Fri 30 Oct
LiveGet it free
ZOTPAPER

News without the noise

US Politics

US politics: the White House, Congress, the courts and the elections.

1025 articles · page 13 of 22

AllAustraliaUS PoliticsGeopolitics
Viewgridlistcompact
US Politics

Experts Warn Trump Administration Could Disrupt Midterm Vote Counting Process

Election experts have warned that Donald Trump’s administration could use the crucial hours and days after polls close in November’s midterm elections to disrupt the results, after suffering a series of court defeats in its attempts to restrict voting access. Former deputy homeland security adviser Caitlin Durkovich said the administration may turn to claims of foreign interference to justify seizing voting equipment or ballots, regardless of legal authority.

·2 min
US Politics

White House Report Accuses Smithsonian of 'Ideological Capture' Over Franklin Slavery Exhibit

The Trump administration has launched a broadside against the Smithsonian Institution, releasing a 162-page White House report that accuses the National Museum of American History of ‘ideological capture’ and excessive political activism. The report, published in July, singles out a now-closed exhibit called ‘The Electric Dr. Franklin,’ which suggested that Benjamin Franklin’s electrical experiments may have been aided by enslaved people in his household, as emblematic of what critics see as a departure from straightforward historical education.

·2 min
US Politics

Christa Pike Asks Loved Ones to Stay Away as Execution Nears

Christa Pike, Tennessee's only woman on death row, has asked her loved ones not to attend her execution on Wednesday, a friend has said, as the state prepares to carry out what would be its first execution of a woman in more than 200 years. Ashlee Sellars said Pike texted her from her cell this week and told her she did not want any of her loved ones present when she is put to death by lethal injection. Pike's lawyers have filed a clemency petition seeking to commute her sentence ahead of the 30 September date.

·2 min·2 sources
US Politics

New US bill would force ISPs, DNS services, and VPNs to block foreign piracy sites

A new bill introduced in the U.S. Congress, the American Copyright Protection Act of 2026 (H.R. 10364), would require internet service providers, DNS resolvers, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to block foreign websites or services hosting pirated content. The bill creates a court-ordered blocking process, with a special fast-track for live-streamed events, and exempts small providers with fewer than 100,000 monthly users. However, the legislation leaves key definitions—particularly around what constitutes a connection "from the United States"—vague, raising concerns about how it would apply to VPNs and content delivery networks.

·2 min
US Politics

'We didn't allow our child to play outside': US judges report rising safety threats under Trump's second term

A growing number of US federal judges say their jobs have become significantly more dangerous under President Donald Trump's second term, citing a surge in threatening phone calls, online doxing, and safety fears for their families, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice. The US Marshals Service recorded a 57 per cent increase in security incidents of significant concern in the 2025 fiscal year, with further rises forecast for 2026.

·2 min
US Politics

Supreme Court lifts block on Trump citizenship database, but quiet period limits midterm use

The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a lower court's injunction against the Trump administration's overhauled immigration database — known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) — allowing it to be used to check voter rolls for noncitizens. However, federal law imposes a 90-day 'quiet period' before elections that likely restricts immediate use ahead of November's midterms, limiting the ruling's practical impact.

·2 min·10 sources
US Politics

Survey Finds More Americans View China Favorably as Xi Jinping Visits Trump White House

A new Pew Research Center survey reveals that more Americans hold a positive view of China than in 2021, coinciding with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to the United States in more than a decade. The improvement in sentiment comes as President Donald Trump welcomes Xi to the White House while simultaneously enforcing a partial media ban that has drawn criticism from press freedom advocates.

·2 min·3 sources
US Politics

Netanyahu Defiant at UN as Delegates Walk Out and Police Arrest Sarandon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a combative address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, defending his country's military campaigns in the Middle East while dozens of delegates staged a walkout in protest. The speech was accompanied by large demonstrations in New York City, where police arrested several prominent figures, including actor Susan Sarandon and comedian Hannah Einbinder.

