Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

A group of more than 120 Democrats in the US House on Thursday pressed Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth on whether American forces used artificial intelligence in the deadly bombing of an elementary school in southern Iran.

“What is the role of artificial intelligence, if any, in selecting targets, assessing intelligence, and making legal determinations during Operation Epic Fury?” the Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), asked in a letter to Hegseth. “If AI is used, is it subject to human review and at what point? Was artificial intelligence, including the use of the Maven Smart System, used to identify the Shajareh Tayyebeh school as a target? If so, did a human verify the accuracy of this target?”

The letter to Hegseth was sent a day after The New York Times reported that Pentagon investigators preliminarily concluded that US forces were responsible for the bombing of the girls’ school in Minab, Iran—a strike that killed at least 175 people, mostly children.

The Democratic lawmakers cited the Times’ reporting in their letter, writing that they “are particularly disturbed” by the school bombing, which President Donald Trump initially—and without a shred of evidence—tried to pin on Iran before later saying he didn’t “know enough about it” to assign blame.

According to the Times, the school strike “was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part.”

The US military has confirmed using AI tools in its illegal war on Iran, which is being carried out in partnership with Israeli forces that have used artificial intelligence extensively in their genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip.

“Our war fighters are leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools,” Brad Cooper, the head of the US Central Command, said in a video message released Wednesday. “These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react.”

NBC News reported earlier this week that the US military is “using AI systems from data analytics company Palantir to identify potential targets in the ongoing attacks.”

“The use of Palantir’s software, which relies in part on Anthropic’s Claude AI systems, comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aims to put artificial intelligence at the heart of America’s combat operations,” the outlet noted.

During his tenure as head of the Pentagon, Hegseth has worked to dismantle initiatives aimed at reducing civilian killings, scoffed at “stupid rules of engagement,” and touted “maximum lethality” as a top priority for the US military.

In their letter on Thursday, the House Democrats wrote that mass civilian deaths in the US-Israeli war on Iran are “alarming yet unsurprising” given Hegseth and Trump’s open contempt for legal constraints on American forces.

“The US and Israel have reportedly struck or impacted numerous civilian sites—including schools, hospitals, gymnasiums, public gathering spaces, and a UNESCO heritage site,” the lawmakers wrote. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure may under no circumstances be the object of attack and must at all times be respected and protected by all parties.”

A coalition of peace groups on Wednesday launched a new national campaign calling for the top Democrats in Congress—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—to resign from their leadership roles, citing their failure to sufficiently fight back “against a war-crazed Trump administration.”

The coalition, which includes Peace Action and RootsAction, launched a petition declaring that it is “time for congressional Democrats to replace Schumer and Jeffries with leaders who are willing and able to challenge the runaway militarism that has dragged our country into launching yet another insanely destructive war,” this time against Iran.

“Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have not acted to prevent war on Venezuela or the current war on Iran,” the petition reads. “They worked to delay a vote on Iran until after the war had started, while failing to clearly oppose it before or after the launch of the war. Schumer and Jeffries have shown that they cannot be trusted to prevent more wars, more threats of wars, or the transfer of another half a trillion dollars a year into the war machine.”

Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action—the largest grassroots peace network in the US—said in a statement that he doubts “at this point whether many people look to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries for ‘leadership’ in Congress, but we would settle for them getting with the program and representing their base, and the majority of Americans, who want them to stand strongly against Trump’s illegal wars and domestic terror campaigns against the American people.”

“They need to speak out loudly and clearly, and get their caucuses in line, to oppose the upcoming $50 billion or more for Trump’s illegal war of aggression on Iran, and to cut off US weapons to Israel,” said Martin. “Failing to do so will only increase calls for them to step down or be replaced by colleagues who understand where the American people are on these and other critical issues.”

Since the start of the illegal US-Israeli assault on Iran, Schumer and Jeffries have focused largely on procedural objections to the war, the Trump administration’s incompetence, and the president’s failure to clearly articulate his objectives, rather than explicitly opposing the military onslaught.

