NASA set for first crewed moon return in over half a century

2026-03-30 16:02:12 UTC / Reuters

By Joey Roulette

March 30, 2026 4:02 PM UTC Updated 14 mins ago

Four astronauts near mission for launch around the moon and back

• Artemis II mission the first crewed test before future landings, other tests
• NASA working with private companies, hoping for future lunar market
• One estimate forecasts lunar economy revenue at $127 billion by 2050

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, March 30 (Reuters) – NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second ​Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity’s broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China.

Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut ‌are due for liftoff aboard NASA’s Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before.

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The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA’s Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon’s surface, a tricky ​feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole.

The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo ​program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union.

U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its ⁠own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface.

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ANSWERING ‘THE QUESTION OF OUR LIFETIME’

NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on ​Sunday said the moon is a “witness plate” to the solar system’s formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, “where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life.”

“Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is ​in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars,” she told reporters. “They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?”

“Answering that question starts at the moon,” she said. “The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?”

Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, ​the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon’s surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars.

The other crew ​members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity.

[1/2]People photograph NASA’s next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule, on Pad 39B ahead of the Artemis II mission launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., March 29, 2026. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Hansen’s participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. “It was the result ‌of decades of ⁠contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation,” said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA’s astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station.

COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET

NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers.

A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially ​reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period.

For now, and ​in the near future, governments will drive companies’ ⁠lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA.

Rao, who was among the group of ​NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration’s sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does “not see a short-run economic value ​that companies would be able to ⁠derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off.”

The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA’s Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications.

Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital ⁠mechanics between Earth ​and the moon, opens on April 30.

Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth’s orbit with NASA’s ​two lunar landers – the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon’s surface.

That mission was added to the program in February by NASA’s new administrator, ​Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program’s first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

Reporting by Joey Roulette at Cape Canaveral; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Vance tops CPAC straw poll, but Rubio’s surge sets up a fight for the post-Trump MAGA mantle

2026-03-30T17:23:19.995Z / CNN Politics

Vance tops CPAC straw poll, but Rubio’s surge sets up a fight for the post-Trump MAGA mantle

By Manu Raju, CNN

Published 1:23 PM EDT, Mon March 30, 2026

Vance tops CPAC straw poll, but Rubio’s surge sets up a fight for the post-Trump MAGA mantle

Inside Politics

Manu Raju and the “Inside Politics” panel examine what CPAC attendees think of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as possible heirs to the MAGA movement. “Clearly people are looking at cues from the president, and that shows us that it’s between the two of them,” Sabrina Rodriguez tells Raju.

6:28 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/30/politics/video/inside-politics-cpac-vance-rubio-straw-poll-2028

Rubio gains early momentum in hypothetical 2028 GOP primary race as Vance remains front-runner

March 30, 2026 2:12pm EDT / Fox News

Vance told Fox News that ‘Marco is my closest friend in the administration’ and dismissed media attempts to ‘create this conflict’

By Paul Steinhauser Fox News

Vice President JD Vance has long been seen as the heir apparent to President Donald Trump and his MAGA and America First base. While Vance remains the hypothetical clear front-runner ahead of the start of the 2028 White House race, which won’t ignite until after this year’s midterm elections, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears to be on the rise.

Thanks to an increase in his responsibilities and public profile, most recently around the U.S. operation in Venezuela and the month-long strikes against Iran, Rubio has seen his support for a possible presidential bid soar in recent weeks.

The latest example — Rubio’s strong second-place finish this weekend in the 2028 Republican presidential nomination straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

WHITE HOUSE RACE UNDERWAY: WITH 2026 LOOMING, BOTH PARTIES ARE ALREADY PLAYING FOR 2028

President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters while Vice President JD Vance, left, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, look on, as they attend a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 2026.(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Rubio, who was one of more than a dozen Republican contenders who ran and lost to Trump in the tumultuous 2016 presidential race, grabbed 35% of the vote at CPAC when the straw poll results were announced this past weekend, up from a mere 3% a year earlier.

Vance, who is popular with MAGA and America First groups, finished first at 53%. While the vice president saw his support slightly edge down from 61% last year, Vance’s numbers are higher than any one else in CPAC presidential straw poll history other than Trump.

All the other potential Republican 2028 White House candidates in the new straw poll scored in the low single digits in the informal survey of CPAC attendees.

