(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday flatly rejected the Senate’s bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection.
Johnson said House Republicans will instead plow ahead with an alternative proposal: a short-term bill to fund the entire department for 60 days, until May 22.
“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson told reporters in a news conference.
Johnson said the House would vote on the stop-gap proposal “as soon as possible.” Lawmakers were notified that votes are expected on Friday night, though the exact timing remains unclear.
If the House succeeds, the measure will head back to the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed that it is “dead on arrival.”
All this means the partial government shutdown, now in its 42nd day, is likely to continue.
Amid the gridlock on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump on Friday signed a presidential memorandum directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA employees. DHS said that workers will start seeing paychecks on Monday.
President Trump, in a phone interview with Fox News on Friday afternoon, said the Senate deal on DHS “wasn’t good” and “wasn’t appropriate.”
The Senate, at 2 a.m. on Friday morning, approved a funding bill that included TSA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The package did not include money for ICE or parts of CBP, though those agencies continue to receive funds due to an influx of cash provided in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last summer.
Also absent from the Senate bill are any of the reforms to ICE’s operating procedures that Democrats have been repeatedly demanding following the fatal shootings of two American citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents earlier this year.
Still, Schumer said he was proud of Democrats who “held the line” on their objection to funding ICE and CBP without reforms.
“Democrats held firm in our position that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms and we will continue to fight for those reforms,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune lambasted Democrats on the floor for what he framed as their refusal to negotiate in good faith. He said Democrats could have secured some of their desired reforms if they hadn’t complicated negotiations.
“We could be standing here right now passing a funding bill with a list of reforms if the Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement. But they didn’t, because it’s now clear to everyone, Democrats didn’t actually want a solution, they wanted an issue, politics over policy, self-interest over reform, pandering to their base over actually solving a problem,” Thune said.
Senate Republicans vowed to work on a package later this year to approve even more funding for ICE and CBP, saying they aim to do it using reconciliation — a budget tool that, if successful, would allow them to sidestep Democratic objection and pass the bill without any Democratic support.
Republicans are already warning that that bill will be a much harsher and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., vowed it would “supercharge deportations.”
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
Fox McCloud, as voiced by Glen Powell, on the poster for ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.’ (Universal Pictures)
Glen Powell has officially joined The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The actor has been revealed as the voice of Fox McCloud in the upcoming sequel film to The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Powell made the announcement in a post he shared to Instagram on Friday.
“Born to Barrel Roll,” Powell captioned his announcement video, alongside a star emoji and a fox emoji.
In the video, Powell jumps around a movie theater as if he was inside of a video game. The theater is adorned with many different posters for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which he bounces around to the tune of “Ground Theme,” colloquially known as The Super Mario Bros. theme song.
This new film is inspired by the Super Mario Galaxy video games, which find Mario and friends in the cosmos.
The voice actors from the previous film returned to voice the roles they originated. Chris Pratt is back as Mario, Charlie Day returns to play Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy voices Princess Peach, Jack Black voices Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key is back as Toad and Kevin Michael Richardson voices Kamek.
As for the voice cast for the film’s new characters: Brie Larson voices Princess Rosalina, Benny Safdie portrays Bowser Jr., Donald Glover voices Yoshi, Luis Guzman plays Wart and Issa Rae voices the Honey Queen.
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic directed The Super Mario Galaxy Movie from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives in theaters on April 1.
(JUPITER ISLAND, Fla.) –Tiger Woods was involved in a rollover crash in Jupiter Island, Florida, on Friday afternoon, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.
His condition was not immediately clear.
ABC News has reached out to Woods’ reps for comment.
The SUV he was driving, a 2021 Genesis GV80, was found several feet away from the center divider, in an area that had a “high-frequency” of accidents, officials said at the time.
Authorities said there was no “evidence of impairment” in that crash, adding that the wreck was “purely an accident.”
Following the accident, Woods told Golf Digest in an interview that he began a rehabilitation process that included three months in a hospital-type bed in his home.
In 2017, Woods was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Jupiter, Florida. An incident report at the time said that he was asleep and “had to be woken up.” Woods was later released on his own recognizance.
