Syria clashes – what happened?
The government of Syria says it has ended an operation in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartous after four days of fighting between security forces and pro-Assad armed fighters. The unrest came only three months after the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in an offensive by opposition fighters. Reports from the Latakia region told of killings, kidnappings, theft, harassment and even public murders. So, what happened and who did this? Here’s what we know about the violence: What’s happening in Syria? On March 6, government forces began deploying to the coastal cities of Syria, including Latakia, Banias, Tartous and Jableh to fight what they dubbed “regime remnants”. The “remnants” are pro-Assad regime fighters who have announced their opposition to the new government. The Alawite religious sect, from which Bashar al-Assad hails, is concentrated in these cities. How did it start? On March 6, pro-Assad gunmen ambushed military personnel in and around Latakia in the northwest, killing at least 16 members of the security forces and the Ministry of Defence. Advertisement According to state media, the March 6 ambushes were not the first, with several past attacks on government forces since al-Assad fell. How many people have been killed or injured? Numbers are still emerging, but here’s what we know. According to a March 9 report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 1,311 people have been killed as of Saturday evening – some 830 were civilians, 230 security personnel from various branches, and about 250 armed fighters. Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify SOHR’s numbers. (Al Jazeera) Why this area in particular? The Latakia-Tartous axis lies along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, with Banias and Jableh lying between them. These two Alawi-majority governorates have long been considered al-Assad strongholds, with the family’s hometown, al-Qerdaha, lying east of Latakia. When al-Assad fell, observers feared there would be revenge attacks against the Alawite community. This may be why “regime remnants” chose to attack there – possibly hoping to inflame sectarian tensions. Banias also hosts Syria’s largest oil refinery. Armed fighters tried to attack the refinery, security forces said, but were repelled. Who’s fighting? State security troops confronted armed groups led by former officers in al-Assad’s army. There are also unidentified groups who went to the coast to “avenge” the ambushed security forces, an unidentified security official told Syria’s state news agency. The presence of these individuals, the official said, had “led to some individual violations and we are working on stop them”. Advertisement Alawite community members said armed groups have been harassing and kidnapping Alawite civilians. The Syrian government estimates there are 5,000 armed individuals in the coastal area. Who are these ‘regime remnants’? Videos on social media since February show former al-Assad army officer Muqdad Fteiha declaring the formation of a group to counter “HTS violations” in the coastal region. Fleiha, who was in al-Assad’s Republican Guard, claims in his message that the Alawite community is mistreated. Other statements on social media, attributed to former al-Assad army Brigadier General Ghiath Suleiman Dalla, declared the formation of a “Military Council for the Liberation of Syria” to “expel all occupying terrorist forces” and “dismantle the repressive sectarian security apparatus”. What did Syria’s government say? The escalating violence presented a huge challenge for Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. On Sunday, al-Sharaa announced two new committees to deal with the crisis. One is an independent committee of judges and lawyers to investigate the March 6 attacks and the violence that ensued and hold those responsible accountable, in pursuit of “higher national interest and civil peace”. The second is a “Supreme Committee for Civil Peace”, tasked with engaging with the residents of the affected areas and safeguarding their security. Earlier on Sunday, he spoke at a Damascus mosque, acknowledging the severity of the crisis and calling for national unity. Advertisement On Friday, March 7, he reaffirmed in a televised address his commitment to stability, and promised to pursue regime loyalists responsible for crimes and to consolidate state control over weapons. How are civilians doing in these areas? People are scared, panic has taken over the coastal regions. “I don’t ever go outside and I don’t even open the windows… There is no security here. There is no security for Alawis,” a resident of Latakia who chose to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera. Those who remain speak of living in terror, fearing that armed fighters will attack them in their homes. This piece was published in collaboration with Egab. Adblock test (Why?)
Air India reveals what caused its flight to return to US: ‘Polythene bags, clothes were stuck in…’
AI126 from Chicago to Delhi returned to the US city and on that day, the airline said the air return was due to a technical issue.
