National Politics

By Sean Lyngaas, Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — James Luckey-Lange has been spending a lot of time looking at the names he carved on a bar of soap he smuggled out of a Venezuelan prison in his underwear. The 28-year-old New York native spent just over a month detained by Venezuelan officials, whom he says

By Aleena Fayaz, CNN (CNN) — The US military conducted a strike against another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean on Friday, killing three people, according to US Southern Command. “On Feb. 13, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a

By Alayna Treene, CNN (CNN) — Hours after refusing to apologize for a racist video posted to his Truth Social account, President Donald Trump hadn’t let go. He spent last weekend complaining to allies about Republicans who had condemned the video depicting the Obamas as apes, questioning the lawmakers’ loyalty and vowing consequences, sources familiar

By Holmes Lybrand, Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — A day after the US announced it took the unusual step of shuttering it’s Drug Enforcement Administration office in the Dominican Republic — a key site in the agency’s effort to combat drug trafficking in the Caribbean — a top agent there was charged with running a

By Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — Military officers could soon find dozens of top colleges and universities across the United States abruptly off limits for tuition assistance as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign against schools he describes as being biased against the US military and sponsoring “troublesome partnerships with foreign adversaries.”

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — A British dinosaur convention is banning some paleontologists named in the Jeffrey Epstein files from attending DinoCon – as the global scientific community becomes the latest to grapple with the convicted sex offender’s connections to prominent people in the worlds of business, politics and academia. “As a result of

By Arlette Saenz, CNN (CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were among the high-profile Democrats looking to counter President Donald Trump at the Munich Security Conference this week as they outlined their foreign policy visions and what could come next. “Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years,” said

By Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — The Defense Department has been aggressively pursuing laser weapons and defense systems, a push that gained significant attention this week when the use of an anti-drone laser system led to the temporary shutdown of airspace over El Paso, Texas. The interest in high-energy systems has only accelerated as military

By Kevin Liptak, Jim Sciutto, CNN (CNN) — The Pentagon is sending a second aircraft carrier group – the USS Gerald Ford – to the Middle East, according to a senior administration official and three sources familiar with the matter, a move that puts pressure on Iran even as President Donald Trump has said talks

By Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood, Priscilla Alvarez, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration has spent more than $30 million to send migrants to far-flung countries that are not their own, including, in a few instances, paying over $1 million a person, a new report from the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says.

By Brian Todd, Isabelle Khurshudyan, CNN (CNN) — An Army combat veteran now living in the Midwest was dealing with multiple injuries by the time he finished his military service. He’d suffered a traumatic brain injury after his vehicle struck an IED during his deployment to Afghanistan in the late 2000s. But when the veteran,

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping into high-profile appeals at the Supreme Court without invitation at an unprecedented pace, supporting conservative groups in cases dealing with guns, religion and climate change. The court regularly invites the Justice Department to offer its view on whether to hear appeals, and recommendations

By Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — When Said Noor, a US Army veteran, picked up a phone call on December 2, he immediately knew something was wrong. His brother Lal was in Laredo, Texas, several hours south of their home in Austin, nervously explaining that the commercial truck he drove had been stopped at a

By Em Steck, Matt Egan, CNN (CNN) — Kathy Ruemmler, the chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs, said Thursday night she is resigning amid fallout from the Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of Jeffrey Epstein documents. Her resignation is effective June 30. Her announcement comes as she has weathered numerous news stories in

By Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — The CIA is ramping up its efforts to recruit Chinese spies by releasing a new Mandarin-language video on Thursday that appeals directly to the country’s military officers who may be disillusioned with the corruption in their current government and President Xi Jinping’s extensive purges of top generals. It portrays

By Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak, Natasha Bertrand, Pete Muntean, CNN (CNN) — The Federal Aviation Administration’s abrupt and unexplained closure of airspace above El Paso, Texas, early Wednesday has given way to a blame game inside the administration, with key senior officials asserting they hadn’t been alerted to the decision beforehand, according to several people

By Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — Newly released ethics guidance for the federal judiciary makes clear that judges can speak out against “illegitimate forms of criticism and attacks.” The guidance comes as judges have been targeted with smears by President Donald Trump and allies for their rulings against administration policies. Judges have spoken publicly about

By Jennifer Hansler, Christian Sierra, CNN (CNN) — Jeremy Carl, the Trump administration’s pick for a top State Department position, is unlikely to get the job after a bipartisan group of senators grilled him over his history of racist, sexist and reported antisemitic comments and posts. Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah said in a

By Michael Williams, CNN (CNN) — While White House border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday morning the federal immigration surge in Minnesota would be ending, state officials were facing tough questions about the circumstances that led to that crackdown in the first place. Those officials, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the state’s corrections commissioner,

CNN, POOL, SENATE TV, USCG By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security has been ensnared by a partial government shutdown as Congress did not act to fund the agency by the end of Friday. But nearly all DHS workers will remain on the job — even if many won’t get paid