Summary
The Pentagon was reportedly aware there were survivors after a September attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, but the US military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to a new Associated Press report.
Troubles are continuing to mount for defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who faces growing scrutiny and criticism over his handling of the September boat strike and a Pentagon report that found his use of the Signal app violated policy. Democratic senator Mark Warner has called for his resignation while Republican senator Lisa Murkowski reiterated that Hegseth does not have her support.
Donald Trump continued his xenophobic attacks on Somali immigrants, telling reporters on Wednesday that “those Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country” and that congresswoman Ilhan Omar should be “thrown the hell out”.
The US Institute of Peace has been renamed in Donald Trump’s honor amid a months-long battle for control over the thinktank. The state department announced Wednesday that it had renamed the Washington DC non-profit the “Donald J Trump Institute of Peace”.
Donald Trump pardoned entertainment executive Tim Leiweke this week, continuing his spate of pardons that has in recent days included the Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar and the ex-president of Honduras.
Trump described the US-Russia meeting on Tuesday that included Vladimir Putin and the US president’s son-in-law as “reasonably good” despite a lack of progress. A source told the Associated Press that Trump aides planned to meet with a top Ukrainian negotiator in Miami on Thursday for additional peace talks.
The immigration crackdown in New Orleans got under way Wednesday. The operation has sent fear through the region’s Latino community and prompted businesses to close.
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Donald Trump pardoned entertainment executive Tim Leiweke this week, continuing his spate of pardons that has in recent days included the Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar and the ex-president of Honduras.
The president’s justice department had charged the co-founder of stadium developer Oak View Group earlier this year for allegedly “orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process” for an arena at a public university in Austin.
The US Institute of Peace has been renamed in Donald Trump’s honor amid a months-long battle for control over the thinktank.
The state department announced Wednesday that it had renamed the Washington DC non-profit the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace “to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history”. Photos showed the president’s name in at least two places on the building.
The White House was quick to celebrate the change. According to a schedule released by the White House on Wednesday evening, Trump planned to participate in a “signing ceremony” with the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the “Donald J Trump Institute of Peace”.
Earlier this year, the administration’s “department of government efficiency” took over the independent organization, which Congress created more than four decades ago, and ousted its board. The battle over who controls the institute, which is not a federal agency, continues to unfold in court.
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Donald Trump continued his xenophobic attacks on Somali immigrants, telling reporters on Wednesday that “those Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country” and that congresswoman Ilhan Omar should be “thrown the hell out”.
The president’s remarks came the day after he called Somali immigrants “garbage” and reports emerged that ICE agents would stage an operation in the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area primarily focused on Somalis with final deportation orders. Local officials have said the city stands with the community.
In response to Trump’s latest comments on Wednesday, Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis mayor, said: “Somali Americans are Americans. Their nation is America. And we are proud to have these Americans in Minneapolis.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, with the non-profit American Immigration Council, said the president’s remarks were “the kind of racism even Nixon kept to himself”.
“Just a level of sheer bigotry that would have been utterly disqualifying for higher office even a decade ago,” he said.
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A Democratic representative plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth as criticism mounts over the defense secretary’s handling of a September boat strike and a Pentagon report that found his use of the Signal app violated policy.
The office of Michigan representative Shri Thanedar announced that the Democrat would move forward with the articles of impeachment on Thursday, although high-ranking Democrats have suggested such an effort would likely fail to advance.
This week, a report from the defense department concluded that Hegseth risked putting troops in danger by sharing secret information in a Signal messaging chat regarding a planned airstrike in Yemen earlier this year. The defense secretary and the administration are also facing scrutiny from Republican lawmakers over strikes on alleged drug boats, including a double strike in September that killed survivors of an initial blast.
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Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and a leading proponent of conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen, could soon run for governor in Minnesota.
The 64-year-old filed paperwork to run for the office, but told the Minnesota Star Tribune he “isn’t 100% yet” and would announce his decision next week.
