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Trump says FBI is “wasting their time” if they’re investigating “conspiracy theories” about Lindsey Graham’s death

July 14, 2026 / 1:02 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington— President Trump said the FBI is “wasting their time” if they’re looking into “conspiracy theories” about Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death, tamping down speculation that anything other than Graham’s heart issues led to his death at age 71 over the weekend.

In the Oval Office Tuesday, a reporter asked the president if he was aware of why the FBI was involved. FBI Director Kash Patel said Sunday that the FBI was “assisting local authorities.”

“Well, I don’t know why, because I think, you know, he had a problem,” the president said of Graham. “His father had a very similar problem, as you know.” Graham’s father died of a heart attack at 69.

The medical examiner’s preliminary findings indicated Graham’s death was caused by an aortic dissection, a tear in the wall of the aorta.

“I wish he took better care of himself,” the president said, adding that Graham’s condition was “very hard to detect.”

Mr. Trump, who just turned 80, said he had doctors from the White House explain to him what likely happened to Graham.

Multiple sources who spoke with Graham shortly before his death told CBS News that he had complained of chest pains.

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Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, and his hardline stances against Russia and Iran prompted speculation online that perhaps a foreign actor may have been involved in his death — something Mr. Trump sought to dismiss.

“So I don’t see a lot of evil there,” the president said. “I know there’s all sorts of conspiracy theories going along. And I don’t think the FBI — I think the FBI’s wasting their time if they’re doing that.”

CVS settles with FTC, agrees to count TrumpRx drug purchases towards insurance

2026-07-14T18:23:12.848Z / Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to an event to unveil the TrumpRx drug discount site, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 5, 2026. REUTERS/Al Drago Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary
• Companies

• Settlement would count TrumpRx purchases toward some plan deductibles
• CVS must offer clients an option to opt out of rebate payment models, the FTC said
• CVS said it would cap insulin out-of-pocket costs at $25 per month

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) – CVS Health’s

(CVS.N)
Caremark has finalized a ‌settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in which it agreed to curb use of after-market discounts known as rebates and count consumers’ TrumpRx purchases toward their deductibles, an FTC spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Similar to Cigna’s settlement with the FTC earlier this year, the deal would curb practices critics say contribute to high drug costs. ​It would also require CVS’ Caremark pharmacy benefit manager to include a patient’s payments through the TrumpRx drug website toward the ​deductibles some of its health plans require, once regulations are in place to facilitate the TrumpRx program.

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The settlement ⁠is expected to bring billions of dollars in savings on drug prices, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

“The FTC under President ​Trump won’t stand for anticompetitive behavior that drives up prices for American consumers,” Ferguson said.

U.S. President Donald Trump launched TrumpRx.gov, a website offering hundreds ​of generic and branded drugs at a discount, in February, with a particular focus on connecting consumers with low prices for highly popular weight-loss drugs from Eli Lilly

(LLY.N)
and Novo Nordisk

(NOVOb.CO)
.

Health plan deductibles are the minimum spend members must reach before leveraging their coverage. TrumpRx.gov sends cash-pay customers to drugmaker websites for discounted drugs, ​but has operated outside of insurance, limiting its value for some American consumers.

CVS must also provide an option to clients that allows them to ​opt out of rebate payment models, a spokesperson for the FTC said. These rebates are paid by drugmakers to the pharmacy benefit manager and may or ‌may not ⁠be passed on to the plan sponsor or consumer after a certain drug is dispensed.

Small pharmacies would also be given the option to be reimbursed for the actual cost of drugs they dispense plus a fee, in a bid to address complaints that pharmacy benefit managers do not fully reimburse independent local pharmacies.

“Today’s agreement advances and reinforces the changes we have already put in place and ensures affordability for families and ​patients across the country,” said Ed ​DeVaney, a president at Caremark.

The decision ⁠to eliminate rebates will vary based on the client and how individual employers choose to structure their own pharmacy benefit, a spokesperson for CVS said. But the company aims to encourage its clients to pass ​through discounts to individual members, CVS said in a release on Tuesday.

The FTC’s original lawsuit, launched in ​2024, said Caremark, ⁠Cigna’s

(CI.N)
Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx

(UNH.N)
forced patients to pay higher prices for insulin.

CVS reached a proposed settlement with the regulator in March, and the FTC said the deal was similar to one with Express Scripts.

Regulators have said the rebate model incentivizes companies to raise list prices and ultimately steers ⁠customers to ​pricier drugs.

Pharmacy benefit managers negotiate the price of drugs with manufacturers, on behalf of plan ​sponsors, such as employers.