Pentagon losing cutting edge on weapons innovation, needs ‘massive kick in the pants,’ say defense leaders
America’s defenses will not be able to keep up with its peer adversaries if the Pentagon continues to take years to innovate its weapons systems, experts agreed at a security summit last week. The Pentagon’s modernization was given a “D” by the National Security Innovation Base Summit this week, a near-failing letter grade that national security leaders in Congress agreed was a fair assessment. “Progress lives in the private sector, and we’re not seeing enough progress in the public sector,” said Govini CEO Tara Dougherty. “The department needs a massive kick in the pants in this area, and should be held accountable for catching up in progress to match what is happening among the investor community and among the technology sector.” “I think the score is a deserved score, unfortunately,” House Armed Services Committee Vice Chair Rob Wittman said. US CONTINUES TO SHARE DATA TO PROTECT UKRAINIANS AGAINST RUSSIAN STRIKES, DESPITE INTEL PAUSE: SOURCES “The Pentagon is the Ford Motor Company of the 1950s. I mean, they the way they operate, slow, stoic,” Wittman explained. “‘Let’s spend years to write a requirement, then let’s spend years to go to a program or record, let’s spend years to acquire.’ By the time we acquire something, guess what? The threat’s way ahead of us.” “We want them to reflect the Apple 2025 model.” Nowhere is this clearer to defense leaders than in the nation’s shipbuilding capabilities. The Navy currently has 295 deployable ships, though its shipbuilding plan calls for that number to be increased to 390 by 2054. The Maritime Security Program, which maintains privately owned, military-useful ships to deploy in wartime, is down to 60 in its fleet. “It’s precipitously low. We could not get to where we need to be in the Pacific right now if we needed to,” Wittman told Fox News Digital. The issue seemingly keeps President Donald Trump awake at night. John Phelan, Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, quipped during his confirmation hearing that the president texts him late at night, “sometimes after 1 a.m.” about “rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me, what am I doing about it?” Phelan added that he has told the president, “I’m not confirmed yet and have not been able to do anything about it, but I will be very focused on it.” ‘STAR TREK SHIELD’ TECHNOLOGY GETS $250M BOOST TO KNOCK DRONE SWARMS FROM THE SKY WITH HIGH-POWERED MICROWAVE “We used to make so many ships,” Trump lamented during a speech to a joint Congress on Tuesday. “We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.” He announced he had establish a White House Office of Shipbuilding. With the Pentagon, “it’s process, process, process, not outcomes,” said Wittman, who announced he would be co-chairing a defense modernization caucus in Congress. “We’re operating off of an innovation cycle right now that, you know, used to be a decade, and it used to be five years. Then it used to be three years, and now it’s a year or less innovation cycle,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “In Ukraine, they’re actually operating off of week-long innovation cycles.” Crow said it is up to Congress to give the Pentagon the “kick in the pants” it needs to move faster. “There are simply no demand signals being sent. So that requires a very real conversation about political will, which is actually bipartisan right now on this issue.” The Pentagon began work on the F-35 fighter jet 25 years ago, and it is “just now getting into full scale production,” noted Wittman. “The capability of that aircraft, the modernization that it needs to keep up with the Chinese threat, it’s just not where it has to be.” Even the newest F-35s need to be taken back to the assembly line to be fitted with 360-degree motion sensors known as the digital aperture system and the other latest technology in radars, Wittman said. “We’re still not going to deliver the current jets coming off the line with technical refresh three hardware and have that software enabled until probably early next year.” Under a new DOGE memo, the Pentagon has kicked off a review of its contracting procedures. “Each Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, shall conduct a comprehensive review of each agency’s contracting policies, procedures, and personnel,” a memo circulated this week read. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital she worries most about the military being prepared to defend against a cyberattack. “China specifically is better at cybersecurity than we are,” she said. “It only takes one or two incursions that we don’t see coming or that we aren’t responsive to, to make an enormous difference here.” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., suggested that the U.S. may need to start thinking about offensive cyber missions. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “When it comes to cyber, we’ve got to change the rules of engagement,” he said. “China is eating our boxed lunch in the energy area, in our cellular phone infrastructure, they’re trying to get into Wall Street, they’re trying to get into agriculture.” “We’re really good on cyberintelligence but we have [rules of engagement] that do not let us do nearly what China or Russia does,” he continued. “I don’t think it’s like taking punches to the face, saying ‘can I have another.’” “We’ve got to be able to allow cyber command to fight fire with fire. I wouldn’t even advertise it that much. Just carry a big stick and, get them back.”
