 150 world leaders” and represented the U.S. on a global stage on international trips during her tenure as vice president.

Among the signatories on the letter were former secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, former national security adviser Susan Rice and former intelligence official James Clapper, who declared that Harris was the “best-qualified person” to serve as the 47th president of the U.S.

“Absolutely not,” Victoria Coates, senior defense executive at the Heritage Foundation and former White House national security advisor, told the DCNF when asked if Harris could conduct competent foreign and national security policy, pointing to Harris’ “failure” to address the root causes of illegal immigration even after being specifically tasked to do so in 2021. “Biden at least had decades of dealing with these issues and was a known quantity. Harris’ default mode appears to be extreme progressive policies that are damaging to our standing abroad.”

“Politically, I suspect she will be unburdened by what has been,” Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, joked to the DCNF, referencing a frequently-used line by Harris.

Logan told the DCNF that Harris’ potential national security and views on foreign affairs may shift depending on what is politically favorable should she be elected in November, noting that he did not anticipate that she would dramatically “break” from what has typically been seen under the Biden administration. “With a few exceptions, she governed like a replacement-level Democratic senator and then a replacement-level Democratic vice president… Where you stand depends on where you sit. Presidents differ from presidential candidates, who differ from senators.”

On the Russia-Ukraine war, Harris has vocally promoted Biden’s continued military support to Ukraine, of which there has been roughly $175 billion since 2022, according to Politico. Former U.S. officials and defense experts have expressed concern that the Biden administration does not have a plan to peacefully end the war and ensure the security of the Ukrainian people, as Russian forces continue to dig in and make small territorial gains despite Ukraine being equipped with Western weapons.

Harris said at the Munich Security Conference in February that she would support Ukraine’s fight against Russia “as long as it takes,” according to CBS News. She also reinforced during the February conference her “ironclad” commitment to NATO, a transatlantic defense alliance that some experts fear is dragging the U.S. further into conflict with Russia.

Harris made her position on the Russia-Ukraine war clear in the early days of the conflict in 2022.

“Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia,” Harris said during a radio interview in March 2022. “Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong, and it goes against everything we stand for.”

On the Israel-Hamas war — which started on Oct. 7 after Hamas invaded Israel and killed roughly 1,200 people — Harris has largely stood by Biden in calling for an end to the conflict, which neither Israel nor Hamas have thus far agreed to. Harris has issued strong calls for an “immediate” ceasefire in the war and has reportedly privately pushed the administration to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and harsher on the Israeli government as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise.

Harris said in a July interview with The Nation that pro-Palestinian protesters are “showing exactly what human emotion should be,” noting that she rejected some of what they were saying but understood “the emotion behind it.” Pro-Palestinian protests have consumed the country since Oct. 7, with some turning into displays of antisemitism or violence.

As for the broader Middle East region, Harris has been supportive of the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts to contain Iran and revive the Obama-era nuclear deal that aimed to curtail the country’s nuclear program, albeit unsuccessfully, according to Al-Monitor. These efforts have appeared to largely fail as Iran has raked in billions of dollars under the Biden administration’s sanctions relief while orchestrating its terror network to attack U.S. and allied forces throughout the region.

In the Asia-Pacific, Harris has reinforced the U.S. commitment to fair competition with China — the second largest economy in the world — while maintaining that the country must act less hostile to the West and refrain from engaging in military conflict to achieve its goals, particularly when it comes to annexing Taiwan, according to Politico. As part of her several international trips while vice president, Harris has traveled to Eastern Asia four times since 2021 and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September while abroad, according to ABC News and the Post.

But experts who spoke to the DCNF were doubtful that Harris could attend and add substance to international summits or hold productive meetings with world leaders on her own, especially leaders who have tense relations with the U.S.

“While not as frail or compromised as the President, Harris does not present as a serious person, and I cannot imagine her handling a difficult negotiation with a hostile foreign head of state such as Xi,” Coates told the DCNF. “There’s also no evidence she would have the tough conversations we need to have with NATO allies about Europe taking the lead on European security.”

