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Federal regulations are about to wreck the industry that gave me everything
In 1980, I was a Navy veteran sleeping in a 20-year-old car, scraping together $700 to start a hair care company with a stylist named Paul Mitchell. We believed the American Dream was still open for business. Forty-six years later, that same dream is what a federal rule is about to close down for the next generation.
The Department of Education has proposed an earnings premium metric under the gainful employment rule that will judge career programs by one rigid number: whether vocational graduates, four years after completion, earn more than the typical full-time worker aged 25–34 in the same state without a college degree. Programs that fail the test in two out of three years lose access to federal student aid. According to the Department’s own data, more than 92% of beauty and barber programs nationwide would fail.
This is not a minor regulatory tweak. It is a death sentence for thousands of cosmetology, barber, esthetician and nail schools across America. Without Title IV aid, most students — many of them single mothers, veterans, first-generation Americans and working-class kids — simply cannot afford the training and education required for state licensure. Schools will close. The pipeline of new licensed professionals will collapse. And at the exact moment we are being told skilled trades and human-centered careers are the future in an AI-driven economy, we are threatening to defund an industry built on human connection, creativity and hands-on expertise.
The beauty industry is a $100 billion economic engine that employs 1.3 million Americans. It is one of the few sectors where someone can earn a marketable credential in under a year, walk into a shop or salon and build a business. Our professionals are overwhelmingly women who rely on flexible, part-time schedules to raise families while generating income. Many earn the majority of their money through tips and clientele-building — income that grows substantially after the first few years but is invisible in the Department’s early-career snapshot.
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By ignoring these realities — part-time work, tips, self-employment and the female-dominated nature of the field — the rule systematically understates the true value of beauty education. It compares new licensees to full-time workers with only a high-school diploma, many of whom have already been in the workforce for a decade. The result is a false narrative that beauty programs don’t deliver, when in reality, they deliver exactly what millions of Americans need: flexible, entrepreneurial, in-person careers that cannot be automated.
The economic fallout will be swift and widespread. School closures mean fewer licensed professionals entering the workforce at a time when demand is growing. Salons, spas and barbershops will face chronic staffing shortages. Rural communities and small towns — already struggling with service gaps — will see "beauty deserts" where basic grooming and wellness services disappear. Consumers will lose access to safe, licensed care. Small business owners who rely on barbers and stylists will watch revenues fall. The ripple effects will hit product manufacturers, distributors, real estate and local tax bases.
This is not just about beauty and barber schools. It is about stripping opportunity from the very people the American economy claims to champion. The single mother who sees beauty as her path to independence. The veteran looking for a stable second career. The young entrepreneur who dreams of owning her own salon. These are the people who built this $100 billion industry — and the people who will lose the most if it is starved of new talent and fair access to education.
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Congress understood this when it passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law deliberately limits this earnings framework to undergraduate degree programs and graduate certificates. Undergraduate certificate programs like cosmetology and barbering were intentionally left out. The department should follow the law, not rewrite it.
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Secretary Linda McMahon has the power — and the lived experience — to fix this. She knows what it means to build a business from the ground up. She should direct the department to exclude undergraduate non-degree and certificate programs in licensed trades from the earnings premium test, consistent with statutory intent. This single change would protect opportunity, preserve workforce pipelines and safeguard a vital sector of our economy.
The comment period closes May 20. Now is the time for all of us who love this industry — school owners, professionals, salon owners, manufacturers and the millions of Americans we serve — to speak up and protect it for the next generation.
Beauty and barbering are not fallback careers. They are pathways to independence, entrepreneurship, creativity and human connection. They change lives every single day behind the chair.
We built this industry with our hands. We will fight for its future.
Iran’s cyberwar targets ordinary Americans. We need to dismantle the hacker network
In the first hours after American and Israeli airstrikes hit Iran on Feb. 28, while most of the world was watching missile tracks across the Middle East, something quieter was happening on the blockchain. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives moved tens of millions out of their crypto wallets in the first hours, scaling to hundreds of millions in the days that followed.
