Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday urged nearly one million Sri Lankans working and living in the Middle East to exercise heightened vigilance, and avoid nonessential travel as well as large public gatherings.

Separately, the country’s aviation authority said flights from Sri Lanka to destinations in the Middle East have been suspended.

Argentine President Javier Milei praised the joint operation carried out Saturday by the U.S. and Israel that killed Iran’s supreme leader, whom he described as “one of the most evil, violent, and cruel individuals in modern history.”

In his statement, Milei also recalled the 1994 terrorist attack on the Argentine Jewish community center, known as AMIA, in Buenos Aires.

The bombing killed 85 people and injured hundreds, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.

The president reaffirmed that pursuing justice for the victims of the AMIA attack remains a state policy.

“We will continue until the last person responsible pays with his freedom or his life for this horrific crime,” Milei said.

A Chinese organization is registering citizens in Iran for evacuation to neighboring countries, according to a Chinese media report.

More than 200 Chinese are scattered across Iran, Tan Kai, the president of the Iran Federation of Chinese Organizations, told the Global Times newspaper.

The group is making evacuation preparations at the instruction of the Chinese Embassy, Tan said.

An embassy statement said the land borders with Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey were open for individuals wishing to depart on their own.

In Israel, the Chinese Embassy advised citizens to move to safe areas away from the centers of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem and airports, power stations and similar sites.

It said it would begin registering citizens on Sunday who wish to evacuate to Egypt and cannot do so on their own.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a top security adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were killed in American-Israel airstrikes on the country, state media reported Sunday.

The state-run IRNA news agency announced the death of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, who took over as the Guard’s top commander after Israel killed its past commander in the 12-day June war.

Also killed was Ali Shamkhani, long a figurehead within Iran’s security establishment, IRNA said.

Shamkhani was wounded in the June war.

A council has formed to govern Iran after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

That council is enshrined in law in the Islamic Republic.

The council is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with Parliament.

Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei are on it.

Iranian law says the Assembly of Experts “must, as soon as possible” pick a new supreme leader.

Dubai authorities say that debris from an aerial interception sparked a fire at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, the city’s main sea terminal and a major global transshipment hub.

The Dubai Media Office says emergency crews responded immediately to the blaze on one of the port’s berths and were working to contain it.

The sprawling Jebel Ali, which sits between Dubai’s two manmade palm-shaped islands, is the world’s busiest port outside of East Asia.

The best known of those islands, the Palm Jumeirah, was also struck.

Dubai officials earlier reported that debris from an intercepted drone also caused a fire on the facade of the city’s iconic Burj Al Arab hotel.

The media office also said the Dubai International Airport was damaged and that four employees were injured.

It said the damage was quickly contained.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Sunday to launch its “most-intense offensive operation” ever after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The most-intense offensive operation in the history of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will begin in moments, targeting (Israel) and American terrorists bases,” it said.

On Iranian state television, an anchor broke in to read the announcement of Khamenei’s death.

“To the noble and proud people of Iran: With the ultimate grief and sorrow this is to inform you that following the barbaric attack by the crim inal governments of America and the evil Zionist regime, the true example of faith, jihad and resistance, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution Grand Ayatollah Khamenei achieved the blessing of martyrdom,” the anchor said.

Iran’s Cabinet warned early Sunday that this “great crime will never go unanswered” after a U.S.-Israeli campaign killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The statement comes after Iranian state media reported Khamenei, 86, had been killed in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran.

The daughter and son-in-law of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were killed in the U.S.-Israeli attacks Saturday in Iran, according to a semiofficial news agency.

Also killed in the Saturday attacks were a grandchild and a daughter-in-law, the Fars News Agency said, citing unidentified sources.

The agency didn’t provide further details.

Israel’s military said it carried out strikes in central and western Iran early Sunday that targeted “ballistic missile array and aerial defense systems.”

It said more than 30 targets were hit.

Iran has not acknowledged its materiel losses since the American-Israeli campaign began Saturday.

Iranian state television described Khamenei as being at his compound in downtown Tehran when the initial attack began.

Satellite photos from Airbus showed the site heavily bombed.

