National Politics

By Kevin Liptak, CNN Russian forces massed along Ukraine’s borders have increased by approximately 7,000 troops in recent days, the United States alleged Wednesday evening, despite claims from Moscow it was pulling back. A senior US administration official said the increase renders Russia’s assertion of withdrawal “false,” and warned President Vladimir Putin’s public openness to

By Devan Cole, CNN The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s mask mandate for public transport, marking the latest longshot bid to scrap one of the President’s key Covid-19 health measures. “Biden’s repeated disregard of the individual liberties of Texans is not only disrespectful to the US Constitution,

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN Most Americans are weary of Covid-19, recent polling shows, but there’s less consensus over how that exhaustion should translate into policy. Public opinion, these surveys suggest, isn’t a struggle between two clearly defined opposing camps — one favoring an immediate and total lifting of Covid precautions and the other a state

By Paradise Afshar and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill Wednesday that allows parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates. The bill, Senate Bill 739, requires schools to comply no later than March 1 and also keeps schools open five days a week for in-person instruction. The

By Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean, CNN A group of Republican senators is pushing back against an effort supported by some of the airline industry to create a government blacklist of violent and disruptive passengers. “Creating a federal ‘no-fly’ list for unruly passengers who are skeptical of this mandate would seemingly equate them to terrorists

By Tierney Sneed Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Tuesday he would not support a federal court nominee he had previously recommended to President Joe Biden — a move that could stop the nominee, Wisconsin state court Judge William Pocan, from being confirmed. Johnson’s reversal prompted criticism from Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, who nonetheless

By Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler, CNN Trevor Reed, an American who has been detained in Russia for more than two years, says he is coughing up blood and has not received medical care after prolonged exposure to tuberculosis in Russian prison, according to the US Embassy in Moscow. “In December #TrevorReed had prolonged exposure

By Michael Warren and Gabby Orr, CNN David Perdue kicked off his campaign for governor of Georgia with an emphatic endorsement from former President Donald Trump. But since then, his primary challenge to unseat Brian Kemp — the Republican governor Trump loves to hate — has been a big flop. Perdue, a former US senator,

By Barbara Starr and Oren Liebermann, CNN A US Navy aircraft had an “extremely close” encounter with multiple Russian military jets over international waters in the Mediterranean this weekend, according to multiple US officials directly familiar with the US military reports of the incident. The sources would not detail precisely how close the Russian aircraft

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN The White House dispatched two officials to Saudi Arabia this week to press the kingdom to pump more oil as fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine cause energy prices to rise, a potentiality President Joe Biden warned about in a speech on Tuesday could get worse if Russia attacks. National