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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison faced a barrage of tough questions from Republicans during a Wednesday House hearing on the massive fraud scandal in the state, with most of the questions focused on one key theme: What did they know, and when did they know it?

Walz and Ellison were asked multiple times for specifics regarding when they were first made aware of the fraud problems and faced sharp rebukes from Republican members, including Rep. Virginia Foxx.

“You did not do your job, you did not do your job,” Foxx told Walz. “You did not protect taxpayer dollars. You allowed massive fraud. You and Mr. Ellison allowed massive fraud to go on in the state of Minnesota. It is unfortunate, as somebody said, that you can’t be held personally responsible at this stage in the game.”

An exchange between GOP Rep. Jim Jordan and Walz sparked immediate pushback from conservatives on social media.

“Why didn’t you tell the truth about why you restarted the payments?” Jordan asked during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Minnesota fraud on Wednesday.

The exchange centered on Walz’s past public statements that a judge ordered the Minnesota Department of Education to continue reimbursements in April 2021 after the agency had halted payments over fraud concerns.

Jordan pointed to a 2022 court-authorized news release from then-Ramsey County District Court Judge John H. Guthmann that disputed the governor’s characterization of the events.

“So either you’re lying or the court’s lying. And I’m just asking you which one is it?” Jordan said.

One of the most contentious exchanges came during questioning from GOP Rep. Nancy Mace when she pressed Walz for specific numbers on how many children are in his state, the massive increase in autism care spending and why that occurred without getting specific numbers back from Walz.

“Ok, so your excuse before — that you didn’t know what the 2017 autism numbers were — because you were not governor, and today you can’t answer the numbers about 2024 as governor, and you still said you prepared for this hearing today. It’s unbelievable.”

Walz shot back that he wouldn’t be a “prop” for Mace, and she eventually said, “I expect you to know this information. Thank God you’re not vice president of the United States.”

GOP Rep. Clay Higgins confronted Ellison in another heated moment asking him to say he was “leading” the fight against rooting out corruption without getting the specific answer he was looking for, prompting him to call for Ellison’s resignation.

“I’m not talking about Medicaid fraud, don’t hide behind that,” Higgins said, interrupting Ellison. “You have the authority to prosecute anything criminally that the governor asks you to, and this thing is big. I’m giving you an opportunity sir, are you leading the criminal investigative effort into this massive fraud across the board…or not?” Higgins pressed.

“We are following the law,” Ellison said before Higgins cut him off again.

“You are not leading, I’m going to say, Mr. Chairman, that the attorney general of the state of Minnesota should resign,” Higgins said.

At the close of the hearing, things became tense again when GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy suggested that Walz, who is still serving as governor despite dropping out of his re-election bid due to the fraud scandal, should be impeached for “malfeasance,” citing Minnesota’s own state Constitution.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

Some US medical schools to teach nutrition under government deal

March 5, 2026 11:06 AM UTC / Reuters

• Summary

• Deal part of Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda
• Fifty-two medical schools to offer 40 hours of nutrition education
• Trump administration will not dictate curriculum, says federal official

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – About a fourth of U.S. medical schools will ‌expand their nutrition education offerings this autumn as part of a deal with the administration of President Donald Trump, according to a senior official with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Health ​Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have pursued ​the deal as part of Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, which promotes healthy ⁠eating and has also underpinned Kennedy’s actions to overhaul federal vaccine policy.

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Under the voluntary ​commitment, 52 medical schools will administer 40 hours of nutrition education or a ​40-hour competency equivalent starting in autumn 2026, said the official. The Trump administration will not dictate the curriculum, the official said.

Kennedy has said such nutrition education is necessary to better equip doctors ​to advise patients on diet-related chronic disease.

There are about 200 accredited medical schools ​in the U.S., roughly 160 of which offer doctor of medicine degrees. The remainder offer ‌doctor of ⁠osteopathic medicine degrees.

The majority of the schools joining the voluntary commitment are MD-granting institutions, said the official, without elaborating on the breakdown.