HILLARY CLINTON’S RETURING TO NEW HAMPSHIRE – BUT NOT FOR 2028

The CPAC straw poll follows recent numbers from the Saint Anselm College Survey Center in New Hampshire, the state that has long held the first primary in the GOP presidential nominating calendar, that also showed Rubio surging. And a handful of national polls have also pointed to a rise in support for a hypothetical Rubio bid.

The results are fuel for intrigue over what some in the Republican Party see as a budding rivalry between Rubio and Vance, who describe each other as friends.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.(Yuri Gripas/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“His overall favorability is going up because voters see him as a capable and steady person in the president’s cabinet, and Trump supporters are reacting,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque, who oversees the Saint Anselm poll, told Fox News Digital.

Partially fueling Rubio’s rise is Trump, who has lavishly praised his secretary of state.

The president recently declared that Rubio would go down as “the greatest secretary of state in history.”

Trump has also promoted a Vance-Rubio ticket — calling it “unstoppable” a few months ago—but has not said who should be at the top of the ticket.

But the president did say last year that Vance is “most likely” his heir apparent. “In all fairness, he’s the vice president,” Trump added.

Vice President JD Vance, left, and President Donald Trump attend the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Feb. 19, 2026, in Washington, DC.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

While Vance has demurred when questioned about 2028, he has built a political team of advisers who, if he runs as expected, would quickly build out a presidential campaign.

Rubio, who is crisscrossing the globe as part of job requirements, doesn’t have a similar group of political aides. And Rubio has said he’ll back Vance if the vice president launches a 2028 campaign.

“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair late last year.

Regardless, Republican sources confirm to Fox News that a group of GOP donors who support the secretary of state are quietly working on ways to boost Rubio’s political profile.

That’s not sitting well with some in the president’s political orbit.

“Vice President Vance is the future of the Republican Party and Marco Rubio is one of his closest friends in the administration,” an operative in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News.

“The divisive stories from some donors trying to cause chaos are not helpful,” the operative, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, emphasized.

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Vance has also weighed in, telling Fox News’ Martha MacCallum last month that “Marco is my closest friend in the administration.”

And the vice president, in his interview on Fox News’ “The Story, added, “I think it’s so interesting the media wants to create this conflict where there just isn’t any conflict.”

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.

DOJ whistleblower complains to Congress that internal watchdog isn’t doing its job

2026-03-30 3:10 PM ET / CNN

By Katelyn Polantz

20 min ago

PUBLISHED Mar 30, 2026, 3:10 PM ET

Federal agencies Congressional news Donald Trump

People walk in heavy rain near the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC, from which hangs a new banner depicting US President Donald Trump, on February 20, 2026.

Ken Cedeno/Reuters/File

A former federal immigration prosecutor and whistleblower who has taken issue with Trump administration leadership has now gone to Capitol Hill, saying the internal watchdog offices of the Justice Department are doing nothing to investigate his and other complaints.

Lawyers for Erez Reuveni, who was fired last year after opposing his superiors’ legal approach to deportations, say the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General hasn’t investigated “any of the serious allegations of misconduct made over the past 15 months,” including complaints made by members of Congress, according to a letter sent Monday to House and Senate Judiciary committee leaders and obtained by CNN.

The entire system of accountability that Congress had set up for the Justice Department is now dead, Reuveni’s attorneys say.

“The epidemic of alleged misconduct has been met with a shrug by the agency whose job it is to address such allegations,” the letter states. “The inaction of the OIG comes at a time when the amount of governmental misconduct and violation of court orders by DOJ lawyers around the country have reached epic and unprecedented proportions.”

It adds: “The collapse of DOJ’s accountability mechanisms, and the widespread evidence of an epidemic of misconduct within the DOJ, call for your immediate attention and rigorous oversight.”

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In response to several of Reuveni’s assertions on Monday, a Justice Department spokesman said, “Just because this former DOJ employee is desperate for relevancy doesn’t mean there is any legitimate basis to investigate DOJ attorneys being instructed to do their jobs and vigorously litigate on behalf of the United States.”

The IG’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuveni first complained to the inspector general and Congress last year about his belief that Justice Department leaders under the new Trump administration were intentionally misleading courts and not interested in following court orders. He also alleged he was fired as “reprisal for his whistleblowing,” which the DOJ denies.

