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US diesel prices hit a record high, pushing up transportation costs for a long list of goods CHICAGO (AP) — Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Friday, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupts the world’s flow of fuel. https://apnews.com/article/gas-diesel-prices-us-iran-war-ebd01b9773365ee40550dcfd7d3ebf87?

> Billionaire Leon Black and former associate of Jeffrey Epstein defies subpoena to testify before House Oversight Committee, sues to avoid turning over requested nondisclosure agreements (More) > People aged 65 and older began outnumbering children 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history in 2023, US Census report finds; the so-called "tipping point" in fertility came years earlier than expected (More) | Mapping each country's fertility rate (More) > Justice Department charges ICE officer who nonfatally shot a Venezuelan man in Minnesota with lying to investigators (More)

> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.1%, Dow +1.2%, Nasdaq +1.4%) after Fed Gov. Christopher Waller signals support for holding interest rates steady this month if inflation continues to cool. > US mortgage rates climb to 13-month high, with average 30-year fixed rate rising to 6.71% from 6.66% last week; rate stood at 6.5% one year ago (More) | See mortgage rates over the past decade (More) > Dutch central bank reallocates roughly $11B worth of gold reserves from the US and Canada to the UK, citing geopolitical tensions and desire for greater access to reserves (More) | Learn about the world's largest known gold vault (More)

> OpenAI begins phased rollout of GPT-6 Astra, its latest model that can independently find and exploit security flaws in computer systems (More) | Tesla hosts private event promoting its fully autonomous Cybercab (More) > Psychedelic mushrooms contain a compound that may prevent nerve damage and pain caused by chemotherapy, new research using mice indicates; humans receiving cancer treatment will test the process in clinical trials later this year (More) > BepiColombo spacecraft approaches Mercury after traveling almost eight years through the solar system; mission will allow scientists to study the planet’s geology, surface composition, and magnetic field (More) | Who was Bepi Colombo? (More)

> Sean "Diddy" Combs' prison release date moved up to Feb. 5, 2028 (More) | Music mogul was convicted on prostitution-related charges; see previous write-up (More) > The Athletic's investigation into Dianna Russini’s journalism concludes the NFL reporter violated publication standards by engaging in an undisclosed relationship with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel (More) | Read the full report (More) > Fox News parts ways with longtime host Maria Bartiromo; the network did not specify a reason behind her departure (More)

Only 2% of the world’s population has green eyes. James

📸 Pic to go! Photo: Bob Schumacher North America's highest peak — designated Mount McKinley by the U.S. government and Denali by the state of Alaska — was captured by reader Bob Schumacher of Wheaton, Ill., this week.

AI can create farm resiliency As farmers face more extreme weather, water stress and input cost uncertainty, PepsiCo sees AI as a tool for resilience. Looking ahead: When AI can identify smarter data, climate risk becomes more visible and efficiency more actionable for farmers. Read the Q&A.

Smartphone revolt Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios Roughly half of American adults say they spend too much time on their phones — and more than half of younger adults are trying to kick the habit, according to Pew Research Center data out this week. Why it matters: Over the past two decades, smartphones have come to dominate daily life. Now Americans — especially younger adults — are pushing back against how much of their time and attention they command. 🧠 The big picture: Excessive smartphone use among kids and adults has come under growing scrutiny, with studies linking it to problems ranging from "text neck" to reduced cognitive performance to relationship trouble. For kids, the concerns have led schools to ban phones and governments to restrict social media. For adults, there's a growing market of products, apps and physical spaces designed to keep us off our devices. By the numbers: 53% of U.S. adults say they're on their phones too much. That share jumps to 70% when looking just at 18- to 29-year-olds. 45% of all adults say they've tried to cut back on phone time in the last year. When considering just those under 50, the share is 58%. 📰 The other side: People want time back from their phones, but they do acknowledge some perks of the devices, Pew found. 73% say smartphones help keep them informed, and 51% say they help them stay connected to others. Go deeper: Our tips for digital detox.

