Politics

President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials.

Lutnick is the highest-ranked administration official, besides President Donald Trump, to be named in the Epstein case files. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,”

For decades, federal agencies have gathered data on everything from climate risk to the rising cost of childcare. It is information funded by taxes, and that belongs to the American people. This data is often how the government decides what to do: what is a problem, what is a policy priority, what should be funded. It tells the story of America.

They put this information in a video that you can’t share directly. You have to scroll down to listen to it.

“Myself and others started placing bets before that poll came out,” the staffer, who was working on a statewide campaign in the South, told NPR on the condition of anonymity over fear for their future employment. “And then, sure enough as soon as that poll came out, the stock went up and everybody made money.”

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported confirmation from the Department of Health and Human Services that the Food and Drug Administration had blocked the publication of studies showing the safety and efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 and shingles. The revelation follows a report from The Washington Post last month that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrapped a scientifically vetted study previously scheduled for publication that found COVID-19 vaccines sharply cut the risk of emergency care and hospitalization among healthy adults. The study was ultimately rejected by Kennedy’s acting CDC director, who claimed to have concerns about the study’s methodology.

The FBI has launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on an Atlantic magazine journalist who wrote a deeply unflattering account last month of Director Kash Patel’s work habits, two people familiar with the matter told MS NOW.

In 2002, journalist Vicky Ward—then a writer for Vanity Fair magazine—was assigned to investigate a mysterious New York City financier named Jeffrey Epstein. During her reporting, she stumbled upon sexual abuse allegations against Epstein by Maria and Annie Farmer, whose account was ultimately cut from Ward’s piece, titled “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” That decision sparked recriminations between Ward and then–Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter that have continued for more than a decade.

The Office of Personnel Management on Monday rolled out a new AI tool, called USA Class, that can generate and fine-tune position descriptions for hiring managers to use in job announcements. OPM said the tool will help reduce time-to-hire and administrative work for HR employees.

The controversial deal is unusual: other airports named after presidents don’t have trademarks owned by private companies. Trump’s companies and Palm Beach County administrators have argued the trademark agreement is necessary to protect the county from lawsuits, not for private profit.

This is an old article, but Iowa just complied.

The Washington state Supreme Court on Monday ruled that voters cannot bring a referendum against the newly passed “millionaires tax.”

Wall Street’s top regulator on Tuesday proposed ending quarterly earnings reporting requirements for U.S.-traded companies and allowing them to switch to twice-annual reports.

Leaders of the prison gang known as Los Tiburones, or the Sharks, were selling drugs to inmates not only for money, but for their votes. Specifically, votes for now-Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, a longtime Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump, investigators found.

Microsoft, Google and Elon Musk’s xAI agreed to give the U.S. government early access to new ​artificial intelligence models for national security testing, as U.S. officials grow alarmed by the hacking capabilities ‌of Anthropic’s newly unveiled Mythos.

The U.S. military said it launched another strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing two people Monday.

It was against this backdrop that GOP lawmakers unveiled the details of their reconciliation bill, which included an unexpected element. NBC News reported:

Noem, who was ousted as DHS secretary in March, is reportedly still occupying a taxpayer-funded U.S. Coast Guard home in Washington, D.C.​

Another person detained by ICE has died in the agency’s custody, according to reports released by the Department of Homeland Security and private prison company CoreCivic.

In 23 states, including five presidential swing states, candidates who have denied election results are running for offices that will have a direct role in certifying future elections.

The states of California, Arizona and Nevada have proposed voluntary water-saving measures for the next three years aimed at buying time while negotiations remain deadlocked over the future of shrinking reservoirs filled by the Colorado River.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted a temporary pause to an appeals court ruling that blocked the telehealth provision and mailing of the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide as litigation continues.

A controversial bill in Colorado that would have undone some repair protections in the state has failed. The bill had been the target of right-to-repair advocates, who saw it as a bellwether for how tech companies might try to undo repair legislation more broadly in the US.

Activists worldwide gathered for May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.

The struggling budget airline had been negotiating with the Trump administration for a $500 million rescue package that would have provided cash in exchange for equity-like warrants, giving the government up to a 90 percent stake. However, the effort has stalled because Spirit has been unable to secure the necessary backing from bondholders and government stakeholders, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal Friday.

