Politics

FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2014, file photo, lawyer Brad Karp leaves federal court in Philadelphia. (A...

Chairman of prominent law firm Paul Weiss resigns after release of emails linking him to Epstein

Brad Karp, chairman of one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, has resigned from his position after the release of emails revealing his exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein, a high-profile departure in the fallout among those with ties to the late convicted sex offender. A statement Wednesday from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton did […]
7 months ago
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, leaves the White Hous...

Trump administration to launch TrumpRx website for discounted drugs

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday will launch TrumpRx, a website it says will help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers at a discounted rate at a time when health care and the cost of living are growing concerns for Americans. The government-hosted website is not expected to be a platform […]
7 months ago
El Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and detention center, stands in ...

A glimmer of hope for democracy in Venezuela as opponents test the limits of free speech

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Andrés Velásquez didn’t stick around to become one more government critic jailed after Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election. A former governor who had crisscrossed Venezuela stumping for then-President Nicolás Maduro’s opponent in the disputed race, he grew a thick beard, sent his children into exile and avoided public events that could expose […]
7 months ago
FILE - New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference with New York Mayor Zohran M...

Mamdani endorses Hochul for reelection as New York governor

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Gov. Kathy Hochul for reelection on Thursday, offering the moderate governor some progressive heft as she faces a challenge from her political left in her campaign for a second full term in office. In an op-ed in The Nation, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, noted […]
7 months ago
FILE - Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks at the Center for American Progress, June 26, 2025, in ...

Slotkin rejects Justice Department request for interview on Democrats’ video about ‘illegal orders’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan is refusing to voluntarily comply with a Justice Department investigation into a video she organized urging U.S. military members to resist “illegal orders” — escalating a dispute that President Donald Trump has publicly pushed. In letters first obtained by The Associated Press, Slotkin’s lawyer informed U.S. […]
7 months ago
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a spending bill that ends a partial shutdo...

The Latest: Democrats demand ‘dramatic changes’ for ICE

Democrats are threatening to block funding for the Homeland Security Department when it expires in two weeks unless there are “dramatic changes” and “real accountability” for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies who are carrying out President Donald Trump’s campaign of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota and across the country. It’s […]
7 months ago
FILE - The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a press conference, May 6, 20...

Justice Department steps up pressure on cartels’ financial networks as launderers turn to crypto

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is taking direct aim at the financial lifelines of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels, targeting money brokers who prosecutors say have adapted to intensified enforcement by increasingly routing drug profits through cryptocurrency from American cities to cartel leaders in Mexico. The cases of four defendants recently sent from Mexico […]
7 months ago
Muhammed Emanet pours Turkish tea for a guest at the Jersey Kebab restaurant, Thursday, Jan. 29, 20...

The detention of New Jersey kebab shop owners sparked change. Deportation still looms

COLLINGSWOOD, N.J. (AP) — The shawarma, falafel wraps and baklava at Jersey Kebab are great, but many of its patrons are also there these days for a side of protest. A New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia has rallied around the restaurant’s Turkish owners since federal officers detained the couple last February because they say their […]
7 months ago
FILE - This photo taken from a video distributed on Dec. 9, 2020 by the Russian Defense Ministry Pr...

The last US-Russia nuclear pact expires, prompting fears of a new arms race

MOSCOW (AP) — The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. The termination of the New START Treaty could set the stage for what many fear could be an unconstrained nuclear […]
7 months ago
Former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. speaks during an event where he was endorsed by the Southlan...

Jesse Jackson Jr. pitches redemption in bid for old House seat years after campaign fraud conviction

COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (AP) — As Jesse Jackson Jr. campaigns for his old U.S. House seat at Chicago-area churches, banquet halls and on Black radio shows, he often takes a moment to address the obvious matter hanging over his political comeback. The son of the civil rights icon tries to bring it up first: […]
7 months ago
Vice President JD Vance waves as he and second lady Usha Vance board Air Force Two to travel to the...

Vance heads overseas for the Winter Olympics. Then he’ll stop in Armenia and Azerbaijan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance is heading overseas on a trip combining diplomacy and sports, leading President Donald Trump’s delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and afterward stopping in Armenia and Azerbaijan in a show of support for a peace agreement brokered by the White House last year. The weeklong trip may be […]
7 months ago
FILE - New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill waves during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesd...

