This concludes our live coverage of US politics in the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments: The US Senate failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month. In a surprising twist, a White House event in honor of Women’s History Month ended with a medal being presented to… Donald Trump. The US temporarily suspended sanctions on the sale of Russian oil issuing a Treasury Department license to allow the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels through April 11. “Looks like we fought Iran and Russia won,” Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii observed. Two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen, called for the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “to be fired immediately” over the killing of dozens of seven to 12-year-old Iranian schoolgirls in a missile attack on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The suspect who killed one person and injured two others at Old Dominion University was identified by authorities as Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the army national guard who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State. The FBI said it is investigating the ramming of a car into a Michigan synagogue as “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”. Iran started to lay mines in the strait of Hormuz on Thursday, a crucial Persian Gulf passage for 20% of the world’s oil supply, US officials told the New York Times. While Donald Trump has boasted that the US military has destroyed Iran’s navy, officials said that Iran has started using smaller boats to place mines and enforce the closure of the strait it has imposed on its gulf neighbors, sending oil prices sky high. Iran’s move to close the crucial shipping passage has long been an expected move by war planners in previous administrations, but apparently took the Trump administration by surprise. CNN reported on Thursday that senior Trump administration officials told lawmakers in recent classified briefings that they did not plan for the possibility of Iran closing the strait in response to strikes by the US and Israel. “Planning around preventing this exact scenario… has been a bedrock principle of US national security policy for decades,” a former US official who served in Republican and Democratic administrations told CNN. “I’m dumbfounded.” For no obvious reason, Donald Trump, the US commander in chief who dodged the Vietnam War draft and never served in the armed forces, just posted an old photo of himself in uniform, as a teenage high school student at the New York Military Academy. As US forces in Iraq search for survivors of an air force refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday as part of the war on Iran Trump launched from his Florida beach club, the president took time to share the image of himself in the early 1960s with his social media followers, captioned: “At Military Academy with my parents, Fred and Mary!” The president’s post was quickly shared by an official White House account. The old family photo is the same one that Trump previously posted on Facebook in 2013, when he captioned it: “Myself with mother and father at New York Military Academy. See, I can be very military. High rank!” CBS News reports that a US military medical evacuation flight on Thursday brought 19 injured service members from Saudi Arabia to a US base in Germany. Two were reportedly injured by a drone that exploded next to their vehicle. “Looks like we fought Iran and Russia won,” Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, just wrote in a social media comment on the US treasury decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil on Thursday, in response to spiking oil prices caused by the US attack on Iran. The US temporarily suspended sanctions on the sale of Russian oil on Thursday, issuing a Treasury Department license to allow the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels through April 11, according to a letter posted online by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees sanctions. The sale of Russian oil has been sanctioned by the US in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, cast the windfall for Russia as one of a series of steps taken by Donald Trump “to promote stability in global energy markets and working to keep prices low as we address the threat and instability posed by the terrorist Iranian regime.” The new license, which covers oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels as of March 12, comes one day after the US announced that it would release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve in an effort to keep oil prices from further spiking from the supply shock after Iran closed the strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the globe’s oil supply normally passes. Iran has reportedly continued to export oil, which is now more valuable since it responded to the US and Israeli attack by blocking other Persian Gulf countries from shipping their oil to the rest of the world. Last week, the US treasury issued a 30-day waiver specifically for India, to allow the country to buy Russian oil stuck at sea. Two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen, called for the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “to be fired immediately” over the killing of dozens of seven to 12-year-old Iranian schoolgirls in a missile attack on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran. In a joint video statement posted on social media on