National Politics

By Oren Liebermann, CNN A US carrier strike group began operating in the South China Sea on Thursday, the Navy announced, amid heightened tensions with Beijing, which claims much of the body of water as its sovereign territory. Two Chinese ships are already tailing the US group, a defense official told CNN, which consists of

By Gabby Orr, CNN In the two months since Donald Trump launched his third presidential campaign, potential rivals have been casting doubt over his inevitability as the GOP nominee — whispering from the sidelines that he has lost his touch, that there are cracks in his base, that his strange absence from the campaign trail

By Katelyn Polantz and Kaitlan Collins, CNN The Justice Department is seeking to question two people who searched Donald Trump’s properties in November, as federal investigators have asked whether the former president returned all classified documents to the federal government, sources familiar with the probe tell CNN. The development is the latest sign that the

By Kara Scannell and Nicki Brown, CNN The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million — the maximum possible penalty — by a New York judge Friday for running a decade-long tax fraud scheme, a symbolic moment because it is the only judgment for a criminal conviction that has come close to former President Donald Trump.

By Tami Luhby, CNN Those who want Affordable Care Act coverage for 2023 have only a few days left to sign up. Open enrollment ends Sunday on the federal exchange and most state-based marketplaces. A few states that run their own exchanges, including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, as well as

By Kylie Atwood, CNN The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday requested from the State Department a vast number of documents related to the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, marking the official launch of the newly Republican-led panel’s investigation into the chaotic exit. Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the

By Sonnet Swire, CNN A bipartisan duo of House lawmakers reintroduced legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stocks while in office, renewing last year’s push that captured headlines but fell short of a floor vote. Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas reintroduced the TRUST in Congress

By Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, Jeff Zeleny and Arlette Saenz, CNN The early days of 2017 were a whirlwind for Vice President Joe Biden: swearing in a new Congress, a surprise Medal of Freedom, a speech at Davos and one final trip to Ukraine. Partly to wrap up his policy portfolios, partly to tout his

By Sonnet Swire, CNN Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that he believes he “had too much power” when he wielded the gavel. “I think I had too much power as speaker,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead,” adding that what bothered him “most” were omnibus bills — massive spending packages

By Gustavo Valdes and Nicole Chavez, CNN Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order this week barring the use of the term “Latinx” in official state documents, saying the government should use “ethnically appropriate language.” Sanders, a Republican who gained national recognition as White House press secretary in the Trump administration, signed several

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN Dozens of messages, social media posts and videos show that leaders of the far-right Proud Boys not only planned for the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack but recruited others to help stop Joe Biden from becoming president, federal prosecutors said Thursday during opening statements in the seditious

By Katie Bo Lillis and Kristin Fisher, CNN The US government has received over 350 new reports of what the US government terms “unidentified aerial phenomenon,” commonly known as UFOs, since March of 2021 — roughly half of which are so far unexplained, according to a report from the Office of the Director of National