His death at his office “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,” state TV said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, is dead, Iranian state media reported early Sunday.

Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency reported his death, without elaborating on a cause of death.

U.S. President Donald Trump had said earlier he’d been killed in a joint American-Israeli operation targeting Iran.

A global shipping firm has instructed its vessels inside the Persian Gulf, and bound to the Persian Gulf, to shelter, citing the rapid military escalation between the U.S., Israel and Iran, and restrictions on traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The company, CMA CGM, said on its website that it has suspended the passage of its vessels through the Suez Canal, a crucial waterway connecting the Red and Mediterranean seas.

“Vessels will be rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope,” it said.

New Zealand says the U.S and Israeli attacks were designed to prevent the Iranian regime from threatening international peace and security.

“New Zealand has consistently condemned Iran’s nuclear program, its destabilising activities in the region and elsewhere, and its repression of its own people,” New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a joint statement.

“Iran has, for decades, defied the will and expectations of the international community. The legitimacy of a government rests on the support of its people,” they added. “The Iranian regime has long since lost that support. In this context, we acknowledge that the actions taken overnight by the U.S. and Israel were designed to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security.”

Maged Abdelaziz, the 22-nation league’s U.N. observer, accused Israel of using the Iran war to evade ending its occupation of Palestinian territories and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state – and to impose its “hegemony on the Middle East by using military means.”

Despite the announcement of some progress in U.S.-Iranian talks in Geneva two days ago, he told ab emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Saturday that Israel launched “a wanton military attack” claiming it “was intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

“At the same time, Israel itself refuses to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty,” he said., and it refuses to subject its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear safeguards regime.

Abdelaziz, a former Egyptian ambassador to the U.N., said Israel has also refused to attend U.N. conferences on establishing the Middle East as a zone free of nuclear weapons.

Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi said Sunday morning that one person was killed and seven others were injured in a drone strike, the second attack on an Emirati commercial airport in the past 24 hours.

The airport is home to Etihad Airways and a transit hub between Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It said the individual killed was a national of an unnamed Asian country.

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency will convene a special session at its headquarters in Vienna on Monday morning following a request from the Russian Federation, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a press release.

In a diplomatic note dated Feb. 28 and seen by The Associated Press, Russia’s Permanent Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna requested the convening of the special session “on matters related to military strikes of the United States and Israel against the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran … .”

In a rare and colorful exchange, the representatives of the U.S. and Iran at the United Nations exchanged warnings and direct rebuffs toward the end of the emergency session on Iran as military aggression between their countries risked spilling into a regional war.

After U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz responded to Iranian claims that America had violated international law, Tehran’s diplomat to the U.N. asked to speak again to issue a warning. “I advise to the representative of the United States to be polite. It will be better for yourself and the country you represent.”

Waltz responded immediately, saying, “This representative sits here, in this body, representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people, and imprisoned many more, simply for wanting freedom from your entire tyranny.”

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Iranian chants of “Death to Israel, Death to America” and the burning of both countries’ flags were acts of “state-sanctioned hatred” and preparation for action.

“But today, alongside our ally the United States, we acted to stop … an existential threat before it, became irreversible,” he said, stressing that Israel didn’t act on impulse or for aggression. “We acted out of necessity,” he said.

Danon said “diplomacy was exhausted.”

Addressing the Iranian people, he said the operation is directed “at a regime that has silenced you” and Israel stands “with you.”

In Dubai, air defenses intercepted a drone whose debris caused a limited fire on the exterior façade of the Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s iconic sail-shaped luxury hotel, the Dubai media office said in a statement on Sunday.

Civil defense teams brought the blaze under control with no injuries reported, the statement added.

Earlier, videos circulating on social-media showed debris falling near the Burj Al Arab with a fire visible in the area.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the Iranian attacks that targeted the sovereignty and security” of Gulf monarchies hit by barrages of Iranian missiles.

Under ousted leader Bashar Assad, Syria was among Iran’s closest regional allies and a staunch critic of Israel. Yet the statement made no mention of the Israeli or U.S. strikes that began the day, reflecting the new government efforts to rebuild ties with regional economic heavyweights and the United States.