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Speaking in Washington last week, Kennedy described working with medical schools, exam administrators and accreditors to design the agreement.

He ​said some medical schools ​hesitated because they ⁠perceived the deal to be partisan. The Trump administration has made efforts to influence higher education, like threatening to cut federal funding ​to universities over diversity programs and policies for transgender students, raising ​concerns about ⁠free speech and academic freedom.

“A lot of them didn’t want to do it because they thought it was a Trump program,” Kennedy said on February 24 at a ⁠conference held ​by the National Association of Counties.

“We’ve been able ​to convince them that there’s no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children. We all want ​our kids to be healthy.”

Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

卡尼吁加澳携手合作 加强对抗霸权 | 联合早报

发布/2026年3月5日 18:03

（堪培拉综合电）加拿大总理卡尼星期四提出，加拿大与澳大利亚应成为战略伙伴而非竞争对手，两国携手合作将加强与包括美国在内的超级大国谈判的实力。

卡尼星期四（3月5日）访问澳洲期间向澳洲国会发表演讲，这是自2007年以来加拿大领导人首次在澳洲国会发言。

卡尼说，他此次来访是为了在全球架构因接连不断的危机而分崩离析之际，重申渥太华与堪培拉的同盟关系。他指出，加澳虽然在地理上相隔遥远，但理应成为“战略表亲”。

他说：“在旧世界……我们倾向于把彼此视为竞争对手。在新世界，我们应该成为战略合作伙伴，在提升战略自主性的同时，加大投资、加快技术合作，增强供应链韧性，以及扩大国内加工能力。”

卡尼说，在大国竞争的世界中，中等强国面临的选择是：要么争取大国青睐，要么联合起来增强实力。他认为，中等强国的当务之急是制定规范，并参与制定新规则，以共同应对日益被霸权大国主导的世界格局。

他强调：“中等强国不能仅仅筑起更高的墙，并退到墙后。我们必须共同合作。”

澳洲总理阿尔巴尼斯星期四在国会致辞时也说，卡尼来访反映了加澳在世界舞台上发挥更大作用的共同抱负。

阿尔巴尼斯说：“澳洲和加拿大是正在变化的世界中的中等强国。我们无法逆转变革，但可以支持自己与我们的公民，同时互相支持。”

卡尼指出，两国可以合作发展战略优势的领域包括关键矿物、人工智能（AI）、贸易，以及无人机和卫星等防御设备。

他也宣布，加澳当天早些时候签订了一系列与关键矿产有关的新协议，包括澳洲加入七国集团（G7）矿产联盟。

这个联盟由加拿大主导，是全球拥有主要矿产储备的民主国家组成的最大集团，旨在促进全球关键矿产的多样化，并保障生产和供应。加拿大和澳洲共生产全球约三分之一的锂和铀，以及超过40%的铁矿石。

澳洲是卡尼亚太之行的第二站。他此前已访问印度，星期五（6日）离开澳洲后将续程前往日本。

Kennedy’s new US autism panel to examine potential causes

March 5, 2026 11:08 AM UTC / Reuters

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discusses the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network survey, during a press conference at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S.,… Read more

• Summary

• New panel includes vaccine skeptics, raising concerns among autism experts
• Panel could explore controversial vaccine links
• Outside experts warn focus on vaccines may divert funds from other autism research

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – A U.S. autism advisory board remade by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to include vaccine skeptics aims to steer federal research spending toward investigating causes of the condition, as well as other issues ​like co-occurring medical disorders, according to some new panel members.

Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has suggested the inoculations cause autism, contrary to scientific evidence, reset the Interagency Autism Coordinating ‌Committee in January with 21 new public members. More than a third of the new committee members have also promoted the debunked link between vaccines and autism.

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Some autism experts, including former committee members, have said the new members could undermine federal autism research. This week, some former members created their own alternative advisory board, the latest in a series of similar efforts by public health experts concerned about Kennedy’s overhaul of federal vaccine policy and what they see as misinformation coming from agencies he ​oversees.

