Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back at it on Thursday. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump was presented with yet another award apparently invented just for him, when he received a trophy for being the “undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal” from an industry executive. There is no such thing as clean coal.
In what just seems like a plot from Veep, the Pentagon gave the people guarding the border an anti-drone laser and border protection officers used it to shoot down a party balloon, causing the cancellation of all commercial flights in El Paso, Texas.
A document held by the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, during her combative appearance before the House judiciary committee suggests that the justice department is keeping a record of what lawmakers look at when they view unredacted copies of the Epstein files.
The narrowly divided US House passed the Republican-sponsored Save America Act, which would required proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID at the polls, imposing a barrier to voting that, research shows, more than 9% of US citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have readily available.
The US House passed a resolution terminating the supposed national emergency declared by Trump to justify imposing tariffs on Canada. The president was not amused, but the fate of his tariffs is likely to be decided by the supreme court.
Evidence made public on Wednesday showed that Gregory Bovino, a border patrol chief who was the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts until last month, praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman last year.
Trump wins another award no one knew existed, this time as the 'undisputed champion' of claiming that coal is not destroying the planet
At a White House event to promote coal on Wednesday, Donald Trump was presented with yet another award that was apparently invented just for him, when he received a trophy for being the “undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal” from an industry executive.
There is, of course, no such thing as clean coal, but Trump has devoted himself to rebranding the climate destroying fossil fuel as not just clean but beautiful as well – in the way that an Oval Office dripping in gold fittings is beautiful.
As our colleague Dharna Noor reported earlier, the coal industry poured $3.5 million into efforts to elect Trump in 2024. Reports show the president’s efforts to keep aging coal plants open could push up already-soaring energy bills nationwide.
Trump grinned as he accepted the trophy and then sat down to sign an executive order directing the Pentagon to give preference to coal in long-term energy contracts.
Trump stated affection for the coal industry goes back to his first campaign in 2016, when he was presented with a miner’s helmet by the West Virginia Coal Association, an industry group that endorsed him, and briefly put it on to mime digging with a shovel.
After removing the helmet at that 2016 rally, Trump then launched into an extended riff on how it might have impacted his hair, and bemoaned the fact that he could no longer use aerosol hairspray over what he considered to be phony climate concerns.
“You know, you’re not allowed to use hairspray anymore because if affects the ozone. You know that, right?” Trump said to laughter at the time. “I said, ‘You mean to tell me’ — ’cause you know hairspray’s not like it used to be, it used to be real good,” he added, to more laughs. “Give me a mirror. But no, in the old days, you put the hairspray on, it was good. Today, you put the hairspray on, it’s good for 12 minutes, right?”
“I said, ‘Wait a minute — so if I take hairspray and if I spray it in my apartment, which is all sealed, you’re telling me that affects the ozone layer?’” “‘Yes.’” I say, no way, folks. No way!”
“No way!” he added to cheers. “That’s like a lot of the rules and regulations you people have in the mines, right? It’s the same kind of stuff.”
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Bondi came to Congress armed with 'search history' of which Epstein documents one Democrat viewed
A document held by the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, during her combative appearance before the House judiciary committee on Wednesday suggests the justice department is keeping a record of what lawmakers look at when they view unredacted copies of documents in the files from the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender.
Throughout the hearing, Bondi launched into a series of prepared attacks on lawmakers whenever she was asked about her department’s failure to keep the names of Epstein’s victims confidential, as required by law, while protecting the privacy of powerful men accused of abusing them.
Among the more heated exchanges was Bondi’s questioning by Pramila Jayapal, a progressive Democratic congresswoman from Washington.
Photographs of Bondi show she held a piece of paper labelled “Jayapal Pramila Search History” during questioning, which listed eight documents from the files, one of which, about a “torture video” apparently sent to Epstein by Dubai’s powerful Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem Jayapal discussed.
After Jayapal urged Bondi to turn around and apologize to victims of Epstein who were in the room behind her, the attorney general refused to do so, and instead tried to turn the discussion to her predecessor, Merrick Garland. “Why didn’t she ask Merrick Garland this?” Bondi asked, repeating a Republican talking point that Democrats were unconcerned with Epstein’s crimes until Donald Trump, who socialized with Epstein for nearly two decades, was back in office. (In fact, Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was prosecuted by the justice department while Garland was in office, and many of the files were, at that time, still part of an ongoing prosecution.)
When Jayapal pressed her further to turn to the victims and apologize, Bondi told the Republican chairman, Jim Jordan, “I’m not going to get in the gutter with this woman, she’s doing theatrics.” (Jordan has faced persistent allegations that, when he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University he ignored the sexual abuse of student wrestlers by a team doctor.)