Woods shared a statement after the incident apologizing to his family, friends and fans.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Ballots are counted on election night at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operation Center on November 5, 2024 in Fairburn, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI’s application for the warrant that led to the search and seizure of more than 650 boxes of 2020 election records from a Fulton County, Georgia, election site in January lacked any kind of evidence of intentional misconduct and relied on incorrect information, an elections expert with twenty years of experience told a federal judge Friday.
Testifying as Fulton County’s first witness in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, Ryan Macias told the court that his review of the claims made by the FBI in their application lacked a “basis in reality.”
“The content of the witnesses is incorrect and in many cases contradictory,” he said. “The information in there is not based in reality.”
Lawyers with the Department of Justice attempted to cast doubt on Macias’ testimony by arguing he lacks direct knowledge of the testimony in the case and is inexperienced in criminal investigations, though he was only qualified as an expert on election administration. Macias worked for both the federal government and California to administer elections as well as consulted for Fulton County in 2020.
Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva broadly claimed, without citing any examples, that criminal investigations regularly stem from matters where initial investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“Are you aware that happens all the time?” Duva asked Macias.
“No,” Macias responded.
“That’s because you don’t know,” Duva responded.
During his direct examination, Macias went through each of the claims made in the FBI’s application for the warrant to debunk and cast doubt on each allegation.
“Do ballot images have any impact on the final tabulation of ballots?” asked attorney Kamal Ghali, referencing the claim that election officials produced inconsistent numbers of ballot images from the 2020 election.
“No they do not,” Macias said.
“Is the absence of ballot images evidence of misconduct?” Ghali asked.
“No it is not,” he responded.
Attorney Abbe Lowell, representing the Fulton County officials, argued that the search was based on incorrect information from unreliable witnesses related to claims that are years beyond the statute of limitations.
“A week doesn’t go by without someone in the administration making an allegation of voter fraud,” Lowell said before reminding the judge that the investigation itself originated from an attorney who tried to overturn the 2020 election who was previously sanctioned for making false claims about the outcome. Lowell said the reliance on the unreliable witnesses would make “George Orwell smile in his grave.”
DOJ attorneys have insisted that the search was based on evidence of potential misconduct and accused Fulton County officials of speculating about “some kind of grand conspiracy.”
“It just seems like a loosey-goosey theory,” said DOJ attorney Michael Weisbuch. “They don’t like the vibe of what’s happening because that’s not a constitutional standard.”
U.S. District Judge JP Boulee, a Trump appointee, will decide on Fulton County’s request to force the Trump administration to return the sensitive records taken from the election site.
After election officials raised concerns about the basis for the January 2026 search, Judge Boulee last month ordered the Department of Justice to publicly release the application for the warrant, which revealed that the investigation was triggered by an attorney and close ally of President Trump who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
According to the unsealed court records, the investigation centers on long-debunked allegations of voter fraud that have already been thoroughly investigated.
Fulton County election officials have since pushed for the return of the records, arguing that the investigation focuses on “human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election … without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever.”
“The Affidavit omits numerous material facts — including from the very reports and publicly-disclosed investigations that the Affiant cites — that confirm the alleged conduct was previously investigated and found to be unintentional,” attorneys for the Fulton County officials argued.
In a late setback ahead of Friday’s hearing, Judge Boulee quashed an attempt to force the FBI agent behind the search warrant to testify, concluding that questioning the agent could reveal “process and scope of the DOJ’s investigation,” which remains ongoing.
President Donald Trump has long criticized the outcome of the 2020 election results in Georgia, personally pushing to overturn the results after his loss and later being indicted in two criminal cases over his actions. Those cases have since been dismissed, and Trump has continued to push for criminal accountability for what he baselessly alleged was a stolen election.
Through a call with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who was present at the January raid — President Trump personally addressed some of the agents who conducted the search and told them they were doing great work by investigating Georgia’s elections, ABC News previously reported.
“I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited,” Gabbard told lawmakers earlier this month when asked about her presence at the search. “It is my role based on statute that Congress has passed to have oversight over election security to include counterintelligence.”
President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, March 26, 2026 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Israel Defense Forces need “a few more weeks” to fully degrade Iranian military capabilities, such as missile-launchers, a senior Israeli security official told ABC News.
The Israeli security official poured cold water on the idea that a substantive deal between the United States and Iran could be reached within President Donald Trump’s earlier deadline of this weekend. Trump said Thursday that he was postponing plans to target Iran’s power plants until April 6 citing ongoing talks.
