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US energy secretary describes ‘tremendous’ cooperation with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez | CNN Politics

By Blake McGill, CNN
Published 3:58 PM EST, Thu February 12, 2026

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US energy secretary Chris Wright joins CNN’s Boris Sanchez live from Venezuela where Wright and Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez toured an oil facility in the Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui. Wright is the highest-ranking US official to visit Venezuela in almost three decades.

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US judge blocks Pentagon’s effort to punish Senator Mark Kelly

February 12, 2026 5:26 PM UTC / Reuters / By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge blocked the Pentagon on Thursday from reducing Senator Mark Kelly’s retired military rank and pension pay because he urged troops to reject unlawful orders.

The preliminary ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington is the latest setback in court for President Donald Trump’s historic campaign of vengeance against his perceived political enemies, which has drawn pushback from judges across the ideological spectrum.

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Kelly, a retired Navy captain and former astronaut who represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate, was one of six congressional Democrats who appeared in a November video that reminded service members of their duty to reject unlawful orders. In the clip, Kelly stated: “Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders.”

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Leon, appointed by then-U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002, in his ruling said “the speech at issue here is unquestionably protected speech,” describing the move to punish Kelly as a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Kelly brought a lawsuit against the Trump administration to halt the censure.

“There is nothing ‘routine’ about defendants’ actions here: punishing a sitting U.S. Senator for his views on military policy,” Leon wrote. “It is a particularly valuable asset for our country to have retired veterans contributing to public discussion on military matters and policy.”

Kelly applauded the ruling, saying in a statement that “a federal court made clear that (U.S. Defense Secretary) Pete Hegseth violated the constitution when he tried to punish me for something I said.”

A White House spokesperson said the court’s ruling would not be the final say on the matter and that “Hegseth rightfully directed a review to determine future actions as a result of these dangerous comments by Senator Kelly”.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Kelly made his remarks in November as more Democrats were criticizing Trump’s decisions to deploy the National Guard in U.S. cities and authorize lethal strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs from Latin America.

The Republican president, in a social media post, called the video “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”

Hegseth issued a censure letter on January 5, asserting that Kelly had “clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline” in violation of military rules that apply to both active and retired personnel.

Trump administration lawyers had urged the judge to dismiss Kelly’s lawsuit, calling it a “quintessential matter of military discipline not within the Judiciary’s purview” in a recent court filing.

The Trump administration also called the lawsuit premature, saying Kelly has not yet been formally censured and should have responded to Hegseth’s allegations through administrative channels.

Reporting By Jan Wolfe and Mike Scarcella; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Nia Williams

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Wall Street regulator to restore some jobs after cuts, chair says

February 12, 2026 5:37 PM UTC / Reuters / By Douglas Gillison

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Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), delivers remarks at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s top regulator is working to restore some of its workforce following last year’s deep cuts at the behest of the White House, the agency’s chief told Congress on Thursday.

“We have gaps in different divisions, so we will fill that,” Paul Atkins, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said during Senate testimony.

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He also rejected charges by Democratic lawmakers that the agency had dropped enforcement actions against crypto companies and entrepreneurs with ties to President Donald Trump.

After taking office last year, Trump called for “large-scale” workforce cuts across the federal government as part of the Department of Government Efficiency initiative with former adviser Elon Musk. The SEC offered several rounds of buyouts, resulting in a staff exodus that, as of a year ago, had depleted some key agency components by nearly 20%, causing critics to say this could hamper the SEC’s ability to police markets and respond to crises.

“A lot of these people left voluntarily or through buyouts before I arrived at the SEC, so I’m looking at our numbers of employees, and I think we have a very good group of people in enforcement,” Atkins said.

SEC HAS OFFERED MORE VOLUNTARY REDUCTIONS

Before Atkins arrived at the agency, the SEC argued to the White House that the voluntary cuts lessened the need for dismissing staff en masse, as the administration had done at other agencies, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

The agency since then has offered more voluntary workforce reductions and the Trump administration has placed limits on agencies’ ability to rehire after staffing cuts.

