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The Justice Department is signaling a broader use of federal civil rights law against protesters accused of disrupting religious worship, with officials pointing to synagogue cases as a model for future enforcement. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the department has applied the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act — a law historically associated with abortion clinic protests — to cases involving disruptions at Jewish...

Senate Democrats aren’t ready to concede in their push for stringent reforms to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and are ready to buck Senate Republicans’ plans to avert a partial shutdown.  Their resistance comes as Senate Republicans and the White House have floated a counteroffer to Democrats’ proposed DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reforms. But the two sides remain far apart on a deal to fund the agency, and they are quickly...

The Justice Department has installed a Missouri-based U.S. prosecutor to head the Trump administration’s election probe in Fulton County, Georgia, according to recent court records, marking the latest instance in which an out-of-state prosecutor has been tasked with a leading role in a politically charged case. The involvement of Thomas Albus, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, was revealed last month when he signed off on a Fulton County search warrant that authorized...

An association representing governors from across the country will not be holding a formal meeting with President Donald Trump after the White House reportedly snubbed Democrats, only inviting Republican governors to attend. ‘The bipartisan White House governors meeting is an important tradition, and we are disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year. To disinvite individual governors to the White House sessions undermines an important opportunity for federal-state collaboration,’ Bandon...

Russia’s military has been badly battered by its failure to conquer Ukraine, but Moscow is now rebuilding its war machine for the long haul, according to a new assessment from Estonia’s foreign intelligence service, even as the force it is fielding relies more on mass and attrition than military quality.  The report says Russia has suffered catastrophic losses since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with an estimated 1 million soldiers killed or severely wounded, draining...

A top Iranian security official was spotted in Oman just days after Tehran and the U.S. held indirect nuclear talks in the Mideast sultanate. Ali Larijani, a former Iranian parliament speaker who now serves as the secretary to the country’s Supreme National Security Council, was likely in the country to discuss what comes next after the initial round of talks, The Associated Press reported. The outlet noted that Larijani’s team shared photos of him with...

Kenya will press Russia for answers after reports emerged that its citizens are being recruited to fight in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said. Musalia Mudavadi told the BBC in an interview on Tuesday that the recruitment was ‘unacceptable and clandestine.’ He said the government has shut down illegal recruiters and would urge Moscow to sign an agreement barring the conscription of Kenyan citizens.  Nairobi estimates that about 200 nationals have been recruited to fight...

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that the United States should get ‘some benefit’ from Greenland if it’s going to ‘be on the hook for protecting this massive landmass.’  Vance told reporters in Armenia that, ‘it’s very early in the Greenland talks,’ amid the Trump administration’s push to acquire the Danish territory.   ‘We’ve been working quite a bit on this over the last few weeks, but it’s just very simple. Greenland is very important to the national security of the United States...

The No. 2 House Republican in Congress tore into Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday after cold weather left 18 New York City residents dead. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., made the comments in the context of warning that Democrats’ rejection of a bipartisan compromise on funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will leave critical offices — like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — with a dire lack of money. ‘What is not...

As U.S.-Iran diplomacy remains primarily focused on Tehran’s nuclear program, Israeli officials and analysts warn that ballistic missiles remain a central red line for Jerusalem and could shape any decision on unilateral action. Before departing for his trip to Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he plans to press Israel’s priorities in the talks. ‘I will present to the president our views regarding the principles of the negotiations — the important principles — and, in...