In addition to receiving endorsements from lawmakers, media figures, Democratic operatives and Biden himself, major foreign policy officials part of the Democratic establishment have thrown their support behind Harris in recent days. Though Biden only dropped out on Sunday, Harris has already surged to the frontrunner position for the Democratic nomination.

The Democratic National Convention (DNC), where a nominee will be formally chosen, will take place the week of Aug. 19.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “inconceivable” that the Biden administration was stonewalling military aid shipments to Israel, given Israeli forces’ ongoing war efforts against Hamas in Gaza. President Joe Biden’s top advisers were furious over Netanyahu’s claims and decided to scrap the Thursday meeting, which would have involved crucial intelligence discussions with the State Department, Pentagon, U.S. intelligence agencies and their Israeli counterparts, according to Axios.

Some Israeli officials were already on their way to Washington, D.C., when they heard the news, according to Axios. The decision to scrap the meeting was meant to send a punitive message to the Israeli government, two U.S. officials told Axios.

“This decision makes it clear that there are consequences for pulling such stunts,” one U.S. official told Axios.

Netanyahu claimed Tuesday that “for the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.” It was previously confirmed in May by Biden administration officials that one high payload munitions package was being put on hold over fears that it could be used in Gaza and have disproportionate effects on the civilian population.

But Netanyahu’s claims were met publicly with confusion from the White House. Behind closed doors, officials in Biden’s orbit were stunned and enraged by Netanyahu’s claims.

“We genuinely do not know what he is talking about,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday.

The White House decided to take it a step further and tell the Israeli government that the Thursday meeting was not happening, which was relayed to Netanyahu by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein in Israel on Tuesday, two Israeli officials briefed on the incident told Axios. Hochstein told Netanyahu that his claims were inaccurate and crossed a line with the Biden administration.

“The Americans are fuming. [Netanyahu’s] video made a lot of damage,” one senior Israeli official told Axios.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan with still meet with his Israeli counterpart, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is scheduled for meetings in Washington next week, according to Axios.

The relationship between the Biden administration and the Israeli government — particularly with Biden and Netanyahu — has grown increasingly tense in recent months over disagreements with how the war in Gaza should be carried out. Biden has long pressured the Israelis to curtail their military operations and commit to a permanent ceasefire, but Netanyahu has said a ceasefire can only be reached once Hamas — which has refused multiple ceasefire deals itself — is fully defeated.

In phone calls, Biden and Netanyahu have openly aired their grievances and thoughts on the war. In some calls Biden appeared confused or upset with Netanyahu’s plans — in one call, Biden hung up the phone out of anger.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24. It is unclear whether he will meet with Biden in person while in Washington.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) draft of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would give all junior troops a pay raise, representing a rough total of $24.4 billion over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Biden administration said in a statement on Tuesday that it does not support the proposed “significant, permanent” pay hike until it has had a chance to conduct a compensation review.

“The Administration is strongly committed to taking care of our Servicemembers and their families, and appreciates the Committee’s concern for the needs of the most junior enlisted members, but strongly opposes making a significant, permanent change to the basic pay schedule before the completion of the Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation,” the White House budget office said.

The Biden administration has spent over $175 billion on aid to Ukraine and European security since 2022 — roughly one-seventh of the proposed pay hike for the junior troops, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The $175 billion amount is broken into several packages over the course of two years, including the most recent aid package of $61 billion in April.

“When accounting for inflation, the average American makes less today than when Joe Biden took office. The White House wants to block Republicans from giving our troops the raise they need to make ends meet in the Biden economy,” Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, a HASC member, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Meanwhile, they’ve sent the Ukrainian government $11,500 per Ukrainian household. It’s shameful.”

Bipartisan members of the HASC promoted the pay increase for junior troops as a way to improve recruiting and retention, a problem that the military has increasingly struggled with. A year-long study conducted by the HASC and published in April found that “servicemembers, especially junior enlisted servicemembers and servicemembers supporting large families, struggle to afford housing and feed their families.”

No servicemember should ever struggle to feed their family or afford housing.