Democrats and other critics have accused the SEC of dropping enforcement actions as a political favor to crypto companies that have made political donations favoring Trump, himself an entrepreneur in the industry.

Atkins briefly acknowledged the SEC’s actions could be limited in cases in which the president had granted pardons.

“If the president has pardoned someone or given clemency, then it becomes very difficult,” he said.

He rejected accusations of undue political influence, adding that the decision to drop cases had been made by the agency’s acting chair before Atkins’ swearing-in and mostly concerned matters of failing to register securities with the commission, which he said policymakers viewed as “regulation through enforcement.”

Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington Editing by Rod Nickel.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

It was a top issue at the ballot box in 2024 that boosted President Donald Trump and Republicans to sweeping victories.

But in the wake of new political backlash over Trump’s unprecedented illegal immigration crackdown, the latest polling on the issue raises warning signs for Republicans and suggests immigration may come back to take a bite out of the GOP in this year’s midterm elections, as the party defends its slim House and Senate majorities.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina told Fox News Digital that when it comes to the issue of immigration, “I think it’s going to be very helpful for us going into the election.”

But new polling — conducted before Thursday’s announcement that the Trump administration was winding down the massive deployment earlier this year of masked federal immigration agents in Minnesota, but after last month’s fatal shootings by those agents of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti — suggests otherwise.

SIGNIFICANT DRAWDOWN: BORDER CZAR MAKES MAJOR IMMIGRATION ANNOUNCEMENT

President Donald Trump’s administration deployed a couple of thousand federal agents to Minnesota earlier this year as part of an operation to crack down on illegal immigration.(Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The president’s approval on immigration stands at 38% in an AP-NORC poll conducted Feb. 5-8. That’s a drop from 49% last March, just over a month into the president’s second term in the White House.

A similar 38% gave the president a thumbs up on immigration in the most recent Quinnipiac University poll, which was in the field Jan. 29-Feb. 2. That’s down from 44% in mid-December.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLLING SHOWS

And Trump stood at 40% approval in the latest NBC News Decision Desk poll, a drop from 49% last April. The survey questioned respondents from Jan. 27-Feb. 6.

And the most recent Fox News national poll, conducted Jan. 23–26, indicated the president’s approval on handling border security at 52%-47%, but his approval on immigration underwater at 45%-55%.

Anti-ICE protesters gathered in Minnesota on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.(AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

A common theme in all these polls: while Republicans continue to strongly support the president and their party on immigration, independents are joining Democrats in strongly disapproving.

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it was unwinding its immigration operation in Minnesota, amid ongoing protests and continued opposition from top Democrats in the blue-leaning state.

“A significant drawdown has already been underway this week, and will continue to the next week,” border czar Tom Homan said.

But he added that “as a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”

MORE THAN HALF SAY HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM NEEDS TO GO: POLL

Pointing to Trump’s swift actions a year ago, veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed noted that “shutting down the southern border was such a major accomplishment and achieved so quickly and effectively that many voters have forgotten just how bad things got under the Biden Administration.”

“It’s an issue that resonated powerfully across the political spectrum, and one that should and can be a political tailwind heading into November,” he added.

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But Reed highlighted that “regardless of the cause, the recent events in Minnesota were not helpful to the White House or Republican brand, and they were wise to change course and bring down the temperature.”

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has highlighted the president’s sagging approval ratings on immigration and polls showing rising disenchantment with the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

DNC chair Ken Martin, in a statement Thursday to Fox News Digital, charged that the Trump administration had created “political theater, flooding communities with masked agents and creating a culture of fear where Americans across the country and across the political spectrum are afraid to go to the grocery store or to pick up their kids at school.”