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Pentagon let Customs and Border Protection fire anti-drone laser near El Paso this week – reports
The Pentagon allowed US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, two people familiar with the situation told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
As Trump administration officials appeared to pass the buck for the use of the laser, one US official told a Fox News producer at the Pentagon that the directed energy weapon was in CBP’s control when a balloon was mistaken for a drone and shot down near El Paso.
In January, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, agreed to loan the directed energy counter drone platform to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Fox reported.
The Washington Post military affair correspondent Dan Lamothe also reports: “Airspace was closed by the FAA near El Paso late Tuesday after CBP personnel launched a counter-drone laser weapon without full inter-agency integration, officials say. That weapon had recently been transferred temporarily by the Pentagon to DHS.”
Another national security journalist, Michael Weiss, reports that a source in the military confirmed to him the laser was fired by DHS, angering senior officers at US Northern Command.
“Every Gen and Adm at NORTHCOM is pissed that DHS did an operation and told no one because homeland defense is what NORTHCOM does,” the source told Weiss. “Even the base commander at Ft Bliss called the Pentagon and NORTHCOM furious.”
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House Democrat investigates Trump's sudden reversal on US-Canada bridge after reported lobbying by Republican donor
Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House oversight committee, wrote to Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, on Wednesday to demand information about his reported role in turning Donald Trump against a new, publicly owned bridge connecting the US and Canada after he met a billionaire Republican donor who owns a rival bridge.
In his letter, Garcia cited reporting from the New York Times that Trump’s sudden threat on Monday to block the opening of the new bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, came after a call from Lutnick, who had just met with Matthew Moroun, the owner of the private Ambassador Bridge between the two cities, who has donated more than $600,000 to Trump and the Republican party.
“It appears that you have chosen to protect a politically connected billionaire donor family at the expense of promoting American commerce,” Garcia wrote to Lutnick.
“Your interference could increase traffic congestion, reduce economic opportunity, and damage trade between the US and Canada. As such, I request information regarding any communications and undue influence the Moroun family may have had with the Trump administration.”
Garcia asked Lutnick to turn over documents including all communications related to his meeting with Moroun on Monday and his discussions with Trump or anyone else in the White House related to the new bridge and the old bridge.
“The Gordie Howe international bridge, which President Trump once touted as a ‘vital economic link between our two countries,’ has been under construction for years,” Garcia noted. “The Moroun family’s latest attempt to delay or block the opening of the bridge by directly appealing to you and to the Trump Administration appears to have proven successful.”
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US House passes bill to require voter ID and limit vote by mail
The narrowly divided US House passed the Republican-sponsored Save America Act on Wednesday, which would required proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID at the polls, imposing a barrier to voting that, research shows, more than 9% of US citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have readily available.
All but one of the Republicans in Congress voted for the measure, and all but one of the Democrats voted against it.
The legislation is not guaranteed to pass the Senate.
Henry Cuellar, a conservative Texas congressman who was recently given clemency by Donald Trump, was the only Democrat to vote for the bill.
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Majority in US House votes to end Trump's tariffs on Canada
The US House just passed a joint resolution terminating the national emergency declared by Donald Trump to impose tariffs on imports from Canada.
Six Republicans joined almost all Democrats to pass the measure by a vote of 219-211 in the narrowly divided House.
The rebuke is likely symbolic, since it would take a two-thirds majority of both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto, and Trump left no doubt about his unwavering support for tariffs in a blistering social media post as the votes were cast.
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” Trump warned just two minutes before enough Republicans voted for the resolution to form a majority.
Polling shows that the tariffs are unpopular with a majority of Americans, including business owners who traditionally support Republicans.
The supreme court is expected to rule soon on the Trump administration’s effort to get lower court rulings, which found that the president does not have the power to impose tariffs, overturned.
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Climate leaders gathered outside the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters on Wednesday to condemn the Trump administration’s plans to repeal the legal finding underpinning all federal climate regulations.
“This is corruption, plain and simple. Old fashioned, dirty political corruption,” said the Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse at the rally. “This is an agency that has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of the fossil fuel polluters.”
The rollback of the 2009 endangerment finding will be finalized by Donald Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters yesterday. The seminal ruling established a legal basis to regulate planet-warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.
The move comes a year and a half after Trump on the campaign trail directly requested $1bn from oil bosses, promising he would scrap environmental rules if elected.
“[Zeldin] is saying to the fossil fuel industry, you now are gonna get what you paid for,” said the Massachusetts senator Ed Markey at the gathering. “This is cash and carry: You give us the cash, and then we carry away all of the environmental protections.”
At the event, environmental non-profits including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club pledged to file litigation over the forthcoming rollback.
