The Latest: Iran pushes back against Trump ahead of Geneva talks over Tehran’s nuclear program

Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure tactics ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran’s nuclear program, alternating between calling his remarks “big lies” to saying negotiations may yield an agreement through “honorable diplomacy.”

The remarks by two Iranian officials ahead of Thursday’s talks come as America has assembled its biggest deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades, part of Trump’s efforts to get a deal while Iran struggles at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests last month.

If the negotiations fail, Trump repeatedly has threatened to attack Iran — something Mideast nations fear could spiral into a new regional war.

Here’s the latest:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters late Wednesday that he was made aware of the incident with Cuban soldiers and that the U.S. is now gathering its own information to determine if the victims were American citizens or permanent residents.

“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us now,” Rubio said at the airport in Basseterre, St. Kitts.

Trump’s top diplomat refused to speculate on what happened, saying that its could be a “wide range of things,” and that the U.S. will not solely rely on what the Cuban authorities have provided thus far.

“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day,” he said.

The utility DC Water is on track to fully repair a collapsed sewer line in Maryland by mid-March, spokesperson Sherri Lewis said during a call with reporters. She says crews are making “huge strides.”

A portion of the Potomac Interceptor line ruptured in January, sending roughly 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River just north of Washington, D.C. Lewis said there have been no overflows into the river since Feb. 8. Crews are now excavating a rock and debris dam that formed in the damaged area before spraying a concrete-like geopolymer application that Lewis said was essential to repairing the line.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized local Democratic leaders over the spill, blaming “gross mismanagement.”

DC Water operates the sewage system and is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Last week, Trump approved the District of Columbia’s request for an emergency declaration, which authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate potential assistance by federal agencies.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin visited the site Wednesday, Lewis said, a day after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The spill occurred on land operated by the National Park Service.

Florida’s attorney general said Wednesday he has ordered state prosecutors to work with federal law enforcement to investigate Cuba’s deadly attack on a Florida-registered speed boat in Cuban waters.

“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on the social media platform X.

U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Miami Republican and the only current Cuban-born member of Congress, decried the killings and accused the Cuban government of murder.

“The regime in Cuba must be relegated to the dustbin of history for its countless crimes against humanity,” he said in a statement.

Vance said late Wednesday afternoon that he had been briefed on the incident by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He added that the White House was monitoring the situation, but declined to provide further details.

“Hopefully, it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” Vance said.

Cuba’s government said earlier Wednesday that its soldiers killed four people aboard a speed boat registered in Florida that opened fire on officers in Cuban waters.

Cuba’s Interior Ministry issued a statement that provided few details about the shooting, but noted that the boat was roughly 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off Cuba’s north coast.

It was unclear if any U.S. citizens were aboard.

Vance made his announcement about halting Medicaid funding in Minnesota alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Vance said the administration was taking the action “in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.”

Wednesday’s move is part of a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio brushed aside concerns about the legality of Nicolás Maduro’s capture last month that have been raised among Venezuela’s island-state neighbors.

“Irrespective of how some of you may have individually felt about our operations and our policy toward Venezuela, I will tell you this, and I will tell you this without any apology or without any apprehension: Venezuela is better off today than it was eight weeks ago,” Rubio said, according to a transcript of his remarks later distributed by the State Department.

He spoke to leaders from the 15-member Caribbean Community bloc in the country of St. Kitts and Nevis in a closed-door meeting Wednesday.

Rubio said interim authorities in the South American country have made “substantial” progress in improving conditions by doing “things that eight or nine weeks ago would have been unimaginable.”

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds.

Medicaid is the U.S. health care safety net for low-income Americans. As of late 2025, nearly 70 million people were enrolled nationwide.

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Asked whether it was wrong for Democrats not to stand when Trump asked during his State of the Union for members to stand if they believed the government’s first duty should be protecting U.S. citizens, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus doubled down on the decision not to.

“To sort of play that out so that it could be theater for America was disingenuous, at the very least,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the caucus. “Our country doesn’t need more division than it has.”

Oregon Rep. Andrea Salinas said she was “pissed” when Trump made the comment, saying Democrats have been trying to protect American citizens.