“Americans don’t support what ICE is doing, and the DNC will continue to hold this administration accountable, highlighting these horrendous assaults by ICE and marching towards the midterms to put a check on the abuses of this administration,” Martin emphasized.

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But Hudson is taking aim at what he calls a false narrative from the mainstream media.

“There’s a whole lot of that coming out of the mainstream media right now, and it’s just not true,” he told Fox News Digital. “People are going to feel more secure at home because of these efforts. President Trump’s doing the right thing.”

The new AP/NORC poll indicates Republicans with a slight edge over Democrats on the immigration issue.

Asked if immigration will still be a winning issue in the midterms, the House GOP campaign chief said: “It’s a promise made, a promise kept, that we are getting these dangerous criminals out of your neighborhood.”

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

Texas airport shutdown shows troubling FAA-Pentagon disconnect, senators say

February 12, 2026 3:40 PM UTC / Reuters

By David Shepardson and Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. senators on Thursday criticized the brief shutdown of El Paso airport over safety concerns around the use of a military laser-based anti-drone system, saying at a hearing that the incident exposed an unacceptable lack of coordination between the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pentagon.

Air travelers in Texas were stranded and medical evacuation flights were disrupted late on Tuesday, the FAA abruptly said it was shutting down the airport for 10 days, an unprecedented action involving a single airport. After about eight hours, the agency reversed course and lifted the shutdown early on Wednesday.

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The sudden closure of the airport, which serves 4 million passengers a year, caused mass confusion. Officials from different agencies have offered varying and sometimes conflicting accounts of the circumstances that led to it.

“We have a real problem of coordination between DOD and FAA, so we need to resolve that,” Senator Maria Cantwell, top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, said at the hearing, originally scheduled to probe the January 2025 Washington, D.C., collision between a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter that killed 67 people.

Government and airline officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FAA closed the airspace due to concerns that the Army counter-drone system could pose risks to commercial air traffic.

The FAA told the Pentagon late Tuesday it would move forward with closing the airport for 10 days unless defense officials agreed to delay testing of the military system. FAA officials said a required safety analysis had not been completed.

Three U.S. military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been using the technology without issues before Tuesday’s shutdown and expressed confusion as to why the shutdown was deemed necessary.

The Pentagon has not publicly given a detailed explanation of what happened.

‘THIS CAN’T HAPPEN AGAIN’

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who oversees the FAA, said the closure had been prompted by a drone incursion by a Mexican drug cartel.

However, a drone sighting near an airport would typically lead to a brief pause on traffic, not an extended closure. The Pentagon says there are more than 1,000 such incidents each month along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Senator Ben Ray Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, said on Thursday that the failure by President Donald Trump’s administration to answer questions about what happened was unacceptable.

“They said they were going to shut down air traffic for 10 days without calling the White House, without calling the Department of Defense,” Lujan said at the hearing. “We need people to coordinate… That can’t happen again.”

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas who chairs the Commerce Committee, said he wants a classified briefing to understand what happened that could occur as soon as later Thursday.

Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that systemic FAA failures led to the deadly 2025 accident. The NTSB recommended dozens of changes at both the FAA and the Army.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy told the committee that the Army and FAA had failed to properly work together going back years before the fatal crash.

“I will say there has been miscommunication, or no communication, between at least the Army and FAA for years now,” she said.

Reporting by David Shepardson and Idrees Ali in Washington Editing by Scott Malone, Rod Nickel and David Gregorio

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Trump UN aviation ambassador nominee Jeffrey Anderson faces tax scrutiny | Fox News

Retired Delta captain’s confirmation has dragged since July 2025

By Emma Colton
Fox News

Published February 12, 2026 1:26pm EST

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President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) office focused on aviation is facing heightened scrutiny for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes that were not disclosed in official ethics documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

Jeffrey Anderson, a retired Delta Air Lines captain and U.S. Navy veteran, was nominated to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization in July 2025. The International Civil Aviation Organization is a U.N. office based in Canada that is charged with overseeing international aviation standards, including issues related to safety, navigation and environmental protection.