The Iranians “are very well-trained negotiators,” the security official said. “They won’t agree in a few days to end all the actions.”
The senior Israeli security official, who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, said he was worried that U.S.-Iran talks could lead to a deal which does not extract significant enough concessions from the Iranians.
The Israeli security official said that if he were advising U.S. negotiators he would ask “to see actions [from the Iranians] that can be measured.”
“For example, giving [up] all the 400 kilograms of enriched uranium,” he added.
Iran has previously denied U.S. and Israeli accusations that it was enriching uranium to near weapons-grade level, with an ultimate aim of producing nuclear weapons.
The Israeli official spoke to ABC News on Tuesday, the day after Trump posted on his social media platform that there had been “very good and productive conversations” between the U.S. and Iran “regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
Iranian officials have denied — at least publicly — that negotiations with the U.S. are taking place. On Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, told Indian TV that there were “no talks or negotiations” between Iran and the United States.
“No one can trust U.S. diplomacy,” Baqaei added.
However, on Thursday a Reuters report quoted an Iranian official as saying that a U.S. proposal for ending the war was “one-sided and unfair.”
The White House said in a statement that the U.S. military had been “decimating Iran’s military capabilities with overwhelming firepower, skill, lethality, and force.”
“The United States is winning very decisively and way ahead of schedule,” a White House official said.
“We have taken major strides towards completing our military objectives, to the point that we are close to completing them,” the White House added.
On Thursday, Trump announced a further pause in plans to hit Iran’s power plants, again citing talks that he said were “going very well.”
An Israeli military official who was authorized to speak with journalists told reporters during a briefing Wednesday that the Israeli Air Force had conducted 8,500 strikes in Iran since the end of February and had destroyed some 400 Iranian ballistic missiles and 335 missile-launchers, which equated, he said, to about 70% of Iran’s overall arsenal of missile-launchers.
However, when the military official was pressed by reporters on the extent to which the IDF’s military operations and goals were outstanding in the war, he declined to give details, stressing that the U.S. and Israeli militaries were “well-coordinated” and working “shoulder-to-shoulder.”
“We are achieving more and more of our objectives,” said the military official , who is part of the IDF division that coordinates operations deep inside enemy territory.
“War is not a one bang and it’s over. It’s an ongoing machine,” he added.
The senior Israeli security official who spoke anonymously to ABC News said the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, was leading the talks with the Trump administration.
Ghalibaf’s apparent leading role in negotiations, which has not been confirmed by the U.S. or Iran, was first reported by Axios.
On Monday, Trump refused to confirm which senior Iranian official the U.S. was in talks with, telling reporters, “I don’t want him to be killed” and referring to the Iranian lead negotiator as “a top person.”
The senior Israeli security official described Ghalibaf, who is a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Air Force, as “an extremist” and “not Mother Teresa” and told ABC News that Israel would refrain from attempting to kill Ghalibaf while the talks continue.
“He has this kind of insurance [policy] as long as he talks,” the official said, adding, “no one is secure in Iran.”
Asked by a reporter if the IDF was holding off on any attempts to kill Ghalibaf, the military official did not comment directly about Ghalibaf but stressed that, in terms of its list of targets, the IDF would accept and follow any political decisions.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration sent a 15-point plan to Iran end the war, via Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator, two sources familiar with the plan told ABC News Tuesday.
Those sources said the plan addresses Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs as well as maritime routes but would not provide any other details including which Iranian officials the proposal was sent to. It is also unclear whether Israel has signed onto the proposal.
While diplomatic efforts continue, the Pentagon is preparing to deploy as many as 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East, with some of those forces already in transit.
The troops are a mix of U.S. Army paratroopers and Marines.
However, exactly when the troops will arrive or where they will land is not clear.
Trump has indicated that the negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials have, in part, been focused on Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s stranglehold over that narrow waterway, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes, has caused a spike in energy prices and volatility in trading on financial markets.
The senior Israeli security official who spoke anonymously with ABC News said Israel was working on the assumption that Iran had laid naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Israeli official stressed that locating naval mines and disarming them is a “complicated” task.
“If one big oil tanker were exploded by a few naval mines, it would play havoc with markets, as well as the insurance for shipping companies, and would send the price of oil skyrocketing,” the Israeli official said.