Lindell, one of the most prominent faces in the US election denier movement, has long promoted false claims about the 2020 election and accused voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion of rigging the contest against Trump. In June, he was ordered to pay $2.3m to a former Dominion employee who sued him for defamation, and in September a judge ruled he had defamed Smartmatic with his false statements.
While his legal and financial troubles have mounted in recent years, he continues to operate LindellTV. The pro-Trump network has a designated White House correspondent, former fitness influencer Cara Castronuova, who gained attention earlier this year for asking for the president’s personal “fitness plan”.
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Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator, has reiterated that the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, does not have her support after an inspector general report found he violated departmental policies.
Murkowski, who has been critical of Hegseth, told CNN today:
He had not earned my support at the beginning of the confirmation process, and I had suggested that perhaps we can and should do better … I think many are calling into question some of the actions that we’re seeing out of the secretary of defense. There’s just the story today about how his use of the Signal chat had compromised information. That’s not good for any cabinet official, and certainly not the secretary of defense.
The senator was referencing a new inspector general report that criticized Hegseth for sharing secret information in a Signal chat about a planned airstrike in Yemen – a chat that was exposed when an Atlantic journalist was added to it.
When CNN pressed Murkowski on whether Trump should fire Hegseth, she said: “As I said, I have not supported him in the beginning.”
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Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, is scheduled to moderate a network town hall event with Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Guardian has learned.
The event will air on 13 December at 8pm and will focus on “grief, faith, politics, and more”, according to internal marketing materials.
According to an unpublicized online form soliciting potential attendees, the event will actually be recorded on 10 December at 12pm in New York City.
The town hall is a notable bit of programming for Weiss, who took on her role in October with a mandate to bring more balance – including a variety of political perspectives – to the network. When she was appointed by David Ellison, the president of CBS News’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, some journalists at the network expressed skepticism about her ability to do the job, considering her lack of experience working in television.
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The Pentagon knew boat attack left survivors, AP sources say
The Pentagon was aware there were survivors after a September attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, but the US military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to a new Associated Press report, based on two people familiar with the matter.
The AP’s sources, who spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the rationale for the second strike was that it was necessary to sink the vessel.
It is still unclear who ordered the strikes and whether Hegseth was involved, one of the AP sources said. Those questions are expected to be discuss at a classified congressional briefing on Thursday with Adm Frank Bradley, the commander whom the Trump administration says ordered the second strike, the outlet reported.
Trump administration officials have defended the follow-up strike by arguing that the complete destruction of the boat was the objective and that the Pentagon had internal legal approval to carry it out. Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a briefing on Monday: “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed, and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
Our earlier coverage:
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Senator Mark Warner calls for Hegseth to resign or be fired
Mark Warner, a Democratic senator, has called for Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to resign or be fired after an inspector general report found he violated departmental policies when he shared secret information in a Signal chat about a planned airstrike in Yemen.
The Senate intelligence committee vice-chair spoke out this afternoon, saying in a statement that an “objective, evidence-based investigation by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog leaves no doubt: Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American pilots”.
The inspector general report relates to an infamous Signal group in March about an airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters, which became public when a journalist from the Atlantic was added to the chat. The chat on the messaging app also included JD Vance; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; and the then-national security adviser, Mike Waltz, but the report did not scrutinize their conduct.
“By sharing classified operational details on an unsecure group chat on his personal phone, he created unacceptable risks to their safety and to our operational security,” Warner said in his statement. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pete Hegseth should resign, or the president must remove him at once.”
The report noted that the inspector general is aware of “several other Signal chats” Hegseth used for official business, “underscoring that this was not an isolated lapse”, Warner said. “It reflects a broader pattern of recklessness and poor judgment from a secretary who has repeatedly shown he is in over his head.”
Our earlier coverage of the Pentagon report:
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California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has been on a yearlong, “forensic” search to better understand why Americans rejected his party at the ballot box last year. The reasons are varied and diverse, totalling 26 pages so far, he said recently, naming immigration, inflation, Israel and interest rates among the issues that cost Democrats the White House and Congress.
But he’s also convinced there is something more deep-seated. On Wednesday, the term-limited California governor, who has positioned himself as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, said the party needed to be “more culturally normal”.