The administration has backed him as “highly qualified” for the role and a “great choice to represent the President’s America First foreign policy agenda in the international aviation community,” in a statement to Fox News Digital in 2025 as his tax issues and past support of Democrats came to light.

The role is a Senate-confirmed post, with Anderson’s nomination sitting before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

TRUMP PICK FOR UN AVIATION OFFICE HAS LONG HISTORY DONATING TO DEMS, NIKKI HALEY

Now, Anderson has signed his ethics agreement and disclosure forms, but mentions of the now-paid off liens are not included, Fox News Digital found.

Fox News Digital obtained Anderson’s IRS Certificates of Release of Federal Tax Lien that show he and his wife had multiple federal tax liens stemming from tax years 2013–2019, with unpaid assessed balances totaling approximately $426,000. The liens were related to “small business/self employed” taxes, according to the documents.

A federal tax lien is “the government’s legal claim against your property when you neglect or fail to pay a tax debt,” according to the IRS.

The liens, filed in two Georgia counties, were not released until October 2025 after payment was fulfilled. One IRS Certificate of Release of Federal Tax Lien shows liens tied to the 2012–2018 tax years totaling $354,791.63 and later released on Oct. 15, 2025, according to the documents obtained by Fox Digital. A second release shows a lien tied to tax year 2019 totaling $71,313.11 and released Oct. 29, 2025.

Anderson’s Public Financial Disclosure Report, called OGE Form 278e, however, only lists a single mortgage in the liabilities section — not any disclosures of federal tax liens or IRS liability, according to the documents obtained by Fox News Digital. The OGE Form 278e does detail boilerplate and detailed information on Anderson’s assets, past employment and income.

The Office of Government Ethics’ guidance for OGE Form 278e instructs filers to report liabilities over $10,000 owed at any time during the reporting period.

Anderson signed the OGE Form on Aug. 14, 2025, according to the document obtained by Fox News Digital.

Anderson’s OGE Form 278e and a separate ethics document sent by Anderson to the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser were added to the Office of Government Ethics’ system tracking financial and ethics disclosures Sept. 21, 2025, Fox News Digital found.

Fox News Digital repeatedly reached out to the State Department, specifically inquiring why Anderson did not disclose the liens on the liabilities section of the OGE 278e, if he filed an amended financial disclosure to add any IRS liability or lien after the initial filing, and when the administration was first notified of the liens.

The ICAO ambassador operates under the authority of the secretary of state when confirmed.

“We support the president’s nominee and look forward to having him confirmed,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox Digital of Anderson Wednesday.

A review of other nominees listed on the OGE disclosure database shows individuals have amended their ethics disclosures amid the vetting process. Anderson’s file does not reflect any public amendments to his initial disclosures.

Public financial disclosure is a core piece of the nomination vetting process. Federal ethics rules and guidance generally require nominees to disclose major outstanding liabilities during the reporting period.

Nominees for Senate-confirmed ambassador posts typically are cleared through a multistep White House process that can include FBI background checks and federal ethics review of financial disclosures, with the State Department helping compile and process the nomination package before it is formally sent to the Senate.

“Everyone has setbacks. That’s not the problem,” a former Trump official told Fox Digital about the matter. “The problem is lying to Congress and misleading President Trump. Jeffrey Anderson stiffed the IRS for more than $426,000, carried federal tax liens for years, then tried to slip through Senate confirmation by hiding them on a sworn disclosure. Federal tax liens aren’t optional, and they don’t magically disappear.”

The former official added that most “Americans don’t just come up with half a million dollars to make a scandal vanish,” while arguing “Anderson’s record of donating to anti-Trump politicians” tees up a nomination that will collapse on itself.