Reuveni had accused Emil Bove, a former Donald Trump defense lawyer-turned-top Justice Department official, of crudely telling DOJ attorneys they may need to consider ignoring court orders, as the administration was preparing to deport migrants to El Salvador under the controversial Alien Enemies Act. Bove was then appointed by Trump to become an appellate judge on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, and he maintained he hadn’t given any direction that would disqualify him for the federal bench.

The inspector general’s office this January ultimately told Reuveni it would refer his allegations to a different office at the Justice Department, the Office of Professional Responsibility. But that office, Reuveni claims, has little ability to seriously investigate internally.

The professional responsibility office has fewer than three dozen employees, whereas the inspector general’s office has more than 400, Reuveni’s team wrote. And the current Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche removed the chief of the professional responsibility office last year.

“The Trump administration has decapitated OPR,” Reuveni’s letter says. “Gone are the days when OIG used to fight tooth and nail to handle investigations assigned to OPR, and when OIG would work with OPR on major investigations … OPR has not expressed any interest in conducting the investigation, nor is it clear that it has the resources to do so.”

The inspector general’s office also said it wouldn’t investigate his whistleblower allegations because of pending litigation. That, too, was a faulty excuse, Reuveni’s lawyers argued.

“There is almost always existing or foreseeable litigation that relates to an OIG investigation,” his letter says.

In fact, in the past, the DOJ inspector general has taken on some of the most substantial investigations of accusations of wrongdoing within the department and the FBI, including after the 2016 investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election. The inspector general at the time, Michael Horowitz, is now the watchdog for the Federal Reserve Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Health, environmental groups sue EPA for rollback of mercury rule

2026-03-30 7:49 PM UTC / Reuters

By Valerie Volcovici

March 30, 2026 7:49 PM UTC Updated 11 mins ago

节点运行失败

Fisk Coal Station’s smokestack lies dormant in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., as the century-old electric generating plant shut down in 2012 is pressed into service again while the nation’s electrical grids struggle to meet growing demand from data centers, November 17, 2025, in this screengrab from video. REUTERS/Eric Cox/File Photo

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) – A coalition of health and environmental groups on Monday sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for repealing ​federal standards for coal-fired power plants that limited mercury and ‌other harmful air pollutants, saying that the rollbacks put children and vulnerable people at risk.

Here are some details:

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• The coalition of groups, which includes ​Earthjustice, the American Lung Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council ​and the American Academy of Pediatrics, filed the lawsuit ⁠in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

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• In ​February, the Trump administration’s EPA repealed the 2024 update by the Biden ​administration of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, which would have reduced allowable mercury pollution from coal plants by 70%, emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead and ​other toxic metals by two-thirds and would have saved an ​estimated $420 million in health costs through 2037, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

• ‌The ⁠administration last year also issued a two-year exemption from air quality standards for old coal-fired power plants that let some of the biggest emitting facilities off the hook. Since the exemptions were issued, ​the coalition said sulfur ​dioxide emissions ⁠rose 18% nationally and neurotoxic mercury emissions rose 9%.

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• “This administration is not just rolling back rules, it ​is eliminating the monitoring infrastructure needed to know ​what is ⁠coming out of these smokestacks in the first place. It is allowing coal plants to spew out more neurotoxic mercury into our ⁠air and ​food supply, while simultaneously keeping the ​communities most at risk in the dark about how serious that threat is,” the coalition ​said in a statement.

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Mark Sanford makes a bid to return to Congress a third time from South Carolina

2026-03-30T18:56:29.032Z / Associated Press

Then-Rep. Mark Sanford speaks during a town hall meeting in Hilton Head, South Carolina, in March 2017.

Sean Rayford/Getty Images/File

Columbia, South Carolina AP—

Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 affair, wants to return to Congress — again.

Just hours ahead of the deadline to do so, Sanford filed candidacy paperwork with state officials to run in the June 9 GOP primary for South Carolina’s 1st District seat, which he has held twice before.

Sanford’s first political office was in the 1st District. An outsider with almost no name recognition, he navigated a primary for the open seat, finishing second before winning the runoff. He served for six years before his outside run at governor, again pushing his way through a crowded primary, then knocking off the last Democrat to hold the office.

But his eight years were overshadowed by the Appalachian Trail, which became shorthand for Sanford’s disappearance to go to Argentina to see his lover. Sanford’s wife, family and staff didn’t know where he was.

Beating back both an ethics inquiry and calls to resign, Sanford held fast, leaving office on his own terms.