“We have to be a little less judgmental,” he said during an extended conversation at the New York Times’s DealBook Summit. He said Democrats need to “develop and design a compelling economic vision for the future”.
“If we don’t democratize our economy, we’re not going to save democracy,” he added.
Over the course of Trump’s first year in office, Newsom has emerged as one of the president’s chief Democratic antagonists. On Wednesday, he waved off groans from the business leaders in the audience when he promoted his website selling knee pads for universities, law firms, executives and Republicans who are “bending the knee” to Trump.
Of Trump, he added: “I think he recognizes time of life is catching up with him, even though he can’t remember exactly why he went in for an MRI.”
While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Donald Trump said he supports the release of video of a follow-up strike on a drug boat that killed the remaining survivors on 2 September.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem,” the president said.
The incident, in which the US military struck an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean and then conducted a second strike to kill survivors, has heightened scrutiny and criticism of the administration and defense secretary Pete Hegseth in recent days.
Administration officials have defended the follow-up strike and argued it was intended to ensure the complete destruction of the boat. Lawmakers are investigating whether the attack constituted a war crime.
When asked whether he supported the second strike to kill survivors during the 2 September operation, Trump said: “I support the decision to knock out the boats and whoever is piloting the boats, most of them are gone, but whoever piloted those boats, they’re guilty of trying to kill people in our country.”
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As the Trump administration conducts immigration crackdowns in cities across the US as part of its mass deportation agenda, California announced the launch of an online portal for the public to report potential misconduct by federal agents in the state.
Californians can use the portal to submit videos and photos of potentially unlawful conduct to help the state’s department of justice create a record and support “possible legal actions”.
“The Trump administration is engaging in a campaign of terror and fear that has left some California communities scared to go about their daily lives,” Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general, said in a statement. “Let me be clear: Federal agents can enforce federal laws, and no one should interfere with them doing their job. But they must also do so lawfully and in compliance with the constitution.”
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Trump describes US-Russia meeting as 'reasonably good' despite lack of progress
One day after talks with Russia and the US ended without a Ukraine peace deal, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the meeting between the two US envoys and Vladimir Putin was “reasonably good”.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, met with the Russian president in Moscow on Tuesday for five hours. A Kremlin aide reported after the meeting that the parties were “neither further nor closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine”.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Russians “very strongly” want to make a deal to end the war, but that it was unclear what would happen next.
“What comes out of that meeting I can’t tell you because it does take two to tango,” Trump said.
A source told the Associated Press that Trump aides planned to meet with a top Ukrainian negotiator in Miami on Thursday for additional peace talks.
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The immigration crackdown that began in New Orleans on Wednesday has sent fear through the region’s Latino community and prompted businesses to close.
More than 200 federal agents are working on the operation, an official told the Associated Press, and are seeking to make as many arrests as possible over at least two months.
The Guardian’s Lucy Campbell reports that border patrol agents made arrests in a Lowe’s hardware store parking lot in the city and a Home Depot in LaPlace, about 30 minutes outside New Orleans, among other locations.
Some businesses have told workers to stay home while others have close entirely. Taqueria Guerrero said this week that it would be closed for the foreseeable future. “The safety, dignity, and peace of mind of our staff and our community mean more to us than anything,” an online post reads. “We refuse to operate in a way that puts anyone at risk or adds to the fear that so many are already feeling.
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In the Oval Office alongside Trump today are the transportation secretary Sean Duffy, as well as several GOP senators, including Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz and Bernie Moreno. The House Republican Conference chair, congresswoman Lisa McClain, is also in attendance.
“These rules are going to allow the automakers to make vehicles that Americans want to purchase, not vehicles that Joe Biden and [Pete] Buttigieg want them to build,” Duffy said of the rollback of the vehicle mileage rules today. “This is important for American jobs. The more cars we sell, the more jobs we have in this country.”
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Trump’s now speaking in the Oval Office. As we reported earlier, he’s terminating Biden-era federal fuel standards.
“It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices, combined with the insane electric vehicle mandate,” Trump said today.