“Yes, we should be protecting American citizens, but instead, they’re killing them on the streets of Minneapolis,” she added.

Omar said Aliya Rahman of Minneapolis briefly stood in silence during Trump’s speech, along with other guests but was forcibly removed, despite warning officers about injured shoulders. Rahman was taken to the hospital for treatment and later charged with unlawful conduct, disruption of Congress

“The heavy-handed response to a peaceful guest sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy,” Omar said in a statement.

In a guest announcement, Omar described Rahman as a Bangladeshi-American software engineer and a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury, who was driving to a doctor’s appointment on Jan. 13 when she was forcibly removed from her vehicle by Homeland Security agents. Omar’s office said Rahman experienced severe medical neglect and violence at the hands of ICE agents, requiring hospitalization.

Capitol Polices said State of the Union tickets explain that demonstrating is prohibited.

“The guest was told to sit down, but refused to obey our lawful orders,” police said.

Democrats are very confident about their chances of flipping the House in November. And now that the State of the Union has passed, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that “it’s going to be a sprint to November 3rd.”

“House Democrats are on the verge of a takeover,” Jeffries said.

Democrats have relished their role as the opposition party. Rep. Ted Lieu said at the Wednesday press conference that Democrats are “the most effective minority party in U.S. history.”

But questions linger about what vision the party will actually provide if they win back either chamber in November. Leaders say it will become more clear in the coming days, as House Democrats huddle in Virginia to meet with labor leaders, policy experts and other elected officials to outline their agenda going forward.

House Democratic leadership kicked off a policy conference in Virginia by criticizing Trump’s State of the Union the night prior, saying it was filled with lies and a lack of vision.

“That was a disgraceful performance. Donald Trump hit a new low,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He added that “there was no substance in that speech, but a lot of snake oil.”

Jeffries and other Democratic leaders also insisted there was no tension within the party over the variety of responses to the speech, which included outbursts in the chamber and many members skipping it outright. Rep. Katherine Clark, the second ranking Democrat in the House, did not attend the speech.

“I decided not to go to the State of the Union because I wanted to hear the actual state of the union from my constituents,” said Clark. “Believe me when I say there is no space between us.”

The call between the leaders, which comes a day after the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was confirmed by a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Zelenskyy confirmed earlier that a Ukrainian delegation will meet with Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Russian officials on Thursday in Geneva for another round of talks aimed at ending the conflict.

Trump delivered a record setting 108-minute State of the Union speech on Tuesday, but did not spend much time discussing the brutal war that during his 2024 campaign he vowed to end on his first day back in the White House. He noted in the address that the “killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine” was leaving thousands dead each month.

— Aamer Madhani

The White House will host major tech companies involved in building out data centers for artificial intelligence on March 4 for them to sign a pledge to protect consumers from higher electricity prices.

That’s according to a White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the forthcoming event.

Trump discussed at the State of the Union what he called the “Rate Payer Protection Pledge” for tech companies to build, bring or buy their own power for AI data centers, so that families did not shoulder the cost in their electricity bills.

The companies planning to sign the pledge include Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI.

— Joshua Boak

Bureau of Land Management nominee Steve Pearce faced pointed questions during a Wednesday confirmation hearing over prior statements suggesting the government controls too much land.

The former lawmaker from New Mexico acknowledged being frustrated while in Congress about federal management of lands that make up a majority of some western states. But the Republican added that he “absolutely believes” in the importance of public lands.

“I do not believe that we’re going to go out and wholesale land from the federal government,” Pearce told members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The land bureau manages a quarter-billion acres — about 10% of land in the U.S.

During Trump’s first term, Pearce urged the Interior Department to reduce the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. He said he does not anticipate revisiting the issue.

The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed another tranche of sanctions on people and companies accused of enabling Iran’s ballistic missile program, drone production and illicit oil sales as the U.S. presses Tehran to make a deal ahead of nuclear talks this week.

The sanctions against 30 people, companies and ships come as Trump has massed the largest U.S. buildup of warships and aircraft in the region in decades and has threatened to use military action in a bid to get Iran to constrain its nuclear program.

The latest round of talks between U.S. officials, including Witkoff, and Iranian negotiators via mediator Oman are scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.