Thursday, Warren noted that a preliminary Pentagon investigation indicated that the US was responsible for the bombing of a girls school, killing about 175 people, mostly children. Van Hollen then pointed out that Hegseth, the former Fox weekend anchor now leading the Pentagon, had previously “put our troops at risk” by sharing secret attack plans in a Signal group chat which included a journalist, and has overseen the bombing of suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, including a strike in which defenseless survivors were killed, a textbook war crime. “With no accountability”, Warren added. “He has no idea what he’s doing in this war in Iran, and now an American missile hit an Iranian school killing about 150 innocent school kids,” Van Hollen said. Warren then pointed out that she and Van Hollen have been working for years on policies intended to limit the harm to civilians from Pentagon attacks. “We helped build into the law certain restrictions,” Warren said, to ensure that the Pentagon would take steps to minimize the risks of harming civilians in planned attacks. “Pete Hegseth, he came in and dismantled the whole system we helped to build,” Van Hollen said. “He said they were ‘stupid rules of engagement’.” Those rules, he added, were there “to prevent civilian harm, they’re to prevent war crimes.” Lines have doubled the normal clearance time for security checkpoints at Miami International Airport in the hours following the Senate’s rejection of a bill to fund TSA agent salaries, guaranteeing that agents will miss a paycheck. Asked how many of his coworkers had called out, one agent replied, “Not enough. Nothing happens until the public feels some pain.” Nonetheless, the checkpoints remained staffed. Praharsha Pinninti, a recent college graduate heading home to Raleigh, found the pay issue “insane”. “I think that’s extremely unfair.” Department of Homeland Security agents who will go unpaid, the traveler noted, “are the first line people that greet people coming into our country. You want them to be the most well paid, or at least paid on time.” Pinninti described the legislative standoff as “a test of time, and it’s a test of patience, and it’s a test of our integrity as an issue.” The suspect who killed one person and injured two others at Old Dominion University on Thursday was identified by authorities as Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the army national guard who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State. Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, told reporters the suspect had attempted to commit an “act of terrorism” and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire. He was subdued and killed by members of the university’s ROTC program in a university classroom, she said, praising them for demonstrating “extreme bravery and courage” and preventing further loss of life. (ROTC is a college-based program that allows students to train to become a US military officer while also earning a college degree.) Kash Patel, the FBI director, said the bureau was investigating the incident as an “act of terrorism”. “Earlier today, an armed individual opened fire at Old Dominion University, leaving one person dead and two others wounded,” Patel said on social media. “The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement. Evans did not provide further details on how the suspect died except to confirm the gunman was not shot. She said the ROTC students “rendered him no longer alive”, adding: “I don’t know how else to say it.” The FBI special agent in charge of its Detroit field office, Jennifer Runyan, just said at a news conference on the man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday that the bureau is “leading the investigation right now as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”. “There was one subject involved in this incident who is now deceased,” Runyan added. “We’ve had no victim fatalities.” She declined to address the suspect’s potential motivation, saying that it remains under investigation. As our colleague Lucy Campbell reports on the Guardian’s Middle East crisis live blog, US Central Command, which oversees the offensive on Iran from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, said in a press release that a US refueling plane has crashed in Iraq. “US Central Command is aware of the loss of a US KC-135 refueling aircraft,” the Pentagon statement says. “The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.” The US military statement insisted that the crash “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire”. The White House celebration of Women’s History Month, which ended a few minutes ago, was unusual in that the spotlight was mainly focused on a man: Donald Trump. The president, who spoke for about half an hour after his wife, Melania Trump, made introductory remarks of less than four minutes, turned the event into a celebration of what he calls his legislative achievements and used it an opportunity to air grievances, like his claim that he did not lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden, despite getting 7 million fewer votes, and losing every swing state. The president who seized the spotlight at Thursday’s event was previously found liable of sexually abusing one woman, the writer E. Jean Carroll, in court, and convicted of falsifying business records to conceal from voters that he paid hush money paid to a porn actor, Stormy Daniels, who said they slept together just after his wife gave birth to their son. While