6 mins read

House Republicans adopt $95 billion package for the Iran war and Trump’s priorities

WASHINGTON | The House adopted a Republican-only $95 billion budget proposal Wednesday, a long-shot effort to fund the Iran war and other White House priorities over objections from Democrats and a few GOP holdouts in a final push before the midterm elections. House Republicans were divided over the plan, with conservatives wary because there are […]

5 mins read

Why American elections are so complicated — and secure

In a speech to the nation Thursday evening, President Donald Trump said Americans deserve secure elections, and he claimed to be using federal authority to prevent them from being “stolen.” In fact, one of the strongest security features of U.S. elections is the fact that they aren’t conducted at the federal level. America votes in […]

6 mins read

Trump reduces size of 2 national monuments in Utah as Republicans reshape land management

President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by his Democratic predecessors on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and […]

4 mins read

Supreme Court justices tell Congress their safety is at risk and more must be spent on security

WASHINGTON | Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told lawmakers Tuesday that a sharp increase in threats targeting her and other justices is increasingly encroaching on their personal and family lives. During a rare appearance by justices before Congress, Barrett said she had to take a bulletproof vest home a few years ago, something she […]

6 mins read

Inflation cools more than expected in June as gas costs fall, underlying prices ease

WASHINGTON | U.S. inflation cooled last month as the cost of gas, clothes, and used cars fell, providing some relief to consumers, while underlying price pressures also cooled more than expected. Prices dropped 0.4% from May to June, the largest monthly drop in four years, the Labor Department said Tuesday. On a yearly basis, inflation […]

2 mins read

E. Jean Carroll is finally paid $5.6 million in Trump sex abuse and defamation case

NEW YORK | The writer E. Jean Carroll has collected over $5.6 million that a jury awarded in her sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump, court records and her lawyers said. The payment — representing the $5 million jury award, plus interest — was made Monday from an account where it had […]

7 mins read

Subpoenas issued to NY Times reporters seen as ‘unprecedented’ threat to press freedom

Dangerous. Brazen. Unprecedented. Uncharted territory. Reaction in the media world has been swift and severe to the issue of subpoenas to five New York Times journalists who reported on security questions involving the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One — a legal maneuver seen as a troubling escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to control and […]

7 mins read

US attacks Iran and Tehran retaliates across the Middle East as both vie for control of strait

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of […]

6 mins read

Judge issues scathing rebuke of Trump for manipulating court system in tax returns lawsuit

WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over his leaked tax returns was filed for an “improper purpose,” a judge said Monday as she referred one of his lawyers for potential disciplinary action and characterized the $10 billion complaint as an exercise in self-dealing. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams accused Trump […]

7 mins read

FACT CHECK: A look at US and Iranian claims of control over the Strait of Hormuz

A focal point of the Iran war is increasingly about who controls the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow, elbow-shaped waterway that for decades was a relatively safe and reliable transit route for Middle East oil and natural gas supplies. By saying that an interim ceasefire gave it the right to establish the terms under […]