Newsom’s ties to CCP under microscope in new book exposing alleged corruption: ‘Fleeced American citizens’
FIRST ON FOX: A new book sounding the alarm about corruption in California spends a chapter focusing on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s history with a nonprofit organization that the authors say served as a major “gateway” for corrupt CCP-aligned corporations to flood into the state. In their book, “Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All,” authors Jedd McFatter and Susan Crabtree write extensively about Newsom’s relationship with the Chinese community in the Bay Area and his ties to CCP businesses. The book explains that Newsom came into office as San Francisco’s mayor in 2004 after receiving strong support from Chinese voters, enough so that he celebrated his victory in Chinatown and the authors write that from an early point in his tenure he was ready to “go full steam ahead with Chinatown’s interests.” One of those interests, according to Chapter 3 of the book, was a nonprofit organization initiative started by Newsom called ChinaSF that the book argues served as a gateway for CCP officials and Chinese criminals to exploit California. CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE PLAGUED BY CORRUPTION AND POLITICAL BACKLASH: REPORT The book describes a Newsom trip to China, where he was hosted in a Shanghai “clubhouse” by Vincent Lo, a Chinese businessman with deep ties to the CCP. “It was during this meeting that Newsom and Lo hatched a long-term plan to turn San Francisco into the premiere gateway through which Chinese companies could invest and expand their businesses in the United States,” the book says. “Upon his return from China, starry-eyed Gavin told his staff that he was going to set aside a couple of million dollars to set up a public-private partnership called ChinaSF that would open the floodgates to Chinese money and business like never before. It turns out the young mayor wasn’t just blowing smoke: three years later, Newsom and Lo joined forces in Shanghai to co‑launch ChinaSF.” The book says that ChinaSF impacted the Bay Area arguably “more than any other” program that Newsom created as mayor and that the initiative hauled in almost $5.5 billion of economic impact to San Francisco from 2008 to 2018 while recruiting 108 Chinese companies into the city. The book alleges that during this time period, ChinaSF “helped several corrupt Chinese corporations come to America.” One of the several companies discussed in the book was Suntech, a Chinese solar company developed by the CCP that was personally recruited by Newsom into the United States, and he publicly praised the company’s CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi, multiple times, and made him an advisory board member for ChinaSF. In addition to green energy companies who streamed through ChinaSF, real estate companies were also involved, and the book alleges that Newsom received over $23,000 in anonymous contributions from Chinese real estate company Z&L, whose billionaire owner was criminally sentenced for bribing a San Francisco government official. Chapter 3, titled “Feeding the Dragon,” goes into detail about a variety of potential red flags on Newsom’s ties with China, including ChinaSF being used as a “tool to build San Francisco into a global hub for biotechnology and pharmaceutical science.” “Dozens of Chinese biotech companies were drawn to the Bay Area with huge tax breaks and other incentives, but it appears that there was very little vetting,” the book states. “One of ChinaSF’s most concerning recruits is the biotech company JOINN Laboratories, which has close ties to China’s military.” NEW REPORT WARNS OF GROWING NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT TO U.S. AS CHINA BUILDS AI: ‘SIGNIFICANT AND CONCERNING’ Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment and received a response pointing to an article about conspiracy theories with the headline, “Conspiracy theorists really do see the world differently, new study shows.” The book goes on to discuss ChinaSF’s involvement with biotechnology and pharmaceutical science companies that were “drawn to the Bay Area” with tax breaks and “little vetting” along with a liquor company called Kweichow Moutai, which has a history of “several major corruption scandals involving bribery by CCP officials.” The book also alleges that as California’s lieutenant governor, Newsom trademarked wines he owns in China and poured them for CCP elites at a lavish Shanghai tasting. The authors also drew attention to the controversial connection between ChinaSF and Huawei, a company that has been involved in a myriad of questionable practices that have drawn scrutiny from U.S. presidential administrations, resulting in restrictions. “However, no one seemed to notice when an infamous Chinese company became their top financial sponsor in 2016,” the book