In 2013, Sanford won back his old seat, beating 15 other candidates in a primary and runoff. He won two more full terms before falling to a GOP challenger in 2018 who had President Donald Trump’s backing.

The seat would go on to flip to Democratic hands that fall for the first time in decades, won back by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in 2020. Mace is running for governor this year.

Sanford, 65, also briefly ran for president in 2020, challenging Trump for the nomination in what he characterized as a “long shot” effort around warnings about the national debt. Some, including Sanford’s former gubernatorial staffers, initially questioned whether the effort was a serious one, positing that it might be an effort to stay relevant after the 2018 defeat.

Sanford dropped out of the contest just ahead of the New Hampshire primary. Sanford’s home state would ultimately opt not to hold a 2020 GOP presidential primary, clearing the way for Trump’s nomination in South Carolina.

Sanford did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Monday. True to the themes that have dominated his political thinking, an email release on Sanford’s candidacy focused on the national debt, with the candidate saying he felt 1st District voters wanted a representative “who is an advocate for financial sanity that has been lost in Washington for all too long.“

Since leaving the US House, Sanford has hung onto more than $1.3 million in a federal campaign account, funds that he can now use in a primary already crowded with multiple Republican and Democratic candidates. In his state campaign account, Sanford still has more than $1 million, funds that could now be transferred to an outside group supportive of his bid.

Trump speaks with the family of Sheridan Gorman, college student allegedly slain by illegal immigrant

March 30, 2026 2:27pm EDT / Fox News

Details of the conversation between Trump and the Gorman family were not immediately disclosed

By Stephen Sorace, Patrick Ward, Fox News

Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., discusses the Biden administration’s border policies and criticizes Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s response to the alleged murder of a student by an illegal immigrant on ‘Fox News Live.’

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1 min

President Donald Trump has spoken with the family of Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old college student who was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant in Chicago earlier this month, Fox News has learned.

A White House official confirmed to Fox News on Monday that Trump spoke with Gorman’s family, though did not immediately share details about the conversation the president had with her loved ones.

Gorman, a New York native who was attending Loyola University Chicago,was killed at around 1:06 a.m. on March 19 while with friends near a pier in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.

Officials allege Jose Medina-Medina, 25, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, fired one shot at the student, killing her.

SLAIN DC INTERN’S MOM URGES SHERIDAN GORMAN’S FAMILY TO ‘FIGHT BACK’ AFTER OBITUARY OLIVE BRANCH

Sheridan Gorman was killed after being shot in the head while taking a walk with friends at Tobey Prinz Beach, located less than a mile from the Illinois’ campus, around 1 a.m. on March 19, according to reports.(Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram)

Medina-Medina was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan national, was also arrested for shoplifting and released before the alleged murder, DHS confirmed.(DHS)

Gorman was reportedly only a few months away from completing her freshman year.

FATHER OF SLAIN 20-YEAR-OLD KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ISSUES STARK WARNING AFTER SHERIDAN GORMAN KILLING

Her mother, Jessica Gorman, delivered emotional remarks Saturday at a vigil in Yorktown Heights, vowing a “fight for justice”.

Tom, Jessica and Madelon Gorman are seen among supporters at a vigil in Yorktown, New York.(Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“I want to say this gently, but honestly, as a mom. I’m angry,” Jessica Gorman said. “I’m like completely heartbroken, and we are going to fight for justice for our sweet Sheridan, and we’re going to fight for change.”

Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

New York Times accuses Pentagon of flouting judge’s order blocking its press access policy

March 30, 2026 2:52 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The New York Times told a federal judge Monday that the Pentagon has flouted the court’s ruling blocking it from enforcing its policy limiting journalists’ access to the Defense Department headquarters. The Times urged the court to compel the government to comply with the order to reinstate press credentials

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman did not rule from the bench after he heard a second round of arguments from lawyers for the Times and the Trump administration. The Times said that Pentagon officials have implemented a revised press policy that circumvents the judge’s March 20 ruling.

Friedman sided with The Times earlier this month, ruling that the Pentagon’s new credential policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process. He ordered defense officials to reinstate the press credentials of seven Times reporters and said his decision applied to “all regulated parties.”

Times attorney Theodore Boutrous said the Pentagon responded to Friedman’s order by imposing a new, revised policy that imposes “radical new restrictions” on journalists.

“They’ve only made things worse,” Boutrous said.