Venezuela’s Vicious Cycle (Maryorin Mendez / AFP / Getty)   View in browser By the time he retired from the Marine Corps, in 1931, Major General Smedley Butler had served in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and China. It was the golden age of American imperialism, and Butler was one of its golden boys, among the most decorated fighters in U.S. history. But over time, Butler began to have doubts about what he was doing. “I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service,” he wrote in 1935. “During that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism.” The costs of these excursions, he wrote, were paid in taxpayer money and soldiers’ lives. The wars that Butler fought also left scars around the world, as the journalist Jonathan M. Katz wrote in a 2022 biography. Little remembered in the United States, these interventions were formative for the populations they affected, fueling enduring anti-Americanism. The Trump administration seems determined to re-create the cycle in Venezuela today: military action, puppet government, exploitation of oil reserves, and almost certainly more resentment, fueling further conflict in the future. In January, U.S. troops descended on Venezuela and seized President Nicolás Maduro. Although President Trump offered federal drug-trafficking charges against Maduro as window dressing, he made no secret of the real reason for the incursion: He wanted to seize the country’s huge oil reserves. This week, the president claimed that he would refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve with Venezuelan oil, “a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.” The Trump administration has, as usual, offered few concrete details, but as my colleague Jonathan Chait writes, this is less a “deal” than “a payment by Venezuela of tribute at gunpoint.” The Venezuelan people are in no position to consent to handing over the country’s most valuable natural resource to a richer regional superpower for free, because Venezuela has not had fair elections in years. After deposing Maduro, the United States did not clear away his government or try to install the pro-democracy dissident (and Nobel Peace Prize laureate) María Corina Machado; in fact, it has created barriers to her return. Instead, it has enlisted a former Maduro lieutenant as president, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversees her as a sort of viceroy. Besides, nothing in international relations is as simple as a gift. The current arrangement involves Alejandro Betancourt López, a Venezuelan oil oligarch who has been under investigation in several countries. Betancourt managed to maintain connections with both Maduro’s regime and the U.S. government, and to dodge some charges thanks to help from Rudy Giuliani. Chevron is expanding its footprint in Venezuela, although other oil companies have been reluctant. Investors from other sectors, including crypto, are also getting involved. Although much money stands to be made, whether and how much ordinary Americans will actually benefit is less clear. Rebuilding Venezuelan production will take years, and the country’s oil is heavy and difficult to refine. That means no near-term relief at gas pumps and years before the U.S. reserve is refilled. Venezuelan oil and U.S. interests have a long and rocky history. American oil companies invested heavily in the country after World War II, but in 1976, the Venezuelan government nationalized the oil industry. In the early ’90s, the government once again opened to private companies. But Hugo Chávez, who portrayed himself as an anti-colonial hero and liked to use “Gringos go home!” as a slogan, became president in 1999. In 2007, he expropriated foreign assets once more, in what his energy minister called “an act of sovereignty for our country, for our people.” Trump cited the expropriation this year as another reason for U.S. intervention. Chávez’s approach, maintained under his protégé Maduro, failed. The oil industry, along with the rest of the national economy, has atrophied. In an article last year, my colleague Gisela Salim-Peyer eloquently recounted how Venezuela slid into authoritarianism under Chávez and Maduro. International observers described the 2018 presidential election as rigged, and evidence gathered by Machado convincingly showed that her party had won the 2025 race. A huge number of people fleeing Venezuela have flocked to the United States. For now, under the rump Chávez-Maduro regime, Venezuelans don’t have much say, but guessing how this might play out doesn’t require a great deal of creativity—just a working knowledge of history. Trump’s expropriation of Venezuelan oil won’t be well received by most people, nor will a Trump-driven gold rush by American businesses, no matter how much Venezuela needs assistance standing up its oil industry. Railing against the deal and foreign oil interests will be an easy populist stance for future Venezuelan politicians; perhaps one will even feel moved to nationalize assets once more—and so the cycle can begin again. You don’t have to be an anti-colonial peacenik to worry about the risks of Trump’s oil raid. You can just grasp that having hostile demagogues in power in the hemisphere is bad for U.S. interests, driving global instability as well as the kind of mass migration that Trump has described as a crisis. Such downsides help explain why anti-interventionism had become popular among Republicans over the past decade. Until the Venezuela raid, Trump portrayed himself as “America first,” but the foremost voice was J. D. Vance, who cited his experience deployed in Iraq in his speech accepting the GOP nomination for vice president. “As always, America’s ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price,” he said, sounding much like his fellow Marine Smedley Butler. “For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened.” Yet now the Trump administration has embarked on just the sort of adventure Butler led and then decried. Wealthy Americans will benefit today, ordinary Americans will see little immediate reward, and the United States will face the blowback for decades to come. Related: The hostile corporate takeover of an entire country America can have the oil.

