Politics

This photo made with a smartphone shows Independent Alaska U.S. House candidate Bill Hill, who is c...

A small-town Alaska fisherman has Republicans on the defensive as they try to keep US House majority

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — In the thick of Alaska’s primary election season this summer, independent Bill Hill took a break from his U.S. House campaign to return home to Bristol Bay. The world’s biggest sockeye salmon run was beginning, and that meant he needed to get back to work. “I told my team that I […]
23 days ago
Walter Usakowski, from left, a retired worker from the Ford Motor Co.'s Sterling Axe Plant who plan...

The United Auto Workers tries to reassert political power in Michigan as it faces internal divisions

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Walter Usakowski was mowing his lawn in a northern suburb of Detroit when three canvassers from the United Auto Workers approached. “I don’t even need to talk to you,” Usakowski said. As a retired member, he was already supporting the union’s slate of Democratic candidates in the Nov. 3 midterms. […]
24 days ago
President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday Sept. 29, 2026, during a...

In Silicon Valley, AI founders cheer Trump’s calls for the industry to police itself on safety

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tech Week is in full bloom in San Francisco, packing the city’s restaurants this week with venture capitalists and AI founders ebullient about the White House’s stance on regulating artificial intelligence — namely, don’t do it. And after months of debate about leading AI companies’ unchecked AI agents meddling with everything […]
24 days ago
Rescue workers carry a body after pulling from the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a ...

Russian attacks kill 7 in Ukraine after Trump strikes diesel deal with Putin

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, officials said Saturday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel that Kyiv warned would help bankroll Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Three children were among the seven people killed when Russian aerial bombs hit […]
24 days ago
President Donald Trump departs a campaign rally at the Oncenter, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Syracuse,...

Trump and Iran agree on one thing. The US election calendar isn’t driving their decisions on the war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Iran’s leadership appear to agree on one thing about their seven-month-old war: they each insist the U.S. election calendar isn’t motivating them to find an end to it. Persistent inflation and high gas prices fueled by the conflict have driven widespread American disapproval of the war — a […]
24 days ago
A motorist drives past a sign posting the per-gallon prices for regular unleaded and diesel fuel at...

Boosting US oil supplies with Russian diesel unlikely to have much impact on prices, experts say

A new pact that calls for Russia to boost the U.S. supply of diesel over the next few months is unlikely to make a dent in painfully high prices at the pump or elsewhere, energy policy experts say. President Donald Trump announced Friday that he had struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to […]
24 days ago
FILE - White House staff members remove monitors in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the Whit...

Trump names commentator Katie Zacharia of his media company as next White House press secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that Katie Zacharia, a communications adviser for his media company, will succeed Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. Trump revealed his selection of Zacharia on his Truth Social platform, where he often makes political and official announcements. Zacharia is a conservative commentator for Trump Media & […]
24 days ago
FILE - The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a news conference, May 4, 202...

Justice Department won’t enforce registration rules on silencers and certain guns after court ruling

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department moved Friday to allow more people to purchase firearm suppressors — known as silencers — short-barreled rifles and certain other guns without registering them with the federal government following a court ruling that struck down provisions of a key law. The Trump administration announced the broad enforcement policy changes […]
24 days ago
The price of a gallon of diesel fuel is shown electronically on a pump at a QuikTrip station Thursd...

Trump says US to get diesel from Russia, relaxing pressure on Moscow to ease prices before midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said that he has struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Trump said on social media on Friday that […]
24 days ago
U.S. Senate candidates Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and Rep. Josh Turek, D-Council Bluffs, take ques...

Republicans once raced to embrace Trump. Their debate answers tell a different story now

ATLANTA (AP) — Not long ago, Georgia gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson eagerly compared himself to his fellow billionaire in the Oval Office. He promised to be Donald Trump “with a Southern tone.” And sharing a summer rally stage, Jackson pointed at the president and declared, “I’m going to be this man’s favorite governor.” On the […]
24 days ago
FILE - A general view of the exterior of the International Criminal Court is seen in The Hague, Net...

US hits International Criminal Court with sweeping sanctions as part of drive to dismantle tribunal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel. The move drew immediate rebukes from around the world, including from U.S. allies. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced […]
24 days ago
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally in support of California Proposition 40,...

Top Democrats join the wealthiest in fighting a California tax increase on billionaires

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It is not just tech moguls and venture capitalists fighting a California proposal to tax the net worth of billionaires, even though they are putting up the majority of the money in one of the most expensive ballot fights in state history. Lining up alongside them is a coalition of prominent […]
24 days ago

ICE officers shot New York man because they believed they were in danger

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal immigration officers opened fire on a Dominican man whom they were trying to arrest in New York because they believed their lives were in danger, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Friday. Marcos Charles made the comments Friday alongside U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other immigration officials […]
24 days ago
Crew members work on deck after hauling in a catch aboard the F/V Progress in the Bering Sea off th...

