US House passes $1.2 trillion spending package to end government shutdown
The legislation heads to US President Donald Trump’s desk for signature. By AP and Reuters Published On 3 Feb 20263 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share The United States House of Representatives has approved a $1.2 trillion spending package to end a partial government shutdown. The bipartisan legislation, passed on Tuesday, restores lapsed funding for key federal programmes, including those within the Departments of Labor and Education. The bill passed with 217 voting for it and 214 voting against in the Republican-controlled House. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Twenty-one Republicans voted against the bill, while 21 Democrats ended up voting for the legislation, which is now headed to President Donald Trump’s desk, where he will sign it into law. Immigration was a major point of contention. The bill temporarily extends funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) but leaves room for lawmakers to negotiate changes and reforms to immigration enforcement in the wake of federal agents killing two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, last month. The spending package only funds DHS for two weeks, through February 13. Otherwise, Congress wrapped up 11 annual appropriations bills that fund government agencies and programmes through September 30. Democrats are also demanding new restraints for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. “Democrats are united in our commitment to compel substantial reform at the Department of Homeland Security. Dramatic changes such as a mask ban, judicial warrant requirement, independent investigations when agents break the law, use of force protocols, mandatory body cameras and an end to the targeting of sensitive locations like houses of worship, schools and hospitals must be part of any full-year appropriations bill,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement after the vote. Advertisement Speaker Mike Johnson said he expects the two sides will be able to reach an agreement by the deadline. “This is no time to play games with that funding. We hope that they will operate in good faith over the next 10 days as we negotiate this,” said Johnson. “The president, again, has reached out.” Some Republicans on the party’s right flank had sought, unsuccessfully, to modify the bill to include a provision that would tighten voting requirements. House Republicans have only a 218-214 majority, which means they can lose only one Republican vote in the face of united Democratic opposition. The last government shutdown lasted a record 43 days in October and November, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and costing the US economy an estimated $11bn. Adblock test (Why?)
Collision between Greek coastguard vessel, migrant boat kills at least 14
Greece’s coastguard says 26 other people have been rescued from Aegean Sea as search-and-rescue operations continue. Published On 3 Feb 20263 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A boat carrying migrants and asylum seekers has collided with a Greek coastguard vessel in the Aegean Sea near the island of Chios, killing at least 14 people, the coastguard says. The incident occurred around 9pm local time on Tuesday (19:00 GMT) off the coast of Chios’s Mersinidi area, Greece’s Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) reported. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The coastguard said 26 people were rescued and brought to a hospital in Chios, including 24 migrants and two coastguard officers. It said it was not immediately clear how many others had been on the speedboat. Seven children and a pregnant woman were among the injured, Greek media reported. A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was under way in the area, AMNA said. Footage shared by Greece’s Ta Nea newspaper appeared to show at least one person being brought from a boat docked next to a jetty into a vehicle with blue flashing lights. An unnamed coastguard official told the Reuters news agency that the collision occurred after the migrant boat “manoeuvred toward” a coastguard vessel that had instructed it to turn back. Greece has long been a key transit point for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia trying to reach Europe. In 2015 and 2016, Greece was on the front line of a migration crisis, with nearly one million people landing on its islands, including in Chios, from nearby Turkiye. But arrivals have dropped in recent years as Greece has toughened its asylum seeker and migrant policies, including by tightening border controls and sea patrols. Advertisement The country has come under scrutiny for its treatment of migrants and asylum seekers approaching by sea, including after a shipwreck in 2023 in which hundreds of migrants and refugees died after what witnesses said was the coastguard’s attempt to tow their trawler. The European Union’s border agency said last year that it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece, including some allegations that people seeking asylum were pushed back from Greece’s frontiers. Greece has denied carrying out human rights violations or pushing asylum seekers from its shores. Adblock test (Why?)
Mumbai: Air India, IndiGo planes collide on runway at airport; DGCA launches probe
As per reports, the wing tips of the two planes brushed against each while they were moving on the runway. The incident occurred even as passengers were on board both the aircraft. No injuries have been reported so far.
‘Blot on democracy’: Rahul Gandhi writes to Lok Sabha Speaker Birla over parliament speech row
For a second straight day, Gandhi was prevented from speaking as he attempted to read out excerpts from an unpublished book written by former Indian Army chief General MM Naravane. He had sought to raise questions about the central government’s handling of the 2020 India-China military standoff.
