Politics

Alex Wong/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — In a rare show of emotion at the Pentagon, press secretary John Kirby choked up discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin and alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine during a briefing with reporters Friday. It began when Kirby was asked whether he believes Putin is a “rational actor.” “It’s hard to look […]

Alex Edelman-Pool/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — In closed-door testimony to House investigators released on Friday, Dr. Bob Redfield, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, former President Donald Trump appointees repeatedly blocked his public health experts from briefing the American public. Redfield described, in detail, efforts by […]

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden formally asked Congress on Thursday for $33 billion in supplemental aid for Ukraine over the next five months to help counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion over the long term. “The cost of this fight is not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more […]

SunChan/Getty Images (OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) — The Oklahoma legislature gave final approval Thursday to a so-called “heartbeat bill” that seeks to ban most abortions in the state. It is the latest bill in the U.S. modeled after the strict Texas law that prohibits abortions after six weeks, before most women know they’re pregnant. Formally called […]

Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE (CHARLESTON, S.C.) — The fight to pass the Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act in South Carolina is now intensifying, as several Republican state senators hold out against it. The state is one of only two in the U.S. that does not have hate crime legislation signed into law. Pinckney, a […]

OlegAlbinsky/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump said his head of security “did nothing wrong” during a 2015 protest at Trump Tower at which five Hispanic men allege they were assaulted. Trump called the protesters “troublemakers” during a deposition last October, according to a transcript made public Wednesday in Bronx Supreme Court, where […]

Drew Angerer/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Much of official Washington remembered former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the first woman to ever serve in that role, at her funeral Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral. Albright, who had cancer, died in March at the age of 84. She served as secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 […]

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — House Republicans on Wednesday rallied behind Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as he defended himself over audio recordings surfaced of him blaming former President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 riot and suggesting that some GOP lawmakers were inciting violence and should be kicked off social media platforms. In the first […]

Jason Marz/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Judge Robert Summerhays of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Homeland Security from phasing out Title 42 for at least the next two weeks. Title 42 is a policy instituted under the Trump administration that […]

Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE (OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill Tuesday that bans the use of nonbinary gender markers on state birth certificates. It’s the first ban of its kind in the U.S., according to LGBTQ legal advocacy group Lambda Legal. Several states have done the exact opposite in recent […]