Iran’s Iravani blasted the U.N. and the Security Council — its most powerful body — for not heeding Tehran’s warnings about the “warmongering statements and interfering actions” by the U.S. in the last several weeks while calling for the council to act.

“The issue before the council is straightforward: whether any Member State may, including a permanent member of this Council, through the use of force, coercion, or aggression, determine the political future or system of another State or impose control over its affairs,” he said.

During his speech, the diplomat did not mention or comment on Trump and Netanyahu’s recent statements about Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei being dead.

As the missiles started flying Saturday morning and Israel closed border crossings into Gaza, Palestinians in the strip panicked, fearing the unfolding regional conflict would create further scarcity in the war-torn territory.

The packed markets, empty grocery shelves and scores of desperate Palestinians searching for food in the markets of Deir al-Balah made clear no one had forgotten the long periods of hunger they endured during the Israel-Hamas war, which a ceasefire paused in October.

Aid groups had already warned supplies were flagging before the first missiles flew.

Customers tried to grab whatever non-essential items remained on the shelves. Many merchants hiked prices of essential goods, like sugar and oil. Cooking oil went from 6 shekels to 30 shekels ($1.91 to $9.50). As cars lined up outside gas stations, the price of fuel rose to 35 shekels ($11.16 a liter)

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said that Hamas police had arrested 29 merchants and closed 11 shops that were inflating prices, as part of an anti-monopoly effort across the strip Saturday. They called on Palestinians to make a report to authorities if they observed price-gouging.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles — home to the largest population of Iranians outside Iran — celebrated the attack by dancing, chanting and waving flags outside a federal building in the Westwood neighborhood.

“Down with Islamic Republic!” they shouted. “Democracy for Iran!”

Many in the crowd of hundreds waved the red, white and green “Lion and Sun” flag, which was the Iranian flag before the 1979 revolution brought the ayatollah to power. Others carried Israeli or American flags.

Led by an emcee, the crowd also chanted thanks to President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some wore hats or shirts labeled “MIGA” or “Make Iran Great Again.”

About half a million Iranian Americans live in the Greater Los Angeles region. West Los Angeles in particular is home to a cultural enclave known as “Tehrangeles,” or Little Persia, featuring grocery stores, ice cream and kebab shops, restaurants, bakeries and bookstores.

Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, said Saturday that Israel and America will “regret their actions.”

“The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hellish international oppressors,” Larijani posted on X.

Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said Saturday night that a woman in the Tel Aviv area had died after being injured in an Iranian missile attack.

It was the first death announced in Israel since the exchange of missiles began Saturday morning. It came after a heavy barrage of Iranian projectiles targeted central Israel, damaging buildings and setting fires.

The service did not immediately identify the woman or give more details on the incident.

“We demand that the United States and Israel immediately cease their aggressive actions,” Vassily Nebenzia told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “We insist on the immediate resumption of political and diplomatic settlement efforts … based on international law, mutual respect and a balance of interests.”

He said Moscow stands ready “to provide all necessary assistance” for that to happen.

China’s U.N. Ambassador Fu Cong supported Russia’s call for de-escalation and a return to diplomatic negotiations.
He said China is very concerned at “the sudden escalation of regional tensions” caused by the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.

“China stresses that the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran and other regional countries must be respected,” Fu said.

Dubai International Airport, the largest in the United Arab Emirates and one of the busiest in the world, said Saturday that four people were injured in a “blatant attack involving Iranian ballistic missiles.”

The UAE condemned the attack.

Strikes were also reported at other commercial airports in the region, including Kuwait International. Other airports closed and canceled flights

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, spoke during an emergency Security Council meeting Saturday after China, Russia and France, among others, requested a meeting hours after the first strikes on Tehran.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That principle is not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of global security. And to that end, the United States is taking lawful actions,” Waltz said.

Jerome Bonnafont also offered France’s assistance to help protect regional countries targeted by Iranian retaliatory attacks.

He called the new war between the United States, Israel and Iran “dangerous for everyone — and it must cease immediately.”

