Politics

U.S. Ambassador to the Ivory Coast Jessica Davis Ba, left, and Adam Coulibaly, minister of finance ...

US commits $480m in health funding to Ivory Coast, the latest to sign ‘America First’ health deals

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — The United States and Ivory Coast signed a health deal Tuesday requiring the U.S. to commit $480 million to the West African nation’s health sector as part of “America First” global health funding pacts that mirror the Trump administration’s foreign policy. The signing in Ivory Coast’s capital of Abidjan covers […]
8 months ago

Editorial Roundup: United States

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ Dec. 29 The Washington Post on Trump’s China policy, deal with Taiwan The Trump administration’s approval of an $11.1 billion arms sale will help Taiwan gear up for, and therefore deter, a potential Chinese attack. It’s an overdo correction after months of policy changes […]
8 months ago
FILE - Tatiana Schlossberg, second right, granddaughter of President J.F. Kennedy pauses for a mome...

Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died at 35

BOSTON (AP) — Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died. She was 35. Schlossberg, the daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, revealed that she had terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. Her family issued a statement disclosing her death, […]
8 months ago
Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura leave the United States District Court Dist...

DOJ pushed to prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia only after mistaken deportation, judge’s order says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia reveals that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority,” only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee […]
8 months ago
FILE - An EBT SNAP sign is shown on a self check out screen at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, I...

SNAP bans on soda, candy and other foods take effect in five states Jan. 1

Starting Thursday, Americans in five states who get government help paying for groceries will see new restrictions on soda, candy and other foods they can buy with those benefits. Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia are the first of at least 18 states to enact waivers prohibiting the purchase of certain foods through the […]
8 months ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netany...

U.S. sanctions 10 people and firms from Iran and Venezuela over drone and missile trade

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions on 10 people and firms from Iran and Venezuela over allegedly contributing to Iran’s drone trade and ballistics program which the Trump administration says threatens the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. The Treasury Department said the latest measures are intended to support the reimposed United […]
8 months ago
FILE - Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought speaks to reporters at the Wh...

Judge blocks White House’s attempt to defund the CFPB, ensuring employees get paid

NEW YORK (AP) — The White House cannot lapse in its funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal district court judge ruled on Tuesday, only days before funds at the bureau would have likely run out and the consumer finance agency would have no money to pay its employees. Judge Amy Berman ruled […]
8 months ago
FILE - FBI Director Kash Patel White House speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wedne...

Surge in federal officers in Minnesota focuses on alleged fraud at day care centers

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A surge of federal officers in Minnesota follows new allegations of fraud by day care centers run by Somali residents. President Donald Trump has previously linked his administration’s immigration crackdown against Minnesota’s large Somali community to a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which most of the defendants have roots […]
8 months ago
New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, i...

More musicians cancel Kennedy Center concerts following addition of Trump’s name to building

More artists have canceled scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center following the addition of President Donald Trump’s name to the facility, with jazz supergroup The Cookers pulling out of a planned New Year’s Eve concert, and the institution’s president saying the cancellations belie the artists’ unwillingness to see their music as crossing lines of political […]
8 months ago
FILE - Voters fill out their ballots Nov. 4, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)Credit: ...

After quiet off-year elections, Democrats renew worries about Trump interfering in the midterms

If history is a guide, Republicans stand a good chance of losing control of the House of Representatives in 2026. They have just a slim majority in the chamber, and the incumbent party usually gives up seats in midterm elections. President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House halfway through his first term led to […]
8 months ago
FILE - Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrives on stage at the inaugura...

In a tumultuous year, US health policy has been dramatically reshaped under RFK Jr.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the whirlwind first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, some of the most polarizing changes have taken place within the Department of Health and Human Services, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has openly rebuffed the medical establishment as he converts the ideas of his Make America Healthy Again movement into […]
9 months ago
FILE - Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, attends the United Nations General Assembly at Uni...

Iran’s president says response to attack would be harsh in apparent response to Trump warning

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said his country’s answer to an attack would be harsh, which appeared to be in response to a warning by U.S. President Donald Trump over reconstruction of Iran’s nuclear program. “Answer of Islamic Republic of Iran to any cruel aggression will be harsh and discouraging,” […]
9 months ago
FILE - People are seen on the beach and in the water in front of the Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honol...

