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Hegseth faces a second day of Democrats grilling him over the Iran war
Hello and welcome to our US politics coverage as Pete Hegseth faces a second day of grilling from Democrats on Capitol Hill, with senators getting their first opportunity to confront or praise the Pentagon chief over his handling of the Iran war.
The defense secretary battled with Democrats – and some Republicans – yesterday during a nearly six-hour House armed services committee hearing, where he faced questioning over the war’s costs in dollars, lives and the diminishing stockpiles of critical weapons.
The Senate armed services committee will hear a similar presentation on the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion.
Yesterday Hegseth denied that the US-Israel war on Iran, which the Pentagon estimates has cost the US at least $25bn, was “a quagmire”.
During the hearing, California Democrat John Garamendi attacked Hegseth over the “astounding incompetence” that Garamendi argued had led to “political and economic disaster at every level”.
“The president has gotten himself and America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East,” Garamendi said. “He is desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes; it is in America’s, and indeed the world’s, interest he succeed in that.”
Hegseth was incensed, responding “Your hatred for president Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission … you call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement.”
Stay with us today for round two starting at 10am ET. The chief of staffs, Dan Caine, and Jules Hurst III, chief financial official for the Pentagon, will also be appearing.
In other developments:
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US economic growth likely accelerated in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending after a crippling government shutdown. The anticipated increase in gross domestic product last quarter also would reflect robust growth in business investment in equipment, fueled by an artificial intelligence spending boom and the building of data centers underpinning the technology. Figures will be out at 8.30am ET
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to make stops in Virginia before wrapping up their US visit back at the White House on Thursday with a formal farewell from Trump. Charles will then travel solo to Bermuda on his first visit as king to a British overseas territory.
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Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats will once again force a vote on a war powers resolution on Iran, the sixth time in recent weeks. “This week, Democrats will force a vote on our war powers resolution for the sixth time. We’ll continue to force votes every week as this war rages on,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
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The House approved a three-year reauthorization of a divisive US surveillance program ahead of its expiration on Friday, adding new oversight measures but stopping short of the warrant requirement that critics have demanded. A large group of Democrats joined most Republicans in passing the bill by a 235-191 vote.
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Trump once again reinforced his feelings towards James Comey in a social media post. Commenting on the accusation that the former FBI director called for him to be killed after posting a picture of some seashells in a pattern showing 86 47, Trump wrote: ““86” is a mob term for “kill him.” They say 86 him! 86 47 means “kill President Trump.”James Comey, who is a Dirty Cop, one of the worst, knows this full well! EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN! Didn’t he also lie to the FBI about this??? I think so!”. Trump is the 47th president of the US.
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The US supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
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The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Republicans launched ahead of this year’s midterms.
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Outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he will stay on as a central bank governor when his leadership term ends in just over two weeks.
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The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that three anti-ICE protesters have been charged with allegedly assaulting Savannah Hernandez, a rightwing video journalist who was shoved to the ground during a skirmish with three members of a family outside an immigration detention facility in St Paul Minnesota this month.
Key events
Ed Pilkington
The ruling from the US supreme court destroying one of the last pillars of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) marks the end of a long and painstaking campaign to roll back civil rights legislation by two titans of the court’s rightwing majority, chief justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
Acting as an unspoken double act, the duo have chipped away at what has been called the crown jewel of the civil rights movement. Wednesday’s ruling in Louisiana v Callais is the fifth major supreme court decision authored by the two justices that have slowly but surely strangled efforts to protect the democratic rights of Black and other minority Americans.
The attack on section 2 of the VRA in this latest ruling eviscerates a critical tool that had been used for 40 years to prevent the political power of minority voters being diluted by largely Republican southern states in the drafting of electoral maps. The ruling finds that attempts to create a second electoral district in Louisiana that would give African American voters the chance to choose their own representatives proportionate to the state’s population, which is about one-third Black, was a form of “unconstitutional racial gerrymandering”.
The conclusion of the rightwing majority, voting 6-3 on ideological lines, overturns the clear will of Congress, laid down in the original 1965 statute and then overwhelmingly reaffirmed in later years. It was ironically done in the name of the equal protection clause of the US constitution which was designed with the opposite purpose in mind – to protect the interests of minority voters.
Oil price tops $126 a barrel after Trump warns Iran blockade could last ‘months’
Mark Saunokonoko
The global oil price has soared above $126 a barrel, its highest level since 2022, after Donald Trump warned the US blockade of Iranian ports could last for months and peace talks remained stalled.
After surging more than 13% in 24 hours, the price of Brent crude futures reached its highest price since the war began on 28 February. Not since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has Brent topped $120, with the price then peaking at $139.
Oil markets have been spooked this week as Trump appeared willing to maintain the US navy’s blockade of Iranian ports, with Iran responding by keeping the strait of Hormuz all but shut to other oil tankers.
Market observers believe that traders are beginning to look beyond the early optimism that a diplomatic resolution could restore Gulf oil flows through the vital trade route, and towards “the reality of the supply situation”.
“The breakdown of talks between the US and Iran, along with President Trump reportedly rejecting Iran’s proposal for a reopening of the strait of Hormuz, has the market losing hope for any quick resumption in oil flows,” Warren Patterson, the head of commodities at investment bank ING, said.
Trump told oil executives this week that the US would “continue the current blockade for months if needed,” according to a White House official.
US officials hope the blockade will force Iran to cap its oil wells and shutter production once its oil facilities, such as Kharg Island, have filled to the brim.
“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” Trump told Axios. “They are choking like a stuffed pig.”
A bit more now from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. He said in a written message on Thursday that the United States had been defeated in its war on Iran.
“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” said Khamenei in the message read on state television.