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Here's a recap of the day so far:
Democrats on the House oversight committee this morning released never-before-seen images and video showing Jeffrey Epstein’s private island home. The 10 pictures and four videos appear to show the inside of several bedrooms, bathrooms, a spa and a massage room in the house in the US Virgin Islands. In a statement, the committee’s top Democrat, Robert Garcia, said the photos and videos collectively form a “disturbing look” into Epstein’s world and are being released to “ensure public transparency”.
Donald Trump announced today that he is pardoning Henry Cuellar, the House Democrat who was facing federal bribery and conspiracy charges alongside his wife, Imelda. The president said Cuellar was ultimately indicted for disagreeing with Joe Biden’s border policies. In response, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said the pardon for the Texas congressman was “the right outcome”, while Cuellar thanked Trump and said the decision “clears the air” and gives his family “a clean slate”.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had started its much-anticipated immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans today. In a statement, the department said Operation Catahoula Crunch would target “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies”, and we’ve already started to see pictures of the arrests.
Meanwhile, embattled defense secretary Pete Hegseth remains under scrutiny today, after the Pentagon’s inspector general found that his use of Signal to share highly sensitive attack plans put the American military in jeopardy. CNN has the story, citing four sources familiar with the content of the classified report. According to the report, Hegseth “risked compromising sensitive military information, which could have endangered American troops and mission objectives”, when he used the messaging app in March of this year to share highly sensitive attack plans targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Republicans on the House judiciary committee have subpoenaed former special counsel Jack Smith for a closed-door deposition on 17 December. The committee’s top Democrat, Jamie Raskin, said the decision to not let Smith appear before the committee publicly was so GOP lawmakers “can spin, distort, and cherrypick his remarks”.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis officials are bracing for the city’s Somali community to be targeted in the coming days, after reports spread that ICE agents are due to start raids. Jamal Osman, a Somali American city council member in Minneapolis, said that Donald Trump’s xenophobic rant in the White House on Tuesday, and the expected immigration crackdown, have left his community fear-ridden. “I never thought there would be a time where I will tell my community to carry their passport around because if you look Somali you might be stopped,” he said in an interview with CNN.
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Arrests begin in New Orleans immigration enforcement operation
We’ve started to get pictures as arrests begin in the sweeping immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans, known as “Catahoula Crunch”.
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House judiciary committee subpoenas former special counsel Jack Smith
The House judiciary committee has subpoenaed Jack Smith for a closed-door deposition on 17 December.
“Due to your service as Special Counsel, the Committee believes that you possess information that is vital to its oversight of this matter,” Republican chair Jim Jordan wrote to the former justice department official. Smith led investigations into Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and into the president’s alleged retention of classified documents.
The committee’s top Democrat, Jamie Raskin, said that decision to not let Smith address appear before the committee publicly was so Republicans “can spin, distort, and cherrypick his remarks”.
He added:
Judiciary committee Republicans want to force the special counsel into the shadows of a backroom interrogation and subject him to the tiresome and loathsome partisan tactics of leak-and-distort, when the American public is demanding transparency and a public hearing.
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As New Orleans immigration enforcement begins, previous operations show limited success in arresting criminals
Despite the Trump administration’s repeated insistence that it is pursuing “the worst of the worst” among people lacking legal status in the immigration crackdowns, most of the people detained in past operations have not had criminal histories.
In “Operation Charlotte’s Web” in Charlotte, North Carolina, fewer than 12% of those arrested were classified as criminals. In Chicago, more than 97% of immigrants detained in “Midway Blitz” had no criminal conviction.
The Guardian has also previously reported that immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to government data. Research has also consistently shown that immigrants – including undocumented immigrants – are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.
Cuellar: 'This pardon gives us a clean slate'
Following Donald Trump’s decision to pardon Democratic representative Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, the lawmaker has responded in a statement by thanking the president “for taking the time to look at the facts”.
Cuellar and his wife were indicted on federal bribery and conspiracy charges, and their trial was due to start next year. Earlier, Trump said that Cuellar was ultimately targeted by a “weaponized” justice department under Joe Biden for disagreeing with the former president’s border policy.