No rigorous studies have found links between autism and vaccines or medications. Autism experts attribute rising rates of the condition largely to more inclusive diagnosis criteria.

The committee, due to first meet ​on March 19, will provide non-binding guidance to Kennedy on federal autism research priorities, including recommendations on allocating hundreds of millions of dollars in research spending.

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Kennedy ⁠has promised President Donald Trump he will identify the cause of autism, which most researchers suggest is linked in part to genetics and exposure in utero to pollutants or harmful contaminants. Many of Kennedy’s supporters in ​the Make America Healthy Again movement – some of whom were named to the committee – also believe vaccines can cause autism and advocate for fewer childhood vaccinations.

Committee chair Sylvia Fogel, a psychiatrist and instructor at Harvard Medical ​School, told Reuters the committee will address gaps in autism research like causal triggers in an effort to better serve people with profound autism and their families.

“Autism is not monolithic. Federal strategy should reflect that complexity rather than flatten it,” Fogel said.

Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said the new committee is meant to unite a range of voices and that “expanding perspectives on the panel does not change the fact that federal research is grounded in rigorous ​science.”

SOME MEMBERS LINK VACCINES AND AUTISM

---

Until January’s overhaul, major autism groups like the Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks, and researchers from universities including Johns Hopkins and Tufts accounted for most of the committee’s 21 members ​from the public.

That panel recommended further research into co-occurring physical and behavioral health conditions, like epilepsy, gastrointestinal issues and anxiety disorders, according to a draft 2024 report.

David Sitcovsky, vice president of advocacy at Autism Speaks, said in a ‌statement that broader ⁠representation would strengthen the committee, but that its impact would depend on retaining a grounding in science.

The new panel contains more activists, just three autistic self-advocates – the minimum required by law – down from seven, and few representatives from research universities. At least eight have tied vaccination to autism or are connected to organizations that support those claims, including several who say their children developed autism after being vaccinated, according to a Reuters review of their public statements and affiliations.

Panel member Ginger Taylor, who created a website called “How Do Vaccines Cause Autism?”, wrote in a Substack post that her top priority for the committee is investigating the link ​between vaccines and autism.

John Gilmore, a new panel ​member and co-founder of the Autism Action Network ⁠who says his 26-year-old son developed autism after being vaccinated, said he wants to steer more research toward rising autism rates.

“A lot of the voices that are on the (committee) now have been deliberately excluded for 20-odd years,” he said.

Several, including Gilmore and Fogel, appeared on panels at a September autism event hosted by ​the MAHA Institute, whose president, Mark Gorton, is an anti-vaccine activist and was a significant funder of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Asked how some members’ views ​on vaccines will affect the ⁠committee’s work, Fogel said studies of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines have not shown a causal link to autism.

“That body of available evidence is substantial and must be acknowledged,” Fogel said.

Still, research should examine how various exposures, including immune or inflammatory stress, might affect autism outcomes, she said.

EXPERT CONCERNS

---

On Tuesday, a dozen autism advocates, researchers and several former committee members formed the Independent Autism Coordination Committee to create its own strategic plan for autism ⁠research.

Alison Singer, ​president of the Autism Science Foundation and a prior government committee member, said investing federal dollars into researching a link between ​vaccines and autism, which most experts consider settled science, would cut into funding for other research opportunities, like autism’s heritability or link to environmental exposures.

“There’s not a bottomless pit of money at the NIH that can be used to fund research,” Singer said. “If ​we devote our very limited resources towards reinvestigating vaccines, we won’t have money to look at actual potential causes of autism.”

Reporting by Leah Douglas and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

They fought in Iraq. Now they’re the Democrats’ loudest voices against the war in Iran.

By Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris
1 hr 31 min ago
PUBLISHED Mar 5, 2026, 5:30 AM ET

Rep. Eugene Vindman speaks in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

Bryan Dozier/NURPHO/AP

Rep. Eugene Vindman is among a generation of young Democrats who ran for Congress, in part, because of their experience fighting a forever war in the Middle East.