says. “This might be because the U.S. government has long identified that company, Huawei Technologies, as one of China’s most dangerous tech companies. According to an internal report, ChinaSF hosted two events in 2016, headlined by Huawei, which led to Huawei establishing a new research and development office in San Francisco. The amount of money Huawei funneled to ChinaSF is unknown, but it’s worth noting that in 2016, Huawei generated more than $75 billion in revenue, so they had plenty of cash to flash around.” ChinaSF once described itself as a nonprofit, including on its now defunct website, the book explains, but between 2009 and 2014 it was a limited liability corporation whose only member was the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. “In other words, for a period of time, ChinaSF was a private entity embedded in a local chamber of commerce,” the book says. SCHUMER SPOTTED POSING FOR PHOTO WITH CCP OFFICIAL AS WARNINGS SWIRL ABOUT CHINA INFLUENCE The chapter closes with a summary of why ChinaSF’s influence in the state deserves more scrutiny. “Close analysis of available data reveals that most descriptions of ChinaSF by government and media have been vacuous and misleading,”: the book says. “Essentially, ChinaSF is the branded name of a complex bureaucratic mirage used as cover to legitimize the massive transfer of Bay Area technology, property, and wealth to China while streamlining the establishment of Chinese business in the United States. It’s the secret elixir Newsom concocted to help
DOGE lawmakers look to defund Biden’s anemic-paced $3B EV postal truck ‘boondoggle’
EXCLUSIVE: Two top DOGE lawmakers are introducing a bill to claw back $3 billion authorized under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was designated to create an electric vehicle (EV) fleet for the United States Postal Service (USPS). A South Carolina defense contractor responsible for the 60,000-vehicle order was already “far behind schedule” as of November. A Washington Post exposé revealed that by then, fewer than 100 of these vehicles had been delivered to USPS. Citing that, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, DOGE Caucus chair, and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, will be forwarding the “Return to Sender Act,” seeking to recoup what is about 30% of the overall appropriation in Biden’s law that was intended to be geared toward reducing inflation. The Postal Service was to receive an initial order of 50,000 EV delivery trucks from defense contractor Oshkosh within the next three years, but only 93 had been produced by November, according to the Post. DOGE SENATOR SEEKS TO ENSURE FEDS CAN CONTINUE PURSUING COVID FRAUDSTERS One person involved in the production told the outlet that the “bottom line [is] we don’t know how to build a damn truck.” That, along with a Post revelation that the government’s deliveryman agreed to pay more for the trucks after the contractor increased its prices, appeared to lead Ernst and Cloud to announce their bill. The agreement forged between the Postal Service and the manufacturer ultimately finalized a $77,692 cost per EV truck for about 28,000 vehicles. While the company did not comment at the time of the exposé, its CEO told investors in October that Oshkosh “is really happy where we are” on the project. “Biden’s EV postal fleet is lost in the mail,” said Ernst, chief sponsor of the legislation. DOGE SENATOR PUSHES TO END ‘SLUSH FUND’ FOR FAILED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES “The order needs to be canceled with the unspent money returned to sender, the taxpayers. I am defunding this billion-dollar boondoggle to stamp out waste in Washington. Tax dollars should always be treated with first-class priority.” Cloud told Fox News Digital the Inflation Reduction Act continues to be proven to be a misnomer, and that in this respect it “funneled billions into a failed USPS EV project that has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.” “Three years later, taxpayers are still waiting while the Postal Service refuses to provide basic transparency on where the money went. The Return to Sender Act takes back the $3 billion in taxpayer money that has been wasted in this project,” Cloud said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In February, Ernst also cited the USPS EV project in her Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act that targets disclosures of government projects costing 10 figures or more over-budget, and/or five years behind schedule. The text of the bill, which is less than one-page long, specifically directs “unobligated balances of amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by sections 70002 and 70003 of Public Law 117–169 (commonly referred to as the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’), as of the date of enactment of this Act are rescinded and those sections are hereby repealed.”
