Questions about the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are reemerging because of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's impending departure.
Both Noem and President Trump have sought to dramatically reshape the nation's disaster response agency.
Among the most contentious changes so far are Noem's policy of personally reviewing expenditures of over $100,000, with Democrats and Republicans alike decrying what they've described as holdups in getting important funds out the door. |
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BY LAURA KELLY AND ASHLEIGH FIELDS |
Tens of thousands of Americans are slowly returning to the U.S. after getting caught in the crossfire of President Trump's decision to launch a war against Iran, throwing the region into chaos.
The State Department has said it's helping charter flights and evacuation plans for stranded Americans as the conflict enters its eighth day. The practical assistance came days after Trump launched strikes against Iran in coordination with Israel that left U.S. citizens on their own to seek shelter or escape. |
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Republicans are hoping the administration's military operation against Iran doesn't spiral into an endless war as the 2026 midterm cycle ramps up, a scenario some worry could threaten the GOP's electoral prospects.
Republicans have largely rallied behind President Trump's decision to strike Iran. A war powers resolution that would have required Trump to seek congressional authorization to continue military action against Iran was defeated in the House in a 212-219 vote, with Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Warren Davidson (Ohio) being the only Republicans to cross the aisle and support it. Republicans successfully blocked a similar resolution in the Senate.
But the votes masked growing unease within parts of the GOP about how long the conflict could last, particularly as it has begun to create tensions within the party's "America First" base. |
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The U.S. is lifting some restrictions on Russian oil and considering more actions to "unsanction" it as the conflict in Iran raises prices globally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday.
Bessent told Fox Business that the U.S. would allow India to buy Russian barrels. "Yesterday, Treasury agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water," Bessent said. |
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A journalist with Voice of America's (VOA) Persian service said he was fired this week over efforts to limit coverage of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.
Ahmad Batebi, a prominent Iranian dissident, human rights activist and American journalist, said he was given no explanation for why his contract was terminated but blamed it on efforts to curb coverage of Pahlavi. The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the agency overseeing the VOA, said it doesn't comment on personnel matters. A spokesperson for USAGM further pushed back on accusations of censorship, saying VOA Persian has sent Pahlavi an open invitation to be interviewed on its programming. |
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President Trump confirmed he will attend Saturday's dignified transfer of the six U.S. soldiers killed in Kuwait amid Iran's retaliatory attacks on Gulf countries following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
"I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time," Trump wrote late Friday on Truth Social. "GOD BLESS THEM ALL!"
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Wednesday that the service members would receive a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and that the president would attend. |
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Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is set to step into the spotlight as he readies to take on the unexpected challenge of replacing Kristi Noem atop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), culminating a swift rise from the House to one of the key posts in the Trump administration.
In a matter of years, Mullin has seen his stock rise exponentially from being a rank-and-file House member to being a key part of Senate Majority Leader John Thune's (R-S.D.) leadership team, with lawmakers across the party hailing him as a consummate teammate and leader — something they believe the beleaguered department needs badly. |
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Former President Obama slammed the Trump administration Friday without specifically naming it during a speech at the funeral for the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago, saying "every day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions."
The comments came at a star-studded funeral for Jackson that also included speeches by former Presidents Biden and Clinton, as well as left-leaning luminaries such as the Rev. Al Sharpton. Jackson, 84, died last month after battling the neurodegenerative disorder progressive supranuclear palsy, his family said in a statement. The former Democratic presidential candidate was celebrated for his civil rights work and efforts that helped pave the way for other Black politicians, most notably Obama. |
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The U.S. military carried out a "successful" operation against a "narco-terrorist" supply complex in Ecuador as part of the Trump administration's push to dismantle drug-trafficking networks in the Western Hemisphere, according to defense officials.
At the request of Ecuador, a U.S. military joint force executed the targeted action against a suspected drug-smuggling facility inside Ecuador on Friday, Pentagon's chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said. It is unclear if there were casualties and which drug-trafficking group the military was referring to. |
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OPINION | Within hours of the death of cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — better known as "El Mencho" — Mexico descended into chaos. Cartel operatives set up more than 250 roadblocks across 20 states. Vehicles burned. Entire highways were shut down.
In Jalisco alone, 25 Mexican National Guard members were killed in six separate attacks, and at least 73 people have died in the explosive aftermath. |
OPINION | Nearly 50 years ago, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini flew into Tehran from exile in France and ignited an Islamic revolution that plunged Iran into tyranny. What followed was not justice or freedom, but decades of repression, terror, and economic collapse under a radical clerical regime.
Today, that regime is cracking. |
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As political pressure mounted in 2002 to support former President George W. Bush's push to attack Iraq, congressional Democrats were badly divided.
Some were highly skeptical of the administration's case for war, while others insisted that the nation needed to present a united front in the aftermath of the devastating terror attacks a year earlier. They worried about the political risk of being seen as weak on military matters.
Few such divisions exist today among Democrats deeply opposed to President Trump's decision to attack Iran without the same congressional approval for Middle East military action won by Bush and, a little over decade earlier, by his father, former President George H.W. Bush, for Operation Desert Storm. |
The last time Sam Altman and Dario Amodei stood on stage together, they awkwardly tried to avoid physical contact even as other tech leaders held hands aloft for a group photo with India's prime minister.
They looked like pouting kids on the playground—not the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the hottest names in the AI scene. To many, the odd exchange was the physical manifestation of the growing rivalry between the companies. Both have been eyeing going public this year and, in doing so, are fighting each other for users, talent and investor dollars. |
While the U.S. Senate remains deadlocked over President Trump's call for strict citizenship voting requirements, Republicans in some states are pressing ahead with their own measures that could require documentary proof of citizenship to join or remain on the voter rolls.
Proof-of-citizenship legislation won final approval this week in South Dakota and Utah, already has passed one chamber in Florida and received a committee hearing in Missouri. In Michigan, supporters of voter citizenship documentation submitted 750,000 petition signatures this week in a bid to get a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. |
BY JONATHAN O'CONNELL AND DOUGLAS MACMILLAN |
When protests erupted over a Trump administration plan to turn a warehouse in southern New Hampshire into a detention center for up to 1,500 migrants, one state lawmaker responded by forcefully backing the idea.
"Merrimack residents should be celebrating, not protesting," state Rep. Jeanine Notter (R) wrote in a Jan. 18 op-ed for a local news website. Notter cited crime statistics about arrested migrants that are inaccurate according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's figures, and she claimed that protesters who gathered in front of town hall earlier that month had been brought in by bus. |
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