TRUMP NOMINATES SEASONED MILITARY LEADERS TO HEAD VITAL GLOBAL COMMANDS

ICAO ROLE HAS GONE UNFILLED FOR YEARS

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Anderson’s nomination to serve in the office follows years of it sitting dormant of U.S. leadership. The role was last filled by former ambassador, famed pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who stepped down in 2022.

Sullenberger gained widespread applause in 2009, when the US Airways pilot landed Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after a bird strike disabled both engines and saved 155 people — an event known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

Anderson’s nomination has been dragging since July 2025, with it returned to the president on Jan. 3, 2026 under Senate Rule XXXI, a technical rule, and Trump resending Anderson’s nomination to the Senate days later.

Anderson’s nomination has received pushback from the Air Line Pilots Association, a union that represents nearly 80,000 pilots across the U.S. and Canada, arguing his “only” qualification was supporting an effort to raise the mandatory pilot retirement age.

The union opposes increasing the mandatory retirement from 65 years of age to age 67, arguing it “would leave the United States as an outlier in the global aviation space and create chaos on pilot labor, and international and domestic flight operations,” the group’s statement in July 2025 read.

International aviation rules prohibit airline pilots older than 65 from flying. Some global airline groups have called on the International Civil Aviation Organization to consider raising the international pilot retirement age to 67, citing staffing pressure and that retaining veteran pilots would only bolster airline safety.

Anderson also has had close financial ties to Democrats and other politicians frequently hostile toward Trump and his policies, Fox News Digital previously reported.

FIRST ON FOX: RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL WHO PILOTED LAST FLIGHT OUT OF AFGHANISTAN REVEALS NEW MISSION

“Jeffrey Anderson isn’t a Trump Republican at all; he’s a liberal sleeper who slipped through the cracks of PPO (Presidential Personnel Office),” a former Trump official told Fox Digital of Anderson’s political donations and tax history in August 2025.

Anderson made a handful of small-dollar donations to Republican Nikki Haley during the 2024 campaign cycle, when the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. ran against Trump, whom she slammed as “unhinged” while on the campaign trail before dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump as the GOP nominee for president.

The former pilot also donated to the former Democratic opponent who tried to unseat then-Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the 2024 cycle, according to donation filings previously reported by Fox News Digital. Anderson’s political donations to Democrats stretch back years, including in 2017 when he donated to Democrats, such as former House candidate Dan Ward in Virginia and former Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon.

Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls, who serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, told Fox Digital in August 2025 that Anderson will help usher in “the Golden Age of aviation” if confirmed.

“Mr. Anderson served as a naval aviator and has more than three decades of experience as a pilot for Delta,” Nehls said in August. “He is, without a doubt, qualified to represent the United States of America at ICAO, where his first-hand experience with the aviation industry will play a crucial role in advancing President Trump’s mission of ushering in the Golden Age of aviation.”

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“I am fully supportive of President Trump and his America First agenda. I have been fully vetted by the White House and appreciate the approval of the President, House Aviation Chair Troy Nehls and House T&I Chair Sam Graves, among others. I look forward to advancing American interests as the next Permanent Representative to ICAO,” Anderson wrote in a direct message on LinkedIn to Fox Digital in August 2025, while adding that Trump is seeking to “move effectively forward in a space negligently left vacant by Biden.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the timeline of disclosure but did not receive a reply.

Fox New Digital reached out to Anderson for comment on the timeline of the tax liens and ethics filings but did not receive a reply.

DHS shutdown looms as Johnson navigates GOP divide over stopgap solutions

The deadline to avert a shutdown for DHS looms Friday night

By Elizabeth Elkind
Fox News

Published February 12, 2026 10:20am EST

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A partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is all but guaranteed unless the Senate rams through a short-term extension of current funding levels sometime on Thursday.

But avoiding a DHS shutdown means the same measure must also pass the House of Representatives, where success will depend on delicate political maneuvering by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to persuade a House Republican Conference with varying ideas of what a path forward should look like.

