More A-10 Warplanes Head to Middle East + US Destroys Key Iranian Highway Bridge + UK Hosts Coalition Meeting to Open Strait of Hormuz + Report: US FY27 Defense Budget Breaks $1 Trillion

For review:1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and take immediate retirement, sources familiar with the decision told CBS News. 2. The U.S. military is poised to double its A-10 presence in the Middle East, as the  close air support plane plays a key role in combating Iranian boats and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq as part of Operation Epic Fury against Iran.3. US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israel and the United States were close to completing their key objectives in the war against the Iranian regime and that the conflict would soon be over, without providing an exact timeline.4. A US military option to seize some 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium would reportedly require flying in excavation equipment and building a runway for cargo planes to fly off with the radioactive material.US President Donald Trump was presented with the plan by his military over the past week, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.5.  Israel came under attack from Iran, Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Thursday, as Tehran and its proxies increased their assaults amid the Passover holiday.6. An overnight Israeli Navy strike in Beirut killed the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front.The strike in the Lebanese capital killed Hajj Yusuf Ismail Hashem, who took over the Southern Front from Ali Karaki in September 2024, after the latter was killed alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike.7. A senior Houthi official warned that the Iran-backed terror group in Yemen could move to shutter the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if any Gulf countries join the US and Israeli strikes against Iran.The strait, a key shipping chokepoint and narrow passageway that controls sea traffic toward the Suez Canal, is located at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, between Houthi-controlled Yemen and Djibouti.8. About 40 countries discussed joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to stop Iran holding “the global economy hostage,” Britain said Thursday, after US President Donald Trump said securing the waterway was for others to resolve.British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Iran’s “recklessness” in blockading the Persian Gulf waterway was “hitting our global economic security” as she chaired the virtual meeting, which included France, Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and India, but not the US.9. The Trump administration plans to propose a $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal 2027, broken into a $1.15 trillion base budget request and an additional $350 billion from a forthcoming reconciliation bill, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.It will mark the first time the base budget defense spending has hit the $1 trillion mark.