Salem News Channel

The U.S.–Iran war widened sharply on Wednesday after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 80 people, and NATO air defenses destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey. The escalation came as the powerful son of Iran's slain supreme leader emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was not about to buckle to pressure, five days after the United States and Israel launched a military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets. The missile incident is the first time that Turkey – which borders Iran and has NATO's second-largest military – has been drawn into the conflict, but U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was no sense that it would trigger the Atlantic alliance's collective-defense clause. In a sign of the conflict's expanding reach, Hegseth said the U.S. submarine strike hit an Iranian vessel off Sri Lanka's southern coast, thousands of miles from the Gulf, as fighting paralyzed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz for a fifth day, choking off vital Middle East oil and gas flows. U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to provide insurance and naval escorts for ships exporting energy from the region to contain soaring costs, with oil prices still stuck on Wednesday at their highest in more than a year. But at least 200 vessels remain anchored off the coast, according to Reuters estimates. The United States and Israel pressed on with their round-the-clock assaults on Iran, with Hegseth saying the U.S. was winning the conflict. "This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down," Hegseth, sounding supremely confident, said at a briefing at the Pentagon. "We can sustain this fight ?easily ?for ?as long as we ?need to." By contrast, Iran is firing fewer missiles, signalling its military capabilities are greatly diminished, said Dan Caine, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reflecting that, the Israeli military said it was easing public safety instructions across Israel on Thursday through Saturday, allowing businesses to open as long as they were at a close enough distance to shelters and other protected areas while keeping schools closed. The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a compound in eastern Tehran housing all Iran's security bodies, including the Republican Guard, intelligence, cyber warfare and internal police in charge of cracking down on protests. Israel also told residents to leave a swathe of southern Lebanon on Wednesday as it presses its assault on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which has again dragged Lebanon into conflict by firing drones and rockets into Israel on Monday. A fall in global markets turned into a rout in Asia, including a record-breaking crash in Seoul, as some investors were unconvinced by Trump's assurances he would quickly reopen the world's most important shipping corridor. European markets later stabilized and turned higher after two days of sharp losses, while U.S. stocks closed up on Wednesday, on hopes that the war might end soon. Some traders said the improved sentiment followed a New York Times report that Iranian intelligence had reached out to the CIA early in the war about a path towards ending it. A source from the Iranian intelligence ministry rejected the article as "absolute lies and psychological warfare in the midst of war", Iran's semi-official news agency Tasnim reported. MOJTABA KHAMENEI NOT IN TEHRAN WHEN FATHER KILLED As new explosions rang out in Tehran, plans were in doubt for a funeral for the elder Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday in the first assassination of a nation's top ruler by an airstrike. The body had been expected to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening, but Iran announced that three days of farewell ceremonies had been indefinitely postponed and no funeral date has been announced. Two Iranian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran's slain supreme leader, was not in Tehran when his father was killed. Iran said the Assembly of Experts that will select the new leader would announce its decision soon, only the second time it will have done so since the Islamic Republic's founding in 1979. Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV the candidates had already been identified but did not name them. Israel said it would hunt down whoever was chosen. Other candidates for supreme leader include Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic Republic's founder and a champion of the reformist faction sidelined in recent decades. The favorite, however, appears to be Mojtaba Khamenei, who has amassed power as a senior figure in the security forces and the vast business empire they control, the Iranian sources said. Choosing him would signal that hardliners remain in charge. Some Iranians have openly celebrated the death of the supreme leader, whose security forces killed thousands of anti-government demonstrators only weeks ago in the biggest domestic unrest since the era of the revolution. But Iranians angry with the government said there was unlikely to be much sign of protest while bombs are falling. "We have nowhere to go to protect ourselves from strikes, how can we protest?" Farah, 45, said by phone from Tehran, adding the security forces "are everywhere. They will kill us. I hate this regime, but first I have to think about the safety of my two children." U.S. Central Command said in a statement it had "struck or sunk to the bottom of the ocean" more than 20 Iranian ships, including the warship sunk off Sri Lanka in the first such action by a U.S. submarine since World War Two. A Sri Lankan official identified the boat as the frigate IRIS Dena, saying it had been heading back to Iran from eastern India. Local authorities said 32 people had been rescued while 87 bodies had been recovered. About 60 sailors were unaccounted for from the estimated 180-strong crew. "An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters," said Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary. "Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death." Despite voicing misgivings about the war on Iran, some European nations found themselves drawn militarily into the Middle East to safeguard their citizens and strategic interests. Britain and France said they would use naval and air forces to help defend against Iranian retaliation. Greece has also moved aircraft and warships to nearby Cyprus.

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Trump Actions are Justified by Striking Iran

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The House Oversight Committee has voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. Five Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday support the subpoena proposed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina in a sign of continued frustration with the department’s review and release of a tranche of documents regarding the wealthy financier. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the subpoena.

