The Latest: Attorney General Bondi will face Senate over political pressure on Justice Department

Audio By Carbonatix

Attorney General Pam Bondi goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday as federal agents surge into American cities. Senators are sure to question her about political influence over a Justice Department that has already criminally charged one of President Donald Trump’s longtime foes and is facing intense White House pressure to prosecute others.

It's now Day 7 of the shutdown, with Democrats and Republicans at an impasse. Democrats are conditioning their support for a short-term funding patch on extending the subsidies that millions of Americans count on to make health care affordable. Trump says he'll talk about a health care deal only after the government reopens and the Democrats lose their leverage.

Peace talks continue in Egypt on the two-year anniversary of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel that triggered the bloody conflict that has seen tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza. The negotiations center on Trump’s proposed plan to end the war in Gaza.

And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with Trump in the Oval Office again. One of the world’s most durable and amicable alliances has been fractured by Trump’s trade war and annexation threats, and the free trade agreement critical to Canada's economy is up for review next year.

The Latest:

Sen. Chuck Grassley is praising Attorney General Pam Bondi for “getting tough on criminals” and reversing Biden administration priorities that he says “politicized” law enforcement.

The Republican senator from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is delivering opening remarks at the Justice Department oversight hearing.

He decried what he says was weaponization of the Justice Department during the Biden administration, including new revelations that the FBI analyzed phone records of several Republican lawmakers as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Supreme Court is about to hear arguments over the constitutionality of bans on “conversion therapy” for kids who identify as LGBTQ+.

Nearly half of U.S. states have passed laws against the practice, which has been scientifically discredited.

But a Christian counselor challenging Colorado’s law says it chills her freedom of speech by barring her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy.

The state says the measure simply regulates licensed therapists by barring a practice that’s been linked to serious harm.

The arguments come after the court’s conservative majority found states can ban transition-related health care for transgender youths.

The U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, lamented the administration’s deportation practices, part of a wider backlash against migrants and refugees around the world.

But he praised the Trump administration-led peace efforts for providing “a glimmer of hope” in the eastern Congo, where millions have been displaced by conflict between Rwanda-backed forces and Congo’s armed forces. And he cited how more than 1 million refugees from Syria have now returned home.

“Thanks to peace efforts spearheaded by the United States, instead of speaking only of more bloodshed, or more refugees, we can start to think – cautiously, but a little bit more optimistically — of stability and returns,” Grandi said in a speech Monday.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott defended U.S. immigration and migration policies and said Trump’s speech at the United Nations was “a call to action against the destructive policies promoting mass and illegal migration that globalist bureaucrats have pushed for years.”

Shares of Trilogy Metals more than tripled overnight after the White House announced late Monday that it’s taking a 10% equity stake in the Canadian company while allowing the Ambler Road mining project in Alaska to go forward.

Trump late Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals used in production of cars, electronics and other technologies.

Trilogy is seeking to develop the Ambler site along with an Australian partner.

The president is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon at the White House with Edan Alexander, who was taken hostage by Hamas in the attack two years ago that led to the Israel-Hamas war.

Trump met in July with Alexander, who was the last living American hostage in Gaza and was released from captivity in May. The meeting, which is scheduled to occur behind closed doors, comes as indirect peace talks are being held in Egypt over Trump’s plan to end the fighting.