He did not condemn the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, but told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council: “We robustly condemn the indiscriminate attacks by Iran against several countries in the region.” he said.

“And we are ready to deploy the means necessary to protect them if they so request,” the French ambassador said.

He accused Iran of failing to provide transparency about its nuclear program and its enriched uranium.

Nonetheless, Bonnafont said France believes a nuclear agreement is possible and calls for a serious Iranian commitment to negotiations.

Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Associated Press earlier in the week that one of the key lessons Tehran drew from last year’s war was the need to ensure regime continuity in case of Khamenei’s death.

“Iranian decision-makers understand that leadership decapitation is not merely symbolic,” he said.

Based on published reports and Iran’s past behavior, Citrinowicz said power could shift to a small committee of top officials rather than a single successor until hostilities subsided.

“It is possible that Khamenei has indicated a preferred successor behind closed doors. However, automatic implementation of a pre-selected successor will increase internal friction during war,” he said.

Here’s a quick look at the Iranians who Israel is claiming its strikes killed. Iran and the US have yet to comment on the claims.

• Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who survived an Israeli attack targeting him during the June war

• Gen. Mohammad PakpourCommander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard

• Salah Asadithe chief of intelligence in Iran’s military emergency headquarters

• Gen. Aziz NasirzadehIranian Defense Minister

• Mohammad Shirazi, Head of Military Bureau of Khamenei

Trump in his social media post said that the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would not bring an end to the joint airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel.

“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” Trump said.

The president stresses that his hope was for the Iranian government to join with the opposition.

Trump said on social media that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead, saying his passing is “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”

The death occurred after a joint U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites.

Trump in his post called Khamenei “one of the most evil people in history.”

Trump said that Khamenei “was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

Good loved sparkles and laughter and any excuse for a celebration. She loved pretty much everyone she met and was late for pretty much everything.

“She had this way of making you feel special and loved that I didn’t even understand that until we lost her,” Donna Ganger said of her daughter, who was shot and killed by an immigration officer Jan. 7.

She was “slow to anger, quick to love, quick to care,” said her father, Tim Ganger. “That’s the essence of who she was.”

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed Jan. 7 as immigration agents surged through the Minneapolis area, sparking protests. Her death and that of another U.S. citizen, Alex Prettiweeks later sparked outrage across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement.

Good’s parents and two of her brothers, Brent and Luke Ganger, met AP journalists Friday in Denver for a long interview.

▶ Read more from the interview with Good’s loved ones

The department said Friday that it has ended its collective bargaining agreement with unionized workers employed at the Internal Revenue Service.

Agency leaders told employees they were using a Trump executive order signed last March to make the change. Workers at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service are also affected.

The National Treasury Employees Union says the IRS cannot end the contract on its own. The union sued the federal government last year over the executive order, but an appeals court decision this week cleared the way for the order to proceed.

In a break from tradition, refugees admitted after extensive interviews and vetting are being detained and questioned again.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in November that the Biden administration’s evaluation of roughly 200,000 refugees was inadequate. DHS says it is reviewing cases, starting with about 5,600 refugees who settled in Minnesota.

Some have been handcuffed, shackled and flown to Texas for questioning. After being released, they have had to find their own way home. One was asked to sign documents saying she would voluntarily leave the U.S. She refused as part of a larger legal fight.

▶ Read more about the change in policy

The United States swept both Olympic hockey gold medals only to see the celebrations turn into a political flashpoint.

The men took a locker room call from Trump, who joked that he would need to also invite the women’s team to the White House.

Later a doctored White House TikTok upset American player Brady Tkachuk.

Both teams stressed that they back each other’s runs to gold.

▶ Read more on what to know about the political hullaballoo surrounding U.S. Olympic hockey gold

The president stopped at the burger joint after addressing a crowd at the Port of Corpus Christi.

“I’m going to get some stuff for Air Force One, and I’m going to get the hell out of here,” he said before greeting workers and patrons.

Trump also suggested that he would buy food for everyone in the restaurant, saying: “Can you handle it? Hamburgers for all!”