In an appearance on NBC‘s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Jeffries declined to say whether he would oppose the Trump administration’s expected push for $50 billion in new funding for the unauthorized war on Iran.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Jeffries said, chiding the administration for failing to “make its case as to the rationale or justification for this war of choice in the Middle East.”

Sarah Lazare and Adam Johnson wrote for The Nation last week that “it’s not enough to check the box, to do the bare minimum, to reinforce every argument for war only to balk at the process and ask whether there’s a ‘plan’ for after the myriad war crimes have already been committed.”

“The only way to read this half-hearted response from the Democratic Party leadership,” they argued, “is de facto support.”

US Rep. Ro Khanna on Saturday demanded swift action from Congress to stop the Trump administration’s unauthorized military assault on Iran, saying in a video posted to social media that “the American people are tired of regime change wars that cost us billions of dollars and risk our lives.”

“We don’t want to be at war with a country of 90 million people in the Middle East,” said Khanna (D-Calif.), calling on Congress to reconvene for a vote on Monday.

“Every member of Congress should go on record today on how they will vote on Thomas Massie and my War Powers resolution,” Khanna added, referring to the Kentucky Republican who is co-leading the measure.

If passed, the resolution would require the president “to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran.”

The White House reportedly only notified some members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees after the US-Israeli military assault on Iran began. According to Reuters, an Israeli defense official said that “the operation had been planned for months in coordination with Washington, and that the launch date was decided weeks ago.”

Days prior to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the House Democratic leadership announced it would force a vote next week on the Khanna-Massie War Powers resolution following reports that top Democrats were slowwalking the measure behind closed doors.

Senate Democrats also said they planned to vote next week on a War Powers resolution led by Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

In a statement on Saturday, Kaine called the US attacks on Iran “illegal” and said that “every single senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action.”

“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of US meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East? Is he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?” Kaine asked. “These strikes are a colossal mistake, and I pray they do not cost our sons and daughters in uniform and at embassies throughout the region their lives. The Senate should immediately return to session and vote on my War Powers resolution.”

The chances of a War Powers resolution getting through the Republican-controlled Congress are virtually nonexistent, even though the American public overwhelmingly opposes US military action against Iran. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) both issued statements applauding Trump for the unauthorized Saturday attacks.

Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser to the advocacy group Demand Progress, said that “Trump has no authority to launch another war on his own.”

“The Constitution is clear. The need for a War Powers resolution is clear. Congress decides when this country goes to war, not the president,” said Kharrazian. “Next week, every member of Congress will have to choose. Side with illegal, endless war, or side with the American people and reject yet another regime change war in the Middle East. Like with Iraq, the choice they make will echo loudly for years to come.”

Republican US Sen. Mike Lee, a leading proponent of selling off the country’s public lands, moved Wednesday to begin the process expediting an attack on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in his home state of Utah, drawing outrage from conservationists who vowed to pull out all the stops to protect the national treasure.

Lee kick-started the process by entering a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion into the congressional record. Last month, the GAO determined that a Biden-era management plan aimed at shielding Grand Staircase-Escalante constitutes a rule under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which gives lawmakers a limited time to undo federal rules after they are finalized.

In the coming days, Lee and his allies are expected to introduce a resolution of disapproval under the CRA in an effort to roll back the monument management plan. CRA resolutions are privileged and not subject to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster, meaning Republicans could pass the measure without any Democratic support.

Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah), who requested the GAO opinion, is leading the House effort to repeal the Grand Staircase-Escalante management plan.

Tom Delehanty, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain office, said in a statement Thursday that “the fate of our public lands, including our precious national monuments, should not be left to a handful of politicians who want to turn them over to industry.”

“While this may be the first CRA attack on a national monument, it will not be the last if members of Congress on both sides of the aisle don’t stand up to oppose it,” Delehanty warned. “Sen. Lee’s use of this arcane law would throw out years of planning by local officials, Tribes, and communities, setting a dangerous precedent on public land protection. Anyone who values our public lands and national monuments should take note.”

The legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Steve Bloch, said the GOP’s escalating attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante “is a call to action for Americans from across the nation.”

“This wild landscape is quintessential southern Utah redrock country with its stunning geology, irreplaceable cultural resources, unique fossils, and wide-open spaces,” said Bloch. “All of that is at risk if this attack succeeds and the monument management plan is undone. We intend to move heaven and earth to stop that from happening.”

During his first term in the White House, President Donald Trump launched a massive assault on Grand Staircase-Escalante, shrinking it by nearly 50%—a move that former President Joe Biden reversed.

But the Washington Post reported last year that the Trump administration has considered assailing the national monument yet again as part of a broader push to open the nation’s public lands to commercial activity and industry exploitation.

Dan Ritzman, Sierra Club’s director of conservation, said Thursday that congressional Republicans’ use of the CRA to gut protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante is “unprecedented” and “unlawful.”

“Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is one of this country’s most treasured public landscapes, and the public has been involved from advocating for its protection to organizing its long-term management,” said Ritzman. “Overturning this plan erases years of public engagement and Tribal consultation, and threatens certainty for everyone who uses and enjoys this iconic landscape.”

The Federal Reserve board has quietly appointed a prominent Wall Street lawyer and lobbyist as the central bank’s director of supervision and regulation, a move that one critic said was worse than “putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.”

“This is like appointing a lifelong arsonist as a fire chief,” Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, said in response to the Fed’s decision to put Randall Guynn in a position to regulate the industry he has long represented.

Politico reported Tuesday that “Guynn, a prominent Wall Street lawyer, will become the next director of supervision and regulation at the Federal Reserve, effective March 8.”

Before joining Fed staff last year as an adviser to the central bank’s vice chair for supervision, Guynn worked for close to four decades at the corporate law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he recently chaired the company’s Financial Institutions Group. According to Guynn’s bio, he has “focused on advising banks of all sizes on their most critical financial regulatory issues and transactions.”

Reuters, which first reported earlier this month that the Fed was expected to appoint Guynn to the bank policing role, noted that the decision “would mark a departure for the central bank, which since at least 1977 has filled the job with long-serving Fed career staff.”

“The only reasonable expectation is that his leadership of Fed supervision and regulation will accelerate the Fed’s current push to implement policies that favor the biggest, most dangerous banks.”

In a statement, Kelleher of Better Markets described Guynn as a “lawyer-lobbyist” who has “spent his entire professional life—almost 40 years—zealously and exclusively representing the interests of the financial industry, including the biggest financial firms on Wall Street.”

A 2024 paper published in Cambridge University’s Perspectives on Politics journal identified Guynn as part of a “vast subterranean world of regulatory influence-seeking” that has managed to escape the scrutiny of legislative lobbying.

“Reporting exceptions under the Lobbying Disclosure Act allow many of the most powerful advocates to characterize their activity as lawyering, not lobbying, and thereby fly under the radar,” the paper notes.

Kelleher argued that, given Guynn’s history, “the only reasonable expectation is that his leadership of Fed supervision and regulation will accelerate the Fed’s current push to implement policies that favor the biggest, most dangerous banks—his former clients just ten months ago and presumably his current circle of professional and personal friends.”

“That will crush small banks, harm the Main Street economy, and make another financial crash inevitable. That’s what happened in the early 2000s when the Fed’s misguided belief that Wall Street could regulate itself directly led to the catastrophic 2008 crash,” said Kelleher. “We don’t have to speculate. We can look at his attached record or read the remarkable story of how, as a lawyer-lobbyist prior to joining the Fed staff last year, he was instrumental in pushing through a back-door merger approval by the Fed.”

“There can be little doubt that having a Wall Street lawyer-lobbyist in charge of supervising and regulating his former Wall Street clients will likely result in a catastrophe for the American people,” he added.

