Politics

By Jennifer Hansler, Stefano Pozzebon, Kylie Atwood, CNN (CNN) — A US State Department team traveled to Venezuela on Friday for the first time since the ouster of Nicolas Maduro, according to a US official. The visit comes as the US looks to reopen its embassy in Caracas and underscores the administration’s desire to re-establish

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN (CNN) — The US has seized another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said on Friday. US troops, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, “launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford and apprehended Motor/Tanker Olina in the Caribbean Sea without incident,” the command said in

By Jack Guy, Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump said early Friday that he had cancelled a “previously expected” second wave of attacks on Venezuela due to the country’s cooperation with the United States. It comes nearly a week after he ordered a military operation to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is

By Terence Burlij, CNN Washington (CNN) — This year’s midterms will not only shape the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency; they’ll determine what politics after Trump might start to look like. A series of races that starts with primaries on March 3 will either preserve Republican majorities in Congress, helping Trump to push

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — Mutual distrust between federal and state authorities derailed plans for a joint FBI and state criminal investigation into Wednesday’s shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, leading to the highly unusual move by the Justice Department to block state investigators from participating in

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Five Democrat-led states are suing the Trump administration to stop it from halting $10 billion in social assistance and child care funding in the wake of a widespread probe into federal funding fraud in Minnesota. In the lawsuit, filed Thursday evening in federal court in New York’s Southern District,

By Kylie Atwood, Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — The top Washington-based diplomats for Greenland and Denmark met with White House officials at the National Security Council on Thursday as Greenland continues to publicly and privately insist it is not for sale. Denmark’s Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen and Greenland’s head of representation to the US Jacob

By Adam Cancryn, David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — Top energy executives are weighing telling President Donald Trump that the industry can increase Venezuela’s oil output by hundreds of thousands of barrels per day over the coming months, people familiar with the preparations for Friday’s White House meeting told CNN. The pledge would be aimed at

By Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — Vice President JD Vance’s claim Thursday that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis is “protected by absolute immunity” drew immediate pushback from experts who said the legal landscape around a potential prosecution is far more complicated. Speaking at the White House,

By Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — Congress’ most liberal Democrats are pushing for an all-out fight to rein in President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy after this week’s deadly shooting by an ICE officer in Minnesota — even if it means risking another government shutdown. But those progressives are running into resistance from

By Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — A “grand stair” and new spaces for utilities, food service and deliveries are among the newly disclosed details for President Donald Trump’s sprawling East Wing expansion presented to a commission with oversight of the building plans on Thursday. For the first time, a proposal for the addition of a

By Arit John, CNN (CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State address Thursday to frame his state as a “beacon” of democracy and innovation, seeking to draw a sharp contrast with what he called the “carnival of chaos” in Washington under President Donald Trump. “In California, we’re not silent.

By Katelyn Polantz, Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration’s pick to be the US Attorney for the Northern District of New York must stop his work on two ongoing criminal investigations into President Donald Trump’s political foe Letitia James, the New York state attorney general. The