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Six Republicans joined Wednesday night with Democrats in the House in voting to end President Donald Trump’s stepped-up tariffs on Canada, rebuking the president in the first of what could be several congressional challenges to his trade policies.

The measure is largely symbolic and is not likely to succeed in overturning tariffs on the major U.S. trading partner, because Trump could veto the resolution if it clears the Senate as well. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers to override his veto.

But the action showcases the long-standing frustration some congressional Republicans have with Trump’s controversial trade policies, and it’s the latest evidence of the difficulties House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is having managing his razor-thin majority.

The resolution from Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-New York) would end the “national emergency” underpinning Trump’s tariffs on Canada, which were first announced in February 2025. Wednesday was the first time that the House has considered a challenge to Trump’s tariffs. The Republican-controlled chamber had used procedural moves to preemptively muzzle opposition to the administration’s trade policy since March.

“Will you vote to lower the cost of living for the American families? Or will you keep prices high out of loyalty to one person?” Meeks said in a floor speech ahead of the vote Wednesday afternoon, arguing that the tariffs have pushed costs up for consumers.

The latest prohibition on voting on legislation to challenge Trump’s tariffs expired at the end of January, and Johnson attempted to renew it through July as part of a procedural vote Tuesday night. The House rejected that attempt, opening the controversial policy up for reversals for the first time in nearly a year.

Sixty percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s increased tariffs, while 37 percent say they approve, according to a February survey from the Pew Research Center.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the House’s action, but the administration has argued that the tariffs are necessary to rebalance trade deficits and incentivize U.S.-based manufacturing, though manufacturing employment has declined since April.

Three House Republicans – Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Don Bacon (Nebraska) and Kevin Kiley (California) – voted with all of the chamber’s Democrats to block the prohibition Tuesday.

The Senate has previously voted to end the administration’s tariffs on multiple occasions, but those efforts couldn’t move forward under the House’s ban on considering such measures.

Most Canadian products that do not qualify for tariff-free treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Trump signed in his first term, are subject to a 35 percent tariff.

Trump imposed the tariffs that the House disapproved Wednesday in response to what he described as Canada’s failure to prevent the flow of illicit opioids and other drugs into the United States.

But the president’s broader objective with his tariff campaign is boosting domestic manufacturing production and hiring.

The results so far are mixed. Factory output is up about 2.5 percent since Trump returned to the White House, but it remains below levels reached under President Joe Biden.

The number of factory jobs increased in January for the first time in more than a year. But the 5,000-person increase did little to offset the earlier manufacturing shrinkage that defied the president’s “America First” ambitions.

Manufacturing now employs 313,000 fewer Americans than it did three years ago, at the Biden-era peak of 12.9 million in early 2023. Since April, when Trump declared a national emergency over the trade deficit and imposed his historic import taxes, 72,000 factory positions have vanished.

Administration officials insist that the economy this year will surge. Trump has said that tariffs are the key to his promised “Golden Age,” saying they will encourage new investment in manufacturing and provide the federal government with more revenue.

Importers have paid more than $133 billion in Trump’s emergency tariffs, including $2.4 billion on products from Canada, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The president claims that foreigners pay these costs, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claims that overseas manufacturers are absorbing tariff costs to maintain their foothold in the U.S. market.

Most independent assessments disagree, finding that American companies and consumers are paying the price.

“Higher tariffs directly increase the cost of imported goods, raising prices for U.S. consumers and businesses,” the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday in its latest assessment of the U.S. economy.

Americans are paying 95 percent of the tariffs, while foreign companies swallow the remainder, the independent budget office said.

The CBO analysis echoed the findings of a December study by economists at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, which concluded that 94 percent of the tariffs imposed last year were passed on to U.S. importers.

(c) 2026, The Washington Post 

The Internal Revenue Service improperly shared confidential tax information of thousands of individuals with immigration enforcement officials, according to three people familiar with the situation, appearing to breach a legal fire wall intended to protect taxpayer data.

The erroneous disclosure was only recently discovered, the people said. The IRS is working with officials from the Treasury Department, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security on the administration’s response.