New Jersey Democrats pick from crowded field in special election for Sherrill’s US House seat

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Democratic voters are picking their party’s candidate from a crowded field in Thursday’s special election for the U.S. House seat opened up by Mikie Sherrill’s victory in the race for governor. Sherrill stepped down from representing the 11th District after she won last year, opening up this competitive race […]
7 months ago

Taiwan-US ties are ‘rock solid,’ the island’s president says after Trump-Xi call

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s ties with the United States are “rock solid,” the island’s president said Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about topics that included the self-ruled island’s future. “The Taiwan-U.S. relationship is rock solid, and all cooperation projects will continue uninterrupted,” Taiwan President […]
7 months ago
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29...

What to know as Iran and US set for nuclear talks in Oman

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States will hold talks Friday in Oman, their latest over Tehran’s nuclear program after Israel launched a 12-day war on the country in June and the Islamic Republic launched a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. U.S. President Donald Trump has kept up pressure on Iran, […]
7 months ago
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks during a House Financial Services Committee hearing ...

On Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Bessent’s testimony descends into insults and shouting matches

WASHINGTON (AP) — A hearing about oversight of the U.S. financial system devolved into insults several times Wednesday as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clashed with Democratic lawmakers over fiscal policy, the business dealings of the Trump family and other issues. Appearances by treasury secretaries on Capitol Hill are more typically known for staid exchanges over […]
7 months ago
Chinese national Guan Heng, 38, shown, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2025 in Binghamton, New York, has been re...

Chinese national who exposed rights abuses is freed from US detention after being granted asylum

WASHINGTON (AP) — Guan Heng, a Chinese national who exposed human rights abuses in his homeland, has been released from federal detention more than five months after being swept up in the Trump administration’s mass immigration enforcement operation. Guan was released and reunited with his mother on Tuesday, nearly a week after being granted asylum […]
7 months ago
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, seated at center, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, st...

CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool

WASHINGTON (AP) — Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual. The Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions. First launched in 1962 as a printed, classified reference manual for intelligence […]
7 months ago
FILE - An aerial view shows houses being rebuilt on cleared lots months after the Palisades Fire, D...

EPA administrator outlines Trump’s plan speed up rebuilding of homes destroyed by LA wildfires

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trump administration officials traveled to Los Angeles on Wednesday to outline the president’s plan to override state and local rules and speed up the permitting process for reconstruction of tens of thousands of homes destroyed by last year’s wildfires. Last week the president signed an executive order that the White House […]
7 months ago
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files...

Epstein files rife with uncensored nudes and victims names, despite redaction efforts

NEW YORK (AP) — Nude photos. The names and faces of sexual abuse victims. Bank account and social security numbers in full view. All of these things appeared in the mountain of documents released publicly by the U.S. Justice Department as part of its effort to comply with a law requiring it to open its […]
7 months ago

Trump taking steps toward installing a Columbus statue near the White House

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking steps toward installing near the White House a replica of a statue of famed explorer Christopher Columbus that had been tossed into Baltimore’s harbor during his first term amid protests against institutional racism. John Pica, a Maryland lobbyist and president of the Italian American Organizations United, […]
7 months ago
FILE - President Barack Obama, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Rep. Lee...

Former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, leader of Sept. 11 panel, dies

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, a crewcut-wearing Indiana Democrat who was a leading foreign affairs voice during three decades in Congress and helped oversee investigations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, died Tuesday. He was 94. Hamilton, who also led a congressional probe of the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra affair while representing a […]
7 months ago
FILE - In this March 12, 2020, file photo, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gives a press confer...

Argentina requests extradition of Maduro from the US on crimes against humanity charges

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge on Wednesday requested the extradition from the United States of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by the U.S. military last month and now faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine in New York. The inquest from Argentina, whose judges have aggressively […]
7 months ago
A worker clears snow at the U.S. Supreme Court after a snowstorm Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Washingt...

Supreme Court refuses to block new California congressional districts that favor Democrats

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration. The justices had previously allowed Texas’ Republican-friendly map to be used in 2026, despite a lower court ruling […]
7 months ago
An person is detained by federal agents on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Mu...

Government lawyer yanked from immigration detail in Minnesota after telling judge ‘this job sucks’

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government lawyer who told a judge that her job “sucks” during a court hearing stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota has been removed from her Justice Department post, according to a person familiar with the matter. Julie Le had been working for the Justice Department on a […]
7 months ago