The Pentagon’s comptroller testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday that the cost of the war with Iran had risen to around $29 billion, an increase of $4 billion from the figure provided two weeks ago. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also refused to tell lawmakers at the hearing how much emergency funding he would request to cover the cost of the war, despite repeated questioning from both Democrats and Republicans. It comes a day after President Trump called Iran’s latest ceasefire proposal “garbage.” Iran is demanding reparations, sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and a full end to sanctions as conditions for any deal. As President Trump arrives in Beijing today, he’s expected to discuss the Iran war with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The New York Times reports that U.S. intelligence assessments contradict the Trump administration’s public messaging about destroying Iran’s military capabilities. Iran has reportedly regained access to 30 of its 33 Strait of Hormuz missile sites, enough to threaten American warships and oil tankers. Iran also has access to about 90% of its underground missile storage and launch facilities. This comes amid reports that the UAE and Saudi Arabia carried out covert retaliatory strikes against Iran back in March. Since the U.S-Israeli war on Iran erupted, some Gulf countries have arrested dozens of Shiite Muslim citizens, calling them traitors loyal to Iran, which is majority Shiite.

The Labor Department reports the U.S. inflation rate rose to 3.8% in April, with energy costs comprising nearly half of the increased prices. Real average hourly wages fell half a percentage point from March, meaning salaries failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Gasoline prices rose by 5.4% as Iran shut traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in response to President Trump’s bombing campaign. On Tuesday, a reporter asked Trump whether he’d make a deal with Iran to address the war’s economic fallout.

Reporter: “Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?”

President Donald Trump: “Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

The Wall Street Journal says it has received subpoenas for the records of journalists who reported on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations on Iran. The Journal reports the Justice Department investigation came after President Trump privately complained to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about media leaks in the wake of the Iran war last month. Trump reportedly passed a stack of offending news articles to Blanche “with a sticky note on it that said 'treason.'” Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will review whether Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly improperly disclosed classified information when he told CBS News the U.S. had rapidly depleted stockpiles of weapons, including long-range missiles. Senator Kelly responded on social media, sharing a video of Hegseth admitting in a public hearing last week that it will take years to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles to prewar levels.

In Washington, D.C., peace activists disrupted the Politico Defense Summit on Tuesday, confronting Iranian opposition leader Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah. Pahlavi was speaking in support of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran at a panel hosted by Lockheed Martin, when he was interrupted by CodePink D.C. organizer Olivia DiNucci and other protesters.

Olivia DiNucci: “This is not about security. This is about death and destruction. They even said that the war in Iran is a golden opportunity. A golden opportunity to make a killing off of killing?”

Protester: “I have a message for Lockheed Martin: How dare you use the massacre of my people as a 'golden opportunity'? You have the blood of the people of Palestine and Iran and Lebanon on your hands! Shame on each and every one of you!”

Israeli drone strikes hit three cars on a major highway south of Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, including two children, in the town of Jiyeh. The strikes came a day after 13 people were killed in southern Lebanon, including two paramedics. More than 2,800 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2, with at least 380 killed since last month’s ceasefire. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says 108 emergency medical and healthcare workers have been killed in the war, with over 140 Israeli attacks recorded on ambulances and medical facilities. Lebanon and Israel are set to hold a new round of U.S.-brokered negotiations in Washington on Thursday; Hezbollah has said it opposes the talks.

FBI Director Kash Patel was pressed by Senate Democrats at a hearing Tuesday over reports that his heavy alcohol use compromised his ability to do his job. Patel sued The Atlantic magazine for defamation, seeking $250 million, after journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick reported he has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences. On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen grilled Patel on the allegations. Patel exploded, hurling insults and false claims at the senator, before finally agreeing to take an alcohol screening test.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “And so, there have been no occasions when your security detail had difficulty waking or locating you. Is that right?”

Kash Patel: “Nope, it’s a total farce. I don’t even know where you get this stuff, but it doesn’t make it credible because you say so.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “I’m not saying it, Director Patel. It’s been written and documented.”

Kash Patel: “You are literally saying it.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “No, I’m saying that these are reports, Director Patel.”

Kash Patel: “No, unlike — unlike your baseless reports” —

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “And I will say, Director Patel” —

Kash Patel: — “the only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gang-banging rapist was you.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “You know, the fact” —

Kash Patel: “The only person that ran up a $7,000” —

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “Director Patel” —

Kash Patel: — “bar tab in Washington, D.C.” —

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “This suggests to me” —

Kash Patel: — “at the Lobby Bar was you.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “This suggests to me that the allegations” —

Kash Patel: “So the only individual in this room that has been drinking on” —

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: — “are true.”

The U.S. is reportedly in closely guarded talks with Denmark to open three new military bases in southern Greenland. A source speaking to the BBC says U.S. officials have floated designating the new bases as American sovereign territory. This comes after President Trump sparked a diplomatic crisis in January by threatening to seize Greenland by force, saying it could happen the “easy way” or the “hard way.”

CNN is reporting the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has escalated its secret war on drug cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico, spearheaded by the CIA’s elite and secretive Ground Branch. Since Donald Trump retook the White House last year and designated several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, CIA operatives inside Mexico have reportedly participated directly in targeted assassinations on several, mostly mid-level cartel members. That includes a car bombing earlier this year on a busy highway outside Mexico City that killed alleged Sinaloa cartel member Francisco Beltrán and his driver. CNN’s disclosure of the CIA’s Mexico operations comes after two CIA operatives and two Mexican law enforcement officers were killed in a car accident in the state of Chihuahua last month. The current U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, is a former U.S. Army Green Beret and veteran CIA officer.

Yenniffer England, a 32-year-old nurse’s assistant and DACA recipient, has been held in ICE custody in Texas for nearly three months after she was stopped for driving with a suspended license. She was born in Mexico but was brought to the United States at the age of 4. She leaves behind two daughters, aged 12 and 14. This comes as immigration lawsuits hit a record 9,911 in March 2026 alone, up 1,278% from five years ago, driven almost entirely by habeas corpus filings that have surged 85 times over the past year as immigration attorneys challenge ICE’s mass detention and deportation campaign. Meanwhile, Florida’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” jail in the Everglades is set to close by June, after DHS concluded the facility’s $1 million-per-day price tag was too expensive.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee heard testimony Tuesday from survivors of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They held the field hearing in Palm Beach, Florida, near President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and where Epstein once lived, framing it as a return to the “scene of the crime.” Lawmakers used the hearing to warn President Trump against pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted longtime associate of Epstein, who is serving a 20-year sentence for helping him traffic and abuse girls. Trump has repeatedly declined to rule out a pardon for Maxwell. Meanwhile, some Epstein survivors said they had been “re-traumatized” after the Justice Department failed to redact their names from its incomplete release of the Epstein files. This is survivor Jena-Lisa Jones.

Jena-Lisa Jones: “When I was a teenager, I did not have the language to understand what was happening to me. I did not know who to tell. I did not know where to go. Many of us didn’t. We were young, and we were manipulated. We were left without the tools or the support we needed. That is something Congress can change.”