RAKIA, a cyber intelligence firm that develops data analysis platforms used by governments and security agencies, had its analysts track the surge in real time, and Fox News Digital detailed the findings as they unfolded. The funds eventually landed in wallets used by the Houthis, Hezbollah and personal safe havens for regime insiders.
It was a tell. The same regime that spent years building a $3 billion crypto operation to fund its proxies was, in the opening hours of a war, using that infrastructure to evacuate its war chest. The two months since have brought the second act: the IRGC turning that infrastructure outward, against Americans and our allies.
Iran’s hackers are not sophisticated. Every major Iranian operation against Americans this year has run on the same cheap fuel: stolen passwords, harvested by commodity malware, basic widely available hacking software, sold for a few dollars on dark web marketplaces America already has the tools to dismantle.
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President Donald Trump’s strikes on Feb. 28 proved this regime responds to pressure. Extending that posture into cyberspace, going after the credential supply chain the way America already goes after ransomware infrastructure, is how to shut the door on these breaches before they get any closer to home.
At the end of March, Iran-linked hackers reportedly breached FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email and posted years-old photos and documents online. The pro-Iranian group Handala, which the Justice Department has formally linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, announced that the head of America’s premier law enforcement agency was now "among the list of successfully hacked victims."
Patel was not the only target. On March 11, the same group crippled Stryker, one of America's largest medical device makers, wiping more than 200,000 devices across 79 countries and disrupting care for the 150 million patients it serves a year.
IRAN-LINKED HACKERS TARGET US MEDICAL TECH COMPANY
On March 18, Iranian hackers defaced the website of Yeshiva World News, one of the most-read Orthodox Jewish news sites in America, replacing its homepage with images of the Iranian supreme leader. The Justice Department has documented Handala using its infrastructure to send death threats to Jewish journalists and Iranian dissidents living in America, and to solicit Mexican cartel "partners" to carry out violence on its behalf.
None of these attacks required sophisticated malware. They required one thing: a stolen password. The Stryker wipeout traces back to a single administrator credential almost certainly harvested by everyday commodity malware called an infostealer and sold for a few dollars on a Russian-language forum. The Patel breach, the Yeshiva World News defacement, the broader pattern, all of it runs on the same supply chain.
That supply chain is not in Tehran. It is in dark web marketplaces operating largely in plain sight, where infostealer operators sell millions of stolen American credentials a month to anyone with a wallet address. Iranian intelligence is one buyer in those markets. It is also a vendor, running campaigns from Iranian IP addresses against Western users to feed the same markets. Same operators. Same infrastructure. Different targets.
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The escalation has not stayed in America’s lane. On May 4, the same Handala group that breached Patel and Stryker claimed it had penetrated the strategic Emirati port of Fujairah, stealing 430,000 documents including maps of the port's oil pipelines, and handing those maps to IRGC missile units, which then struck the port minutes later.
The strike itself was confirmed by Bloomberg and Reuters. The cyber-enabled-targeting claim is unverified, but the operational model Handala is advertising, cyber reconnaissance feeding kinetic targeting, is precisely the integrated doctrine RAKIA analysts have observed across this campaign. Either it happened, or Iran wants its adversaries to believe it can. Both are strategic threats.
The UAE is one node in a wider pattern. Their top cybersecurity official disclosed the country is now absorbing between 500,000 and 700,000 cyberattack attempts per day, with a clear jump after Feb. 28. The supply chain that feeds American breaches feeds these operations too.
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The administration has every existing tool in play. Treasury sanctions wallets. The FBI seizes Handala’s websites and indicts the operators. The State Department offers $10 million rewards. Each addresses the symptom, not the source. None touches the credential supply chain that makes every one of these attacks possible. The next move is going upstream. This is no longer a foreign policy problem. It is a supply chain problem, and it has a supply chain solution.