Revised federal data released Wednesday shows that the US economy under the stewardship of President Donald Trump added hundreds of thousands fewer jobs in 2025 than previously reported, further undercutting the president’s claim to have ushered in the “greatest” economy in history.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday that US employers added just 181,000 jobs last year, an average of roughly 15,000 per month. That’s roughly 69% fewer than the previous estimate of 584,000 jobs created in 2025.

Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive advocacy group, said the updated figures paint “a grim picture” of the job market under Trump, who has repeatedly promised—and taken credit for bringing about—an economic boom.

“Today’s numbers show that the economy spent 2025 treading water while costs surged and families fell further behind,” said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork. “Job growth was dramatically weaker than advertised and concentrated nearly entirely in healthcare, leaving the rest of the labor market to stall. Opportunities are drying up outside a handful of sectors, and more and more workers are settling for part-time hours or have stopped looking for work entirely. 2025 was a lost year for American workers.”

Daniel Zhao, chief economist at the employment site Glassdoor, told the New York Times in response to the revised numbers that “we’ve been hearing from workers that the job market is not working for them for some time.”

“The anecdotes are starting to align with the data,” Zhao added.

A separate analysis released Wednesday by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) found that the US lost 108,000 manufacturing jobs during the first year of Trump’s second term in the White House, despite the president’s pledge to revive American industry through his tariff regime.

“While President Trump promised us a manufacturing boom, the reality of his first year has been a bust,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the JEC’s ranking member. “It is critical for both our national security and our economic future that we grow our manufacturing sector. The president has instead spent his first year burdening manufacturers with reckless tariffs, and this loss of jobs is the result.”

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday that Attorney General Pam Bondi should be facing impeachment, pointing to the top Justice Department official’s handling of the Epstein files, efforts to force Minnesota to hand over its voter data, and arrest of journalists including former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made the call in response to Bondi’s Friday morning announcement that Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort, and two others were arrested in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church earlier this month.“Between this, Epstein, and her attempted extortion of MN voter files, Bondi should be up for impeachment too,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media, alluding to the ongoing effort to oust Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Following the arrests of Lemon and others, the Justice Department announced the release of more than 3 million pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—more than a month after the passage of a deadline established by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November.

But the latest disclosure did not satisfy the lawmakers leading the push for full transparency. The Justice Department indicated Friday that it only released around half of the Epstein documents subject to review.

“Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have now made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50% of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law. This is outrageous and incredibly concerning,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. “The Oversight Committee subpoena directs Pam Bondi to release all the files to the committee, while protecting survivors. They are in violation of the law.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who floated impeachment proceedings against Bondi last month, said in a statement that he will be “reviewing closely to see if they release what I’ve been pushing for: the FBI 302 victim interview statements, a draft indictment and prosecution memorandum prepared during the 2007 Florida investigation, and hundreds of thousands of emails and files from Epstein’s computers.”

“Failing to release these files only shields the powerful individuals who were involved and hurts the public’s trust in our institutions,” said Khanna, the author of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday that Attorney General Pam Bondi should be facing impeachment, pointing to the top Justice Department official’s handling of the Epstein files, efforts to force Minnesota to hand over its voter data, and the arrest of journalists, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made the call in response to Bondi’s Friday morning announcement that Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort, and two others were arrested in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church earlier this month.

“Between this, Epstein, and her attempted extortion of MN voter files, Bondi should be up for impeachment too,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media, alluding to the ongoing effort to oust Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Following the arrests of Lemon and others, the Justice Department announced the release of more than 3 million pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—more than a month after the passage of a deadline established by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November.

But the latest disclosure did not satisfy the lawmakers leading the push for full transparency. The Justice Department indicated Friday that it only released around half of the Epstein documents subject to review.

“Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have now made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50% of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law. This is outrageous and incredibly concerning,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. “The Oversight Committee subpoena directs Pam Bondi to release all the files to the committee, while protecting survivors. They are in violation of the law.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who floated impeachment proceedings against Bondi last month, said in a statement that he will be “reviewing closely to see if they release what I’ve been pushing for: the FBI 302 victim interview statements, a draft indictment and prosecution memorandum prepared during the 2007 Florida investigation, and hundreds of thousands of emails and files from Epstein’s computers.”