DNA Verified: Is Vietjet offering flight tickets from India to Vietnam at just Rs 11? Know the truth here
The airline did launch a special promotional offer where base fares were as low as Rs 11, but excluding taxes. Know full details below:
‘Leave now’: Trump admin repurposes controversial CBP One app to encourage self-deportations
EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is rolling out a new app to replace the controversial CBP One app with the new replacement designed to facilitate the self-deportation of illegal immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security is announcing the CBP Home app — which will launch with a self-deportation reporting feature for those in the country illegally. It replaces the CBP One app, which was expanded by the Biden administration to allow migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry to be paroled into the U.S. Hundreds of thousands were paroled into the U.S. as a result. The Trump administration has ended the ability to use the app for that purpose. All CBP One apps will update to the new CBP Home app. NEARLY 17 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN THE US, 16% INCREASE SINCE 2021: ANALYSIS “The Biden Administration exploited the CBP One App to allow more than 1 million aliens to illegally enter the United States. With the launching of the CBP Home App, we are restoring integrity to our immigration system,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. The app allows aliens to “Submit Intent to Depart” and submit information regarding their intent to leave the U.S. They can also provide information to verify they have left the U.S., a function limited to those who were paroled into the U.S. “The CBP Home App gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return,” Noem said. NOEM ENDS BIDEN-ERA USE OF CONTROVERSIAL APP TO ALLOW MIGRANTS TO BOARD FLIGHTS, EXCEPT TO SELF-DEPORT The Trump administration has moved rapidly to expand deportations and also cut the number of migrants entering the U.S., including via humanitarian parole, which dramatically expanded under the Biden administration. Trump ended the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants on his first day in office. His administration has also paused applications for parole programs, and allowed ICE to cancel parole statuses of migrants. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE Last month, Noem ended the use of CBP One to allow migrants to board domestic flights, unless it is being used for their self-deportation. The administration has also canceled extensions for Temporary Protected Status for some nationalities. Meanwhile, the administration has touted a sharp drop in migrant crossings at the southern border. “They heard my words, and they chose not to come, much easier that way,” Trump told a joint session of Congress last week.
Elon Musk-owned social media X down globally, users in US, India, UK and more report access issues
Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) faced a major global outage, affecting thousands of users in the US, India, the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Days from partial government shutdown deadline, here’s where things stand
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is gearing up for a vote on Tuesday on a bill, which, if approved, will avert a partial government shutdown during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s term. Given the lack of support from Democrats, Johnson is betting Republicans can muscle through largely by themselves on the 99-page piece of legislation that would keep federal agencies funded until Sept. 30. Congress must act to avoid a partial government shutdown by Friday, March 14. Despite dozens of conservative defections on continuing resolutions over the past two years, Trump on Saturday called for Republicans to unite to support the bill. “The House and Senate have put together, under the circumstances, a very good funding Bill (‘CR’)! All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week,” Trump wrote on TRUTHSocial. “Great things are coming for America, and I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s ‘financial house’ in order. Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen.” CONGRESS UNVEILS SPENDING PLAN AFTER TRUMP CALLS ON REPUBLICANS TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN “We have to remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right,” Trump added. “VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Still, some Republicans have already signaled they would not support the CR. “I’m not voting for the Continuing Resolution budget (cut-copy-paste omnibus) this week,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., posted to X on Sunday. “Why would I vote to continue the waste fraud and abuse DOGE has found? We were told the CR in December would get us to March when we would fight. Here we are in March, punting again! WTFO.” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., meanwhile, said he has never voted for a continuing resolution, but he is on board with Johnson’s effort. He says he has confidence in Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to make a difference on the nation’s debt. “I don’t like CRs,” Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with Democrats? No.” In a call with reporters on Saturday, House Republican leadership aides outlined how the bill provides for $892.5 billion in discretionary federal defense spending, and $708 billion in non-defense discretionary spending. The aides emphasized that the bill was “closely coordinated” with the White House – while stopping short of saying Trump backed the measure completely, noting he has not reviewed the specific pages yet. It includes an additional $8 billion in defense dollars in an apparent bid to ease national security hawks’ concerns, while non-defense spending that Congress annually appropriates would decrease by about $13 billion. There is also an added $6 billion for healthcare for veterans. REP. RALPH NORMAN BACKS TRUMP’S PLAN TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, PUSHES FOR CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS The White House has requested additional spending in areas that were not present in the last government funding extension, known as “anomalies.” Among the anomalies requested by Trump and being fulfilled by the bill is added funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Aides said the funding is meant to meet “an operations