“It would have to be for 60 or 90 days, I would think,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in 30 days, I don’t know what’s going to change.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to unveil a stopgap funding measure for DHS called a continuing resolution (CR), which would extend the department’s current budget for a yet-unknown amount of time.

ICE SHUTDOWN FIGHT MIGHT RESTRICT FEMA, COAST GUARD TO ‘LIFE-THREATENING’ EMERGENCIES

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., gestures as he meets with reporters ahead of a key procedural vote to end the partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.(J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

It comes after Democrats walked away en masse from a bipartisan deal to fund DHS through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2026 over what they saw as insufficient guardrails on agencies responsible for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

Congress has funded 97% of the federal government through FY2026 at this point. But DHS is a vast department with a broad jurisdiction that includes the U.S. Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) — all of which will see varying levels of disruptions if a shutdown happens.

Republicans largely want to avoid such a situation but have made clear they believe that its effects would fall squarely on Democrats’ shoulders.

DEMOCRATS SPLIT ON SHIELDING COAST GUARD, SECRET SERVICE AS DHS SHUTDOWN THREAT NEARS

Conservatives like Norman favor an extended CR, arguing that it would fund Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a higher level than the initial bipartisan funding deal would have while removing Democrats’ negotiating leverage for more guardrails on those agents.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital last week that he would support a full-year CR for DHS to “make sure that FEMA is funded and TSA is funded, and stop the drama.”

Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., similarly said on Wednesday, “I think we’d like to push it out as far as we can so we can avoid the constant uncertainty for the agency.”

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., leaves the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

THUNE BLASTS JEFFRIES, SCHUMER AS ‘AFRAID OF THEIR SHADOWS’ AS DHS FUNDING FIGHT HEATS UP

“As long as this hangs up in the air, let’s say you do it for three, four months, the Democrats are gonna want a pound of flesh to help pass whatever it is. And I think that’s gonna weaken the efforts of … immigration enforcement,” Crane told Fox News Digital.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters earlier this week that he would favor a mid-length CR over something shorter.

“If we do two weeks and they leave for a week, it’s really a one-week CR. Nothing’s going to happen when that many important people are gone. So I think four weeks makes a lot more sense,” Cole said.

But committee member Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., panned the idea of a CR altogether.

“CRs don’t work. CRs are not without pain. It disrupts a lot of your supply chain and purchasing and acquisition,” he told Fox News Digital. “I can’t believe they’re even thinking about it.”

Rutherford, a former sheriff, argued that a shutdown or CR would harm critical national security operations during a year that’s expected to see a host of high-security events in the U.S. like America’s 250th anniversary celebration, the FIFA World Cup and others.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., prepares for a hearing in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Johnson declined to share his thoughts on CR length when asked by Fox News Digital on Tuesday, but emphasized the House GOP’s position that the Senate should take up the bipartisan bill that Democrats initially walked away from.

“I’m not going to prejudge the length of it or what it should be. I’m very hopeful. I mean, we still have time on the clock. When there’s a will, there’s a way. And if they can come to an agreement on this and get it done, that will behoove the whole country,” Johnson said.

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House GOP leaders will likely need nearly all Republicans on board to pass a CR for DHS, with many Democrats warning they will not support any funding for the department without seeing proof of critical reform.

Jeffries would not go into specifics about what he would support or oppose in terms of DHS funding during his weekly press conference on Monday, but he suggested to reporters that a simple stopgap funding bill with no changes to ICE funding was out of the question.

“ICE is out of control right now. The American people know it, and ICE clearly needs to be reined in,” Jeffries said. “Our position has been clear. Dramatic changes are needed at the Department of Homeland Security before a DHS funding bill moves forward. Period. Full stop.”

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

Related Topics

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Politics
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Russia blocks WhatsApp as it pushes state-backed alternative on citizens

Updated on: February 12, 2026 / 11:44 AM EST / CBS News

Russian authorities have taken new measures to ensure they can monitor all communications by people inside the country, officially blocking access to the popular, Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp.

