Politics

By Tami Luhby and Katie Lobosco, CNN President Joe Biden signed into law a $1.7 trillion yearlong federal government spending package on Thursday, after the House and Senate passed it last week. The legislation includes $772.5 billion for nondefense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding. That represents an increase in spending in both

By Phil Mattingly, Kevin Liptak, Manu Raju and Kaitlan Collins, CNN President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to meet at the White House on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the planning, in a Washington visit that is tentatively scheduled to include an address to a joint session of Congress.

By Tierney Sneed A federal judge has struck down part of a California gun law that was inspired by the novel legal mechanisms pioneered in a Texas 2021 law that allowed private citizens to sue abortion providers. The ruling was praised not only by the gun rights activists who challenged the law, but by its chief

By Chandelis Duster, CNN Discrepancies on New York Rep.-elect George Santos’ resume are “serious” and the GOP politician “deserves an opportunity” to clear his name in the face of accusations, a top Republican in Nassau County said Monday. “While issues that have been raised in a December 19th New York Times article are serious, I

By Lauren Fox and Clare Foran, CNN As House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy forges ahead in his quest to secure 218 votes to be the next speaker of the House, he is vowing to take a hard line in the future against any GOP senator who votes to pass the $1.7 trillion spending bill this

By Tierney Sneed A federal appeals court on Tuesday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on whether former President Donald Trump should be protected by absolute immunity in civil lawsuits brought against him for his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack. When the DOJ responds in mid-January, it’s set to

By Haley Britzky and Kylie Atwood, CNN Two Americans who had been detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been released and are en route to Qatar, three sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. Two of the sources tell CNN that one of the Americans is filmmaker Ivor Shearer, who was arrested along with

By Kylie Atwood, CNN With humanitarian and food crises growing more dire around the world, the Biden administration plans to roll out new steps on Tuesday to make it easier for humanitarian assistance to continue flowing without concerns about US sanctions, according to senior Treasury officials. The new moves — designed to allow humanitarian support

By Oren Liebermann and Henry Klapper, CNN A US Navy investigation found that three suicides within one week in April among the crew of an aircraft carrier in Newport News, Virginia, were “not related or connected.” The deaths on board the USS George Washington were the result of “unique and individualized” stresses for each sailor,

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The Biden administration is still bracing for the end of a Trump-era border restriction even after the chief justice of the Supreme Court temporarily paused the end of the program. The administration now faces a 5 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline to respond to an emergency appeal filed by Republican-led states that

By Daniella Diaz, CNN Incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has appointed Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Jeffries’ decision, announced Tuesday, was ratified by the full Democratic caucus in a closed-door meeting two days later. In a DCCC statement, Jeffries referred to DelBene as a “battle-tested” lawmaker who

By Brianna Keilar, CNN In 2014, Drew Griffin, our beloved CNN colleague who passed away this weekend, met with arguably the most important source for one of his most groundbreaking stories in a seedy bar in Phoenix. Pauline DeWenter, a scheduling clerk at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Phoenix, picked the spot because it was