Takeaways from AP’s report on Alaska’s growing fight over trawling and bycatch

THE BERING SEA (AP) — Alaska pollock is the second-largest fishery on Earth and supplies everything from McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwiches to fish sticks and imitation crab. The fishery uses methods that it — catch other marine life, too. That bycatch — the marine life caught unintentionally while fishers target something else — has become especially […]
24 days ago
Crew members haul in a catch aboard the F/V Progress in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, Wed...

The fish behind America’s fish sticks is fueling a fight over trawling in Alaska

THE BERING SEA (AP) — The net rose from the heaving Bering Sea swells, packed so tightly with Alaska pollock that their heads squeezed through the webbing. As the catch spilled onto the deck, other dead marine life came with it: a skate, crabs, jellyfish and, among the most consequential, salmon — the fish at […]
24 days ago
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani talks during a news conference near the scene of a shooting on T...

The Latest: NYC Mayor Mamdani calls on Trump to halt ICE operations in the city after man is shot

A federal immigration officer shot a Dominican man in the neck as he drove in a car with a 5-year-old boy Thursday afternoon, officials said. An irate New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an outrage, and spent two hours Thursday night pressing President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to release […]
24 days ago
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York speaks during a news conference at the Capitol ...

Democrats eye return to power with many of the same faces crafting their agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats hope to bring a new agenda to the House next year if they take the majority, but they will most likely do so with many of the same faces that have steered their party’s legislative work for a decade or more. Potential committee chairs in the next Congress include Rep. Bennie […]
24 days ago
FILE - President Donald Trump, left, shakes the hand of Bruce Blakeman, the executive of Nassau Cou...

In New York governor’s race, a Republican rallies with Trump and leans into his political playbook

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — In his campaign to become the next governor of New York, Republican Bruce Blakeman has suggested Democrats might steal the election, played up fears about immigrant criminals and posted AI-generated videos depicting the state as dangerous and unaffordable. And on Friday night, he’ll rally with President Donald Trump in Syracuse. It […]
25 days ago
FILE - An, " I Voted Today," sticker is stuck to an information sign at Olbrich Gardens, Aug. 11, 2...

The midterms stakes are high for these 2028 presidential prospects

NEW YORK (AP) — As most of the political world focuses on next month’s midterm elections, the shadow primary for the 2028 presidential contest is quietly playing out in public view. Democratic and Republican presidential prospects have been crisscrossing the country, raising money and tapping their political connections to help boost their parties’ candidates — […]
25 days ago
Bill Addington reacts as he visits a border wall construction area near his property, Wednesday, Se...

PHOTO ESSAY: A border wall rises in Texas’ Big Bend region but opponents push back

TERLINGUA, Texas (AP) — A tall steel barrier rises over the brush in Texas’ Hudspeth County. Erected in mid-September, it is the first piece of border wall in Texas’ Big Bend region, a remote stretch of territory where landowners have mounted a major fight against President Donald Trump’s signature infrastructure project. Landowners worry that the […]
25 days ago
Goats graze along the Pecos river near it's confluence with the Rio Grande river at the border with...

How Texas landowners are fighting back against Trump’s border wall

RUIDOSA, Texas (AP) — The message from the Trump administration has been clear: It is moving ahead with a $46 billion border wall project stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. But in Texas’ Big Bend region, the administration has run up against intense opposition from landowners, many of whom are unwilling […]
25 days ago
In this photo released by the Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, right, shakes han...

EU and China strike interim trade deal that could cut Chinese hybrid exports, EU envoy says

HONG KONG (AP) — The top trade envoys for China and the European Union agreed Friday on a broad initial deal following two days of talks aimed at calming escalating tensions over trade imbalances, the EU trade commissioner said. Neither side provided clear details on the preliminary deal, but European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic […]
25 days ago
FILE - U.N. human rights chief Navanethem Pillay prior to the opening of a session of the Human Rig...

Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in international justice

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Former U.N. human rights chief Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a judge on the International Court of Justice, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway. The South Africa-born Pillay, 85 years old, was recognized for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the […]
25 days ago
President Donald Trump greets Republican U.S. Senate candidate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at...

Trump wants Talarico and Paxton to debate. Talarico couldn’t be happier

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Democratic nominee James Talarico stopped holding campaign events in the Texas Senate race, his Republican opponent Ken Paxton saw an opening to pounce. “Where is James Talarico?” he called out Wednesday during a rally with President Donald Trump in San Antonio. But that night, while flying back to Washington on Air […]
25 days ago