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US politics: the White House, Congress, the courts and the elections.
1025 articles · page 18 of 22
A new report from the Center for Biological Diversity warns that the Trump administration's decision to rescind the Clinton-era 'roadless rule' could accelerate the extinction of more than 400 endangered animal and plant species across the United States.
A stunt involving a fake poll has sparked growing concerns about the potential for manipulation of prediction markets ahead of the midterm elections, even as regulators and platforms grapple with how to police information integrity on betting sites.
President Donald Trump has downplayed a secret visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, calling it 'semi-routine,' despite widespread speculation that the unannounced trip was tied to efforts to gain support for Iran sanctions or concerns that Russia plans to test NATO resolve. Ratcliffe flew to the Russian capital on a government transport plane on Tuesday, taking off from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, in a rare direct intelligence contact between the two nations.
A lawyer has filed a formal complaint against United States District Judge Roy Altman, alleging that a pattern of strongly pro-Israel public statements — including describing the Palestinian keffiyeh as a 'terror scarf' — demonstrates anti-Palestinian bias that renders him unfit to preside fairly over cases involving Palestinian or pro-Palestinian litigants.
A federal judge in California ruled Thursday evening that the Pentagon's designation of AI firm Anthropic as a supply chain risk was illegal, finding it amounted to "unlawful retaliation" for the company's refusal to allow its models to be used in fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance programs. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said the Trump administration's actions violated Anthropic's First Amendment rights and denied the company due process under the Fifth Amendment.
A federal judge has again barred the U.S. Postal Service from implementing new restrictions on mail-in voting, ruling that the agency's final plan to comply with President Trump's demands could unlawfully burden the right to vote. The decision, issued late Thursday, blocks measures that critics argued would delay ballot deliveries and suppress turnout in key swing states.
A federal judge has ruled that the Pentagon's decision to blacklist AI company Anthropic as a national security supply-chain risk was an illegal act of retaliation, marking a significant legal defeat for the Trump administration ahead of the company's planned initial public offering this fall.
A US federal judge on Thursday expressed serious reservations about the Kennedy Center’s board of directors’ decision to reinstate President Donald Trump’s name to the iconic Washington performing arts venue, questioning whether the vote violated a previous court order that had blocked the change. The board, which has been heavily packed with Trump allies, voted to add the president’s name back despite a ruling that had temporarily stopped the move.
President Donald Trump has elevated Ben Moss, a former aide to Vice President JD Vance, to the role of White House staff secretary, marking one of the few significant personnel changes in the West Wing during his second term, according to a report from The New York Times.
The US Department of Justice has charged 81 individuals in Puerto Rico as part of a federal task force initiative aimed at dismantling criminal gangs and transnational organisations, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration's crackdown on cartels and organised crime.
A man was arrested Tuesday near the U.S. Capitol after U.S. Capitol Police officers spotted a guillotine in his vehicle; according to an arrest affidavit, the suspect told officers the device was “the real deal.” The incident occurred on Capitol grounds, raising security concerns, though authorities have not publicly identified a specific target or broader plot.
President Trump traveled to Texas on Thursday to rally support for state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign, spotlighting the Lone Star State as a central battleground in Republicans’ fight to preserve their narrow Senate majority amid growing fears that a traditionally red seat could flip to Democrats.
A group of mostly Democratic senators has formally called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop plans to use gloves capable of delivering electric shocks, expressing deep concern about the technology in a letter sent Thursday to acting ICE Director David Venturella.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report Thursday attributing a close-call incident in early August involving President Trump's Marine One helicopter and a passenger jet to the placement of a temporary landing zone on the Ellipse, the park just south of the White House. The report found that Marine One came within approximately one mile of the commercial aircraft after twice attempting to contact air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Top Trump administration health officials, including CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, are publicly questioning the circumstances of two measles deaths reported by Pennsylvania health authorities, casting uncertainty over the official account and fueling a growing rift between federal and state public health responses to the outbreak.
The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will appeal a federal judge's ruling that dismissed parts of a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of allowing persistent antisemitism on its campus, reigniting a legal battle over the boundaries of free speech and anti-discrimination enforcement at elite universities.
