US submarine sinks Iranian warship; Rep. Gonzales admits to staffer affair
A U.S. submarine torpedoes and sinks an Iranian warship in international waters — the first such American strike since World War II. Now Iran is vowing retaliation.
Plus, a Texas congressman admits to an affair with a former staffer as the House Ethics Committee opens a formal investigation.
And the Justice Department drops its investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen after prosecutors say they couldn’t identify a criminal case.
These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Thursday, March 5, 2026.
Iran vows revenge after US torpedo attack sinks Iranian warship at sea
Israel and Iran have continued to strike each other as the conflict spreads across the Middle East. Iran also promised retaliation after the U.S. sank one of its warships.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. is accelerating its campaign against Iran, highlighted by a U.S. submarine torpedoing an Iranian warship in international waters in the Indian Ocean.
This Iranian warship thought it was safe in international waters. It wasn’t.
The @DeptofWar is fighting to win.
pic.twitter.com/4bGMubuSQu
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 4, 2026
Iran’s foreign minister responded on X, writing: “Mark my words — the U.S. will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.”
The U.S. has now identified the final two service members killed in Kuwait during the initial strikes that sparked the war. They are 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O’Brien from Iowa and 54-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan from California.
Meanwhile, Congress is trying to rein in President Donald Trump’s authority to order military strikes without approval. The Senate failed Wednesday to pass a war powers resolution aimed at limiting his options. The House is expected to vote on its own measure on Thursday.
Even if it passes, it would still require Senate approval, and Trump has already said he wouldn’t sign any measure restricting his authority.
Overnight, Israel’s military said it carried out a new wave of strikes inside Iran, targeting ballistic missile storage and launch sites. Israel said one strike prevented Iranian operatives from firing a missile at Israeli aircraft.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced it had attacked an American oil tanker in the northern Persian Gulf. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry accuses Iran of launching a drone attack that injured two civilians, saying one drone crashed near an airport and another near a school.
Qatar’s defense ministry also reported an Iranian missile strike in the capital of Doha on Thursday morning.
Anthropic CEO says talks with Pentagon underway to ease dispute: Report
Anthropic, the creator of the AI system Claude, aims to repair its relationship with the Pentagon following a dispute over how the U.S. military can utilize artificial intelligence in warfare.
CBS News reported the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said Anthropic is still in talks with the Defense Department, telling investors the goal is “to try to de-escalate the situation and come to some agreement that works for us and works for them.”
The dispute began after Anthropic tried to draw red lines around how its technology could be used, including preventing the military from deploying it for mass American surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
Trump responded by ordering federal agencies to stop using the company’s technology, giving them six months to phase it out
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk.”
But here’s where things get complicated. Both CBS and The Washington Post reported that the U.S. military is still using Claude right now in its operations in Iran.
The AI is embedded inside the Pentagon’s Maven smart system, which analyzes massive streams of intelligence from satellites, surveillance and other classified data to help identify and prioritize strike targets.
Officials said the system helped generate hundreds of potential targets during the opening phase of the Iran campaign, turning what once took weeks of planning into real-time battlefield decisions.
Walz defends Minnesota in House Oversight fraud hearing
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has pushed back against Republican accusations that his administration failed to stop a massive welfare fraud scheme in the state. Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors say more than nine billion taxpayer dollars were ripped off through state-run programs in Minnesota.
More than 90 people have been charged in the case, most of them of Somali descent.
On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Republican lawmakers accused Walz of failing to do enough to stop the fraud from happening.
Walz rejected that claim, telling lawmakers Minnesota isn’t alone in dealing with fraud and accusing the Trump administration of unfairly targeting his state.
“Across the country, our nation’s governors work hard every single day to combat fraud in their programs. But even as we confront issues similar to our sister states, the people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale, including blocking medicaid reimbursements to our state just last week. Under the guise of combating fraud, the federal government has flooded Minnesota with masked, untrained and unaccountable agents who are wreaking havoc in our communities.”
— Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz
Democratic committee member Robert Garcia echoed that argument, accusing the Trump administration of using the investigation for political purposes.
“The Trump administration was never serious about addressing fraud in Minnesota,” Garcia said. “Instead, they’ve been interested in election conspiracy theories and terrorizing kids. And they’ve accused the governor and attorney general of covering up fraud, only to investigate them and turn up actually no evidence. What they’re trying to do is convince Americans that there’s a good reason for violence, for killings and for violations of the law.”