These Democrats are some of the earliest and most vocal critics of President Donald Trump’s decision to enter the US into war with Iran — a view that puts them at odds with some of the more interventionist members of their party.

“I will not be shedding a tear for the Iranian regime and the Ayatollah. I understand the threat but I also understand that wars are easy to start and hard to finish,” Vindman, a 25-year Army veteran, said Wednesday morning outside the US Capitol, standing shoulder to shoulder with a half-dozen fellow Democratic veterans. “This is a commitment of American blood and treasure to a conflict that we didn’t need to be engaged in.”

An F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 37, lands on the flight deck of the Gerald R. Ford in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on March 2.

US Navy

“When elites in Washington bang the war drums, pound their chest, talk about the costs of war and act tough, they’re not talking about them doing it,” added Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, who served three tours in Iraq.

Party leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are amplifying those voices as Democrats seek to navigate the fallout from the quickly escalating war. While Vindman and his fellow Democratic veterans know they have little chance of blocking Trump’s actions in the GOP-led Congress, they’re trying to speak to a skeptical American public – arguing that the Trump administration has betrayed a core promise with the midterms just months away.

But it’s a difficult line for Democrats to walk. Party leaders are navigating sharp divisions within their ranks, particularly among a pro-Israel bloc that is expected to defy leadership in a key House vote on Thursday that will attempt to curb Trump’s military powers overseas. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, opposed a similar vote in the Senate on Wednesday – the only Democrat to do so.

Sen. John Fetterman speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 3.

Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

For now, most Democrats are firmly condemning Trump’s decision to strike Iran without first seeking congressional approval. But the party will also soon be forced to contend with the reality of supporting US troops in the conflict in Iran, including questions about whether to spend billions of dollars more to shore up US operations.

Party leaders are eager not to repeat history and sow divisions that plagued them over the Iraq war more than 20 years ago. They also know it is just the beginning of a conflict that could go on for weeks, if not months or even longer, that will test Democrats’ ability to stay united.

In a closed-door meeting Tuesday night, Jeffries met with a bloc of roughly a half-dozen pro-Israel Democrats to make his case for backing the war powers measure, spending nearly an hour hearing the opposition from his fellow members, according to two people familiar with the meeting

But that meeting ended without a commitment from those members to get in line behind the measure.

“It didn’t change my mind,” Rep. Greg Landsman, who was one of those who attended the meeting, told CNN.

Rep. Greg Landsman, right, answers a question from CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday, March 3.

CNN

Hours earlier, Landsman offered a surprisingly supportive assessment of the administration’s initial strikes in Iran, and vowed to oppose the bipartisan resolution to curb the president’s use of force in the country absent congressional approval, which he said could hamstring the military’s work abroad.

“I’m more of a country-first guy, so whatever I think is best for the country and for my constituents, for the district, in this case, national security. To me, this was a no brainer. They had a window of opportunity to take out very specific military assets in order to defang the Iranian regime. We will be safer as a result,” Landsman said, though adding that Congress should have a say if the Iranian conflict “goes beyond” its current aims.

Across the Capitol, Fetterman has gone even further, accusing his party of silencing their support for Trump’s operation because they’re “afraid” of the base.

“Why can’t we all just say, ‘The world is safer’?” Fetterman told reporters, when asked about most Democrats’ opposition of the strikes. “Why can’t you just acknowledge the most evil people on the face of the earth were erased?”

The views of Landsman and Fetterman, however, contrast starkly from many of their colleagues, including the bloc of national security Democrats who have argued Trump’s move makes the country dramatically less safe without considering the costs to US troops.

“If I hear one more chicken hawk who’s never served a single day in uniform sitting in a gold plated office in DC or Mar-a-lago or anywhere else, try to talk tough having never seen what war is about, I’m going to lose my mind,” New York Democrat Rep. Pat Ryan, a combat veteran who was deployed twice to Iraq.