“We’re gonna be taking this fight to the courts, and we are going to win,” said Manish Bapna, president of the national environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
The plan to kill the endangerment finding is “terrifying”, said Talia Brandt, a 10-year old Maryland resident and member of environmental health organization Moms Clean Air Force, who appeared at the rally with her mother, Liz.
“We shouldn’t have to be here fighting for our future,” she said.
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Border chief Greg Bovino emailed agent who shot Chicago woman five times to praise him
Evidence made public on Wednesday showed that Gregory Bovino, a border patrol chief who was the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts until last month, praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman during an immigration crackdown last year.
Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, was shot five times by a border patrol agent in October while in her vehicle. She was charged with felony assault after homeland security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. But the case was abruptly dismissed after video evidence showed that the agent who shot her had first steered his vehicle into Martinez’s car.
The new evidence – which includes emails, text messages and videos – was released this week after a US district judge, Georgia Alexakis, lifted a protective order. Federal prosecutors had argued the documents could “further sully” Exum’s reputation.
“I don’t know why the United States government has expressed zero concern for the sullying of Ms Martinez’s reputation,” Alexakis countered.
The border patrol agent who shot Martinez, Charles Exum, was not wearing his body camera during the incident, according to Martinez’s lawyer, but body camera video recorded by another agent and released on Tuesday showed the moments that led up to the shooting from inside Exum’s vehicle.
“It’s time to get aggressive and get the [expletive] out,” one agent could be heard saying.
After Exum gets out of the car, the sound of five shots being fired can be heard on the video.
Emails and text messages to Exum included one message from Bovino sending encouragement to Exum after the shooting.
“In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!!” Bovino wrote to Exum on 4 October, hours after Martinez was shot, in an email urging him to put off his retirement.
Another text exchange highlighted by lawyers for Martinez showed that when a fellow agent asked Exum if his superiors were being “supportive” after the shooting, Exum replied: “Big time. Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself … according to Bovino.”
On the day Martinez was shot, she had followed a border patrol vehicle and honked her horn to warn others of the presence of immigration agents. Body camera footage showed agents with weapons drawn and rushing out of the vehicle.
Lawyers for Martinez pushed to make evidence in the dismissed criminal case public, saying they were especially motivated to do so after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis under similar circumstances.
In one group text, other agents congratulated Exum as Bovino had, calling him a “legend” and offering to buy him beers.
In another text exchange, first made public when Martinez testified in Congress last week, another agent sent Exum a Guardian report on the shooting in which her lawyer said she had “seven holes in her body from five shots”.
“Read it,” Exum replied. “5 shots, 7 holes”.
Exum then appeared to brag to colleagues about his shooting skills. “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys,” he wrote.
Bovino’s belligerent persona, in frequent Fox News appearances, on social media and while leading operations in front of cameras deployed to produce propaganda for the Trump administration, had earned him a starring role in the made-for-TV crackdown until last month, when he was caught lying about Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis despite posing no threat.
The shooting of Martinez came during the height of the Chicago-area crackdown last year, during which a federal judge concluded that Bovino had lied to her about having been struck by a rock during a confrontation with protesters in the city.
The government unsuccessfully fought the release of the documents on the shooting, including an email from Bovino, who led enforcement operations nationwide until video evidence showed that he had lied when he said Pretti “approached law enforcement with a weapon”, “violently resisted” and wanted to “massacre law enforcement”.
Martinez’s lawyer are pursuing a complaint under a law that permits individuals to sue federal agencies. They outlined instances of DHS lying about Martinez after the shooting, including labeling her a “domestic terrorist” and accusing her of having a history of “doxxing federal agents”. The Montessori school assistant has no criminal record and prosecutors haven’t brought evidence in either claim.
“This is a time where we just cannot trust the words of our federal officials,” attorney Christopher Parente said at a news conference where his office released evidence.
That included an agent’s hand-drawn diagram of the scene to allege how Martinez “boxed in” federal agents. It included three vehicles Parente said “don’t exist”.
Many of the emails, text messages and videos were released on Tuesday night by the US attorney’s office.
Last week, Martinez offered emotional testimony about her ordeal to Democrats in Congress in which she described her shock at being described as terrorist based on the false account of the incident offered by federal agents.
Martinez recalled:
The news in the jail that evening had my story and I was being called a ‘domestic terrorist’! They said I ‘rammed’ federal agents. I was in shock. If they only knew I was just months away from paying off my car and I would never intentionally damage my vehicle much less be crazy enough to hit a law enforcement vehicle. On Friday I was teaching the young children at the Montessori school and we were singing and dancing and getting ready for spooky season preparing fall activities to do the following week and on Saturday my own government was calling me a ‘domestic terrorist’ and I was in a federal detention center with bullet holes all over my body.
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Pam Bondi has left a House judiciary committee hearing after more than five hours.