Government attorney Sarah Welch said the Defense Department’s revised policy on media access to the Pentagon includes several “safe harbors” protecting reporters engaging in routine forms of newsgathering. “The department has fully complied in good faith with that (March 20) order,” Welch told the judge.

In a court filing Sunday, Times national security reporter Julian Barnes said Pentagon staff also explained to him and his colleagues last week that their new credentials would give them access to a new press area located in the Pentagon library. But the only way for the reporters to access the library is through a corridor or on a shuttle bus that they didn’t initially have permission to use, Barnes noted — prompting Judge Friedman to respond, “How weird is that? Is it Catch-22? Is it Kafka? What’s going on here?”

In October, reporters from mainstream news outlets walked out of the building rather than comply with the new rules. The Times sued the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December to challenge the policy.

Times attorneys accused the Pentagon of violating the judge’s March 20 order, “both in letter and spirit,” by issuing a revised “interim” policy that bars credentialed reporters from entering the building without an escort. Plaintiffs’ lawyers say the latest policy also imposes unprecedented rules dictating when reporters can offer anonymity to sources.

Barnes said in his filing that Pentagon Press Office staff also told Times reporters that journalists “would no longer be allowed into the Pentagon without an escort from the Department, and that an escort would be provided only for pre-arranged interviews, press conferences, or other specified types of events.” He said they were told they’d need to submit a request at least a day in advance to attend these events, and requests would be approved by the Pentagon Office of Public Affairs. That, he pointed out, rendered the Pentagon Facility Alternate Credentials, or PFACs, “worthless,” because all reporters, even without a credential, may access the Pentagon if they are pre-approved by the press office.

He said that in his 20 years of covering the Pentagon “this is the first time that the Department has ever barred reporters with Pentagon press credentials from entering the Pentagon without an escort, a reservation, or an invitation to a specific press conference or event.”

“The intent is obvious: The Interim Policy is an attempted end-run around this Court’s ruling,” newspaper attorneys wrote.

Government lawyers argued the Pentagon’s revised policy fully complies with the judge’s directives.

“In effect, Plaintiffs ask this Court to expand the Order to prohibit the Department from ever addressing the security of the Pentagon through a press credentialing policy with conditions that may address similar topics or concerns as the enjoined conditions. The Order does not say that, and this Court should not read it to say that,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

The Justice Department also argued that the court’s order did not say the Pentagon couldn’t revise its press credential policy or issue new press access policies.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell has said the administration would appeal Friedman’s March 20 decision.

The Pentagon Press Association, which includes CBS News and Associated Press reporters, said the Pentagon’s interim policy preserves provisions that Friedman deemed to be unconstitutional while also adding new restrictions on credential holders.

“The Interim Policy moves reporters’ workspace to an annex facility outside the Pentagon and prohibits any reporter from moving within the Pentagon itself without an escort, further limiting their ability to actually do journalism in the forum designated specifically for that purpose,” an association attorney wrote.

The current Pentagon press corps is composed of mostly conservative outlets that agreed to the policy. Journalists from outlets that refused to consent to the new rules, including CBS News and the AP, have continued reporting on the military.

Friedman, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, said in his order that recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela and Iran highlight the need for public access to information about government activities.

Hegseth says press misguiding public on Iran
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/hegseth-claims-press-is-misguiding-public-about-iran-war-warns-strikes-on-tehran-are-ramping-up/

Hegseth claims press is misguiding public about Iran war, warns strikes on Tehran are ramping up

(35:18)

Here’s who is getting paid at DHS and who isn’t

2026-03-30T19:01:42.422Z / CNN

By Tami Luhby

Updated 20 min ago

Updated Mar 30, 2026, 3:41 PM ET

PUBLISHED Mar 30, 2026, 3:01 PM ET

A FEMA employee works at the National Response Coordination Center at the headquarters for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, DC, in January.

Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA/AP/File

Tens of thousands more Department of Homeland Security workers are now being paid during the record partial government shutdown after President Donald Trump ordered the agency to send Transportation Security Administration employees their back pay.

But tens of thousands of other DHS staffers — including Federal Emergency Management Agency workers, civilians in the US Coast Guard, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employees — are still reporting for work without being compensated.

Nearly 92% of DHS’ 272,000 employees are continuing to work during the shutdown, which began February 14 after Congress failed to fund the agency for the remainder of the fiscal year. There’s no end in sight to the impasse. Lawmakers are on a roughly two-week break for Easter and Passover, after the Senate and House passed conflicting funding bills late last week.

