Former President Bill Clinton is testifying Friday before members of Congress who are investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, answering for his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.
The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, will mark the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. It comes a day after Clinton's wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers for her own deposition.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump is traveling to Texas on Friday to talk about his energy and economic policies amid a red-hot Senate Republican primary race. All three GOP candidates are expected to join him, just days before the election.
The Latest:
Scouting America says it’s sticking to ‘core commitments’ after Pentagon talks
Scouting America says it is waiving registration fees for military families and creating a merit badge that focuses on military services and veterans after months of talks with the Defense Department.
The organization released its statement Friday after Hegseth said it was altering policies about transgender kids, among other changes. But Scouting America’s statement did not mention transgender youth.
“Scouting America held firm on the core commitments that define us. We maintained our name as ‘Scouting America’ and preserved our service to the more than 200,000 girls who participate in our programs,” the organization said.
Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts, said it has been talking with Defense Department officials for months as the Pentagon takes aim at the military’s partnership with the organization. Hegseth said he wants to root out scouting’s “woke culture.”
Marco Rubio to visit Israel next week as tensions with Iran soar
The Secretary of State will make a quick trip to Israel early next week as tensions between the United States and Iran soar amid a massive buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East, the State Department said Friday.
The department said in a statement that Rubio would visit Israel on Monday and Tuesday to “discuss a range of regional priorities including Iran, Lebanon, and ongoing efforts to implement President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Gaza.” It offered no other details.
The announcement comes just hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem implemented “authorized departure” status for non-essential personnel and family members, which means that eligible staffers can leave the country voluntarily at government expense.
US advises embassy staff to leave Israel now if they want, as risk of war hangs over Middle East
The U.S. Embassy in Israel urged anyone considering departure to do so immediately on Friday, as the threat of an American strike on Iran looms.
The email from Ambassador Mike Huckabee to embassy employees was recounted to The Associated Press by someone involved with the U.S. mission who wasn’t authorized to share details. Sent before 10:30 a.m., it urged staff considering departure to get on any flight out of Israel and then make their way to Washington.
There’s no need for panic, Huckabee wrote, but for those desiring to leave, it was important to make plans soon. “While there may be outbound flights over the coming days, there may not be,” Huckabee wrote.
Iran and the United States walked away from nuclear negotiations Thursday without a deal. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to meet Friday in Washington with a mediator, Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is private.
— Sam Mednick and Sam Metz
Republicans relishing the chance to scrutinize the former Democratic president under oath
“The Clintons haven’t answered very many, if any, questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell,” Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday. “No one’s accusing, at this moment, the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” he added.
But Hillary Clinton said she had answered their questions — telling lawmakers she had no knowledge of how Epstein had sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of even meeting him.
Bill Clinton will have to answer questions about his well-documented relationship with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Hillary Clinton said she expected her husband to testify that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse at the time they knew each other.
US stocks slump and oil prices jump as worries about AI, inflation and possible war hit Wall Street
U.S. stocks are sinking as Wall Street gets back to hunting and punishing potential losers in the artificial-intelligence revolution. A surprisingly discouraging update on inflation also hurt the market.
The report showed U.S. wholesale inflation at 2.9% last month, much higher than the 1.6% economists expected. It's so much worse than expected that it could help persuade the Federal Reserve to hold off longer on the interest rate cuts that Trump constantly pushes for. Lower rates would give the economy and prices for investments a boost, but they risk worsening inflation at the same time.
Oil prices also jumped amid worries of military conflict between the United States and Iran.
Biden draws attention at Reagan Airport en route to SC
Joe Biden’s appearance in a boarding area awaiting a flight to South Carolina drew a crowd Friday morning at the the airport near downtown Washington.
The former president is spending Friday evening with Democrats in South Carolina who have organized a thank you event to commemorate his thunderous victory in the state’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
Other passengers were primarily deterred by the dozen Secret Service agents who surrounded Biden as he sat at the gate. But Biden took selfies with American Airlines employees, and dozens of passengers in the area filmed him on their cellphones.
Once on board awaiting takeoff, passengers passed by to shake Biden’s hand. “God bless you, sir,” one woman said.
Defense secretary says Scouting America will alter its policies — or lose Pentagon support
Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including a requirement that members use “biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” Pete Hegseth announced Friday.
Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested in January in response to Defense Department pressure. Hegseth has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand to include girls and other “woke culture” efforts he wants to root out. He said in video posted on X that the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes in six months and cease its support of Scouting America if it fails to comply.
“Ideally I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday,” Hegseth said.
Scouting America didn’t immediately comment.
US military acknowledges using anti-drone laser again in Texas
After criticism by lawmakers, the FAA, CBP and the Pentagon issued a joint statement late Thursday acknowledging that the military responded to a “seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace” over Texas.
Congressional Democrats said it was a laser that shot down a Border Protection drone, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to shut down Texas airspace for the second time in two weeks. Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the ranking member on the Senate’s Aviation Subcommittee, called for an independent investigation into what she calls Trump administration “incompetence” causing “chaos in our skies.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he was planning to brief members of Congress about the incident.
Most Americans support an independent Palestinian state
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to the new polling.
That’s not significantly different from recent years, as at least half of U.S. adults have supported an independent Palestinian state since 2020.
But there’s been an uptick among Democrats and independents in support for the two-state solution. About three-quarters of Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents say they support an independent Palestinian state.