During the hearing, Bondi answered questions from lawmakers about the Epstein files and the justice department’s ongoing prosecution of anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota. She shook hands with Republican legislators before leaving the hearing room.
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All of the survivors currently attending the House judiciary committee hearing on the Epstein files raised their hands when congressman Dan Goldman asked if they had tried to speak with the justice department but not received a response.
Goldman criticized attorney general Pam Bondi’s justice department, pointing to a list of victims’ names that had been released in the files, which Congress ordered redacted for survivors’ privacy. “That is clearly intentional to intimidate these survivors and victims,” he said.
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Donald Trump’s White House meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, concluded after nearly three hours.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” Trump said in a social media post. “Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them. Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”
Netanyahu did not provide a statement on the meeting.
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The brief closure of airspace over El Paso, Texas, this morning can be attributed to a dispute between the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration officials over the testing of anti-drone lasers, the Associated Press reports.
The Department of Defense intended to test the new system on an incursion of drones from Mexican cartels, but FAA officials were concerned about threats to commercial air safety, unnamed sources told the AP.
Despite a meeting scheduled later this month to discuss the issue, the Pentagon wanted to go ahead and test it, prompting the FAA to shutter the airspace. It was not clear whether the laser was ultimately deployed.
The US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said earlier that a response to an incursion by Mexican cartel drones had led to the airspace closure and that the threat had been neutralized. Drone incursions are not uncommon along the southern border.
The FAA’s notice initially closed airspace above the city for 10 days, which would have crippled transportation and logistics for the border city. The nearest major alternative airport for El Paso is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a four-hour drive west of El Paso.
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On Wednesday, the president reportedly plans to sign an executive order directing the defense department to procure more power from coal, the most planet-warming fossil fuel.
“Clean, beautiful coal is not only keeping the lights on in our country but also driving down the cost of electricity across the country as well,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters yesterday.
On the same day, the president is set to be awarded the inaugural “Undisputed Champion of Coal” title from the Washington Coal Club – a DC-based pro-coal industry organization – for his efforts to roll back federal climate regulations.
The coal industry poured $3.5m into efforts to elect Trump in 2024. Reports show the president’s efforts to keep ageing coal plants offer could push up already-soaring energy bills nationwide.
“Trump gets showered with millions in campaign donations and absurd awards, billionaire coal barons get the EPA gutted and a license to pollute, and working people get stuck with skyrocketing utility bills,” said Jesse Lee, senior adviser to the green non-profit Climate Power.
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Minneapolis mayor says city won't change immigration policies despite 'positive' meeting with Trump 'border czar'
Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said he has met with Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, who took over the Minnesota immigration surge, and that the meetings have been “positive”. But, he said, the city would not be changing its policies to meet the administration’s demands.
“We’re not changing those things locally,” he told the Guardian. “We’ve got a separation ordinance. We’re a welcoming city. We’re gonna stay that way.”
Frey said he’s hopeful that there will be a drawdown in agents on the ground, mirroring comments made by the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, this week. Homan said last week that about 700 agents would depart the state, but that leaves about 2,000 still on the ground, compared with about 100 agents normally working in Minnesota.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said.
He called Minnesotans’ response to the ICE surge “inspirational”, noting the people protesting peacefully, dropping off food for families staying home out of fear or standing watch outside schools and daycare centers. But he acknowledged there will be long-term needs after ICE leaves, including emergency assistance and business recovery assistance from the state.
The first step toward this, though, is for agents to leave completely, he said.
“If you’re looking for a rejuvenated economy, if you’re looking for things to come back, there’s a very clear antidote, which is for ICE to leave,” Frey said. “And once they do, yeah, we’re going to fling open the doors, we’re going to turn on the lights. People are going to come back into work, and we’re going to make sure that this economy gets rocking again … Minneapolis is going to bounce back strong.”
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Delia Ramirez, the Democratic representative from Illinois, grilled the Veterans Affairs secretary, Doug Collins, about the VA’s changes in the past year under the Trump administration.
“We know that VA workers have been stripped of nearly all their labor rights. The department is struggling to staff and deliver services to veterans. Proven programs have been gutted while promising new, more effective solutions. And the Department of Homeland Security is kidnapping and deporting veterans and executing VA employees in broad daylight,” Ramirez said.
“You care about pleasing this president and advancing his ‘privatization to profit’ agenda,” she added.
Collins refused to answer any questions from Ramirez related to the shooting of Alex Pretti. Pretti was a VA nurse, who was shot and killed by federal immigration enforcement officials.
“Would you call for [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Noem to resign, given her execution of a VA employee?” Ramirez asked.
“I have said all on this issue that I’m going to say,” Collins replied.
Ramirez also questioned Collins on cuts to the VA workforce and whether non-citizen veterans deported from the US are receiving their benefits. Collins did not have an answer to the latter question.