“If Iran says they have mined the Strait of Hormuz then the basic assumption we must have as commanders … is that they have mined the Strait of Hormuz,” said the Israeli military official who briefed reporters.
In possible talks Israel wants the U.S. to press Iran to give up what remains of its enriched uranium and rein in its proxies in the region, the senior Israeli security official stressed.
That Israeli official suggested that it would not be possible to seize Iran’s enriched uranium by military force.
The two U.S. Marine Expeditionary Units which are being deployed to the Middle East, “don’t have the engineering tools” to conduct an operation to “pull out” Iran’s remaining enriched uranium from underground sites, he said.
Asked about this issue on the briefing with reporters, the military official declined to comment.
The Pentagon declined to comment about the senior Israeli official’s assessment of remaining objectives in the war and the U.S. military’s capabilities.
The White House said the war on Iran was “a conditions-based operation” and said it would conclude when the president “determines that our objectives are met.”
Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr. in a behind-the-scenes photo from the set of ‘Kennedy.’ (Netflix)
The first look at the upcoming Michael Fassbender-starring series Kennedy has arrived.
Netflix has shared a behind-the-scenes photo of Fassbender in costume as Joe Kennedy Sr. The photo comes as the streaming service announced that production on the show has started in London.
Kennedy will be an eight-episode drama series based on the Fredrik Logevall book JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1965.
The previously announced series regulars include Laura Donnelly as Rose Kennedy, Nick Robinson as Joe Kennedy Jr. and Joshuah Melnick as Jack Kennedy. The show will also feature Ben Miles as Eddie Moore, Lydia Peckham as Rosemary Kennedy, Saura Lightfoot-Leon as Kick Kennedy, Cole Doman as Lem Billings and Imogen Poots as Gloria Swanson.
Additionally, 13 other actors have been newly announced to join the recurring cast of the series. They are Georgina Bitmead as Eunice Kennedy, Miley Locke as younger Kick Kennedy, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland as younger Rosemary Kennedy, Hera Hilmar as Inga Arvad, Wyatt Russell as Charles Lindbergh, Patrick Fischler as Arthur Krock, Caitlin FitzGerald as Clare Boothe Luce, Louis Landau as Billy Cavendish, Robin Soans as Neville Chamberlain, Denis O’Hare as Raymond Furness, Albert Welling as Winston Churchill, Toby Huss as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eddie Marsan as J. Edgar Hoover.
“Kennedy reveals the intimate lives, loves, rivalries and tragedies that shaped the most iconic dynasty in modern history, and helped create the world we live in today,” according to its official logline. “Beginning in the 1930s, the first season charts the improbable ascent of Joe and Rose Kennedy and their nine children, including rebellious second son Jack, who struggles to escape the shadow of his golden boy older brother.”
The show will be directed by Another Round helmer Thomas Vinterberg. It will be showrun and executive produced by Sam Shaw.
Shoppers visit the Tajrish Bazaar, one of Tehranâs main shopping areas. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A threat of U.S. attacks on power plants in Iran continues to loom over the Middle East conflict, even after Trump pushed back a self-imposed deadline for the second time.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Trump said he was “pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction” until April 6.
In the event of such an attack, Iran has said it would carry out tit-for-tat strikes against energy infrastructure in neighboring countries, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency state media.
The threatened escalation risks a humanitarian crisis for tens of millions of people in the region, potentially restricting their access to basic essentials such as electricity, food, water and health care, some analysts told ABC News.
Distress could spread to countries beyond the Gulf if dire conditions prompt residents to flee across borders and infrastructure damage worsens a global oil shock, analysts said.
“This will be bad for everybody,” Mushfiq Mobarak, a professor of economics at Yale University, told ABC News. “The most damaging effects — the largest welfare costs — will be on Iranian civilians.”
On March 21, Trump vowed to “obliterate” power plants in Iran within 48 hours unless the country eases its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Before the deadline arrived on Monday night in Washington, D.C., Trump posted on social media that he was postponing the ultimatum for five days, claiming “productive conversations” had been held between the U.S. and Iran.
On Thursday — one day before the new deadline was set to arrive — Trump said he would postpone the deadline for an additional 10 days.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are “ongoing,” Trump claimed. Iranian officials have denied that the country is in talks with the U.S.
Meanwhile, Iran has pledged to retaliate against civilian infrastructure in nearby countries in response to an attack on its energy sites.