The IRS confirmed The Washington Post’s reporting in a court filing Wednesday afternoon. Dottie Romo, the tax agency’s chief risk and control officer, wrote in a sworn declaration that the IRS provided confidential taxpayer information even when DHS officials could not provide sufficient data to positively identify a specific individual.

The erroneous disclosure was only recently discovered, the people said. The IRS is working with officials from the Treasury Department, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security on the administration’s response.

The IRS confirmed The Washington Post’s reporting in a court filing Wednesday afternoon. Dottie Romo, the tax agency’s chief risk and control officer, wrote in a sworn declaration that the IRS provided confidential taxpayer information even when DHS officials could not provide sufficient data to positively identify a specific individual.

But in a controversial decision, Treasury, which oversees the IRS, in April agreed to provide DHS with the names and addresses of individuals the Trump administration believed to be in the country illegally, pursuant to DHS requests.

Federal courts have since blocked the data-sharing arrangement, holding that it violates taxpayers’ rights, though the government appealed those rulings.

Before the agreement was struck down, DHS requested the addresses of 1.2 million individuals from the IRS. The tax agency responded with data on 47,000 individuals, according to court records.

When the IRS shared the addresses with DHS, it also inadvertently disclosed private information for thousands of taxpayers erroneously, a mistake only recently discovered, said the people familiar, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Romo, in her declaration, did not state when the IRS learned of its error. She said the agency notified DHS on Jan. 23, to begin taking steps to “prevent the disclosure or dissemination, and to ensure appropriate disposal, of any data provided to ICE by IRS based on incomplete or insufficient address information.”

She declined to state if the IRS would inform people whose data was illegally disclosed to immigration officials, and said DHS and ICE had agreed to “not inspect, view, use, copy, distribute, rely on, or otherwise act on any return information that has been obtained from or disclosed by IRS” because of the pending litigation.

The affected individuals could be entitled to financial compensation for each time their information was improperly shared. And government officials can personally face stiff civil and criminal penalties for sharing confidential tax information.

Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor, pleaded guilty in 2023 to leaking the tax returns of President Donald Trump and other wealthy individuals.

Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison. Trump in January sued the IRS for $10 billion in damages related to the Littlejohn leak.

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said that under the data-sharing agreement, “the government is finally doing what it should have all along.”

“Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, and identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense,” the spokesperson said.

There is little evidence that undocumented immigrants have attempted to participate in U.S. elections, nor is there a link between undocumented immigrants and higher levels of crime.

“With the IRS information specifically, DHS plans to focus on enforcing long-neglected criminal laws that apply to illegal aliens,” the DHS spokesperson said.

Treasury and Justice Department spokespeople declined to comment, citing agency policies not to comment on active litigation. The Office of the Deputy Attorney General is monitoring the ongoing litigation, but the office is not making any decisions on the matter, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.

When the IRS began conversations with DHS over data sharing shortly after Trump returned to the White House, senior IRS employees warned administration officials that the program was likely illegal and could sweep up misidentified people, The Post has reported.

During early meetings on the project, one agency staffer asked immigration authorities how many people with the same name may live in the same state, according to one of the people, illustrating how easy it would be for the Trump administration to inadvertently breach taxpayers’ privacy, including those who are not targets of immigration investigations.

The IRS’s privacy department was largely sidelined from the talks, two of the people said, and its IT department took over implementing the data sharing. That team had largely been taken over by officials from Trump’s U.S. DOGE Service, the White House’s “efficiency” office charged with shrinking the federal government.

Treasury officials justified the data-sharing agreement by arguing immigration enforcement was pursuing individuals who had violated criminal statutes, though immigration violations are generally civil, not criminal.

Under the arrangement, DHS would provide the IRS with the name and address of a taxpayer. The IRS would then cross-reference that information with its confidential databases and confirm the taxpayers’ last known address.

Immigration officials said the procedure was necessary because DHS lacked reliable information to locate individuals the Trump administration wanted to detain and deport, according to numerous IRS and DHS officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

“This allegedly unauthorized viewing involves personal information that taxpayers provided to the IRS pursuant to a promise that the IRS would prioritize keeping the information confidential,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in a November order. “A reasonable taxpayer would likely find it highly offensive to discover that the IRS now intends to share that information permissively because it has replaced its promise of confidentiality with a policy of disclosure.”