The new sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control include a list of ships accused of being part of Iran’s “shadow fleet,” which refers to rusting oil tankers that smuggle oil for countries facing stiff sanctions.

The Department of Homeland Security would be barred from using a full-body restraint device called the WRAP under a new bill introduced in the House on Wednesday.

The “Full-Body Restraint Prohibition Act,” sponsored by U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., would prohibit future purchases of the device and create oversight and reporting requirements.

In announcing the legislation, Ramirez cited an Associated Press investigation that revealed several examples of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of DHS, using the device on people — sometimes for hours — on deportation flights dating to 2020.

The WRAP “fuels destruction in our communities and human suffering. This legislation is an additional step to end the pain and violence caused by DHS,” Ramirez said in a statement.

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Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer allied with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says she wants to address the root causes of chronic disease if chosen as the nation’s doctor.

Means, in a confirmation hearing with the Senate health committee on Wednesday, said her goal is to “get more whole, healthy foods on American plates.” She said the nation’s current system of “whack-a-mole medicine” that focuses on treating symptoms isn’t working.

Means’ vision dovetails with Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement. But senators grilled her on some of its more controversial positions, including on vaccines.

Means wouldn’t commit to advising Americans to receive flu and measles vaccines if confirmed.

“I believe they’re an important part of public health,” she said of vaccines. “I also do not want to not encourage patients to have a conversation with their doctor.”

The U.S. Treasury Department said its licensing arm would implement a “favorable licensing policy” toward authorization requests for the resale of Venezuelan origin oil in Cuba.

A favorable licensing policy creates a presumption of approval for specific license applications in otherwise restricted or sanctioned areas.

According to a post on the Treasury Department’s website Wednesday, the policy is “directed towards transactions that support the Cuban people, including the Cuban private sector (e.g., exports for commercial and humanitarian use in Cuba).”

Any people or companies associated with the Cuban military, intelligence services or other government institutions would not be covered by the favorable licensing policy.

“I’m sure that Vladimir Putin has his military objectives and obviously he hasn’t stopped the killing, even though the president wants that very much to happen, but the best way to solve this is to continue to engage in diplomacy,” the vice president said on Fox News Channel on Wednesday morning.

Vance noted that this is the directive Trump has given his administration, but that “we’re under no illusions that these guys are going to meet in the middle of a field, give each other a hug and sing Kumbaya.”

The vice president said in an interview with Fox News Channel that the goal from the U.S. perspective has been “crystal clear” and it’s that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.

He said Trump prefers settling the matter using diplomacy but will unleash the U.S. military against Iran, if necessary, and that “most Americans understand that you can’t let the craziest and the worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons.”

Another round of talks between the U.S. and Iran are set for Thursday in Geneva.

“We’re sitting down having another round of diplomatic talks with the Iranians trying to reach a reasonable settlement, but a reasonable settlement toward what end: Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple,” Vance said. “I think the supreme leader and everybody in their system should understand it. We’ve been crystal clear and we’re hopeful that we’re able to come to a good resolution without the military, but if we have to use the military, the president, of course, has that right as well.”

Top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees want Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to provide more details about a top-secret complaint alleging she withheld classified material for political reasons.

In a letter sent to Gabbard on Wednesday, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut also direct Gabbard to allow the intelligence officer who filed the complaint to meet with lawmakers.

Gabbard has said she did nothing wrong and said she did all she could to ensure the complaint reached Congress. Two inspectors general for the intelligence community reviewed the claim that Gabbard restricted access to top secret material and found it to be noncredible.

Democrats have questioned why it took eight months for the complaint to reach Congress and say heavy redactions make it hard to understand the details of the complaint.

Gabbard’s office did not immediately respond to the lawmakers’ letter.

President Trump called Sheinbaum after Mexico’s military killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to ask how things were in Mexico.

Sheinbaum described Monday’s brief call with Trump during her daily news briefing Wednesday. “I told him what the operation was like, that we had had intelligence help from the United States government, that the coordination was very good.”

Sara Carter, director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, and U.S. Ambassador Ron Johnson met with Sheinbaum’s security team Tuesday to congratulate them on the operation.

More than 70 people died in the operation and the violence that erupted after.