DOJ Releases 3M Pages of Epstein Files; Former CNN Anchor Don Lemon Arrested| NTD News Today Jan. 30

Breaking news from the White House. President Trump says he's nominating former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh to be the next Fed chair. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested. What the Justice Department says about the arrest and his response from his attorney. On Capitol Hill, an overnight vote failed to gain steam. The delay means a partial government shutdown is expected to kick in at midnight tonight. The details on what caused the last minute impasse. The Trump administration acts on multiple fronts, China, Cuba, Canada and Venezuela. President Trump issuing a warning to the UK over China ties. A powerful coastal storm set to slam the southeast this weekend, bringing heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding. Residents urged to prepare now. This is MTV News Today, live from our global headquarters in New York City. And it's great to have you here this morning. Today is Friday, January 30th. I'm Paul Grady. A federal judge today dismissing two counts in the case against Luigi Mangione, eliminating the prosecution's ability to seek the death penalty at trial. And meanwhile, the judge denying the defense's request to suppress evidence found in Mangione's backpack without a search warrant. In a 39-page opinion this morning, Judge Margaret Garnett ruled that the weapons charges in counts three and four don't meet the Supreme Court's definition for crimes of violence. It requires that the defendant use violent physical force at the time of the crime. In a separate ruling, Garnett denied the defense's request to suppress the contents of Mangione's backpack, citing numerous federal exceptions to the warrant requirement. Some of those items included handwritten notes and ammunition. We'll keep you updated on that story as the day progresses. And a major update this morning from the White House. President Trump says he's nominating former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Walsh to be the next chair of the central bank. In a two social post just hours ago, the president called Walsh a longtime friend and someone with a deep experience in finance, including time working alongside billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Here's what Trump wrote. I've known Kevin for a long period of time and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the great Fed chairmen, maybe the best. And on top of everything else, he has central casting and he will never let you down, unquote. Now, the pick comes as the president has been sharply critical of current Fed chair Jerome Powell, saying interest rates are too high and should come down by two to three percentage points, arguing the U.S. is paying too much to borrow. The nomination follows months of speculation, with Walsh, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett and Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Wall Street's Rick Ryder all being mentioned as potential picks. Now, if confirmed by the Senate, Kevin Walsh would take over from Powell when his term ends in May. Walsh, no stranger to the Fed. He served on the board of governors from 2006 to 2011. I was the youngest person ever appointed to that position. It was just 35. Trump was talking about his Fed pick yesterday. Here's what he said. Just an outstanding person and a person that won't be too surprising to people. A lot of people, a lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago. It's going to be somebody that is very respected, somebody that's known to everybody in the financial world, and I think it's going to be a very good choice. I hope so. In another post this morning, the president praised White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett, who's been one of the names floated as a potential Fed chair pick. Trump called Hassett's work outstanding, saying he's doing such a great job he wants to keep him right where he is. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch is now holding a press conference at the DOJ. Let's tune in. Justice who met twice daily, sometimes more for the last 75 days to get to where we are today. The leadership teams from the Office of the Attorney General, from the Deputy Attorney General's Office, the Associate Attorney General's Office, the Criminal Division, the National Security Division, the FBI, the Southern District of Florida, the Southern District of New York, and the Northern District of New York all gave up many hours every single day, on top of their other, of course, full-time obligations to fulfill President Trump's promise of transparency to the American people. I also want to thank the more than 500 lawyers and professionals across all those divisions that I just mentioned, and others who worked long days, nights, weekends, Christmas, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, nights, weekends, and holidays to complete this production. These highly trained reviewers spend their careers putting bad guys in jail and effectuating the mission of the department. And to a person, they work tirelessly to protect victims and comply with the act since its passage. So thank you to all of them. Today we are producing more than 3 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. In total, that means that the department produced approximately three and a half million pages in compliance with the act. Just a quick note about the videos and images. The 2,000 videos and 180,000 images are not all videos and images taken by Mr. Epstein or someone around him. They include large quantities of commercial pornography and images that were seized from Epstein's devices, but which he did not take or that someone around him did not take. Some of the videos, though, and some of the images do appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or by others around him. Now I want to talk for a few minutes about the department's document identification and review protocols. It consisted of multiple layers of review and quality control designed to ensure compliance under the act and protect victims. On top of the review protocols that the department