NEW: Secretary of War Hegseth shuts down reporter's provocative question:
REPORTER: "When you give these orders to carry out this extreme level of violence, what's going through your mind and your body? Do you have, like, an adrenaline rush? Are you scared? Do you feel like you're on a power trip?"
HEGSETH: "My only thought process is to ensure that our warfighters have everything they need to be successful, defeat and destroy the enemy and they come home."
"I want them to feel empowered to have every authority they need within our rules and within our law to bring maximum violence to the enemy."
"War requires doing difficult things. But I want our people to feel empowered. So it's our guys that come home and they're guys that do not."
China announces it will send two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta in the U.S., in China’s latest efforts of panda diplomacy despite tensions with Washington. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/c…
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparks outrage among disability rights advocates with recent comments alleging widespread fraud in Medicaid programs that pay people to care for elderly or disabled family members — a system millions of Americans rely on to survive. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/r…
Britain’s Prince Harry makes an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in a show of support for the country in its fifth year of war with Russia. nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/…
NEW: Sen. John Barrasso rips Democrats' priorities as Republicans push through marathon overnight vote to fund ICE and Border Patrol.
"Democrats would rather protect illegal immigrant criminals than protect law-abiding American citizens."
Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a U.S. appeals court rules, in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/t…
NEW: Bombshell DOJ report says the Southern Poverty Law Center lied to donors and funneled $3M+ to white supremacist and extremist groups like the KKK for nearly a decade. | @davidspunt@FaulknerFocus
JUST IN: President Trump says Iran peace talks could restart as soon as Friday.
New reports say Trump estimates they could begin within the next "36 to 72 hours."
Peace talks were expected to begin on Wednesday, but Iran's flailing leadership failed to come forward with a "unified proposal."
JUST IN: Iran has taken custody of two ships after opening fire in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian media says.
The Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and Liberia-flagged Epaminondas are now being brought to Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
.@NBCNews: Embattled Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., resigned on Tuesday, moments before the House Ethics Committee was set to consider whether to recommend she be expelled from Congress.
It marked the third House resignation in the past week
w/@KyleAlexStewartnbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Democrat Chris Murphy is getting slammed for replying "awesome" to the news that 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels breached the U.S. naval blockade.
Murphy has been hammering the war effort. He's argued the U.S. is spending “billions” to keep its navy there “to fecklessly fail,” calling the conflict “pointless” and warning current plans are “almost certain not to work.”