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Democratic senators say failed attempt to charge them over military video was 'authoritarian'
Democratic senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the failed attempt of federal prosecutors to charge them criminally for releasing a video last year calling for troops to refuse to obey unlawful orders.
“They tried to have us charged and thrown into jail because we said something that they didn’t like,” Kelly said. “Because we repeated what the law actually is. This happened here. This is straight from the authoritarian playbook. This did not happen in Russia or China. In Russia and China, we see these things. This didn’t happen decades ago. It happened less than a mile from this building in the United States of America, yesterday.”
A Washington DC grand jury declined to indict the two, along with four other Democratic lawmakers who participated in the video, including Slotkin, Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who all have military and intelligence backgrounds.
Trump, in outrage, called for the group to be “hanged”.
“If things had gone a different way, we’d be preparing for arrest,” Slotkin said. The speakers on the video were “simply restating the law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice that military members had a duty to refuse illegal orders. We said nothing more than everyone from Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi have said themselves out of their own mouth. For that, President Trump said that we should be investigated, arrested and ultimately hanged.”
Slotkin said she refused a voluntary interview with prosecutors last week.
“The president is using our justice system to weaponize it against his perceived enemies,” Slotkin said.
Kelly is fighting a post-retirement censure from the defense department in court. But he said that the administration’s response has had a chilling effect on other veterans.
“Retired service members have told me that they have changed what they do and say publicly in their retirement, because of what has happened to us,” Kelly said. “That’s already happening. I hope in time that that corrects itself when they see Senator Slotkin and I standing up to these bullies.”
The two thanked the anonymous citizens on the grand jury for refusing to indict.
“If fear is contagious, so is courage,” Slotkin said. “The common citizen is showing the country and the world how to stand up for their values.”
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Trump hosting Netanyahu at the White House
Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, are meeting at the White House on Wednesday, with Iran and Gaza on the agenda. Netanyahu is expected to press Trump for limits on Tehran’s missile arsenal and other security threats, while Trump looking to push the ceasefire agreement he brokered last year.
This is the seventh meeting between the two since Trump’s re-election, according to Reuters.
The meeting is an opportunity for Netanyahu to influence the next round of US discussions with Iran after nuclear negotiations held in Oman last Friday. Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no agreement is reached, while Tehran has vowed to retaliate, stoking fears of a wider war. Trump told Fox Business on Tuesday that a good deal with Iran would mean “no nuclear weapons, no missiles”, without elaborating. He also told Axios he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group as part of a major US buildup near Iran.
“I will present to the president our perceptions of the principles in the negotiations,” Netanyahu told reporters before departing for the US. The two leaders could also discuss potential military action if diplomacy with Iran fails, one source said.
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House hearing on veterans affairs turns tense amid questions over VA nurse Alex Pretti's killing
The secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins, and Representative Mark Takano of California engaged in a heated exchange during a House oversight hearing.
Takano grilled the secretary on his attempts to restructure the VA. Takano said there is a lack of transparency about the details of Collins’ goals. At one point, Takano asked Collins whether he is offering signing bonuses to new nurses and doctors, as the VA continues to struggle with staffing nationwide. “Quit yelling at me!” Collins said, as Takano grilled him on the question of staffing.
Takano then lambasted Collins for his public response to Alex Pretti’s shooting. Pretti was a VA nurse, who was killed by immigration enforcement officials in Minneapolis.
“Alex Pretti worked for you – can you just tell me, was he a good employee?” Takano asked.
“As far as I know, everything about it – I’ve already said what I’m gonna say about Alex Pretti and I’m not gonna be brought into anything else about it,” Collins said.
In response, Takano criticized Collins for not speaking out about his employee who was killed. Other Trump administration officials, after the shooting, called Pretti a “terrorist”.
“When your employee was attacked publicly and falsely, by your own colleagues, you had a choice to defend him or stay silent,” Takano said. “And you chose silence. And that silence is deafening.”
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The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, just began screaming at committee members after trying to avoid a question from Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York.
“I’m gonna answer the question,” Bondi screamed.
“No, answer my question,” Nadler said back.
“Your theatrics are ridiculous,” Bondi said. “Chairman Jordan, I’m not gonna get in the gutter with these people. But I’m gonna answer the question.”
Then Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the panel, interrupted to ask Nadler get more time to ask a question. “You can let her filibuster all day long, not on our watch, not on our time. No way,” he said.
When Raskin said he told Bondi she wouldn’t be allowed to take up time, Bondi screamed, “You don’t tell me anything,” and then proceeded to call Raskin “washed up” and “not even a lawyer”.