had in place, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York employed an additional review protocol to ensure compliance with a court order requiring United States Attorney Jay Clayton to certify that with respect to certain materials, a large quantity of the materials, a rigorous process was undertaken to protect victims against any clearly unwarranted invasion of their personal privacy. The department's collection effort resulted in more than six million pages being identified as potentially responsive, including department and FBI emails, interview summaries, images, videos, and various other materials collected and generated during the various investigations and prosecutions that the act covered. We erred on the side of over-collecting of materials from various sources to best ensure maximum transparency and compliance, which necessarily means that the number of responsive pages is significantly smaller than the total number of pages initially collected. That's why I mentioned a moment ago we're releasing more than three million pages today and not the six million pages that we collected. I want to address what we didn't produce. The categories of documents withheld include those permitted under the act to be withheld, files that contain personally identifying information of victims or victims' personal and medical files and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Any depiction of CSAM or child pornography was obviously excluded. Anything that would jeopardize an active federal investigation. And finally, anything that depicts or contain images of death, physical abuse, or injury, also not produced. Although the act allows for withholding for items necessary to keep secret in the interest of national security or foreign policy, no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis. Further, as we previously stated in our December 19th letter of last year, the department withheld or redacted files covered by various privileges, as we always do, including deliberative process privilege, work product privilege, and attorney-client privilege. As you all know, under the act, the department must subsequently submit to the House and Senate committees on the judiciary a report listing all categories of records released and withheld, a summary of redactions made, including the legal basis for such redactions, and a list of all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the act. We will do so in due course as required under the act. I want to talk for just a moment about the redactions that will be obvious to anyone who reviews the materials that we just produced today. In addition to the documentary redactions, which includes personal identifying information, victim information, and other privileges, there is extensive redactions to images and videos. To protect victims, we redacted every woman depicted in any image or video, with the exception of Ms. Maxwell. We did not redact images of any men, unless it was impossible to redact the woman without also redacting the man. To this end, though, and to ensure transparency, if any member of Congress wishes to review any portions of the response of production in any unredacted form, they're welcome to make arrangements with the department to do so, and we're happy to do that. I want to talk for a minute about something that is important. Every single day of the year, the Department of Justice investigates and prosecutes those who abuse and traffic young women and children. Just last year, the FBI located over 2,700 victims of child exploitation. The Department of Justice found and terminated 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. In August, we charged 11 defendants for extensive sex trafficking in Los Angeles of illegal immigrants and underage women. Last month, we charged five men who were engaged in a sadistic sex torture network of deranged young men abusing women. Over the past several months, last summer and into the fall, we executed Operation Restore Justice, rescuing 205 child victims and arresting 293 offenders. I point this out because I take umbrage at the suggestion, which is totally false, that the Attorney General or this department does not take child exploitation or sex trafficking seriously or that we somehow do not want to protect victims. We do. There are some select members of Congress and some in the public eye, including those most critical of our efforts at full transparency into the act, who remain silent as to all the work that we have done and continue to do every day in this space, while quickly pointing a finger at the Attorney General or this department because we were careful in our review of millions of pages of documents over the past two months. The Attorney General, the Director of the FBI, and our partners throughout this administration work hard every single day to protect the most vulnerable among us. With the production of this magnitude, mistakes are inevitable. We, of course, want to immediately correct any redaction errors that our team may have made, and so the department has established an email inbox for victims to reach us directly to correct redactions and any concerns when appropriate. That's been in existence since December, and we've been doing that since then. Finally, a very small portion of the documents collected pursuant to the act include materials that a law firm produced to the SDNY in 2019 pursuant to a grand jury subpoena. This was during the criminal investigation of Ms. Maxwell. We determined it would be prudent to seek an order from the court in the Southern District of New York seeking production of these materials subject to the protective order in that civil lawsuit. To that end, the department has filed that motion with the appropriate judge in the SDNY, and if that motion is granted, we'll release those materials with appropriate redactions immediately. Today's release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act. The department has engaged in an unprecedented and extensive effort to do so. After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the act and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the Federal Register, the department's