Politics

President Joe Biden will sign a declaration on Friday to speed refugee admissions to the US but not raise the refugee cap, as he has committed to doing. Instead, he will sign an emergency determination that will cast a wider net of who can arrive to the US under the refugee ceiling currently in place.

A heavy metal guitarist with ties to the Oath Keepers will plead guilty Friday to two crimes related to the Capitol insurrection, according to court documents, making him the first rioter to plead guilty. Court documents indicate that Jon Ryan Schaffer, from the heavy metal group Iced Earth, will plead guilty to obstruction of an

The White House on Friday announced plans to release $1.7 billion in funding to help the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and states more effectively track and combat coronavirus variants, some of which have proven to be more transmissible than the original strain. The effort comes after months of public health experts sounding

Human smugglers are increasingly utilizing Facebook to advertise services to migrants seeking to cross the US-Mexico border, according to a report released Friday by a tech transparency group. The influx of migrants, especially unaccompanied minors, at the US southern border has overwhelmed the government’s resources in the last month and posed a steep challenge for

They were the first businesses to close and will be some of the last to reopen, yet owners of independent theaters and live music venues have been waiting nearly four months for a $16 billion federal emergency grant program to launch. The funding for what’s known as the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program was approved

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh will be laid to rest tomorrow at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, west of London. Only 30 people will attend the memorial, which will be pared down for pandemic safety. Here’s what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can also get

The science: Scientists are coalescing around the idea that Covid-19 probably spread to people through an animal or animals. That was the conclusion of a preliminary World Health Organization review of the virus’s origins released in March. It laid out four possible origin theories and argued the most likely was some form of animal-to-human transmission

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate nine diplomats for ambassadorships on Thursday, marking his first selection of overseas envoys since taking office. He also named his picks for senior State Department official roles based at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC. His selection of a slate of predominantly career officials for the top

The Defense Department has confirmed that leaked photos and video of “unidentified aerial phenomena” taken in 2019 are indeed legitimate images of unexplained objects. Photos and videos of triangle-shaped objects blinking and moving through the clouds were taken by Navy personnel, Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough said in a statement to CNN. She also confirmed that

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan and the nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci got into a heated exchange Thursday over the country’s Covid-19 mitigation measures, which ended with Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters telling Jordan to “shut your mouth.” During a House subcommittee hearing about federal government’s response to the pandemic, Jordan, an Ohio conservative,

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the newly announced sanctions against Russia are a proportionate response to cyberattacks against the US and interference in two presidential elections, but also emphasized that “now is the time to de-escalate” tensions with the country. Biden said during remarks at the White House that he told Russian President Vladimir

Sen. Ted Cruz is no longer wearing a face mask as he walks the halls of the Capitol complex or goes to the Senate floor for debates and votes. “At this point I’ve been vaccinated. Everybody working in the Senate has been vaccinated,” the Texas Republican told CNN, even though many staff members and reporters

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and her gubernatorial campaign have settled with a former staffer who accused the Democrat of sexually mistreating him during a meeting, paying out at least $62,500 as part of the agreement. A spokesman for Lujan Grisham said they “strenuously deny that there is any merit or truth” to the

After President Joe Biden declared Wednesday that the US must shift focus from a bloody and intractable war to more modern-day pursuits, it took less than 24 hours for him to put his words into practice. Unveiling a new package of sanctions on Russia while pressing its leader for a summertime summit in Europe, Biden