May. 16, 2026, 4:26 PM EDT

Sen. Thom Tillis issued a harsh critique of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his “mediocre yes-men” on Saturday for what the North Carolina Republican called a “careless decision” to force out and downgrade U.S. general officers.

“Hegseth continues to surprise and disrespect our greatest allies and some of our best military professionals with impulsive decisions not grounded in reality or good judgment,” Tillis wrote in a post on X.

Tillis posted his comments in response to new reporting from NOTUS that the Pentagon is planning on downgrading the Army’s top command overseeing Europe and Africa, which the publication attributed to five people familiar with the decision. The Pentagon has not confirmed such plans and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW regarding the NOTUS report and Tillis’s rebuke of Hegseth.

The move would come amid a larger restructuring of U.S. forces in Europe, including the halting of troop deployments to Germany and Poland, and reverse the merger of the Army’s European and African commands that was ordered during Trump’s first term.

Tillis also called out Hegseth for his planned replacement of Gen. Christopher Donahue, which was also first reported by NOTUS. The senator called the reported move to replace Donahue, a four-star general best known as the last U.S. servicemember to exit Afghanistan in 2021, “a step that is not in the best interests of our nation or our servicemembers.”

“If the rumors are true that Hegseth is trying to sideline Gen. Christopher Donahue, one of our nation’s finest warfighters, by downgrading U.S. Army Europe-Africa to a 3-star command, he is taking another step down a dangerous path,” Tillis said.

Last month, Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George — the Army’s top uniformed officer — and two other generals following a purge of other senior military leaders. Tillis said Donahue has “dedicated his entire career to upholding the high standards and warrior ethos that Hegseth claims he is restoring to our ranks.”

Since the North Carolinian announced he would retire from the Senate when his term is up in January, he has become the rare outspoken GOP critic of the Trump administration. He recently held up Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve, only voting to confirm the former financier once the Department of Justice ended its investigation into outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell.

Tillis was initially a holdout for Hegeth’s Senate confirmation but ultimately supported him, though he became a vocal critic of the defense secretary, telling BLN last summer that Hegseth appeared “out of his depth” atop the department.

“Hegseth would do well to surround himself with more patriots like General Donahue and to get his henchmen, who are not qualified to carry Donahue’s bag, out of the Pentagon,” Tillis said at the end of his post. “Keep your word, Mr. Secretary: choose meritocracy over your mediocre yes-men.”

Adam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.

May. 16, 2026, 10:19 AM EDT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli airstrike in Gazakilled the leader of Hamas’ military wing who was one of the last surviving architects of the attacks that triggered the warin late 2023, the Israeli military said Saturday. Hamas confirmed the death.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad was killed on Friday, Israel’s army said, describing him as one of the senior Hamas military commanders who directed the planning and execution of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.

A Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, confirmed the killing on social media.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, and the top diplomat overseeing it says it has stalledbecause of the deadlock over disarming Hamas. Both sides have traded accusations of violations. Gaza has seen near-daily Israeli fire with more than 850 people killed in the Palestinian territory since the ceasefire went into effect in October, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry is part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, but staffed by medical professionals who maintain and publish detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community. The ministry overall says Israel’s retaliatory strikes in the war have devastated the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 72,700 people.

Israel said that al-Haddad had assumed the role of Hamas commander after his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed. The army said that al-Haddad had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages during the war as a shield against an attack.

Al-Haddad’s family confirmed his death in Friday’s strike to The Associated Press. Six other people, including his wife and daughter, were also killed. His two sons were killed earlier in the war.

His body was wrapped in Hamas and Palestinian flags as it was carried by mourners at Saturday’s funeral in Gaza City.

Al-Haddad joined Hamas when it was established in the 1980s, and was a member of the Qassam Brigades’ Majd section tasked to go after collaborators with Israel. He was also a member of Hamas’ Military Council, the highest group of commanders that played a key role in the attacks that sparked the war.

Israel’s army chief of staff called his killing a significant operation, and said that Israel would continue pursuing its enemies to hold them accountable.

Palestinian man killed in West Bank

Violence flared Saturday in the occupied West Bankwhere Israeli troops shot and killed a 34-year-old Palestinian in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the Palestinian Health ministry.

Hassan Fayyad was fatally shot in a thigh, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israel’s military said that troops first fired warning shots at a person trying to infiltrate the camp and shot him when he didn’t comply. They provided him with medical treatment as he was transferred to a hospital, it said.

Israeli troops on Thursday shot and killed a 15-year-old boy in Eastern Lubban town in Nablus, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel’s military said that it identified three people hurling rocks toward Israeli vehicles and “endangering lives,” and troops fired at them, killing one.

On Friday, settlers set fire to a mosque and vehicles in the village of Jibiya, northwest of Ramallah, Palestinian religious authorities said. Security camera footage showed people pouring flammable material on the mosque and at least two vehicles, said Sabir Shalash, the head of Jibiya’s municipal council. Spray-painted Hebrew slogans were found on the mosque’s walls, he said.

The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs described the attack as “a cowardly terrorist act” and criticized the international community’s inaction over mounting Jewish settler attacks against Muslim and Christian sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military and police said that they were deployed to the area and didn’t locate any suspects, but were investigating. The army said that it “strongly condemns” attacks on religious institutions.

May. 16, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lasting political power will be tested in the Louisiana primaries on Saturday, as Sen. Bill Cassidy — a vocal critic of Kennedy and archenemy of the Make America Healthy Again movement — seeks re-election.

