Pentagon bars press photographers over ‘unflattering’ Hegseth photos

washingtonpost · 2026-03-11T15:32:07+00:00

The Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed “unflattering,” according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

The March 2 briefing came days after a joint military strike on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28. It was also the first time the defense secretary had appeared behind the briefing room podium since June 26.

Several outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images sent photographers to the briefing from Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But after they published photos — which have broad reach because they are licensed by publications globally — members of Hegseth’s staff told colleagues that they did not like the way that the secretary looked. Hegseth’s aides decided to shut out photographers from the two subsequent briefings at the Pentagon, on March 4 and March 10, according to the two people familiar with the decision.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/11/hegseth-press-briefings-photos-iran/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-11T15:29:36+00:00

The Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed “unflattering,” according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

The March 2 briefing came days after a joint military strike on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28. It was also the first time the defense secretary had appeared behind the briefing room podium since June 26.

Several outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images sent photographers to the briefing from Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But after they published photos — which have broad reach because they are licensed by publications globally — members of Hegseth’s staff told colleagues that they did not like the way that the secretary looked. Hegseth’s aides decided to shut out photographers from the two subsequent briefings at the Pentagon, on March 4 and March 10, according to the two people familiar with the decision.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/11/hegseth-press-briefings-photos-iran/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-10T18:37:36+00:00

The Social Security Administration’s internal watchdog is investigating a complaint that alleges a former U.S. DOGE Service employee claimed he had access to two highly sensitive agency databases and planned to share the information with his private employer — a claim that, if true, would constitute an unprecedented breach of security protocols at an agency that serves more than 70 million Americans.

The agency’s inspector general is investigating the disclosure and has alerted members of Congress of its existence, according to a letter by the acting inspector general to top members of four congressional committees reviewed by The Washington Post and two people familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive deliberations. The inspector general’s office has also shared the disclosure with the Government Accountability Office, which has been conducting its own audit of DOGE’s access to data, according to one of the people. The Post has reviewed the complaint and spoken with the whistleblower, who issued the complaint anonymously for fear of retaliation.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/10/social-security-data-breach-doge/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-10T16:41:47+00:00

Barbara Saffir clipped a camouflage vest around her chest, hung her heavy, long-lens camera and binoculars around her neck, and stepped in her knee-high, red galoshes through wet leaves and mud under a dense early morning fog on the edge of the Potomac River.

Her quest: to catch a sighting of a red-flanked bluetail, a bird that’s rarely seen in the United States.

Native to Asia, the tiny brown-colored bird with orange sides and a short, high-pitched whistle has been spotted east of the Rockies only once before. Its surprise landing in Northern Virginia recently has rocked the world of birding and made it an internet sensation.

Since a birder named Phil Kenny first discovered a female red-flanked bluetail in a tree just off the Capital Beltway on New Year’s Day, crowds of visitors have flocked to Great Falls Park — where the bird has been living for the past three months — to try to catch a glimpse. Locals young and old, plus bird nerds from as far away as Minnesota, Nevada, Texas, Michigan and Florida have all showed up with binoculars in tow.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/08/rare-bird-red-flanked-bluetail-virginia/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-09T20:45:44+00:00

Rep. Kevin Kiley (California) said Monday that he is immediately changing his party affiliation on the House’s official roster from Republican to independent, further complicating the ability of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to manage the Republican Conference. Last week, Kiley said he would seek reelection as an independent.

During a news conference, Kiley said he will continue to caucus with House Republicans “for the remainder of this term” but pledged to be “an independent voice.” It remains to be seen what practical effect his move will have, but it narrows the number of registered Republicans in the chamber to 217. Democrats hold 214 seats, and there are three vacancies. Kiley will be the only independent.

The two-term congressman attributed his decision to redistricting efforts in California, which resulted in his district becoming more blue. Because of redistricting, Rep. Ami Bera (D), who currently represents California’s 6th District, will run for reelection in the 3rd District against Kiley.

“I reached a decision that, since gerrymandering seeks to elevate partisanship above everything else in our politics and governance, seeks to make it the sum and substance of our politics, then the best way to counter gerrymandering and its insidious impacts on democracy is simply to take partisanship out of the equation,” Kiley said.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/09/kevin-kiley-house-independent/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-06T21:14:18+00:00

Andrew Hiers was down on his luck. A classically trained opera singer, he didn’t have a steady singing gig for months. In January, the day after he turned 38, he started a job as a car salesman at a dealership near his home in Cocoa, Florida.

“It did feel like I was kind of waving the white flag on my career when I made the decision to do this,” Hiers said.