TribCast: Did the winter storm show our grid is fixed?
In this week’s episode of The Texas Tribune’s podcast, our hosts speak with Matt Boms about the Texas electrical grid’s strong performance during the recent winter storm. Does that mean the problems of 2021 are behind us?
After El Paso’s ME ruled migrant’s death a homicide, ICE sent the next body to an Army hospital
ICE bypassed the county medical examiner in favor of a military facility for the autopsy of a Nicaraguan man and won’t release a ruling to the public.
Swalwell in the hot seat after spending over $200K in campaign cash on personal childcare: ‘Slippery slope’
FIRST ON FOX: A campaign finance expert is slamming progressive Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., for spending over $200,000 of his congressional campaign cash on an “inherently personal” expense: childcare. Swalwell, who has been in Congress since 2013 and ran a brief and unsuccessful presidential bid in 2019, is currently running for California governor. A Fox News Digital review of Federal Election Commission filings dating from 2019 to 2025 found that Swalwell’s congressional campaign has reimbursed him over $200,000 for childcare-related costs. A significant portion of those expenses, over $22,000, from his most recent House and gubernatorial campaign filings were for just three months of childcare from October to December 2025. The three payments on his gubernatorial campaign filing for “childcare” are made out to his wife, Brittany Swalwell, and total over $6,000. ERIC SWALWELL BOASTS ‘AVENGERS’ ROSTER OF DEMOCRATIC LEADERS, FORGETS GAVIN NEWSOM The FEC filings show that the campaign dished out over $102,000 to an individual named Amanda Barbosa in Dublin, California, between 2021 and 2025, a Fox News Digital review found. Her LinkedIn profile says she has been a “childcare provider” at a “private practice” since September 2021, one month before her first Swalwell campaign payment, and is an “aspiring occupational therapist.” Her Facebook says she is Washington, D.C.-based and is pictured with the Swalwell family in a few of the photos, including at Disney World last June. $57,324.40 was paid to Bambini Play & Learn Child Development Center, a Spanish immersion daycare and preschool in Washington, D.C., between 2023 and 2025. The monthly tuition for the child development center is between $2,520 and $3,280, according to Bambini’s website. Childcare reimbursement is the reason listed for the vast majority of these costs. The filings also list $9,713.42 for reimbursement for payroll tax for campaign childcare, $1,943.35 for “childcare for campaign event,” $1,124.11 for travel expenses, food, beverage and childcare reimbursement and $625.91 for childcare, food & beverages reimbursement, among other payments. Federal law prohibits the use of campaign finances for personal expenses. However, in 2018, the FEC issued an opinion that deemed childcare expenses caused by campaign activity to be not personal use. In 2022, Swalwell, who has three children ages 8, 7 and 4, appealed to the FEC to clarify whether he could use campaign funds to pay for overnight childcare. The FEC approved the request, issuing another opinion allowing Swalwell to use campaign funds to pay for overnight childcare when he incurs those costs due to his own campaign travel. CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE ERIC SWALWELL WANTS PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO ‘VOTE BY PHONE’ In an interview with Fox News Digital, Allen Mendenhall, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and a senior advisor at Capital Markets Initiative, said the FEC’s decision is problematic because childcare is an “inherently personal” expense. “It’s an expense that candidates with young children will incur regardless of whether they’re in a campaign,” he said. “I have childcare costs. Many people have childcare costs, and we can’t just use this other money to subsidize our things.” He said that this FEC decision risks setting a new precedent that allows candidates to pass off their childcare costs to donors. He believes this “opens the slippery slope” for a whole set of costs that could be conceivably justified as campaign expenses, such as clothing, grooming and beyond. “The danger here,” Mendenhall explained, “is creating a special class of politicians who are insulated from normal constraints, ordinary constraints that everybody else has to deal with.” WASHINGTON POST CITES U-HAUL DATA IN CALIFORNIA EXODUS TO ‘PRO-GROWTH’ STATES, SAYS ‘DECLINE IS A CHOICE’ “Campaign law exists not to underwrite the private lives of politicians, but to ensure that political speech is protected and that public advocacy occurs, that we have electoral competition,” he said. “Election laws are in place to try to maintain the integrity of our electoral system, and that decision, I think, undermines the integrity of the system.” Swalwell’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