🧊 Reforms on ice House Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to cancel two weeks of September workdays is threatening to delay a bipartisan push to crack down on sexual misconduct in Congress, the lead Democrat on the bipartisan task force tells us. Why it matters: The House task force created to address sexual misconduct had hoped to unveil legislation this month after having already pushed back its initial goal of releasing a bill before the August recess. But Johnson's new schedule means the House will be in session for just one more week before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign ahead of the November midterms. 🗓️ The shortened calendar gives members eager to hit the campaign trail more time in their districts but leaves lawmakers with little time to finish remaining legislative business. The reforms are "something that everybody wants," Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), the lead Democrat on the task force, told us. "We have bipartisan support for it. But when you cancel legislative days, it shrinks our ability to get that work done," she added. The week of Sept. 14 is now scheduled to be the only one in session until after the midterms. Yes, but: Being out of session does not preclude the task force from releasing their recommendations or legislation, a senior Republican staffer told Axios. Lawmakers often introduce legislation when Congress is out of session. 📝 Catch up quick: The bipartisan task force, created this year amid a string of allegations involving members of Congress, is examining potential changes to the chamber's rules surrounding sexual misconduct. Leger Fernández said the task force heard from dozens of male and female congressional staffers this week in what she described as the final round of feedback needed before moving to legislative text. Kammack told us Tuesday — before Johnson canceled session time — that the group was still on track to release legislative text this month. "When we take away two weeks of the September legislative calendar, that puts a little strain on it," Leger Fernández said. 🔎 Zoom in: The task force members are now moving to draft legislative text and will discuss the compressed timeline with Johnson and the Office of Legislative Counsel, Leger Fernández said. Potential reforms under discussion include changes to reporting systems, retaliation protections, increases in education and training resources, and a ban on lawmaker-staff relations. "There's still strong commitment to get it done," she said. "We'll keep pushing to see how we get it done." — Kate Santaliz

🛒 GOP's convention coupon Illustration: Allie Carl / Axios The GOP's most vulnerable House incumbents won't have to shell out $25,000 to attend the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas next week, but some are still reluctant to go. Why it matters: Trump and GOP leaders could still turn the two-day event into a success by raising hard dollars and motivating soft MAGA voters. 🪨 But the run-up has been rocky, with lawmakers grumbling about logistics and balking at the price tag. Only about 100 lawmakers and candidates are expected to attend, a source familiar with the planning told us. And then there are the presumed beneficiaries: the at-risk lawmakers who could win their races on the backs of a flush NRCC, which is already pumping money into their districts through new coordinated campaigns. 💰 One frontline Republican told us that if they had to pay the $25,000, "there's no way I would go." Even with the exemption, several vulnerable Republicans plan to skip the convention and campaign in their districts instead. 🚗 Driving the news: Multiple lawmakers told us that members of the NRCC's Patriot program — its designation for vulnerable incumbents — aren't being required to pay the $25,000 to attend. Other members have been asked to pay up, prompting complaints among rank-and-file Republicans who were already less than enthusiastic about attending. "It's $25,000, apparently," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told reporters this week when asked if he would attend. "It's pretty steep." "Not everybody is a fundraising juggernaut, and some of those folks feel it's better spent on themselves," Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas) told us. 🎟️ What you get: The $25,000 package includes two convention tickets, access to a hotel room in the NRCC block and two spots at the chairman's welcome reception, according to an NRCC flyer. Members can contribute as much as $100,000 for additional perks, including breakfast with House leadership. Only new contributions count toward the convention packages, meaning money that members gave the NRCC earlier in the cycle doesn't count. 🤔 The intrigue: Several Republicans we spoke with were unaware that some members were being exempted from the $25,000 fee, and others said the rules surrounding who actually has to pay have been murky. "They've been really vague. Initially, it seemed like everyone had to pay. Even we thought that maybe we had to," Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), a Patriot member, told us. Ciscomani said he later received guidance indicating that Patriots were exempt but that members in safer districts were still asking leadership this week whether they had to pay. "The answer was kind of like, you know, come talk to us and case-by-case basis," he said. Zoom in: The relatively late rollout of convention details has added to the confusion among lawmakers, some of whom had already made other commitments. "We didn't get all the information about the convention at once. It kept coming out little by little, and that's when the price tag also came out at some point, and we were like 'Whoa, never mind,'" Ciscomani said. "I think that they're figuring it out as they go." Between the lines: For some Republicans facing tough reelection fights, the higher cost isn't the $25,000 — it's time away from the campaign trail. — Kate Santaliz

