Politics

President Donald Trump, left, speaks during a meet withGermany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, not pic...

State Dept says current US visas from travel ban countries will not be revoked

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department instructed U.S. embassies and consulates on Friday not to revoke visas previously issued to people from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries now under President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, which goes into effect next week. In a cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic missions, the department said […]
1 year ago
FILE - This undated photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio...

US charges Kilmar Abrego Garcia with transporting illegal immigrants into the country

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been charged with in the United States with transporting illegal immigrants into the country, nearly three months after the Trump administration mistakenly deported him to his native El Salvador. The human trafficking charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of […]
1 year ago
FILE - A drone carries a mortar shell as soldiers take part in the U.S.-led Immediate Response 25 m...

Trump’s new drone orders aim to counter threats while encouraging flying cars and supersonic flights

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to counter the threats drones pose to national security under new rules released Friday, while also aiming to make it easier for Americans to fly faster than the speed of sound and expedite the development of the flying cars of the future. The three executive orders will encourage […]
1 year ago
FILE - People walk around the California State Capitol, Aug. 5, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Pho...

Power bills in California have jumped nearly 50% in four years. Democrats think they have solutions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers this week advanced several efforts aimed at reining in utility profits and slashing electricity bills as part of their agenda to tackle the sky-high costs of living. The proposals would make sweeping changes to how utilities fund expensive infrastructure projects like putting power lines underground to guard against wildfires. […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Fraternal Order of Police in the State Dinn...

U.S., Chinese officials to meet in London next week for new round of trade talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, President Donald Trump said Friday. The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, which the U.S. president described as […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a summer soiree on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesda...

Trump once opened the door to the LGBTQ+ community. Now activists say he’s their top threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he first ran for office, Donald Trump appeared to be a new kind of Republican when it came to gay rights. Years earlier, he overturned the rules of his own Miss Universe pageant to allow a transgender contestant to compete. He said Caitlyn Jenner could use any bathroom at Trump Tower […]
1 year ago
Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gives his opening remarks during a Senate Committee o...

Senate Republicans revise ban on state AI regulations in bid to preserve controversial provision

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have made changes to their party’s sweeping tax bill in hopes of preserving a new policy that would prevent states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. In legislative text unveiled Thursday night, Senate Republicans proposed denying states federal funding for broadband projects if they regulate AI. That’s a change […]
1 year ago
Points of Light president and CEO Jennifer Sirangelo and Neil Bush, chair, speak at the 2025 Points...

Points of Light, founded by the Bush family, aims to double American volunteerism by 2035

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Bush family’s nonprofit Points of Light will lead an effort to double the number of people who volunteer with U.S. charitable organizations from 75 million annually to 150 million in 10 years. The ambitious goal, announced in New Orleans at the foundation’s annual conference, which concluded Friday, would represent a […]
1 year ago
Workers put up fencing around Dupont Circle ahead of the World Pride Parade, Friday, June 6, 2025, ...

As World Pride flows straight into the military parade, DC officials say they’re ready for anything

WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials in the nation’s capital generally express full confidence in their ability to handle large, complicated events and huge crowds. As Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith recently put it, “We are really the experts in this space when it comes to crowd management.” Over the next eight days. in the sprawling […]
1 year ago

Billion-dollar battery plant pauses construction amid electric vehicle and tariff uncertainty

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Japanese company has halted construction on a $1.6 billion factory in South Carolina to help make batteries for electric BMWs, citing “policy and market uncertainty.” While AESC didn’t specify what those problems are, South Carolina’s Republican governor said the company is dealing with the potential loss of federal tax breaks […]
1 year ago
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott A...

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to leave mass layoffs at Education Department in place

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of President Donald Trump’s dismantle the agency. The Justice Department’s emergency appeal to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded […]
1 year ago
FILE - A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer listens during a briefing, Jan. 27, 2025,...

Migrants and ICE officers contend with heat, smog and illness after detoured South Sudan flight

WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants placed on a deportation flight originally bound for South Sudan are now being held in a converted shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, where the men and their guards are contending with baking hot temperatures, smoke from nearby burn pits and the looming threat of rocket attacks, the […]
1 year ago

New York legislators vote to preserve media access to encrypted police radio communications

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state lawmakers have passed a bill to preserve media access to police radio feeds as law enforcement agencies increasingly encrypt their communications. The proposal, which was approved Thursday, would require police departments to grant journalists and emergency services organizations access to their encrypted radio communications. The bill allows for […]
1 year ago
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers a speech at the US cemetery to commemorate the 81st an...