House votes to reauthorize domestic surveillance
The US government’s effort to renew its warrantless domestic surveillance powers cleared the House of Representatives on Wednesday, after House speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials persuaded Republican holdouts to back the bill.
The renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act now goes to the Senate, where it faces a potentially rough reception because it was attached to unrelated legislation that would restrict the Federal Reserve’s ability to issue digital currency – something Senate majority leader John Thune has described as a non-starter.
The White House and Congressional leadership have piled pressure on recalcitrant lawmakers to endorse FISA, which has drawn bipartisan skepticism because a provision in the law – Section 702 – allows authorities to bypass warrant requirements before rifling through vast hauls of Americans’ communication data.
US spy chiefs have long defended the program, saying it provides an irreplaceable surveillance tool.
Lawmakers’ concerns over the warrantless spying have in past years repeatedly delayed attempts to renew the surveillance authority, although the intelligence community and its allies always won in the end.
‘Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice have no place in Gulf except at the bottom of its waters’, says Iran’s supreme leader
Iran’s supreme leader says that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, even as US president Donald Trump tries to get a deal on those issues.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the 28 February airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities – from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities – as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said.
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei added in the statement.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it – except at the bottom of its waters.”
British monarchs to say farewell to Trumps on last day of US state visit
Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla will end a four-day state visit to the US on Thursday with a formal farewell with US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump in Washington.
The king is then expected to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River in Virginia, a sacred site for many Americans where tens of thousands of the country’s war dead are buried, as well as two presidents and some former Supreme Court justices.
The royal visit to the US, officially to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from British rule, came at a time of tensions between Britain and the US, with Trump having criticized British prime minister Keir Starmer for what he says is his lack of help in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Charles and Camilla are due to fly to Bermuda on Thursday evening, after attending events in Virginia.
A message from Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei will shortly be released on the occasion of “national Persian Gulf day“, the country’s state media said on Thursday.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has previously said that Iran’s new leader, who has not been seen in public since the war began, is “disfigured”.
It comes at a time when Iran’s Gulf ports are under a US blockade.
US growth likely picked up in first quarter
US economic growth likely accelerated in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending after a crippling government shutdown, but the pickup is expected to be short-lived as the war with Iran drives up gasoline prices and squeezes household budgets.
The anticipated increase in gross domestic product last quarter also would reflect robust growth in business investment in equipment, fueled by an artificial intelligence spending boom and the building of data centers underpinning the technology, Reuters reported.
The Commerce Department’s advance estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday is, however, expected to show consumer spending losing further momentum even before the US-Israeli war with Iran raised the average US gasoline price to above $4 a gallon.
“We remain in relatively slow growth mode, nothing exciting,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “There’s nothing really to get a good fire going. There are some warm embers, but there is no fire out there.“
Hegseth faces a second day of Democrats grilling him over the Iran war
Hello and welcome to our US politics coverage as Pete Hegseth faces a second day of grilling from Democrats on Capitol Hill, with senators getting their first opportunity to confront or praise the Pentagon chief over his handling of the Iran war.
The defense secretary battled with Democrats – and some Republicans – yesterday during a nearly six-hour House armed services committee hearing, where he faced questioning over the war’s costs in dollars, lives and the diminishing stockpiles of critical weapons.
The Senate armed services committee will hear a similar presentation on the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion.
Yesterday Hegseth denied that the US-Israel war on Iran, which the Pentagon estimates has cost the US at least $25bn, was “a quagmire”.
During the hearing, California Democrat John Garamendi attacked Hegseth over the “astounding incompetence” that Garamendi argued had led to “political and economic disaster at every level”.
“The president has gotten himself and America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East,” Garamendi said. “He is desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes; it is in America’s, and indeed the world’s, interest he succeed in that.”
Hegseth was incensed, responding “Your hatred for president Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission … you call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement.”
Stay with us today for round two starting at 10am ET. The chief of staffs, Dan Caine, and Jules Hurst III, chief financial official for the Pentagon, will also be appearing.
In other developments:
-
US economic growth likely accelerated in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending after a crippling government shutdown. The anticipated increase in gross domestic product last quarter also would reflect robust growth in business investment in equipment, fueled by an artificial intelligence spending boom and the building of data centers underpinning the technology. Figures will be out at 8.30am ET
-
King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to make stops in Virginia before wrapping up their US visit back at the White House on Thursday with a formal farewell from Trump. Charles will then travel solo to Bermuda on his first visit as king to a British overseas territory.
-
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats will once again force a vote on a war powers resolution on Iran, the sixth time in recent weeks. “This week, Democrats will force a vote on our war powers resolution for the sixth time. We’ll continue to force votes every week as this war rages on,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
-
The House approved a three-year reauthorization of a divisive US surveillance program ahead of its expiration on Friday, adding new oversight measures but stopping short of the warrant requirement that critics have demanded. A large group of Democrats joined most Republicans in passing the bill by a 235-191 vote.
-
Trump once again reinforced his feelings towards James Comey in a social media post. Commenting on the accusation that the former FBI director called for him to be killed after posting a picture of some seashells in a pattern showing 86 47, Trump wrote: ““86” is a mob term for “kill him.” They say 86 him! 86 47 means “kill President Trump.”James Comey, who is a Dirty Cop, one of the worst, knows this full well! EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN! Didn’t he also lie to the FBI about this??? I think so!”. Trump is the 47th president of the US.
-
The US supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
-
The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Republicans launched ahead of this year’s midterms.
-
Outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he will stay on as a central bank governor when his leadership term ends in just over two weeks.
-
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that three anti-ICE protesters have been charged with allegedly assaulting Savannah Hernandez, a rightwing video journalist who was shoved to the ground during a skirmish with three members of a family outside an immigration detention facility in St Paul Minnesota this month.
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