(c) 2026, The Washington Post 

A senior official connected to US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative said Wednesday that the effort to dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure in Gaza is moving forward as planned, even as questions persist about the durability of the ceasefire, Ynet reported.

According to the official, claims that the ceasefire is unraveling are unfounded. He pointed to several milestones that have already been achieved, including the release of hostages, the reopening and functioning of the Rafah crossing, and the formation of a technocratic administrative committee that is expected to enter Gaza in the near future.

The next phase, the official explained, centers on completing arrangements for Hamas’s disarmament, a process scheduled to begin in March. Once that stage gets underway, an international stabilization force is anticipated to broaden its footprint inside Gaza.

Addressing a report in The New York Times suggesting that Washington may permit Hamas to keep light weapons, the official clarified that the disarmament plan is structured in phases, with small arms to be handled last. He said Hamas has objected to surrendering its entire arsenal immediately, contending that competing clans in Gaza could attack its members if it disarms all at once.

Under the framework currently taking shape, the first step would involve neutralizing and dismantling tunnels. That would be followed by eliminating weapons production sites, then removing rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, and only afterward addressing small arms, according to Ynet.

The official said the aim is to implement the process through broad agreement in order to balance effectiveness with sustainability. He noted the difficulty of the task, observing that even the Israeli military has not yet succeeded in destroying every tunnel in areas under its control.

On the question of the proposed international stabilization force, the official confirmed that Indonesia has publicly stated it is prepared to send up to 8,000 troops. Several other nations have signaled general support for participating as well. Still, he added, many governments are conditioning their involvement on a clear and binding agreement regarding Hamas’s disarmament before any deployment takes place.

Hamas has consistently rejected calls to lay down its arms, despite Trump’s peace proposal requiring the organization to do so. The group maintains that its weapons serve what it describes as “self-defense against the occupation.”

This week, senior Hamas figure Khaled Mashaal reiterated the organization’s opposition to disarmament, declaring, “As long as our people are under occupation, talk of disarmament is an attempt to turn our people into victims, to make their elimination easier and to facilitate their destruction at the hands of the Israeli side, which is armed with every international means of warfare.”

Trump said last week that Hamas must relinquish its weapons, cautioning that failure to do so would lead to its destruction.

“Now [that the war has ended] they have to disarm,” Trump stated. “Some people say they won’t, but they will, and if they don’t, they’re gonna not be around any longer. But they agreed to disarm.”

Federal investigators have recovered a black glove from a roadside not far from Nancy Guthrie’s residence, a development that could mark a significant turn in the investigation into the disappearance of the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, according to The NY Post.

Law enforcement officials located the glove roughly a mile and a half from the victim’s home. The item appears similar to gloves worn by the masked, armed individual captured on surveillance footage near the property.

Images and video from the scene show a member of the FBI’s Evidence Response team retrieving the glove from sparse desert brush in the quiet Tucson-area neighborhood where Guthrie lives.

Authorities have yet to name a suspect in what they believe was a violent abduction. Investigators have indicated that Guthrie may have been forcibly removed from her home, where blood was reportedly left behind.

On Tuesday, the FBI released video showing a man wearing black gloves, a ski mask, and a holstered firearm vandalizing the security camera mounted on Guthrie’s front door.

The newly released footage represents the first substantial update shared publicly since the investigation began 10 days ago.

Also Tuesday, agents detained a person of interest near the U.S.-Mexico border for questioning. That individual was released early Wednesday morning without any charges filed.

The glove was recovered during what the FBI described as an “extensive search” of the surrounding area, with agents canvassing nearby roads and desert terrain.

“We appreciate the assistance and support we have received from the Tucson community,” the FBI said in a statement reminding the public of the $50,000 reward for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery.

Investigators declined to provide additional details when asked about the evidentiary significance of the glove.

The individual briefly taken into custody Tuesday was identified as Carlos Palazuelos, a delivery driver from Rio Rico, a border town south of Tucson. He was handcuffed following a traffic stop in the area.

After being released, Palazuelos denied any involvement in the disappearance. According to WDBJ, he said he had never heard of Guthrie and called on authorities to apologize.

In a separate development, TMZ received a new letter Wednesday morning demanding a Bitcoin payment in exchange for information about Guthrie’s alleged captor.