Body of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic flown to Serbia for funeral The body of the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, was flown to Serbia from The Hague, Netherlands, on a government plane on Thursday. Read More.

ICE officer charged with lying to investigators in the shooting of Venezuelan man, AP source says Federal prosecutors have charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with lying to investigators about the events leading up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown earlier this year, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Read More. ICE officer charged with lying about shooting turns himself in to feds, AP source says WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with lying to investigators about the events leading up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown turned himself in Thursday to federal authorities, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/ice-immigration-minnesota-5a429fee81fe85c09ca59ea9366c019d?

Will Federal Reserve hike rates later this month? Waller muddies the outlook Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said Thursday that an inflation report next week will largely determine whether he supports an interest rate hike later this month or not. Read More.

Sultan of Oman to make state visit to UK, balancing pressures from US and Iran The Sultan of Oman will visit Britain for a three-day state visit next month as the Arab nation that controls the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz comes under pressure from both the U.S. and Iran. Read More.

Trump again appeals to Supreme Court on mail-voting restrictions with midterm elections looming BOSTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reject an order by a federal judge that halts it from implementing a new rule regulating mail ballots, hours after being unable to tell that judge whether the computer system that would govern the entire project was operational yet. https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-executive-order-lawsuit-63899f738d28d161b629054a314f161a? ps:They need to put an end to this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trump administration stalled a survey of PFAS in wastewater, former EPA officials say The Trump administration has stalled a study that would help regulators understand which industries dump harmful forever chemicals with their wastewater, according to two former agency officials who were involved in its development. Read More.

✈️ 1 for the skies: Gateside goodbyes Travelers hug each other in the departure terminal at LAX last year. Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images Some airports are now allowing gateside sendoffs and reunions under a new TSA plan. Gateside passes will allow non-travelers to use PreCheck lanes to meet a friend or conduct business during a layover, shop or eat beyond security, or welcome loved ones, Axios Salt Lake City's Erin Alberty reports. 🧳 Applications opened this week for "Gateside by TSA PreCheck" access at 13 airports. The agency says the new offering will bring back "the moments that once defined air travel" — the kind that made Rachel get off the plane in the series finale of "Friends." How to apply ...

🛋️ Southwest Airlines is aiming to launch its first lounge network next year. Construction is underway on the first four lounges, coming to Baltimore, Austin, Honolulu and Nashville. Read the announcement.

🤗 Nvidia announced it'll acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, just a month after Hugging Face was hacked by rogue OpenAI models, Axios' Dan Primack and Madison Mills report. Nvidia to spend $13 billion on Hugging Face, which will remain an open source platform Chipmaker Nvidia is buying artificial intelligence software platform Hugging Face for $13 billion. Read More.

✊ A more powerful union Data: Gallup Poll Social Series. Chart: Andrew Pantazi/Axios For only the second time in a quarter century, a majority of Republicans — 52% — approved of labor unions, Axios' Andrew Pantazi reports from a recent Gallup poll. A record 47% of Americans want unions to have more influence, more than double the 23% who want less. 🧮 By the numbers: Overall, 71% of Americans approved of unions, tying the 2022 level. Gallup last recorded higher approval in 1959 at 73%. Data: Gallup Poll Social Series. Chart: Andrew Pantazi/Axios The GOP's warmer feelings toward unions don't translate into wanting them to wield more power: 49% of Republicans want unions to have less influence, compared with just 19% who want them to have more. Just 11% of U.S. workers — 16.5 million — were represented by unions in 2025, compared with 23% and 20.5 million workers in 1983. Go deeper ... Get the data.

