National Politics

Remember the Tilt-a-Whirl? It was my favorite ride at the Fort Bend County Fair. You sit in a car that rolls and spins around an undulating track, moving in at least three different ways at once. The ride is a blast. When you get off it, it’s hard to walk. You get the sensation that

President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by September 11 — the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — prompted a split on Capitol Hill among both Republicans and Democrats, creating some strange bedfellows over what to do about America’s longest war. Many Republicans slammed the decision as premature,

A standoff has emerged between the White House and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as federal health officials have rejected the governor’s repeated requests for additional vaccine doses as her state experiences a surge in cases driven by the B.1.1.7 variant of Covid-19. Although President Joe Biden and Whitmer are close allies, the two now find

A bicameral group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday requesting he prioritize legislation that would offer a pathway to citizenship to undocumented essential workers in the second part of his two-part infrastructure package set to address education and childcare. In the letter obtained by CNN, the lawmakers said they

President Joe Biden, having concluded there is no military solution to the security and political problems plaguing Afghanistan and determined to focus on more pressing national security challenges, will formally announce Wednesday that US troops will withdraw from the country before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, a senior administration official said.

President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama will appear in an hour-long NBC special on Sunday aimed at promoting Covid-19 vaccinations as they hope to convince hesitant Americans to get shots. The special comes as the Biden administration races to get shots in arms and combat vaccine hesitancy, particularly after it was recommended that

President Joe Biden paid a personal tribute to fallen Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans during a service at the US Capitol on Tuesday in which he praised the officer for his service and offered words of comfort to his family. Evans, an 18-year veteran of the Capitol Police, died while protecting the US Capitol

President Joe Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and proposed a meeting in a third country in the coming months as tensions between Russia and Ukraine rise in eastern Europe. According to a White House statement about the call, Biden and Putin discussed arms control and emerging security issues. Biden also called

The magnitude of the economic proposals that President Joe Biden may pass through Congress this year is drawing legitimate comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. But Biden simultaneously faces the prospect that almost all of his legislative initiatives revolving around social, cultural and racial equity issues, from immigration

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Tuesday that the US military will increase its presence in Germany, recommitting the US to the NATO alliance in a reversal from the previous administration’s plans to withdraw troops from the country. The US will permanently station “approximately 500 additional US personnel in the Wiesbaden area” of Germany and will

A Republican senator who was one of several lawmakers who took part in President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure meeting Monday said he is not ruling out “some kind” of tax increase to pay for an infrastructure bill. “I’m not ruling out some kind of pay-for, absolutely,” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on

Nikki Haley sent a clear message to Donald Trump on Monday: If you run for president, I’m out. “I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” Haley said in response to a question from The Associated Press during a news conference at South Carolina State University when

The White House said Tuesday that the recommended pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would “not have a significant impact on our vaccination plan” to administer 200 million shots by the end of April, even as new questions mount about how the move could affect the willingness of Americans to receive

The gap in travel freedom is its biggest in decades and disparities in vaccination access between countries could make the situation even worse, says a new report. The Henley Passport Index, which has been regularly monitoring the world’s most travel-friendly passports since 2006, has released its latest rankings and analysis. As the index doesn’t take

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on Monday said she would back her onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, if he decides to run for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination again in 2024 and not mount a bid against him. “Yes,” Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, said in response to a question from

President Joe Biden is confronting the first major protests during his presidency after three months in office, prompted by the police killing of a Black man in Minnesota. Monitoring events from the White House, his response so far has appeared designed to avoid inflaming the situation while still acknowledging the need for accountability. At the