Trump invited a series of women to make brief remarks from the podium on Thursday, they were all carefully chosen to celebrate aspects of his domestic policy agenda, giving the event the feel of a midterm campaign rally. At the end of the remarks, the president signed a proclamation described as a celebration of women’s history but the text was mainly devoted to celebrating Trump administration domestic policies. As he did so, he repeated a wisecrack intended to belittle Joe Biden, by pointing out to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, he previously urged to investigate his predecessor for using an autopen to sign some documents, that he was not using that device. “No autopen, right Pam? Am I allowed? No autopen,” Trump said. In fact, as video of the 2024 White House event for Women’s History Month shows, Biden also sat down to personally sign that year’s proclamation, on camera. In contrast to Trump, Biden spoke at that event for about 10 minutes, after about 30 minutes of remarks from his vice-president, Kamala Harris, his first lady, Jill Biden, and the former first lady of California, Maria Shriver. At the end of Thursday’s event, Trump could be seen wading into the crowd of female supporters and aides to show them the medal gifted to him by the US Olympic bobsledder, Kallie Humphries. In a surprising twist, the White House event in honor of Women’s History Month ended with a medal being presented to… Donald Trump. The president was gifted an Order of Ikkos medal, which is an honor presented by a US Olympic of Paralympic medal-winning athlete to someone who has been instrumental to their success, usually a coach, mentor or family member. The award was presented to Trump by the US Olympic bobsledder Kaillie Humphries, who won a pair of bronze medals at this year’s games. Before Trump called Humphries up to speak, he admitted that until he walked into the room he didn’t know who would be speaking with him, since he didn’t prepare for the event, but claimed he recognized the bobsledder. “I didn’t read … if I prepare my speeches I won’t time to get things done,” the president said, “but I walked in and I saw this beautiful woman with the blond hair.” He then looked down and said, “I don’t know how the hell you do it… Kaillie.” An emotional Humphries, who switched from representing Canada to the US, said that she was proud to have done so “as a legal immigrant,” with stress on the word legal, after having given birth through IVF. After presenting Trump with the medal, she added that it was partly in honor of his determination to keep trans women from competing in competitions. “I want to recognize the support and the impact you’ve had on women’s sports throughout the Olympic movement, specifically standing up to keep biological women in women’s sports, to keep the field of play safe and allow for fair competition,” Humphries said. “Furthermore, because your policies are creating greater access to IVF so families like mine can continue to grow as I look to become and expand my family again.” Earlier in his remarks, Trump had suggested that it was up to him to decide the eligibility criteria for the upcoming 2028 Olympics. “We have put the world on notice that America will not allow men to compete against women in the 2028 Olympics,” Trump said. “We have the Olympics, he explained. “We have the World Cup coming up,” he added, mentioning another competition he meddled with on Thursday, when he warned Iran that its national men’s football team would not be safe in the United States, where it is scheduled to play three matches in June. Three months ago, Trump was also given a medal by the Fifa president Gianni Infantino, when the US president who bombed Iran last summer, and started a war with the same nation two weeks ago, was named the winner of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize during the World Cup draw. After saluting a series of women in his administration who are present at the Women’s History Month event in the White House, Donald Trump focused his remarks on boasting about what he called the great accomplishments of the massive tax and spending law he signed last year. “The Trump administration is working every single day to make America better, safer, and more prosperous for women and men,” the president said, before introducing a series of female supporters to agree with Trump that his policies have been a boon to them personally. The women invited to make brief remarks at the podium by the president were chosen as examples of people who have benefited from cuts in taxes for workers making tips, overtime pay and inheriting family farms. At the start of his remarks celebrating Women’s History Month at the White House, Donald Trump said he has been fully briefed on the incident at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where a man rammed his vehicle into a synagogue. “Before we begin, I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in Detroit, Detroit area, following the attack on the Jewish synagogue early today,” the president said. “I’ve been briefed, fully briefed,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing, but it goes on. We’re going to be right down to the bottom of it. It’s absolutely incredible that things like this happen,” the president said. Without making a connection between the attack on a synagogue and the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, the president claimed that “the situation with Iran is moving along very rapidly” and said, again, that the US is “doing