shortfall that goes back to the Biden administration.” “That money, most of that, has already been obligated prior to the start of this administration. So that request reflects an existing hole,” a source said. The bill also ensures that spending caps placed under a prior bipartisan agreement, the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), are followed. The FRA mandated no more than a 1% federal spending increase in FY 2025. Cuts to non-defense discretionary spending would be found by eliminating some “side deals” made during FRA negotiations, House GOP leadership aides said. Lawmakers would also not be given an opportunity to request funding for special pet projects in their districts known as earmarks, another area that Republicans are classifying as savings. The bill does not cover the majority of government spending, including Social Security and Medicare. Funding for those two programs is on autopilot and not regularly reviewed by Congress. Still, Democratic leadership issued a statement Saturday saying they were troubled the bill does not take steps to protect those programs and Medicaid, which Republicans are eying to help pay for extending tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term. “We are voting no,” a trio of House Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said. The top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Washington Sen. Patty Murray, both issued statements blasting the legislation. Murray said the legislation would “give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending — and more power to pick winners and losers, which threatens families in blue and red states alike.” DeLauro, in an X post, called the CR “a power grab for the White House.” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the focus must be on preventing a shutdown because closures have negative consequences all across government. “They require certain essential government employees, such as Border Patrol agents, members of our military and Coast Guard, TSA screeners, and air traffic controllers, to report to work with no certainty on when they will receive their next paycheck,” Collins said. “We cannot allow that to occur.” Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump’s eighth week in office set to continue breakneck level of actions, rallying GOP to avoid shutdown
President Donald Trump is expected to have another busy week back in the Oval Office, including rallying Republican Congressional support to pass a continuing resolution ahead of Friday’s government shutdown deadline. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are in the midst of hammering out a stopgap spending bill that would fund the federal government through Sept. 30 or face a shutdown at the end of the week. “I am working with the GREAT House Republicans on a Continuing Resolution to fund the Government until September to give us some needed time to work on our Agenda,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. “Conservatives will love this Bill, because it sets us up to cut Taxes and Spending in Reconciliation, all while effectively FREEZING Spending this year,” Trump added. SECRET SERVICE SHOOTS MAN IN OVERNIGHT ‘ARMED CONFRONTATION’ NEAR WHITE HOUSE Negotiators released a 99-page piece of legislation on Saturday that would roughly maintain current government funding levels through the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2026, which begins Oct. 1. House Republicans have said that they are confident the bill will pass on Republican support alone, Fox Digital previously reported. House Republican leadership aides said in a media call on Saturday that the bill was “closely coordinated” with the White House, but noted that Trump has not reviewed this specific bill. CANADIANS FEEL ‘UNDER ECONOMIC ATTACK,’ FRUSTRATION WITH US OVER TRUMP TARIFFS, ANNEXATION TALK: AMBASSADOR House Democrats, meanwhile, are rallying lawmakers to reject the legislation, claiming Republicans are trying to cut Medicare and Medicaid. “Republicans have decided to introduce a partisan continuing resolution that threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year,” House Democrats said in statement last week. “House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts.” CONGRESS UNVEILS SPENDING PLAN AFTER TRUMP CALLS ON REPUBLICANS TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN In addition to the looming shutdown, this week will also include tariffs of 25% on imports of steel and aluminum taking effect on March 12, Trump told the media. The president is also set to receive a report on his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July of last year that left him with an injury to the ear, as well as the assassination attempt in Florida in September that was thwarted. “They are giving me a report next week some time, and I do believe I’ll be releasing,” Trump said on Thursday while speaking with Fox News’ Peter Doocy. “I want to release a report. A lot of people have asked that question.” DEMOCRATS PRIVATELY REBUKE PARTY MEMBERS WHO JEERED TRUMP DURING SPEECH TO CONGRESS: REPORT Trump has also previewed that the administration could announce the creation of a “massive new program for building very large, the largest ships in the world” this week. “It’ll have to do with incentives, taxes, they’ll be coming from all over the world, just like they are with cars, with what we’ve done with tariffs,” Trump said from the Oval Office last week of the upcoming announcement. “And we have at least seven new, major car plants that are going to be starting very shortly because of what we’re doing with the tariffs, which will primarily start on April the 2nd.” On Monday, Trump is expected to meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte where a main discussion point will certainly be the ongoing negotiations to reach a cease-fire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. On Wednesday Trump is expected to welcome Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the leader of Ireland. The President recently declared March Irish- American Heritage Month. Trump is entering his eighth week back in the White House with at least 87 executive orders under his belt since Jan. 20, which include 45 he signed in his first 10 days. Trump also enters the new work week after delivering his first address to a joint session of Congress last Tuesday, which broke records for length and was celebrated as “historic” by conservative allies. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.