FBI agent urged criminal probe of Elon Musk’s X use, likened it to Clinton email scandal
EXCLUSIVE: A now-retired FBI agent sought to open an investigation into Elon Musk’s use of X while leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in 2025, likening his activity to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, according to an email exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the email sent by a now-former FBI agent that was first shared as a legally protected whistleblower disclosure to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. FBI FIRES AGENTS, DISMANTLES CORRUPTION SQUAD AFTER PROBE UNVEILS MONITORING OF GOP SENATORS, PATEL SAYS The email, while not explicitly mentioning it, was sent after Musk set the controversial DOGE mandate requiring federal employees to report on five tasks they completed for their role each week. The ex-FBI agent sent the email to a colleague in the CR-15 division, also known as the public corruption squad, on Feb. 22, 2025 — the same day Musk announced that all federal employees were being instructed to report productivity. Musk made the announcement in an email, but also in a post on X, saying the report would come in the form of an email to give federal workers a chance to report how productive they were the previous week. If the email was ignored, Musk said, the federal government would interpret that as a resignation. The email was also sent just two days after FBI Director Kash Patel was confirmed by the Senate to lead the bureau. Patel dismantled the CR-15 public corruption squad in October 2025. The email, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, shows the agent requesting to open the probe into Musk in February 2025. ELON MUSK SAYS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES MUST FILL OUT PRODUCTIVITY REPORTS OR RESIGN “I would like to recommend the opening of a criminal 58 matter on the person(s) at OPM who approved the transmission of the earlier email,” the agent wrote. “That person in conspiracy with Elon Musk (who is reportedly an SGE), in addition to wasting a colossal amount of official time, encouraged, abetted, aided, etc. thousands if not tens of thousands of government employees to violate government wide security policy and transmit sensitive government information outside of a strict need to know.” The agent added that “Musk used a non-government system (twitter) to relate information that allegedly was for official purposes.” “In doing so, because he is monetized (he is a majority owner of twitter) he likely generated income for himself based on Twitter’s monetization model and/or advertising revenues,” the agent wrote. “His use of twitter in this and other instances is conceptually similar to Hillary Clinton’s misuse of a private email server for government business,” the agent continued. “Furthermore, this likely violates 18 USC 208 and the terms of his SGE agreement—an SGE cannot monetize themselves with their government work.” The agent added: “Reading Musk’s message even in the most positive light, that message threatened persons with firing if they did not participate in an act that violated policy.” “Happy to write the case opening and find a prosecutor (or at least try),” the agent wrote. “Alternatively, I am happy to report this to the OPM OIG or Congress.” The agent added: “And no, I’m not kidding.” FLASHBACK: ICE CREAM FROM TRUMP AND A ‘COMICALLY TINY OFFICE’: INSIDE ELON MUSK’S WILD 3 MONTHS GETTING DOGE ROLLING Musk, at the time, was a special government employee leading DOGE. The FBI told Fox News Digital in February that an investigation into Musk or involving Musk was never opened. The FBI also told Fox News Digital that the agent who sent the email was no longer working at the bureau. An FBI spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Patel “has made it a top priority to expose and eliminate the deep-rooted corruption that took hold over decades at the FBI, including dismantling the disgraced CR-15 unit that was used to pursue political agendas.” Patel dismantled the CR-15 squad in October 2025 after it was revealed that several Republican lawmakers’ private communications and phone calls had been tracked by former Special Counsel Jack Smith. Fox News Digital first reported those revelations. “He is restoring the Bureau’s core mission: equal justice under the law,” the spokesperson said, adding that under Patel’s leadership, “there is one standard of justice for every American.” “The era of politically motivated investigations and targeting opponents is over, and it will not be tolerated on his watch,” the FBI spokesperson said. Musk could not be reached for comment.