The order covers refugees in the state who are lawfully in the country. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by refugees’ advocates to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction.

The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 19 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day.

The Trump administration asserts that it has the right to arrest potentially tens of thousands of refugees nationwide who entered legally but do not yet have green cards. A new Homeland Security memo interprets immigration laws to say that refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody one year after they were admitted so their applications can be reviewed.

The president told a crowd in Corpus Christi, Texas, that he would rather handle Tehran “the peaceful way,” saying he laid out his terms for an agreement with the country to the Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn as they flew together on Air Force One on Friday.

Trump said Iran wants to make a deal it has to be “meaningful” in stopping the possibility of the country developing enough enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

He called it “a very big decision,” as he criticized Iran for human rights abuses.

The Democratic former president’s closed-door deposition ended after more than six hours of questioning from lawmakers who said he answered every question posed to him.

Clinton told members of Congress that he “did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse. Lawmakers questioned him over his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.

“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said in an opening statement he shared on social media at the outset of the deposition.

Quaid, who played President Ronald Reagan in a 2024 biopic, got a lift on the real Air Force One and a speaking role behind the presidential seal. Trump invited him on stage briefly during his rally in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“I love Corpus Christi, and I love Donald Trump,” Quaid said.

Earlier in the day, Sen. Ted Cruz posted a 14-second video of Quaid, dressed in a suit, seated next to Trump at a conference table aboard the Air Force One.

In addition to playing the 40th president in “Reagan,” Quaid also appeared as President Bill Clinton in “The Special Relationship,” a 2010 film about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s relationship with his U.S. counterpart.

“We have a great attorney general, Ken Paxton. Hi Ken,” the president said.

“And we have a great senator, John Cornyn,” he added, looking at the seated officials from the stage. “You’re in a little bit of a race.”

The primary is Tuesday, and Cornyn is trying to survive a challenge from Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, who was also at the event in Corpus Christi.

Trump mentioned Hunt, too, after running through the long list of Texas U.S. House members present.

“And another friend of mine who is doing very well, Wesley Hunt. Wesley Hunt, what a good job,” the president said.

In a nod to the competitive primary, Trump noted, “You do have an interesting election.”

Asked by reporters, Trump said he has “pretty much” decided whom to endorse but declined to specify.

That could prevent U.S. military vendors from working with the company. Hegseth spoke a little more than an hour after Trump said he was ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology Friday.

Hegseth’s comments, delivered in a social media post, came shortly after the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences — and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Defense Department’s demands.

Scouting America President and CEO Roger Krone says the organization’s agreement with the Pentagon does not change its existing policies regarding transgender youth and they remain welcome.

“We have transgender people in our program, and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward,” Krone told The Associated Press.

The Pentagon made the deal with Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, to maintain their century-old partnership.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the agreement refocuses the organization away from “woke” policies he accused it of embracing and put heavy emphasis on the group’s acceptance of transgender youth.

The embattled House Republican, who is fending off calls to resign after reports of an affair with a former aide who later set herself on fire, made his way to Trump’s Corpus Christi event.

The president made mention of his presence, saying: “Congressman Tony Gonzales is here.”

Corpus Christi is not in Gonzales’ district.

As Trump gave his shoutout to Gonzales, he added, “Tony, congratulations.” It was unclear what Trump was congratulating him for.

Trump has endorsed Gonzales in his primary.

The president again floated the idea of running for a third term during an address at the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas.

“Maybe we do one more term, should we do one more?” he asked the crowd, which responded with cheers.

The president added that “we’re entitled to it, because they cheated like hell,” in reference to the 2020 election.

Allegations from Trump of massive voting fraud have previously been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department.

He says he’s “pretty much” decided whom to endorse in the competitive three-way GOP race.

But he’s no t ready to give it away, telling reporters “no, not yet,” when asked if he would say.

Trump is visiting Corpus Christi to promote U.S. energy production just four days before the primary.

Joining him is four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn and the two Republicans challenging him in the Tuesday primary, state Attorney General Ken Paxton and two-term Rep. Wesley Hunt.

The secretary of state declared Iran to be a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” ramping up pressure on the country as tensions rise over the possibility of U.S. military strikes on the Islamic republic.

