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The Latest: Sen. Mark Kelly sues Pentagon over punishment for warning troops of illegal orders

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders.

Kelly, a former Navy pilot, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week.

Hegseth announced last Monday that he censured Kelly over the Arizona Democrat’s participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.

“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” his lawsuit says.

“That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”Hegseth said the censure — by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence — was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.

Here’s the latest:

Thune issues warning over Powell investigation

Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered a brief but stern response Monday as he arrived at the U.S. Capitol, reacting to news that the Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

“I haven’t seen the case or whatever the allegations or charges are, but I would say they better, they better be real and they better be serious,” said Thune.

Trump picked up the phone to call a political nemesis on Monday

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had just given a speech calling on Trump to use his leverage to address high prices — and in an unusual move, he gave her a phone call.

While on the phone, she said she gave him advice about his recent push to cap credit card rates and lower housing costs. “No more delays. It’s time to deliver relief for American families.”

The White House did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Earlier in the day, Warren accused Trump of raising costs for American families and doing little to address affordability. “He sure knows how to get on the phone,” regarding Venezuela and the Epstein files, Warren said during her speech. “But is he on the phone to say, ‘Move that housing bill so that we can start right now?’”

That prompted Trump to call the Democratic senator he has goaded for years.

Trump is heading to Detroit on Tuesday to talk about the economy

He plans to tour a Dearborn factory that is boosting hiring to make more Ford F-150 trucks. Trump also will give a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.

Trump is under pressure to show his economic policies are helping voters ahead of the midterm elections later this year. Leavitt said Trump will be “talking about all of the great economic news,” including mortgage rates falling below 6%.

Johnson says ‘we’ll have to reserve judgment’ on Powell investigation

House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to “let the investigation play out” when it comes to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

After opening the House on Monday, Johnson was asked by reporters if he was concerned about the ramifications of the DOJ’s investigation.

He said there have been “concerns about cost overruns and whatever the allegations are. I don’t know what’s involved in that.”

“I think you have to let the process play out. If Chairman Powell is innocent, then he can prove that and it will all come out,” Johnson said.

Trump is pondering airstrikes on Iran, but diplomacy is first choice, White House says

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump is “keeping all of his options on the table” but that “airstrikes would be one of the many, many options” that he’s considering.

“Diplomacy is always the first option for the president,” Leavitt said.

Trump on Sunday evening told reporters as he made his way back from Florida that Iranian officials have reached out to his administration for talks. Trump has threatened to take military action against the Islamic Republic for its brutal crackdown against protests that started more than two weeks ago and have spread across the country.

“What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately, and I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”

Venezuela is taking steps to reestablish diplomatic ties with Washington

Venezuela’s powerful interior minister said Monday that his government is taking steps to reestablish diplomatic relations with the United States and wants to open a consulate that will look out for the interests of Venezuela’s captured leader, Nicolás Maduro.

“We are advancing in reopening a Venezuelan embassy in the United States and an American embassy in Venezuela,” Cabello said in a press conference. “This will enable us to have a consulate that can look out for the safety and the tranquility of our President Nicolás Maduro.”

Venezuela and the United States cut diplomatic ties and shut down embassies in 2019 after the first Trump administration backed an effort to remove Maduro from office. But after Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3, both countries’ governments have been looking into reestablishing diplomatic ties with a U.S. delegation that visited Caracas last week.

Cabello has described Maduro’s capture as a “kidnapping” and is one of the officials who has demanded his return to Venezuela.

Trump to meet Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader Machado

Maria Corina Machado is scheduled to make her highly anticipated White House visit on Thursday, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Trump has expressed skepticism since the ouster of Nicolás Maduro that Machado could ever be the South American country’s leader, saying she “doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country.”

Machado, for her part, has offered unending praise for the American president, including dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and backing his administration’s campaigns to deport Venezuelan migrants and attack alleged drug traffickers in international waters.

Machado rose to become Maduro’s strongest opponent in recent years, but his government barred her from running for office to prevent her from challenging — and likely beating — him in the 2024 presidential election. She chose retired ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to represent her on the ballot.

Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner mere hours after the polls closed, but Machado’s well-organized campaign stunned the nation by collecting detailed tally sheets showing González had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin.

Read more about the Venezuelan opposition

Trump says if Supreme Court strikes down his tariffs: ‘WE’RE SCREWED!’

The president had a stark warning in a social media Monday morning that it would be “be a complete mess, and almost impossible for our Country to pay” back the money the U.S. has collected from his sweeping tariffs if the high court rules he doesn’t have the unilateral ability to impose many of them.

Trump has increasingly posted warnings on social media about the court’s looming decision, including similar posts many days last week about how complicated it would be for the government to issue refunds.

“It may not be possible,” Trump said in his Monday post about repaying the tariffs. But, “if it were, it would be Dollars that would be so large that it would take many years to figure out what number we are talking about and even, who, when, and where, to pay.”

State Department says it has revoked more than 100,000 visas in the past year

The department said Monday that the revocations, a 150% increase over 2024, have targeted foreign nationals “charged or convicted with crimes” ranging from assault and theft to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It did not offer a breakdown of those who had been actually convicted of crimes or had only been charged with offenses.