“Failing to release these files only shields the powerful individuals who were involved and hurts the public’s trust in our institutions,” said Khanna, the author of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

A Scottish lawmaker railed against US President Donald Trump on Wednesday over the American military’s seizure of an oil tanker and detention of its two top officers earlier this month in waters between Iceland and Scotland.

Ross Greer, a member of the Scottish Parliament and co-leader of Scotland’s Green Party, said that two people—tanker captain Avtandil Kalandadze and his unnamed first officer—“have been abducted from Scotland in the middle of the night by the US military, despite our highest court ordering they be kept under our jurisdiction.”

As the Scottish newspaper The National reported Thursday, Kalandadze—a Georgian national—and his first officer were taken out of UK territory by the US Coast Guard earlier this week despite a court ruling against their removal from Scotland’s jurisdiction.

“He’s not our ally. He is a fascist,” Greer said of Trump during his remarks in Parliament on Wednesday. “Our sovereignty has been violated, our courts have been defied, and a foreign military has abducted two people from our territory.”

Greer called on the Scottish government to immediately evict US troops from Prestwick Airport, which is used by American forces.

“Will the first minister show Trump that his piracy has consequences?” Greer asked.

The BBC reported Wednesday that the Trump administration “says it intends to prosecute” Kalandadze and his colleague for alleged involvement in the violation of US sanctions.

Angela Constance, Scotland’s justice secretary, has said the Trump administration’s handling of the vessel seizure and abduction of its crew has demonstrated a lack of respect for Scottish jurisdiction.

“We have a number of questions, we have a number of concerns, and deep frustrations about how this matter has evolved, because it is a matter of significant public interest and confidence,” Constance said earlier this week. “The Scottish government wants to play our part in international justice because that is appropriate and responsible. But that starts with the recognition and respect that must be afforded to Scottish jurisdiction and Scots law.”

Aamer Anwar, an attorney representing Kalandadze’s wife in a lawsuit over the incident, said earlier this week that the captain was “whisked away under the cover of darkness” by US forces, and “we have no idea what role our own governments played in that.”

“A dangerous precedent has been set, as the US should not have the power to arrest people under our control,” said Anwar. “These people have been denied their most basic human rights right under our noses, whilst the UK knowingly assisted the US ‘abduction’ of two men from Scotland to avoid the Judicial Review taking place.”

Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry filed a formal note of protest on Tuesday after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tried to enter the South American nation’s consulate in Minneapolis before being stopped by a staffer inside the building.

In a statement released following the incident, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said an ICE agent “attempted to enter the consulate premises,” but “consulate officials immediately prevented” the officer from getting through the door, “thus ensuring the protection of Ecuadorians who were present at the time and activating emergency protocols.”

The ministry said it “immediately presented a note of protest” to the US Embassy in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, “so that acts of this nature are not repeated in any of Ecuador’s consular offices in the United States.”

Under international treaties, law enforcement officers of host nations are barred from entering foreign embassies and consulates without permission.

One eyewitness to the incident in Minneapolis, a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s violent mass deportation efforts, told Reuters that they saw ICE agents “going after two people in the street, and then those people went into the consulate and the officers tried to go in after them.”

Video footage posted to social media shows a consulate official walking quickly to the building’s entryway and repeatedly telling an ICE agent that he “cannot enter.”

The ICE agent can be heard telling the consulate staffer, “If you touch me, I will grab you.”

“ICE set off an international incident in Minneapolis today because agents tried to go into the Consulate of Ecuador without permission, and then yelled at their staff for trying to keep them out,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on social media.

The video can be seen here.

Republicans in the US Senate indicated Sunday that they planned to move ahead this week with government funding legislation that includes $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a federal agent gunned down intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, a killing captured on video from multiple angles.

“My support for funding ICE remains the same,” declared Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), a sentiment echoed by other GOP lawmakers ahead of votes on a package of six government appropriations bills approved by the US House last week.