Kennedy and a host of loyalists and prominent conservative fundraisers have pooled their resources in an effort to unseat Cassidy, a physician who reluctantly cast a key vote to confirm Kennedy as Health and Human Services secretary, but who has since clashed with him publicly over his vaccine policy. He’s also drawn the ire of President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, who want Cassidy gone for voting to convict Trump on impeachment grounds in 2021.

Now Cassidy sits in the path of the MAHA war machine, driven by longtime Kennedy ally and MAHA political action committee co-founder Tony Lyons, who pledged to raise $100 million for Republican races this year — including $1 million to support U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, Cassidy’s primary opponent.

“Cassidy has stood in the way of everything, just time after time,” Lyons said earlier this month on an episode of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

“Bobby Kennedy has this incredible plan, this agenda to make us healthier,” he added. “And Cassidy is the one standing in the way. So we have to get rid of him.”

But it remains to be seen whether Lyons and the MAHA war machine have the same teeth today they had in 2024, when Lyons was among several high-profile donors pumping millions into Kennedy’s run for presidentand eventually helped install him in Trump’s Cabinet.

Dwindling coffers

MAHA’s funding comes from its political action committee, rebranded from American Values 2024, the super PAC that supported Kennedy for president. Last June, Lyons and Limewire founder Mark Gorton, who have supported and helped finance Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work for years, founded MAHA PAC and announced they were setting their sights on the 2026 midterms.

But while Kennedy raised more than $50 million for his failed presidential bid, the PAC supporting his MAHA agenda as Trump’s secretary has raised far, far less. Missing from MAHA’s coffers are former Kennedy big spenders like Republican mega-donor Timothy Mellon, Kennedy’s former running mate Nicole Shanahan, and many of the other five- and six-figure donors within the anti-vaccine and alternative health communities who opened their wallets for Kennedy in 2024.

“It was one thing when Bobby was running for president; that was a moonshot mission. But this does not generate the same kind of urgency in the donors,” said one former American Values 2024 donor who spoke to MS NOW on condition of anonymity.

“It’s been uniquely difficult to raise money for the MAHA PAC,” the donor added.

As a result, Lyons has turned to a smaller number of donors, some of whom seem at odds with the stated goals of MAHA PAC.

According to its Federal Election Commission filings, MAHA PAC received $50,000 from Venni Capital LLC, an investment firm with little footprint outside an address shared with a New York drug company, Chartwell Pharmaceuticals, which markets itself as “well-prepared to sell to government entities and supply state and federal contracts.”

Meanwhile, a $500,000 donation came in March from Botanic Tonics LLC, makers of “Feel Free,” a tonic containing kava and kratom — substances the Food and Drug Administration warns against and that state lawmakers are attempting to regulate or ban outright. Botanic Tonics has also been the target of widespread complaints on social media from people who say the product is addictive. Last year, a federal court approved the company’s $8.75 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit, claiming the company failed to warn consumers about the dangers of kratom. Botanic Tonics has denied any wrongdoing.

Kennedy himself has warned against kratom, and his own FDA announced steps to restrict it.

Yet MAHA PAC appears to rely heavily on Botanic Tonics’ money, even more than FEC filings suggest: According to two people familiar with the matter, the company pledged to continue donating $500,000 on a recurring monthly basis.

Adding to the mystery around Botanic Tonics is the fact that just two months before its first donation to MAHA PAC, the Department of Justice dropped a yearslong case against the company, citing resource concerns.

In a statement, a company spokesperson told MS NOW: “Botanic Tonics supports initiatives that advance consumer transparency and work to remove artificial ingredients and synthetic chemicals from the American food supply. That is the sole basis for our support.”

MAHA PAC doesn’t appear to have the war chest to be a kingmaker in Louisiana, let alone alter the midterms in favor of the GOP as Lyons promised.

The group has spent about $950,000 of the $1 million it promised to boost Letlow, according to a person familiar with MAHA PAC’s operations. Nearly all of it went to text campaigns and mailers that focus on Trump’s endorsement of Letlow.

“We simply can’t trust anti-Trump Bill Cassidy in the U.S. Senate,” one mailer reviewed by MS NOW reads.

Meanwhile, a video advertisement calls Letlow “MAHA-approved” and notes that she would “stop the fraud, promote hospital price transparency, and lower prescription drug costs.”

Seemingly absent from MAHA PAC’s messaging to Louisianians are the issues most often associated with the MAHA movement, like the dangers of chemical additives in food and vaccine skepticism.

Lyons did not respond to multiple requests for comment from MS NOW.

Betting on Louisiana

Letlow isn’t the perfect MAHA candidate. She has been a proponent of the COVID-19 vaccine since her husband died from the virus in 2020, and a third candidate in the race, Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, has argued that he is the strongest MAHA candidate.

As far back as last year, Fleming criticized Cassidy for standing in the way of Kennedy’s MAHA agenda.

“Cassidy appears to be resistant to the reforms that RFK Jr. wants to bring,” Fleming told known last June.

But Lyons stands firmly behind Letlow.

“Letlow is clearly on Bobby Kennedy’s side,” he told Bannon earlier this month. “She’s been posting repeatedly over the last month, just day after day, pro-MAHA things, pro-MAHA on school lunches, on food dyes, on so many different things. She is right on board. She will vote with him. She will help with the MAHA movement.”

If Cassidy fails to make the run-off Saturday, Lyons said, it would “send a very strong message” — MAHA PAC is coming for the midterms.

“This will be the first blow,” he said. “And people will see it’s early on in the midterm races. And they will see that they’re going to have to start to pivot.