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Bondi clashes with Democrat Jamie Raskin, calling him a 'washed-up lawyer'
Democrats on the House judiciary committee are pointedly questioning the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, and shutting down her answers to questions if she doesn’t respond to the question asked.
After questions from Jerry Nadler, a Democratic representative, Bondi snapped back, and Nadler cut her off and attempted to reclaim his time to continue asking questions and commenting.
Ranking member Jamie Raskin jumped in: “You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch, not on our time. I told you about that, attorney general, before you started.”
Bondi hit back: “You don’t tell me anything, you washed-up lawyer. You’re not even a lawyer.”
After Nadler’s time ended, Bondi went on an extended commentary about how successful president Donald Trump is, calling him the “most transparent” president in history and praising the stock market.
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Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, is tussling with attorney general Pam Bondi early on in the hearing.
Last year, when Bondi testified before the senate judiciary committee, she aggressively brushed off questions from Democrats - a performance that delighted Trump allies. Democrats have clearly learned from that hearing and are being more aggressive today.
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The secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins, is not interested in discussing Alex Pretti’s killing during an ongoing Congressional hearing. Pretti, a VA nurse, was shot and killed in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement officials in late January.
Collins expressed his “deepest sympathies” to Pretti’s family, but said he was not interested in discussing it during the hearing, saying he wants to focus instead on the VA’s restructuring.
“As you know, his death is currently being investigated,” Collins said. “VA is not involved in that investigation. And neither I nor my fellow panelists are able to provide any additional details at this time.”
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Bondi declines to apologize again to Epstein survivors
Representative Pramila Jayapal asked the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse who are in the hearing room to raise their hands if they had not been able to meet with the department of justice. All of them raised their hands.
Attorney general Pam Bondi said in her opening statement that she apologized to the survivors. Jayapal recalled the apology and said, “Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information?”
Bondi tried to answer by placing blame on the prior attorney general under Biden and called Jayapal’s question “theatrics”.
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Representative Takano grills Department of Veterans' Affairs secretary for attempting to restructure the VA
Rep. Takano grilled the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) secretary Doug Collins and the Trump administration, for attempting to restructure the VA.
Takano said Collins’ attempts to reorganize the VA are the “third attempt to shrink” the agency. The first involved cuts by DOGE, leading to 2,000 employees being fired. And the second was a failed attempt by Collins to lay off 83,000 VA employees.
This is all happening as the department struggles with staffing and retention.
Takano says the actions were “performative.”
“They provided absolutely no benefit to veterans,” Takano said.
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Bondi attacks judges in opening statement
Attorney general Pam Bondi attacks judges in her opening statement to the House judiciary committee.
“America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration,” she said.
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The House Committee of Veterans’ Affairs began what is expected to be a tense hearing, with the Secretary of the VA on Wednesday morning. To begin, ranking committee member Rep. Mark Takano from California began by having a moment of silence for Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was shot and killed in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement officials.
“It was clear that Alex was exactly the type of employee that VA needs and exemplified the values of a true public servant,” Rep. Takano said. “I am outraged that Alex was taken from us by the hands of the lawless Trump regime.”
Other members of congress are expected to grill the VA Secretary, Doug Collins, on Pretti’s killing, the restructuring of the VA, and more. In recent months, the Guardian has been reporting on efforts by VA leadership to build a massive report of the agency’s non-citizen workforce that would then be shared with immigration authorities.
Pam Bondi testifies to House judiciary committee
Attorney general Pam Bondi is appearing before the House judiciary committee this morning for an oversight hearing.
During introductory remarks, Republican representative Jim Jordan, who chairs the committee, commended Bondi for righting the ship at the department, claiming she had worked to depoliticize the department after excesses during the Biden administration.
Jordan’s remarks were immediately negated by Democratic ranking member Jamie Raskin, who listed a litany of department of justice problems - the Epstein files, investigations into the killings of two US citizens by immigration agents, hiring of political allies over experienced career officials.
Bondi’s testimony is expected to include pointed questioning from Democrats on the committee.
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'As far as I am aware, there was nothing different or extraordinary about a drone from Mexico last night,' says Veronica Escobar
Veronica Escobar said the explanation from the federal government about a cartel drone incursion didn’t line up with what explanations she and other members of Congress have been given for the abrupt closure of the El Paso airport.
“The information coming from the administration does not add up, and it’s not the information that I was able to gather overnight and this morning,” she said.
She said she’s communicated with the ranking member on the House armed services committee, and her understanding is that a potential drone incursion would not have caused the closure.
“As far as I am aware, and the committees in DC are aware, there was nothing different or extraordinary about a drone from Mexico last night,” she said.
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Veronica Escobar, the US representative, cast doubt on the federal government’s explanation for the airport closure.
