Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a video message at the Defender of Freedom Gala in Virginia's Pentagon City last week, fondly recalled his cold morning in Minnesota years ago when he delivered joy to a veteran and his family.
A new report shows that the number of nonfiction books banned in U.S. schools doubled in the last academic year. PEN America's report released Thursday called "Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away by Book Bans" found that 3,743 unique titles were removed from school libraries and classrooms between July 2024 and June 2025. This included...
Rep. James Clyburn, the lone Democrat representing South Carolina in the House, on Thursday ripped a push among Palmetto State Republicans to redraw their district lines amid pressure from President Trump. “Republicans in the South Carolina state legislature began the process of extending their session to allow for the redrawing of the state’s congressional map...
Voters in much of the United Kingdom are going to the polls on Thursday, filling council seats across England and electing members of devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales. From an American perspective, much of the interest will lie in the fate of two politicians with very different relationships to President Trump. British Prime Minister...
An outbreak of hantavirus aboard a Dutch cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean is raising concerns about the virus among members of the public wary about another global outbreak. At least three passengers who were aboard the MV Hondius have died, and five other people have been sickened after showing symptoms of the hantavirus. The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said no symptomatic individuals remain on board. Some passengers,...
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) on Thursday sent letters to 17 people who received pardons or commutations from President Trump, asking whether the president granted them leniency under “pay-for-play” circumstances. The lawmakers said the individuals got Trump's clemency “under suspicious circumstances,” according to a list of recipients released by Min’s office....
A leader for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Thursday pleaded not guilty on behalf of the civil rights group amid an effort by the Justice Department to charge it with fraud. The Trump administration has accused the organization of defrauding its donors by using a now-defunct informant program to funnel money to the extremist groups...
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) clapped back at President Trump over a Truth Social post the president made saying he “should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE!” “What’s up, y’all? The [New York] Knicks are up two-zip, I’m feeling good, and then I got to wake up this morning and deal with another deranged rant...
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee mocked FBI Director Kash Patel after a new report came out saying the Trump administration official occasionally travels with a “personalized branded bourbon” engraved with his name and title. “The Kash Patel bourbon: strong notes of insecurity, narcissism, incompetence and alcohol-fueled national security risk,” the lawmakers wrote in a...
Tennessee lawmakers on Thursday passed a GOP-friendly map that carves up the state’s only majority-Black House seat and threatens the lone Democrat in the Volunteer State's nine-member congressional delegation. The Tennessee House and Senate approved the new map on Thursday after first voting to repeal the state’s 56-year prohibition on mid-decade redistricting, a necessary step...
The review council tasked by President Trump with looking into reforms for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved its final report Thursday, recommending sweeping changes to the agency. The prescribed changes approved by the FEMA Review Council include reviewing agency staffing, shifting more responsibility to state, local and tribal authorities, and privatizing flood insurance....
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said Wednesday that the Trump administration is “not in the business of picking winners and losers” on AI, as officials grapple with how to safely roll out more advanced models. “This administration has one goal; ensure the best and safest tech is deployed rapidly to defeat any and all threats,”...
One of the Pentagon's top technology leaders ruled out any reconciliation with Anthropic, despite the White House softening its own tone on the AI company. "Never again will we be single-threaded with any one model," Emil Michael, under secretary of Defense for research and engineering, said Thursday in a fireside chat at the AI+ Expo...
The Iranian government this week launched an agency to administer tolls on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, as officials in Tehran consider a proposal from the Trump administration to end hostilities. The new agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, will approve ship transits and collect tolls in the key waterway, according to shipping...
