NPR News: 07-22-2026 8AM EDT

Kristen Wright· Host0:01

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. The Republican-led Congress is weighing a sixty-seven billion dollar emergency funding request from the Pentagon. NPR's Claudia Grisales reports this comes on the heels of the expanding war in Iran.

Claudia Grisales0:17

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Senate appropriators the department could face shortfalls without the urgent funding, but he faced heated resistance from some senators angry with the direction of the war. Here's Michigan Democrat Gary Peters: You don't have a strategy.

Gary Peters· Soundbite0:33

You don't have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war. The men and women are gonna be able to do it, but they need to have leadership.

Claudia Grisales0:40

And a visibly frustrated Louisiana GOP Senator John Kennedy repeatedly told Hegseth to give Congress, quote, "straight answers." Eighteen US service members have been killed in the war and nearly five hundred injured. Claudia Grisales, NPR News.

Kristen Wright· Host0:57

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired the country's top military commander. It's the second major shakeup in Kiev's military leadership in the last week. NPR's Greg Myre says Zelensky made this latest move following days of protests calling for the general's ouster.

Greg Myre1:14

In a late-night social media post, President Zelensky dismissed the head of the armed forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi. The general, age sixty, was credited with winning several key battles in recent years, but he's also a Soviet-trained officer