The U.S. will skip the upcoming United Nations conference aimed at bolstering efforts to reach a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestine slated for next week, according to the State Department. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said during his Thursday briefing to reporters that he had “nothing further” to add about the summit, scheduled…
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be a Cabinet-level agency that reports directly to the president under a new bipartisan bill. The proposal comes as the Trump administration weighs changes at or even abolishing the emergency management agency. The new legislation from Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and Greg Stanton…
A handful of Senate Republicans on Thursday offered support for a move by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) to get a special counsel appointed to investigate former President Obama and the 2016 election. The Graham-Cornyn call for a special counsel comes as Republicans and the Trump administration have been upended by the…
Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was briefly jailed in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to revisit its landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and celebrated its 10th anniversary in June. Davis’s attorneys at the Christian nonprofit…
The U.S. and Mexico on Thursday took collaborative steps toward curbing a long-standing, cross-border environmental crisis: the unfettered sewage flow from Tijuana into Southern California. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin and his Mexican counterpart Alicia Bárcena Ibarra signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that addressed the “environmental, public health and national security consequences”…
A “whites-only” group called Return to the Land (RTTL), derided by critics as racist and antisemitic, is looking to expand its reach from its base in northern Arkansas to an area near Springfield, Mo., a co-founder of the group said recently. The prospect of a growing “whites-only” community — where members are evaluated based on…
President Trump on Thursday visited the Federal Reserve headquarters alongside Chair Jerome Powell to tour a major renovation taking place there, a project he and his administration have criticized as being over budget. Powell has drawn Trump’s ire over the central bank’s decision to keep interest rates where they are, citing economic uncertainty. Trump’s visit…
An attorney for Ghislaine Maxwell said she had a “very productive” meeting on Thursday with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who flew to Tallahassee, Fla., to meet with her amid pressure to release more information from the Epstein files. Blanche took the unusual step of questioning Maxwell, a close associate of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.…
President Trump’s pick for New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, Alina Habba, on Thursday said she would continue on in the position despite a judicial decision declining to extend her interim status and instead opting to replace her. She doubled down in her first remarks since the decision, declaring that she is now the state’s acting…
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday approved an $8 billion merger agreement between media behemoths Paramount and Skydance, a deal that has been overshadowed for months by President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News and allegations of bribery by critics of the massive conglomerate. The FCC announced its approval of the megamerger late Thursday, with…
