More than 32 million people tuned in to watch President Trump's annual State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research. The 32.6 million figure is down from the 36 million who watched the president's first address to Congress of his second term last year, but it ranks slightly higher than...
Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security The Big Story As strikes loom, Democrats to force vote to limit Trump’s war powers in Iran House Democrats will force a vote next week to curb President Trump’s war powers in Iran, but the measure has a tough...
Warner Bros. Discovery, the sprawling entertainment company that owns major media brands like HBO and CNN, said Thursday it now favors a bid made by Paramount to buy the company's key assets over a previous agreement with streamer Netflix. The company's board, "following consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors," said it had found...
U.S. power plant pollution rose last year, according to a green group’s analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. Emissions of sulfur dioxide increased by 18 percent in 2025, according to an analysis of the EPA data by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. The group found that plants’ nitrogen oxide emissions increased...
The Treasury Department on Thursday threatened to cut off MBaer Merchant Bank AG’s access to U.S. financial institutions over the Swiss bank’s alleged ties to sanctioned Iranian and Russian actors. The Treasury Department accused MBaer and its employees of enabling corruption linked to Russian money laundering, as well as money laundering and terrorist financing on...
Columbia University student Ellie Aghayeva was released by immigration enforcement Thursday afternoon after she was detained at a school residential building early in the morning. Aghayeva said in an Instagram post she is on her way home and in “complete shock” over the incident. The Hill has reached out to Columbia and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment. Columbia had...
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said the ongoing shutdown of her department is affecting preparations for the 2026 World Cup and the celebration of 250 years of the United States. In a post on the social platform X Thursday, Noem said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “was in the final stages...
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday rejected indictments regarding a fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents that left a U.S. citizen dead last year. The grand jury's decision follows the death of Joshua Orta, who was with Ruben Ray Martinez when he was shot and killed by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent while driving...
The Pentagon is threatening to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) against Anthropic amid a dispute over the company’s restrictions on its AI tools, in a move that many experts say is an unusual use of the measure. The Department of Defense (DOD) warned Anthropic on Tuesday that it could invoke the DPA, which gives...
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to fire 22 more of its staffers, a union representing agency employees said Thursday. Justin Chen, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 238, which represents EPA staff, said that the agency issued reduction in force (RIF) notices to 22 people who work on “environmental justice,”...
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing backlash after amplifying a post made by far-right figure Stew Peters. “War with Iran is the only thing republicans and democrats have both given a standing ovation for. Let that sink in,” Peters, who has been deemed a conspiracy theorist, Christian nationalist and “prolific” espouser of antisemitic views...
Mortgage rates fell below 6 percent on Thursday for the first time in over three years, marking an opening for home buyers as inflation cools. Currently, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is averaging 5.98, down .03 percent from last week, according to Freddie Mac. Last year, the rate averaged 6.76 percent. “This lower rate environment is...