WhatsApp said in a statement shared Thursday on social media that Russia had “attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive people to a state-owned surveillance app,” calling it an attempt to isolate “over 100 million users from private and secure communication.”

WhatsApp called it a “backwards step” that would lead to “less safety for people in Russia.”

People look at their phones while riding an escalator in the Moscow metro, Feb. 12, 2026, as Russian officials confirmed the popular messaging service WhatsApp had been blocked over a failure to comply with national laws. Hector RETAMAL/AFP/Getty

Speaking to reporters Thursday in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed “a decision was indeed made and implemented” in response to a question on the WhatsApp ban.

He said the decision was taken due to WhatsApp’s unwillingness “to comply with the norms and letter of Russian law.”

The ban appears to stem from Russian legislation that requires all companies listed on a register of online information disseminators to store both personal user details and data on all electronic messages exchanged within Russia, and to make that information available to government agencies.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal agency responsible for monitoring — and censoring — mass media in the country,added WhatsApp to that register in late 2024.

WhatsApp said in its statement that it would “do everything we can to keep users connected.”

CBS News found on Thursday that while WhatsApp was blocked for users inside Russia, it was still possible to use the app via a virtual private network (VPN), which is not illegal in the country, despite the Kremlin’s ban.

Earlier in the week, another popular messaging app, Telegram, also faced new restrictions in Russia in a move highly criticized by many citizens. According to Roskomnadzor, which, like all Russian government agencies, uses the platform itself to distribute official announcements, Telegram failed to protect users’ personal data.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov, a Russian national who lives in exile in Dubai and who faces outstanding allegations in France over alleged criminal activity on his platform, criticized the move, saying the real motive was political censorship.

“Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to use a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship,” he said, adding that “restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer.”

Russia previously banned a number of social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly known as Twitter) in response to what it said was the platforms’ “discrimination” against Russian media following the launch of Moscow’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s state-backed “Max” app

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The “surveillance app” app referred to in the statements by WhatsApp and Telegram’s Durov is a platform called MAX. Launched in 2025 with full backing from the government, it is a multifunction app that includes messaging and e-commerce functions, but also access to a wide range of government services such as medical and municipal appointments.

Similar to the WeChat app in China, MAX is touted by Russian officials as both a social network and key portal for government services.

Authorities ordered the state-backed app to come pre-installed on all new digital devices sold in Russia from last year.

The MAX app logo is displayed on a smartphone screen in front of a Russian flag in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 9, 2026. Sefa Karacan/Anadolu/Getty

The company notes in its legal terms that it can share user data with Russian authorities upon request, but says it does so only after a “mandatory legal assessment is conducted to determine the legality, validity, and adequacy of the requested data volume for the stated purposes,” and that it provides “only the minimum amount of data expressly required by applicable law.”

India’s government last year revoked a previous order for all new devices sold in the country to come pre-loaded with a state-developed and owned communications app, amid an outcry by opposition politicians and privacy organizations warning that it would be intrusive.

Trump’s Justice Department antitrust head Gail Slater stepping down

February 12, 2026 4:21 PM UTC / Reuters

Feb 12 (Reuters) – The Trump administration’s head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division said Thursday she is stepping down less than a year after being appointed by President Donald Trump.

Gail Slater was confirmed in March to head the division, which enforces laws against illegal monopolies and anticompetitive business behavior. She said on X it was “with great sadness and abiding hope” that she was leaving on Thursday. “It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role,” she added.

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Slater’s move throws the division into uncertainty as companies facing antitrust probes have increasingly hired Trump-connected lobbyists to influence the outcomes of their cases. It leaves the division with few senior leaders, following the departure of the division’s head of civil litigation this week.

The White House referred questions on Slater’s departure to the DOJ.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “On behalf of the Department of Justice, we thank Gail Slater for her service to the Antitrust Division which works to protect consumers, promote affordability, and expand economic opportunity.”