Pentagon watchdog investigates if staffers were asked to delete Hegseth’s Signal messages

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon watchdog is looking into whether any of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s aides was asked to delete Signal messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a reporter, according to two people familiar with the investigation and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. The inspector general’s request focuses on how […]
1 year ago
FILE - The exterior of a Sheetz store in Altoona, Pa., is shown Friday, Feb. 23, 2007. (J.D. Cavric...

Government moves to drop Sheetz discrimination case as Trump targets key civil rights tool

Federal authorities are moving to drop a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Sheetz convenience store chain, part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to halt the use of a key tool for enforcing the country’s civil rights laws. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws, confirmed it has begun […]
1 year ago

The Latest: Trump-Musk relationship appears to implode

After long months when Trump and Musk appeared united in their chaotic mission to remake Washington, their relationship imploded this week. It began with Musk complaining about the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, which the president at first took in stride. Eventually , Trump let slip that he was disappointed in his former adviser, prompting […]
1 year ago
Steven Muleme, of Uganda, Executive Director of Visual Echoes for Human Rights Advocacy (VEHRA), Es...

Global LGBTQ+ advocates gather ‘on Trump’s doorstep’ at World Pride despite travel anxiety

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days before she was to deliver opening remarks to World Pride’s human rights conference in Washington, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, the co-founder of UK Black Pride, said she was denied entry to the United States after her visa was revoked due to her travels to Cuba earlier this year. Opoku-Gyimah, widely known as Lady […]
1 year ago
Kim Wilcox casts his ballot in the Omaha municipal election at Black Elk Elementary School, Tuesday...

Federal vs. state power at issue in a hearing over Trump’s election overhaul executive order

BOSTON (AP) — Democratic state attorneys general on Friday will seek to block President Donald Trump’s proposal for a sweeping overhaul of U.S. elections in a case that tests a constitutional bedrock — the separation of powers. The top law enforcement officials from 19 states filed a federal lawsuit after the Republican president signed the […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump, seated and center, listens during a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commi...

Takeaways from AP’s report on the business interests of Trump’s surgeon general pick

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick to be U.S. surgeon general has repeatedly said the nation’s medical and food systems are corrupted by special interests and people out to make a profit at the expense of Americans’ health. Yet as Dr. Casey Means has criticized scientists, medical schools and regulators for taking money […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the Whi...

Trump and Musk break up, and Washington holds its breath

WASHINGTON (AP) — Maybe it was always going to end this way, with two billionaires angrily posting about each other on social media, fingers flying across pocket-sized screens as their incandescent feud burned hotter by the minute. But even if the finale was predictable, that didn’t make it any less shocking. After long months when […]
1 year ago
FILE - Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer, left, and journalist Megyn Kelly, attend a confirmat...

Trump’s surgeon general pick criticizes others’ conflicts but profits from wellness product sales

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next U.S. surgeon general has repeatedly said the nation’s medical, health and food systems are corrupted by special interests and people out to make a profit at the expense of Americans’ health. Yet as Dr. Casey Means has criticized scientists, medical schools and regulators […]
1 year ago
FILE - In this image taken from police body camera footage provided by Los Angeles Sheriff's office...

Officer who used excessive force allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor after felony conviction

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy will serve four months in prison on a misdemeanor conviction for using excessive force after the new Trump-appointed U.S. attorney offered an unusual plea deal despite a jury convicting him of a felony. The victim’s attorney asked a federal appeals court to reinstate the felony conviction, […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks as he holds a box containing a key before presenting it to Elon Musk,...

The implosion of a powerful political alliance: Trump and Musk in their own words

Last Friday, President Donald Trump heaped praise on Elon Musk as the tech billionaire prepared to leave his unorthodox White House job. Less than a week later, their potent political alliance met a dramatic end Thursday when the men attacked each other with blistering epithets. Trump threatened to go after Musk’s business interests. Musk called […]
1 year ago
FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Col...

Detained Columbia graduate claims ‘irreparable harm’ to career and family as he pleads for release

NEW YORK (AP) — A Columbia graduate facing deportation over his pro-Palestinian activism on campus has outlined the “irreparable harm” caused by his continued detention as a federal judge weighs his release. Mahmoud Khalil said in court filings unsealed Thursday that the “most immediate and visceral harms” he’s faced in his months detained in Louisiana […]
1 year ago