obligations under the act will be completed. I'm happy to take any questions anybody has about that. Todd, I'd like to ask you about this and I have a Minnesota question for you on the Epstein. Now that was U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch. He says the DOJ is today releasing three million pages of documents, images, and videos related to Jeffrey Epstein. We'll keep you updated on anything that comes out of that as the day progresses. Now, former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested by federal authorities. His attorney confirmed the arrest in a statement this morning. The attorney said that Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles while he was covering the Grammy Awards. In a post on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Lemon and three others were arrested, quote, in connection with the coordinated attacks on Citi's church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bondi said more details will be available soon. Lemon's attorney criticized the arrest as an attack on the First Amendment, saying that Lemon will fight the charges in court. Lemon live-streamed the protest that interrupted a church service last week. He said he was at the demonstration as a journalist and that he was tipped off ahead of time, but didn't know the activists would disrupt the service. The Trump administration condemned the protest and accused protesters of intimidating Christian worshippers. Secretary of Homeland Security Christine Noem has responded to calls for her firing. She addressed criticisms she's been facing since two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis. Here she is speaking to Fox News yesterday. Well, these radicals are attacking me, but I'm just doing my job. I'm following the law, enforcing the laws like President Trump promised that he would do to keep people safe in this country. We're going to continue to go after these criminals. Among those calling for her removal are House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Two Republican senators, North Carolina's Tom Tillis and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, have also called for her removal. President Trump has said he has no plans to fire Noem, telling reporters earlier this week she's doing a very good job. In a conversation on Fox yesterday, Noem also spoke about new videos that emerged of Alex Preddy, the man shot by agents last week. The videos show Preddy 11 days before his death, swearing at ICE agents and attacking their vehicle. Noem commented on Preddy, saying, quote, clearly there's a history there of attacking our law enforcement officers and our CBP and ICE officers. The FBI now leading the investigation into the fatal shooting of Preddy in Minneapolis. A Homeland Security Investigation spokesperson told CBS and NBC News that Homeland Security Investigations is now assisting. Previously, HSI was leading the probe with the help from FBI. Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility is conducting its own internal review. That review looks at the actions of the agents involved in the shooting. We'll keep you updated. And now anti-ICE demonstrations expected across the country today, including a student walkout in New York City and a protest in Minneapolis. One organizer from the University of Minnesota's Black Student Union said the strike aims to build lasting momentum. The demonstrators come as border czar Tom Homan said immigration enforcement in Minneapolis would be scaled back. He said it would depend on cooperation from state and city officials honoring ICE detainers. Homan also says Minnesota will not allow jails to notify ICE when an illegal immigrant is being released. Homan says if discussions keep going well with state leaders, though, then the amount of federal agents in the state could start decreasing. Entity correspondent Jason Blair has more. And when we have these agreements, it takes less law enforcement agents to do the job. White House borders are Tom Homan says that Minnesota jails will now be allowed to notify ICE when criminal illegal immigrants are being released so that ICE can come to the jail to make an arrest. Homan says that Minnesota state prisons have already been complying with this. More agents in the jail means less agents in the street. Homan says that when ICE agents can't make an arrest at a jail, they have to go out in the street. Now we gotta arrest somebody on his turf who has access to who knows what weapons. Now we gotta send a whole team out. Then because of the hateful rhetoric and the attacks on ICE officers, now we gotta send a security team behind the arresting. I know that causes stress in the community. Some people have argued that when local police work with ICE, it could discourage illegal immigrants who are victims of crimes to come to local police for help. Homan addresses this issue and says that it's not a problem. All we want is to talk to the person that local and state law enforcement authorities locked in a jail cell. Following Homan's press conference, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz posts it's time for the federal government to draw down their forces and let us get back to allowing freedom, opportunity and security for everyone. While speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey reiterated his intent to end the current ICE operation in his area called Operation Metro Surge. You know, never in a million years did I think that we would be in this place where troops and federal agents by the thousands have been deployed on a great American city. The White House has emphasized that states and cities that cooperate more with ICE are largely safer. Seven of the top 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE, and we've seen historic turnaround in safety in cities that have chosen to cooperate with ICE that are not just led by Republicans, but also look right here in Washington, D.C. Tom Homan was sent to Minnesota by President Trump on Monday to speak with state and local leaders amidst protests, social unrest and tough working conditions for immigration authorities. Homan also made it clear that the administration is not backing down