In a statement, Rubio said the move was due to Iran’s continued arrests and imprisonment of “innocent Americans” and citizens of other countries for use as political leverage.
“This abhorrent practice must end,” he said.

The move does not automatically carry any penalties, but Rubio said if Iran doesn’t stop, he could make it illegal for a U.S. passport to be used for travel to or from Iran. That restriction currently only applies to North Korea.

Sen. Mark Warner said Trump’s move to cut all government ties with the AI company Anthropic, “combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”

Warner also noted that “Hegseth’s loud insistence on the sufficiency of an ‘all lawful purposes’ standard provides cold comfort against the backdrop of Pentagon leadership that has routinely sidelined career military attorneys and challenged longstanding norms and rules regarding lethal force.”

Ahead of Trump’s visit, Energy Secretary Chris Wright authorized a 12% expansion in liquefied natural gas exports at Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi terminal.

The order, signed Thursday as Wright toured the site, makes the terminal the second largest LNG export project in the U.S.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first export cargo of U.S. LNG gas produced from the lower 48 states. The U.S. is now the world’s largest LNG exporter.

Wright said he was proud to be in Corpus Christi, “standing alongside the American workers responsible for unleashing American energy dominance.”

Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that opposes LNG exports, said the Trump administration was “doubling down on a harmful energy source at exactly the moment when we should be full speed ahead on safe, clean and reliable renewable energy.”

Trump’s comments came just over an hour before the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences — and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Defense Department’s demands.

Anthropic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment to Trump’s remarks.

At issue in the defense contract was a clash over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how increasingly capable machines could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance.

Aides to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, confirmed that the lawmakers have received the White House’s latest offer on ending the ongoing DHS shutdown.

Earlier Friday, a White House official said the administration had sent a new proposal to Schumer and Jeffries on Thursday, calling the offer “serious.”

In a joint statement to reporters, aides to Schumer and Jeffries said their offices are reviewing the White House proposal “closely” and that Democrats are continuing to push for “real reforms” on the conduct of federal immigration agents.

California Rep. Ro Khanna, a leading advocate to release all Epstein documents, said Democratic members and their lawyers put “survivors first” by asking “difficult questions” and establishing “basic facts” from Bill Clinton.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-New Mexico, described the former president as an important witness.

“It is very well established that President Clinton had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and we are treating this investigation extraordinarily seriously,” she said.

She emphasized that “there are not public files available that accuse (Clinton) of a crime, whereas there are publicly available documents that do allege a crime of President Trump.”

But she described Clinton as being among the figures who can shed light on “why there was a culture around (Epstein) where the rich and powerful turned a blind eye.”

Comer told reporters that Bill Clinton said Trump “has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved.”

The chairman said that came in response to a question from Garcia, the ranking Democrat, about whether Trump should testify before the committee.

Garcia countered that Comer’s account was not “a complete accurate description of what actually was said.”

He said Clinton “did bring up some additional information about some discussions with President Trump” and argued that raises “some very important new questions about comments that President Trump has actually said in the past.”

That’s another reason to compel Trump to testify, Garcia added.

He declined to go into further details Clinton’s testimony, citing committee rules against disclosure — which he noted with a barb that “Republicans keep breaking the rules.”

Republicans in the House Oversight Committee majority asked Clinton questions for about an hour, followed by an hour from the Democratic minority, chairman James Comer told reporters outside.

Comer said Republicans would get another hour before a break. He said the day would be at about “the halfway point” by then, suggesting Clinton will spend at least six hours with lawmakers.

Trump on Friday put himself among the many who have misquoted a famous sentiment from the 30th U.S. president.

“President Calvin Coolidge: ‘The Business of America is BUSINESS!’” he wrote in a Truth Social post as he headed to Texas aboard Air Force One.

However, this isn’t exactly what Coolidge said. His actual wordssaid during an address in Washington to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Jan. 17, 1925, were: “After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”

Coolidge was talking about the “double purpose” of American newspapers — providing readers with information while also having their own business interests. He concluded that this dual role did not “seem to be cause for alarm.”