CVS will also enhance its reporting on the price of drugs and member payments it receives, shift to a fee-based compensation structure, and cap out-of-pocket cost ​of insulin at $25 per month, the company said.

Reporting by Amina Niasse and Jody Godoy in New York; editing by Caroline Humer and Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Med school deans come up empty in tense hearing when asked point blank if men can have babies: ‘Ridiculous’

2026-07-14T14:41:10-04:00 / Fox News

Miller grilled UCLA and UCSF deans on whether gender identity courses are undermining basic biological science

By Kiera McDonald, Andrew Mark Miller Fox News

Published July 14, 2026 2:41pm EDT

Medical leaders dodge questions at House hearing on whether non-biological women can have babies

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., pressed medical leaders from the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles, on biological sex and pregnancy during a tense House hearing on DEI in medical schools.

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FIRST ON FOX:Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., asked two university medical leaders in a tense hearing Tuesday to directly answer whether non-biological women can have babies and didn’t receive a straight answer, prompting a fiery statement from the congresswoman to Fox News Digital.

“Doctor (Sam) Hawgood, you see UCSFs Classroom Guide, titled ‘Framework for Gender and Sex Concepts in Teaching,’ advises against using the term pregnant women,” Miller told the chancellor of the University of California San Francisco in an Education and Workforce Committee hearing on DEI’s impact in medical schools.

“Instead, it says to use pregnant people. Who are pregnant people compared to pregnant women? Just curious.”

Hawgood responded by saying that terminology is “part of a curriculum to help our students who are facing a wide diversity of patients before saying the “vast majority of pregnancies are in women” and that he has “absolutely no problem with the term pregnant women.”

BILL REPLACING ‘MOTHER’ AND ‘FATHER’ WITH GENDER-NEUTRAL TERMS PASSES IN NEW YORK, HEADS TO HOCHUL’S DESK

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., questioned medical school leaders during a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on DEI initiatives at medical schools.(House Education and Workforce Committee)

“Has a non-biological woman ever had a baby?” Miller asked, and Hawgood responded that a “transgender person can.”

“That’s not a biological woman. Has a non-biological woman ever had a baby?” Miller shot back.

Hawgood responded, “I would reiterate” before Miller interrupted saying, “It’s ridiculous.”

“Lastly, Dr. Dubinett, a required course at UCLA medical school advises ob-gyn students not to, and, I quote, assume gender identity,” Miller told Dr. Steve Dubinett, dean of UCLA School of Medicine.

“OK, from another class in May of 2026. It included a disclaimer that while it uses the term she and women, it does not intend to exclude, and I quote, ‘those who have a uterus but do not identify with these terms.’ What does that even mean?”

PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL SCHOOL HIT WITH CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT OVER ALLEGEDLY DISCRIMINATORY SCHOLARSHIPS

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., signs a document at her desk in support of her new education legislation, the Promoting Classical Learning Act.(Courtesy of Rep. Mary Miller)

The dean responded, “I’m not familiar with that announcement that I’d have to read the entire thing.”

Miller pressed Dubinett and asked, “Can someone have a uterus but not be a woman? Because it seems like your school is promoting that ridiculous idea?”

Dubinett did not directly answer the question but said that the school is “treating transgender people,” but “we’re doing that in compliance with state and federal law.”

Miller pressed again, asking Dubinett if the school teaches biology, to which Dubinett answered, “Yes we do.”

“This is curious,” Miller responded. “So, I’m going to ask you again, can someone have a uterus and not be a woman? Just say yes or no. Can they?”

“Again, I would,” Dubinett said before being interrupted by the committee chair as Miller’s time expired.

DEMOCRATS REVOLT OVER ‘BIOLOGICAL’ WORDING IN WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSEUM BILL

Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA(iStock)

“That’s what your medical school is promoting,” Miller said. “Chairman, it’s clear these medical schools are hiding DEI curriculum under the guise of medical access.”

Miller, in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital after the hearing, said, “It shouldn’t take a medical degree to answer a basic biology question. This hearing exposed that our medical schools have become consumed by political ideology that they’re losing sight of reality. Patients just want doctors grounded in common sense. Medical schools that abandon scientific truth should lose their accreditation.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News Digital reached out to Hawgood and Dubinett for comment.

The House Education and Workforce Committee held a hearing, “Training Activists, Not Physicians: The Impact of DEI on Medical Schools.” The hearing focused on whether diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at medical schools, including the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, San Francisco; and the University of Illinois, have shaped admissions policies, contributed to antisemitism and influenced medical school curricula.

