WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress face two major tasks this week: wrapping up reconciliation 2.0 and renewing a controversial spy powers authority before it expires Friday.

The House returns with a final sprint to clear roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement through President Donald Trump’s term, which GOP leaders are hoping to ...Read more

The Trump administration on May 20, 2026, indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro for murder, based on the downing of two planes near the Cuban coastline in 1996 that killed four people.

As a historian of Latin America and U.S. foreign policy, I believe the indictment may be the prelude to direct U.S. military action against Cuba...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Can kids go to prison? – Artie, age 10, New York City

The United States has a special justice system for people under age 18. But youth can be tried in adult courts and go ...Read more

More people are talking about the Declaration of Independence now than they likely have for decades, largely because of the festivities, exhibits, historical commemorations and other public events associated with the upcoming 250th anniversary of American independence.

But even as they discuss the historical meaning, purpose and ideas...Read more

President Donald Trump’s choice for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, has proved controversial. Pulte’s lack of background in national security matters has sparked resistance from Democrats on Capitol Hill, which is not surprising. But some Republicans, too, have expressed dismay at the president’s choice, a Trump ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump amplified baseless claims of election fraud in California early Monday morning, pointing to the most recent Los Angeles mayoral results as alleged evidence of a cheating narrative he began pushing days ago.

Trump declared early Monday morning on Truth Social that there was “no way” Democrat Nithya Raman...Read more

WASHINGTON — A relentless push by President Donald Trump to reshape Washington‘s cityscape is facing mounting resistance, threatening a slate of transformative monuments intended to cement his legacy in the nation’s capital.

Eager to see his projects completed before leaving office, Trump has responded to growing legal and political ...Read more

CHICAGO — Five years after Illinois joined other states in allowing politicians to use campaign funds for childcare, a handful of state lawmakers from Chicago have become some of the nation’s biggest users of laws designed to encourage parents — particularly mothers of young children — to run for office, according to a nonprofit ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence makes passage of a bill renewing spy powers far harder, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said.

Senator Mark Warner said on ABC’s This Week that Pulte’s appointment threw a “live grenade” into negotiations between ...Read more

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party leads in the Armenia’s parliamentary election that would determine whether he gets mandate strong enough to reorient the country toward Europe even as tensions with Russia grow.

Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party is leading with about 55% of the vote with around 20% of ballots counted, according to ...Read more

Peruvians were on edge Sunday as exit polls offered little clarity on which candidate would win the bitterly contested runoff to become the country’s next president.

An exit poll by Ipsos showed conservative Keiko Fujimori with 50.7% of the vote while leftist Roberto Sánchez had 49.3%. Another poll by firm Datum projected Fujimori at 50.53%...Read more

France’s veteran leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon pitched himself on Sunday as the most viable candidate in next year’s presidential election to prevent a win by the far-right National Rally party.

Speaking at a campaign event in Saint-Denis, near Paris, Mélenchon said candidates who don’t stand a chance of making it to the runoff in the ...Read more

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito cannot participate in any cases involving the Treasury Department because his son Phil works as an attorney there. Justice Amy Coney Barrett has two adopted children from Haiti, so she should be disqualified from hearing an ongoing case involving Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Chief Justice John ...Read more

DENVER — In her 16th campaign for Congress, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is making a straightforward pitch: If Denver voters send her back to Washington, D.C., she’ll do more with her seat as a seasoned lawmaker than a newcomer can.

If Democrats regain control of the House this fall, DeGette could lead one of the most powerful subcommittees in ...Read more

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned of a major shakeup in two key eastern German state elections in September where the Alternative for Germany leads in the polls, urging the political center to work together to counter the far-right party.

“If we don’t do our job and if we’re not good enough, there will be a big bang in September,”...Read more

The U.S. House passed a Republican-backed fiscal 2027 agriculture funding bill this week that Rep. Andy Harris said would support farmers, rural communities and agricultural research, while cutting Biden-era climate and rural development initiatives.

Harris, a Maryland Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, ...Read more