Kristi Noem’s Firing, and the Boom of American Billionaires

From the New York Times, it's the headlines.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

Today's Friday, March 6th.

Here's what we're covering.

We're going to start in Lebanon, which has rapidly become a second front in the war with

Iran.

Israel's been targeting Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group there, after it fired a

volley of rockets earlier this week in solidarity with Iran.

Yesterday, a senior Israeli minister threatened widespread destruction in the southern suburbs

of Beirut, in an area known as the Dahia, where Hezbollah holds a lot of sway.

He promised it would soon look like Han Unis, a city in Gaza, decimated by Israel's attacks

on Hamas.

After Israel put out the evacuation warning, you suddenly had huge crowds of people grabbing

whatever they could from their homes and apartments, rushing to their cars, and trying

to figure out how to drive out from that area.

My colleague Christina Goldbaum is on the ground in Beirut.

Across the city, you could hear these massive explosions that didn't let up until the early

hours of Friday morning.

It was some of the most intense bombing in Beirut since this conflict escalated, and now

people are very afraid that there will be a full-scale Israeli-ground invasion of the

south and possible occupation of southern Lebanon.

So the country is definitely on edge right now as we wait to see how this conflict escalates.

Also happening right now, Iran's revolutionary guards have launched a wave of drones and

missiles at Tel Aviv in Israel in retaliation, and the U.S.-Israeli strikes have continued

in Iran with an intense bombing campaign early this morning in the capital.

Iran, however, has remained defiant.

The Pentagon says America is winning decisively.

Do you think they're wrong?

Well, I think, you know, now, six days after the war, it is clear that the U.S. has failed

to achieve its main goal, which was a clean, rapid victory.

On NBC, the country's foreign minister said Iran would fight on with new leadership.

The commanders have been replaced, and the Supreme Leader is going to be replaced soon according

to the procedures set by the Constitution.

So everything is in order.

Right now, the apparent frontrunner to leader on is the son of the Supreme Leader who is

killed over the weekend.

Trump's called that choice unacceptable and said yesterday that he should have a role

in choosing Iran's next leader.

And last update on the war.

Did the United States air strike at girls at elementary school and kill 175 people?

Not that we know of Sean, and the Department of War is investigating this matter.

And I would just tell you very strongly the United States of America does not target civilians

unlike the strike on Saturday on a school in southern Iran has been one of the deadliest

of the war so far.

And neither the U.S. nor Israel has taken responsibility for it.

But a body of evidence assembled by the Times suggests U.S. forces were most likely to

have carried it out.

The U.S. satellite imagery and verified videos show the school was severely damaged by

a precision strike that happened at the same time there were attacks on a naval base next

to it.

In official statements, the U.S. has said its forces were going after naval targets in

the area.

The school at one point was part of the naval campus, but a decade ago satellite images

show it was partitioned off and no longer connected to the base.

For the years, a sports field and other visible hallmarks of a school were added.

The Times reviewed the imagery of the strike with West Bryant, a national security analyst

who was a senior advisor on civilian harm at the Pentagon.

He has been critical of the Trump administration.

He said the most likely explanation was target misidentification that forces attacked without

realizing there may have been large numbers of civilians inside.

President Trump's firing yesterday of Christie Nome, as the Secretary of Homeland Security,

marked the first time he's ousted a cabinet member this term.

Nome had made herself the face of his aggressive deportation campaign, but she also presided

over a long string of controversies that drew negative attention to the administration

and frustrated White House officials.

Her firing this week comes after her testimony at back-to-back congressional hearings, which

appears to have been the tipping point for the president.

Secretary Nome, we have seen a consistent pattern of lies in deceit from the Department

of Homeland Security under your leadership.

Lawmakers of both parties pressed Nome on how she's run the agency.

You ran a smear campaign against Renee Good.

You called her a domestic terrorist.

The question, the statement she made after immigration agents shot and killed two US citizens

in Minneapolis.

This is what incompetent female leadership looks like, and people are hurting in Western

North Carolina.

And they pushed her on the slow rollout of disaster relief funds.

Some lawmakers also zeroed in on an ad campaign, her department ran, starring her.

You cross the border illegally, we'll find you.

Break our laws, we'll punish you.

One of the ads featured the secretary on horseback in front of Mount Rushmore.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana described the campaign as wasteful, and he

grilled Nome on a pro-publica report about just how much the department spent on the ads.

The president approved ahead of time, you spending $220 million running TV ads across

the country in which you are featured prominently.

Yes, sir.

We went through the legal processes.

Did it correct?

The president worked with OMB?

Yes.

He did.

Yes.

Okay.

It's really this moment where Kennedy is asking this question of Nome and what Trump knew

where Nome connects Trump to this idea of wasteful spending ads.

He doesn't want to be connected to this, and he doesn't want to be used as the justification

and the excuse for this massive amount of money spent on her ad campaign.

My colleague, Hamad Ali Aziz, is on today's episode of The Daily, explaining how Nome

gained and then lost the president's trust.

In a statement on social media, President Trump said he's giving Nome a new job that's

just been created, special envoy for the shield of the Americas, which he said would

be a new security initiative.

He plans to replace her at DHS with Mark Wayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma.

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security, though, is still lapsed.

Yesterday, Senate Democrats blocked another spending bill for the agency.

They continue to say they won't approve anything without new restrictions on immigration

agents.

Democratic Senator Cory Booker said Nome's firing, quote, changes nothing about their position.

This week, the Times released a look at how the number of billionaires in the U.S. has

soared and where all that money is coming from.

Since 2017, the net worth of the wealthiest Americans has grown at a pace unmatched by

any other income group, and the top 1% now collectively own as much stock and mutual funds

as the remaining 99% of the country.