Kiera McDonald is a Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.

Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister, sworn in to serve the remainder of Senate term

2026-07-14T14:45:00-0400 / CBS News

Washington — Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, was sworn in Tuesday to serve out the remainder of his term in the Senate, following his sudden death over the weekend.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa administered the oath of office on the Senate floor as dozens of senators, from both sides of the aisle, were in attendance and stood to applaud. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were also in attendance.

Graham, who died late Saturday at 71, was not married and did not have a family of his own. He and his sister had a close relationship. The late senator became his sister’s legal guardian when she was 13, after their parents died in short succession when Graham was in his early twenties.

Darline Graham now becomes the first woman to represent South Carolina in the Senate.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa administers the oath of office to Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the Senate floor on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. Senate TV

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her to complete her brother’s term on Monday, amid encouragement from President Trump and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. During an emotional news conference announcing her appointment, McMaster said “Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed,” calling it an “honor to ask his little sister Darline Graham to finish his work for him now.”

Darline Graham, 62, called it “such a privilege to get to finish some of his important work,” while pledging to “work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States.”

“Lindsey has always been there for me,” she said. “And now I will be there for him.”

The late senator’s term ends in early January, when a new Congress will be sworn in. Because the four-term senator had been seeking reelection, South Carolina will hold a special primary election on Aug. 11 to select a Republican to replace him on the ballot.

Darline Graham, who has had a career in disabilities services and most recently served as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, doesn’t have a background in elected office. But she said Monday that with the support of her brother’s staff, she feels confident in her ability to carry out the role. Whether she runs for a six-year term or opts to serve simply as a caretaker for the seat for the coming months remains to be seen.

“I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted,” she said. “And I plan to honor him in this way.”

Trump administration ends attempt to freeze $10B in federal funds for blue states

2026-07-14T18:31:20.698Z / CNN

By Tami Luhby

PUBLISHED Jul 14, 2026, 2:31 PM ET

Children watch television at ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 31, 2025.

Mark Vancleave/AP/File

Donald Trump Parenting

The Trump administration has rescinded its effort to freeze $10 billion in childcare and social assistance funding for five blue states — the latest setback in its push to withhold or cut federal funding to fight alleged fraud and to punish perceived opponents.

The freeze was announced in early January amid a high-profile federal probe into fraud allegations involving federal social services in Minnesota and was paused by a federal judge in New York days later.

President Donald Trump has focused heavily on combatting fraud in his second term, making it a focal point of the midterm elections in November as Republicans seek to maintain their control of Congress. While one government analysis estimates that hundreds of billions of dollars are lost annually to fraud, the president’s critics argue the accusations are largely political and often lack proof.

In this case, the Department of Health and Human Services had sought to cut off $7.4 billion in funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides cash assistance to households, along with nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund and around $870 million from the Social Services Block Grant.

The action was directed at California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, where the programs serve many low-income families.

The states quickly sued, arguing the administration’s effort was entirely political, as well as unconstitutional.

In a letter sent to states last week, HHS said they would no longer be subject to the requirements that attempted to restrict their access to federal funding. Also, the agency was withdrawing its requests for justification and additional information, which included looking at whether benefits were improperly provided to ineligible immigrants.

CNN has reached out to HHS for additional information.

Trump congratulated Iraq’s prime minister on election. He wasn’t on the ballot.

2026-07-14T18:33:52.259Z / The Washington Post

President Donald Trump repeatedly congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi on his victory in a “highly competitive” election. There was no such victory.

July 14, 2026 at 2:33 p.m. EDT

President Donald Trump meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi in the Oval Office on Tuesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

By Mustafa Salim and Cat Zakrzewski

President Donald Trump repeatedly congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi on Monday for his victory in a “highly competitive” election during his first visit to the White House.

In fact, though, the political newcomer was never on the ballot.

Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.

“We have a fantastic champion, a new champion, and he won the election very soundly, very conclusively, and he wasn’t favored,” Trump said, introducing Zaidi in the Oval Office. “But by the time they got to know him, he ended up winning, and he’s going to be there for a long time.”

Zaidi, a businessman with no electoral background, unexpectedly found himself at the center of Iraq’s politics after the Trump administration effectively vetoed the victorious Shiite bloc’s nominee, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Ask The Post AI Dive deeper

In January, Trump threatened to “no longer help” Iraq if the government moved forward with Maliki, throwing the country into a constitutional deadlock. Iraq’s political forces sought a candidate viewed as relatively neutral amid the U.S. war with Iran. Zaidi was widely regarded as a consensus candidate, following a career that included banking and running the supply of goods for Iraq’s government food basket program, which serves millions.

