Latest Joe Biden News

American who says he crossed into Syria by foot is free after 7 months in detention

Dec. 12, 2024 07:04 AM EST

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An American who turned up in Syria on Thursday says he was detained after crossing into the country by foot on a Christian pilgrimage seven months ago. Travis Timmerman appears to have been among thousands of people released from the country's notorious...

Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency

Dec. 12, 2024 06:43 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It's the largest single-day act of clemency in modern...

US hikes tariffs on imports of Chinese solar wafers, polysilicon and tungsten products

Dec. 12, 2024 05:30 AM EST

BANGKOK (AP) — The Biden administration plans to raise tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon and some tungsten products from China to protect U.S. clean energy businesses. The notice from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said tariffs on Chinese-made solar wafers and...

Today in History: December 12, Supreme Court issues Bush v. Gore decision

Dec. 12, 2024 00:02 AM EST

Today is Thursday, Dec. 12, the 347th day of 2024. There are 19 days left in the year. Today in history: On Dec. 12, 2000, George W. Bush became president-elect as a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court recount decision in Florida’s tightly contested...

Trump taps immigration hard-liner Kari Lake as head of Voice of America

Dec. 11, 2024 22:53 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he's picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news...

FBI Director Wray says he intends to resign before Trump takes office in January

Dec. 11, 2024 20:45 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray told bureau workers Wednesday that he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden's term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. ...

Jim Leach, former US representative from Iowa, dies at 82

Dec. 11, 2024 20:02 PM EST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, who served 30 years as a politician from eastern Iowa and later headed the National Endowment for the Humanities, died Wednesday. He was 82. Leach, whose death was confirmed by an Iowa City funeral home, represented Iowa as a...

Manchin, Sinema prevent Democrats from locking in majority on labor board through 2026

Dec. 11, 2024 19:44 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats failed Wednesday to confirm a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board after independent Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema opposed the nomination, thwarting their hopes of locking in a majority at the federal agency for the first two years of...

The Trump and Biden teams insist they're working hand in glove on foreign crises

Dec. 11, 2024 18:28 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump doesn't think much of Joe Biden's foreign policy record. The Republican president-elect frequently casts the outgoing Democratic president as a feckless leader who shredded American credibility around the world during his four-year term. But a funny...

Secretary of State Blinken is returning to the Mideast in his latest diplomatic foray

Dec. 11, 2024 18:20 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The upheaval in Syria has sparked new fears of instability in a region...