Infostealer marketplaces should be treated the way America treats ransomware infrastructure: as legitimate military and intelligence targets. The Pentagon’s Cyber Command has the authority and capability to take dark web credential markets offline, and has used those authorities against ransomware operators with real effect. There is no defensible reason to treat the marketplace selling Iran the keys to American hospitals as a lower priority than the one selling Russia the keys to American pipelines.
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The federal government can also mandate real-time stealer log monitoring for every federal agency, defense contractor and operator of critical infrastructure. When the Stryker administrator’s credentials surfaced on a dark web market, somebody should have known within minutes.
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And any future deal with Iran must put crypto sanctions compliance on equal footing with the nuclear file. An agreement that ignores the financial pipelines funding Hezbollah, the Houthis and IRGC operations is an agreement that funds the next war.
Some will say going on offense against credential markets is too aggressive. The status quo is more aggressive, against Americans, against allies and against anyone in range of an IRGC missile guided by stolen data. Stryker patients felt it. Patel felt it. Yeshiva World News readers felt it. The UAE is feeling it now. Defense alone has failed.
The credentials are mapped. The marketplaces are visible. The operators leave fingerprints. The window to act is open.
It will not stay open forever.
Six different ways that prove the wealthy pay a lot more than their ‘fair share’
If you listen to politicians like Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, there’s a constant drumbeat. The rich don’t pay their "fair share." and we don’t need any "oligarchs." These are powerful soundbites. They are also among the most intellectually lazy phrases in modern economics.
Because here’s the real question no one answers: what exactly is "fair?"
Let’s start with the facts which many people don’t like to discuss and not feelings.
According to data from the Internal Revenue Service and the Tax Foundation, the top 1% of earners already pay roughly 40% or more of all federal income taxes. The top 10%? Closer to 70%. Meanwhile, nearly half of Americans pay little to no federal income tax each year.
So, when someone says the wealthy don’t pay enough, what they’re really saying is: It’s fair that lots of people pay zero and that they want the rich to pay even more than that share.
But here’s where the conversation gets completely detached from reality, because federal income tax is just the starting line, not the finish line, when we talk about overall taxation.
Let’s walk through what "rich" Americans actually pay in taxes.
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This is the headline number everyone debates. Top earners face marginal rates up to 37%, before you even layer in surtaxes.
Live in high-tax states like California or New York, and you can add another 10%–14% on top of that federal number. Suddenly, you’re pushing toward a combined rate that rivals some European countries.
Congratulations, you’re writing a check every year just to keep it. In states like New Jersey or Texas, property taxes can easily hit $10,000 to $30,000+ annually for higher-value homes. We are talking 1% to 2% of your home value beyond some states that have personal property taxes.
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Every time you spend, you’re taxed again. In places like Tennessee or Washington, combined sales taxes approach 10%. That’s post-income-tax money being taxed all over again. This sparks the great debate of a fair tax or having a VAT tax or what some will call a consumption tax.
Invest wisely? You’ll pay for that as well. Federal capital gains rates, plus the Net Investment Income Tax, can push you over 23.8%, before state taxes take another bite. This is after you tax after-tax money, invest it well, and then pay tax again. This also affects business owners who build their business for years and pay tax on distributable income all along the way only to potentially be taxed at the highest marginal tax rate when they sell the business that created jobs for people for decades.
Build wealth over a lifetime? The government may take another bite out of the apple when you pass it on to your heirs. While this doesn’t affect as many people, it can be significant for wealthy families.
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Now let’s pause and ask the captain obvious question: At what point is it enough?
Is "fair" when the top 1% pays 50% of all taxes? 60%? 80%? Does any politician who makes these outlandish statements have a real number? No. The reason? You can’t get blood from a stone from people who don’t pay at all right now.
We’re already operating in a system where such a small percentage of Americans fund the majority of government spending.
Here’s what makes this debate even more frustrating, and that is, "fair share" is never defined. It’s a moving target. The more you pay, the more you’re told you should pay.
That’s not tax policy, that’s the modern politics of today.