what has to be done” to deal with “a nation of terror and hate”. In a letter signed by more than 120 Democratic members of Congress to defense secretary Pete Hegseth, lawmakers are demanding answers about the strikes on an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people. It’s a similar letter to the one sent by nearly all Democrats in the Senate that we reported on earlier. House representatives are also asking the Pentagon to detail the role of artificial intelligence in “selecting targets, assessing intelligence, and making legal determinations” during Operation Epic Fury. They also want to know how defense officials are working with Israeli forces mitigate civilian harm following the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school near a naval base in Minab. A reminder, on Wednesday the New York Times reported that a preliminary investigation shows the US is to blame for the strikes. The US Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will escort vessels through the strait of Hormuz when it is militarily possible, treasury secretary Scott Bessent has told Sky News. My belief, that as soon as it is militarily possible, the US Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will be escorting vessels through. The plan to escort ships would go ahead as soon as the US has “complete control of the skies and ... [Iran’s] rebuilding capabilities for the missiles completely degraded,” he said. Bessent added: There are, in fact, tankers coming through now, Iranian tankers, I believe some Chinese flag tankers have come through. So we know that they have not mined the straits. Earlier, energy secretary Chris Wright told CNBC that the navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now - but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent response have paralysed shipping through the critical waterway, disrupting vital oil and gas flows and sending global energy prices soaring. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, has criticized ABC News’ reporting that the FBI warned California police departments that Iran could retaliate against US attacks by launching drones at the west coast. The outlet cited a reviewed alert that was distributed at the end of February. “They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip,” Leavitt said in a post on X. “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.” The Senate failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month. By a vote of 51-46, mainly along party lines, lawmakers remain at an impasse over stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement. The upper chamber did, however, pass a landmark housing bill, aimed at boosting the housing supply and lowering costs, by a huge bipartisan margin. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, written by Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican Tim Scott, won 89 votes – a rare bipartisan breakthrough. Nine GOP senators and one Democrat voted against it. In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump suggested that the skyrocketing price of oil would ultimately be beneficial for Americans, who are already facing increased fuel prices at the pump. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president – who campaigned on bringing down costs – wrote. US defense officials told senators on the armed services committee that the cost of the war on Iran totaled more than $11.3bn in the first six days alone, according to multiple reports. The New York Times was first to break the news about the conflict’s price tag, citing three people familiar with the closed-door briefing on Tuesday. Meanwhile, energy secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Thursday that the Navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month. This comes as oil prices jumped almost 10%, above $100 a barrel, before dropping to $98 a barrel amid renewed fears about supply disruption. The Senate again failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month. By a vote of 51-46, mainly along party lines, lawmakers in the upper chamber remain at an impasse over stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement. Only one Democrat, senator John Fetterman, broke with his party to vote for the appropriations bill that would fund DHS through September. This is the fourth time the Senate has failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass a DHS funding bill this year. Local and national media report that a male suspect was killed and there were no casualties following a shooting at a synagogue in a Detroit suburb. A large police response followed the incident at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township, a prosperous suburb in Oakland county. Michael Bouchard, the Oakland county sheriff told reporters at the scene that security guards that were already in place at the synagogue confronted the suspect as he approached the building and “engaged him in gunfire”. Bouchard then added: “We’re not getting any active stimulus at the moment,” indicating that the initial emergency was over. “At least one individual came to the temple, security saw him, engaged him in gunfire at the scene,” he said. Bouchard was unable to identify who fired the shots, and said nobody was in custody. But he added: “Nobody at the moment has confirmed to be hurt, except maybe the shooter.” He said “everybody has been moved out” of a school contained within the synagogue complex. Iranian security chief Ali Larijani said Thursday that his country would not give