OpenAI's "generational leap" Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra today, a model that OpenAI President Greg Brockman says may be remembered as the arrival of artificial general intelligence, or humanlike capability. Why it matters: Astra pushes AI agents closer to doing complex professional work on their own — while raising questions about how safely they can be deployed, Axios' Ina Fried reports. Driving the news: During a briefing today, Brockman told reporters he believes OpenAI has reached AGI, while leaving users to decide whether Astra meets that definition. As to whether Astra could mark the arrival of AGI, he said: "I think it might be about this model." He ended the briefing by saying: "Welcome to the AGI era." ⏪ Catch up quick: Astra is the first model OpenAI has designated as reaching its "critical" cybersecurity threshold under its preparedness framework. That means the model can potentially find and exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities across well-protected systems without step-by-step human guidance. 🥊 It remains to be seen just how well Astra can take on highly advanced tasks in the real world without making errors or raising fresh safety concerns. OpenAI acknowledged that Astra was harder to monitor in evaluations designed to test whether it could evade oversight. Go deeper ... Disclosure: Axios and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access part of Axios' story archives while helping fund the launch of Axios into four local cities and providing some AI tools. Axios has editorial independence.

Trump Melts Down at Rising Dem Star in Weird Vomit Rant The president’s gross remark came while his White House guests were visiting Washington for dinner. Donald Trump has gone on a bizarre rant about meat, vomit, and a rising star of the Democratic Party. The 80-year-old president took a swing at Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on Wednesday, claiming he does not eat meat—a supposed death knell in the state of Texas. “Because in Texas, if you don’t eat meat, you’re in deep trouble,” Trump rambled. “It’s not a good thing not to be able to not eat meat. He was wearing a mask six months ago. He had a mask on. When someone wears a mask six months ago, you’re in deep trouble.” Referring to him as “Tala-creep-o,” Trump added, “Now he says he loves meat. You know what he does? He eats meat, and he goes outside, and he throws up all over the place.” Trump was speaking during a dinner at the White House’s paved-over Rose Garden with at-risk Republican lawmakers. Talarico, 37, is facing off against the controversy-riddled, Trump-backed Ken Paxton in the November midterms. Talarico has been attacked for supposedly being a vegan and saying that eating meat poses an “existential” threat to humanity. His team has denied the claims, even sharing images of him eating barbecue, but that did not stop Trump. Trump was not particularly complimentary to Paxton at Wednesday’s event either. Despite endorsing him over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the primaries, he poked at his dress sense and media training. “You might not like the way he dresses,” Trump said of Paxton. “It’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not like the way he looks. You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews. “But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps. He was one of the best in the entire country, and that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great, or than anything, frankly.” Criticisms of the 63-year-old Paxton’s campaign strategy have emerged on the right, with Cornyn even saying he does not intend to give him a bump by campaigning on his behalf because “he’s lazy and doesn’t raise money.” Talarico, meanwhile, has been voracious, having raised $68,555,930 through the end of June, compared to Paxton’s $9,248,698. Speaking to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Fox News host Martha MacCallum said that “Talarico is everywhere. He’s got $21 million versus Ken Paxton’s, I think, one or two million.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-melts-down-at-rising-dem-star-james-talarico-in-weird-vomit-rant/?