Ryan is among the group of Democrats, mostly in their 40s, who were deployed throughout Iraq and Afghanistan in the roughly 25 years that the US had troops there. Vindman, who deployed to Iraq, served as an infantry officer, paratrooper and as a military lawyer. His twin brother, Alex, was wounded in an IED attack in Iraq by an “Iranian manufactured” projectile, Vindman said Wednesday.

Democratic leaders firmly dispute Fetterman’s accusations that they are pandering to a liberal base.

Sen. Brian Schatz and Sen. Cory Booker speak with members of the media on Tuesday, March 3.

Pool

Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, warned Democrats should be careful not to overthink the politics of this.

“I think this is a strategic mistake in the geopolitical sense, I think it’s morally questionable and it’s politically incredibly unpopular, so don’t outsmart yourself,” he said generally about Democrats who are on the fence about the war powers resolution.

But the fight over war powers is just the beginning. It is one thing for Democrats to stay united on a question of whether Congress should have more say over initiating a conflict with Iran in the first place, it is an entirely different question for Democrats to confront the reality that a prolonged battle in Iran may force them to contend with bigger questions over supplying US forces in the region.

Already, there is a signal that Congress may need to pass legislation in the coming weeks or months to provide more funding and weapons to at the very least restock diminished ammunitions used in the conflict so far. That question could further divide Democrats just months before the midterm elections.

“I want to make sure our service members and US citizens in the region are protected to the extent we could possibly do that,” Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona and veteran said. “We gotta be able to protect our troops and there are a lot of people in harm’s way right now so we will take a close look at what they propose.”

Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq, said he will have to look at any supplemental funding request closely but contends it is a difficult question for lawmakers and veterans in particular. On Saturday morning when Gallego saw the news of the attack in Iran, he had one thought: “Here we go again.”

“There is one side of me that wants to make sure that all the equipment our troops need to be protected is there, at the same time funding a war of choice for $50 billion when there is already a trillion dollar budget when they have already added another $175 billion to the DHS budget, it makes it very difficult,” he said.

卡尼吁加澳携手合作 加强对抗霸权

2026年3月5日 18:03 / 联合早报

加拿大总理卡尼星期四在堪培拉向澳大利亚国会发表讲话，呼吁两国加强战略合作。 （路透社）

（堪培拉综合电）加拿大总理卡尼星期四提出，加拿大与澳大利亚应成为战略伙伴而非竞争对手，两国携手合作将加强与包括美国在内的超级大国谈判的实力。

卡尼星期四（3月5日）访问澳洲期间向澳洲国会发表演讲，这是自2007年以来加拿大领导人首次在澳洲国会发言。

卡尼说，他此次来访是为了在全球架构因接连不断的危机而分崩离析之际，重申渥太华与堪培拉的同盟关系。他指出，加澳虽然在地理上相隔遥远，但理应成为“战略表亲”。

他说：“在旧世界……我们倾向于把彼此视为竞争对手。在新世界，我们应该成为战略合作伙伴，在提升战略自主性的同时，加大投资、加快技术合作，增强供应链韧性，以及扩大国内加工能力。”

卡尼说，在大国竞争的世界中，中等强国面临的选择是：要么争取大国青睐，要么联合起来增强实力。他认为，中等强国的当务之急是制定规范，并参与制定新规则，以共同应对日益被霸权大国主导的世界格局。

他强调：“中等强国不能仅仅筑起更高的墙，并退到墙后。我们必须共同合作。”

澳洲总理阿尔巴尼斯星期四在国会致辞时也说，卡尼来访反映了加澳在世界舞台上发挥更大作用的共同抱负。

阿尔巴尼斯说：“澳洲和加拿大是正在变化的世界中的中等强国。我们无法逆转变革，但可以支持自己与我们的公民，同时互相支持。”