At least a half-dozen House Republicans told Scripps News they would not support a bipartisan Senate bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security — then voted for it anyway Thursday, ending the longest government shutdown in history after 76 days.

Standing behind a placard declaring Florida “the education state,” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law two measures that make it harder for teachers to collectively bargain pay and working conditions.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced new autonomous vehicle regulations on Tuesday that will, among other things, allow police officers to issue moving violations to AV companies like Waymo and Tesla when their robotaxis break the law.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that state regulators may criminalize Delta-8 THC, the intoxicating compound found in some hemp products — a significant blow to an industry fighting for its survival.

On Friday, Nebraska became the first state to enact Medicaid work requirements, mandatory for states with Medicaid expansion due to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Notably, the state did it seven months before the deadline.

The Defense Department has struck agreements with some of the nation’s largest technology companies to deploy their advanced artificial intelligence capabilities on its classified networks, part of a broader push to accelerate the military’s adoption of AI.

Every Tuesday, almost like clockwork, the U.S. Department of Education would update a public list of schools and colleges it was investigating for possible violations of students’ civil rights.

President Donald Trump says he’s nominating Fox News Channel contributor Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Casey Means’ path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines.

The second US circuit court of appeals was divided late on Wednesday in its decision, ultimately, to reject proceeding to a so-called en banc hearing, a rare meeting of all of its judges to consider a conclusion.

Lawyers made arguments in hearings for two separate lawsuits against President Trump and the Kennedy Center’s board this week.

The FAA had previously only advised that drone pilots avoid flying near “mobile assets” operated by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy, such as naval warships and truck convoys transporting nuclear materials between US national labs. But the “notice to airmen” alert in January—NOTAM FDC 6/4375—had created the equivalent of roving, 3,000-foot no-fly zones around federal agents’ cars and other vehicles operating in cities and towns across the country. And it didn’t just affect those trying to film federal agents. Because it was practically impossible to ensure compliance with the new flight restrictions, any drone pilot could be at risk during any flight.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ plans to upend childhood vaccination requirements continues to be thwarted by his fellow Republicans.

The chief financial official for the Pentagon, Jules Hurst III, told lawmakers that the estimated cost of the war with Iran is $25 billion so far, adding that most of the expense has been on munitions. The military has also spent money on running the operations and equipment replacement, he said.

Hemorrhaging cash and in bankruptcy court, Spirit Airlines is on the brink of liquidation. The nation’s largest budget airline has been struggling for years and has been forced to drastically downsize by selling planes and cutting routes. With the federal government reportedly close to stepping in with a $500 million bailout plan, Trump apparently wants to buy it outright and run it.

The First Choice facilities seek to steer women away from having abortions. Platkin issued the subpoena as part of a state investigation into whether First Choice deceived donors and potential clients into falsely believing the facilities offered abortions and other reproductive healthcare services in violation of a state consumer-protection law and other statutes.

In fact, while running for the White House in 2024, Kennedy did speak at length about “reparenting” American children on wellness farms, which he proposed building in rural communities across the U.S. Kennedy raised the idea during a podcast interview in June of 2024 and again during a separate podcast conversation in July.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative justices sided with a challenge to new districts in Louisiana that were created to comply with a landmark Civil Rights law meant to protect black Americans from racial discrimination.

More than half of U.S. adults (55 per cent) say their financial situation is getting worse, according to a Gallup poll published Tuesday, pointing to high inflation along with elevated costs of energy, housing, healthcare, college, transportation and childcare.

President Donald Trump’s goons at the Federal Communications Commission will challenge Disney’s licenses for ABC stations in retaliation for a late-night Jimmy Kimmel monologue about the first lady, according to two reports.

Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, engaged in a “brazen, shocking, and ongoing violation” of a law requiring the justice department (DoJ) to release the entirety of the so-called Epstein files, a lawsuit filed in Washington DC alleges.

Workers at the first Apple store to unionize in the US are pushing back against the company’s decision to shut down the store by June, alleging the company’s decision is rooted in “a cynical attempt to bust the union”.

In all, 55 incumbents have announced they will not run for re-election, the highest since 1992, when a record 65 members of both parties retired after it was revealed that many of them were intentionally overdrawing their House bank accounts by thousands of dollars without paying a penalty.