Some of this can be traced back to tax cuts a decade ago.

So one of the things that we found is that the tax cuts that President Trump implemented

during his first term in 2017 really fueled the fortunes of the top 1%.

We found that the richest Americans saw their net worth soar by far more than they had

over any previous similar period in recent history.

And as a result, we saw the number of actual billionaires jump by 50% and now there are

more than 900 in the U.S. alone.

My colleague Katie Banner says the 2017 tax law did a few things that gave obvious benefits

to the wealthy, like allowing owners of private jets to write off the cost of the planes,

and doubling the amount of tax-free money someone can pass along to their heirs.

These things clearly benefit the wealthy.

But what it was that truly fueled the fortunes of the rich was lowering the corporate tax

rate actually.

One of the reasons this helps the rich more is because companies become more profitable.

And instead of using those additional profits to pay workers and invest in the company,

as many had said they would, they actually use that money to buy back stock.

And executives are paid in stock compensation.

So with the stock market soared and the buy back's really juiced prices, the executive

class benefited disproportionately.

And so when we talk about the stock market going up, we talk about it as something that

benefits the broad economy.

But when we actually look at whose pockets it lines and who benefits directly from this,

it is just 1% of the country.

Katie says that moving forward, an urgent question will be how America's billionaires use

their growing influence.

Figures like Elon Musk have sunk record amounts into elections.

President Trump's cabinet now includes 12 billionaires, and many of the other richest

people in the country are increasingly leveraging their wealth for political power.

And finally, the Paralympics are kicking off in Italy for the 50th anniversary of the

games.

Today, though, several countries are boycotting the opening ceremony over a decision to

let Russia participate.

Russian athletes will be competing under their country's flag for the first time since

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine is boycotting, so are officials from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and the

UK.

My colleagues at the Athletic will have full coverage.

In all, more than 600 athletes from around the world will be competing across six sports,

including wheelchair curling, sled hockey, snowboard, and biathlon.

Those are the headlines.

If you'd like to play the Friday news quiz, stick around.

It's just after the credits.

This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.

Animal themed by Dan Powell, special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson,

Miles McKinley, Liz Davis Moore, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schumann.

Now time for the quiz.

Every week, we ask you a few questions about the stories the times has been covering.

Can you get them all?

First up.

This is so dirty.

How is any of this legal?

And it's just another sign of how corrupt and broken our economy has become.

This week, there's been a lot of increased scrutiny on polymarket, one of the world's

largest prediction markets.

On the site, you can bet on all kinds of things you wouldn't typically think you could bet

on.

Like, how many times will Elon Musk tweet today?

Or who will be the next president of Vietnam?

All of the controversy now is because there was a surge in big anonymous bets from people

wagering that a major world event was just about to happen, and they were right.

What was it?

The answer.

Over 150 accounts placed bets last Friday correctly predicting an American strike on

Iran Saturday.

The 11th hour betting totaled almost a million dollars, with one econ professor who studies

prediction markets saying, quote, makes you think it was someone who knew something about

the timing.

It's just the latest instance of people raising concerns about insider trading on prediction

markets, which have become a multi-billion dollar industry.

Okay, next question.

The times has been covering how a device that was huge in the early 2000s has been finding

new fans, even though it's been discontinued for years.

If you are of a certain age, that sound might really take you back.

I'll play it again here.

Your question, what is the device?

A hint?

Maybe you had the classic, the mini?

The answer.

Hypods are cool again, people.

The portable music devices are finding new fans, even among those who were not born yet

when they were first released.

The times talked with young people who said they like the idea of owning their music and

being able to listen to it internet or no internet.

Others said it helped them disconnect from their phones and stop endlessly scrolling.

But the retro tech is not necessarily cheap.

Some sellers on eBay have listed refurbished iPods for nearly $600.

So if you think you might have your old one somewhere, now is the time to check.

And last question.

We are one week out from the Oscars, so you have a little time left to try and catch the

nominees before the awards are announced next Sunday.

This year, there's kind of an interesting trend among the actresses that are nominated.

Three of them got their start on reality TV shows.

We are going to play you clips from those shows from very, very early in their careers.

You try and name the actress.

First one.

Having done a performance like I did on set in range, I think that the girls have sat

off in their seats and gone, she's my competition now.

And you know what?

Good because I want to be somebody's competition.

We do it one, two, three.

The answer?

Jessie Bucky, you are a star.

That is Jessie Buckley competing on the British talent competition.

I'll do anything.

We do not have that show in the US.

She was 18 and she did not win, but she has done okay.

She has nominated this year for her role in Hamnet.

Next one.

I need to make some balls.

I'm a forever at my party.

It was unbelievable.

It took the whole party to another level.

Oh my God.

The rail came in.

It was all nuts.

It was blown away and impressed.

That was...

We're going to celebrate Tiana's birthday.

Tiana Taylor on My Super Suite 16.

It's the MTV show that used to document people's absolutely ridiculous birthday parties.

For the record, she arrived to her party, sealed in a pink box like a life-size Barbie doll.

This year, she's nominated for her role in one battle after another.

Last one.

I tried to tell you but in the movie, it's like a movie on the main one in a seven-screen.

That is...

Here comes Emily Stone!

Who we all know as Emma Stone, competing on a VH1 show called In Search of the Partridge

Family, where they were trying to revive the 70 sitcom about a singing family.

If you recognize the song she's singing there, that was a choice.

That song is nominated this year for her role in Bagonia.

It all just goes to show you that former reality TV stars can do anything in the year 2026.

Bye for an Oscar or run the Department of Transportation.

That's it for the news quiz.

If you want to tell us how you did, our email is the headlines at nytimes.com.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

The show will be back on Monday.