“We’re not defunding ICE,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) after the horrific shooting of Pretti. “Live with it.”

An unnamed Senate Republican aide told Punchbowl that “government funding expires at the end of the week, and Republicans are determined to not have another government shutdown. We will move forward as planned and hope Democrats can find a path forward to join us.”

One of the bills up for consideration in the Senate this week would provide $64.4 billion in taxpayer money to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including $10 billion for ICE—an agency that is already more heavily funded than many national militaries. Last summer, congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump approved $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement, which ICE has used to massively jack up weapons spending.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly has the votes from his caucus to block the DHS funding bill.

Senate Democrats have proposed separating the DHS legislation from the rest of the appropriations bills to avoid a looming January 30 shutdown and debate ICE reforms. The American Prospect‘s David Dayen reported late Sunday that Democrats are “going to ask for real investigations into the murders (including an end to impeding the state/local investigations)” as well as an end to arrest quotas and mask-wearing by ICE agents.

“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Democrats’ top appropriator in the Senate. “I will NOT support the DHS bill as it stands. The DHS bill needs to be split off from the larger funding package before the Senate—Republicans must work with us to do that. I will continue fighting to rein in DHS and ICE.”

Murray also stressed that “blocking the DHS funding bill will not shut down ICE.”

“ICE is now sitting on a massive slush fund it can tap, whether or not we pass a funding bill,” the senator added. “But we all saw another American shot and killed in broad daylight. There must be accountability, and we must keep pushing Republicans to work with us to rein in DHS.”

“The Senate must immediately take out any additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the current spending bill. Congressional Republicans must answer for these killings.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the top Republican appropriator, did not mention ICE funding in her statement on Pretti’s killing, saying only that “this tragic shooting needs to be thoroughly and transparently investigated.”

Assuming unified support from their caucus, Senate Republicans need at least seven Democratic votes to pass the funding package with DHS appropriations included. Last week, seven House Democrats voted with Republicans to approve the DHS funding.

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement that “this federal enforcement agency is running rampant with an outrageous budget that dwarfs most countries’ militaries.”

“The Department of Homeland Security must get ICE off our streets now, and the Senate must immediately take out any additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the current spending bill,” said Gilbert. “Congressional Republicans must answer for these killings.”

Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA’s director for refugee and migrant rights, asked, “How many more people must die before US leaders act?”

“The US Senate faces an urgent choice in the coming days: continue pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into a lawless agency that endangers lives with impunity, or take meaningful action to rein in ICE and stop funding its abuses,” said Fischer.

The Trump White House has reportedly ordered federal agencies to conduct a sweeping review of funding to more than a dozen states carried by former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, a move that lawmakers from the targeted states condemned as unlawful political retaliation.

The review, first reported by RealClearPolitics, was outlined in a data request that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent out on Tuesday. Every federal department and agency was included in the request except for the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington, DC are the jurisdictions targeted by the OMB.

The OMB memo, according to the Washington Post, “requests agencies provide detailed information on all funds to those states, including money routed for state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and higher education institutions.” OMB claims it is trying to root out fraud.

“This is authoritarianism, plain and simple,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whose state is the only one on the list with a Republican governor.

“The Trump administration is targeting states that didn’t vote for him—including my home state of Vermont,” Sanders added. “Using federal power to punish political opponents is anti-democratic and blatantly illegal.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) similarly condemned the funding investigation as “more political retribution from Trump, the authoritarian strongman, and his crony Russ Vought,” the head of OMB.

“This is a blatant and dangerous abuse of power,” Merkley wrote on social media. “Trump does not care how many people he hurts to score cheap political points.”

The OMB data request is just the latest instance of the Trump administration specifically targeting federal funds to Democratic-led states.

The White House budget office previously tried to cut off clean energy funds to Democratic-run states before being blocked in court. Earlier this month, the Trump administration froze $10 billion in childcare and social services funding for low-income families in five Democratic-led states, claiming fraud.

Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the administration’s new funding investigation “follows a clear pattern” and marks “a harmful and shameful escalation of the administration’s corrupt politicization of basic governance.”

“Withholding federal funding can have grave consequences,” said Parrott. “Just take the five-state freeze on childcare. In just those states, those funds are used to provide care to nearly 340,000 children. Without funding, childcare providers close, kids don’t get care, and parents can’t go to work.”

A congressional report published Tuesday further undercut US President Donald Trump’s claim that he has defeated inflation, estimating that the average American family paid $1,625 in higher costs last year as the Republican president’s tariffs and broader policy agenda drove up prices across the nation’s economy.

The new analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) found that the $1,625 total includes $323 more for housing expenses and $241 more for transportation costs. In some states—including Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York—the average family paid more than $2,000 in higher costs in 2025 as prices for groceries, housing, and other necessities continued to rise under Trump’s leadership.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the ranking member of the JEC, said in a statement that “President Trump has imposed reckless tariffs, driven up healthcare costs, and created economic uncertainty. And because of these choices that he made, Americans are paying over $1,600 more than when he came into office.”

“While the president pledged that he would end inflation and now claims that prices are down,” Hassan added, “the data reflects what families are experiencing every day: higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet.”

The JEC report was released just weeks after Trump falsely proclaimed in a year-end address to the nation that “inflation is stopped” and “prices are down.” CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted that inflation data released on the morning of Trump’s December 17 speech showed that “average consumer prices were 2.7% higher in December than they were a year prior and 0.3% higher than they were in November.”

Trump also used his primetime speech to hail the supposed successes of his tariff regime. But a report released Monday showed that US consumers and businesses, not foreign exporters, are shouldering nearly all of the burden of the White House’s import taxes.

“Despite President Trump’s claims that 2025 was the ‘greatest first year in history’ for an American president, Americans’ attitudes about their economic security and the latest economic data say otherwise,” experts at the Center for American Progress wrote Tuesday. “With increased costs of everyday items due to tariffs and fewer job opportunities, families are feeling the direct impacts of the Trump administration’s harmful economic policies.”

The leading French economist Gabriel Zucman is urging European governments to inflict financial pain on American billionaires in response to US President Donald Trump’s effort to seize control of Greenland, a mineral-rich island that some of Trump’s rich campaign donors see as a potentially massive profit opportunity.

“Europe should respond to Trump’s blackmail with targeted measures aimed not at American consumers, but at American billionaires,” Zucman wrote in a post on his Substack. “Access to the European market—by billionaires and the companies they own—should be made conditional on paying a wealth tax: in effect, a tariff for oligarchs. If Elon Musk, for example, wants to keep selling Teslas in Europe, he should have to pay it. If he refuses, Tesla would lose access to the European market.”Zucman outlined his proposal after Trump threatened over the weekend to hit France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland with tariffs up to 25% if they don’t drop their opposition to the US president’s demand for “the complete and total purchase of Greenland,” an autonomous territory of Denmark.

The targeted countries are currently weighing retaliatory tariffs and other potential responses to Trump’s threat.

Zucman, a renowned expert on global inequality, argued that while existing mechanisms such as the anti-coercion instrument known as Europe’s trade “bazooka” can be useful, “anti-oligarchic protectionism has a decisive advantage: It opens a two-front struggle against Trump, at home and abroad.”

“By targeting oligarchic wealth rather than national pride,” Zucman wrote, “Europe can blunt Trump’s ability to mobilize nationalist resentment and rally part of the American public behind his imperial agenda.”

Trump’s proposed Greenland takeover is widely opposed by the island’s population and US voters. But as journalist Casey Michel wrote for The New Republic last week, there is one key constituency that stands to benefit massively from a US takeover of the mineral-rich territory: American oligarchs, including some of Trump’s top campaign donors.

“Ranging from tech moguls to fossil fuel company heads, all of these figures and forces have invested in mining and extraction companies across the island—and all stand to profit if only they can cut out any pesky Danish or Greenlandic authorities from regulating or restraining their operations,” wrote Michel. “The figures behind the curtain are by no means obscure. KoBold Metals, a mining outfit helping lead Greenland’s ‘modern gold rush,’ has seen investments from figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and hedge funds like Andreessen Horowitz.”

