Top United States government News

Defense rests without ex-President Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial

May. 21, 2024 11:24 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers rested their defense Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money criminal trial, moving the case closer to the moment the jury would begin deciding his fate. “Your honor, the defense rests,”...

The Latest | Defense rests its case without Trump testifying in his hush money trial

May. 21, 2024 11:15 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The defense rested its case in Donald Trump's hush money trial on Tuesday morning without the former president taking the witness stand to testify, bringing proceedings one step closer to closing arguments. After more than four weeks of testimony, jurors were sent...

Election deniers moving closer to GOP mainstream, report shows, as Trump allies fill Congress

May. 21, 2024 10:37 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the hours after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Ohio’s then-Republican senator, Rob Portman, voted to accept President Joe Biden’s win over the defeated former president, Donald Trump, despite Trump’s false allegations that Biden only won because of...

Tuesday's primaries include presidential races and the prosecutor in Trump's Georgia election case

May. 21, 2024 04:50 AM EDT

The presidential primaries that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have already clinched will move closer to their end Tuesday. Voters in two states, Kentucky and Oregon, will get their chance to weigh in, symbolic decisions that provide a few more delegates to the national conventions and...

Trump's social media account shares a campaign video with a headline about a 'unified Reich'

May. 21, 2024 11:14 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A video posted to Donald Trump's account on his social media network included references to a “unified Reich” among hypothetical news headlines if he wins the election in November. The headline appears among messages flashing across the screen such as “Trump...

Biden and Democrats raised $51 million in April, far less than Trump and the GOP's $76 million

May. 20, 2024 20:42 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said Monday that they raised more than $51 million in April, falling well short of the $76 million that Donald Trump and the Republican Party reported taking in for the month. Biden's reelection campaign...

Senate report finds parts made with China's forced labor in cars by BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and VW

May. 20, 2024 15:38 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen have bought parts made by a Chinese company sanctioned under a 2021 law for using forced labor, a Senate inquiry found, prompting lawmakers to call for stricter enforcement. The automakers responded to the Senate report,...

China sanctions former US lawmaker who supported Taiwan

May. 21, 2024 09:40 AM EDT

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday sanctioned Mike Gallagher, a former Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin who has shown support for Taiwan. Gallagher will be banned from entering China, any assets he holds in the country will be frozen and he will be barred from various...

Trump campaign calls 'The Apprentice' 'blatantly false,' director offers to screen it for him

May. 21, 2024 11:29 AM EDT

CANNES, France (AP) — Donald Trump’s reelection campaign called “The Apprentice,” a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, “pure fiction” and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the...

Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to Maryland ban on rifles known as assault weapons

May. 20, 2024 14:50 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday declined, for now, to hear a challenge to a Maryland law banning certain semi-automatic firearms commonly referred to as assault weapons. The court did not elaborate on the denial, as is typical. It would have been unusual for the...

Latest United States government News

Germany's foreign minister says in Kyiv that air defenses are an 'absolute priority' for Ukraine

May. 21, 2024 10:37 AM EDT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Sending air defense systems to Ukraine to help protect it from Russian cruise missiles, rockets and drones is an “absolute priority,” Germany’s foreign minister said in Kyiv on Tuesday after visiting a local power plant that was largely reduced to ruins by a recent...

China sanctions former US lawmaker who supported Taiwan

May. 21, 2024 09:40 AM EDT

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday sanctioned Mike Gallagher, a former Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin who has shown support for Taiwan. Gallagher will be banned from entering China, any assets he holds in the country will be frozen and he will be barred from various...

Analysis: Iran's nuclear policy of pressure and talks likely to go on even after president's death

May. 21, 2024 09:36 AM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — While Iran's nuclear program stands at the precipice of tipping over into enriching uranium at weapons-grade levels, Tehran has held quiet, indirect talks with the United States and invited the head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog into the country for...

Trump or Biden? Either way, US seems poised to preserve heavy tariffs on imports

May. 21, 2024 06:47 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As president, Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel, which hurt Clips & Clamps Industries, a Michigan auto supplier — raising its materials prices, making it harder to compete with overseas rivals and costing it several contracts. Jeff...

UN Security Council rejects Russia-backed resolution on banning weapons in space

May. 21, 2024 01:06 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States said Monday that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space, a possible future global trend that members of the United Nations Security Council condemned even as they failed to pass a measure against it. The...

Trump-backed legislator, county sheriff face off for McCarthy's vacant US House seat in California

May. 21, 2024 01:05 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California legislator backed by former President Donald Trump and a county sheriff promising to fight for tougher border security are matched in a special election Tuesday to decide who will complete the remainder of the term of deposed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy,...

Progressive prosecutor in Portland, Oregon, seeks to fend off tough-on-crime challenger in DA race

May. 21, 2024 00:19 AM EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In Oregon’s Multnomah County, home to Portland, the progressive district attorney who took office during the social justice movement of 2020 is being challenged by a candidate vowing to be tough on crime, highlighting the growing pressure on liberal prosecutors across the...

Haiti’s main airport reopens nearly 3 months after gang violence forced it closed

May. 20, 2024 22:12 PM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s main international airport reopened Monday for the first time in nearly three months after relentless gang violence forced authorities to close it. The reopening of the Toussaint-Louverture airport in the capital of Port-au-Prince is expected...

Americans in alleged Congo coup plot formed an unlikely band

May. 20, 2024 21:30 PM EDT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Three Americans involved in a brazen weekend attack on Congo's presidential palace formed an unlikely band under the leadership of eccentric opposition figure Christian Malanga, who dabbled in gold mining and used cars before persuading his Utah-born son to join in the...

The White House says FDIC chairman to step down following report on agency's toxic workplace culture

May. 20, 2024 18:27 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The White House said Monday that the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will step down, a departure that follows the release earlier this month of a damning report about the agency’s toxic workplace culture. The White House said Martin Gruenberg...