up fighting until the US came to regret the “grave miscalculation” of launching its war against the Islamic republic. “Trump says he is looking for a speedy victory. While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets. We will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation,” Larijani said on X. Congresswoman Haley Stevens, the Democrat who represents West Bloomfield in the US House, said she is “getting reports in real time” about the shooting at a local synagogue in her constituency. “To everyone in Michigan’s 11th district, continue to follow the guidance of local law enforcement. To the Jewish American community in Michigan and beyond, we stand with you,” she said in a statement on social media. FBI director Kash Patel said that the agency’s personnel “are on the scene with partners in Michigan” in response to the news of a vehicle ramming into a synagogue in a Detroit suburb and the subsequent firing of gunshots. The incident happened at the Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, according to local law enforcement. We’ll bring you more details as they come through. Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic’s legal challenge against the Pentagon, filing a court brief in support of the AI company’s effort to overturn an aggressive designation that effectively bars it from government work. In an amicus brief submitted to a federal court in San Francisco this week, Microsoft, which integrates Anthropic’s AI tools into systems it provides to the US military, argued that a temporary restraining order was necessary to prevent serious disruption to suppliers whose products rely on the AI company’s technology. Google, Amazon, Apple and OpenAI have also signed on to a brief in support of Anthropic. In a statement to the Guardian, Microsoft said: The Department of War needs reliable access to the country’s best technology. And everyone wants to ensure AI is not used for mass domestic surveillance or to start a war without human control. The government, the entire tech sector, and the American public need a path to achieve all these goals together.” Microsoft is one of the Pentagon’s most deeply embedded tech partners, holding a share of the military’s Joe Biden-era $9bn Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract alongside Amazon, Google and Oracle, as well as separate software and enterprise services deals worth several billion dollars more. The filing comes after Anthropic launched two lawsuits on Monday – one in federal court in California and one in the DC circuit court of appeals – challenging the Pentagon’s decision to label it a supply-chain risk, a designation that has never previously been applied to a US company. Read the full report: Ahead of the Senate passing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing act, John Thune explained that he would bring Donald Trump’s voter ID bill to the Senate floor next week, where it is unlikely to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass. The president has made the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, his “number one priority” and urged Thune – the Senate’s top Republican – to “be a leader” and get the votes necessary to advance the legislation. “I think we can all agree that if you have to show photo ID and prove where you live to get a library card, it’s not too much to ask voters to show ID to vote in federal elections,” Thune said on the upper chamber floor on Thursday. The bill has been the vehicle for Trump to repeat baseless claims about undocumented immigrants voting in federal elections, something that experts say is exceedingly rare. The president also wants to add a host of measures not included in the House-passed version of the legislation, including a ban on mail voting, a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors and a prohibition on trans women playing women’s sports. Some of those new provisions, and some in the existing bill, don’t fly with all Republicans. Thom Tillis, a GOP senator from North Carolina, said he didn’t approve of banning mail voting. Conservatives who support the bill have pushed for Thune to mandate a so-called “talking” filibuster, which would force Democrats to hold the floor to block the Save America act. However, Thune has pushed back on that strategy. “We don’t have the votes, either to proceed [to] a talking filibuster nor to sustain one if we got one,” Thune said Tuesday at a press conference. “That’s just a function of math. There isn’t anything I can do about that.” The Senate has passed a landmark housing bill, aimed at boosting the housing supply and lowering costs, by a huge bipartisan margin. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, written by Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican Tim Scott, won 89 votes – a rare bipartisan breakthrough. Nine GOP senators and one Democrat voted against it. If the legislation is approved it would fund a number of incentives for building new homes, launch a program to allow abandoned buildings to become housing development, prohibit large institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, approve new grants to overhaul homes, along with other provisions, including on rent control. However, it will now be sent to the House, where it faces uncertainty. Some GOP lawmakers oppose a provision in the bill that only temporarily bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital currency; they want a permanent ban. There is also controversy over certain provisions, including on rent control, that