News

The Trump administration is weighing whether to pursue terrorism-related sanctions against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as officials review allegations the agency has ties to Hamas and consider steps that could further pressure its leadership and operations, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.  The United Nations agency provides aid, schooling, healthcare, shelter and social services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria....

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged a Ukrainian woman with helping to carry out dozens of cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, working with Russian-backed hackers, according to newly unsealed indictments. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is also offering up to $10 million for information leading to others tied to one of the pro-Russia hacking groups she was allegedly affiliated with. Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova, 33, was arraigned Tuesday on a second federal indictment...

A group of moderate Republicans is defying House GOP leaders to try and force a vote on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of this year. Republicans led by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., on Wednesday filed a measure known as a discharge petition, a mechanism designed to force a vote on legislation over the wishes of leadership, provided it gets support from a majority of House lawmakers. A dramatic series of events...

The U.S. has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, marking a sharp escalation in tensions with Caracas. ‘We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker, very large. Largest one ever seized action. And, other things are happening. So you’ll be seeing that later. And you’ll be talking about that later with some other people,’ Trump said at the White House. The move is likely to further strain...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Wednesday that Moscow will retaliate if European governments deploy troops to Ukraine or seize frozen Russian assets to support Kyiv, according to Reuters. Lavrov delivered the remarks before the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, outlining Moscow’s stance on the war and its clash with the West. Reuters reported that Lavrov insisted Russia does not seek war with Europe but is prepared to act if it views...

Senate Republicans rammed through the first procedural hurdle on their road to confirming nearly 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees on Wednesday. The move tees up a later vote on 97 of Trump’s picks and marks the third time Senate Republicans advanced a bloc of the president’s nominees since changing the confirmation rules in September. The final vote to confirm the latest tranche of picks is expected next week. Once Republicans clear this latest package,...

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania condemned an attack against Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, whose assassination shocked the world earlier this year. ‘It’s gross and dehumanizing to attack a widow with young children after just witnessing his public assassination,’ the senator noted in a post on X. ‘It shouldn’t be controversial to put our political views aside and extend the grace for a deeply traumatized family to grieve,’ he added....

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is coming under fire for allegedly becoming ‘one of the biggest engines driving woke corporate America’ amid the Trump administration’s battle to strip diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the fabric of industry and government, a conservative watchdog alleges.  ‘Once a voice for small businesses and Main Street, the Chamber now advocates for DEI mandates, (environmental, social and governance) investment schemes, and radical climate policies that punish consumers,’ said...

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and ordered them returned to the control of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.  The order, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, is a blow to the Trump administration, and comes six months after the president in June deployed thousands of federalized National Guard troops to the city in response to a wave of immigration protests. Breyer...

A federal judge has cleared the Justice Department to release secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the transcripts under wraps, citing Congress’s recent action on the Epstein files. Berman had previously warned that the contents of the roughly 70 pages of grandjury materials contain little new information. The move comes just one day after Judge Paul Engelmayer...