Elizabeth Landers

New year and new beat covering national security! I am excited for this challenge and grateful to @scrippsnews for the support and opportunity. Send tips and add me to your lists: [email protected]

Buried in amendments to the Interior Dept. Gov funding bill, is a stipulation that the Kennedy Center Opera House must be renamed the 'First Lady Melania Trump Opera House' in order to receive federal funds. The Appropriations Committee adopted that amendment by a vote of 33-25.

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A US official sends @scrippsnews this list of the Americans released today from Venezuela. This has been reported to Congress.

Secretary Rubio just announced 10 Americans wrongfully detained in Venezuela have been released. I spoke just yesterday with Trump’s top hostage negotiator, @StateSPEHA, about Venezuela in particular. Our full @scrippsnews interview here scrippsnews.com/us-news/trumps…

“We should be stacking drones, of all types, for a potential conflict with China,” former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper at the #aspensecurityforum

A total of 229 Flash Flood Warnings, Flood Warnings, and Advisories have been issued across 26 states today alone. The summer of severe flooding continues across the United States.

A number of top Pentagon officials were confirmed for this forum, including the head of Space Command, Indo-Pacific Command, & Special ops command. I reached out to INDOPACOM a few moments ago asking about this cancellation. They referred me to the secretary’s comment here...

Trump on Putin: “I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done. And I always hang up and say, 'Well, that was a nice phone call.' And then missiles launched into Kyiv, or some other city.” "After that happens three or four times, you say, 'The talk doesn't mean anything.'"

.@POTUS in the Oval Office now with NATO Sec. Mark Rutte says of Russia, he's "very very unhappy with them." Trump adds he'll bring "very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days."

As expected, the State Dept has put out a general notice of the expected reduction in force (RIF) today, July 11. 3k people will their lose jobs: 1,107 civil servants, 246 FSOs with domestic assignments. Individual RIF notices are expected throughout the day.

The NYT reports that: Israel has concluded that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of near-bomb-grade enriched uranium survived American and Israeli attacks last month and may be accessible to Iranian nuclear engineers, according to a senior Israeli official. Asked for a…

Rubio learned someone was using an AI voice to impersonate him when a senator called and asked: did you just try to reach me? Perpetrator not discovered yet, @SecRubio said on Southeast Asia trip. "Generally I communicate with my counterparts around the world through official…

🌈 in Washington after the storm

Former Biden WH physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor's deposition before the House Oversight committee ended after about an hour. Confirming @liz_elkind and @lauren_greennn, he pleaded the 5th (per source familiar).

Dept of Homeland Security says they are sending Harvard administrative subpoenas to turn over info about foreign students.

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says at least 161 people are still missing after the state's catastrophic floods.

The Dept of Justice is confirming the authenticity of the Jeffrey Epstein memo to @scrippsnews - they have posted online. It says Epstein committed suicide. It also says Epstein had no incriminating client list, and no evidence that he blackmailed prominent people.

Since this letter of dissent published Monday, the EPA confirms to @scrippsnews they've placed 139 employees on administrative leave, pending an investigation -- out of concern that the letter misleads the public about agency business. Statement from EPA in next tweet ➡️➡️