The opinions of the people who would be directly affected by a two-state solution are quite different, according to separate Gallup polling. Only about 3 in 10 Israelis living in Israel and Palestinians living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem say they support a two-state solution.
Democrats and independents drive increased sympathy for Palestinians
Americans’ changing sentiment has been largely driven by Democrats, who are now much more likely to sympathize with Palestinians than with the Israelis.
The Gallup polling shows that about two-thirds of Democrats say their concerns lie more with the Palestinians, while only about 2 in 10 sympathize more with the Israelis.
Democrats’ sympathy for the Palestinians intensified as the war progressed, Gallup’s polling shows, and independents’ views also shifted.
This year, independents expressed more sympathy for the Palestinians than the Israelis for the first time in Gallup’s trend. About 4 in 10 independents are more sympathetic toward the Palestinians, compared to about 3 in 10 for the Israelis.
Anthropic CEO says it ‘cannot in good conscience accede’ to Pentagon’s demands for AI use
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that the artificial intelligence company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon's demands to allow unrestricted use of its technology, deepening a public clash with the Trump administration that is threatening to pull its contract and take other drastic steps by Friday.
The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it’s not walking away from negotiations but that new contract language received from the Defense Department “made virtually no progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.”
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, said earlier on social media that the military “has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.”
Anthropic is the last of its peers — the Pentagon also has contracts with Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI — to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.
A nearly blind refugee is found dead after Border Patrol agents drop him at Buffalo doughnut shop
Family friends of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who died after U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a doughnut shop in Buffalo speak out.
A nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who disappeared after U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a Buffalo doughnut shop was found dead on the street five days later, prompting a police investigation and complaints from city officials that he’d been abandoned without care for his safety.
Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, was detained by Border Patrol agents on Feb. 19 after his release from a county jail, but was let go that same day after federal authorities determined he wasn’t eligible for deportation.
The agents brought him to a Tim Hortons restaurant north of Buffalo’s downtown and dropped him there, authorities and advocates said. His family, which had initially expected him to walk out of jail, wasn’t informed he had been released. Shah Alam’s lawyer reported him missing to Buffalo police on Feb. 22 after learning that an area immigration detention center didn’t have him in custody.
Shah Alam was found dead Tuesday night. It was unclear when he died.
Khaleda Shah, a family friend and spokesperson, said the family wants justice.
US and Iran wrap up latest nuclear talks without a deal as the risk of war looms
Iran and the United States held hours of indirect negotiations Thursday over Tehran's nuclear program but walked away without a deal, leaving the danger of another Mideast war on the table as the U.S. has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who mediated the talks in Geneva, said there had been “significant progress in the negotiation” without elaborating.
But just before the talks ended, Iranian state television reported that Tehran was determined to continue enriching uranium, rejected proposals to transfer it abroad and sought the lifting of international sanctions, indicating it was not prepared to meet Trump’s demands.
Al-Busaidi said technical talks involving lower-level representatives would continue next week in Vienna, the home of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United Nations’ atomic watchdog likely would be critical in any deal.
Americans’ sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have shifted dramatically, new poll shows
American sympathies in the Middle East have shifted dramatically toward the Palestinians, according to new Gallup polling, after decades of overwhelming support for the Israelis.
That shift accelerated during the war in Gaza. Three years ago, 54% of Americans sympathized more with the Israelis, compared to 31% for the Palestinians.
Now, their support is about evenly balanced, with 41% saying their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, and only 36% saying the same about the Israelis.
The numbers reflect how support for Israel has become deeply contentious in the U.S., with profound implications for American politics and foreign policy. The changing sentiment has been largely driven by Democrats, who are now much more likely to sympathize with Palestinians.
Gallup’s data indicates that the shift was already happening before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, then increased during Israel’s subsequent military operations in Gaza. The polling has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, meaning sentiment toward Israelis and Palestinians are roughly even.
Columbia student detained by ICE is abruptly released after Mamdani meets with Trump
Students relax on the front steps of Low Memorial Library on the Columbia University campus, in New York City, Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Federal immigration authorities arrested a Columbia University student early Thursday, triggering protests on campus and allegations that agents gained entry to the university-owned residence by posing as police officers searching for a missing child.
Just hours after detaining student Ellie Aghayeva, though, the federal government abruptly reversed course, permitting her to walk free after an apparent intervention by President Donald Trump.
In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he expressed concerns about the arrest during an unrelated meeting with Trump, who then agreed to release her immediately.
“I am safe and okay,” Aghayeva wrote on Instagram, minutes after Mamdani’s post, adding she was in “complete shock” from the experience.
The head-spinning series of events marked the latest consequence of the unlikely relationship between the Republican president and Mamdani, a democratic socialist who Trump once threatened to have deported.
Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary
Trump just can't seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
So when he travels to the state on Friday, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.
Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday's vote.
For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities.
Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.
Hillary Clinton testifies she has no information on Epstein’s crimes and doesn’t recall meeting him
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told members of Congress on Thursday that she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein's or Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes, starting off two days of depositions that will also include former President Bill Clinton.
The depositions in the Clintons' hometown of Chappaqua come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee as it investigates Epstein. It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to testify before Congress.
Yet the demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of underage girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.
Trump, who has expressed regret that the Clintons are being forced to testify, bowed last year to pressure to release case files on Epstein. The Clintons, too, agreed to testify after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the Oversight panel and its chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.
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