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said Trump has failed to explain the rationale or the risks involved in military action.

“President Trump’s saber-rattling for war with Iran is taking the country down a dangerous path without a clear strategy or endgame and putting U.S. national security at considerable risk,” Reed said in a statement.

As the House and Senate prepare for votes next week on war powers resolutions, he said Congress has received “no real briefings” on the administration’s plans.

“The administration has not presented Congress or the American people with any coherent legal or strategic justification for preemptive strikes,” Reed said. “The president is the Commander-In-Chief, but Congress alone holds the constitutional authority to authorize war.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday a bipartisan coalition is working to force a vote as soon as next week on a war powers resolution that would attempt to prevent any U.S. action against Iran without approval from Congress.

“The American people don’t want another failed forever foreign war, particularly in the Middle East, when we know the outcome is likely to be disastrous,” Jeffries said on MSNow.

“What we’ve got to do right now, of course, is to do everything we can to prevent that from happening,” he said. “It would be reckless. It would be dangerous. It would be harmful to America’s national security interests.”

As the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, the White House and Democratic leaders are continuing to exchange proposals to end the impasse.

A White House official said Friday that the administration sent another counteroffer to Democrats on Thursday. The official, granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations, called the offer “serious.”

Federal funding for DHS lapsed Jan. 30, with Democrats calling for more restrictions on the behavior of federal immigration agents in the aftermath of the death of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

But most of DHS provides critical governments, which means that federal employees are working — but not getting paid.

Pam Bondi says federal prosecutors have indicted 30 more people tied to a protest at a Minnesota church over an immigration enforcement crackdown.

Bondi says 25 of those people are already under arrest. The protest on Jan. 18 also led to the arrests of independent journalist Don Lemon and local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. Both have pleaded not guilty to civil rights charges.

Trump officials have strongly condemned the protest for interrupting a church service. Protesters took the action after learning a pastor there is also an immigration enforcement official.

In comments to reporters as he left the White House, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was negotiating at a high level with the Cuban government.

“The Cuban government is talking with us” the president said. “They have no money. They have no anything right now.” He added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

After his administration ousted Cuban ally and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump for weeks suggested Cuba was on the brink of collapse economically.

He didn’t say what he meant by a “friendly takeover” but suggested that after decades “of dealing with Cuba” something could happen that’d be “very positive” for Cuban exiles living in the U.S.

“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give u s what we have to have. I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens. We’re talking later,” Trump said to reporters as he left the White House.

Trump said it would be “wonderful” if Iran negotiated “in good faith and conscience,” but said, “They are not getting there.”

Trump was asked about the risks of the U.S. getting involved in a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East if it launches strikes on Iran.

“I guess you could say there’s always a risk,” Trump replied. “You know, when there’s war, there’s a risk of anything, both good and bad.”

Trump said on Friday that he is not pleased with the deposition of former President Bill Clinton in the House Epstein investigation.

“I like Bill Clinton and I don’t like seeing him deposed,” the president told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Corpus Christi, Texas.

“It should be incredibly obvious” that three years between launches is unacceptable, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, urging the space agency to cut the gap between Artemis flights to one year or less if it hopes to return astronauts to the moon on a sustainable schedule.

Isaacman unveiled an Artemis program overhaul Friday that adds an extra mission before any lunar landing by astronauts. Instead of attempting to land astronauts on the moon an estimated three years after the upcoming lunar fly-around, NASA will launch astronauts into orbit around Earth in their Orion capsule and have them practice docking with an orbiting lunar lander.

This new plan has the possibility of securing one and maybe two moon landings in 2028, during Trump’s second term.

The move aims to build momentum after repeated rocket repairs and warnings from a safety advisory panel. Isaacman noted that NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs flew in rapid succession before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the moon in 1969.

“No one here at NASA forgot their history books,” Isaacman said.

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Bill Clinton says in his prepared statement that “no person is above the law, even presidents.” He agreed to testify, he adds, because, “I love my country.”

Bill and Hillary Clinton initially pushed back against subpoenas they called a partisan stunt by Republicans. They yielded but demanded proceedings be opened. Republicans refused.