Many of those DHS employees are being paid during the lapse, though the precise number is unclear. CNN has reached out to the agency for more details.

DHS is using money from last summer’s “big, beautiful bill” to continue compensating certain employees — particularly those involved in immigration enforcement, one of Trump’s top priorities.

The department received a $165 billion infusion from the sweeping GOP domestic policy agenda package, which funneled $75 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement alone and $64 billion to Customs and Border Protection.

Paychecks for sworn law enforcement officers in ICE, CBP and the Secret Service, as well as for Coast Guard military personnel, are being funded by the “big, beautiful bill,” according to a senior administration official.

Other positions that work on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and border security priorities, such as technology specialists and attorneys, are also being paid through the president’s domestic policy package, the official said.

Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said last fall that 70,000 law enforcement personnel, including in CBP, ICE and other divisions, would receive their paychecks during the last shutdown thanks to funds from the “big, beautiful bill.”

On Monday, money started flowing into the bank accounts of the roughly 61,000 TSA employees who have missed two full paychecks and one partial paycheck during the shutdown. DHS is likely drawing on a $10 billion pot of funds it received from the “big, beautiful bill,” experts told CNN.

The agency is still working on sending the TSA workers the balance of their pay from the partial check they received in late February, DHS said in a statement Monday. Workers, however, are waiting to hear whether they’ll receive their next paycheck in two weeks, as scheduled.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many DHS staffers, is calling attention to the fact that Trump’s directive did not cover all of the agency’s workers.

“Though TSA officers will be paid, FEMA workers, Coast Guard, CISA, and other DHS employees are waiting on their back pay,” Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, said in a statement Saturday. “No check. No relief. No apology as Congress packed their bags and left these American families to struggle alone.”

DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said the “shutdown is impacting the DHS employees working tirelessly to protect the Homeland during the Word Cup and Freedom 250 celebration,” blaming Democrats for the lack of a funding deal.

Democrats say the impasse now stems from House and Senate Republicans being unable to agree amongst themselves.

This article has been updated with additional information.

GOP lawmaker draws line on Iran ground war as Pentagon weighs options

March 30, 2026 12:32pm EDT / Fox News

Burchett said many Republicans wouldn’t back a Pentagon ground invasion in Iran

By Elaine Mallon

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Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said the Iranian people will have to “grab the bull by the horns” amid their fight against the Iranian regime because U.S. lawmakers don’t have “a will for ground conflict between America and Iran.”

Burchett’s comments came during an appearance on NewsNation on Sunday in response to exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi’s speech at CPAC. Pahlavi urged American military leaders to “stay the course” and to continue to “pave the way for the Iranian people to finish the job” to ensure a free Iran.

“I don’t think there’s a will for a ground conflict between America and Iran,” Burchett said. “I know a lot of Republicans don’t support that, and I know all the Democrats won’t support it.”

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Congressman Tim Burchett speaks to reporters following a House Republicans conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on July 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C.(Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Last Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted on X that she “walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran.”

“Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing,” Mace posted on X.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., announces she will run for South Carolina governor during a press conference at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, on Aug. 4, 2025.(Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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The United States is now more than a month into its war with Iran, and the Trump administration is deciding its next moves. The Pentagon has deployed 2,500 Marines and 2,500 to the Middle East, equating to 50,000 American troops in the region. This is roughly 10,000 more than usual.

The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is drawing up plans for weeks of ground strikes in Iran, but the White House press secretary said in a statement to the outlet that it “does not mean the President has made a decision.”

NewsNation host Anna Kooiman asked Burchett whether a Pentagon ground invasion would become a “red line” for some Republicans.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during the inaugural Americas Counter Cartel Conference at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters on March 5, 2026, in Doral, Florida. The conference is being held to address narco-terrorism with regional defense and security leaders from the Caribbean, Central America and South America.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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“I think it is, but I don’t think we’re there yet,” Burchett said. “I don’t think we’re at the point. I think we need to encourage Middle East partners to engage if a land conflict does take place. I think there’s a clear divide, though. You know, Iran, when this thing started, Israel was allowed to fly over Saudi airspace, which, to me, sent a very clear message to Iran. They’re tired of this. The Middle East is tired of it.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Burchett’s office for comment.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.