In July, Reuters and other outlets reported two of Slater’s deputies were fired for insubordination after a settlement greenlighting Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE.N) $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. The move exposed a power struggle within the Trump administration between proponents of robust antitrust enforcement and dealmakers seeking to leverage influence.

Slater was an economic adviser to JD Vance while he was a senator, and previously worked in the White House during Trump’s first term. She also worked for a decade as an antitrust lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission, where she brought cases to block mergers including Whole Foods’ acquisition of organic grocer Wild Oats.

Vice President JD Vance’s office declined to comment on Slater’s departure.

She had said her priority was to use antitrust enforcement to help Americans struggling with high living costs. The DOJ launched probes into egg producers and the meatpacking industry last year.

Her division continued the U.S. crackdown on Big Tech companies that started during Trump’s first term, with major cases against Alphabet’s Google and Apple.

Reporting by Jody Godoy in Los Angeles and David Shepardson in Washington, Editing by William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Iran regime said to offer jailed protesters’ families leniency in exchange for public displays of loyalty

February 12, 2026 / 12:37 PM EST / CBS News

The families of jailed Iranian protesters say the country’s rulers have proposed a cruel bargain: publicly celebrate the Islamic Revolution that brought them to power, or risk the lives of their loved ones.

Human rights organizations say more than 12,000 Iranians were arrested amid the wave of anti-regime protests that swept the country in early January.

Bazdasht Shodegan is an organization formed by former Iranian prisoners that offers online support for detainees and their families. It says the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence contacted the families of some current prisoners offering what the group called “an inhumane dilemma” — either attend marches on Wednesday celebrating the 47th anniversary of the revolution, or put the lives of their children at risk.

Several other human rights groups that monitor events in Iran also reported the messages delivered to prisoners’ families.

Two military members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stand guard as a schoolboy carries a national flag before participating in a pro-government rally in Azadi (Freedom) Square, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 11, 2026. Attendance in the celebrations was mandatory for all government employees and students. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty

Holding families to ransom this way is not new. The Iranian regime has a long history of putting pressure on the families of anti-regime dissidents and demonstrators.

“On the one hand, a prisoner is forced to confess under brutal torture,” says Bazdasht Shodegan. “On the other hand, his family is forced to pretend to support the regime. This is a complete cycle of mental and physical torture.”

The families contacted recently were told that if they wanted their children — many of whom face long prison sentences or even the death penalty — released or spared the most severe punishments, they would have to join the pro-regime, state-organized revolutionary celebrations to prove their loyalty in public.

To add insult to injury, they were instructed to take videos of themselves displaying regime “loyalty” and send them to the security services.

These videos, along with statements by well known figures recanting their support for the January protests, amount to trophies for the regime — tools of humiliation and intimidation designed to head off future dissent.

One such figure is businessman Mohamed Saedinia.

He is famous in Iran as the owner of a chain of candy shops and buzzing cafes beloved by young liberals in Tehran. At the start of the uprising, Saedinia closed his shops and posted a social media message saying he stood in solidarity with other Iranians who had shut their businesses to register their anger at the catastrophic plunge in Iran’s currency.

Saedinia was subsequently arrested along with his son and accused of supporting “the rioters.” Iranian authorities warned that if he was convicted, the regime would seize his assets.

This week, Saedinia’s groveling U-turn was published by Fars, Iran’s semi-official pro-regime news service.

“Unfortunately, due to problems that occurred in the market,” said the statement attributed to Saedinia, “my son mistakenly closed our shops in line with the actions of other Tehran businesses. Both he and I realize our mistake.”

“Therefore, we … apologize to the dear people of Iran and will show our obedience to our beloved leader and our disgust with criminal America by participating in the march to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution.”

No one in Iran may believe it, but everyone will get the message.

Seyed Rahim Bathaei contributed to this report.