“The search for truth and justice,” Clinton planned to tell lawmakers, is more important than “the partisan urge to score points and create spectacle.”

He added a wish that political discourse be ratcheted down.

“Democracy requires every person to play their part, and I hope that by being her today, we can bring ourselves a little further away from the brink and back to being a country where we can disagree with one another civilly,” he says, adding, “I’ll do my part, and I hope you’ll do yours.”

“That might be unsatisfying,” the former president says of his plans to answer some questions by saying he has no recollection. “But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of. This was all a long time ago.”

Clinton adds that he is “bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess” — a standard he says “is not merely for my benefit but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later.”

Elsewhere in his prepared opening remarks, Bill Clinton is more emphatic about his own actions.

“I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see,” he says. “I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.”

“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” Bill Clinton says in his prepared opening statement.

“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long.”

The former president says in his prepared opening remarks that his wife — the former secretary of state and first lady — should never have been ensnared by the committee.

“Before we start, I have to get personal,” Bill Clinton says in his statement. “You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties.”

He continues: “Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.”

And he tells lawmakers that, just as he’s bound in sworn testimony, “each and every one of you owes nothing less than truth and accuracy to the American people.”

The former president is telling the House Oversight Committee that his “brief acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light.”

That’s according to a printed copy of his opening statement as it was prepared and released by Clinton’s office.

“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton says. “I saw nothing that ever gave me pause.”

Clinton’s remarks state that he is testifying “to offer what little I know so that it might prevent anything like this from ever happening again” and because “the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing.”

The Texas Republican fighting for re-election in a March 3 primary is flying with Trump back to his home state.

Cornyn was spotted at Andrews Air Force Base ahead of Trump’s departure from Washington for an event in Corpus Christi. The other Texas senator, Ted Cruz, is also traveling with the president, but he is not on the ballot this year.

Cornyn is locked in a viciously personal three-way primary with state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, all three have been trying to highlight their ties to him as campaigning intensifies ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

“We’re going to ask President Clinton the hard questions today,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. “What is truth about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? But let’s be real. We’re talking to the wrong president today.”

Democrats hope to leverage the Clintons’ appearances before House Oversight. They’ve noted that files released so far suggest Trump was more closely involved with Epstein than Clinton. And they want to emphasize that it’s the former president who is submitting to questions while the sitting president denies any involvement.

“President Trump is the one who is blocking our investigation. President Trump is the one who wants us to go away, but it will not go away,” Subramanyam said.

“I think it was telling that Secretary Clinton did not take the Fifth one time,” Garcia told reporters, referring to the constitutional protection defendants and witnesses sometimes cite when declining to answer questions in legal proceedings.

Garcia continued: “I think it’s important the president (Bill Clinton) do the same. I think he will answer questions today.”

Mace described Hillary Clinton “screaming” during her deposition on Thursday.

“I hope that President Clinton is less unhinged than his wife was yesterday,” Mace said Friday outside the building where the House Oversight panel is convening.

Democrats dismissed Mace’s description, which Rep. Robert Garcia said proves the need for Comer to release the “full, unedited” video. The Clintons had wanted to testify publicly but Comer insisted on the private sessions.

Garcia called the Republican questioning Thursday a “disgrace” focused on old “conspiracy theories.” He praised Hillary Clinton for participating.

He reminded reporters Friday that Democrats still want the proceedings to be open “so that you can hear the answer and the questions directly.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said ahead of Bill Clinton’s testimony Friday that Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should answer questions before the House Oversight Committee.

The secretary has admitted meeting Epstein after previously denying knowing him.

After Hillary Clinton’s testimony on Thursday, Comer would not rule out asking Lutnick to appear for questioning.

Chairman James Comey says he’ll send Republican members of his House Oversight Committee out to update reporters as Bill Clinton is being deposed.

Comey also promised to release video and transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s testimony.

The Clintons had wanted to testify in public, but the Republicans in control insisted on closed-door depositions. Democrats on the committee called for Comey to release the full video of the former secretary of state’s Thursday session.