Iran Permits Safe Hormuz Passage For Non-Aggression Vessels Bernama
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02 U.S. Politics
Top Republican in North Carolina Senate concedes race decided by 23 votes Fox News
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Top Republican in the North Carolina Senate Phil Berger conceded his GOP primary race Tuesday after a second recount left him behind by a mere 23 votes, ending Berger’s long hold on the Triad-area seat and setting up a leadership shake-up in a key battleground state.
“While this was a close race, the voters have spoken, and I congratulate Sheriff Page on his victory,” Berger wrote in a statement Tuesday after the results of the second recount confirmed Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page won the District 26 race.
“Over the past 15 years, Republicans in the General Assembly have fundamentally redefined our state’s outlook and reputation. It has been an honor to play a role in that transformation.”
The Supreme Court handed internet providers a major win Wednesday, unanimously ruling that Sony can’t hold Cox Communications liable for failing to boot users accused of pirating music.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court, said a lower court went too far in seeking to impose copyright damages on Cox for its customers’ actions. While the ruling itself was unanimous, two liberal justices declined to sign onto Thomas’ broader reasoning.
“Under our precedents, a company is not liable as a copyright infringer for merely providing a service to the general public with knowledge that it will be used by some to infringe copyrights,” Thomas wrote.
The court‘s decision raises the bar for suing internet providers. Thomas said companies must actually intend for their services to be used for piracy or design them for illegal activity before they can be held liable.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) on Tuesday announced a “historic First Amendment victory” in a case brought against the Biden administration when he was Missouri’s attorney general.
“We just won Missouri v. Biden. As Missouri’s Attorney General, I sued the Biden regime for brazenly colluding with Big Tech to silence Missouri families — censoring the truth about COVID, the Hunter Biden laptop, the open border, and the 2020 election. They tried to turn Facebook, X, YouTube, and the rest into their private speech police, labeling dissent ‘misinformation’ while they pushed their narrative on the American people,” Schmitt explained.
The Senate confirmed an experienced federal prosecutor, Colin McDonald, Tuesday afternoon to act as the Justice Department’s anti-fraud division lead.
In a party line vote, McDonald was confirmed 52-47 to be the first assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement at the DOJ.
McDonald will work with Vice President JD Vance, whom President Donald Trump named the White House “fraud czar” to lead a new task force to eliminate fraud.
An explosive new undercover video has exposed an alarming ballot fraud scheme in California, revealing that a major operation is underway to buy votes by paying homeless people to forge signatures of real voters, without their consent.
The footage, published by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG), is raising serious concerns about election integrity in California.
The reporting uncovers evidence of a coordinated scheme in which homeless individuals are paid to forge signatures using the identities of registered voters, without their knowledge or consent.
Petition circulators were filmed operating on Skid Row, paying individuals small amounts of cash to complete ballot petitions under assigned names and addresses.
USC was set to hold a debate for California’s gubernatorial candidates. There was no problem with this, so a disgruntled candidate made one up. Subsequently, the event was canceled less than 24 hours before the scheduled time because the candidates were too white for the left.
According to The Desert Sun:
Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democratic candidate for governor, accused USC of using an “arbitrary formula that favors wealthy candidates” and said the criteria resulted in the exclusion of all candidates of color from the debate.
In other words, Becerra was beside himself, as he could not comprehend how he did not meet this “viability” score.
Maybe, just maybe, the reason he did not qualify for the debate had nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with the fact that he is polling at 3%.
USC said it stood by the independence of the data-driven formula used to determine candidate “viability,” but acknowledged the controversy had become a distraction from issues voters care about.
“We recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow’s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters,” the university said, adding that it would “look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues”.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran have hit a wall once again.
As WLT Report previously covered the United States sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war.
The negotions of the plan were reportedly made by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Now Iran state media has revealed Iranian officials have rejected the new plan.
President Donald Trump made his position clear. Standing in the White House during the swearing-in ceremony of new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, he said the Gulf allies have carried real weight in the fight against Iran, but NATO needs to do more. It was a typical direct message: The United States and its regional partners can’t carry the burden alone while Europe continues to watch from a safe distance.
Trump Demands More From NATO After Gulf States ‘Hit So Hard’
When asked by The Daily Signal’s @TheElizMitchell if @POTUS wants the Gulf States to become more involved in the war, Trump said “a little bit, but more—more NATO.”
“I think our Gulf allies have been pretty good, to… pic.twitter.com/ohJDrso81X
A Democrat faces possible expulsion from Congress after federal prosecutors alleged that she stole millions in federal funds and used that money to finance her campaign.
