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Virginia Dems mandate Jan. 6 be taught as ‘violent insurrection,’ ban election fraud claims in schools
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Virginia lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that requires public schools to describe the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as a violent attack and specifically prohibits teachers from framing it as a peaceful protest.
Virginia Democrats have quickly advanced a slew of controversial legislation since Gov. Abigail Spanberger was elected in November and their ranks ballooned in the state House, including a bid to redraw every Republican congressman except Rep. Morgan Griffith out of their seats to make the Democratic majority 10-1 in the state’s congressional delegation. Now, they are taking steps to shape how the history of Jan. 6 is taught to children.
HB 333, crafted by Del. Dan I. Helmer of Fairfax, bars public school programs from describing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as a peaceful protest or presenting claims that widespread election fraud altered the 2020 presidential results as credible.
The bill specifically «prohibits» instruction that portrays the insurrection as peaceful or suggests there was «extensive election fraud» that could have changed the election outcome. However, it does not lay out any explicit criminal penalties for violations.
Del. Dan I. Helmer, D-Fairfax, left, and VA AG Jay Jones, right. (Craig Hudson/Getty Images)
In a statement to the Virginia Mercury on the bill, Helmer said there is «real concern» that President Donald Trump is «trying to rewrite the history of January 6; borne out by the fact there is a WhiteHouse.gov site that presents a false history.»
Fox News Digital reached out to Virginia Republicans for comment.
The Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists also came out against the bill, with executive director Michael Huffman testifying before a state Senate committee that the true education equips children for life, not political agendas, and glorifying or mandating … the dark day serves only short-sighted partisanship, not our kids’ future,» according to Hampton Roads’ PBS affiliate.
Helmer, an Iraq War veteran and staunch gun control advocate, was first elected by flipping what was Fairfax County’s last remaining Republican district, along its border with Prince William County, in 2020.
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Helmer also announced a bid for Congress in one of the newly-redrawn districts nicknamed the «lobster» or the «scorpion» by critics – as it runs from the Potomac River in Arlington southwestward before splitting in two «claws» to reach out toward the West Virginia line near Rawley Springs and the other jutting down toward Goochland and Powhatan effectively collecting a swath of Republican-leaning towns and pitting them against a small but densely-populated Democrat stronghold.
One of his ads in a 2018 congressional bid compared Trump to Usama bin Laden, where he narrated that the «greatest threat to democracy» used to live «in a cave» but now «he lives in the White House.»
He had recused himself from the redistricting redraw, according to the New York Times, but is considered a top ally of House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, who engineered the effort in the lower chamber.
Del. Dan I. Helmer, D-Fairfax, left, and VA AG Jay Jones, right. (Craig Hudson/Getty Images)
While the new map has yet to get voters’ approval in an April special election, Helmer has also garnered at least one Democratic challenger in the would-be heavily Democratic-favored district.
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Prosecutor J.P. Cooney, the former top deputy of Special Counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of Trump, told the New York Times that the mogul is not being sufficiently «check[ed]» by Congress and that the DHS-involved shooting of Alex Pretti solidified his decision.
Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
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INTERNACIONAL
La guerra en Oriente Medio: el exilio iraní en Francia recibe amenazas de muerte del régimen persa y refuerzan la seguridad
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Sri Lanka began offloading 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel a day after 87 people were killed and several others were still missing following a U.S. submarine strike on an Iranian warship in the same region.
«After detailed discussions with all parties, Sri Lanka has decided to assist the Iranian vessel,» Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told reporters at a press briefing in Colombo, Reuters reported.
Among the crew members being offloaded the ship, which is near the port of Colombo, were 53 officials, 84 cadets, 48 senior sailors and 23 sailors, Dissanayake said.
Iranian warship IRIS Dena is seen in the Bay of Bengal. (AP Photo)
The Iranian ship, the IRIS Dena, was sunk Wednesday off Sri Lanka’s coast in the Indian Ocean. Officials there have dispatched two freezers to store 87 bodies recovered at sea.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the ship was «effectively neutralized» in a Navy «fast attack» using a single Mark 48 torpedo. He added that the U.S. Navy achieved «immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.»
TRUMP OVERSEES US STRIKES ON IRAN FROM MAR-A-LAGO, SPEAKS WITH NETANYAHU: WH
An injured Iranian sailor is moved on a stretcher at Galle National Hospital, where the sailors are receiving treatment, following a submarine attack on the Iranian military ship, IRIS Dena, off the coast of Sri Lanka, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 5, 2026. (Reuters/Thilina Kaluthotage)
Iran contends the ship was sunk in international waters without warning.
«The U.S. will bitterly regret the precedent it has set,» Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post on X.
Iran has asked Sri Lanka to assist with the repatriation of the bodies.
Sri Lankan officials said the Dena was on its way home after taking part in a naval exercise organized by India in the Bay of Bengal from Feb. 18 to 25.
Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
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Search and rescue operations would continue for an estimated 10 people who remain unaccounted for, they said.
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war with iran,military,iran
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House Democrats largely voted to allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown to keep going on Thursday, shrugging off Republicans’ concerns about the increased domestic terror threat amid the U.S.-Israeli operation in Iran.
It comes hours after President Donald Trump shocked Capitol Hill by ousting DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and appointing Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as his replacement.
But that did not stop the vast majority of Democrats from voting against a bipartisan DHS funding bill aimed at funding the cabinet agency through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Nearly identical legislation already passed the House in January, but House GOP leaders wanted to force the vote again in light of heightened national security concerns within the country’s borders.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Nov. 3, 2025. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
While largely symbolic, it shows Republicans’ pressure strategy is falling on deaf ears as the left continues to protest President Donald Trump’s strategy to combat illegal immigration.
The bill was the product of original bipartisan negotiations that followed the longest-ever full government shutdown in U.S. history, which ended in November after 43 days.
It would fully fund all aspects of DHS while also including new guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demanded by Democrats, like a body-worn camera mandate and new required training on public engagement and de-escalation.
But Democrats walked away from the deal en masse amid fallout from Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which saw two U.S. citizens shot and killed by federal agents during anti-ICE demonstrations there. The operation has since ended.
Democratic leaders are still insisting on withholding their caucus’ support, however, until further restrictions are put on ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on the ground in various cities.
A person holds an image of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Iranian demonstrators protest against the U.S.-Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 28, 2026. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., signaled to reporters that Noem’s ouster was not enough.
«It’s not like Kristi Noem was the one who was involved in negotiating anything. She was a corrupt lackey. So we were dealing with the White House before, and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point,» he said.
Meanwhile, the resulting DHS shutdown has taken on new significance as the U.S. continues its campaign to take out Iran’s top leadership and its military sites.
Republican leaders are warning that keeping DHS in a shutdown state is dangerous for national security, given its jurisdiction over agencies that monitor threats from home and abroad.
SWALWELL PRESSED ON DEMOCRATS’ RESISTANCE TO FULLY FUNDING DHS AMID IRAN THREAT
«Now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak,» Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press conference Wednesday. «And yet, as all this is happening, we have Democrats running around here playing political games in Congress. It’s infuriating. They’ve shut down the very agency that is responsible for securing the homeland.»
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., pauses for questions from reporters as he arrives for an Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Republicans’ argument «insane» when asked by Fox News Digital earlier this week.
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«Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East. … He decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people, and then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restriction on the American people?» Jeffries posed. «I think it’s ridiculous.»
It’s the Senate, however, where passing that DHS funding bill is actually key to ending the shutdown. The upper chamber voted again Thursday on the original legislation that passed the House in January, but it failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster.
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house of representatives politics,government shutdown,homeland security,war with iran,politics
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