O’Donnell then asked the president about his reaction to Allen’s rationalization that he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”

In the chaotic minutes after news broke that a gunman had attempted to breach security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a familiar pattern unfolded on social media. A chorus of pro-Trump influencers and officials arrived at the same eerily specific and singular conclusion: The country needs Donald Trump’s ballroom.

The US supreme court formally reinstated on Monday a redrawn Texas electoral map that was designed to add more Republicans to the US House of Representatives, as Donald Trump’s party seeks to keep control of Congress in the November congressional elections.

The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday about a relatively new law enforcement technique that allows police to tap into giant tech-firm databases to find out who was near the scene of a crime and may have been involved. Essentially the question before the high court is whether that technique is ingenious, Orwellian, or both? And, ultimately, is it constitutional?

An appeals court on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending asylum access, a key pillar of the Republican president’s plan to crack down on migration at the southern border of the U.S.

Millions more Americans might qualify for dual Canadian citizenship under a recent change to Canada’s requirements that has led to a surge in applications from its southern neighbor.

Houston Police Department leaders late Thursday released an updated order to its officers on how to interact with federal immigration agents that largely returns HPD to the rules it operated under before Houston City Council spurred a fight over the issue this month – and which legal advocates say could expose the city to legal liability.

Dozens of protesters, including members of Congress, gathered along the National Mall on Thursday to protest an “intimate” dinner being held by Paramount Skydance’s chief executive, David Ellison, “in celebration of the first amendment” and “honoring the Trump White House and CBS White House correspondents”, and attended by Donald Trump.

The US justice department is dropping its investigation into the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, over alleged building cost overruns.

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing a series of permitting policies that wind and solar energy industry groups say have ⁠stymied the development of new energy generation projects.

The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog said Thursday that it is reviewing the department’s compliance with the law mandating the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The infamous Florida immigrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” can remain open, an appeals court ruled Tuesday, overturning a lower judge’s decision to close the facility because it violated federal environmental laws.

Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, said she touched the agent’s shoulder to get his attention and then he grabbed her by the hair, put her neck in the crook of his arm and carried her across the street by her head. She said he threw her down an embankment next to the street.

A judge in rural southern Virginia on Wednesday ordered that the results of Tuesday’s vote not be certified on several grounds, including that state lawmakers did not follow their own rules in passing the redistricting referendum. Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley also called the ballot language put to voters “flagrantly misleading.”

The U.S. military on Thursday said it seized another tanker transporting oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean, a day after Iran took control of two commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Ellison, chief executive and chairman of Paramount and a major Republican donor, is hosting a dinner with Trump on Thursday at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington DC.

Newly released documents show the Trump administration set up a legal framework allowing hundreds of millions of ​dollars in anonymous private donations to fund a planned White House ballroom, while limiting the scope of federal conflict-of-interest ‌reviews tied to the project.

An appeals court has blocked a California law passed in 2025 requiring federal immigration agents to wear a badge or some form of identification.

Texas can enforce a state law requiring public schools to display posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Millar was arrested on June 14, 2025, after he “brandished” a handgun while clashing with a few of the thousands of protesters who attended a peaceful “No Kings” rally in downtown Nashville, according to Metro Nashville police.

The company, which is majority owned by Donald Trump, has seen its stock plummet 84 percent under Nunes’ leadership, from its debut price of $58 back in 2024. The current share price of around $9.80 is arguably still optimistic for a company that has lost $1.1 billion since it went public, and recorded just over $10.6 million in revenue in the same time.

The ballot measure will redraw the state’s congressional map, and could allow Democrats to win as many as four House seats that are currently held by Republicans.

The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture is being sued by one of its billionaire backers over allegations of extortion.

U.S. airports could face a new wave of long security lines as early as May after ​the nation’s homeland security chief said on Tuesday that he will run ‌out of money to pay for 50,000 workers due to a partial government shutdown.

Members of both parties have for months been hijacking House Oversight Committee business to call votes on subpoenas for high-profile figures in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation — and Democrats say chair James Comer has quietly instituted a new strategy to contain the practice.

