Politics

FILE - Governor Wanda Vázquez speaks at a press conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 21, 2020....

Trump plans to pardon ex-Puerto Rico Gov. Vázquez on campaign finance violation charge: official

WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House official says President Donald Trump plans to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez. Vázquez pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing was set for later this month. […]
8 months ago
FILE - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks at the National Palace in Mexico City, Nov. 7, 20...

Mexican president highlights ‘compelling results’ in crackdown of cartels in face of Trump threats

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that efforts to crack down on Mexican cartels and slow migration north were showing “compelling results” in an effort to head off intervention talk by the Trump administration. The comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened that U.S. forces “will now start hitting land” […]
8 months ago
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to promote investment in rural health care in the Eas...

Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland. Trump didn’t provide details Friday. Trump says the United States needs Greenland for national security. Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a self-governing territory that is part of the […]
8 months ago
FILE - The U.S. Department of Education building is seen in Washington, on Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo...

The Education Department is opening fewer sexual violence investigations as Trump dismantles it

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before President Donald Trump’s administration started dismantling the Education Department, the agency served as a powerful enforcer in cases of sexual violence at schools and universities. It brought the weight of the government against schools that mishandled sexual assault complaints involving students. That work is quickly fading away. The department’s Office for […]
8 months ago
Urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezue...

Cuba launches mass demonstration to decry US attack on Venezuela and demand Maduro’s release

HAVANA (AP) — Tens of thousands of Cubans demonstrated Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana to decry the killing of 32 Cuban officers in Venezuela and demand that the U.S. government release former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. They crowded into the open-air “José Martí Anti-Imperialist” plaza across from the embassy in a rally organized […]
8 months ago
Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, speaks during a press briefing ...

Legal questions swirl around FDA’s new expedited drug program, including who should give sign off

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration commissioner’s effort to drastically shorten the review of drugs favored by President Donald Trump’s administration is causing alarm across the agency, stoking worries that the plan may run afoul of legal, ethical and scientific standards long used to vet the safety and effectiveness of new medicines. Marty […]
8 months ago
FILE - President Donald Trump gestures to a chart as he speaks at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Dec. 9,...

Are Trump’s supporters getting what they want from his second term? Here’s what a new poll shows

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a year into his second term, President Donald Trump’s work on the economy hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many people in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC survey. The poll from a stunning level of turmoil at home and abroad. Just 16% of Republicans say Trump […]
8 months ago
Meta's Stanton Springs Data Center is seen Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Newton County, East of Atlant...

How the White House and governors want to fix AI-driven power shortages and price spikes

The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the operator of the mid-Atlantic power grid to take urgent steps to boost energy supply and curb price hikes, holding a Friday event aimed at addressing a rising concern among voters about the enormous amount of power used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections […]
8 months ago
Anam Petit, a former Justice Department employee, poses for a portrait in the Robert and Arlene Kog...

Inside a year of firings that have shaken the Trump Justice Department: ‘A great deal of fear’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Ben’Ary was driving one of his children to soccer practice on an October evening last year when he paused at a red light to check his work phone. He was in the middle of a counterterrorism prosecution so important that President Donald Trump highlighted it in his State of the Union […]
8 months ago
FILE - A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is seen as President Donald Trump signs executive order...

Trump isn’t waiting for future generations to name things after him. It’s happening now

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor. Donald Trump isn’t leaving it to future generations. As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of […]
8 months ago
FILE - A voter leaves Albion Town hall after casting their ballot on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, in...

Judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit seeking detailed voter information from California

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against California that sought detailed voting records and personal data on its 23 million registered voters, concluding that the government’s request was “unprecedented and illegal.” The Trump administration’s lawsuit, filed last year, contended that California and other states […]
8 months ago
FILE - Employees sort vote-by-mail ballots from municipal elections on Election Day at the Miami-Da...

Senators worry that US Postal Service changes could disenfranchise voters who cast ballots by mail

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A group of Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter Thursday to the U.S. Postal Service, voicing concern that mail processing changes could affect postmark dates for mail-in ballots during an election year that will determine control of Congress. Updated agency policy says postmarks might not indicate the first day the Postal […]
8 months ago
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is welcomed as she arrives for meetings in the of...

