The Ukrainian military has a new weapon in its arsenal after President Joe Biden granted permission for Ukraine to begin firing U.S.-made ATACMS missiles into Russia. Ukrainians wasted no time and shot at least six of these missiles at a weapons facility in Russia's Bryansk region. Russia shot down five, which were launched on the war's 1,000th day.

Why now?
The decision on ATACMS "follows months of pleas" by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "allow Ukraine's military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border," said USA Today. The Biden administration had repeatedly stated that it would not permit this. But with no end to the war in sight, and Biden preparing to cede the presidency to Donald Trump, the U.S. is hurriedly increasing its wartime assistance in the region.

However, the White House seemed to rethink this strategy after Russia's deployment of North Korean ground troops to "supplement its own forces — a development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv," said USA Today. It's unclear how Trump will handle the war once he's president.

What does this mean for the future?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he "would regard any use of U.S.-supplied weapons against Russian territory as an attack by the United States," said Slate. Putin has also said he would retaliate by attacking U.S. military bases in Europe.

Putin also approved a broadened nuclear doctrine that "appeared to be a thinly veiled threat" to the U.S. and its allies over their "ramped-up support for Ukraine," said NBC News. This new doctrine would allow Russia to launch a nuclear weapon if it's attacked by a non-nuclear country, such as Ukraine, that's supported by a nuclear country, like the U.S.

Donald Trump nominated Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that oversees the nation's communications networks. Carr has been a critic of content moderation efforts on social media networks, likening them to censorship regimes, and is expected to target tech giants for regulatory action.

A familiar career trajectory
Carr has spent virtually his entire life in Washington, D.C. He received a J.D. from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, and his first job was at the law firm Wiley Rein. He later clerked on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Trump picked Carr for a five-year term on the FCC in 2017, and because he has already been confirmed by the Senate, he requires no further action to move into the role of chair. President Biden renominated Carr as a commissioner in 2023. 

Carr's agenda
Carr wrote a chapter of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 manual. In it, Carr recommends that the FCC take aim at Big Tech and rein in some of its alleged abuses. He also suggests the FCC stop interpreting Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act as conferring limitless immunity on media platforms for the content they carry. 

Carr believes companies like Meta are suppressing conservative speech. "We must dismantle the censorship cartel," he said on X. "I don't believe the FCC has the authority to do this," said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich to Roll Call in response to Section 230 reforms.

Congress should "empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact-checkers, if any," Carr said in Project 2025. He also thinks the FCC should ban TikTok and expand its "Covered List" of companies that are prohibited in the U.S. for national security reasons. 

Carr additionally criticized the Biden administration for rejecting a bid to use federal subsidies to expand broadband access through Trump-aligned billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink platform. Brendan Carr has been "campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk," said Free Press Action CEO Craig Aaron to The Washington Post.