The FY25 #NDAA will boost servicemember compensation w/ a 15% pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers, expand allowances for housing & food, & improve the cost of living calculation. pic.twitter.com/X3Hmw4mH66

— Armed Services GOP (@HASCRepublicans) April 11, 2024

The pay level for junior troops has failed to remain competitive with the civilian job market, especially with rising inflation, the study found. Junior troops received smaller pay raises than senior servicemembers — or no raise at all — in eight of the last 40 years.

“Joe Biden must hate our military,” Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, also on the committee, told the DCNF. “While families of our junior enlisted struggle on food stamps, this administration opposes their pay raises and wants to force-feed them pronoun training and drag queen story hour. If Biden had any PRIDE at all in our troops, he’d support the long overdue pay raise House Republicans have passed.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Edan Alexander, 20, is one of five American hostages currently being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. His parents, Adi and Yael, have been meeting with U.S. and Israeli officials to discuss how to get him home as international negotiators rush to reach a deal with Hamas that would see the release of hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.

“They’ve been constantly optimistic for months now since the beginning of January, and I know that they keep negotiating, although Hamas, sometimes they’ve stopped negotiating,” Adi told the DCNF. “But right now it feels like it’s a perfect storm. And everything needs to come kind of together. Even if it’s a small humanitarian deal that can open the gate for the bigger deal, we need to start with that. Just to kind of strike the first small deal.”

There are approximately 128 hostages being held by Hamas, including Israeli and foreign civilians and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

The current proposal being negotiated would see a 40-day ceasefire in exchange for up to 33 hostages currently in Hamas captivity, with the possibility of a longer-term ceasefire should both sides uphold the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The following phases of the ceasefire could possibly extend up to a year.

Edan was born in Tel Aviv and brought to the United States before his first birthday, growing up mostly in New Jersey, Yael and Adi told the DCNF. He joined the IDF after graduating from high school and was serving at a small base near the border of Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping hundreds of others.

“Before 7 a.m., he’s calling me. And he was yelling, ‘Mom. It’s like a war here. I’m seeing terrible stuff. You cannot believe what I’m seeing,” Yael told the DCNF. “And then I’m like, you’ll be ok, you just protect yourself. You will be okay … I told him that I love him. And that’s it. This is the last time that I heard him.”

Israeli intelligence later contacted Yael and Adi and told them Edan had been among those kidnapped during the attacks, showing them bodycam footage recovered from Oct. 7 depicting him being arrested and taken by Hamas operatives, the parents told the DCNF.

Yael and Adi have since spent their time raising awareness about their son and the hostages in news conferences and rallies with the other hostage families.

“We met with President Biden twice, with Vice President Kamala Harris twice, and numerous times with [White House National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan and with [CIA Director] Bill Burns,” Adi told the DCNF. Yael added that they have a weekly update call with the State Department.

Yael has also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the family speaks with Israeli officials when visiting the region. Conversations on the Israeli side are highly sensitive and guarded to ensure vital information isn’t leaked, they told the DCNF.

“We try to keep them private and yes, a lot of confidential things are being shared there. So it’s a little bit different,” Adi told the DCNF. “It’s also that the Israelis have to have bigger fish to fry.”

Though Hamas has previously rejected several proposals, there’s some hope on the U.S. and Israeli side that they’re closing in on reaching a deal, Yael and Adi told the DCNF. Sullivan told MSNBC during an interview on April 26 that there was “new momentum” in negotiations.

Having shared the common struggle of knowing their relatives are being held by a terrorist organization in currently one the most deadly places in the world has brought many of the families closer together, Yael and Adi told the DCNF.

“It’s unreal, all the stories and everything. All the families now we are like all together, and we’re like big family, these people that I never met before, and now I’m feeling the connection with them,” Yael told the DCNF. “I just want to spend time with them because they get it.”

Yael and Adi told the DCNF that, above all, they are looking forward to their son coming home so that the family can resume some sense of normalcy. Adi joked that they’d take a trip to the Bahamas and help Edan start applying for colleges.

“I don’t think I’m gonna stop holding him,” Yael said.

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