“The Fed has been plagued by deeply disturbing ethics scandals in recent years involving at least six Fed officials, so it’s critical that the next chair have no financial conflicts – none,” Warren said. “You have more than $100 million in investments that you have refused to disclose to ethics officials and to the public, so let me ask, do the Juggernaut fund or the TSDFS LLC invest in any companies affiliated with President Trump or his family, companies that have facilitated money laundering, Chinese-controlled companies or financing vehicles established by Jeffrey Epstein?”

Florida has launched a criminal investigation into OpenAI and its chatbot ChatGPT following a deadly shooting at Florida State University in 2025.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dropped an appeal of a previous court decision blocking it from implementing significant changes to a popular government program combatting homelessness, a legal filing on Monday revealed, but the agency is still seeking ways to reform it, an official told Scripps News.

A group of Ecuadorian fishers have described how they were attacked in a double drone strike and then detained at gunpoint by soldiers on a US-flagged patrol vessel, in a rare first-hand account by victims of Donald Trump’s militarized campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats off South America.

Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s nominee to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, may face a tough fight for confirmation — partly over events for which he has no control.

FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a $250m (£185m) defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic, accusing the magazine of publishing false and damaging claims about his conduct in office.

In the 2024 midterm cycle, 53 out of 58 candidates from around the country that crypto super PACs spent on were elected to Congress. Four of those candidates were from Texas.

The National Guard’s top general told Congress on Friday that it would follow the Constitution and the law when he was asked about the possibility President Donald Trump would order troops to polling places for the midterm elections.

A pilot is suing the state of Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) over the decision to rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump.

In St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, the court granted a petition for review filed by a Catholic preschool in Littleton, Colorado, which argues that its exclusion from Colorado’s universal preschool program is a form of religious discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, because Colorado will not provide it with an exemption from rules that would require it to admit everyone – including LGBTQ children and children with LGBTQ parents.

Now, he’s shrugging off a law Congress passed decades ago to preserve White House papers — and historians are taking him to court.

Over the weekend, The New York Times revealed the origins of the modern shadow docket, publishing internal memos that were circulated among the justices before the Roberts-led majority halted then-President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan in 2016.

According to the NBC News Decision Desk Poll released on Sunday, only 37 percent of adults approve of Trump’s work as president. Meanwhile, 63 percent disapprove, including 50 percent who disapprove strongly. Some of that strong disapproval comes from Trump’s handling of skyrocketing costs for most households: Among the over 32,000 American adults that NBC News surveyed over two weeks in March and April, 52 percent said they “strongly disapprove” and 16 percent “somewhat disapprove” of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living.

In what is to be the biggest repayment programme in history, companies can apply online for money they were charged under the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs - plus interest - to be returned.

The Forest Service is defending its plan to relocate its headquarters to Utah and shutter most of its research facilities, as part of a major agency reorganization, and intends to proceed with these plans with or without approval from Congress.

The Senate approved a short-term renewal until April 30 of a controversial surveillance program used by U.S. spy agencies, following a chaotic, post-midnight scramble in the House to keep the authority from expiring.

A US judge has halted construction of the above ground portion of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, but has allowed plans for an underground bunker to proceed.

Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is planning to leave the agency, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has confirmed.

Lawmakers have grown increasingly frustrated with Medicaid as they have repeatedly discovered new multimillion-dollar payment errors within the service — as they simultaneously have struggled to make painful cuts to programs that serve immigrant children and people with disabilities.

A majority of the U.S. Senate backed President Donald Trump’s military campaign against ​Iran on Wednesday, voting to block a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the war until hostilities are ‌authorized by Congress.

Defense Department employees have become the latest to lose their protections provided under collective bargaining agreements, according to union officials and an internal DoD memo obtained by Federal News Network.

House Democrats filed six articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, accusing the defense secretary of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, in reference to the attack on Iran without congressional authorization and deadly strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats, among other official acts.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered John Eastman disbarred and his name stricken from the state roll of attorneys. It caps a yearslong effort by the state bar to strip Eastman of his law license after he developed a legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

Warsh is President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. His financial filings show that Warsh and his wife Jane Lauder have holdings of approximately $192 million, and potentially far more. Holdings in Warsh’s name, separate from his spouse, total approximately $135 million to $226 million.