AP US Politics News

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and said he was weighing carrying out land operations on the country. The acknowledgement of covert action in Venezuela by the U.S. spy agency comes after the U.S. military in

By MATT BROWN, GARY FIELDS and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A neutering by the Supreme Court of the Voting Rights Act’s last remaining major provision would potentially trigger a political avalanche — an event that starts narrow but gathers momentum as it spreads across the national map. In this case, the benefit

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Election Commission is trying to figure out how a contract for new machines for voting for $28 million ended up costing the agency $4 million more. The investigation into buying the 3,200 ballot scanners in 2024 has led to the firing of the

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. The nation’s leadership called the new rules “common sense”

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press The public release of a Young Republican group chat that included racist language, jokes about rape and flippant commentary on gas chambers prompted bipartisan calls for those involved to be removed from or resign their positions. The Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s political organization for Republicans between 18 and

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Brown University is rejecting a Trump administration proposal that would provide favorable access to funding in exchange for a wide range of commitments, saying the deal would curtail academic freedom and undermine the university’s independence. Brown is the latest university to turn down the proposal, which

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally assured him that his country would stop buying Russian oil. The change, which has not been confirmed by the Indian government, would boost Trump’s efforts to pressure Moscow to negotiate an end to the war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Journalists begin leaving Pentagon after refusing to sign Trump administration agreements on rules of access.

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit from young climate activists seeking to block President Donald Trump’s executive orders promoting fossil fuels and discouraging renewable energy. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen said the plaintiffs showed overwhelming evidence climate change affects them and that it will

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer Former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young says that he was often responsible for “the dirty work” during his time fighting for civil rights with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. It seems an unsavory phrase. Grunt work is more like it — efforts that may not produce

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Cook County’s top judge has signed an order barring ICE from arresting people at courthouses. Cook County includes Chicago, which has seen a federal immigration crackdown in recent months. Detaining residents outside court has been a common tactic for federal agents, who have been stationed outside county

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press Texas Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa entered the race for governor Wednesday, criticizing Republican Gov. Greg Abbott as beholden to big donors in an uphill bid to become the first Democrat to hold the office since 1995. Hinojosa, who represents Austin, joins a race that has been without big-name challengers

LAKE CITY, Florida (AP) — A Florida judge has granted a protective order against Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Mills at the request of a former girlfriend who claimed that he threatened to release nude images of her and physically harm her future boyfriends after she broke up with him. Under the order issued Tuesday by

By The Associated Press Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to restrictions on their work imposed by President Donald Trump ’s administration, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules

By MICHAEL CASEY and JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a moderate Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday that he will challenge U.S. Sen. Edward Markey for the Democratic nomination in next year’s Senate race, arguing it’s time for the party to embrace a new generation of leadership. The announcement makes the

By GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting rights activists were relieved in 2023 when, in a surprise to some, the Supreme Court upheld the most important remaining element of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling forced Alabama and later Louisiana to redraw their congressional maps to give Black residents greater representation, moves that

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JESSE BEDAYN and SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — With every passing day of the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay face mounting financial strain. And now they are confronting new uncertainty with the Trump administration’s promised layoffs. Little progress has been

By RIO YAMAT AP Airlines and Travel Reporter A startling message came over the radio from an air traffic control tower near Los Angeles less than a week into the federal government shutdown: “The tower is closed due to staffing.” Without enough air traffic controllers to guide planes into and out of Hollywood Burbank Airport,

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The ongoing government shutdown is delaying the announcement of the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for tens of millions of beneficiaries. Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the 2024 Social Security COLA announcement will now be Oct. 24. It is timed to the September Consumer Price Index, which also

By TERRY TANG and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of aggressive immigration enforcement measures from the Trump administration, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults are more likely to hold a negative view of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration, a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC poll finds. About 7 in 10

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared inclined to limit the use of the Voting Rights Act to force states to draw electoral districts favorable to minority voters. The court’s six conservative justices, to one degree or another, seemed like they would vote to effectively strike down a

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee requested Tuesday that Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel, appear for an interview, part of an escalating effort among the GOP to pursue the perceived enemies of President Donald Trump. Rep. Jim Jordan, the committee chair, charged in a

By KATHRYN POST Religion News Service DALLAS (RNS) — “Welcome to the fight,” said commentator Allie Beth Stuckey as she greeted the 6,700 conservative Christian women assembled in the Dallas, Texas, arena on Saturday morning (Oct. 11): “The fight for truth, the fight for our Christian faith, the fight for our children, the fight for

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday posthumously awarded America’s highest civilian honor to Charlie Kirk, the assassinated activist who inspired a generation of young conservatives and helped push the nation’s politics further to the right. Receiving the award on Kirk’s behalf was his widow, Erika. Her voice cracking

SAND LAKE, Mich. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Michigan school district in a dispute over free speech and “Let’s Go Brandon” shirts, clothing that took a jab at then-President Joe Biden. The mother of two boys, who got the shirts as Christmas gifts, said her sons’ First

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to relocate World Cup matches set to be played next year in suburban Boston, after suggesting that parts of the city had been “taken over” by unrest. Foxborough, Massachusetts, home to the NFL’s New England Patriots and about 30 miles from

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials failed to disclose that they had applied for federal reimbursement for an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” leading to a false impression before an appellate court panel that put on hold a judge’s order to wind down operations at

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer Fox News, the former employer of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has joined a near-unanimous outpouring of news organizations rejecting new rules for journalists based in the Pentagon. Fox signed on to a statement with ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN saying they would no agree to Hegseth’s new rules, saying

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making this government shutdown unlike any the nation has ever seen, giving his budget office rare authority to pick winners and losers — who gets paid or fired, which programs are cut or survive — in an unprecedented restructuring across the federal

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro says political violence discourages people from running for office, urges more accountability.