And let’s be clear that this isn’t about defending billionaires. It’s about defending math, incentives, and, most importantly, capitalism.
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When you continually raise the burden on the most productive individuals and business owners, you don’t just "tax the rich." You change the behavior of the very people who create the system. They create the jobs. They create the innovation. They create the future of America. You discourage investment. You slow hiring. You reduce risk-taking, which are the very things that drive our GDP.
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America clearly needs more revenue as the time ticks toward $40 trillion of debt. It also has a significant spending problem.
Before we demand more from taxpayers, maybe we should demand more accountability from Washington.
Until someone can clearly define what "fair share" actually means in real dollars, real percentages, and real outcomes, it remains exactly what it is today.
A soundbite and a slogan. And those two things don’t balance our budget.
DIRECTOR KASH PATEL: We brought the FBI out of the past and into the AI age
When I was first sworn in as ninth director of the FBI, one of my top priorities was to modernize the bureau with new, cutting-edge technology that would allow us to better serve and protect the American people. When I arrived, the FBI was running on archaic patchwork systems without AI, effectively putting a 2025 car battery into a vehicle from 1985. Our infrastructure was a Commodore 64 when it needed to be a supercomputer. No more Band-Aids on gunshot wounds. Wholesale change was necessary.
In the past year, I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made under President Trump’s leadership. We have rebuilt and revamped the FBI’s infrastructure across the enterprise, helping the bureau achieve record-breaking results in crushing violent crime and defending the homeland, while providing historic transparency.
Artificial intelligence is a huge part of that overhaul. When then-Deputy Director Dan Bongino and I arrived here at headquarters, AI had almost zero role at the FBI. That had to change, so we got to work. We immediately led the way by setting up an AI working group to evaluate how we could accelerate modernization, getting input from field leaders on the ground in your communities. We appointed a chief AI officer and established an AI Review Board to streamline our efforts. We created an AI Champions Program to identify advocates across the bureau. Maybe most importantly, we created direct partnerships with private-sector industry leaders to rebuild our infrastructure and bring in AI on a broad scale.
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AI is central to what we do. It is helping us identify victims of child exploitation, arrest and convict predators, and more. Last year alone, this FBI identified and located 6,300 missing kids, a 30% increase, and arrested 2,000 abusers, a 20% increase — largely thanks to these improvements. In a recent FBI Richmond case, the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit used facial recognition tools to save 8- and 12-year-old children from a would-be abuser, who will now spend 50 years in prison.
This FBI now uses new AI tools to generate call transcriptions, provide concise synopses and even help correlate contacts with other received complaints. When someone calls into NTOC — the National Threat Operations Center, our 911 center — AI tools generate a transcript of the call, draft an effective summary of the threat and immediately scan our database for comparisons to other open threat lines. Every tip also receives a lead value to surface the highest threat-related calls for Threat Intake Examiners. This specific threat intake process helped the FBI quickly act and stop an attacker plotting a mass shooting at a North Carolina preschool.
Fingerprint matching is one of the most common methods the FBI uses to identify individuals. Some adversaries try to manipulate their prints to obscure their identities by burning, cutting or biting their fingertips to remove ridge detail and make it difficult or impossible to make a match. Because fingerprint matching is an automated process, altered fingerprints were being missed. CJIS — the Criminal Justice Information Services Division, our data hub — integrated an AI-enabled, real-time altered fingerprint detection capability. In 2025, this new solution detected 34 altered fingerprint identities, ultimately leading to the positive identification and arrest of wanted persons, drug traffickers and fraudsters.
We’re also using AI to facilitate rapid translations of large volumes of text, audio and video, and to triage terabytes of data. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, the FBI had more than 75 terabytes of data to review, with more information coming in every day, including more than 75 search warrant returns. For perspective, a single search warrant return can contain 180,000 messages. It would take six or seven analysts working seven days a week for four or five weeks to review a single search warrant return. The FBI routinely has thousands of audio files and texts to review over the course of a single case. Our current models translate with roughly 80% accuracy, so our linguists can home in on the 20% that requires a human touch.