卡尼指出，两国可以合作发展战略优势的领域包括关键矿物、人工智能（AI）、贸易，以及无人机和卫星等防御设备。

他也宣布，加澳当天早些时候签订了一系列与关键矿产有关的新协议，包括澳洲加入七国集团（G7）矿产联盟。

这个联盟由加拿大主导，是全球拥有主要矿产储备的民主国家组成的最大集团，旨在促进全球关键矿产的多样化，并保障生产和供应。加拿大和澳洲共生产全球约三分之一的锂和铀，以及超过40%的铁矿石。

澳洲是卡尼亚太之行的第二站。他此前已访问印度，星期五（6日）离开澳洲后将续程前往日本。

Luxe jets, blankies, Lewandowski: Noem’s Day 2 hearing left little to imagination | Fox News

The DHS hearing comes as members of Congress remain deadlocked on how to fully fund the agency

By Breanne Deppisch
Fox News

Published March 5, 2026 5:00am EST

Noem’s second day of congressional testimony was markedly contentious, and at times, deeply personal.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Listen to this article

6 min

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem forcefully defended her department’s immigration enforcement policies Wednesday before Democratic lawmakers — part of a heated and contentious House Oversight Committee hearing that, at times, grew deeply personal.

The hearing is the second in back-to-back DHS oversight hearings centered on the agency’s actions on immigration enforcement and Noem’s leadership of the department, and comes as members of Congress remain deadlocked on how to proceed with fully funding the sprawling federal agency.

Here are the top moments from the action-packed hearing.

Dems home in on Lewandowski, ‘blankies’ and luxury jets

Some Democrats on the panel zeroed in on the responsibilities Corey Lewandowski has assumed as a special adviser for the Department of Homeland Security. Rep. Sydney Kalmager-Dove, D-Calif., cited a Wall Street Journal report from last month, that said President Donald Trump allegedly rejected Lewandowski’s request to be Noem’s chief of staff “due to reports of a romantic relationship” between the two.

Both Noem and Lewandowski have denied reports of an affair.

Kalmager-Dove asked Noem, point-blank, about the nature of their relationship. “This person has no experience running anything close to the Department of Homeland Security, or even advising someone in your position,” Kalmager-Dove said, noting his role as a special government employee has extended a “well beyond the allowed 130-day” period.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem takes her seat as she arrives to testify during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.(AFP via Getty)

“He is unqualified, which has left my constituents and I wondering why he is your top official,” she added.

“So, Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure as Director of Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?”

Noem turned to address House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan briefly before responding. “Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we’re going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today,” she said.

To Kalmager-Dove, she said: “Ma’am, one thing that I would tell you is that he is a special government employee who works for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government.”

Corey Lewandowski is seen before a House Intelligence Committee hearing.(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Raskin says Noem is ‘flying too close to the sun’

The panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., pressed Noem for details about Lewandowski’s role at DHS, though in the context of the question of DHS’s use of so-called “luxury jets.” Noem had defended use of the jets one day prior during Senate testimony, noting they were used for both executive travel and mass deportations.

Raskin said Wednesday that he had nearly been prepared to buy that story. “And then I heard about an airborne episode of entitlement, arrogance and contempt that I could hardly believe.”

“Apparently, when your special blanket — your blankie — was left on one of the government jets and not transported over the new one, your special government employee, Corey Lewandowski, chivalrous, stepped forward to fire the pilot, mid-air,” Raskin said.

“A 2003 Coast Guard Academy graduate and distinguished U.S. Coast Guard commander … [who then] had to be rehired immediately because there was no one else who could fly the two of you on the rest of the journey back home,” Raskin said. “Secretary Noem, you’re flying high now, maybe even a little bit too close to the sun.”

The exchanges were markedly tense, largely due to the presence of Noem’s husband, who was sitting in the gallery for the duration of the hearing.