Photos show Venezuela caught between Machado’s diplomacy and Rodríguez’s rule

WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado met with U.S. President Donald Trump, presenting him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal and praising his support for Venezuelan democracy, even as Trump has signaled a willingness to work with the country’s acting president. As Machado was in Washington, acting President Delcy Rodríguez delivered her […]
8 months ago

Ex-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema sued for allegedly breaking up bodyguard’s marriage

PHOENIX (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema had a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail that led to the breakup of the man’s marriage, his ex-wife alleges in a lawsuit seeking at least $75,000 from Sinema. Matthew and Heather Ammel had “a good and loving marriage” with “genuine love and affection” […]
8 months ago
FILE - Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out stands outside the Andrew W. Bogue Federal...

Oglala Sioux president walks back claims of DHS pressure, member arrests

The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back claims he made in a memo and press release earlier this week that immigration enforcement arrested four tribal members and that the federal government tried to extract an “immigration agreement” out of the tribe in return for information about their members’ whereabouts. The U.S. Department […]
8 months ago
The U.S. Capitol is seen at sunset, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree N...

Senate passes more spending bills, but Homeland Security dispute looms

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is halfway home in approving government funding for the current budget year that began Oct. 1 after the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a three-bill package. Now comes the hard part. Lawmakers still must negotiate a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security amid soaring tensions on Capitol Hill after […]
8 months ago
President Donald Trump answers questions after signing a bill that returns whole milk to school caf...

Trump’s Insurrection Act threat stands out against the law’s long history

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump would not be the first president to invoke the Insurrection Act, as he has threatened, so that he can send U.S. military forces to Minnesota. But he’d be the only commander in chief to use the 19th-century law to send troops to quell protests that started because of federal officers […]
8 months ago
FILE - Betsy McCaughey speaks Jan. 23, 2016, at the New Hampshire Republican Party summit in Nashua...

Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey now running for Connecticut governor

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Betsy McCaughey, a Republican former lieutenant governor of New York who switched parties in an unsuccessful 1998 bid to unseat then-Gov. George Pataki, is now running for governor of Connecticut. McCaughey, 77, currently a conservative host on Newsmax and columnist for the New York Post, filed the official paperwork on Thursday […]
8 months ago
FILE - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building is seen, April 5, 2009, in Washing...

Confusion erupts in mental health and substance abuse programs as HHS cuts, then reinstates grants

NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth Woike was cautiously optimistic when she saw news reports that the nearly $2 billion in grants that the Trump administration pulled from substance abuse and mental health programs around the country the previous day might be getting reinstated. Then she got a 2 a.m. email Thursday from the Substance Abuse […]
8 months ago
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefin...

Middle East allies in blitz of diplomacy urged Trump to hold off on Iran strikes, diplomat says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter. Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 […]
8 months ago
FILE - A GI with the U.S. 25th division reads Stars and Stripes newspaper at Cu Chi, South Vietnam ...

Defense Department says military newspaper Stars and Stripes must eliminate ‘woke distractions’

The Pentagon said Thursday that it is changing the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes so it concentrates on “reporting for our warfighters” and no longer includes “woke distractions.” That message, in a social media post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spokesman, is short on specifics and does not mention the news outlet’s legacy of […]
8 months ago
A woman covers her face from tear gas as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside B...

As immigration agents police Minneapolis protests, experts warn of training gaps and the rising risk

Federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics — including pointing rifles at demonstrators and deploying chemical irritants early in confrontations — actions the government says are necessary to protect officers from violent attacks. But law enforcement experts warn these measures are escalating risk and being carried out by agents without extensive […]
8 months ago
FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams talks to the press in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Gu...

Inside the botched launch of ex-NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ new crypto token

NEW YORK (AP) — For a moment, Eric Adams was riding high. Fresh off trips to Dubai and the Democratic Republican of Congo, the now jobless ex-mayor of New York City was back in Times Square on Monday to announce his first initiative as a private citizen: a new cryptocurrency coin that would also serve […]
8 months ago
Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd testifies during a Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill,...

General tapped to lead US operations in Latin America grilled over presence in region

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Marine Corps general tapped to lead U.S. military operations in Latin America told lawmakers Thursday that he stands ready to oversee an expanded presence that began ahead of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s capture — but he doesn’t know how long that enhanced focus will last. If confirmed by the Senate, Lt. […]
8 months ago