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White House confirms intelligence showing Russia developing
Washington — The White House confirmed Thursday that the U.S. has intelligence that Russia is developing a capability to target satellites in space, one day after the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee gave a cryptic warning about “a serious national security threat.”
“It is related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing,” John Kirby, a national security spokesman, said at the daily press briefing. “This is not an active capability that’s been deployed, and though Russia’s pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.”
“We’re not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth,” Kirby said, later adding that the threat “would be space-based.”
Kirby said the U.S. has been aware of Russia’s pursuit of the capability for many months, if not years, “but only in recent weeks now has the intelligence community been able to assess with a higher sense of confidence exactly how Russia continues to pursue it.”
Kirby would not give details about whether the capability involved a nuclear-powered weapon or a nuclear-capable weapon.
U.S. officials told CBS News on Wednesday that Russia is developing a nuclear-capable weapon that could take down U.S. satellites, knocking out the ability to communicate, but there is no evidence a weapon has actually been deployed.
Kirby said “any anti-satellite capability should be of general concern” given humanity’s reliance on satellites for communication, navigation, weather forecasting and other functions.
“Any capability that could disrupt that, and that could therefore have some impact on services here on Earth and across the world should be of concern to anybody,” he said, also noting that it could put astronauts in low orbit at risk.
Russia drew international condemnation in 2021 when it destroyed a Soviet-era satellite with a missile fired from the ground. The test created 1,500 pieces of orbital debris that forced crewmembers on the International Space Station to seek shelter.
On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, issued an unusual public statement urging President Biden to declassify all information relating to an unspecified threat, so the U.S. and its allies could openly discuss a response.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan was scheduled to brief House leaders on the threat on Thursday afternoon. Sullivan declined to provide more details but said Wednesday that the Biden administration is “protecting the national security of the United States and the American people.”
Turner has been criticized by his colleagues who have accused him of causing unnecessary panic.
After reviewing classified information related to the threat, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that it was a serious issue, but not one that should cause immediate panic. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the committee, said the issue needs to be addressed “in the medium-to-long run.”
A member of Turner’s own party asked for House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, to investigate whether the statements had any impact on U.S. foreign and domestic policy, suggesting that Turner had an ulterior motive.
“This revelation by the Chairman was done with a reckless disregard of the implications and consequences said information would have on geopolitics, domestic and foreign markets, or the well-being and psyche of the American people,” Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, said in a letter to Johnson.
“In hindsight, it has become clear that the intent was not to ensure the safety of our homeland and the American people, but rather to ensure additional funding for Ukraine and passage of an unreformed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA),” he wrote.
Ellis Kim, Olivia Gazis and Jaala Brown contributed reporting.
A man is tackled after spraying an unknown substance at US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (L) during a town hall she was hosting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 27, 2026. (Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was rushed by a man during a town hall event Tuesday night and sprayed with a liquid via a syringe.
Footage from the event shows a man approaching Omar at her lectern as she is delivering remarks and spraying an unknown substance in her direction, before swiftly being tackled by security. Omar called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment immediately before the assault.
Noem has faced criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis Saturday.
Omar’s staff can be heard urging her to step away and get “checked out,” with others nearby saying the substance smelled bad.
“We will continue,” Omar responded. “These f******* a**holes are not going to get away with it.”
A statement from Omar’s office released after the event said the individual who approached and sprayed the congresswoman is now in custody.
“The Congresswoman is okay,” the statement read. “She continued with her town hall because she doesn’t let bullies win.”
A syringe lays on the ground after a man, left, approached Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, during a town hall event in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. The man was apprehended after spraying an unknown substance according to the Associated Press. Photographer: Angelina Katsanis/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Omar followed up with a statement on social media saying she will not be intimidated.
I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work.
I don’t let bullies win.
Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 28, 2026
As Omar continued her remarks at the town hall, she said: “We are Minnesota strong and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”
Just three days ago, fellow Democrat Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida said he was assaulted at the Sundance Festival by a man “who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face.”
Threats against Congressional lawmakers have been rising. Last year, there was an increase in security funding in the wake of growing concerns about political violence in the country.
According to the U.S. Capitol Police, the number of threat assessment cases has increased for the third year in a row. In 2025, the USCP investigated 14,938 “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications” directed towards congressional lawmakers, their families and staff. That figure represents a nearly 58% increase from 2024.
new video loaded: F.A.A. Ignored Safety Concerns Prior to Collision Over Potomac, N.T.S.B. Says
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transcript
F.A.A. Ignored Safety Concerns Prior to Collision Over Potomac, N.T.S.B. Says
The National Transportation Safety Board said that a “multitude of errors” led to the collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet, killing 67 people last January.
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“I imagine there will be some difficult moments today for all of us as we try to provide answers to how a multitude of errors led to this tragedy.” “We have an entire tower who took it upon themselves to try to raise concerns over and over and over and over again, only to get squashed by management and everybody above them within F.A.A. Were they set up for failure?” “They were not adequately prepared to do the jobs they were assigned to do.”
By Meg Felling
January 27, 2026
President Trump speaks as U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looks on during a meeting of his Cabinet at the White House in December 2025.
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Relatives of two Trinidadian men killed in an airstrike last October are suing the U.S. government for wrongful death and for carrying out extrajudicial killings.
The case, filed in Massachusetts, is the first lawsuit over the strikes to land in a U.S. federal court since the Trump administration launched a campaign to target vessels off the coast of Venezuela. The American government has carried out three dozen such strikes since September, killing more than 100 people.
Among them are Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, who relatives say died in what President Trump described as “a lethal kinetic strike” on Oct. 14, 2025. The president posted a short video that day on social media that shows a missile targeting a ship, which erupts in flame.
“This is killing for sport, it’s killing for theater and it’s utterly lawless,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We need a court of law to rein in this administration and provide some accountability to the families.”
The White House and Pentagon justify the strikes as part of a broader push to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. The Pentagon declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
But the new lawsuit described Joseph and Samaroo as fishermen doing farm work in Venezuela, with no ties to the drug trade. Court papers said they were headed home to family members when the strike occurred and now are presumed dead.
Neither man “presented a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to the United States or anyone at all, and means other than lethal force could have reasonably been employed to neutralize any lesser threat,” according to the lawsuit.
Lenore Burnley, the mother of Chad Joseph, and Sallycar Korasingh, the sister of Rishi Samaroo, are the plaintiffs in the case.
Their court papers allege violations of the Death on the High Seas Act, a 1920 law that makes the U.S. government liable if its agents engage in negligence that results in wrongful death more than 3 miles off American shores. A second claim alleges violations of the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign citizens to sue over human rights violations such as deaths that occurred outside an armed conflict, with no judicial process.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jonathan Hafetz at Seton Hall University School of Law are representing the plaintiffs.
“In seeking justice for the senseless killing of their loved ones, our clients are bravely demanding accountability for their devastating losses and standing up against the administration’s assault on the rule of law,” said Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel at the ACLU.
U.S. lawmakers have raised questions about the legal basis for the strikes for months but the administration has persisted.
—NPR’s Quil Lawrence contributed to this report.
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