on its mission of immigration enforcement and that he'll stay in Minnesota until the problem is solved. Jason Blair, NTD News. So with the borders are now in Minneapolis, talk of more federal, state and local cooperation and even a possible drawdown of ICE agents, are we entering a new phase of President Trump's immigration enforcement? And what have we learned? With us now are Laura Reese, former acting DHS chief of staff and director of the Immigration and Border Center at the Heritage Foundation, and Mike Leon, host of the podcast. Can we please talk? And the lead anchor at the Legal Podcast Network. Good morning to both of you. Great to have you here. Laura, we'll start with you. Democrats demanding changes at ICE. They want to end ICE roving patrols. They want stronger accountability rules. They also want agents to remove masks and keep body cameras on. Will they get them? Well, immigration law is federal law, and these states and localities and their politicians don't get to nullify federal law. So, of course, they're focusing on the masks. Why are ICE agents wearing masks? Because radical leftists dox them and their family members and endanger them and seek to ruin their lives. So these politicians can't omit those basic facts, and they need to get cause and effect correct. Now, it's not just local officials, Laura, asking for this. I heard on the radio this morning, Senator Richard Blumenthal saying that he would vote to shut down the DHS if those changes at ICE didn't happen. Mike, is that something the American people would like to see? Yeah, well, good to see you, Paul, first and foremost. You know, I just had a member of Congress on the program this week with Representative Debbie Dingell out in Michigan. She made a great point to me because there's two components to DHS, right? There's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which I think we need to have better guardrails on to quote the congresswoman, right, and why she voted no on the recent Homeland Security Act and bill. But then there's also the DHS function of TSA, right, and the people that keep us safe as we fly in the skies. I was scheduled to fly today, earlier today, up to New York City. So those are the government workers that have been, to the point of my other panelists, that have been sometimes vilified in terms of government workers holistically. And she made that point of like, if we don't give the funding and the resources with this bill passing in Congress, right, which we saw recently, I believe Chuck Schumer released a statement saying that they're going to work on certain portions of the bill so that way we don't get this government shutdown fight over the money that's being spent with DHS. Because, like I said, we have this dichotomy of we have ICE and the operations that have killed two U.S. citizens, but also we have the TSA and we have people that rely on government paychecks. So to your broader question, Paul, I mean, again, I think everyone is on the same page. It's just the execution part of this. We don't want the bad hombres here in the country. Any Democrat that I've had on the show will tell you that. They're not wearing, you know, drugs for hire t-shirts and they're not doing any of these type of things. They want to help President Trump in that regard. It's the way we're going about it. It's what is happening with respect to immigration and customs enforcement. It's the rhetoric, to be honest with you, in the direct aftermath of some of these killings. I think Tom actually kind of set a pretty good tone when he was out there in Minnesota. We have to tone it down. Leadership stems from the top. It has to start with that. I'm glad that President Trump distanced himself from Kristi Noem's comments and some of these other things and the Greg Bovino change. I think those are things that will start to alleviate that. Laura, I want to get to these potential changes in just a moment. But on the potential government shutdown, it seems DHS funding is potentially at risk here. How are you looking at this? Well, ICE and CBP were already funded in the one big, beautiful bill and for four years. So it's curious that these Democrats seek to go after ICE by defunding DHS. And so what that does is then it funds or withholds money for TSA, for FEMA, for Coast Guard, for Secret Service, for cybersecurity. And so it doesn't make any sense politically. Let's keep in mind that ICE is operating all over the country, and we're not getting news from ICE operations all over the country. It is only out of Minnesota. Why? Because that is where the highly funded and organized radical organizations, including from China, are funding and training these radical obstructionists to go after ICE. So these political leaders at all levels need to tell those organizers and funders to stop obstructing ICE. Then this problem goes away. That's an interesting point. We've heard some more reports from China as well. Laura, we could get to them. Laura, I want to ask you to touch on one more thing before I go back to Mike, something Mike brought up about kind of reflecting on everything we've seen. We saw the borders are, Tom, home and acknowledging that no agency is perfect and that the president himself wants things to be handled better. What has the administration learned during this operation? Well, President Trump talked about changing up who is on the ground there, and that is why he asked Tom Homan to go in and meet with the local leaders and change the teams up, which is typical for Trump, for business leaders. It's good management. And so they are changing some of their optics, their tactics. But I would caution that ICE is in Minnesota for good reasons. There is a lot of fraud there that has been discovered, both in terms of welfare fraud, but also immigration fraud, asylum fraud, marriage fraud, you name it. So it warrants a lot of investigations, arrests where appropriate, and removals. So they shouldn't let up. I mean, this is no time to go wobbly. They should keep pressing forward. Which the president, Laura, has said he's eager to do and has kind of reiterated that fact. Mike, I want to play you a clip from what Homan said during a press