WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that U.S. officials have had “ongoing talks and discussions” with representatives of U.S.-designated terror group Hamas. Confirmation of the talks in Doha, Qatar, come as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire remains in the balance. Leavitt declined to provide details on the substance of the talks. “Look, dialogue…
A U.S. board that reviews the firings of federal employees on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate thousands of workers who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump’s layoffs of the federal workforce. Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit System Protection Board, ordered the USDA to reinstate fired…
WASHINGTON — One month ago, on the morning of Feb. 4, forces from Somalia’s Puntland region attacked Islamic State terror group fighters, who responded with drones, suicide attacks and infantry charges. Regional officials said 15 soldiers were killed in the fighting near the village of Qurac. But hours later, the terrorist fighters were forced to…
Mayors of four of the largest cities in the U.S. appeared before lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday to defend their so-called “sanctuary city” laws, which restrict local officials in helping enforce federal immigration regulations. The Republicans who lead the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have long criticized such laws, as…
U.S. oil company Chevron will have until April 3 to cease operations in Venezuela, according to the most recent license published by the U.S. Treasury Department, days after President Donald Trump announced his decision to reverse concessions to Venezuelan oil. Click here for the full story in Spanish. This post was originally published on here
WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Representative Sylvester Turner, a former mayor of Houston, who was sworn into office in November, died on Tuesday, fellow lawmakers said, hours after he posted about attending President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. The death of Turner, 70, temporarily widens Republicans’ slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to 218-214.…
WASHINGTON — The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on seven senior members of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, the Treasury Department said. The men smuggled military-grade items and weapon systems into Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and negotiated buying weapons from Russia, the Treasury Department said in a statement. It also designated Abdulwali Abdoh Hasan Al-Jabri…
ISLAMABAD — The U.S. Justice Department plans Wednesday to present in a federal court in Virginia the alleged mastermind of the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The justice department said Islamic State Khorasan operative Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as “Jafar,” was charged on March 2 with “providing and conspiring to…
NEW ORLEANS — Powerful storms killed two people in Mississippi, tore the roofs off an apartment building and a nursing home in a small town in Oklahoma and threatened more communities across the nation Tuesday with wide-ranging weather. The large storm system also brought blinding dust storms to the Southwest, blizzards with whiteout conditions to…
President Donald Trump delivered remarks before a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, lauding early steps taken by his administration to slash the bureaucracy, order steep tariffs on America’s closest trading partners, and pressure Ukraine to stop fighting against a Russian invasion. As Trump spoke, Democrats watched and made their protests clear. White House Bureau…