U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed “efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East” in talks at the Vatican on Thursday aimed at easing tensions following U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV. Rubio met with Leo and then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a visit that […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first baby boomer on the Supreme Court hit a milestone on Thursday, becoming the second-longest serving justice in history at a time when his influence has never seemed greater. Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering figure in the conservative legal movement over […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has said it is reviewing the latest American proposals on ending the war, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened the country with a new wave of bombing unless a deal is reached that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping. Hope that the two-month conflict […]
BEIJING (AP) — China’s top diplomat said Thursday that ties with the U.S. have been in general stable despite “many twists and disruptions,” and called on both countries to find a way to contribute to global peace, a week before President Donald Trump is expected to visit. During a meeting with members of a U.S. […]
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to the Vatican and Italy on a fence-mending visit after President Donald Trump’s broadsides against Pope Leo XIV and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran have alienated those allies. Rubio, a practicing Catholic, will have an audience with Leo on Thursday, which was complicated at […]
DETROIT (AP) — For years, Michigan Republicans had circled 2026 as their chance to regain power in the swing state where Democrats hold all statewide offices and both U.S. Senate seats. Now, doubts are creeping in. Surging gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran and tariffs that have hit the state’s auto industry hard have […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s proposal to put a coat of white paint on the exterior of a 19th century historic landmark building next to the White House is slated for a hearing Thursday by a key federal agency he expects to approve what would be a dramatic makeover for the edifice. The proposed […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — One tech investor called him “the only sane” Democrat in the race for California governor. Others have dumped millions to boost his campaign, even paying for a Super Bowl ad to introduce him to voters. He’s against a proposed billionaires’ tax that has the state’s wealthiest residents threatening an exodus. San […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are poised to take up a plan Thursday that could carve up a majority-Black congressional district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the November midterm elections. The redistricting effort […]
PHOENIX (AP) — The Justice Department is aiming to weed out immigration judges that it feels are ruling too slowly or aren’t following the law, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday, as the Trump administration seeks to remake the courts and cut down on the backlog of 3.7 million cases to ease its mass […]
Republicans across several Southern states moved forward with redistricting efforts ahead of the midterm elections, despite protests and fierce opposition from Democrats and civil rights advocates. Lawmakers in Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina debated plans that could reshape majority-Black congressional districts following a recent United States Supreme Court ruling on congressional redistricting. ___ This is […]
NEW YORK (AP) — A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claimed he found after the financier’s first suspected jail suicide attempt was made public Wednesday after it had been sealed and locked in a courthouse vault for nearly five years as part of an unrelated legal dispute. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, […]
ATLANTA (AP) — The federal government doesn’t have to return the 2020 election ballots from Georgia’s Fulton County that were seized by the FBI from a warehouse near Atlanta, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee’s decision came after lawyers for the county had argued that the ballots and other election materials, as […]
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeals court in New York to temporarily block a longtime columnist from collecting an $83 million defamation award. The lawyer, Justin D. Smith, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday to […]
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will discuss cooperation in the fight against organized crime and tariffs with U.S. President Donald Trump, Brazil’s finance minister Dario Durigan said Wednesday, one day ahead of the scheduled meeting between the presidents. “The goal is to protect Brazil’s population, prioritize the country […]
NEW YORK (AP) — The plain, glass-clad building stands six stories between a hotel, a spa and a coffee shop in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood. U.S. prosecutors say it was a secret Chinese spy outpost, with orders from Beijing to silence, harass and intimidate pro-democracy dissidents in the U.S., and a banner inside […]
The Justice Department found Wednesday that the medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions, as the Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of colleges’ processes for selecting students. The finding escalates the Trump administration’s ongoing standoff with UCLA, which has focused mostly on the main campus’s response to allegations […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s approach to the Iran war over the past 24 hours has pinballed from declarations that a tenuous ceasefire was holding and military operations were over to new threats of bombing the Islamic Republic. Tuesday started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining how the U.S. military was protecting stranded ships […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The leading candidates for California governor clashed in a lively debate Tuesday on everything from a proposed tax on billionaires to state-funded healthcare for immigrants in the country illegally. The debate, broadcast on CNN, was one of their last chances to pitch themselves to voters and stand out from the pack […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has agreed to return U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ personal cellphone that was seized as part of an investigation into his campaign finances, signaling it’s abandoning its probe into the staunch Trump supporter that began under the Biden administration. The FBI confiscated the Tennessee Republican’s cellphone in August 2024 to […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed off on a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy that sets eliminating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere as the administration’s highest priority, the White House announced Wednesday. The document was released months after his administration published an updated national security strategy that called for the hemisphere to be […]
The FBI searched the Virginia state Senate president’s office on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation, a person familiar with the matter said. The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead the state’s recent redistricting. The FBI said only that it was conducting a […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of millions of taxpayers who were penalized by the IRS during the coronavirus pandemic for failing to pay their taxes or filing late may qualify for a refund or termination of the penalties they incurred during that period. However, the relief is not automatic or guaranteed, and most taxpayers need to […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington Monument this week made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital. The man will be charged with assaulting a federal officer and discharging a firearm during […]
