A sharp military escalation between Washington and Tehran dominated the hour as President Donald Trump vowed to "hit Iran hard" following Iranian ballistic missile and drone strikes against U.S. positions at air bases in Jordan¹. The exchange, which followed a U.S. strike on Larak Island, pushed Brent crude futures back above $90 a barrel^1,2 as the Treasury Department prepared weekly secondary sanctions under Operation Economic Outcast. Amid the intensifying conflict, Pentagon leadership experienced a high-level shakeup with the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll after 18 months on the job amid reported friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth^3,4. Concurrently, the administration moved to expand its global energy footprint, asserting majority control over a large swath of Venezuelan oil reserves⁵ as U.S. firm North American Blue Energy Partners prepares to take over oilfields previously operated by Chinese and Russian companies^6,7. President Trump also signaled an aggressive posture toward traditional allies, indicating he is reviewing U.S. support for British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands to push London on defense spending⁸. Domestically, the White House secured a $19.6 billion plant investment agreement with mid-size drugmakers to cap U.S. medicine prices at international levels⁹, while a federal court struck down New York's Climate Change Superfund Act as unconstitutionally preempted by federal law and foreign affairs power¹⁰. In the technology sector, Anthropic executed a $35 billion cloud computing infrastructure deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda^11,12. Meanwhile, House Republicans advanced a resolution denouncing socialism and teed up a vote to cap Supreme Court seats at nine^13,14, as Vice President JD Vance campaigned in Michigan to announce a commercial trucking license crackdown¹⁵ while appealing to Jewish voters in Nevada¹⁶.