National Politics

By Barbara Starr, Jim Sciutto, Alex Marquardt, Jeremy Herb, and Katie Bo Lillis CNN Russia has revised its Ukraine war strategy to focus on trying to take control of the Donbas and other regions in eastern Ukraine with a target date of early May, according to several US officials familiar with the latest US intelligence

By Aileen Graef and Ellie Kaufman, CNN The Department of Defense announced Saturday the repatriation of Sufiyan Barhoumi from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba to his native county of Algeria. Barhoumi was cleared for transfer in August 2016, but had continued to be held in Guantanamo while he waited for the US government

By Sam Fossum First lady Jill Biden brought to life the USS Delaware in a commissioning ceremony for the Virginia-class submarine at the Port of Wilmington on Saturday. “It’s difficult to put into words how much it means to be a part of the USS Delaware family. It’s an incredible honor that I take seriously.

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN Anti-abortion advocates had a lot to celebrate this week, including the passage of what a Republican bill sponsor in Kentucky dubbed one of the “most significant” pieces of anti-abortion legislation “in a generation.” Arizona’s Republican governor, meanwhile, signed into law a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks, similar to the

By Chandelis Duster and Priya Krishnakumar, CNN As the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court has ignited a discussion about the historic lack of diversity on the nation’s highest court, her ascendance has also renewed focus on the absence of Black judges on the federal judiciary’s lower courts. Of the 3,852 people

By Daniel Dale, CNN A new television ad from Ohio Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel is centered on a false claim that Republican primary rival Mike Gibbons, a businessman, said that military service isn’t “real work.” The Mandel ad features a direct-to-camera appeal from Sheila Nowacki, the mother of a Marine who was killed in

By Amanda Musa, CNN The Georgia Senate has approved a measure that would prohibit local school boards and administrators from discriminating “on the basis of race” by promoting or encouraging “divisive concepts” in classrooms. House Bill 1084, known as the “Protect Students First Act,” passed the state Senate Friday in a 32-21 vote, according to

By Tierney Sneed After several recent developments in the January 6 investigations that put the Justice Department in the center of the political whirlwinds, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that the only pressure his agency feels is to “do the right thing” by following “the facts and the law.” “The only pressure I feel,

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The temporary head of the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence division, John Cohen, is stepping down this month as President Joe Biden’s appointee awaits confirmation, according to an internal memo sent to the workforce and obtained by CNN. Cohen assumed the role last July after a series of controversies embroiled the

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN The family of an American citizen taken hostage in Afghanistan more than two years ago welcomed an apparent proof of life video that was published on Friday and called on the Biden administration to take “bold and decisive action” to bring him home. Mark Frerichs, a veteran and contractor who was

By Holmes Lybrand Concluding one of the more unnerving cases surrounding January 6, a man who brought multiple firearms, Molotov cocktails and other weapons near the US Capitol that day was sentenced to 46 months behind bars on Friday. Lonnie Coffman, 72, parked his truck — filled with 11 Mason jars filled with gasoline and

By Kristin Wilson, CNN The House has voted with a slim bipartisan majority to federally decriminalize marijuana. The vote was 220 to 204. Republicans Tom McClintock of California, Brian Mast and Matt Gaetz, both of Florida, joined the majority of Democrats in supporting the bill, while Democrats Henry Cuellar of Texas and Chris Pappas of