conference just yesterday to get your thoughts on it. Let's play that clip. If we get these agreements in place, that means less agents on the street, more agents in the jail, means less agents in the street. This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it, draw down the number of people here, because we have the efficiency and safety of the jails. Mike, Laura brought up the protests. Do you think if Homan gets this type of cooperation that he's looking for, it will be enough to bring an end to the protesting? Yeah, well, let me touch on something that Laura said that I think funnels into this answer beautifully, which is the fact that people are allowed to peacefully protest. How we get at root causes of who's behind the funding of that, that's like one part of this. The other part of it is the actual actions of some of these officers. Forget about Rene Good and Alex just for a second. We have seen videos, NTD's own social media handle posted a video of a guy recording an ICE officer and he got pushed into the middle of the street as an oncoming car was coming there. This is from NTD's own social media. This is not me posting it. So I reposted it, but I'm just saying there are other instances where there has been physical aggression from some of these officers. If you want to say chicken and egg, they're getting docs and this and that, that's leading to the aggression. We can have that debate and that argument. But I think what Tom Holman was saying there, it takes two to tangle. I said this about J.D. Vance when he went to Minnesota. If you truly want the cooler heads to prevail, that press conference yesterday, J.D. Vance's press conference last week, should have been with Jacob Frye and Governor Walz standing next to them. All three of them hand in hand. No more buzzwords and phrases like Laura used with radical. Let's stop using those type of words. If we truly, truly, truly, truly want the cooler heads to prevail, stop using the buzzwords and phrases that we all read. I was a Fox News producer. I know all about them. Let's stop using them and let's come together to talk about how we actually catch the criminals and how federal law, to Laura's point, does supersede state and localities. We have to work together, but it takes two to tangle. So if we don't, we're going to keep having these arguments, we're going to keep having these panels, we're going to keep having more incidents of violence if one doesn't realize that they're impacting the other. And that's part of the problem. Again, I appreciate Tom Holman's tone, but again, that press conference should have been done with Jacob Frye standing next to him, Governor Walz standing next to him. And to Laura's previous point about it's only happening in Minneapolis, that is not true. It has happened in Chicago. It has happened in Los Angeles. We've seen videos come out in New York City. Those are all blue cities, all run by blue states. So the argument will go back to what Caroline Leavitt said. While we're getting the cooperation from the red states, we're not getting the cooperation from the blue states. I agree with that. How do we come together? Leadership stems from the top. Strip out the buzzwords and phrases, joint press conferences, truly itemize and outline a plan for how we're going to move forward and let federal law enforcement carry this without killing American citizens who are not part of these operations. Laura, with what Mike has just said, what we heard Tom Holman just saying, are you expecting to see more cooperation? And if we do, how would that change the operation there in Minneapolis? Well, so long as the state and local officials are allowing ICE into their prisons to take detention of those aliens for removal, then that is the cooperation that the administration and Tom Holman is seeking. But if they continue to not notify ICE, to not share information, then they're back to their sanctuary policies. And then if they release those criminal aliens back onto the street and endanger communities once again, then ICE is back in the communities looking for those criminal aliens. So it's incumbent upon the Minnesota and the Minneapolis law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. But I don't think the mayor or the governor there are going to change their stripes. We saw that from the mayor's speech yesterday, continuing to demean, demonize ICE agents and what they are there to do. And again, attempt to nullify federal law. You can't be a sanction from federal law and immigration law. Still a lot to watch here. We appreciate you both, Laura Reese and Mike Leon. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. And now President Trump has launched a government-wide plan to tackle substance abuse and addiction. The president yesterday signed an executive order launching a federal strategy focused on prevention and support. Here's what that effort will involve. Thank you very much. At the Oval Office yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order launching what he called the Great American Recovery Initiative, a federal effort to combat addiction and substance abuse. Now we're taking a bold action to help Americans struggling with all forms of addiction so they can get the help and the support that they need to free themselves from the horrible burden of dependency. Trump said the initiative would coordinate a national response across government, health care, faith communities and the private sector to treat addiction as a chronic medical condition instead of an isolated event. The plan prioritizes early intervention to stop dependency before it begins. This will be followed by continued support for those in long-term recovery. The White House says nearly 50 million Americans struggle with addiction. That's nearly 17 percent of the population. Trump has spoken openly about his brother Freddie's struggle with alcoholism. He said many Americans know the heartache of a loved one's taken by drug or alcohol addiction. The Great American Recovery Initiative will be co-chaired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy called addiction one of the greatest challenges the country faces. Addiction is not a moral