Zaidi has sought to use his visit to encourage U.S. investment in Iraq. He plans to visit oil companies in Texas later this week. Ask The Post AI Dive deeper

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Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister, sworn in to serve remainder of his Senate term

2026-07-14T18:37:58.539Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/politics/darline-graham-lindsey-graham-senate

Darline Graham, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s younger sister, was sworn into the Senate on Tuesday to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term after his sudden death over the weekend.

She was appointed to the seat by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and will remain in the Senate until January 2027. Graham is the first woman to represent South Carolina in the Senate. As she serves out the remainder of her brother’s term, a special primary election will take place August 11 to replace the late Republican lawmaker in November’s general election to determine who will next hold the seat for the upcoming six-year term.

Asked by CNN how she is doing and what the moment is like for her, Graham said, “Hanging in there, appreciate you being here,” as she left the Senate floor following her official swearing in.

Graham, 62, has not previously held elected office but has a long history of public service in the state of South Carolina. She has served as a commissioner for the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and has long worked with people with disabilities.

After their parents died within 15 months of each other, she became orphaned at age 13 in 1976. Lindsey Graham — the first in his family to attend college, and a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps — became his sister’s legal guardian.

The siblings were close their entire lives, Darline Graham told CNN’s Dana Bash in a 2015 interview after her brother launched his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. “Even when my parents were alive, they worked really long, hard hours running a small business. So even then, he was a caregiver to me,” she said.

Lindsey Graham, a longtime Republican from South Carolina and ally of President Donald Trump, died following an aortic dissection, according to a preliminary finding from the Washington, DC, medical examiner. He was 71.

Throughout US history, governors have at times chosen family members to take over Senate seats for their loved ones, frequently with a spouse picked to step in. Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s wife is one example; Muriel Humphrey filled her husband’s Senate seat after he passed away, as did Hattie Caraway after her husband died in office in 1931. Caraway went on to become the first woman elected to the Senate in her own right in 1932.

Lincoln Chafee was appointed to fill his father’s Rhode Island Senate seat. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was appointed by her own father to take over his Senate seat after he became Alaska’s governor in 2002 — a controversial decision at the time.

The Senate chamber during Graham’s swearing in on Tuesday was a testament to the respect her new colleagues held for her late brother. Almost every Republican seat was filled, and many Democrats attended as well. Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, both of whom had worked with the late Sen. Graham on international issues, sat in the galleries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime colleague of Lindsey Graham, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a fellow South Carolinian, joined senators on the floor during the ceremony. Several House members from South Carolina also attended, including GOP Reps. Ralph Norman and Joe Wilson as well as Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer spoke with Darline Graham just before the ceremony, and GOP Sens. Katie Britt and Tim Scott escorted her to the dais, where Sen. Chuck Grassley administered her oath of office. Graham’s family in the gallery was emotional, as was Sen. Joni Ernst, who held tissues in her hand. The chamber rose to a standing ovation after the oath was administered, and Britt and Scott led Graham to her late brother’s desk. Scott placed the Bible Graham had used during her swearing in on the desk, resting his hand on it for a moment.

After Senate GOP Leader John Thune and Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso had shaken Graham’s hand, other senators crowded around to introduce themselves and say hello. They eventually formed two lines, with Graham alternating between each to greet her new colleagues. As the Senate began voting on advancing the annual defense policy package, senators were still taking turns to speak with her.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Eric Bradner contributed to this report

House GOP leaders break logjam on the floor after conservative revolt

July 14, 2026 / 3:24 PM EDT / CBS News

By Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

Read Full Bio

Washington — The House on Tuesday finally broke an impasse that had stalled most legislative action on the floor as GOP holdouts sought to leverage their votes to force the Senate to act on President Trump’s top priority, the SAVE America Act.

The Senate’s inability to pass the controversial voting and elections bill has frustrated Mr. Trump and hardliners in the House, who have held up other GOP priorities in response. The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship documentation to register to vote in federal elections and photo ID requirements to vote, among other restrictions.

Most holdouts relented on Tuesday, allowing a party-line procedural vote to move forward. The vote tees up debate and final votes on a handful of bills, including an annual appropriations bill to fund the State Department. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, plans to attach the SAVE America Act to that legislation before sending it to the Senate.

Last month, hardliners blocked a similar plan from Johnson, which would have merged the elections bill with the annual defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, before it went to the Senate.

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who has led the charge in the lower chamber for the SAVE America Act, said Monday that she would go along with Johnson’s latest plan, as long as the elections bill is attached to “all the appropriation bills and all must-pass bills.”