It comes as the Trump administration has stepped up efforts to deport or otherwise remove foreigners it believes are a threat to the United States or U.S. citizens.

“The Trump administration will continue to put America first and protect our nation from foreign nationals who pose a risk to public safety or national security,” the department said, adding that it had stood up a “Continuous Vetting Center” to look at all visa holders and evaluate them for potential non-compliance with U.S. laws.

The department last offered an update on visa revocations in early December when it said more than 85,000 visas had been pulled.

Former special counsel Jack Smith opens a law practice

The former Justice Department special counsel who investigated Trump and secured two grand jury indictments has opened a law practice with former colleagues.

The firm is called Heaphy, Smith, Harbach & Windom LLP.

Besides Smith, it includes David Harbach and Thomas Windom, two former federal prosecutors who also served on the special counsel team investigating Trump, as well as Tim Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney and chief investigative counsel to a special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The firm says it will represent individuals, businesses, universities, municipalities and state agencies.

Sen. Murkowski blasts the Trump administration’s Powell investigation

Another Republican is speaking out against the Justice Department’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska says that if the DOJ believes an investigation into Powell is warrants based on project cost overruns, which she says are not unusual, then Congress needs to investigate the DOJ.

“The stakes are too high to look the other way: if the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer,” Murkowski wrote on X.

She also notes that she spoke with Powell on Monday morning, adding “it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion.”

London’s homicide rate is at a record low as mayor says it disproves Trump’s ‘dystopian’ claims

London’s murder rate fell in 2025 to its lowest level in decades, officials said Monday. Mayor Sadiq Khan said the figures disprove claims spread by President Trump and others on the political right that crime is out of control in Britain’s capital.

Police recorded 97 homicides in London in 2025, down from 109 in 2024 and the fewest since 2014. The Metropolitan Police force says the rate by population is the lowest since comparable records began in 1997, at 1.1 homicides for every 100,000 people.

That compares to 1.6 per 100,000 in Paris, 2.8 in New York and 3.2 in Berlin, the force said.

“There are some politicians and commentators who’ve been spamming social media with an endless stream of distortions and untruths, painting an image of a dystopian London,” Khan told The Associated Press. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”

Democrats regain the edge with political independents, poll shows

The Democratic Party regained the partisanship edge when independents were asked whether they lean more toward the Democratic or Republican Party in a new Gallup poll.

Nearly half, 47%, of U.S. adults now identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 42% are Republicans or lean Republican.

This is an indication of how Americans are feeling about their political affiliations, and it may not be reflected in voters’ actual registration.

Independents appear to be driven by their unhappiness with the party in power. That’s a dynamic that could be good for Democrats for now, but it doesn’t promise lasting loyalty. Attitudes toward the party haven’t gotten warmer, suggesting the Democrats’ gains are probably more related to independents’ sour views of President Trump.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel says his administration isn’t currently in talks with the US

That comes a day after President Trump threatened the Caribbean island in the wake of the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Díaz-Canel posted a flurry of brief statements on X after Trump suggested Cuba “make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not say what kind of deal.

Díaz-Canel wrote that for “relations between the U.S. and Cuba to progress, they must be based on international law rather than hostility, threats, and economic coercion.”

The island’s communist government has said U.S. sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.

Díaz-Canel added: “We have always been willing to hold a serious and responsible dialogue with the various US governments, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of International Law, and mutual benefit without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for our independence.”

Cuba’s president stressed on X that “there are no talks with the U.S. government, except for technical contacts in the area of migration.”

Polling shows bipartisan support for the Fed’s independence

About 8 in 10 U.S. adults said the Federal Reserve Board should be independent of political control, according to Marquette/SSRS polling from September, while roughly 2 in 10 said the president should have more influence over setting interest rates and monetary policy. There was bipartisan consensus that the Fed should remain independent. About 9 in 10 Democrats and about two-thirds of Republicans said the Fed should not be subjected to political control.

That poll found about 3 in 10 Americans said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in The Federal Reserve Board. Nearly half — 45% — had some confidence, and roughly one-quarter had “very little” confidence or “none at all.”

Stocks fall on Wall Street after Powell says Trump trying to undermine the Fed’s independence

Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in President Trump’s feud with the Fed.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks with Trump

She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”

Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.

As Canada tries to reduce its dependence on the US, its leader will visit China to rebuild ties

A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

Read more about relations between Canada and China

China says US shouldn’t use other countries as a ‘pretext’ to pursue its interests in Greenland

The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. President Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

Trump ‘inclined’ to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after CEO response at White House meeting

Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.

“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”

During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.

Some, however, weren’t convinced.

“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

Trump’s motorcade in Florida rerouted due to ‘suspicious object’

Trump’s motorcade took a different route than usual to the airport as he was departing Florida on Sunday due to a “suspicious object,” according to the White House.

The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.

The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”

Read more about the “suspicious object”

Trump says Iran wants to negotiate as the death toll in protests rises to at least 544

Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.

Federal Reserve Chair Powell says DOJ has subpoenaed central bank, threatens criminal indictment

Fed Chair Powell said Sunday the DOJ has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.

Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.