Key events
Rubio to testify in ex-congressman’s Venezuela foreign agent case
Secretary of state Marco Rubio is expected to testify on Tuesday in former congressman David Rivera’s criminal trial on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Rubio’s testimony will briefly take him out of Washington, where he has been engaged in high-level diplomacy around president Donald Trump’s war in Iran, and into the federal courthouse in downtown Miami, his hometown and where his political career began, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors say Rivera, who represented southern Florida in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, lobbied politicians in 2017 to relax pressure on Maduro without disclosing that he was paid $20 million by a subsidiary of a Venezuelan state-owned company, a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Among the politicians both prosecutors and Rivera’s defense lawyers say he met with at the time was Rubio, his onetime roommate and then a senator for Florida.
Rubio and Rivera are both Cuban-American Republicans who have been outspoken critics of left-wing governments in Cuba and Venezuela throughout their careers.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon says ICE agents at airports is ‘test run’ for polling station rollout
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The former White House strategist and podcaster Steve Bannon has suggested the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at airports is a “test run” for using them at polling stations in the midterms later this year.
Speaking to conservative lawyer Mike Davis on his ‘War Room’ podcast, Bannon asked:
double quotation mark We can use what’s happening with these ICE [officers] helping out at the airports, we can use this as a test run, as a test case to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterm elections, sir?
Davis replied:
double quotation mark Yeah, I think we should have ICE agents at the polling places, because if you’re an illegal alien you can’t vote, right? It’s against the law, it’s a federal crime for you to vote in federal elections.And so, if you’re an American citizen, you should be happy that ICE is there, because you’re not going to have illegal aliens canceling out your vote.
“Pick ‘em out of line starting today, and maybe the lines will get shorter,” Bannon added, as reported last night by The Hill.
Security lines stretched for hours on Monday at US airports where unpaid Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) screening agents refused to report for duty and ICE agents deployed by Donald Trump were reportedly seen in a dozen cities.
ICE agents were seen at airports such as Atlanta, Newark, New Orleans and New York’s John F Kennedy. CNN reported nine other airports where ICE agents were seen.
In other developments:
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The US Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Securityelevating the Republican senator to a role where he will be among the public faces of Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The Republican controlled chamber confirmed Mullin largely along party lines, with a vote of 54-45. More here.
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Donald Trump has claimed there have been talks between the US and Iran over the past day in which the two sides had “major points of agreement”appearing to avert a potentially severe escalation of the conflict. Tehran has denied the claim, in which Trump also speculated that a deal could soon be done to end the war. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said no talks had been held with the US since the bombing campaign began 24 days ago. More here.
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The US supreme court appeared poised to curtail how mail-in ballots can be counted if they arrive after election day, which would affect laws in more than a dozen states during a midterm election year. The justices are considering Watson v Republican National Committee, a challenge over a Mississippi state law that was brought in 2024 by the Republican party. More here.
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California attorney general Rob Bonta said he has sued the US energy department to stop it from using a cold-war era law to restart the long-disputed Sable Offshore pipeline system linking the Santa Ynez offshore platform to California refineries. US energy secretary Chris Wright earlier this month restarted the pipelines using powers granted to him by Donald Trump through an executive order that invoked the Defense Production Act to supersede state laws. More here.
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Prediction markets are facing fresh bipartisan scrutiny in the US Senate as companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket continue to battle state-led efforts to regulate online betting. A bill was introduced in the US Senate on Monday that would ban federally regulated platforms from allowing wagers on sporting events, what would be a huge blow to marketplaces where billions of dollars have been traded on major events like the Super Bowl and the NCAA’s March Madness. More here.