TMZ reported that the $67,000 payment would be in exchange for the “name of the individual involved.”

The message is reportedly the third note sent since Nancy was last seen on Jan. 31. TMZ host Harvey Levin said during an appearance on Fox News’ “America Newsroom” that the letter included details for an active Bitcoin address.

That address differs from the one included in an earlier ransom message sent last week to two Tucson television stations and TMZ.

In that earlier communication, individuals claiming responsibility for the kidnapping demanded millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and set a deadline of Monday, Feb. 9.

To date, however, those claiming involvement have not offered proof that Nancy Guthrie is alive or provided additional substantiating information, despite Savannah Guthrie publicly stating that her family would comply with payment demands if it ensured her mother’s safe return.

Attorney General Pam Bondi combatively defended her leadership at the Justice Department to House lawmakers on Wednesday amid sharp criticism that she botched the release of the Epstein files and has wielded the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency to heed President Donald Trump’s calls to prosecute his political foes.

In exchange after exchange, Bondi lobbed brash insults when Democratic lawmakers questioned her decisions and repeatedly portrayed the expansive Justice Department as unfairly maligned by Democrats and those who dislike Trump.

In her opening remarks before the House Judiciary Committee, Bondi – highlighting her allegiance to the president – thanked Trump for his investment in fighting violent crime and said the Justice Department is working to advance the president’s priorities. The attorney general blamed the Biden administration for politicizing the department and, echoing claims from conservative activists, said it is fighting against “liberal activist judges” working to stymie the president’s agenda.

“America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition to a presidential administration,” Bondi said.

Wednesday’s hearing played out at a pivotal moment for the Justice Department, which in recent months has drawn criticism from Democrats and others over its handling of the congressionally compelled release of millions of documents from its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, its deployment of thousands of agents across the country to assist in immigration enforcement and its continued efforts to prosecute Trump’s perceived political adversaries.

The attorney general did not buckle in her defense of the department and frequently attempted to shift attention to its efforts to reduce violent crime, a topic that earned her praise from Republicans.

Bondi came armed with scripted insults for Democrats.

“I’m not going to get in the gutter with these people,” Bondi said repeatedly in response to pointed questions. She lashed out when the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, directed her to respond to the panel’s inquiries.

“You don’t tell me anything, you washed-up loser lawyer,” she said. “You’re not even a lawyer.”

Raskin, a lawmaker from Maryland, denounced Bondi for her handling of the Epstein files, the department’s response to deadly shootings by federal personnel in Minneapolis and her oversight of cases involving people whom Trump has publicly called to prosecute.

“Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time,” Raskin said. “You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stooges. Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement.”

Just hours before Bondi addressed the committee, the department had sought to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging military service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But a federal grand jury in Washington refused to back those charges – a remarkable rebuke of the department’s efforts.

“You’ve turned the people’s Department of Justice into Trump’s instrument of revenge,” Raskin said.

The committee’s Republicans, led by Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio), largely praised Bondi for the work of her first year in office. They credited her and FBI Director Kash Patel with reducing violent crime across the country, a trend that began under the final years of the Biden administration and has continued under Trump.

“What a difference a year makes,” Jordan said at the top of the proceedings. “Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions – upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keeping Americans safe.”

Tension erupted almost immediately as Democrats repeatedly pressed Bondi on the Justice Department’s failure to fully redact the names and identifications of Epstein’s victims from the files it released last month. More than a dozen of his victims were at the hearing and, when prompted by a Democratic lawmaker, raised their hands to indicate that they had never spoken to representatives of Bondi’s Justice Department.

As Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) asked Bondi to apologize to the victims in the audience for her handling of the investigation, the attorney general deflected and asked why former attorney general Merrick Garland didn’t apologize.

“I’m not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics,” Bondi said. She defended her career fighting for victims as a prosecutor.

“I am deeply sorry for what any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster,” she said. “I want you to know that any accusation of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.”

Bondi said that Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell “hopefully will die in prison.” Maxwell’s attorney has said that the defendant, who was convicted in 2021 on trafficking charges, is seeking clemency from the president.

Bondi also said that she was unaware that Maxwell was being transferred to a minimum-security prison camp until after the transfer occurred in August. The Justice Department has faced pushback over that move, with critics saying that it is an example of the Trump administration being lenient to people involved in the Epstein case.