failure, it is a disease. It's chronic, it's treatable and for too long our nation has responded with fragmentation, with stigmatization and silence instead of science, compassion and coordination. Alongside him will be Katherine Burgum, the wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. She spoke yesterday of her own experience with alcoholism. She called addiction a lifelong chronic relapsing disease that needs to be treated like a disease. And today I'm standing here in this incredibly beautiful Oval Office and if not for the grace of God I would not be alive today with over 23 years in recovery. Also present at the Oval Office was Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff. He spoke about how Trump encouraged him to speak about his son Andrew who died of an opioid overdose. I lost my son Andrew and the president was an incredible friend when I lost him. I lived in his building at 502 Park Avenue and I remember when him and the first lady came and I talked about this all the time and so he took my hand and he said to me come on up to the stage and tell the world about your boy and of course that was you know something that was really meaningful to me but and I got through it. Trump said official records show around 300,000 Americans die every year from drug and alcohol abuse, saying the real number is probably higher. But he said drug overdose deaths have dropped by 21 percent in the last year. He credited it partly to his administration's crackdown on drug cartels. Trump said since the start of his second term authorities have seized over 47 million fentanyl pills and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. The U.S. Coast Guard says it seized nearly 500,000 pounds of cocaine by the end of 2025. The Department of Homeland Security says that is enough to provide almost 180 million lethal doses. President Trump is suing the IRS and the Treasury Department for at least 10 billion dollars. He's accusing the agencies of an unauthorized leak of his tax returns during his first administration. The suit alleges the government failed to protect private tax information leaked to the press by Charles Littlejohn. He's a IRS contractor. The suit alleges that Littlejohn had staff-like access to confidential tax information. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 for disclosing the records of the president and thousands of other wealthy taxpayers. The new lawsuit says the leak included false reports of fraud in Trump's tax returns and argues this portrayed Trump in a false light. President Trump is filing the suit personally alongside his two eldest sons but not in his official capacity as president. The IRS and Treasury Department have not yet commented. And now we have an update on the trade tensions between the United States and Canada. On Truth Social yesterday, the president said he will decertify all Canadian-made aircraft here in America. The president was responding to Canada's refusal to certify jets from Gulf Stream Aerospace. It's based in Savannah, Georgia. And Trump said if the situation is not immediately corrected, he would impose a 50% tariff on all Canadian airplanes sold here in the U.S. The president singled out Bombardier's Global Express business jet but said all Canadian planes would be impacted. Bombardier said in a statement that it has taken note of the president's post and is in contact with the Canadian government. Again, we'll keep you updated. And now the Trump administration has taken action on several fronts touching on China, Cuba, Venezuela, and NTD's Daniel Monahan as the latest, including the president's warning to the U.K. over its ties with Beijing. President Trump is warning the United Kingdom against expanding business ties with China, calling the move very dangerous. Well, it's very dangerous for them to do that, and it's even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China. Canada is not doing well. They're doing very poorly, and you can't look at China as the answer. Trump made the remarks as U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Beijing. Cuba is also in focus under a new executive order from President Trump. It enables putting tariffs on goods from countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to Cuba. The order says the Cuban regime aligns itself with numerous hostile countries like China, Russia, and Iran, hosting their military and intelligence capabilities. It says Cuba provides safe haven for transnational terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. It also says the regime persecutes and tortures political opponents, denies free speech and press, profits corruptly from the Cuban people's misery, and incites chaos by spreading communist ideology across the region. In Venezuela, Acting President Rodríguez signed into law a major reform of the country's oil legislation yesterday. The step followed a phone call from President Trump concerning the nation's commercial airspace. We are talking about lifting restrictions on Venezuela's commercial airspace so that all airlines that need to come can come and investors that need to come can come. American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela and they'll be safe there. American Airlines confirmed plans to resume service to Venezuela for the first time in more than six years. Late yesterday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded a 2019 order blocking U.S. flights to the country after President Trump directed him to do so. In his directive, Duffy said the continued suspension of air service is no longer required by the public interest. Daniel Monahan, NTD News. We go now to the Department of Justice where they're holding a press conference on election-related investigations in Fulton County, Georgia. We'll bring you the highlights in that as it is just finished. Stay with us. Now, a partial government shutdown is likely to kick in by midnight tonight. The expected second shutdown comes after Senators failed to pass a package of funding bills. That's even after President Trump worked out a last-minute deal with Democrats to address their concerns over ICE. NTD's Melina Wisecup reports. On Capitol Hill, an overnight vote to avert a partial government shutdown failed to gain steam. It appears that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham emerged as the main obstacle. He protested the vote to try to force the Senate to approve a provision to allow Senators to sue the DOJ if their phone records were illegally obtained. It's an issue Graham has been pushing to address for months. If they can do this to the United States Senate, what could they do to you? Maybe somebody in the Department of Justice doesn't like your post, doesn't like your political activity, and they want to shut you down. They want to find out who you've been talking to. This is scary stuff. The issue was addressed in the last government funding bill, but House lawmakers repealed it this time. This week's fast-tracked process to avert a shutdown means any one Senator can stall passage. Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Republicans for the holdup, though Senate Leader John Thune said there were snags on both sides of the aisle. The overnight delay comes after the White House worked to make a last-minute deal with Democrats to address ICE policies and practices. Well, I've had a very good relationship over the last couple of days with Senator Schumer. We've gotten along very well. We're working on trying to get it to stay open, and we'll see what happens. It's in the process. President Trump on Thursday announced a deal with Democrats to temporarily extend DHS funding for two weeks. The goal? To allow more room for negotiations on how to change ICE policy. But bottom line, there should be no more funding for DHS without fundamental far-reaching reforms that involve firing the top management, imposing liability on agents that break the law, as well as body cameras, judicial warrants, self-identification, and end to the sweeps. We're being asked to jettison funding for a department that includes, among other things, the enforcement of our immigration laws and the enforcement of our borders, something that's been severely compromised in the last few years, and that President Trump is working hard to overcome. Senators will return today to try to work out the impasse. Even if the bill does pass the Senate today, a short shutdown is still likely. The new package also needs to be approved by the House. I've got to make some tough decisions later this evening on how soon we can get House members back if indeed they send us the package. I wish that they had voted upon or would vote upon the 12 bills that we passed through our regular order process in a bipartisan fashion. It was quite an achievement. As of now, House members aren't scheduled to return until Monday. A short-term partial shutdown is highly likely. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Weiskup, NTD News. And the Justice Department has charged a man accused of spraying a substance on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. It happened earlier this week during a town hall in Minneapolis. According to a criminal complaint, a 55-year-old man was charged with forcibly assaulting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with the representative while she was performing her official duties. Omar was not harmed, and a hazmat specialist later confirmed the liquid inside the syringe was apple cider vinegar mixed with water. After the incident, Omar continued with her town hall, with several commentators and social media criticizing her for not immediately removing her clothing and seeking medical attention. One of them alleged this was because the attack was staged. She responded on X yesterday saying, I didn't do any of those things because I fear losing my dignity more than I fear losing my life. Now, still to come, the Kremlin says Putin has agreed to President Trump's request to refrain from striking Kiev until February 1st. Ukraine's reaction. And Israel says it will reopen the Gaza-Egypt pedestrian crossing this weekend, marking a key step in President Trump's ceasefire plan. We have that and more after the break. I'm Paul Graney. This is World Watch. We start with the Russia-Ukraine war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirming today that President Putin has accepted a request from President Trump to refrain from striking Kiev until February 1st. The spokesman said Trump made a personal request to Putin to create favorable conditions for negotiations. Trump said yesterday Putin agreed to the request, but Peskov didn't answer further questions about whether the agreement referred to strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure or attacks altogether. The move comes as regions of Ukraine experience frigid temperatures. President Zelensky today saying Ukraine is ready to reciprocate if Russia halts its attacks on the country's energy infrastructure. Moving on, the Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces have announced a ceasefire agreement. The move sets out a phased integration of Kurdish fighters into the Syrian state. It averts what many feared could become a major military confrontation. The deal comes after government forces under President Ahmed al-Sharaa captured large areas of northern and eastern Syria this month. And under the agreement, frontline forces will pull back, government security units will deploy to key cities, and several Kurdish brigades will be now folded into a new Syrian military division. Kurdish-run governing bodies will also be merged into state institutions. U.S. envoy Tom Barrack praised the deal as a historic milestone toward national reconciliation, calling the steps taken by both sides courageous. Analysts say the agreement could spare northeast Syria a bloody showdown, though significant challenges remain in implementing the In Gaza, both Israel and Egypt will vet individuals for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. Palestinians leaving and returning will also be screened by Israel in the adjacent corridor, which remains under Israeli military control. The crossing has been under a near-complete closure since Israel seized it in May 2024, with Israel saying the move was intended to halt cross-border arms smuggling by Hamas. It was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a