National Politics

By Kylie Atwood, Jeremy Herb and Michael Conte, CNN Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that progress can be made during next week’s diplomatic talks between US, European and Russian officials, but that it had to be a “two-way street” with Russia deescalating its aggression toward Ukraine. Speaking following a meeting with NATO foreign

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN The Biden administration has signed its first contracts with a Covid-19 test manufacturer as part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to distribute half a billion free rapid tests throughout the country, a White House official confirms to CNN. The Department of Defense awarded a $51 million contract to Goldbelt Security, LLC,

By Tami Luhby, CNN Schools are not only wrestling with how to educate children amid the surge in coronavirus cases. They are also contending with feeding kids as inflation and supply chain problems disrupt their ability to serve meals. That’s why the US Department of Agriculture is pumping an estimated $750 million more into school

By Jasmine Wright, CNN Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly announced communications director Jamal Simmons is apologizing for decade-old tweets on “undocumented folks” that resurfaced after news of his appointment. A trio of tweets from November 2010 got renewed attention in the day since Simmons’ hiring was reported. In one, he wrote, “Just saw 2 undocumented

By Alex Rogers and Manu Raju, CNN Republicans are growing bullish that Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson will soon launch his reelection campaign in 2022, setting the stage for a bruising race that could determine control of the Senate and whether former President Donald Trump will continue to have one of his staunchest allies in the

By Natasha Bertrand and Sean Lyngaas, CNN The Biden administration is still weighing exactly how it would penalize Russia if the country invades Ukraine, as US diplomats are just days away from high-stakes meetings with Kremlin officials. Some Biden administration officials are warning of collateral economic damage from harsh sanctions and the risk of retaliatory

By Kate Sullivan, CNN President Joe Biden on Friday touted the unemployment rate dropping to a new pandemic low in December and credited his economic agenda with getting America “back on its feet,” even as Friday’s job report showed the US economy added fewer jobs than expected last month. The US economy added 199,000 jobs

By Oren Liebermann, CNN The US and Moroccan navies rescued 103 migrants from two rafts taking on water some 40 miles west of the Moroccan coast late Tuesday night, the US Navy said Friday. The Las Palmas Rescue Coordination Center, based in the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, received reports of the two

By Ariane de Vogue and Tierney Sneed, CNN Two attorneys from states challenging the Biden administration’s vaccine and testing mandates participated in oral arguments at the Supreme Court remotely Friday due to the court’s Covid-19 protocols. In addition, Justice Sonia Sotomayor took part from her chambers, but she is not ill, the court said. RELATED:

By Kate Sullivan, CNN President Joe Biden on Friday toured the damage left by the wildfires that swept through Colorado last week, meeting with families who lost their homes and businesses in the blaze and making clear his horror. Biden, speaking at a recreation center in Louisville, Colorado, said the damage was heartbreaking to see

By Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak, CNN Dr. Rochelle Walensky assumed her new role as the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last January with a vow to restore trust in the agency. But last fall, several months into the job and after a series of messaging missteps, Walensky

By Dan Merica, CNN Sen. Mark Kelly raised nearly $9 million in the final three months of 2021, a figure that surpasses what he raised in the previous three months and positions the Arizona Democrat to be one of the best funded candidates in the 2022 midterms. Kelly is seen as one of the most

By Tierney Sneed, CNN In a tense hearing Friday, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals signaled that — for now — it was likely to keep the Texas abortion case out of the hands of a federal judge who in the past had blocked the state’s six-week ban on abortion. The 5th Circuit panel