Republican Panic Over Trump’s Missing Midterm Millions Explodes GOP officials fear the president’s $400 million war chest may sit unused until it’s too late to matter. Republican anxiety over President Donald Trump’s stockpiled campaign cash has boiled over, with early voting looming for competitive midterm races while hundreds of millions of dollars sit untouched. Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., had more than $400 million in the bank as of July 31. But with the main campaign season about to begin after Labor Day, Republican leaders are increasingly worried the money will arrive too late to spend effectively, and some suspect Trump plans to keep much of it for himself, according to The Washington Post. Trump’s political advisers have told worried allies the group will spend heavily once the season kicks into gear, the Post reported. Trump, who must personally approve the spending, has not said what he intends to do with the cash, and his advisers have repeatedly said they will not tell reporters. A person familiar with internal discussions told the Post that some people close to Trump now believe he has little interest in spending most of the money on this year’s midterms. The president could funnel it to a chosen successor to preserve his influence in the next presidential race, or save it for legal bills, travel, events, and personal projects such as his Miami presidential library, which is expected to cost at least $1 billion. The person familiar with the discussions said Trump’s team believes the flood of money into his political operation will likely dry up after the midterms, giving him further incentive to hold onto what he already has. Some donors have already started pulling back from giving more to MAGA Inc. while it sits on its existing cash, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper. Privately, Republican operatives complain the group has already missed chances to buy cheap television advertising and introduce candidates to voters before opinions harden. A nonprofit arm of Trump’s operation, Securing American Greatness, has launched its first midterm ads, spending just under $1 million on spots touting tax cuts and lower prices for eggs and prescription drugs, according to AdImpact. One ad features Trump’s friend Dana White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. “Like, they think he’s popular or something. He’s not,” a Republican ad maker told the Post after seeing the videos. In multiple polls, Trump’s approval rating is stuck in the mid-30 percent range, putting him at or near historic lows for a president heading into the midterm elections. Elon Musk’s America PAC, meanwhile, has already begun advertising in Senate battlegrounds including Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine, according to Meta’s ad disclosures. Skeptics point to Trump’s long history of treating political money as effectively his own. MAGA Inc. has spent less than $900,000 supporting one senator’s primary in South Carolina and less than $20,000 on text messages for one House member in Georgia this year, records show. “I’m not affected by the election,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m not running. But my party is running, and I’m going to help my party.” At a Rose Garden event on Wednesday, he vowed to spend his final 30 days traveling and giving speeches, but made no mention of his super PAC’s money. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story. https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-panic-over-trumps-missing-midterm-millions-explodes/?

Pentagon Pete Launches Desperate Cover-Up After Bombshell Leak The defense secretary is apparently cracking down hard after a leak revealed top commanders pushing back against him. The Pentagon has scrubbed internal documents after an explosive report was leaked that revealed pushback against Pete Hegseth’s orders. The Washington Post had sparked an uproar with its report detailing concerns from top military leaders about the war, prompting a furious response from Pentagon officials, including the defense secretary. In response, the Defense Department removed documents associated with the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), which had been kept on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), sources told the Post. The SDOB was at the center of the Post’s reporting on top commanders voicing their disagreement with Hegseth’s order for some troops in the Middle East to stay there longer amid the prospect of prolonged military operations against Iran. The Navy’s top admiral, along with leaders of the U.S. European Command, the U.S. Pacific Command, and the U.S. Southern Command, were said to have responded to the troops’ extension in the Middle East with “non-concurs” in the SDOB, which was seen by unnamed sources who revealed the internal disagreement to the Post. It remains unclear how the removal of such documents could impact military planning. A former defense official who routinely viewed these documents told the Post that purging the SDOB will “dramatically reduce the number of people who have direct access to it,” which could constrain urgent planning needs. Commanders and their staff who rely on the SDOB to make time-sensitive decisions can still rely on the database, the official said, but added that it is now “certainly more difficult.” Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, did not deny that the documents were removed. “As we have previously stated, the Department of War does not publicly discuss internal operational deliberative processes,” he told the Post, adding, “The success of our servicemembers is Secretary Hegseth’s top priority, and for that reason, decisions regarding operational processes, force posture, and deliberative staffing are managed through appropriate security channels to ensure mission security and operational integrity.” The move comes after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned this week after repeatedly butting heads with Hegseth, reportedly warning President Donald Trump on his way out that Hegseth was causing “generational damage” with his moves in the military. The Pentagon under Hegseth has attempted to crack down on leaks coming from within the DOD to the press and has severely restricted press access within the physical building. In 2025, the Pentagon implemented new policies that revoked long-standing workspaces and credentials to fill the Pentagon with pro-Trump right-wing news organizations. The DOD later went even further by revoking press credentials from all journalists unless they signed onto a contract that forbade them from gathering or soliciting any information–a basic tenet of journalism. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-launches-desperate-cover-up-after-bombshell-leak/?