The United States is on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region in response to Israel's strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, a U.S. official said on Friday.

"We're definitely at a high state of vigilance," the official said in confirming a CNN report that said an attack could come in the next week.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was taken to a Washington, D.C. hospital on Sunday for treatment of "symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue", a Pentagon spokesman said.

Austin, 70, was retaining his duties during his hospitalization, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a written statement.

Austin was criticized last month for failing to disclose a cancer diagnosis and subsequent hospitalizations in December and January, including to President Joe Biden. He apologized during a televised news briefing.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby on Sunday said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's doctors think he may need additional care.

"We'll see, you know, when he can be released, but obviously they still feel like he may need some additional care. ... Part of that is just physical therapy," Kirby told CBS's "Face the Nation."

Kirby said "there is routine regular communication" between President Joe Biden and Austin and that the secretary remains "actively involved and engaged" from the hospital.

A senior Pentagon official who oversaw federally operated school systems in the Americas has been arrested in a Georgia human-trafficking sting.

The Coweta County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) last week announced the arrests of 26 people, including Stephen Hovanic, former chief of staff for the Americas division of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), in connection with an alleged human-trafficking ring.

Hovanic has apparently held the position since 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The US Army is having such a difficult time recruiting that it's sending soldiers who were kicked out for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 instructions on how to rejoin.

The Department of Defense announced Saturday the US plans to add a new model of nuclear bomb to its arsenal.

The new gravity bomb will be called B61-13, a variant on the existing B61 model that was first introduced in the 1960s. The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration will begin production pending Congressional authorization and appropriation, according to a Department of Defense statement.

President Joe Biden's administration has proposed building a new nuclear bomb as the production of weapons to replace the aging U.S. stockpile ramps up.

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced on Friday that it was pursuing the development of a new variant of the B61 gravity bomb, a type of weapon that was first produced in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War. Until very recently, U.S. nuclear weapons production had largely been at a standstill since the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

A media publication is striking back at NewsGuard, an American company that gives clients “reliability ratings and scores” for hundreds of news and information websites and often tags conservative sites with low grades. 

Consortium News has filed a lawsuit against NewsGuard and the U.S. government, accusing them of defamation and working in tandem to censor the outlet’s foreign policy reporting in violation of the First Amendment.

U.S. Attorney David Weiss claimed in a letter Monday that he never sought additional legal authority to charge Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., and California, where Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys allegedly refused to charge the younger Biden.

Weiss sent the letter to Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in response to Graham’s request for information related to allegations made by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley about Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden.

Donald Trump's ongoing legal issues could soon widen as two decision deadlines in separate cases arrive over the next few days.

The first deadline on July 13 involves the Department of Justice (DOJ), who must decide if they want to allow a defamation lawsuit filed against the former president by E. Jean Carroll when he was in office to go ahead or rule he has immunity.