Today, the Texas congressman said the president’s decision “clears the air and lets us move forward for south Texas. This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on.”
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Earlier, my colleague Jakub Krupa was covering the latest reports out of Europe. In particular, the remarks from the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, who praised Donald Trump, noting that the US president is “the only one person in the whole world who was able to break the deadlock when it comes to war in Ukraine”.
However, Rutte said that lasting peace “is not something [that can be done] in a straight line”.
He added:
You need a proposal on the table. You need to have discussions, and we have seen the meetings in Geneva, in Miami, now yesterday in Moscow. It will be a step-by-step approach.
A reminder that Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, met with Vladimir Putin in Russia’s capital on Tuesday. As Jakub reports, the much-hyped talks in Moscow did not bring any results as Russia disagreed with the US proposals.
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Watchdog finds Hegseth risked endangering troops by sharing sensitive war plans on Signal – report
Elsewhere, the embattled secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, is likely to be on the, er, defense again today after the Pentagon’s inspector general found that he “risked compromising sensitive military information, which could have endangered American troops and mission objectives, when he used Signal in March of this year to share highly sensitive attack plans targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen”. CNN has the story, citing four sources familiar with the content of the classified report.
The investigation was launched back in April after a bipartisan request from the Senate armed services committee when the allegations emerged, after a journalist was inadvertently added to the group chat. The Atlantic published the messages shared by Hegseth in the chat, which included operational details about strikes against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, such as launch times of F-18 fighter jets, bomb drop timings and naval Tomahawk missile launches – sent before the operation had been carried out.
It remains unclear if Hegseth declassified the information before sharing it with the other Trump officials – and the journalist – in the group chat. Two sources told CNN that “the repercussions of Hegseth’s action … are less clear since the IG concluded that the defense secretary has the authority to declassify information and Hegseth asserted he made an operational decision in the moment to share that information, though there is no documentation of such a decision”.
Sources also told CNN that Hegseth refused to sit for an interview with the inspector general and submitted his version of events in writing.
The report also states that Hegseth should not have used Signal and that senior defense department officials need better training on protocols, the sources told the outlet.
An unclassified version of the report is set to be publicly released tomorrow. The classified report was sent to Congress last night.
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Here are some of the pictures included in the release.
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In a statement, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Robert Garcia, said the photos and videos collectively form a “disturbing look” into Epstein’s world and are being released to “ensure public transparency”.
These new images are a disturbing look into the world of Jeffrey Epstein and his island. We are releasing these photos and videos to ensure public transparency in our investigation and to help piece together the full picture of Epstein’s horrific crimes. We won’t stop fighting until we deliver justice for the survivors.
It’s time for President Trump to release all the files, now.
The files were provided after, on 18 November, the committee sent a request to the US Virgin Islands attorney general for information about investigations into Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.
Garcia said the committee has also received records from JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, and they “intend to release files to the public after review in the days ahead”.
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House Democrats release new images of Epstein's private island home released
Democrats on the House oversight committee have this morning released never-before-seen images and video showing Jeffrey Epstein’s private island home.
A post on the committee’s X account said the material provided “a harrowing look behind Epstein’s closed doors”. “See for yourself. We won’t stop fighting until we end this cover-up and deliver justice for the survivors,” it reads.
The 10 pictures and four videos appear to show the inside of several bedrooms, bathrooms, a spa and a massage room in the house in the US Virgin Islands.
One room features what appears to be a yellow dentist’s chair in the middle and several masks – apparently of men’s faces – hanging on the walls.
Another depicts a landline phone with names written on speed dial buttons, some of which are redacted. There’s also a view of an office with a desk, bookshelves and armchairs, as well as a large chalkboard with the words “power” and “deception” written across it.
One of the shaky video clips takes a short tour around an en suite bathroom and bedroom. Another starts with a view of the sea, before the person filming walks to a swimming pool, featuring a bronze statue.
