Political News

MANAMA — U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said Saturday that Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa was expected to visit Washington. During the visit, Syria would “hopefully” join the U.S.-led coalition to defeat Islamic State, Barrack told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, an annual global...

CBS News said President Donald Trump sat down with CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell for an exclusive interview for “60 Minutes” on Friday afternoon, the first with the network after his lawsuit against it. O’Donnell interviewed Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., a spokesperson for the network said. It will...

Election Day in Pennsylvania is Tuesday, Nov. 4. The most prominent local contest is the race for Pittsburgh mayor, while the retention bids of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices are also getting considerable public attention and financial support. The state has an online tool to let voters find their polling...

A new White House rule issued Friday restricts the ability of credentialed journalists to freely access the offices of press secretary Karoline Leavitt and other top communications officials in the West Wing, near the Oval Office. The new memorandum from the National Security Council bans journalists from accessing Room 140,...

As the federal government shutdown moves into its second month and the state budget impasse drags into its fifth, the consequences of political inaction are mounting. Affordable Care Act premiums are poised to skyrocket, energy assistance is stalled, and a federal judge Friday ordered the Trump administration to keep SNAP...

The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced it will make $100 million available to refurbish and modernize existing coal-fired power plants. The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to reverse the decline of coal use in the United States. The Energy Department said last month it would...

A federal judge Friday permanently blocked part of an executive order from President Donald Trump, ruling the president cannot require voters to show passports or similar documents as proof of citizenship before voting. Several lawsuits have challenged the president’s March 25 executive order, a sweeping order aimed at overhauling federal...

BOSTON — Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown. The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program...

Voter turnout typically craters in the year after a presidential election, but experts predict it will be higher than usual Tuesday because of high-stakes judicial retention races and the ease of mail-in voting. Allegheny County Elections Director Dave Voye estimates that about 35% of the county’s registered voters will cast...

Earlier this week, Elon Musk introduced Grokipedia, an AI-powered online encyclopedia designed to rival Wikipedia. As users began exploring the new platform, social media quickly buzzed with comparisons between the information offered by the two sites. Musk, who has called Wikipedia “filled with left-wing propaganda,” according to the Associated Press,...

LONDON — British politicians, papers and the public welcomed King Charles’ banishment of Andrew from public life on Friday, after the monarch moved to protect the institution from his younger brother’s ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Charles stripped Andrew of his title of prince and evicted him from...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — How much are state and national groups spending to flood the airwaves, fill mailboxes, and buy up...

Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and Democrats in Virginia pressed ahead Wednesday with plans that could allow mid-decade redistricting as part of a growing national battle for partisan advantage in next year’s congressional elections. Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation pushing back the state’s 2026 primary elections by a month — a move...

If every registered voter in Allegheny County turned out, and Republicans joined forces with independents and third-party voters, Democrats would still win by nearly 90,000 votes. But the county’s GOP committee chairman told TribLive the party is feeling momentum heading into Tuesday’s election and hopes to pick up at least...

After toying with the idea of running for a constitutionally prohibited third presidential term for months, President Donald Trump conceded that the law is “pretty clear” against such a scenario. “I would say that if you read it, it’s pretty clear, I’m not allowed to run,” Trump told reporters aboard...

GYEONGJU, South Korea — After a charm offensive in Japan that culminated in $490 billion in investment commitments, President Donald Trump is set to meet with South Korea’s leader on Wednesday as a trade deal with that country appears more elusive. Top officials in Washington and Seoul say the sticking...

A new lawsuit by Democratic state officials Tuesday seeks to uncork emergency money to help tens of millions of Americans keep buying food for their families after federal SNAP funding is expected to run dry Saturday due to the U.S. government shutdown. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is reassigning at least half the top leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices around the country in a major shake-up of the agency responsible for carrying out the president’s vision for mass deportations, according to one current and one former U.S. government official. The...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell in recent days, tying the lowest level of his term, as more Americans frowned on his handling of the cost of living, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The three-day poll, which concluded Sunday, showed 40% of Americans approve of the Republican...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled their long-promised report on former President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen, delivering a blistering critique of his time in office and inner circle that largely rehashes public information while making sweeping accusations about the workings of his White House. The GOP report...

BOSTON — A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop President Donald Trump’s administration from suspending food aid benefits starting Saturday amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. Attorneys general and governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit in Boston federal court...

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday he had discussed the limits of the U.S. Constitution with President Donald Trump, and that there was not enough time to amend the founding document to allow the Republican a third White House term. Trump, 79, on Monday declined to...

President Donald Trump on Monday declined to dismiss speculation that he would seek a third term and said he hadn’t considered whether he would go to court to contest the U.S. Constitution’s two-term limit for presidents. Here is a look at the legal barriers Trump faces. What does the Constitution...

TOKYO — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there was a long list of people who could take over the Federal Reserve, slamming current chairman Jerome Powell as the central bank prepared to meet this week. “We have an incompetent head of the Fed. … We got a bad Fed...

TOKYO — President Donald Trump lavished praise on Japan’s first female leader Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Tuesday, welcoming her pledge to accelerate a military buildup and signing deals on trade and rare earths. Takaichi, a protegee of Trump’s late friend and golfing buddy Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, applauded Trump’s...