short-lived ceasefire back in early 2025. A Chinese hair salon owner accused of financing Hamas terrorists. Spanish police have detained a 38-year-old Chinese national. The suspect is accused of financing Hamas with more than 700,000 dollars through cryptocurrency transfers. During search, his officers seized cryptoassets, cashed some 9,000 cigars, jewelry and more. They also froze several bank accounts, with the total value of seized and blocked assets exceeding 400,000 dollars. It's not yet clear if the suspect knowingly interacted with Hamas or if he was just an intermediary. We'll keep you updated. The president is saying he wants to talk to Iran's leadership as tensions rise following the regime's actions against protesters. Have you had any conversations with Iran in the last few days and are you planning on any? I have had and I am planning on it, yes. We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now and it would be great if we didn't have to use them. Can you say what the message was that you shared with Iranians? Well, I told them two things. Number one, no nuclear and number two, stop killing protesters. Staying on Iran, the State Department announcing yesterday that Secretary Rubio revoked the U.S. residence privileges for senior Iranian officials and their families. It comes after the Iranian regime's deadly response to protesters, as Iran International now reports that more than 36,000 people have been killed. And moving on, where China was dealt a blow yesterday in Panama, the country's Supreme Court ruling that a Hong Kong company's contract to operate ports at both ends of the Panama Canal is unconstitutional. The Trump administration has made blocking China's influence over the Panama Canal one of its key priorities. In fact, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made his first overseas stop in Panama. Now, the Hong Kong government says in a statement that it strongly disapproves of the ruling. Panama withdrew from China's Belt and Road Initiative last year and earlier this month announced a new joint defense drills with the United States. Fake bomb threats, death threats, and now an email warning that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would be shot. That's if Shen Yun Performing Arts performs in Britain. Authorities say the messages are part of the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing campaign to intimidate and silence the U.S.-based performing arts company. NTD Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has more. Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based classical Chinese dance company, is facing a renewed wave of fake bomb and death threats, widely seen as intimidation tactics linked to Beijing's efforts to suppress the group. Importantly, no actual attacks have ever occurred, and no Shen Yun performance has ever been canceled because of these threats. The messages often sent to venues scheduled to host Shen Yun performances around the world follow a similar pattern. Authorities have consistently confirmed the threats are hoaxes, designed to frighten organizers and audiences rather than carry out real violence. There have been zero incidents of harm, and every performance has gone as planned. Just last week, Shen Yun received an email written in Chinese stating, if you insist on having Shen Yun perform, you will experience a surprise terrorist attack. I'm not joking. Another message sent last month escalated the rhetoric, threatening that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would be shot if Shen Yun performances were not canceled. While extreme, these messages fit squarely into what experts describe as Beijing's broader campaign to sabotage and silence Shen Yun. What's really at play goes way beyond the Falun Gong diaspora, the community. It goes way beyond this one company, Shen Yun. This is a national security issue of, I would say, the gravest kind. Founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, Shen Yun seeks to revive China's 5,000 years of traditional culture rooted in Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian values. That mission directly challenges the Chinese Communist Party's ideology, which has long sought to replace traditional belief systems with party loyalty. Since Shen Yun's founding, the CCP has used a wide range of tactics to interfere with the company's work. Chinese embassies and consulates have pressured officials and presenters abroad to block performances. Performers' family members in China have been harassed, detained, or imprisoned. In the United States, Shen Yun tour buses have been deliberately sabotaged, tires slashed, in ways designed not to deflate immediately, but to fail dangerously at high speeds. And this is an example from last year, but this actually started in 2010. If you look at this cut, it doesn't look like much. It's a circular cut. But if you actually open it up, you see it's several inches deep, and it's cut in such a way that the tire would not deflate immediately, but would explode at high speeds on the highway. In November 2024, a Chinese national living in California was sentenced for attempting to bribe an IRS agent to revoke Shen Yun's tax-exempt status, another effort tied to Beijing's campaign. Leaked documents from China's Ministry of State Security also reveals a coordinated disinformation effort aimed at weaponizing social media and U.S. media outlets to discredit Shen Yun. We have multiple sources, including a well-known professor in Australia, several sources within the Ministry of Public Security, that say this came from Xi Jinping himself, who acknowledged that all the efforts they've been undertaking over the last 25 years to silence Falun Gong and Shen Yun have failed, and they needed to get very serious about eliminating Falun Gong globally. Their words, not mine. Despite years of intimidation and harassment, Shen Yun continues to expand, operating eight touring companies worldwide and performing to sold-out audiences as it brings traditional Chinese culture to the global stage. Reporting by Jack Bradley, NTD News. Now, bear with us. We're going to cover more news right after this short break.