DHS Secretary Noem stands by body camera requirement for federal agents following Trump comments
Secretary Kristi Noem stood by her decision to equip federal agents with body cameras after President Donald Trump said the move “wasn’t [his] decision.” During an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the DHS secretary said body cameras would make “sure that people know the truth of a situation,” and that both agents and the American people want cameras on federal law enforcement officials. “Our officers want [body cams] and the people want it, they want the relationship with their communities to know all of the information that we need to have during these situations of conflict and violence,” Noem told Fox News Digital. “And we’ve seen that that can be very helpful in making sure that people know the truth of a situation and that we can get people help as soon as possible.” Noem pointed to lack of resources as to why agents weren’t previously wearing cameras, and said that many border patrol agents already actively use body cams. KRISTI NOEM TO TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE COMMITTEE NEXT MONTH “The Department of Homeland Security trains a lot of federal agents already, and different agencies have body cameras that they wear already,” Noem explained to Fox..”CBP has many officers that already have body cameras on them.” “The problem was having the resources to get them on every agent and every officer that’s out there. And then having the resources to do the analyses and the storage of those videos and who can help us really utilize them,” Noem added. DHS announced that federal law enforcement officers would be required to wear body cameras on Monday. President Donald Trump spoke with reporters shortly after the announcement, saying he supported the move and clarifying the decision was left solely up to Noem. TRUMP UNLOADS ON ‘RADICAL LEFT’ AS HE STANDS BY KRISTI NOEM AMID IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT UNREST “It wasn’t my decision,” Trump said. “I would have you know I leave it to her. [Body cams] generally tend to be good for law enforcement because people can’t lie about what’s happening.” “If she wants to do that, I’m okay with it,” the president added. Unrest surrounding federal law enforcement officers and ICE agents has ravaged the country in recent weeks after two individuals, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed on separate occasions by authorities in Minneapolis, Minnesota. DHS SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM ADDRESSES CALLS FOR HER FIRING, NEW ALEX PRETTI VIDEO In Washington, the government shut down largely due to debates surrounding DHS spending. Questions over whether the agency should implement a body camera policy was a key point of contention between Republicans and Democrats, though the GOP ultimately united behind President Trump and passed legislation to end the shutdown on Tuesday afternoon. The roughly $1.2 trillion package included funding through Sept. 30 for 11 of the 12 of the appropriations bills, while DHS funding was only extended temporarily through Feb. 13 and negotiations over ICE policies continue. If lawmakers fail to reach a deal by Feb. 13, the government would enter an additional partial shutdown. Some far-left members of congress have called for the eradication of ICE as an agency entirely, while others have asked for additional policy discussions surrounding federal agents wearing face masks, warrant requirements, and random immigration sweeps.
Trump unveils new rendering of sprawling White House ballroom project
President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared a new rendering of the planned White House ballroom, touting the project as a historic addition he said would “serve our Country well” for “Centuries into the future.” “This is the first rendering shown to the Public,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. Trump said the rendering, shown from the perspective of the Treasury Building, depicts a plan to replace the existing East Wing with a new East Wing anchored by the White House’s first formal ballroom. He added that the structure would match the White House in height and scale. SPRAWLING NEW $200M WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM TO BE PAID FOR BY TRUMP AND DONORS The 90,000-square-foot space, designed to seat roughly 650 guests, is already under construction and is expected to cost more than $200 million, with funding coming from Trump and private donors, the administration previously said. “If you notice, the North Wall is a replica of the North Facade of the White House, shown at the right hand side of the picture,” Trump added in his post about the new rendering. FROM THE OVAL OFFICE TO THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER, THE GILDED MAKEOVER EXPANDS On July 31, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the planned construction of the sprawling ballroom. “The White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders in other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building’s entrance,” Leavitt said during a press briefing, adding the new ballroom will be “a much-needed and exquisite addition.” Since returning to office, Trump, a former real estate developer, has embarked on a series of projects aimed at altering the look and feel of the White House and other iconic Washington landmarks. Over the weekend, the president announced in a Truth Social post that the Trump Kennedy Center will close later this year for a two-year renovation. In October, Trump unveiled a new monument planned to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary next year. The monument, a near twin of Paris’s iconic Arc de Triomphe, is meant to welcome visitors crossing the Memorial Bridge from Arlington National Cemetery into the heart of the nation’s capital. Trump has also added golden accents to the Oval Office, added a “walk of fame” to the colonnade outside the Oval Office, renovated the Lincoln bathroom, paved part of the Rose Garden and installed two large American flags on the White House grounds.