Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests, calls Sen. Alex Padilla ‘Jose’
LOS ANGELES — Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending...
North Carolina Gov. Stein vetoes first bills. They are on concealed carry and immigration
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein vetoed his first bills Friday, blocking for now Republican legislation that would let adults carry concealed handguns without a permit and make state agencies and local sheriffs more active in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Stein, who took office in January,...
Gov. Ron DeSantis: Florida will help evacuate more Americans from Israel
TAMPA, Fla. — Sonia Delgado had spent more than eight hours in an airport in Larnaca, Cyprus, when she learned her rescue flight back to the United States, funded by the state of Florida, wasn’t coming that night. The Atlanta resident had gone to Tel Aviv, Israel, with her daughter...
Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from immigration detention
JENA, La. — Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was released Friday from federal immigration detention, freed after three months by a judge’s ruling after becoming a symbol of President Donald Trump ‘s clampdown on campus protests. The former Columbia University graduate student left a federal facility in Louisiana on Friday. He...
Court blocks Louisiana law requiring schools to post Ten Commandments in classrooms
NEW ORLEANS — A panel of three federal appellate judges has ruled a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in each of the state’s public school classrooms is unconstitutional. The ruling on Friday marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the mandate violates the...
Senate parliamentarian deals blow to GOP plan to gut consumer protection bureau in tax bill
WASHINGTON — Republicans have suffered a sizable setback on one key aspect of President Donald Trump’s big bill after their plans to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other provisions from the Senate Banking Committee ran into procedural violations with the Senate parliamentarian. Republicans in the Senate proposed zeroing-out...
Poll: Majority of Democrats want new party leadership
Nearly two out of three Democrats think their party needs new leadership, according to a poll released Thursday. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 62% of Democrats surveyed agreed with the statement that “the leadership of the Democratic Party should be replaced with new people,” while 24% disagreed and 14% weren’t...
Federal judge blocks Trump effort to keep Harvard from hosting foreign students
BOSTON — A federal judge Friday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to keep Harvard University from hosting international students. An order from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs preserves the ability of Harvard to host foreign students while the case is decided. It marks another victory for the Ivy League school...
Judge rules Trump administration can’t require states to help on immigration to get transport money
BOSTON — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in transportation funds from states that don’t agree to participate in some immigration enforcement actions. Twenty states sued after they said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to cut off funding to states that refused...
Trump calls for special prosecutor to investigate 2020 election, reviving longstanding grievance
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden, repeating his baseless claim that the contest was marred by widespread fraud. “Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD!” Trump...
Aflac finds suspicious activity on U.S. network that may impact Social Security numbers, other data
Aflac says that it has identified suspicious activity on its network in the U.S. that may impact Social Security numbers and other personal information, calling the incident part of a cybercrime campaign against the insurance industry. The company said Friday that the intrusion was stopped within hours. “We continue to...
U.K. lawmakers back bill to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives
LONDON — U.K. lawmakers on Friday approved a bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives in a historic vote in Parliament that takes it a step nearer to becoming law. Members of Parliament voted 314-291 to back the Terminally Ill Adults...
Purdue Pharma’s $7B opioid settlement plan could get votes from victims and cities
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma ‘s $7 billion-plus plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids will go before a judge Friday, potentially setting up votes on whether to accept it for local governments, people who became addicted to the drug and other groups. This month, 49 states...
Appeals court lets Trump keep control of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — An appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids. The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over...
Pro-Palestinian activists say they damaged planes on a U.K. air force base
LONDON — British police are searching for suspects and the military is reviewing security arrangements after pro-Palestinian activists broke into a Royal Air Force Base and damaged two planes with red paint, officials said Friday. The group Palestine Action said two members entered RAF Brize Norton on Wednesday and used...
A week into their war, Israel and Iran launch new strikes even as diplomatic effort gets underway
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel and Iran exchanged strikes a week into their war Friday as President Donald Trump weighed U.S. military involvement and new diplomatic efforts got underway. Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a...
Niger says it will nationalize a uranium venture operated by France’s Orano
DAKAR, Senegal — Niger’s government said Thursday it would nationalize the Somaïr uranium venture operated by French company Orano and accused it of taking a disproportionate share of the uranium produced at the site. The announcement comes as military authorities in the west African country tighten their grip on foreign...
Party like it’s 2018: Democrats look to 1st Trump midterms for 2025 races and 2026 momentum
HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Abigail Spanberger opened her general election bid for Virginia governor Wednesday using her high school alma mater near Richmond. “I grew up walking the halls of Tucker High School,” the former congresswoman says as she walks past a bank of lockers in her first ad since...
Trump is silent about Juneteenth on a day he previously honored as president
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump honored Juneteenth in each of his first four years as president, even before it became a federal holiday. He even claimed once to have made it “very famous.” But on this year’s Juneteenth holiday on Thursday, the usually talkative president kept silent about a day...
Sunshine abounds as the summer solstice arrives
Peak sunshine has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere — the summer solstice. Friday is the longest day of the year north of the equator, where the solstice marks the start of astronomical summer. It’s the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the shortest day of the year and...
Some U.S. restaurants and servers oppose Republicans’ ‘no tax on tips’ budget proposal
Some segments of the U.S. restaurant industry don’t support President Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate federal taxes on tips, saying it would help too few people and obscure bigger issues in the way tipped workers are paid. The Independent Restaurant Coalition, which represents nearly 100,000 restaurant and bars, has appealed...
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for a 3rd time
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership. Trump disclosed the executive order on the Truth Social...
Juneteenth celebrations across the U.S. commemorate the end of slavery
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Juneteenth celebrations unfolded across the U.S. on Thursday, marking the day in 1865 when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Texas and attracting participants who said current events strengthened their resolve. The holiday has been celebrated by Black Americans for generations,...
Napoleon’s world is on display for a landmark auction, from divorce papers to his iconic hat
PARIS — After the Hollywood epic “Napoleon” exposed the legendary emperor to a new generation two years ago, over 100 relics — which shaped empires, broke hearts and spawned centuries of fascination — are on display in Paris ahead of what experts call one of the most important Napoleonic auctions...
Europe and Iran will try diplomacy as U.S. weighs joining fight with Israel
VIENNA, Austria — Iran’s foreign minister will meet in Geneva on Friday with counterparts from Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Iranian state media and European diplomats said, as Israeli airstrikes target his country’s nuclear and military sites and Iran fires back. Europe’s push for diplomacy is in sharp contrast...