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We are not replacing humans; we’re supplementing them, sharpening their focus and expediting the pace of our investigations. Collecting data to sit in storage is like keeping Babe Ruth on the bench permanently.
We’re identifying and arresting more fraudsters, scammers and drug traffickers who try to hide their identities, thanks to AI. Through cooperative research and development agreements with the private sector, the FBI is advancing our deepfake detection systems in support of these investigations.
Equally important, AI is helping this FBI be more accountable to the taxpayer by applying it to business operations across the bureau and getting maximum value out of your money. With the help of our Enterprise AI assistant, this FBI cut $300 million in spending and identified more than $1.2 billion in contract ceiling savings.
These are just a few of the ways artificial intelligence has allowed this FBI to meet the mission. Under the Trump administration’s leadership, this FBI is now a faster, more efficient and more accountable crime-fighting machine thanks to the implementation of modern technology. This FBI has desperately needed these transformational changes, but prior leadership refused to spend the time and resources, kneecapping our abilities. That changed immediately under my leadership and will continue.
The new FBI — the greatest law enforcement agency on Earth — is now providing our team the tools they need to execute the dangerous mission we ask them to perform every day: safeguarding America. And thanks to the brave personnel using those tools, America is safer than we’ve been in decades.
Pennsylvania man accused of fatal arson after woman allegedly rejected his advances
A Pennsylvania man is accused of setting a home on fire after police said he became upset when a woman at the residence rejected him, killing an Army veteran and seriously injuring two others.
Robert Shane Zimmerman, 40, was arrested after allegedly starting a fire at a home in Lewistown around 11:55 p.m. on Wednesday, the Lewistown Police Department wrote on Facebook.
When officers arrived at the scene, several residents said the fire was intentionally set and that people were trapped inside the home, which was rented out to several subletters.
A man suffered significant facial injuries after jumping from the second floor of the home and was flown to a burn trauma center with internal burns to his throat. He informed authorities that his girlfriend was still inside.
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A woman also sustained serious injuries after passing out from smoke inhalation and falling onto a concrete sidewalk below, according to police. She was also transported to a trauma center for treatment.
Another victim, identified as Brandy Phillippe, 44, was found dead inside the home after authorities said she appeared to have attempted to escape but became trapped in the residence, according to the Mifflin County Coroner’s Office.
Multiple witnesses reported Zimmerman was at the home to profess his love for a woman living in the attic, police said. The fire was later confirmed to be arson by the Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal.
"It was reported that Zimmerman became upset when he was rejected by the female and he began setting several items on fire on the first floor of the residence," police said, adding that the woman was later taken into custody for a prothonotary warrant issued in February.
During the investigation, witnesses reported hearing Zimmerman admit to starting the fire. They also said they saw him standing in a nearby alley watching the residence burn.
Surveillance images appeared to corroborate the witnesses’ statements, police said.
Zimmerman was later taken into custody at his home on an outstanding warrant, as well as for questioning related to the house fire, with police saying he smelled like ash and smoke.
After being taken into custody, Zimmerman said he had just ingested fentanyl and displayed signs of an opioid overdose. He was transported to a hospital for evaluation. Several hours later, medical staff cleared him, and he was transported to the police department for questioning in connection with the fire.
During questioning, Zimmerman made "several incriminating statements," police said.
Zimmerman claimed he could not recall any details from the exact time the fire began, but he was able to make several statements about events immediately before and after the fire started, according to police.
When he was informed someone in the residence had died as a result of the fire, police said Zimmerman had a "strong emotional response."
Zimmerman is being held at the Mifflin County Correctional Facility on multiple charges, including arson, police told the Lewistown Sentinel.
Fox News Digital has reached out to police for additional information.
It was not immediately clear whether Zimmerman had legal representation.
Phillippe's death is being investigated as a homicide, according to the coroner’s office.