In an effort to pivot the conversation away from Epstein, Bondi said that instead of focusing on Maxwell, the lawmakers should be asking about Iryna Zarutska – the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was brutally killed by a homeless man with mental illness while riding public transit in North Carolina.

Bondi took heat from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), a frequent Trump critic, who asked why more men with ties to Epstein weren’t under investigation. Justice Department officials have said that the files do not contain information that would lead to other people being charged.

She dodged Massie’s question and said he was only focused on the Epstein files because Trump is named in them, accusing him of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”

Bondi, likewise, refused to engage in second-guessing of the Justice Department’s handling of the recent fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal personnel amid the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis.

She hinted of further investigations of Trump critics in the works.

Asked by Republicans whether John Brennan, CIA director during the Obama administration, would soon be indicted as part of an investigation into the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, Bondi declined to confirm an investigation – then added: “No one is above the law.”

Brennan’s lawyers said in December they had been informed that he is the target of an criminal probe underway in Florida. He has denied any wrongdoing.

At every turn, Bondi never missed an opportunity to praise Trump for his leadership.

“That’s why today, the other side sits here, they yell, cut me off,” she said. “They want to yell. They want to ask a question and don’t want answers, because they want to distract from all the great things that this president and this administration are doing.”

When Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-California) cited a conspiracy theory that Trump has pushed about a federal investigation and asked Bondi whether she thinks the president is honest, the attorney general responded: “Of course I do. He is the commander in chief.”

(c) 2026, The Washington Post 

Voting on tentative agreements at NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore ended at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, with results expected to be revealed later in the evening.

Speaker Johnson on lack of Democrat support for the SAVE Act: “We had only one House Democrat participate with us tonight. This has become a bitter partisan fight, and it’s madness to us.”

The sudden and surprising airspace closure over El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday stemmed from the Pentagon’s plans to test a laser for use in shooting down drones used by Mexican drug cartels, according to three people familiar with the situation who were granted anonymity to share sensitive details. That caused friction with the Federal Aviation […]

Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog: Chances of a peace deal are not very high because it is difficult to see Iran conceding to the American terms.

BREAKING: President Trump signs an Executive Order directing the Department of War to prioritize Power Purchase Agreements with America’s beautiful, clean coal fleet.

Secretary Wright in Venezuela: “I bring today a message from President Trump. He is passionately committed to absolutely transforming the relationship between the United States and Venezuela — part of a broader agenda to Make the Americas Great Again.”

TRUMP: “Under 4 years of the Biden Administration—Sleepy Joe—not a single permit was approved for a new coal mining project… but in one year of Trump, we’ve already approved over 70 permits for very big, very powerful mines.”

TRUMP: “The most important people here today are those who get their hands a little bit dirty to keep America running at full speed… In the first year of my presidency, real wages for the typical miner increased by more than $2,200.”

A disruption in reimbursements to states for disaster relief costs. Delays in cybersecurity response and training. And missed paychecks for the agents who screen passengers and bags at the nation’s airports, which could lead to unscheduled absences and longer wait times for travelers. Those were just some of the potential ramifications of a looming funding lapse at […]

TRUMP: “I’m thrilled to welcome to the White House the men and women who light our cities… heat our homes, fuel our factories, and turn natural resources into American riches and dreams — our amazing coal miners.”

Speaker Mike Johnson: “Tonight, We are going to pass the Save America Act.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says offshore wind farms pose a national security risk.

British Jews faced another year of hostility in 2025, as new figures reveal that antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom remain near record levels. According to a report released Wednesday by the Community Security Trust (CST), Jewish communities recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents last year, the second-highest total since the organization began tracking such cases in […]

Prosecutors are moving toward formal charges against a Jerusalem man accused of attempting to burn a 12-year-old boy alive on a bus in the West Bank. Israeli police say the suspect, in his 30s, attacked the boy earlier this month aboard a bus traveling toward Beitar Illit. According to investigators, the man approached the child […]

Newly released documents have revealed that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once sought a direct line to the highest levels of power in Moscow — including an attempted approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin — with help from former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, according to a report by The New York Times. The report, based […]