“Immediately after the power plants and infrastructure in our country are targeted, the critical infrastructure, energy infrastructure, and oil facilities throughout the region will be considered legitimate targets,” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a post on X on Sunday.
Natural gas supplies roughly 79% of electricity used in Iran, according to the International Energy Administration, a global energy policy group based in Paris, France.
The majority of the nation’s natural gas is supplied by South Pars, the largest natural gas field in the world. An Israeli attack on South Pars last week threatened severe impact in Iran and neighboring Gulf states, analysts previously told ABC News.
Potential U.S. attacks on energy infrastructure could cut off electricity access for many of the 92 million people in Iran, while at the same time discontinuing power for critical institutions like hospitals, Mobarak said.
“If hospitals lose power, that’s very dangerous,” Mobarak said.
The health care impact would come as some hospitals in the region face perilous conditions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Health care facilities faced a total of 13 attacks as of March 5, the WHO said, voicing concern about “health systems and lives at risk in the region.”
Attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran could also worsen food shortages and price increases, Michael Werz, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC News. Annual food inflation in Iran stood at 72% in December, before the war began, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Any further deterioration of food access, Werz said, could have a “massive impact.”
Potential Iranian retaliation against civilian sites threatens desperate conditions for millions of people in nearby countries Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq and Israel, some analysts said.
Those countries depend in large part on water desalination plants for drinking water due to arid conditions in the region, making those facilities a major potential vulnerability, Ginger Matchett, assistant director with the GeoStrategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said in a blog post.
Desalinated drinking water accounts for at least 90% of the supply in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, while Israel and Oman each depend on such plants for 80% of their drinking water, Matchett said.
“If Iran successfully destroyed the Gulf’s desalination infrastructure, then the consequences could be devastating,” Matchett added.
In early March, desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain were targeted in the fighting, and missile-related damage has also been reported at sites in Kuwait and the UAE.
Potential retaliatory attacks on oil and gas sites in the region also threaten to deepen and prolong a global oil crisis, driving up fuel costs and raising prices for essential goods worldwide, some analysts said.
Global oil prices skyrocketed in recent weeks after the war prompted closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil and natural gas delivery. Consumers have held out hope for a reopening of the strait and a relatively speedy recovery, but facility repairs could stretch on for months and choke off fuel supply in the meantime.
Qatari authorities said last week that Iranian ballistic missile attacks caused fires and “extensive damage” at the Ras Laffan terminal, which carries about one-fifth of the global supply of liquid natural gas. An Iranian missile attack struck oil refineries last week in Haifa, Israel, where fire brigades extinguished a fire that broke out at the site, Israel Fire and Rescue said.
The Philippines has declared a national energy emergency in response to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, while South Korea has called on residents to ride bicycles for short trips and reduce the length of showers. Thailand and Vietnam have also asked citizens to take steps to curtail energy use.
Roughly 80% of the oil that typically passes through the strait is bound for Asian markets, according to the IEA. Still, the oil shock will raise gas prices worldwide, since energy is sold on a global market, Mobarak said.
“This will have effects for gas consumers across the world,” he added.
In this May 15, 2025, file photo, Nerdeen Kiswani speaks at a Nakba day protest in Brooklyn, New York. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — The NYPD and the FBI said they have disrupted an alleged plot to kill a Palestinian activist, according to law enforcement officials and unsealed court documents.
Authorities arrested Alexander Heifler in Hoboken on Thursday night on charges of unlawfully possessing and unlawfully making firearms. He is also accused of plotting to “go after” activist Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder of Within Our Lifetime, who is an organizer of many of the pro-Palestinian protests in New York City.
Kiswani is not identified by name in the criminal complaint, but she posted on social media the FBI informed her she was the alleged target.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel testifies during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats in the Hart Senate Office Building on March 18, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Hackers breached FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The majority of the emails were from prior to 2019, according to sources, and appear to be from before his tenure at the FBI. There were a few emails from 2022, sources told ABC News.
“The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity. The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information,” the FBI said in a statement Friday.
It is unclear which country hacked the director’s old emails, however, Iranian-linked hackers online have claimed credit for the hack.
“The Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program offers up to a $10 million reward for information leading to the identification of the Handala Hack Team out of Iran — a group that has frequently targeted U.S. government officials,” the FBI said.
Reuters was the first to report the breach.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