some lawmakers consider “communist”. In case you missed it yesterday, the Trump administration restored international travel program Global Entry, after the fast-track system was halted last month during the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. CNN was first to break the news, quoting a DHS spokesperson as saying: “As DHS continually evaluates measures it can take amidst the Democrats’ continued shutdown of the department, DHS will be reactivating Global Entry on March 11th at 5:00 AM ET. We are working hard to alleviate the disruptions to travelers caused by the Democrats’ shutdown.” The department’s funding lapsed after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a spending bill on 14 February due to broader Democratic concerns over the need for greater restrictions and oversight of federal immigration enforcement. However, Global Entry is primarily self-funded by a $120 fee paid by users every five years, rather than by direct federal appropriations. In recent days, travelers at airports across the US experienced long security lines – that stretched for hours in some cases – as a shortage of TSA agents affected checkpoint operations, while Global Entry remained closed. Eswatini said it had received four more third-country deportees from the United States today, bringing the total to at least 19 expelled under the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation drive. In a post shared on X, the government of Eswatini said two of the latest deportees were from Somalia, one was from Sudan and one was from Tanzania. Previous deportees, arriving in July last year, included nationals of Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and Yemen. A lawyer for some of that earlier group, Alma David, told Reuters a Cambodian man, Pheap Rom, was due to be repatriated, the second to be released after another man was sent back to Jamaica last year. Donald Trump’s administration has paid the small southern African kingdom $5.1m to receive 160 deportees. “In line with this agreement ... the nation has received another cohort of four third-country nationals from the United States,” the statement reads. Eswatini is one of several African countries that have made such secretive deals with the Trump administration and accepted third-country deportees from the US. Others include Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The country’s high court last month threw out a case filed by local human rights lawyers that challenged it, though they have appealed. Despite having served their sentences for crimes on US soil, the remainder are still in prison in Eswatini. “Intensive engagements with the respective countries of origin ... are ongoing,” the statement continued. Donald Trump said today that Iran’s football team is “welcome” to play in the 2026 World Cup, taking place this summer in the US, Mexico and Canada. However, the president issued an important caveat: “I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.” This comes after Iran’s sports minister Ahmad Donyamali told state media that “under no circumstances” could the country’s football team participate in the competition on Wednesday, following US-Israeli strikes on Iran that have killed the supreme leader and thousands of civilians. “Given the malicious actions they have carried out against Iran, they have forced two wars on us over eight or nine months and have killed and martyred thousands of our people. Therefore, we certainly cannot have such a presence,” Donyamali said. Jim Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who was first elected to Congress in 1992, announced that he would seek re-election for his House seat on Thursday. At 85, Clyburn is set to be the third oldest member of Congress if he wins his election in November. Throughout his tenure in office, Clyburn has held a number of senior positions within the Democratic caucus – including majority whip under former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. For her part, Pelosi announced last year that should would retire at the end of this term, joining several older Democrats who are stepping down from public office after the November midterms. Almost all Senate Democrats, and the two independent lawmakers who caucus with the party, sent a letter to Pete Hegseth demanding answers to more questions about the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people. All but one Democratic lawmaker – senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania – signed the letter, after the New York Times reported that a preliminary investigation shows the US is to blame for the strikes near a naval base in Minab. Citing unnamed officials familiar with the preliminary findings, the Times reports that Tomahawk missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school was the result of a “targeting mistake” by the US military. In their letter, upper chamber Democrats say that the “findings must be released to the public as soon as possible, along with any measures to pursue accountability.” They also provide a list of questions for the defense secretary, including whether the US carried out the strikes, or played any role in planning, coordinating, or supporting the strikes. They also ask whether the Pentagon is complying with the rules of engagement to prevent possible war crimes. US defense officials told senators on the armed services committee that the cost of the war on Iran totaled more than $11.3bn in the first six days alone, according to multiple reports. The New York