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Jeffries says Cuellar pardon is 'right outcome', adds that indictment against congressman was 'very thin'
Top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told CNN today that Donald Trump’s move to pardon Texas congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, is the “right outcome”.
The House minority leader said that the indictment against his colleague was “very thin to begin with” and he believed the charges “were eventually going to be dismissed”.
Jeffries stopped short of praising the president for pardoning Cuellar, a 69-year-old Democrat was charged with bribery and conspiracy. “I don’t know why the president decided to do this,” he said. “I think the outcome was exactly the right outcome.” Jeffries went on to characterize Cuellar as “beloved” in his district – which includes the border towns of Laredo and Rio Grande City.
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Trump pardons Democratic congressman in federal bribery case
Donald Trump announced today that he is pardoning representative Henry Cuellar, the House Democrat who is facing federal bribery and conspiracy charges alongside his wife, Imelda.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said the couple would receive a “full and unconditional” pardon. He also called the case against Cuellar – in which the lawmaker and his wife were accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars to advance the interests of an Azerbijani oil company and a Mexico bank – an example of the Biden administration’s allegedly weaponized justice department. Trump said that Cuellar was only indicted for disagreeing with his predecessor’s border policies.
“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” the president wrote.
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GOP lawmakers demand answers on Hegseth's defense of second strike on alleged drug boat
Several Republican lawmakers have weighed in since the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, explained the sequence of events leading up to the second military strike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat in early September.
Hegseth has steadfastly denied a Washington Post report which said that he issued the directive to kill the remaining survivors on the vessel after the first strike. At Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth reaffirmed that the decorated US navy admiral Frank Bradley ultimately “sunk the boat and eliminated the threat”. Hegseth said that while he “watched that first strike” he did not “stick around for the hour or two hours” after.
“A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the [decision], which he had the complete authority to do,” Hegseth said at the White House.
In response, GOP senator Rand Paul remained unconvinced with the administration’s explanation. “In this sense, it looks like they’re trying to pin the blame on someone else,” Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.
The Republican lawmaker from Kentucky, who is frequently at odds with the president, called out the series of responses since the Washington Post report. “On Sunday, Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this, and it did not happen,” Paul added. “And then the next day, from the podium at the White House, are saying it did happen. “So, either he was lying to us on Sunday, or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened.”
Meanwhile, Republican senator Jim Justice of West Virginia said that a “two blow” operation made him “uncomfortable” in an interview with MS Now. He added that if the Pentagon did order a strike to kill survivors on the boat it would be “unacceptable”.
For his part, Roger Wicker, who chairs of the Senate armed services committee, said that members would conduct “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances” in a statement last week. Admiral Bradley is also due to sit with top lawmakers on the both the House and Senate armed services committees for a classified briefing on Thursday about the events of 2 September.
Outgoing North Carolina senator Thom Tillis said that confirming last week’s reporting was crucial to determine next steps. “If it is substantiated, whoever made that order needs to get the hell out of Washington,” he said in an interview with CNN. “And if it is not substantiated, whoever the hell created the rage-bait should be fired.” Tillis cast a deciding vote to confirm Hegseth in January, a move that he’s since expressed regret over. “With the passing of time, I think it’s clear he’s out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization,” the retiring Republican said in an interview with CNN in July.
Coming to Hegseth’s defense amid the scrutiny, Republican senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said that he stood behind the Pentagon chief. “This is a war, and it’s ugly. War is never pretty. I want to gather all the facts,” he told MS Now’s Morning Joe. “Let’s gather the facts, but let’s not pronounce judgment here.”
Marshall went on to defend the strikes writ large: “We’re losing a couple hundred Americans every day to this drug poisoning, and I think that these strikes are slowing down the import of those deadly, deadly drugs.”
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A White House official confirms Fox News’ reporting earlier that Donald Trump will unveil a “reset” of federal fuel standards that were “heightened” under the Biden administration. A reminder that these are programs like the corporate average fuel economy (Cafe) standard, which include regulations for automakers to meet miles-per-gallon standards for their vehicles.
Trump will make the announcement at 2.30pm ET in the Oval Office.