According to her obituary, Phillippe was a "woman of many talents" who had a background in culinary arts and attended flight attendant school.
"She was a proud Army veteran who specialized in Patriot missiles during her service. Later in life, she achieved her CDL and worked as a professional truck driver," the obituary reads.
"She had a passion for cats and loved many over the years," it continued.
From ABC license reviews to Comey indictments, Trump's regulatory war on critics enters new phase
The Trump administration is using the immense muscle of federal power to punish media outlets whose coverage is disparaged as overly negative.
The president has long used harsh rhetorical attacks against such companies as CNN and The New York Times, as well as individual journalists, and filed a flurry of lawsuits against them. He’s even accused the press of "seditious" conduct. I suppose we’ve grown accustomed to that.
But there is a whole new level of escalation that goes beyond intimidation. Trump and his allies are pushing the regulatory levers to force networks to spend enormous time and money to preserve their franchise.
And the biggest target right now is ABC.
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who along with Trump has demanded Jimmy Kimmel’s firing, has launched a review of the local station licenses connected to the Disney-owned company. This legal war will drag on for years and is unlikely to succeed; only one license has ever been pulled, and that was a half-century ago.
Think about it. Why should an ABC-owned station in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles have its license jeopardized because a federal agency dislikes the network’s content?
ABC has produced 11,000 documents in the inquiry so far, which gives you an idea of the scope of the showdown.
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"The commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to ‘The View’ and more broadly," ABC said in a legal filing.
Yes, "The View," the all-female talk show founded by Barbara Walters in 1997 and syndicated by ABC. That’s now a bullseye within the larger target.
The show has generally featured one conservative to balance the aggressively liberal Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar. But these days the conservative panelists are also strongly anti-Trump.
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The initial filing was based on an ABC station in Houston, KTRK, stemming from a minor dispute with "The View." And as the New York Times points out, the station’s paperwork was signed by former solicitor general Paul Clement.
At issue is whether the program, which is part of ABC’s news division, should be exempt from equal-time rules.
ABC says it has invited JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Elon Musk, Kevin McCarthy and Marco Rubio, according to the Hollywood Reporter, but all have refused.
"The View" was given an exemption as a news show back in 2002.
Disney also notes that the FCC hasn’t gone after conservatives – or liberals – on talk radio.
We’ve seen these tactics in other realms. The Trump Justice Department last fall brought an indictment against James Comey, which was rejected by a judge. After Trump fired Pam Bondi for not getting results, the department last month brought a second, much narrower indictment against the former FBI chief despised by Trump, based solely on the posting of seashell art that said 86*47. And Comey has to hire lawyers again.
It so happens that the media, even most conservative legal commentators, are calling the case absurd.
Says National Review’s Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor:
"Sure, Comey plainly did not intend to threaten bodily harm. More fundamentally, though, even if Comey’s state of mind had been sinister, he’d still be innocent because the seashell array was not an actionable threat…
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"The case must be thrown out pretrial because ‘86 47’ is not a true threat."
Look, the administration has done what it can to crack down on the press, such as booting Pentagon reporters out of the building after they refused to submit to advance censorship.
And Trump has previously collected at least $16 million apiece from earlier lawsuits against CBS and ABC.
What’s more, Trump’s friend, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and his son David, who bought CBS without government interference, may soon control CNN as well. The expectation is that they would shift the world’s first 24-hour network, whose founder Ted Turner died last week, in a more Trump-friendly direction.
Singling out a network or program for retaliation is itself a form of sheer partisanship.
And using the unchecked levers of government against disliked journalists and programs, down to the Whoopi Goldberg level, is deeply troubling.
Remains recovered of US soldier who went missing in military exercises in Morocco, 2nd soldier still missing
The remains of a U.S. Army officer who went missing during military exercises in Morocco were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, while the search continues for a second missing soldier, according to military officials.