A potential drone incursion from Mexico, as transportation secretary Sean Duffy suggested as the reason, would not be unusual because “there have been drone incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones existed,” Escobar said. Escobar said that, to her knowledge, nothing happening at Fort Bliss, a nearby military base, would have impacted the El Paso airport and its operations.
“I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly, and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,” she said.
After the closure was announced, rumors spread widely about why such an unusual move would be needed. She said she fielded lots of concerns from locals about their safety, but assured people there was no safety threat to the airport.
“I was getting outreach from people asking, do we need to leave the vicinity, what is happening, what is going on,” she said. “And that has led to a number of conspiracy theories.”
El Paso airport closed to 'address cartel drone incursion', says transportation secretary Sean Duffy
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the El Paso airport closure was to “address a cartel drone incursion”.
“The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region,” Duffy said on social media. “The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming.”
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Federal government did not notify me or other local officials about airport closure, says representative Veronica Escobar
Veronica Escobar, the Democratic US representative who represents the El Paso international airport and surrounding area, said in a press briefing this morning that the federal government had not notified her or any other local officials about the abrupt closure of the airport.
“What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that the FAA did not notify anyone locally,” she said, including the airport itself, the city manager or the mayor. “So everyone locally on the ground was in the dark, and the impact, obviously, it is highly consequential.”
The closure wouldn’t just impact commercial travel, but medical and emergency services and training activity at a nearby military base, she said.
“I am saying unequivocally, this was an FAA decision, and it was done without any local consultation and without any local communication,” she said. “That is not the way that the federal government should operate. Any impact of this magnitude needs to be communicated with clarity and with advance notice.”
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Federal Aviation Administration says it will close airspace around El Paso airport for 10 days
The Federal Aviation Administration said late Tuesday it would close the airspace around the international airport in El Paso, Texas, a major city on the US-Mexico border, for 10 days, in a move that surprised local officials and stranded travelers overnight. The agency cited “special security reasons”.
But this morning, the FAA announced that the closure had been lifted. No detailed explanation was formally given for the original 10-day closure, and no further details were provided by the FAA this morning.
“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted,” the agency wrote on social media. “There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal.”
Closing an airport for 10 days, especially without any weather or emergency underpinnings, would be a highly unusual move. Lawmakers are sure to ask more questions about the initial plans to close the airport.
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US jobs market added 130,000 jobs in January 2026, with unemployment rate of 4.3%
There’s an updated jobs report out this morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after it was delayed a few days because of the previous government shutdown.
In January, the US jobs market added 130,000 jobs, a surge after some slower months but still below the jobs added in January 2025, a year ago. The unemployment rate was 4.3% in January.
Though January’s numbers were higher than expected, Tuesday’s report also revised 2025 total new job numbers downward. Last year, the total new jobs was 181,000, down from initial reporting of 584,000 jobs – the weakest year for job growth since the pandemic.
More from labor reporter Michael Sainato:
On Tuesday, White House adviser Peter Navarro warned against high expectations for the monthly jobs number, claiming that new jobs will be in the 50,000 range.
“We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like,” Navarro told Fox News.
Job figures during the Biden administration were actually inflated because “we were letting in 2 million illegal aliens”, but “all of the jobs that we were creating in Biden years were going to illegals”, he said.
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A new poll out this morning shows Americans’ views on immigration enforcement cratering, a sign of potential trouble for Republicans in the midterms.
An NBC News/Minnesota Star Tribune/KARE11 poll conducted online after the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti found about three in four people wanted some changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though the extent of what changes they support differed.
Nearly 30% of Americans said ICE should be abolished outright, though the same percentage said it should continue in its current form, NBC News reported. 43% said the agency should be reformed.
For Minnesota respondents to the poll, across political ideologies, more than 60% disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, with 57% of respondents in the state saying they strongly disapprove. High amounts of independents and suburban voters also disapproved, a warning sign for Republicans who would need those voters to win in November, the Star Tribune reported. 66% said the tactics used by immigration agents had gone too far. Of all Minnesota respondents, 43% want ICE reformed and 26% want it abolished.
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A Washington DC grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers who were denounced by Donald Trump after they made a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.
Federal prosecutors had sought an indictment against the Democrats who participated in the video, including Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who all have military and intelligence backgrounds.
Slotkin, a former CIA officer, organized the video in which the lawmakers said officers can resist unlawful commands. Trump was outraged by the clip, and described it “seditious behavior by traitors” that was “punishable by death”.
Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, formally censured Kelly, a retired Nasa astronaut and decorated navy captain, over the incident and attempted to reduce his rank and pension. Kelly filed a lawsuit against Hegseth last month arguing the video he and other Democrats made was protected free speech, and that the secretary had undertaken an “unconstitutional crusade” against him.
In response to news of the failed indictment, Kelly described it as an “outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies”.