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Hegseth speaks to new Pentagon 'press corps'
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is now speaking to the new batch of reporters who comprise the Pentagon “press corps”, according to a photo posted to social media by far-right activist Laura Loomer.
“He’s taking everyone’s questions with no scripts and no pre planned questions,” Loomer wrote. “The attacks on Hegseth by the Fake News media are unfounded. He is taking EVERY question.”
The defense department saw a mass exodus of at least 30 major news outlets after they refused to sign a new restrictive press policy.
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Somali prime minister urges calm following Trump's xenophobic White House rant
Somali officials have largely remained diplomatically tight-lipped about Donald Trump’s frequent verbal attacks on the Somali community in the US and on Somalia itself, a pattern of remarks that go right back to his first term.
In a statement today, Somalia’s prime minister, Hamza Barre, kept to that approach, noting that Trump had “insulted many countries, including Nigeria and South Africa”, while urging calm.
“There are things that do not need comment, we just leave them and move on. It is better to ignore than to make his words look like an issue,” Barre said.
Barre’s tone contrasted with the government’s earlier response to a previous string of attacks on congresswoman Ilhan Omar, during which Trump called her “SCUM” and described Somalia as “plagued by persistent poverty, hunger, resurgent terrorism, piracy, [and] decades of civil war”, after she criticised Charlie Kirk’s views, following his killing.
At the time, defence minister Moallim Fiqi, who is a more outspoken Somali official, said, Iif our daughter is being targeted because of her identity, we stand firmly by her side,” adding that Omar had “elevated both her own name and the name of her ancestral homeland to a place of prominence.”
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Per our earlier post about Matt Van Epps’ victory in Tennessee, Donald Trump weighed in late on Tuesday to congratulate the representative-elect.
“The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars. Another great night for the Republican Party!!!” he wrote on Truth Social. The president had thrown his support behind Van Epps, who beat his progressive challenger, Aftyn Behn, by single digits.
While it’s a needed victory for the GOP, other congressional Republicans have said race foreshadows a bitter fight in the 2026 midterms.
“Tt’s going to be a turnout election, and the left will show up,” Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. “Hate is a powerful motivator. They hate President Trump.”
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DHS formally announces New Orleans immigration operation
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had started its immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans today.
In a statement, the department said Operation Catahoula Crunch would target “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies”. New Orleans is the latest Democratic-run city (albeit in a Republican-led state) to see federal immigration agents on its streets. Most recently, the Trump administration targeted Charlotte, North Carolina, and touted the arrest of more than 300 undocumented immigrants.
Today, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that “it is asinine that these monsters were released back on to New Orleans streets to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create more victims. Catahoula Crunch targets include violent criminals who were released after arrest for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.”
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Somali American councillor says 'many families are fearful tonight' but 'Minneapolis stands with you'
Jamal Osman, a Somali American city council member in Minneapolis, also spoke alongside Mayor Jacob Frey at last night’s press conference, delivering a message in both Somali and English to his worried community.
As reports spread on Tuesday that ICE agents were due to launch raids, he had visited affected neighbourhoods.
Osman said: “I know many families are fearful tonight, but the city stands behind you and we are here to stand with you.
“Our community has lived through fear in the past and we’re not going to let this divide us.”
He said city officials were doing everything so residents “know their rights, they know where to turn for help … Minneapolis will not abandon [you].”
He also said that everyone knew President Trump is “racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic” and “we are going to fight that. America has a history of fighting and stopping those kinds of individuals who continue to divide people and divide communities.”
“Many Somalis that live in this community are working, working at your groceries, working in your hospitals… they are successful individuals.”
The mayor and the city’s police chief also stressed that no local police would be involved in ICE operations.
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Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll take part in the White House internship class photo at 10.30am ET, which is closed to the press.
Then he’ll make an announcement in the Oval Office at 2.30pm ET. We’ll bring you the key lines as it happens.
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Tennessee special election takeaways
Voters may have elected Republican Matt Van Epps to fill the vacant seat in the state on Tuesday, but the single-digit win is being interpreted by some as a warning sign for the GOP ahead of midterms next year.
