US moving away from Middle East security guarantor role, Barrack says

The US envoy said that direct US military intervention on the ground against the Houthis would be "fruitless."

US Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack said Tuesday that Washington is moving away from its role as a regional security guarantor, arguing that Middle East governments must take greater responsibility for their own security and that US ground interventions have repeatedly failed.

What happened: Speaking in an interview with Al Jazeera at the eighth Global Security Forum in Doha, Qatar, Barrack said the US role in the region was changing but stressed that the shift did not mean Washington was abandoning the Middle East.

Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine — and Hack It

Reporting Highlights

• An Unusual Request: Political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security wanted the agency that protects election systems to get and hack a voting machine, which shocked staffers.
• Undermining Election Security: President Donald Trump has said voting is vulnerable even as his administration has undermined the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is supposed to protect it.
• On Their Own: Election officials across the country say the Trump administration’s attacks on CISA have left them to solve security issues with the midterms approaching.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.