The remains of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., 27, of Richmond, Virginia, were recovered Saturday, U.S. Army Europe and Africa announced Sunday. Key, a 14A Air Defense Artillery officer, was one of two U.S. soldiers who reportedly fell from a cliff during an off-duty recreational hike near the Cap Draa Training Area on May 2.
A Moroccan military search team found Key in the water along the shoreline at about 8:55 a.m. local time Saturday, roughly one mile from where both soldiers reportedly entered the ocean, the Army said.
"Today, we mourn the loss of 1st Lt. Kendrick Key, whose remains were recovered in Morocco," Brig. Gen Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement. "Our hearts are with his Family, friends, teammates, and all who knew and served alongside him. The 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command Family is grieving, and we will continue to support one another and 1st Lt. Key’s Family as we honor his life and service."
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Key and the second soldier were reported missing on May 2 after participating in African Lion, an annual multinational military exercise hosted across Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal.
The two were reported missing around 9 p.m. near the Cap Draa Training Area outside Tan-Tan, a terrain featuring mountains, desert and semi-desert plains, the Moroccan military said.
The disappearance of the two soldiers led to a search-and-rescue mission involving more than 600 personnel from the U.S., Morocco and other military partners. Ships, helicopters and drones were deployed as part of this operation.
Search efforts will continue for the second missing soldier.
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A U.S. contingent remained in Morocco after the military exercises ended on Friday to provide command and control and to support the ongoing search and rescue mission.
Key was assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, according to the Army.
His decorations include the Army Achievement Medal and Army Service Ribbon.
He entered military service in 2023 as an officer candidate and earned his commission through Officer Candidate School the following year as an Air Defense Artillery officer. He later completed the Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Key is survived by his parents, his sister and his brother-in-law.
African Lion 26 is a U.S.-led exercise that began in April across Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal, with more than 5,600 civilian and military personnel from more than 40 nations.
For more than 20 years, it has been the largest U.S. joint military exercise in Africa.
In 2012, two U.S. Marines were killed, and two others injured during an MV-22 Osprey crash near Cap Draa while participating in Exercise African Lion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Israeli PM Netanyahu argues public opinion shift on Israel 'correlates almost 100%' to social media
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on "60 Minutes" Sunday that the dramatic shift in public opinion on his country could be traced to the rise in social media.
"Israel has gone to unbelievable lengths to get innocent civilians out of harm's way," Netanyahu said. "We text message millions of text messages to them—make millions of phone calls to them, pamphlets, leaflets, you name it, OK? We have seen the deterioration of the support for Israel in the United States almost — I would say, it correlates almost 100% with the geometric rise of social media."
He continued, "And that by itself is not what caused it. And I don't believe in, you know, in censoring them or anything. But I'll tell you what happened. We have several countries that basically manipulated social media. And they do it in a clever way. And that's something that has hurt us badly."
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Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel has made "mistakes" in its war against Hamas but emphasized that they were not deliberate actions.
"Israel is besieged on the media front, on the propaganda front, and we've not done well on the propaganda war," he said.
Netanyahu remarked that even host Major Garrett would not be immune to negative propaganda if there was enough pressure against him.
CONTRIBUTOR FOR FAR-LEFT OUTLET CALLS FOR 'WIPING OUT ISRAEL,' SAYS ISRAELIS 'MUSTN'T FEEL SAFE'
"I can paint you as a monster," Netanyahu said. "And if I say it often enough, enough people will believe it."
An NBC News poll in March found that only 32% of Americans view Israel positively while 39% of Americans saw the nation in a negative light. The shift was far more pronounced among Democrats and independents, while Republicans were still largely sympathetic to the Jewish state.
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This shift in opinion followed Israel's war with Gaza, as well as the U.S.-led military strikes on Iran.
During the interview, Netanyahu indicated that the war with Iran was "not over" yet despite significant accomplishments.
"I think it accomplished a great deal, but it's not over, because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we've degraded a lot of it. But all that is still there, and there's work to be done," Netanyahu said.