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President Donald Trump's administration is expanding its crackdown on state Medicaid programs to New York, launching a fraud probe in the state a week after it said it was freezing nearly $260 million in Medicaid funding in Minnesota over similar accusations. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced Tuesday that the Trump administration identified concerning trends in New York’s Medicaid program and demanded that state officials provide details about their handling of fraud, waste and abuse within 30 days or risk deferred payments. “Heart surgeons are trained to look at the numbers,” Oz, a former celebrity heart surgeon, said in a video on Tuesday. “Right now, the numbers coming out of New York’s Medicaid program don’t add up.” The new investigation is part of an administration-wide initiative to address fraud around the country, which federal officials say is needed to rein in runaway spending and protect taxpayers. With many midterm voters concerned about affordability, Trump has ramped up those efforts, announcing that Vice President JD Vance would help balance the nation’s budget by spearheading a national “war on fraud.” Targeted Democratic state officials have decried the Republican administration's moves as politically motivated and potentially disastrous for the millions of people who rely on the health care safety net for low-income Americans. New York's Democratic governor says the move is politically targeted In a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, Oz wrote that the state's spending levels combined with “serious concerns” about its oversight of certain Medicaid services demand “immediate investigation, corrective action and enhanced transparency.” The letter flagged specific areas of concern, including a high proportion of New York's Medicaid beneficiaries receiving personal care services related to daily living activities like bathing, grooming and meal preparation. New York’s soaring Medicaid costs have long vexed the state’s governors and were a top priority of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who grappled for years with the program's spiraling price tag as residents age and receive additional benefits. The state's program, which cost $115.6 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, provides health care for about 1 in 3 New Yorkers and spends more per person for care than Medicaid programs in any other state. Hochul has also tried to rein in costs through an overhaul of how a home health care program is administered. Asked Wednesday by reporters about Oz’s letter, Hochul said the Trump administration is targeting a Democrat-led state for political reasons but added, “I will have to stand up and show them the truth and show them the facts, that they’re wrong. When there is fraud I will help them fight it.” Hochul's office said the fraud investigation was an attempt by the Trump administration to rip health care away from everyday New Yorkers. CMS said in an emailed statement that ensuring states comply with federal rules is “a core part of the agency’s federal oversight role.” New York investigation follows a federal crackdown in Minnesota The New York investigation comes less than a week after CMS halted Medicaid payments to Minnesota over fraud concerns. Oz said the money would be delivered only after Minnesota implements “a comprehensive corrective action plan." The administration had previously cited allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Minneapolis-area Somali residents as a reason for a massive federal enforcement surge there. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, called the new funding freeze “targeted retribution.” Minnesota on Monday sued the Trump administration over the deferred payments. The state is also appealing CMS withholding $2 billion in annual Medicaid funds announced in early January. The Trump administration has sought to withhold funding from Democratic-led states at least two other times in recent months citing fraud concerns. It happened with child care subsidies and other social services programs in Minnesota, New York and three other states and with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 22 states that have declined to hand over data that the federal government says is needed to catch fraud. In both those cases, judges have ruled that the money must continue to flow for now.

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President Donald Trump is pressing Big Tech to build its own power as AI data centers spark anger over electric bills. On Wednesday, he hosted technology companies at the White House and promoted a “ratepayer protection” pledge. The pledge asks companies to build or buy new generation for their centers and asks them to pay for grid upgrades. Experts say the deal lacks federal enforcement and doubt that promises by the tech companies can slow down fast-rising electricity prices.

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Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq are preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran, and the U.S. has asked Iraqi Kurds to support them, Kurdish officials have told The Associated Press. Kurdish party leaders have also discussed the Iran crisis with President Donald Trump, according to Iraqi Kurdish officials. One official says Trump has asked them to open the border and back the groups militarily. Iraqi Kurdish leaders fear Iranian retaliation. Recent drone and missile strikes have already hit the region, damaging homes, and disrupting electricity. Iraq also reinforces the border and the Iraqi government has vowed to stop infiltrations.