As Donald Trump redoubled his war of words on the European Union and Nato in recent weeks, a senior state department official, Sarah B Rogers, was publicly attacking policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies, and promoting far-right parties abroad.
Rogers has arguably become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies. Since assuming office in October, she has met with far-right European politicians, criticized prosecutions under longstanding hate speech laws, and boasted online of sanctions against critics of hate speech and disinformation on US big tech platforms.
Rogers is undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, a top-10 state department role that was created in 1999 to strengthen relationships between the US and foreign publics, as opposed to foreign governments and diplomats.
Rogers, however, appears to be concerned with winning over a particular slice of foreign public opinion.
Her recent posts on Twitter/X have included a characterization of migrants in Germany as “barbarian rapist hordes”, a comment on Sweden apparently linking sexual violence to immigration policy (“If your government cared about ‘women’s safety,’ it would have a different migration policy”), and the recitation of the view that “advocates of unlimited third world immigration have long controlled a disproportionate share of official knowledge production”.
The Guardian emailed Rogers a detailed request for comment on this reporting.
US jobs reported due out at 8.30am EST as White House looks to manage expectations
The eagerly-awaited US jobs report is out today, and the White House has been trying to moderate expectations.
Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to Donald Trump, was speaking on Fox News last night.
We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like. When we were letting in 2 million illegal aliens a day we had to produce 200,000 [jobs] a month for steady stay.
Now 50,000 a month is going to be more like what we need. Wall Street, when this stuff comes out, they can’t rain on our parade, they just have to adjust for the fact that we’re deporting millions of illegals.
When asked whether the number would be weak, he rowed back and said no, but stressed that investors need to expect smaller numbers in future.
This comes after a warning from National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett on Monday. “One shouldn’t panic,” he told CNBC on Monday. “You should expect slightly smaller job numbers.”
The data release, delayed from last week, is expected to show the economy created 70,000 jobs in January, after 50,000 in December.
For more on this, see our business live blog here:
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Bondi to face questions on Epstein files in House testimony
Attorney general Pam Bondi will appear before a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday, where lawmakers are expected to press her on the Justice Department’s handling of files involving the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Bondi’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee comes as lawmakers, including some Republicans, have expressed frustration with the amount of Epstein material the department has redacted and withheld despite a federal law requiring the release of nearly all files.
The Justice Department released what it called a final tranche of more than three million pages of documents late last month, drawing renewed attention to wealthy and powerful individuals who maintained ties with Epstein even after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
But lawmakers have complained that redactions in the files appear to go beyond the limited exemptions allowed for in a law Congress passed nearly unanimously in November.
The department has also declined to publish a large volume of material, citing legal privileges.
Netanyahu to push Trump on Iran missiles in White House talks
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will push Donald Trump on Wednesday to take a tougher stance in nuclear talks with Iran, after rushing to Washington to stiffen the US president’s resolve, AFP reported.
Trump said on the eve of the hastily arranged White House meeting – set to begin at 11am – that he was weighing sending a second US “armada” to the Middle East to pressure Tehran to reach a nuclear deal.
But Netanyahu, making his sixth visit to the United States since Trump took office, will also be urging the US leader to take a harder line on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned on Monday of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier’s visit.
On Wednesday, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said his country would “not yield to excessive demands” on its nuclear program, though he said the country is not seeking an atomic weapon.
Netanyahu had been expected to come to Washington for a 19 February meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza, but reportedly brought forward his visit as the US-Iran talks proceeded.
Trump is also due to meet with special envoy to the UK Mark Burnett later today, while the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, is set to face questions from lawmakers over the justice department’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
In other developments:
Federal prosecutors reportedly tried, and failed, to convince a grand jury to indict six Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday over a social media video they recorded to remind service members in the military and intelligence community that they are not required to follow illegal orders.
Donald Trump’s sudden turn against a new, publicly owned bridge being constructed to connect Detroit, Michigan, to Windsor, Ontario, came right after a Republican donor who owns a private, rival bridge met with Trump’s commerce secretary, the New York Times reports.
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, and the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, have taken on the daunting task of trying to explain to Trump that the reasons he cited for threatening to block the opening of the new bridge are entirely untrue. Carney told Trump that Canada paid for the bridge and the US shares ownership.
In an appearance on the rightwing channel Real America’s Voice, a Republican congressman from Missouri, Mark Alford, said “we are still investigating” the lyrics of a song performed in Spanish by the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny during his Super Bowl half-time show on Sunday.
As the US supreme court prepares to rule on whether Trump does have the power to impose tariffs on foreign imports to address a self-declared economic emergency, the president confirmed in an interview that he sets tariff rates based, in part, on his own feelings about the leaders of other nations.
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