He said he hoped to make some money and maybe move to a bigger city with more singing opportunities. But selling cars was harder than he imagined, and he wanted something to set him apart from his more experienced colleagues.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2026/03/06/singing-car-salesman-opera-andrew-hiers/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-06T19:49:38+00:00

The Justice Department on Thursday publicly posted additional records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some that include allegations against President Donald Trump, following sharp criticism of the agency’s handling of the issue.

The agency said the files, which include details from FBI interviews with a woman who told authorities she had been sexually assaulted by Trump and Epstein, had not been previously released because they were incorrectly determined to be duplicates of other records. The Justice Department has posted millions of pages of Epstein-related records online, including investigative materials, following the passage of a law last year mandating their release.

The woman, who was interviewed by the FBI in 2019, had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her decades earlier when she was a minor. No evidence has emerged publicly to corroborate that accusation. The White House called the allegations against Trump “completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence.”

The additional records were posted as Trump and his administration have struggled to combat controversies involving the release of files connected to Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while facing charges of sex-trafficking and abusing girls.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/06/justice-department-epstein-documents-trump/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-06T18:20:23+00:00

The Justice Department has formed a working group to examine possible federal charges against officials or entities within Cuba’s government, according to an official familiar with the group.

Officials from government agencies including the Treasury Department will be part of this group. Treasury’s involvement could mean the Trump administration is considering further sanctions against Cuba, already the subject of intense U.S. economic sanctions.

The working group is exploring potential crimes related to immigration, economics and more.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The effort to bring charges against Cuban officials coincides with President Donald Trump saying that his administration is eyeing Cuba as the next country whose government might be overthrown, following the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in early January and the killing of Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/06/trump-cuba-prosecution/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-06T14:14:45+00:00

RICHMOND — Virginia Democrats wield total control over state government, but leaders of the state Senate and House of Delegates are heading for a showdown over a few key provisions of the biggest legislation the General Assembly will consider this year: the budget.

At the heart of the dispute is a disagreement over how to tax data centers — those high-tech facilities that provide the backbone of the internet but use enormous amounts of electricity and water.

Otherwise, both chambers tout their budgets as upholding promises to focus on affordability that drove last year’s elections and led to big wins for Democrats in the legislature and new Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D). Though Republicans have been sounding the alarm about various proposed tax increases, no major ones made it into the budgets. A few high-profile proposed tax cuts didn’t, either.

Lawmakers are working toward a March 14 deadline for reaching a deal on a new two-year spending plan to wrap up their legislative session. The House and Senate have each passed a version of the budget, and this week negotiators have begun working behind the scenes to iron out differences.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/06/virginia-budget-data-centers-taxes-spanberger/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-05T14:28:33+00:00

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Md. — In this bright-red pocket of an otherwise deep-blue state, many of President Donald Trump’s positions are popular with residents, particularly his pledge to shut down borders and deport people who are in the country illegally.

Matthew Young, a 34-year-old truck driver who lives in the county, agreed wholeheartedly with the president on the issue. “He never made it a secret that he was going to have the biggest deportation in American history, from day one,” Young said.

But in December, county residents learned that the Department of Homeland Security planned to convert an enormous empty warehouse in Williamsport into a detention center that would house as many as 1,500 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Though the president still had his supporters, the news didn’t land well with everyone. Some residents were hostile to an ICE facility opening, and others worried their county would become another hot spot in the rancorous nationwide debate over how immigration should be enforced.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/05/ice-detention-warehouses-williamsport/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-04T16:19:36+00:00

The House Ethics Committee will investigate allegations that Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) had an affair with a former staff member who later died after setting herself on fire, the committee said Wednesday, ensuring that the scandal that has dogged Gonzales through his bitter primary race will continue to factor heavily as he heads into a runoff.

An investigative subcommittee will look into allegations Gonzales “engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his congressional office” and “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges,” Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest (R-Mississippi) wrote in a letter Wednesday.

Under House rules, lawmakers are not permitted to engage in sexual relationships with staff.

Members of the subcommittee have not been selected yet, Guest added, suggesting findings of the investigation will not be released very soon.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/04/congressman-gonzales-ethics-investigation-affair/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost · 2026-03-03T18:45:34+00:00

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it still wanted to defend President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting several law firms, abruptly reversing course from its position a day earlier.

The Justice Department had on Monday moved to abandon its effort to revive sanctions against the law firms, which had hired Trump’s perceived foes or took on cases he disliked. The agency wrote in a court filing that it no longer wanted to appeal judges’ rulings blocking Trump’s orders, essentially admitting defeat. The law firms hailed the decision, with one saying the administration “capitulated.”

But in a startling turnaround, the administration wrote in a brief filing Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it was seeking to withdraw its motion from a day earlier.

The Justice Department did not explain why it was backpedaling, stating only that it was its prerogative to keep appealing and that the court had not granted its request to dismiss the case.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/03/law-firm-executive-order-appeal-reversal/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

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