But Republican committee chair James Comer said investigators uncovered repeated warnings that state officials failed to act on.
“What we’ve uncovered in Minnesota is not a paperwork error or a few bad actors slipping through the cracks. It is sustained failure of leadership. Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, were warned repeatedly. Auditors raised red flags. Employees sounded alarms, invoices didn’t make sense. And still the money kept flowing.”
The dispute now extends beyond the hearing room.
Federal officials have frozen some child-care funding for Minnesota, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in payments tied to the state.
Minnesota is now suing the Trump administration after federal officials moved to withhold $243 million in medicaid funding.
Gonzales admits affair with former staffer, prompting House ethics probe
A Texas politician has admitted to having a sexual relationship with a former staff member who later died by suicide — an admission made as he approaches a Republican runoff and faces a new House ethics committee investigation.
During a radio interview Wednesday, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, described the relationship as a lapse in judgment, insisting he had nothing to do with the former aide’s death and expressing that it came as a shock.
Joe Pags: “Was there a relationship with this young lady, who was working in your office?“
Rep. Tony Gonzales: “You know, very, very direct. Pags, I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith. And I take full responsibility for those actions.”
Regina Santos-Aviles, a former aide, died in September 2025 after setting herself on fire. Her death was ruled a suicide.
The House Ethics Committee has now launched an investigation into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct with an employee or provided a staff member with special treatment.
House rules prohibit lawmakers from engaging in sexual relationships with staff they oversee.
The controversy comes as Gonzales prepares for another runoff against hard-right challenger Brandon Herrera after neither candidate cleared 50 percent in the primary for Texas’s 23rd district.
Some Republicans have urged Gonzales to resign. He states that the situation has been politicized and that he plans to cooperate with investigators.
“I look forward to the ethics committee starting an investigation. I appreciate the opportunity to provide all the facts and all the details that lead to exactly what occurred in the entire situation,” Gonzales said.
The ethics committee has not said how long the investigation will take.
DOJ drops Biden autopen probe, finds no crime tied to pardons
A Justice Department probe into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign presidential documents has been quietly dropped.
The New York Times first reported that prosecutors ultimately couldn’t build a criminal case after months spent examining whether Biden or his aides violated the law by using the mechanical signature device.
Trump and his allies in Congress advocated for the investigation, arguing that Biden’s pardons and other actions could be invalid if they were signed with an autopen instead of by hand.
But according to The Times, investigators never determined a crime, and prosecutors eventually closed the investigation.
The review was handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, now led by longtime Trump ally Jeanine Pirro.
The probe started after Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi last year to investigate whether Biden’s aides had improperly used the device — or if they did so without his knowledge.
Trump argued that the autopen raised “serious doubts” about Biden’s decision-making and the legitimacy of some of his presidential actions. Although Biden has repeatedly denied those claims, asserting it was only used to replicate his signature on large batches of documents, Trump himself has admitted to doing the same.
The dispute even found its way into the White House decor, where a framed photo of an autopen now hangs in the spot where Biden’s portrait would typically be.
Straight Arrow News reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
Los Angeles preserves iconic ‘Brady Bunch’ house
The Los Angeles City Council officially declared the famous “Brady Bunch” house a historic landmark.
The modest mid-century house in the San Fernando Valley served as the exterior for the sitcom that aired from 1969 to 1974 — even though the interior of the Brady home we all remember was actually shot on a Hollywood soundstage.
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The Brady Bunch House, the two-story single-family home that served as the main setting for the television series “The Brady Bunch” in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, is now designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) -
The Brady Bunch House, the two-story single-family home that served as the main setting for the television series “The Brady Bunch” in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, is now designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Still, the house became a pop-culture pilgrimage site for fans of the show, which continued for decades in reruns.
HGTV even bought it back in 2018 for around $3.5 million, spending nearly $2 million more to recreate the stylish interior — complete with a floating staircase and that iconic orange-and-green kitchen.
The landmark designation now protects the house from demolition so future generations of fans can keep visiting for photos.
Just remember — don’t play ball in the house!
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When the 2026 Paralympics officially open on Friday, several participating nations will be entering a second week of warfare in violation of the Olympic Truce. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is still allowing athletes from the U.S., Israel and Iran to compete, despite some calls for their removal, while it monitors the situation. Read the full story now>
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