The House Ethics Committee will host a public trial for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) on Thursday in connection with the allegations. According to reports, such public trials are rare and signal that Cherfilus-McCormick may be in deep trouble.
The defendants ‘conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source,’ the DOJ alleged.
Indeed, she is already under federal indictment.
Back in November, the Department of Justice announced that Cherfilus-McCormick, her brother Edwin Cherfilus, and other co-defendants had been charged after they allegedly bilked millions from a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract.
Once again, academic freedom is suddenly a concern. Funny how this is never a worry when it affects conservatives.
Campus Reform reports:
Princeton professors discuss resisting Trump administration’s anti-DEI policies at panel
Faculty at Princeton University are organizing opposition to the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, with panelists warning that the policies could affect academic freedom on campus.
About 30 professors gathered for a recent American Association of University Professors (AAUP) panel to discuss how faculty should respond to the Department of Education under President Donald Trump, as the group reportedly increased its meeting frequency in response to federal actions targeting DEI initiatives.
The panel featured Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Institute for Advanced Study professor emerita Joan W. Scott, who argued that recent federal policies reflect a broader effort to influence higher education. Taylor said at the meeting as reported by The Daily Princetonian that the changes have “created conditions of fear, intimidation, and repression on college campuses.”
Speakers also pointed to organizations such as the Heritage Foundation as influential in policy discussions surrounding higher education reform and DEI programs.
A new poll from Quantus Insights — one of the most accurate pollsters of the 2024 presidential election — found Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading longtime Senator John Cornyn in the runoff election for the state’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.
The poll, which surveyed 1,217 likely voters between March 22-23, found Paxton leading with 48.8 percent of the vote to Cornyn’s 41.3 percent. An additional 9.9 percent of respondents indicated that they remain undecided.
When asked about their likelihood of voting in the runoff, 89 percent said they were certain to vote, 8.9 percent said they probably would vote, and 2.1 percent said it was 50-50. When asked to recall their vote in the initial March 3 primary, 40 percent of respondents said they voted for Cornyn, 38.6 percent for Paxton and 10.6 percent for U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democrat-led effort to halt U.S. military involvement in Iran, defeating a war powers resolution for the third time since the conflict began nearly a month ago.
The measure, introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), sought to require President Donald Trump to seek congressional authorization before continuing military operations against Iran.
“We expect the defendant to remain detained and be deported following sentencing, due to the felony conviction.”
An illegal immigrant who identifies as transgender has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy inside a Manhattan bodega last year, but will not serve additional jail time beyond the six months already spent in custody.
According to the New York Post, Nicol Alexandra Contreras-Suarez, a 31-year-old Colombian national, was admitted to Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday for charges of second-degree rape stemming from a February 2025 incident in East Harlem. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Contreras-Suarez was sentenced to six months behind bars.
As a result, Contreras-Suarez is expected to be released following formal sentencing on April 27. Federal immigration authorities may take Contreras-Suarez into custody at that time for potential deportation, though officials have not confirmed their plans.
Democrats have spent the past year calling ICE agents the nazi secret police, disappearing random brown people off the streets. I know that you know that I know that you know their real concern was all the undocumented democrats Trump was deporting, but that’s besides the point. They lied about ICE agents, then held Homeland Security funding hostage until Republicans reformed (defunded) ICE based on those lies.
Chaos was caused at airports. Americans were made to suffer on behalf of the Democrat Party agenda. Trump sent ICE agents to the airports to help. Democrats said they were going to shoot passengers. It was going to be a disaster.
Congrats to Chuck Schumer and Temu Obama. You just played yourself.
Monday’s edition of Amanpour & Co., airing on PBS (and CNN International) showcased eponymous host Christiane Amanpour assenting to the radical view of her guest, Yale University professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Also ahead, “White Supremacy in Donald Trump’s White House.” Princeton Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor speaks to Michel Martin about Trump’s war on DEI.
The above shows the host quoting a featured article by her guest. But Amanpour was also comfortable straight-up saying Trump’s White House was a “white supremacist” house.
AMANPOUR: Since the start of his second term, President Trump has signed a number of executive orders targeting DEI policies, uttered rhetoric deemed racist at immigrants and is generally eroding the, quote, “melting pot identity” the U.S. once prided itself on. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is a Princeton professor of African American studies and she’s the co-founder of the black politics and culture magazine Hammer & Hope. In her recent piece, she describes a white supremacy in Donald Trump’s White House and joins Michel Martin to discuss the rollback of civil rights.
The terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the attacks on Jewish ambulances in London issued a threat to the West, saying it would carry out more similar attacks on civilians.
The new organization, called The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous, has carried out terrorist attacks in other nations, including Greece and the Netherlands. It seeks to get revenge for wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, according to a statement it gave to CBS News:
A group that has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks targeting Jewish institutions across Europe told CBS News it will continue targeting U.S. and Israeli interests a day after three men were captured by security cameras torching ambulances used by a global Jewish medical organization in London.
Hours later, the little-known group claimed responsibility for another attack, in which a car was burned in a Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp, Belgium.
“We’ll keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we’ve avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations,” a person representing the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia group (which translates as: The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous) told CBS News late Monday. “We urge people to stay away from Zionist and American interests and individuals to keep themselves safe.”
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia first announced its existence in early March, after the U.S. and Israel launched the ongoing war on Iran. In the 25 days since, it has claimed a series of antisemitic attacks across Europe. The group’s channel on the Telegram messaging app, where it has published a series of propaganda videos, was created just last week.
The United States has developed a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war with Iran, according to people familiar with the plan.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, several Middle Eastern officials said the plan offered extensive sanctions relief to Iran in return for the removal of all its enriched uranium material and abandonment of enrichment processing capabilities, limits to Tehran’s ballistic missile program, and the cessation of support to militant groups in the region including Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas.
President Trump voiced optimism on Tuesday that a peace deal will be reached with Iran, while insisting the war had already been won.
“This war has been won,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office. “The only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news.”
“We killed all their leadership,” he said when CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe asked which Iranians the U.S. was now negotiating with. “And then they met to choose new leaders and we killed all of them. And now we have a new group, and we can easily do that, but let’s see how they turn out.”
“It’s — we have, really, regime change,” the president said. “You know, this is a change in the regime, because the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with that created all those problems. So this was, I think we can say, Jason, this is regime change, right?”
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is the son of the former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war. While the new leader has not been seen since he was tapped to succeed his father, and he’s believed to have been wounded in the same strike, there have been no signs of a disintegration of Islamic Republic’s well-defined power structure, with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard still defiant, and seemingly in control of Iran’s war effort.
Democrats have once again refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been subjected to a lengthy 39 day shut down due to their unwillingness to come to the bargaining table.
Thune on DHS funding: Democrats have in front of them a proposal with legislative text that would allow us to get, DHS back and opened up again. And it is essentially what the Democrats have been asking for. And so, we’re going to have an opportunity to, to vote on that. And I…
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 24, 2026
The following is the prepared testimony of The Federalist’s Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland for a March 24 hearing titled “Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate” before the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.
Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Whitehouse, and Members of the Subcommittee,
Thank you for the opportunity to testify concerning the grave constitutional violations inflicted as part of the Arctic Frost investigation.
After the 2020 election, an anti-Trump FBI agent named Tim Thibault attempted to use the justice department to destroy the President. Thibault’s efforts led to the launch of Arctic Frost. Soon after, Merrick Garland tapped Jack Smith, a “hyper-aggressive prosecutor,” known to “overstretch the meaning and intent of the law,” to serve as Special Counsel.
Smith proved himself true to form, indicting Trump for allegedly violating a statute enacted in the aftermath of Enron, based in part on a theory of criminal liability the Supreme Court would later hold invalid. The Supreme Court would later halt Smith’s efforts to prosecute Trump for actions that fell within the President’s official duties.
Republican House Oversight Committee members announced that the committee had launched an investigation into claims of hospice fraud in California.
“Despite clear red flags, it appears California leaders have enabled hospice providers to DEFRAUD hardworking American taxpayers,” Chairman James Comer wrote on X. “The House Oversight Committee is moving to protect taxpayer funds from waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The outrage started in January when Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said California owed over $1 billion in Medicaid funds improperly used for health care for illegal aliens.
Then Leslie wrote about the hospice fraud last week, citing investigations from CBS News and Nick Shirley.
With special thanks to Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Timothy Grimmett.
If wars were won by bombastic press conferences, the White House should already be planning another military parade in our capital’s streets. In America’s latest war of choice, President Trump’s styled Secretary of “War” is emerging as the head cheerleader for our misadventure in Iran. Mr. Hegseth has already mistakenly defined what constitutes victory — the destruction of various portions of the Iranian Navy and military production facilities. Unfortunately, his definition is flawed. Despite possessing some military experience as a junior officer, he has shown that he is completely out of his depth. For most intents and purposes, the war with Iran might have been lost before the first missile was launched.