Pacers president apologizes to fans after team's 'risk' backfires in NBA Draft Lottery
The Indiana Pacers’ risky move backfired after the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery saw them lose their top pick altogether in a disastrous turn of events on Sunday afternoon.
Heading into the lottery, the Pacers, who went 19-63 just one season after reaching the NBA Finals out of the Eastern Conference, had a 52.1% chance of having a top-four pick.
However, when they didn’t see their team chosen in the first four picks – Indiana also had a 14% chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick – it was time to panic.
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The reason? The Pacers included their first-round pick in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers for Ivica Zubac, but they only made it a top-four protected pick. That means, if the Pacers were chosen in the lottery as a top-four selection, they would be able to keep it.
But the Pacers were chosen as the No. 5 pick, and the Clippers now own the selection in next month’s draft.
NBA LOTTERY CHAOS: WASHINGTON WIZARDS STRIKE GOLD, PACERS PAY FOR TANKING GAMBLE NIGHTMARE
As a result, Pacers team president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard took full responsibility for the move, apologizing on social media.
"I’m really sorry to all our fans," he wrote on X. "I own taking this risk. Surprised it came up 5th after this year. I thought we were due some luck. But please remember – this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient."
The Pacers were viewed as a team that were actively tanking despite the NBA’s attempt to crack down on such a season, with the lottery being one way of that. And it clearly worked this time around.
Pritchard was trying to be transparent and honest with the Pacers fan base, but people were quick to jump in the comments to make their thoughts, and gripes, known.
"You lose Myles Turner and add Zubac," one X user began. "You lose [Benedict] Mathurin and the number 5 pick with absolutely nothing in return. This is why fans are upset, for a center who not even a top 5 center in the NBA. Who trades their future away for Ivan [sic] Zubac???"
Another X user called this a "generational draft," and couldn’t fathom the Pacers won’t be picking from a deep class.
"If I were a Pacers fan and my team traded away a top 5 pick for Ivica Zubac in the middle of a tanking season I would be beyond devastated," a fellow X user wrote.
The Pacers were without their All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton all season long after he suffered an Achilles injury during the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. But Indiana still has key members of that team returning next season, including Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith.
However, this 2026 draft class is quite the spectacle, with many believing it to be deep considering the talent of BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, UNC’s Caleb Wilson, and Duke’s Cam Boozer, among others.
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Massive 11,000-carat ruby believed to be second-largest ever found in conflict-ridden country
A massive ruby unearthed in Burma is being hailed as the second-largest ever discovered in the conflict-ridden country.
The ruby weighs about 11,000 carats — about 4.8 pounds — and was unearthed near Mogok in the Mandalay region, the center of Burma’s gem industry and an area affected by ongoing conflict, according to The Associated Press, citing state media.
The stone was found in mid-April, shortly after the country’s traditional New Year celebrations.
Although it is roughly half the size of a 21,450-carat ruby discovered in 1996, experts say the new find could be more valuable because of its higher quality, the outlet reported.
It has a purplish-red color with slight yellow tones, moderate transparency and a highly reflective surface.
Burmese President Min Aung Hlaing and his cabinet have already inspected the stone in the country's capital of Naypyidaw.
ONCE-IN-A-CENTURY TREASURES DATING BACK 4,500 YEARS UNEARTHED IN LEGENDARY CITY
Burma produces up to 90% of the world’s rubies, mostly from Mogok and nearby Mong Hsu.
The gem trade — both legal and illegal — is a major source of income in the country.
However, rights groups, including Global Witness, have long urged jewelers to avoid buying Burmese gemstones, saying the trade helps fund the country's military governments, according to The Associated Press.
RARE 10-CARAT BLUE DIAMOND AMONG $100M WORTH OF GEMS GOING UP FOR AUCTION
Gem mining also finances ethnic armed groups fighting for autonomy, contributing to Burma’s long-running conflicts.
The mining regions remain unstable.
Mogok was seized in July 2024 by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group. Control later returned to the military under a ceasefire deal brokered by China late last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.