WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to travel to Panama as part of a trip to Latin America as soon as next week, a person familiar with the matter said, underscoring President Donald Trump’s seriousness about taking back the Panama Canal.

Rubio also plans to visit Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, according to the person,...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump downplayed the national security risk posed by TikTok in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, days after offering the social video app a reprieve from legislation that would have forced it to shut down.

“Is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids, watching crazy videos?...Read more

Among the slew of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, he signed one order calling to reinstate the death penalty for federal death row inmates.

However, only three individuals remain on federal death row after former President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 people on Dec. 23 and instead ...Read more

A day after the Trump administration moved to vastly expand its powers to carry out fast-track deportations as part of a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to try to stop it.

The new policy, known as “expedited removal,” empowers immigration officials to swiftly deport those who have entered ...Read more

Just two days after a shaky ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel on Jan. 21, 2025, launched a large-scale incursion of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

Soldiers raided hundreds of homes in the West Bank city in what the Israeli military called a “counterterrorism” operation, aiming to reassert control there. Many ...Read more

As part of a torrent of decisions he issued this week hours after taking office, President Donald Trump declared that the name of America’s tallest mountain be changed from Denali to Mount McKinley, and that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed “The Gulf of America.”

Trump’s executive order Monday directing the Department of Interior to make ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Hakeem Jeffries, a parent of two, made his fatherhood status congressionally official Wednesday by joining the Dads Caucus.

The minority leader’s move signals how top Democrats plan to respond to their 2024 election losses by making concerted efforts to court men, who have shifted significantly rightward since the 2020 contest,...Read more

WASHINGTON — While ticket-splitting remained rare in 2024, it was enough for House Democrats to eat into Republicans’ majority. That will allow the minority party to influence key legislative votes, and keep control of the House within reach in the 2026 midterm elections.

For anyone who thinks 2025 is an “off-year,” past and future ...Read more

California’s progressive policies will not shield its undocumented residents from the federal legislation passed Wednesday to crack down on immigration.

The Laken Riley Act, named for an Athens, Georgia, nursing student murdered last year by an undocumented man, passed in the House by a 253 to 156 vote. Forty-six Democrats, including six from...Read more

Justice Department employees were told to support Donald Trump’s immigration agenda by sharing data collected on people in the country illegally with federal immigration enforcers.

Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, sent a memo to department staff Tuesday night outlining an aggressive stance on enforcement that he said is ...Read more

RICHMOND, Va. — Among the three constitutional amendments the Virginia Senate advanced this week was one that would automatically restore the right to vote to people who have completed their felony sentence.

But lawmakers have also taken up several other bills that would makes changes to elections or how people vote. Experts say that’s in ...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced her first bill in the new Congress Wednesday in hopes of countering President Donald Trump plans to deport undocumented immigrants.

It marked the fourth time the Minnesota Democrat has introduced the Neighbors not Enemies Act, which would repeal the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a centuries-old wartime...Read more

WASHINGTON — Southern California has been devastated by unprecedented wildfires that have sent tens of thousands fleeing from their homes and 27 people dead — and while the worst danger appears to have passed, blazes are still raging.

A continent away, Congress is engaged in a political, very public brawl over how to help pay the billions ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House has approved legislation named for a murdered Georgia nursing student, sending the measure to President Donald Trump, who is expected to make it the first bill he signs into law since reclaiming the White House.

The Laken Riley Act would give federal immigration agencies broad authority to detain undocumented ...Read more

WASHINGTON — As Republicans start negotiating perhaps “one big, beautiful bill” with the new president, which of two recent versions of Donald Trump will they encounter most often? Or could it be a brand-new version of the 47th chief executive?

GOP members walked triumphantly about the Capitol on Monday as Trump returned to the presidency...Read more

Several of the highest-profile figures in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection were charged with, and convicted of, the crime of seditious conspiracy, which is defined as the act of getting together with other people to overthrow the government. They were among the roughly 1,500 people involved in the insurrection who were pardoned or had their ...Read more

As Donald J. Trump roared out of the gate with a barrage of radical executive orders, blathering rhetorical weaves and handing out ill-considered pardons to boot, many Americans of our acquaintance succumbed Monday to uncharacteristic cynicism. Metaphorically speaking, although in a few hardy cases also literally speaking, they took a walk by ...Read more

Donald Trump kept up the breakneck pace Tuesday, the first full day of his presidency. He also announced he’ll make a stop in Nevada in the coming days. His vim and vigor are precisely what the nation needs.

The president didn’t slow down in the executive order department, signing a number of edicts on issues including immigration, the ...Read more

President Donald Trump was so very wrong to grant clemency to every convicted criminal who sacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in pursuit of his incendiary lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The horrific violence of that day was all about Trump, who ignited the fire, but each person who followed him and then broke the law bears their...Read more