A cohort of Senate Republicans broke ranks with their leadership on Thursday to help Senate Democrats tank a massive funding package, and most aren’t planning on changing their minds. Seven GOP lawmakers joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and all Senate Democrats to torpedo the six-bill funding package geared toward averting a partial government shutdown. The gang of seven have varying issues with the package, including billions in earmarks, lack of legislation to prevent...
A likely emerging deal in the Senate aimed at averting a prolonged government shutdown could face significant headwinds in the House of Representatives. Senate Democrats are demanding that funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) be removed from a larger package of six spending bills needed to finish funding the government for fiscal year (FY) 2026. A growing number of senators on both sides appear to be warming to do so, while passing a...
President Donald Trump announced that the commercial airspace over Venezuela would reopen after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released an emergency notice earlier in January to block civil flight operations of U.S. aircraft in Venezuela airspace. The notice came as the U.S. conducted strikes in Venezuela and captured dictator Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has said that the U.S. would run Venezuela until a peaceful transition could occur and is currently working to restore diplomatic...
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to not open fire on Kyiv, Ukraine, for one week due to the freezing weather rocking the region. ‘I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this,’ Trump said. ‘It’s extraordinary cold, record-setting cold. Over there too, they’re having the same conditions. It’s a big it’s a big pile of bad weather. The...
Supreme Court justices are set to hold a private conference on Feb. 20 to consider a slate of petitions for review, including one from President Donald Trump. The president is requesting a review of the 2023 verdict against him in a civil lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll. The justices could act on Trump’s petition as soon as Feb. 23, but they generally consider petitions at two or more conferences before granting them, meaning they...
A Muslim activist who served a prison sentence for his role in an overseas terror plot is now seeking elected office in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, as local elections approach amid heightened communal tensions. Shahid Butt was convicted by a Yemeni court in 1999 and sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of forming an armed gang and conspiring to bomb the British consulate in Aden, an Anglican church and a Swiss-owned...
Senate Democrats stayed true to their threat by blocking a behemoth funding package, but in a surprising turn of events, they were joined by several Senate Republicans to derail the legislation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus made it no secret that they would obstruct the government funding process over the last several days, demanding that Republicans strip the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill from the six-bill package. But the...
A gold-standard guide used by judges nationwide to address subjects they are not particularly versed in is drawing criticism over the latest edition’s inclusion of purported ideological bias focused on its climate section. Critics have said the fourth edition of the Federal Judicial Center’s Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence – which includes a foreword by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan – appears to blur the line between neutrally educating judges and indoctrinating them with left-wing...
Longtime Democratic consultant James Carville says Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker could potentially be his party’s best choice to lead Democrats to victory in the 2028 presidential election. And Carville, who first gained national attention over three decades ago as the chief strategist for former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 White House victory, argues that former Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t have a shot at winning the next Democratic presidential nomination. The 2028 Democratic nomination battle in...
House Republicans are rolling out a massive election overhaul package ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, including new voter ID requirements as well as limitations on how and when votes are cast. The Committee on House Administration is unveiling new legislation on Thursday called the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act, which would impose new federal standards on national elections across the U.S. The sprawling bill includes key portions of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility...
