National Politics

By Phil Mattingly and Kylie Atwood, CNN An intense, closely guarded diplomatic effort by a core team of Biden energy and national security officials to raise global oil production amid surging prices from Russia’s war in Ukraine has fostered a cautious sense of optimism inside the White House. The two main targets of the effort,

By Kaitlan Collins, Manu Raju, Kate Sullivan, MJ Lee and John Harwood, CNN President Joe Biden on Friday called for suspending normal trade relations with Russia and said the US would ban imports of seafood, vodka and diamonds from the nation as part of an effort to ramp up economic pressure on Russia for invading

By Katelyn Polantz and Paul LeBlanc, CNN Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump‘s onetime national security adviser, invoked his Fifth Amendment right during a deposition before the January 6 committee on Thursday, declining to answer the panel’s questions. Flynn — who met with the committee virtually — invoked the Fifth “on advice of counsel,” his

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN The parents of Trevor Reed, a US citizen detained in Russia, said Thursday that his health has taken a further turn for the worse, and they fear he will be sent to solitary confinement rather than to medical care. Reed, who has been detained since 2019 and has been sentenced to

By Alex Rogers, CNN North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn recently called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and the Ukrainian government “incredibly evil,” criticizing the country and its leader as Russia invades it. Cawthorn’s statements were aligned with former President Donald Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin but in sharp contrast to the

By Lauren Fox and Jeremy Herb, CNN After two weeks of unity surrounding the Biden administration’s swift and sweeping response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, patience is quickly thinning on Capitol Hill, with Republicans — and even some Democrats — challenging the administration to go further to help Ukrainian allies under attack. The tension comes

By Jennifer Hansler, Sonnet Swire and Jeremy Herb, CNN US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday that actions committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people constitute war crimes, marking the first time a senior US official has directly accused Moscow of war crimes since last month’s attack on Ukraine began. “They constitute

By Betsy Klein and Maegan Vazquez, CNN The United States has assessed that North Korea tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile system in two of its recent launches, which American officials say is a “serious escalation” by Pyongyang. The two ballistic missile tests were conducted on February 26 and March 4. They were not intended

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN The two missile defense systems that the US delivered to Poland this week are part of a weapons system upon which the US military has heavily relied for nearly 40 years. The deployment, announced Thursday by Vice President Kamala Harris, is intended to deter Russia and boost Poland’s security amid western

By Kate Bennett, CNN In her hotel suite at the Intercontinental in San Francisco last weekend, Jill Biden spontaneously scrapped a prepared fundraising pitch she was set to give later that day. There was something else on her mind — Biden had awoken that morning to the news in Ukraine, growing ever more concerning as