WASHINGTON — Some Supreme Court justices appeared open Wednesday to allowing South Carolina to deny federal funding for Planned Parenthood, during oral arguments in a dispute over the state disqualifying the health care provider from Medicaid for providing abortions.

But key justices also aired concerns that such a decision would leave no way...Read more

WASHINGTON — A pair of Florida Republicans preserved reliably red U.S. House districts in special elections on Tuesday, preventing Democrats from an upset that could have been used as a political cudgel against President Donald Trump in his home state.

Randy Fine, a combative state senator who clashed with Gov. Ron DeSantis, won the open-seat...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs in a Rose Garden speech Wednesday that was closely watched by world leaders anticipating convulsions in global markets.

In an effort to bring manufacturing back to the United States, Trump said he would slap what he called “reciprocal tariffs” on countries that currently tax U...Read more

Elon Musk is reportedly expected to step away from his role as President Donald Trump’s most prominent adviser in the coming months amid widespread questions about his political effectiveness.

Trump recently told members of his inner circle that he and Musk have agreed the world’s richest man will soon return to mostly running his companies...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld FDA actions to keep certain flavored e-cigarettes off the market, unanimously backing some of the agency’s approval process but sending an issue back to a lower court for further consideration.

FDA decisions have kept more than 1 million candy, fruit and other flavored e-cigarette products ...Read more

ATLANTA — President Donald Trump and his 2024 election campaign can’t get out of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by the estate of legendary R&B singer Isaac Hayes, though there are “quite a few” problems with the case, a federal judge in Atlanta said Wednesday.

Lawyers for Trump and his campaign urged U.S. District...Read more

WASHINGTON — A man wants to plead guilty as soon as next week on a charge of plotting to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh following the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision, according to a court filing from his attorneys Wednesday.

Nicholas Roske “wishes to enter a plea of guilty” to one count of attempting to assassinate a...Read more

WASHINGTON — With 19 months to go before the midterm elections, it’s too early to know what the political environment will be like in November 2026 and too early to project whether Republicans will maintain their hold on Congress.

But we do know that the political environment has changed since Donald Trump and the Republicans won full ...Read more

Nevada Democrats are outraged at an executive order that Donald Trump issued to regulate elections. But while the president’s authority in this area is limited, he’s more aligned with voter sentiment than his critics.

The order promotes proof of citizenship requirements and seeks to ensure all mail ballots are returned by Election Day. It ...Read more

In a rare rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump said this week he was “very angry” with the dictator for thwarting a Ukraine peace deal and that he’d consider new sanctions on Russia’s oil exports and its biggest international consumers. “If I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil,...Read more

Here’s the thing about Donald Trump 2.0: The slapdash chaos of his first term has solidified into something more deliberate. He’s no longer just winging it like an insult comic. Now, he’s got a plan, and the theme is callousness.

Take, for example, the Venezuelan immigrants he sent to an El Salvador “detention center.” One of the “...Read more

President Donald Trump will meet on Wednesday to consider a proposal for divesting TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd., just days ahead of a deadline for a sale of the popular social media app, according to people familiar with the matter.

The administration is considering a deal that would include Oracle Corp....Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Eureka woman who nearly bled to death while miscarrying twins last year is suing the Catholic hospital chain that she claims refused her life-saving abortion care.

Anna Nusslock, a chiropractor who sued Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka and its parent companies in Humbolt Superior Court on Tuesday, said she hopes the ...Read more

GOP firebrand Randy Fine is bringing his heated rhetoric to the halls of Congress, after defeating Democrat Josh Weil in Tuesday’s special election for a Central Florida district.

But Weil’s closer-than-expected margin in an overwhelmingly Republican seat could buoy his party’s overall hopes for 2026.

The special election in ...Read more

GOP firebrand Randy Fine is bringing his heated rhetoric to the halls of Congress, after defeating Democrat Josh Weil in Tuesday’s special election for a Central Florida district.

But Weil’s closer-than-expected margin in an overwhelmingly Republican seat could buoy his party’s overall hopes for 2026.

The special election in ...Read more

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For a few days, Democrats got to dream.

In two Florida congressional special elections, one south of Jacksonville and one in the Panhandle, the Democrats’ candidates, Josh Weil and Gay Valimont, were running stronger than expected in ruby-red districts. Fueled by liberal outrage around the country at the policies ...Read more

While the 2026 midterms are more than a year and a half away, three special elections happening Tuesday night should give voters in Pennsylvania and across the country a sense of which way the political breeze is blowing.

If Democrats overperform, it would be the latest sign Trump has already alienated some of his supporters a little more than ...Read more

A Nevada law that has gone unenforced since it was enacted 40 years ago will go into effect at the end of the month, requiring parents to be notified if their minor daughter seeks an abortion.

A federal judge ruled Monday that since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to an abortion, there is no longer a legal ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared open to upholding a federal law that allows lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organization seeking damages from terror attacks.

During oral arguments in two cases, justices repeatedly suggested that they owed deference to Congress’ decision in 2019 to ...Read more