New 2026 laws are among the first of their kind to tackle climate change, drunken driving

Tourists celebrating the new year in Hawaii could become the first to be taxed to address the consequences of climate change. In Utah, people who party too heartily — and get caught driving drunk — could be among the first to have their driver’s licenses striped red with the label: “No Alcohol Sale.” And motorists […]
9 months ago
A Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jet runs past an airplane fort at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Ta...

China flexes blockade capabilities near Taiwan on second day of military drills

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army staged a second day of large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, unleashing a live-fire show of force as part of what it called “Justice Mission 2025” to demonstrate its ability to deter any external armed support for the self-ruled island that it has long insisted is […]
9 months ago
This combination of undated images provided by Hardman for Iowa and Lucas Loftin on Friday, Dec. 26...

Republicans try to flip an Iowa Senate seat and reclaim a supermajority in year-end special election

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some Iowans are ringing in 2026 with a special election on the final Tuesday of the year, casting ballots for a state senator in a race that offers Republicans an opportunity to reclaim two-thirds control of the chamber. Democrat Renee Hardman faces Republican Lucas Loftin in the special election for […]
9 months ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netany...

US military carries out 30th strike on alleged drug boat

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Monday that it had conducted another strike against a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people. The strike, which was announced by U.S. Southern Command on social media, has brought the total number of known boat strikes to 30 and the number […]
9 months ago

Alicia Johnson to become first Black woman elected to Georgia’s Public Service Commission

ATLANTA (AP) — Alicia Johnson will become the first Black woman elected to a statewide post that isn’t a judgeship in Georgia when she takes office on the state Public Service Commission on Thursday. Johnson held a ceremonial swearing-in Monday in the commission chambers in Atlanta, surrounded by family, friends and supporters. She called her […]
9 months ago
FILE - Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Secur...

Homeland Security says a fraud investigation is underway in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. Noem posted a video on the social platform X showing DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers were “conducting […]
9 months ago
CORRECTS TO HEARING, NOT ARRAIGNMENT - U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., left, speaks t...

Florida congresswoman accused of stealing COVID funds maintains innocence

MIAMI (AP) — U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick reiterated her innocence Monday outside a Miami federal courthouse, where she faces charges of conspiring to steal $5 million in federal COVID-19 disaster funds. Cherfilus-McCormick was scheduled to be arraigned, but her attorney requested the proceeding be rescheduled to Jan. 20 so that she could finalize her legal […]
9 months ago
President Donald Trump attends a joint news conference with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy...

Trump indicates the US ‘hit’ a facility that he tied to alleged drug boats

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has “hit” a facility in South America as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela, but the U.S. offered no other details. Trump made the comments in what seemed to be an impromptu radio interview Friday. The president, who called radio host John Catsimatidis […]
9 months ago
FILE - People carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid that was unloaded from a World Foo...

US pledges $2B for UN humanitarian aid as Trump slashes funding and warns agencies to ‘adapt or die’

GENEVA (AP) — The United States on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to slash U.S. foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies to “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities. The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. […]
9 months ago
Palestinian youth walk along a tent camp for displaced people as the sun sets in Nuseirat, central ...

Trump and Netanyahu are to meet in Florida at a crucial moment for the US-backed Gaza ceasefire

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, as Washington looks to create fresh momentum for a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza that could be in danger of stalling out before a complicated second phase. Trump could use the face-to-face at his Mar-a-Lago estate […]
9 months ago
FILE - New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference, in the Queens boro...

Zohran Mamdani has bold promises. Can he make them come true as New York City mayor?

Zohran Mamdani has promised to transform New York City government when he becomes mayor. Can he do it? Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, already faces intense scrutiny, even before taking office in one of the country’s most scrutinized political jobs. Republicans have cast him as a liberal boogeyman. Some of his fellow Democrats have deemed […]
9 months ago
This courtroom sketch depicts Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Va., the man accused of planting a...

Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he targeted US political parties because they were ‘in charge,’ memo says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol told investigators after his arrest that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that he wanted to target the […]
9 months ago