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U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff will arrive in South Carolina next week to help the state contain the largest measles outbreak in the country in decades, a state official said in a briefing on Wednesday. The first CDC on the ground assist comes some five months after the South Carolina outbreak began. The state reported five additional measles cases so far this week as the outbreak neared 1,000 cases. But health officials said infections appear to be slowing, aided by a strong vaccination response in February, which is up 70% compared with the same month last year. Three CDC disease detectives from the agency's Epidemic Intelligence Service are expected to help analyze data collected during the outbreak, said Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina's epidemiologist. Last week, Reuters reported that a dozen non-CDC public health experts paid for by the nonprofit CDC Foundation were arriving in South Carolina to help the state contain the outbreak. The CDC generally provides scientists and medical officers for brief deployments of a few weeks, which the state's health department said last week do not fulfill needs to support daily job functions. Bell said in a briefing that staff from the CDC Foundation helped with "day-to-day work that supports those disease containment efforts," while CDC officers would help analyze the massive data generated nearly 22 weeks into the outbreak to better understand transmission chains. ELIMINATION STATUS IN JEOPARDY South Carolina's measles outbreak has become the nation's largest since 1992, with 990 cases reported as of Tuesday. Its childhood immunization rates had declined in recent years as local political leaders and parents criticized the CDC's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and pushed back against COVID-related lockdowns and vaccine mandates. The U.S. is trying to retain its status of having eliminated measles even after recording the highest number of confirmed infections in three decades. Earlier this week, the Pan American Health Organization said the United States has requested a postponement to review its measles elimination status until November. Deployment of CDC staff comes after the agency's new acting director, Jay Bhattacharya, on Monday urged Americans to get vaccinated against measles, saying it was the best protection against the disease. The previous acting CDC head, Jim O'Neill, raised questions about the safety of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine last fall, without evidence, and called for it to be split into several shots. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dropped broad recommendations for six childhood vaccines, saying that parents must make these decisions in consultation with a doctor, drawing rebukes from major medical groups. Bhattacharya also serves as director of the National Institutes of Health.

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The Trump administration has formally nominated Kevin Warsh, a former top Federal Reserve official, to be the next Fed chair when Jerome Powell's term ends in two months. Warsh's nomination, which was initially announced Jan. 30, was forwarded to the Senate Wednesday, where it will be taken up by the Senate Banking Committee. Yet the nomination could stall there. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican on the committee, has said he will oppose confirming Warsh until a criminal investigation into Powell is resolved. Powell revealed Jan. 11 that the Justice Department had subpoenaed the Fed over Powell's Senate testimony last June about the central bank's $2.5 billion building renovation project. Tillis said last month that the committee could hold a hearing about Warsh's nomination, but he would vote to block confirmation. If all Democrats on the committee voted against Warsh as well, the nomination wouldn't pass out of the committee to the full Senate. Warsh has harshly criticized the Fed's policies in recent years, including its low interest rate policies coming out of the pandemic, which he says contributed to the United States' largest inflation spike in four decades in 2021-2022. Yet Warsh now has echoed President Donald Trump's demands for lower rates. Warsh says that productivity gains from artificial intelligence will help the economy grow more quickly without spurring inflation, enabling the Fed to reduce borrowing costs. Many Fed officials, however, disagree that AI's development will support rate cuts.

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U.S. Senate Republicans backed President Donald Trump's military campaign against Iran on Wednesday, voting to block a bipartisan resolution aiming to stop the air war and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress. As voting continued, the tally in the 100-member Senate was 52 to 47 not to advance the resolution, largely along party lines, with almost every Republican voting against the procedural motion and almost every Democrat supporting it. The latest effort by Democrats and a few Republicans to rein in President Donald Trump's repeated foreign troop deployments, sponsors described the war powers resolution as a bid to take back Congress' responsibility to declare war, as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. Opponents rejected this, insisting that Trump's action was legal and within his right as commander in chief to protect the United States by ordering limited strikes. "This is not a forever war, indeed not even close to it. This is going to end very quickly," Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech against the resolution. The measure had not been expected to succeed. Trump's fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and have blocked previous resolutions seeking to curb his war powers.

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U.S. Senate Republicans backed President Donald Trump's military campaign against Iran on Wednesday, voting to block a bipartisan resolution aiming to stop the air war and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress. As voting continued, the tally in the 100-member Senate was 52 to 47 not to advance the resolution, largely along party lines, with almost every Republican voting against the procedural motion and almost every Democrat supporting it. The latest effort by Democrats and a few Republicans to rein in President Donald Trump's repeated foreign troop deployments, sponsors described the war powers resolution as a bid to take back Congress' responsibility to declare war, as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. Opponents rejected this, insisting that Trump's action was legal and within his right as commander in chief to protect the United States by ordering limited strikes. "This is not a forever war, indeed not even close to it. This is going to end very quickly," Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech against the resolution. The measure had not been expected to succeed. Trump's fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and have blocked previous resolutions seeking to curb his war powers.

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Why Do Some Say the U.S. and Israel Aren’t Justified?

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Josh opens the show with the latest developments involving Iran and reacts to comments made Wednesday by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He also addresses how some of the loudest opposition to the strikes is coming from a small group of voices on the Right, even as most polling shows strong support among Republicans for the action taken over the weekend. Josh examines the motivations behind that criticism and discusses how he believes those arguments should be challenged. Later, Josh is joined by Rich Goldberg, Senior Advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to break down the strikes on Iran and explain why he believes the timing for the operation was necessary. To close the show, Josh looks at the latest political developments, including key primary races unfolding in Texas.