DHS SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM ADDRESSES CALLS FOR HER FIRING, NEW ALEX PRETTI VIDEO

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.(Getty Images)

Swalwell, Noem showdown

Later in the hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., confronted Noem about the case of Miguel Lopez, a migrant who had been living illegally in the U.S. for some 30 years prior to his deportation last year. Lopez is married to a U.S. resident. “I went and saw Miguel in Mexico,” Swalwell told Noem. “He doesn’t have a job … and it’s hard for him to communicate” after being away from his home country for roughly three decades.

Noemi interjected: “Did he have a criminal record?”

Swalwell acknowledged that Lopez had pleaded guilty to a “lesser nonviolent charge” in 1995, but asked Noem to recognize “the pain” caused by the administration’s broader deportation policy.

“The pain?” Noem responded. “And I wish people would do things correctly. If they’re not in legal status in this country, they can return home. We will pay for them to return home.”

As for Lopez, she said, “I hope he got the $2,600 he could have” by choosing to self-deport.

Federal agents forcibly detain an anti-ICE protester outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on Oct. 12, 2025, in Portland, Oregon.(Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty)

‘Worst of the Worst’

The sharpest exchange came when Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., pressed Noem on the Trump administration’s repeated pledge to target “the worst of the worst” offenders in its removal efforts.

“Tell me about the worst of the worst,” Cohen said.

Noem fired back: “The worst of the worst served. I think you’ve offended the families behind me today with that.”

GOP STATES MOVE TO MAKE CHURCH SERVICE DISRUPTIONS A FELONY AFTER MINNESOTA STORMING

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and White House border czar Tom Homan speak with reporters at the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Cohen responded that he did not intend to offend anyone and said it was wrong for Noem to suggest he had. But Noem doubled down, arguing that critics were downplaying the consequences of illegal immigration.

“I was commenting on the fact that the individuals aren’t violent offenders, and you keep talking about the fact that these individuals that are in this country illegally don’t harm families,” she said.

Cohen noted that undocumented immigrants are statistically “less likely” than people born in the U.S. to commit crimes.

Noem then gestured to family members seated behind her, invoking stories of children lost to fentanyl overdoses and fatal car crashes involving undocumented drivers.

“The vast majority of these people behind me lost their children due to drugs, overdoses from drugs that came over the southern border,” Noem said. “They died from their kids being hit, accidents on the roads that illegal drivers were driving.”

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Cohen acknowledged the tragedies but argued they did not address his broader point. “All that’s true and given it’s true,” he said. “But you say you’re only going after the worst of the worst, and you’re not.”

Related Article

‘You should be ashamed!’: Protester dragged from Kristi Noem’s Senate hearing

Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6390394755112

House to vote again on ending DHS shutdown after weekslong impasse, with GOP stressing urgency amid Iran war

March 5, 2026 / 6:00 AM EST / CBS News

Washington — The House will vote again on Thursday on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, as Republicans stress an urgency to ending the partial government shutdown amid the war with Iran.

Republicans have put pressure on Democrats to support an agreement that appropriators reached on a bipartisan basis earlier this year to fund DHS through September. But that was before a second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, which prompted Democrats to oppose any funding for the department without reforms to immigration enforcement.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a statement Tuesday that “military action in Iran makes it all the more urgent and crucial to have a fully staffed, fully funded Department of Homeland Security across all departments.”

On Wednesday, Johnson accused Democrats of “playing political games” and called it “shameful” that anyone would vote against funding DHS.

“If we’re being wise, now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak,” Johnson said. “Obviously everyone understands that it’s a heightened threat environment. Global tensions are high, threats are constantly evolving and America’s adversaries are watching for any sign of weakness on our part.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, echoed Wednesday that it’s “dangerous” to continue the shutdown amid heightened security concerns in the U.S. in wake of the attack on Iran.

“Now that we’re at a heightened threat, it’s not just hypothetical threats … we need to be more vigilant than ever and have a fully functioning Department of Homeland Security with all the capabilities,” Scalise said, pointing to a deadly shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, over the weekend.

Funding lapsed for the department on Feb. 14, and Democrats and the White House continue to remain at odds on restraints for federal immigration agents. Both sides have been going back and forth with counterproposals, though the details have not been made public. According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York

Democrat, both sides are “still far apart.”