President Trump has opted to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Pentagon rather than at Ground Zero in New York, after the 9/11 Memorial & Museum's organizers declined to accommodate a speaking program, according to officials familiar with the planning. The decision marks a significant shift from the President's initial intention to deliver remarks at the site of the World Trade Center attacks.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to overhaul a decades-old grant program that helps combat housing discrimination, siding with fair housing groups that argued the changes would undermine their ability to work. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, a Biden appointee, ruled that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had not provided adequate justification for the restructuring and that the proposed changes were likely to cause irreparable harm to organizations reliant on the grants.
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring a national emergency over threats to the US energy grid and banning certain foreign-made equipment from use in critical grid infrastructure. The White House said the action was necessary to counter an 'unusual and extraordinary foreign threat' to the nation's electricity system, though it provided limited public detail on which equipment and countries are covered.
The U.S. national debt has reached a record $40 trillion, yet the milestone has been met with notable silence from lawmakers in Washington, signaling a fundamental change in how both parties view deficit spending. According to a New York Times report, the relative indifference demonstrates how drastically the politics of debt has evolved in the Trump era.
A federal judge has declined to block the Pentagon's dismissal of three Stars and Stripes journalists, dealing an early legal blow to their First Amendment lawsuit against the Department of Defense. The ruling, issued on September 4, came just days after the Justice Department formally defended the firings as justified by alleged insubordination, rejecting claims that the terminations were retaliation for the military outlet's reporting on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff (D) has denounced a report that a former staffer for his Republican opponent, Representative Mike Collins, shared online images of a swastika and a person in Ku Klux Klan robes, calling the revelations 'stunning' and 'disgraceful and disqualifying.' The incident marks the latest in a series of controversies linking Collins's associates to white nationalist and antisemitic conduct.
Top health officials in the Trump administration, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are openly questioning the circumstances of two measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania that state health authorities have attributed to the outbreak, seizing on what they describe as vague information from Governor Josh Shapiro's administration.
The Trump administration has proposed changes to the 2023 Fifth National Climate Assessment, aiming to reframe how the report treats its high-emission worst-case scenarios after United Nations scientists deemed such scenarios implausible. A notice published this week argues that the assessment should align with the latest scientific understanding from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which earlier this year stated that the highest greenhouse gas emissions pathway is no longer considered likely under current trends.
Republican campaign committees have petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that blocked a Trump-era Federal Communications Commission order requiring broadcast TV stations to offer their lowest advertising rates to political parties and joint fundraising committees. The case, which could reshape political advertising ahead of future elections, centers on whether existing federal law mandates these discounts only for individual candidates or extends to party organizations as well.
A Florida grand jury has concluded that the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis misappropriated $10 million in taxpayer money from a Medicaid settlement, transferring it to a charity linked to the governor's wife before the funds were reportedly funneled into two political action committees. The grand jury report, obtained by CBS News Miami, described a 'sophisticated scheme to fund political activities' but declined to indict anyone, citing insufficient evidence for criminal charges.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has asked Donald Trump Jr. to explain the rapid growth of venture capital firm 1789 Capital, which the president's son joined as a partner days after his father's November 2024 election victory.
Representative Jared Golden (D-Maine) on Tuesday reaffirmed his support for President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods, telling the Portland Press Herald that any Canadian retaliation 'won't go well for them' and daring the neighboring country to test its leverage in the trade dispute.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency made a secret visit to Moscow last week, where he privately conveyed a grim appraisal of Russia’s faltering war effort in Ukraine and raised concerns that President Vladimir V. Putin may not be receiving accurate assessments from his own advisors, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday renaming Lake Ontario to 'Lake America,' a provocative move that comes as trade negotiations with Canada collapsed late last week and the two countries continue exchanging blows in a damaging trade war.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing sharp criticism after responding to the first U.S. measles deaths of 2026 — including a newborn — with a series of anti-vaccine posts on social media. The two deaths, both in unvaccinated individuals in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, are the state's first measles fatalities in 35 years and come amid a nationwide surge of nearly 2,800 cases.
Nvidia, the $2 trillion chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, has formally entered the campaign finance arena with the launch of a corporate political action committee, signaling an intensification of its lobbying and political strategy in Washington, D.C.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit by pharmaceutical industry representatives challenging the Medicare drug price negotiation program, ruling that drugmakers have no constitutional right to dictate prices paid by the federal program. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the program, which allows Medicare to negotiate prices for certain high-cost drugs, marking a significant legal victory for the Biden administration’s prescription drug cost reduction efforts.
A coalition of 23 states filed a lawsuit Thursday in Maryland federal court to block the Trump administration from imposing new conditions on a federal family planning grant program, arguing the changes would strip funding from states and providers unless they adhere to the administration's political priorities.
A California judge has suspended criminal proceedings against a man found with a loaded gun near Donald Trump's golf course in Los Angeles, ordering a mental health evaluation after ruling the suspect unfit to face a felony charge. Jeanine John Taele, 38, was arrested for weapons violations days before the former president spoke at a Republican fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes on August 5.
Christian Castro, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of a nonfatal shooting in Minnesota, was released by Texas authorities on Thursday following an apparent lapse in extradition proceedings. The development raises questions about interstate cooperation and the handling of cases involving former federal law enforcement officers.
The US Postal Service announced Thursday that new requirements for mail-in voting are now in effect, implementing a Trump administration executive order aimed at tightening federal oversight of elections. The rules — which mandate state election leaders submit their voter rolls for inspection — are expected to trigger a fresh wave of legal challenges from voting rights groups and state officials.
The US government has designated the host of Noblogs.org, a blogging platform popular with anarchist and activist communities, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), according to a report from the anarchist collective CrimethInc. The action, reportedly taken in late August 2026, freezes any US-based assets of the individual and bars Americans from engaging in financial transactions with them. The designation has sparked immediate debate over the boundaries between national security and freedom of expression online.
Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha said Wednesday that President Trump's endorsement of Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) in Tuesday's GOP Senate runoff produced a weaker-than-expected 52% margin, raising questions about the strength of Trump's influence in a reliably Republican state. Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, defeated Rep. Ralph Norman after a competitive primary race.
The United States is withdrawing the 200 troops it deployed to Nigeria under former President Donald Trump, a pullout that officials say could serve as a template for future limited military missions even as terrorist groups in the region continue to carry out deadly attacks.
The United States Military Academy at West Point has fired its only climate scientist, Dr. Adam Kalkstein, after he refused to cease teaching that human activity is a primary driver of climate change, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Kalkstein, a civilian professor of geography, was terminated in May 2026 following a contentious meeting with Brigadier General Shane Reeves, the academy’s dean of the academic board, who reportedly ordered him to remove discussion of human causes from his curriculum.
As the Federal Reserve's annual Jackson Hole symposium commenced on Thursday, two Fed officials issued cautionary statements about inflation, underscoring the central bank's ongoing struggle to bring price growth back to its 2 percent target without derailing the economic recovery.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a Venezuelan man in the leg and lying about the incident during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail on Thursday morning, after a judge refused to order his extradition to Minnesota.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on Wednesday pushed back against the Trump administration's renewed effort to remove her from the central bank's board, with her lawyers arguing that President Trump has 'no legal basis' to do so, citing a Supreme Court ruling that prevents her removal except for cause.
A bipartisan pair of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday threatening sanctions and visa bans on Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić unless he takes concrete steps to address corruption and cut ties with America's adversaries, including Russia and China. The move by Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Bill Keating (D-Mass.) comes as Serbia prepares for national elections and escalates congressional pressure on a leader long seen as a strategic wedge in the Balkans.
Newly obtained correspondence indicates that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now US health secretary, misrepresented the purpose of a 2019 trip to Samoa during at least two Senate confirmation hearings last year, telling lawmakers the visit had “nothing to do with vaccines” despite writing to the Samoan prime minister that he wanted to study the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine there, according to documents shared by the Guardian and the Associated Press.
President Donald Trump is facing increasing resistance from within his own inner circle, according to sources familiar with internal dynamics. Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple, who recently spent time inside the administration, told NPR that a number of longtime allies are now openly questioning the president’s plans on trade, immigration, and foreign policy, marking a shift from the near-uniform compliance of earlier years.
President Trump is facing mounting pressures from both domestic and international fronts as the year's primary elections near their end, according to an NPR report published Thursday. With the general election season looming, the administration must navigate a volatile political landscape at home and increasing scrutiny from foreign capitals.