Times was first to break the news about the conflict’s price tag, citing three people familiar with the closed-door briefing on Tuesday. According to the Times, the figure did not include many of the costs associated with the operation, such as the buildup of military hardware and personnel ahead of the first strikes. For that reason, lawmakers expect the number to grow considerably as the Pentagon continues to calculate the costs that accumulated during the first week of military action on Iran. Several reports note that the White House is expected to submit additional funding requests for the conflict, despite the fact that Donald Trump claimed last week the US has a “virtually unlimited supply” of medium and upper grade ammunition that is primarily being used in the war. The administration has not provided a public estimate of the cost of the conflict, and has offered confusing messages about its timeline. Trump said on Wednesday that “we won” the war but that the US will stay in the fight to “finish the job”. In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump suggested that the skyrocketing price of oil – which jumped back above $100 a barrel before dropping to $98 a barrel – would ultimately be beneficial for Americans who are facing increased gasoline prices at the pump. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president – who campaigned on bringing down costs – wrote. “BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World. I won’t ever let that happen!” On Wednesday Trump tried to assuage concerns over spiking gas prices. “I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It’s going to come down more than anybody understands,” the president told reporters in Ohio. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average for a gallon of fuel is currently $3.59 – up from $2.94 a month ago. My colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East, including the first statement from the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. In his first remarks, Khamenei called for national unity and said that all US bases in the region should close or face attacks. He added that the strait of Hormuz will remain closed in order to pressure Iran’s enemies. A reminder that Khamenei took over after his father, the late ayatollah, was killed in a targeted US-Israeli strike. We’re waiting to hear from Donald Trump, who has previously denigrated the new leader, calling him a “lightweight” and an “unacceptable” choice in interviews with reporters. Donald Trump’s war on Iran has triggered shocks in fossil fuel markets, exposing the perils of an agenda that prioritizes “drill, baby, drill” while sabotaging renewable power and energy efficiency in the US, experts and advocates say. The US-Israeli war on Iran has already led to hundreds of deaths, created an ecological crisis linked to strikes on oil depots and sent fossil fuel prices haywire across the globe. Critics say the war also shows the inherent instability of dependence on oil and gas: unlike wind and solar power, fossil fuel-based energy requires constant inputs of products whose availability and costs are determined by the global market. Since the strikes on Iran began late last month, oil prices soared past $100 a barrel to their highest price since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. They eventually dropped to $98 a barrel on Thursday. The spike has pushed up the cost of gasoline – in which crude oil is a key component – nationwide. And it has sparked concern about broader inflation, which is often triggered by higher crude prices. The president this week dismissed concerns about surging prices, telling Reuters that if gas prices “rise, they rise”, and later writing on social media that oil spikes are a “very small price” to pay for US safety and that “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY”. But on the campaign trail and in the White House, Trump repeatedly pledged to bring down the price of household electricity and gasoline by “unleashing” American fossil fuels and boosting energy “independence” and “dominance”. It’s an “emperor has no clothes moment” for Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies and claims to support the working class, said Collin Rees, US policy manager at the climate research and advocacy non-profit Oil Change International. “Americans are seeing, in real time, the deep failings of Trump’s strategy,” he said. “We’re seeing that he’s not doing anything to provide energy stability or price stability.” Read the full report here with graphics by Aliya Uteuova: A reminder that while several agencies have been impacted by the DHS shutdown, including the Transportation Security Administration (Tsa) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), federal immigration enforcement is able to largely continue, thanks to the billions of dollars conferred for ICE in Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-policy bill that was signed into law last year. Twenty-seven days into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, Senate lawmakers will try – for a fourth time – to pass a funding bill to reopen the department. The impasse over guardrails for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) means that the upper chamber has yet to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance. It’s expected to fail again today, a glaring reminder of the partisan schism over federal immigration funding during Donald Trump’s second administration. A reminder that two US citizens were fatally shot during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. And the president ousted Kristi Noem as his homeland security secretary, 13 months into the job. This won’t reassure the oil market much! US energy secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Thursday that the Navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month. This comes as oil prices jumped almost 10%, above $100 a barrel, before dropping to $98 a barrel amid renewed fears about supply disruption. Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll be in closed-door policy meetings for most of the afternoon. However, we will hear from the president at 4pm ET, when he speaks in the East Room at a White House event for Women’s History Month with first lady Melania Trump. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way. Democratic lawmakers have asked the Department of Justice to examine a potential conflict of interest in relation to attorney general Pam Bondi and matters involving her lawyer brother. California Democrats Adam Schiff Dave Min said they have been waiting since 16 December to hear whether the Justice Department properly implemented firewalls and screening procedures in relation to her brother Brad, Bloomberg reports. “Given the troubling pattern at the department of repeated interventions or dismissals in cases involving Mr Bondi, we are concerned that DOJ officials, including the attorney general, may have failed to ensure the independence of internal accountability mechanisms,” they said in a letter to Justice Department Deputy Inspector General William Blieron Wednesday. DOJ spokesperson Gates McGavick said in a statement: These decisions were made through the proper channels and the attorney general had no role in them. Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Republican Senate majority leader John Thune came under renewed pressure last night to change the rules to force a vote on the Save America act, a sprawling bill that would upend elections for American voters amid the midterms. President Donald Trump delivered a blunt message for Thune to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday: He’s got to be a leader. The comments came after the president said he would not sign any other legislation until the Save America act came to his desk to sign. And Trump has the support of several in his party as he attempts to bulldozer through the changes. Texas senator John Cornyn publicly backed changing the filibuster rules in order to help pass the bill. He suggested bringing back a “talking filibuster”, where senators must hold the floor to block legislation. Meanwhile, Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson called for a test vote on the filibuster, arguing it would force Democrats to go “on the record”. He added that Republicans should consider scrapping the rule if Democrats will not help pass the bill. He said: I’ve got colleagues who just simply won’t believe the Democrats will actually do it, just because two of them held out last time - those [two] who’ve been purged from their party So let’s get them on the record. Let’s —-[make the] first vote out, ‘let’s end the filibuster’ - and just see what they do. Thune, from South Dakota, said he planned to bring the bill up for a vote next week, but that would mean it would fail – he does not have 60 votes to overcome the filibuster rule and vote on the bill outright, and the talking filibuster isn’t a feasible option. While the House approved a version of the bill, the Senate does not have the votes, because it would need 60 votes to move forward because of the filibuster rule. Among the provisions of the Save America act: a requirement to provide documented proof of US citizenship to register to vote (such as a passport or birth certificate); a voter ID requirement for casting a ballot; a prohibition on states registering people to vote unless they provide such documentation at the time of registration; requirements for states to ensure only US citizens are registered; a demand that states turn their voter rolls over to the federal government; and an allowance for private parties to sue election officials if anyone registers to vote without presenting documentary proof of citizenship, as well as potential criminal penalties. In other developments: Donald Trump insisted to reproters that the war on Iran he launched from his Florida beach club is going so well that “most people” on the cable news channels he turns to for information, “say it’s already been won”. In a political rally in Kentucky, the president urged voters to get rid of Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman who co-wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which compelled the justice department to release investigative files of Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender Trump socialized with for nearly two decades. The United States bombed an Iranian girls’ elementary school, killing at least 175 people, many of them girls between the ages of 7 and 12, according to the New York Times. Joe Rogan, the podcaster who hosted and endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, said that the US military attacks on Venezuela and Iran ordered by Trump were a betrayal of voters won over by his claim to be against regime change wars. As video circulating online showed oil tankers filled with Iraqi oil in flames in the Persian Gulf after reported attacks by Iran, Trump assured his supporters in Hebron, Kentucky, that the war on Iran is already over and “we won”.