“But we’re still negotiating and exchanging paper back and forth,” Schumer said Tuesday.

Last week, the Senate failed for a second time to advance a measure to fund DHS through September.

Since federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January, Democrats have remained firm in their demands for reforms, which include requiring immigration agents to wear body cameras and identification, banning them from wearing masks and mandating judicial warrants for arrests on private property.

Though the standoff has centered on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, DHS also oversees the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Workers who have continued to do their jobs during the shutdown have begun missing paychecks in recent days.

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign has remained funded despite the shutdown, thanks to a multibillion-dollar cash infusion for ICE and CBP that lawmakers passed last summer as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was asked about Democrats’ response to the House GOP strategy for funding DHS in the wake of the strikes on Iran, said, “the whole thing is insane.”

“Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East, he characterizes it as endless, he decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people, and then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restriction on the American people,” the New York Democrat said at a news conference Tuesday. “Make it make sense, because it does not.”

Trump allies expand role in planning America’s 250th anniversary

2026-03-05T10:00:38.177Z / The Washington Post

The emergence of the Trump-backed Freedom 250 sparks tensions with a bipartisan commission and draws questions from Democrats.

March 5, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EST Today at 5:00 a.m. EST

7 min

50

Images marking America’s 250th year are projected onto the Washington Monument on Jan. 1. (Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post)

By Dan Diamond

,

Cat Zakrzewski

and

Emily Davies

Two groups — one with the imprimatur of Congress, the other with President Donald Trump’s blessing — are jockeying to host celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary, sparking confusion, muddled messages and new scrutiny from Democrats who ask why the Trump-aligned group is receiving federal money.

卡塔尔首都与巴林首都响起爆炸声

发布时间 / 来源：2026年3月5日 18:17 / 联合早报

卡塔尔首都多哈上空响起巨大爆炸声。图为3月4日，多哈的滨海大道地区。 （法新社）

卡塔尔首都多哈上空响起巨大爆炸声。就在几个小时前，官员们宣布正在疏散居住在美国大使馆附近的居民。

为报复美国和以色列的大规模空袭行动，伊朗对波斯湾国家发动了多轮无人机和导弹袭击。

法新社驻多哈（Doha）记者称，星期四（3月5日）的爆炸是自伊朗星期六开始袭击卡塔尔这个波斯湾国家以来最猛烈的袭击之一。多哈地平线上升起了一股黑烟。

就在卡塔尔遭到袭击的几个小时前，卡塔尔首相在与伊朗外长通话时严厉抨击了伊朗。这是自伊朗发动导弹和无人机袭击以来，两国之间的首次高级别接触。

卡塔尔外交部发表声明称，卡塔尔首相穆罕默德在与伊朗外长阿拉格齐的通话中指责伊朗企图“伤害其邻国，并将它们拖入一场与它们无关的战争”。

星期四，巴林首都麦纳麦（Manama）也传出爆炸声。

邻国沙特阿拉伯官员称，他们拦截了三枚巡航导弹和数架无人机。沙特国防部在X网站上发布消息称：“三枚巡航导弹在哈尔吉市附近被拦截并摧毁。”

另据英国海上贸易行动办公室（UKMTO）通报，一艘油轮在科威特附近海域发生“剧烈爆炸”，造成漏油。

伊朗精锐部队革命卫队声称已“完全控制”霍尔木兹海峡（Strait of Hormuz）。霍尔木兹海峡是连接波斯湾和印度洋的关键咽喉要道，也是世界上最重要的能源运输通道之一。

据伊朗媒体报道，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队星期四说，在战争时期，伊朗有权控制霍尔木兹海峡的通行和航行，美国、以色列和欧洲国家船只禁止通行。

新华社引述伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队说，属于美国、以色列、欧洲国家及其支持者的军用和商用船只等禁止通过霍尔木兹海峡，“如果被伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队发现，必将遭到打击”。