Trump won the district by 22 points last year, while Van Epps only won by nine points over Democrat Aftyn Behn – a secure lead but seen as underperforming. Behn ran an unapologetically progressive campaign in a seat viewed as safely red.
Democrats are now left wondering what could have been if they had run a more moderate candidate, while Republicans are counting the costs of an expensive race and the departure of some voters. The district’s former representative Mark Green won the seat by 21 points last year.
Van Epps’ win now pads out the Republican majority in the house to 220-214.
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Trump and other senior officials had signalled tightening restrictions on immigration – it has been a flagship policy of his second term – but this was ramped up after the deadly shooting in Washington DC last week.
The main suspect in the shooting, which killed one, is an Afghan national who entered the United States during mass evacuations as US and foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
He pleaded not guilty to murder charges on Tuesday.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services memo said it “plays an instrumental role in preventing terrorists from seeking safe haven in the United States”.
The country had recently seen “what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people”, it added, citing the Afghan murder suspect.
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Immigration halted for 19 countries
Trump had threatened the dramatic crackdown on immigration from the 19 already-targeted countries, following the shooting of two national guard members by an Afghan suspect last week.
He said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover”.
The affected nations are: Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.
They’re among the poorest in Africa, the Middle East and central and south-east Asia.
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‘We stand with you’: Minneapolis mayor supports Somali community
Minneapolis is home to the country’s largest Somali population, with about 80,000 living in the state. Most are US citizens or legal residents.
In response to Trump’s attack and the looming immigration crackdown reported, the city leaders held a press conference on Tuesday.
Mayor Jacob Frey said the city stands with its Somali community, delivering the message first in Somali and then in English.
“To our Somali community, we love you, we stand with you and we aren’t backing down,” he said. “That commitment is rock solid.”
He condemned the plan to target people who just look like they could be from the East African nation, saying it violates basic principles of American democracy.
“Targeting Somali people means that due process will be violated, mistakes will be made, and let’s be clear, it means that American citizens will be detained for no other reason than they look Somali,” Frey said.
The city’s police chief has said that his department had not received advance notice of any operations, and besides, Minneapolis police do not assist federal agents with immigration enforcement.
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ICE planning operations targeting Somalis -report
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area, where most Somalis reside, would see stepped-up deportation efforts this week, focusing primarily on Somalis who have final deportation orders.
It would use “strike teams” of ICE agents and other federal officers, bringing in about 100 agents from across the country, the Times reported. Other media outlets, including the Associated Press, have confirmed the reporting.
The move comes after the right has seized on several fraud cases, spanning multiple years, that involve dozens of Somali residents who prosecutors allege lied to the state to receive reimbursements for meal disbursements, medical care, housing and autism services. The Trump administration previously threatened to revoke temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota, citing the state as a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, also announced on Monday that his agency would be investigating whether taxpayer dollars from Minnesotans had “been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab”, sharing a recent story from a rightwing outlet that made such claims.
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Trump attacks Somali immigrants and calls Ilhan Omar ‘garbage’
In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump went off on Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen. He said Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason”.
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. He called Omar “garbage” and said “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country”.
“These are people who do nothing but complain,” he said. “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing … When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
“His obsession with me is creepy,” Omar responded in a social media post. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
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Welcome to US politics live
Good morning and welcome to our US Politics live blog, as we track the escalating attacks against immigrants being launched by the Trump administration.
Yesterday, President Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage” in a xenophobic rant in cabinet where he said “I don’t want them in our country” and they should “go back to where they came from”. It comes amid reports ICE agents are about to launch crackdowns targeting the Somali communities in Minnesota.
The Trump administration yesterday also halted all immigration for people from 19 nations – including Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti.
The 19 non-European countries have been under a partial travel ban since June – but this dramatic move brings to a halt all stages of the journey including green card and US citizenship processing.
It’s a move that affects countless people, and with no word as to how long the pause will last, it’s almost certain that families will remain separated for longer, in limbo.
I’m Frances Mao, stay with me as I take you through the key details.
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