·3 min·9 sources
US Politics

US Democratic lawmakers accuse Trump administration of election interference in Brazil

A group of 31 Democratic members of the US Congress has accused the Trump administration of attempting to interfere with Brazil's upcoming presidential election, according to a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. With Brazil's first round of voting set for October 4 and polls showing a technical tie between incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, the lawmakers say the administration's actions risk undermining Brazil's democratic institutions.

·1 min
US Politics

Trump's FDA nominee says MMR vaccine safe and effective at Senate hearing

Dr Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told senators on Thursday that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 'safe and effective' and 'our best tool right now' in responding to the ongoing measles outbreak. Her remarks at the confirmation hearing come weeks after she stood behind Trump as he suggested the vaccine could be 'quite lethal'.

·1 min
US Politics

Trump meets Xi for high-stakes summit; White House media ban faces court test

President Trump is hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping for a series of high-stakes meetings at the White House, culminating in a state dinner, marking the first official state visit from a Chinese leader in over a decade. Concurrently, a court is set to hear a challenge to Trump’s decision to bar CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House, with other networks expressing solidarity.

·1 min·2 sources
US Politics

Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore White House access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to immediately restore White House press credentials for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, granting a temporary restraining order that blocks the president's ban on the three outlets. Judge Timothy Kelly ruled the ban likely violated the outlets' constitutional due process rights, dealing an early legal blow to the administration's effort to exclude news organisations it accuses of publishing false information.

·2 min·10 sources
US Politics

Media outlets accuse White House of ‘repeatedly violating’ court order to restore press access

Three major U.S. news outlets — CNN, Politico and MS NOW — have asked a federal judge for an emergency hearing, accusing the White House of “repeatedly violating” a court order issued early Thursday that temporarily required the Trump administration to restore their press credentials. Staff from all three organizations reported being denied entry to the White House on Thursday morning, with some having their credentials confiscated, even as the administration hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit.

·2 min·10 sources
US Politics

Democrats accuse Susan Collins of corruption after ProPublica report details alleged bribery scheme

Democrats in Maine have accused Republican Senator Susan Collins of corruption following a ProPublica report alleging that the FBI had proposed investigating her for accepting bribes before former president Donald Trump derailed the inquiry. The report, published Wednesday, thrusts Collins's re-election race into the spotlight ahead of the November midterm elections, with control of the Senate potentially at stake.

·2 min
US Politics

Congresswoman Ramirez Proposes Bill to Abolish Border Surveillance Towers and Dismantle DHS

Democratic U.S. Representative Delia Ramirez of Illinois has announced plans to introduce the Reimagining Safety Act, a bill that would terminate the billion-dollar border surveillance tower program and dismantle the Department of Homeland Security, citing a recent MIT Technology Review investigation that found nearly one in four deaths along the southern border between 2015 and early 2026 occurred within the towers' advertised range.

·2 min
US Politics

Trump threatens to 'annihilate' Iran, calls for complete economic isolation, rejects global AI controls in combative UN address

President Donald Trump delivered a bellicose address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, threatening to 'annihilate' Iran if no deal is reached, calling on all nations to enforce the 'complete economic isolation' of Tehran, and rejecting any international scheme to regulate artificial intelligence — just a day after 22 world leaders signed a statement calling for global AI guardrails.

·3 min·10 sources
US Politics

Trump Administration Quietly Overhauls Endangered Species Act Enforcement, Drawing From Scalia’s 1995 Dissent

An internal memo quietly distributed to US Fish and Wildlife Service field offices has directed staff to radically reinterpret the Endangered Species Act, instructing them to prohibit only actions that specifically intend to harm an animal rather than those that inadvertently cause death or injury — a move that blindsided conservationists and echoes a 1995 dissent by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

·2 min
US Politics

CDC refuses to count four measles deaths in Pennsylvania as outbreak accelerates

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its measles dashboard on Friday but still excludes four measles deaths in Pennsylvania, where the outbreak appears to be accelerating and clinicians report encountering cases unlike anything seen before. Members of Congress have requested an immediate briefing on the decision to change how measles deaths are reported, as cases nationwide reach levels not seen in decades. A possible measles exposure was also reported in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last week.

·1 min