“Another company eyeing Greenland,” Michel added, “is Critical Metals Corp, which is backed by the same hedge fund that Howard Lutnick, now Trump’s commerce secretary, spent years running.”

“The vast fortunes of the sleaze buckets who put Trump into the White House and back his attack on democracy in the United States and around the world will suddenly be thrown into question.”

Tariffs targeting such firms and the billionaires behind them, Zucman argued, would be the most effective way to penalize Trump’s reckless behavior and deter him in the future.

“If imperialism is driven by oligarchic power, then oligarchic power must be confronted,” Zucman wrote. “What are the alternatives? Doing nothing invites endless blackmail.”

US economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, made the case for a similarly aggressive European response to Trump’s economic warfare.

“European countries can announce that they will no longer honor US-owned patents and copyrights,” Baker wrote Monday. “Putting US patents and copyrights on the line is a guaranteed attention grabber. The vast fortunes of the sleaze buckets who put Trump into the White House and back his attack on democracy in the United States and around the world will suddenly be thrown into question.”

“The key point is that European countries, by opting to not respect US patents and copyrights, have an incredibly powerful weapon to use against Donald Trump and his rich supporters,” Baker added. “The time has come for them to go nuclear.”

The first U.S. sale of Venezuelan oil since the Trump administration attacked the South American country earlier this month went to the company of a trader who donated millions to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The roughly $250 million sale of Venezuelan crude went to Vitol, a Geneva-based energy and commodity trading firm whose U.S. arm is headquartered in Houston. The Financial Times reported late last week that John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol, was involved in his company’s efforts to secure the deal.

Addison, who attended a recent White House meeting with other top oil executives, donated $6 million total to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign via several super PACs, including $5 million to MAGA Inc.

“Addison pledged to Trump at the [White House] event that Vitol would attain the best price possible for Venezuelan oil for the US, ‘so that the influence you have over the Venezuelans will ensure that you get what you want,’” according to the Financial Times.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) noted on social media that Vitol has a “criminal history of bribing foreign governments” and called the Venezuelan oil deal “fundamentally corrupt.”

“Trump took Venezuela’s oil at gunpoint, and gave it to one of his biggest campaign donors,” Murphy wrote. “Vitol had to buy access to Trump because under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t be able to get a deal like this.”

Vitol is one of a number of corporations positioned to reap windfall profits from the Trump administration’s assault on Venezuela, abduction of its president, and efforts to seize and indefinitely control the country’s vast oil reserves.

As the Washington Post reported over the weekend:

Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer’s firm Elliott Investment Management has for years been in the process of acquiring distressed Venezuelan-owned assets in the US and is on the cusp of owning them. After clearing final regulatory and legal approval, the firm can use them to make a considerable profit turning newly available Venezuelan oil into gasoline. The company that would be acquired by an Elliott affiliate is Citgo, the Houston-based refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Citgo owns refineries in Illinois, Louisiana and Texas that are well-positioned to profit off the millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil that Trump says will be steered to US refineries because it is a particularly heavy blend of crude that is difficult to process. Only certain refineries, like those run by Citgo, are equipped to handle it.

Proceeds from the U.S. sale of Venezuelan oil are being stashed in Qatar—an arrangement that critics said opens the door to additional corruption.

“After illegally and unconstitutionally striking Venezuela, Trump is now selling Venezuelan oil through a campaign donor, and funneling the proceeds to an offshore account in Qatar—creating a potential slush fund with no accountability, oversight, or guardrails for Trump and his allies,” U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) wrote late Sunday. “His continued abuse of power doesn’t serve the Venezuelan people or the American people—and it certainly doesn’t lower costs for Americans.”

“This outrage,” Booker added, “is yet another example of his unchecked corruption as he again ignores laws and enriches his friends, donors, and himself.”