Some of the lessons that Mr. Hegseth should have learned by now:
Operational excellence is not a guarantee of strategic success — The best military on the planet cannot win a war if the national strategic objectives selected by the National Command Authority are faulty. This fact was proven in both Afghanistan and Iraq, which like Iran, were wars of choice and not necessity. Does Mr. Hegseth grasp the gap between his definition of victory and that of his boss?
Mr. Trump has demanded “unconditional surrender” of Iran — That choice could cost many lives. America demanded unconditional surrender of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The word “unconditional” suggests that there will be no negotiated settlement. The only means of achieving that objective in Germany and Japan was first a land invasion of the “Father Land” followed by the deployment of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is this where we are heading?
The Justice Department’s investigation of a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Federal Reserve didn’t find any evidence of a crime, a federal prosecutor privately conceded under questioning by a skeptical judge earlier this month, according to a transcript of the sealed hearing.
That admission by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Massucco came during a March 3 hearing that was closed to the public, the transcript shows. Eight days later, Chief Judge James Boasberg quashed government subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve, dealing a severe blow to the government’s investigation.
Chevron CEO Issues a Stark Warning. Oil Prices Haven’t Peaked. Barron’s
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Before the U.S. and Israel launched their joint attacks on Iran 25 days ago, many Iranians said they would welcome foreign intervention if it meant the end of the Islamic Republic. The regime, in power for 47 years, had just crushed a huge wave of anti-government demonstrations, with President Trump claiming more than 30,000 were killed and vowing to come to the rescue of the protesters.
Now, two Iranians — one inside and one outside the country — tell CBS News the feeling of optimism has shifted markedly after more than three weeks of war.
In a stunning turn of events, Virginia Democrats are discovering that their effort to gerrymander their state could blow up in their faces.
The April 21 special election referendum is one month away, and Democrats who once crusaded against partisan map-rigging are sweating bullets, because it looks as if voters won’t approve their plan to eliminate four Republican-held seats and make Virginia one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country. They assumed this would be easy.
Even Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed on to the effort, despite her past opposition to gerrymandering. Back in 2019, she said, “gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy, and it weakens the individual voices that form our electorates,” and insisted that “opposing gerrymandering should be a bipartisan priority.”
That quote hasn’t aged particularly well, and it could prove to be her major defeat as governor.
“Some supporters of the Virginia referendum acknowledge the challenge of convincing voters to back a gerrymandered map when Democrats, who several years ago backed the formation of the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission, have criticized Republicans for similar moves,” NBC News reports. “Virginia voters are also not accustomed to going to the polls in April, when Democrats scheduled the special election, making turnout particularly unpredictable.”
While the Supreme Court on Monday expressed skepticism about states accepting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, an overwhelming majority of voters have already decided against the practice, according to a recent poll conducted just days before the high court heard oral arguments in Watson v. RNC.
As The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood reported, Watson “deals with a challenge to a Mississippi law authorizing absentee ballots to be accepted up to five days after Election Day so long as they are postmarked before or on the day of the contest.”
A survey of 1,600 likely voters conducted on behalf of the Honest Elections Project earlier this month found that 93 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of Independents, and 74 percent of Democrats agree ballots “should be received by Election Day.” While overall, 83 percent of those surveyed agree with this deadline, a significant majority — 57 percent — “strongly agree.”
The survey also found that 60 percent of likely voters agree officials should not count mail-in ballots if they are “received after polls close on Election Day.” This includes 80 percent of Republicans and, although not a majority, a significant 42 percent of Democrats.
A majority of respondents indicated that counting ballots received after Election Day polls are closed “endanger[s] public trust in elections.” Sixty percent total, including 79 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats, think this practice “makes it easier to cheat” in elections. However, an overwhelming 90 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats say requiring ballots to be received “by the end of Election Day makes elections more secure.”
More details and responses have emerged after tragedy struck New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night.
Blaze News previously reported that an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation struck a Port Authority Airport Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident.
‘I feel like the pilots saved our lives.’
The incident, which occurred between approximately 11:40 p.m. and 11:47 p.m. on Sunday, according to multiple official sources, was likely caused by “multiple failures,” according to a lead investigator.
An air traffic controller could be heard saying, “I messed up,” shortly after the incident, which killed both pilots and hospitalized 41 other people, including the two workers in the emergency vehicle involved in the collision.
RELATED: ‘I messed up’: LaGuardia Airport shut down after deadly collision
The air traffic controller was coordinating the response to another, unrelated issue with a United Airlines flight across the tarmac. There were reports of a strange odor.