“If John Thune strips it out in the Senate that will be on him and the entire country should be watching what he does,” she said.

The House GOP’s gambit to force the Senate to pass the elections bill is certain to be dead on arrival across the Capitol, where the SAVE America Act lacks even a simple majority of support. Since 2024, the House has passed three versions of the bill, and all have stalled in the upper chamber.

Though Johnson appeased conservatives on the SAVE America Act, he also faced obstacles with members who are pushing for a vote on a border crackdown bill, which passed the House in 2023 but never got a vote in the Senate.

GOP leaders held open the first vote of the day for about an hour as Johnson and hardliners engaged in a heated discussion on the floor as the speaker tried to shore up support on the subsequent vote that would unlock the gridlock.

GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas declined to give specifics about what Johnson agreed to on border security to sway him and other conservatives to advance the procedural measure.

“We made progress on the areas that I’ve been public about on border security, birthright, other issues,” he said. “We’re moving a bill next week in some form or fashion.”

“It was enough to say we’ll move forward in good faith,” Roy said.

House leaders have repeatedly had to cancel votes as they navigate a narrow majority, which gives more power to rank-and-file members to stall legislative business until their demands are met. The chaos has left the lower chamber with little time to work through other legislative priorities ahead of its five-week recess, which begins at the end of next week.

“We have a dysfunctional House,” GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said. “The Republicans are the minority in the House right now. We have about 10, 20 people who are potentially their own party. They maybe caucus with Republicans, but more often than not, they vote against Republicans.”

Trump’s plan to make daylight saving time permanent to get a vote in House

July 14, 2026 at 2:40 p.m. EDT / The Washington Post

The bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act would end the practice of switching clocks twice per year.

Sunlight falls on the U.S. Capitol. (Al Drago/Reuters)

By Anna Liss-Roy and Dan Diamond

The House could vote Tuesday to end Americans’ practice of switching their clocks twice per year, delivering a win for President Donald Trump, who has called for permanent daylight saving time over the objections of medical groups and lawmakers who represent Midwestern states.

Lawmakers seek to counter China, Iran repression tactics on US soil

2026-07-14T18:24:25.8Z / Reuters

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) speaks during a rally in support of congressional candidate Connie Chan in San Francisco, California, U.S., May 29, 2026. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo Purchase Licensing Rights

• Summary

• Bill would add up to 10 years to prison sentences for convicted offenders
• Measure would give federal law a first definition of transnational repression
• Senate staffers said China’s ethnic unity law directly prompted the bill

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bipartisan bill to increase penalties for foreign ‌government agents who threaten people on U.S. soil, a move aimed at countering the rise of what officials call “transnational repression” by countries such as China and Iran.

The bill, put forward by Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Senator John Curtis, comes after ​China’s ethnic unity law went into effect on July 1, establishing what Beijing says is its right ​to target certain critics beyond its borders.

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That Chinese measure was a direct factor in ⁠the introduction of the “Stop Transnational Repression Act,” Senate staffers told Reuters.

Should it become U.S. law, it would ​for the first time give a federal definition for such crimes and increase potential prison sentences for convicted ​individuals by up to an additional 10 years.

“This is a bipartisan effort to counter a national threat that reports show is only expanding in scope, with new and brazen efforts by countries like China trying to expand its intimidation of those not ​in lock step with the regime,” Schiff said.

Curtis called transnational repression “an attack on both our sovereignty and ​our freedoms.”

Some Chinese communities in the U.S. who oppose China’s ruling Communist Party, as well as pro-democracy activists and supporters of Taiwan, ‌Tibetan ⁠and Uyghur causes, have complained that Beijing sends agents and others to harass, spy on and intimidate them.

China says accusations that it conducts such operations are baseless. Its embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the legislation.

The bill defines transnational repression, in part, as any effort by a ​foreign state’s agent or proxy “to ​harass, coerce, or threaten ⁠a person, including by force or reasonable fear of death.” Codifying the term under U.S. law will serve as a “heightened deterrent for foreign actors,” it says.

Human rights ​non-profit Freedom House says that China is behind most documented cases of such ​repression globally, with ⁠319 stemming from the country since 2014.

A New York man was found guilty in May of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government after federal prosecutors alleged that he operated a “secret police station” on behalf of ⁠Beijing ​in Manhattan.

Separately, two men were
sentenced this year
to 10 years and ​15 years in prison for what the Justice Department said was a plot directed by Iran’s government to stalk and kill an Iranian-American ​human rights activist.

Reporting by Michael Martina; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani