3 mins read

Taxpayer-funded pro-Trump TV ad campaign grows with new spot, wider reach

The Trump administration on Friday appeared to ramp up its use of U.S. government-funded political advertisements promoting President Donald Trump, airing its second TV ad in three days while expanding its spending on the first to at least $443,000. The White House maintains the ads are “public service announcements” like those used by past presidents, […]

5 mins read

Trump administration uses rare authority to claw back nearly $1B in spending approved by Congress

WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump is canceling nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, the White House announced on Friday, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget described the funding cut as focused on “the most harmful government spending.” Most […]

9 mins read

Trump’s mail voting crackdown tests Postal Service leader who says he’s ‘not political’

WASHINGTON | Long before he was the top official at the U.S. Postal Service, David Steiner was a corporate executive surfing mid-oughts television when he came across Donald Trump on “The Apprentice.” He was unimpressed. “If that is leadership, if that’s what we’re telling people that our culture and our media portrays as leadership, we’re […]

6 mins read

Trump administration lowers fuel economy standards, critics say at a significant environmental cost

NEW YORK | The Trump administration on Monday released new fuel economy standards that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The new rules were released shortly after President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring. Fuel economy requirements […]

5 mins read

US and China release reciprocal $30 billion product lists for tariff cuts after Trump-Xi meeting

HONG KONG | The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about $30 billion each that will see tariff cuts, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade. The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Donald Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the […]

8 mins read

Anthropic and OpenAI sound the alarm on AI safety — and seek to shape how it’s controlled

SAN FRANCISCO | As tech titans warned an AI-weary world that their own advanced systems could endanger humanity, the question emerged: What do they have to gain? The answer may lie in the companies’ efforts to score political goals ahead of the U.S. midterm elections and the money top artificial intelligence labs and their investors […]

3 mins read

Trump administration airs 2024 taxpayer-funded Trump campaign ad amid bi-partisan complaints

WASHINGTON | The Trump administration is using taxpayer funds to air a television advertisement from Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign in the latest in a series of ads promoting the president ahead of the midterms that the White House maintains are “public service announcements.” The 30-second video, which is virtually identical to one that aired […]

9 mins read

Trump administration moves to limit fixes for systemic racism in schools

WASHINGTON | For decades, a key principle underpinned civil rights enforcement in American schools: Not all discrimination was intentional. Even if a school policy was written without overt racial bias, it might unfairly hurt one group of students over another, the understanding went. The concept is known as systemic racism, and Republican and Democratic administrations […]

2 mins read

Man who was shot during 2024 Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has died

James Copenhaver, one of three campaign rally attendees shot in 2024 during an assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump, has died in Pittsburgh, his lawyer said Thursday. He was 76. Copenhaver was in the bleachers during the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop, grazing Trump’s right ear […]

8 mins read

Supreme Court lets Trump administration use revamped federal voter eligibility database for now

NEW YORK | The Supreme Court on Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November’s elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting. The court’s three liberal-leaning justices publicly dissented from the decision. The emergency order allows states, for now, to use the Trump administration’s […]