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Jasmine Crockett Lost, So She Blamed Republicans

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Trump: We are in a Strong Position

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How is the Media Portraying the War with Iran?

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A small plane carrying a student pilot and flight instructor struck two homes in north Phoenix on Wednesday before landing nose-down in a backyard, injuring them and a man who was in one of the homes, authorities said. The instructor, student and injured man were taking to a hospital, fire department spokesperson Capt. Todd Keller told reporters from news outlets Arizona’s Family and Fox-10. The Piper P-28 had one of its wings torn off and ended up nose-down next to a swimming pool in the backyard of the second home it hit, authorities said. The missing wing sat on top of the first home’s damaged tile roof. The plane was headed to the nearby Deer Valley Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.

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Ecuador and the United States have begun joint military operations against organized crime groups in the South American country, the U.S. military said, but neither government has given details of the location and scope of the operation. U.S. Southern Command said in a statement late Tuesday that Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces had launched operations in a “powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism.” A 30-second video accompanying a post on X showed a helicopter flying over a group of men walking on the ground, but the footage stops without revealing more about the location. “We are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere,” the post added, without providing other details of the operation. Ecuador's foreign and defense ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The operation was not mentioned Wednesday at the U.S. defense secretary briefing, which was focused on Iran. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa had said earlier this week that his government was beginning joint actions with other countries as part of a new phase in the fight against organized crime, as Ecuador faces a sustained wave of violence linked to drug trafficking and illegal mining. “Ecuador demands security, our people need to live in peace,” said Noboa, adding that military and police forces will be involved in the operations he described as “very important.” Ecuador maintains good relations with the United States, Israel and Italy, among other countries, often collaborating on security issues. In February, Noboa ordered the foreign ministry to seek cooperation agreements with “allied nations” that would allow “the incorporation of special forces” on a temporary basis as support for the Ecuadorian police and armed forces. Authorities identify Ecuador as a critical logistical hub in the global drug trade, where drugs — particularly cocaine — are stockpiled, stored and distributed, especially from the northern border with Colombia. The shipments are transported from its ports to Central America, the United States and Europe.

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Gavin Newsom Claims Israel is an Apartheid State

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Minnesota's governor and attorney general on Wednesday defended their efforts to combat fraud and told a U.S. House committee that their efforts have been hampered by President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in the state. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee accused Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of stalling to fight fraud in government programs, saying they put politics ahead of rooting out abuse instead of pausing payments. “You have not been good stewards of the taxpayer dollars,” said Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the committee. “And the Democratic position is keep the money flowing. The American taxpayers have had enough.” Walz said he wanted to work with the federal government to help with fraud investigations, but the immigration surge was making that more difficult. “The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,” Walz said. “We’re going to prosecute, as we have, every single person that’s involved in fraud, but we can’t do it alone." Walz and Ellison defended their efforts on fraud, while also trying to turn the focus of the hearing to the surge of 3,000 federal agents in Minnesota that began in December. The Trump administration cited fraud as one justification for its enforcement action. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified Tuesday that about 650 investigators remain in Minnesota as part of a broader fraud probe. “Operation Metro Surge did nothing to address fraud in our state," Ellison said. "It harmed our economy and it scarred our people and it dealt a devastating blow to fraud enforcement in Minnesota.” Ellison noted the series of resignation of lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, leaving those who remain “drowning in immigration-related petitions” instead of prosecuting fraud. On Tuesday, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota appeared before a judge for a contempt hearing related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement not returning personal property of detainees. Ellison said his office has “punched above our weight” in winning 300 Medicaid fraud convictions and recovering more than $80 million for taxpayers. Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana called on Ellison to resign, accusing him of not leading investigations into criminal fraud activity. Last week, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds. Minnesota sued on Monday to stop the money from being withheld, warning it may have to cut health care for low-income families if the money is held back. Comer on Wednesday accused Walz of not stopping Medicaid payments despite knowledge of fraud because he “didn’t want to rock the boat.” Comer and other Republicans accused Walz of lying about when he first found out about fraud in a $250 million scheme known as Feeding Our Future and stalling to act in order to protect the Somali American community. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio asked Walz if he know how many of those who had been indicted were Somali Americans. “Their ethnicity is not my concern,” Walz said. Somali Americans make up 82 of the 92 defendants charged so far in the Feeding our Future case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota. Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California, as part of the effort to focus the hearing on the immigration crackdown, held up images of children detained by federal officers and a picture of the blood-stained car seat of Renee Good who was killed by an officer. Federal officers also killed another Minnesota resident, Alex Pretti, who had been filming enforcement operations. “This violence does not make us safer,” Garcia said. “It does not address fraud, waste and abuse.”

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Trump Did What No One Else Would!

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