The Supreme Court has sided with a football coach from Washington state who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games.
A roundup of today's developments after the Supreme Court's abortion ruling — state bans take hold, protests spread nationwide, what's next.
Americans took to the streets a day after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Here are scenes from across the U.S.
The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe has catapulted businesses into the most divisive corner of politics. Here's how they're responding.
President Biden has signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings.
Are the Supreme Court's conservative justices being faithful and consistent to history and the Constitution — or citing them to justify political preferences?
The House passes a compromise gun violence bill, as recent mass killings end decades of gridlock on the issue. The bill now goes to President Biden.
Hundreds of so-called crisis pregnancy centers are located across every state in the U.S. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that states can make abortion illegal, experts say these centers are likely to redouble their efforts to persuade women not to end their pregnancies. The logistics work in their favor, since many women won’t have the legal option of abortion without leaving their state. Some 2,500 pregnancy centers are located across the country, while there are fewer than 800 abortion clinics. Often religiously affiliated, the anti-abortion centers are not licensed medical facilities and do not provide medical services such as pre- or post-natal care or other health care for uninsured women.
Reproductive health providers are asking a Florida court to block a new law from taking effect this week that would restrict abortions after 15 weeks. Opponents of the law say the state constitution guarantees a broad right to privacy on matters including abortion. Planned Parenthood is among those seeking a temporary emergency injunction. A Florida synagogue also sued, saying the government intrusion violates the privacy rights and religious freedoms of Jewish women. Florida currently allows abortions up to 24 weeks. Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature and governor approved a 15-week law that includes fines and jail time for violators. A hearing on the law was underway Monday.
Jill Biden has some company on a trip to Spain this week. She's joined by granddaughters Maisy and Finnegan. Biden opened the visit to Madrid on Monday by meeting with Queen Letizia at the palace before they toured the Spanish Association Against Cancer. The U.S. first lady is an advocate for research into a cancer cure. On Tuesday, Biden and Letizia will visit a greeting center for Ukrainian refugees taken in by Spain and also meet with Ukrainian families. President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Madrid on Tuesday to attend the NATO summit through Thursday.
The House Jan. 6 panel says it is calling a surprise hearing on Tuesday to present “recently obtained evidence.” The hearing comes after Congress left Washington for a two-week recess. Lawmakers on the panel investigating the 2021 insurrection said last week that there would be no more hearings until July. The subject of the hearings is so far unclear. A spokesman for the panel declined to comment. Among other investigative evidence, the committee recently obtained new footage of Trump and his inner circle taken both before and after Jan. 6, 2021 from British filmmaker Alex Holder. A lawyer for Holder declined to comment.
The U.S. is planning to buy and send more medium- to long-range missile systems to Ukraine. The hope is that the new systems will help Ukrainian forces hold onto the last remaining segments of land in the eastern Donbas that Russia has not yet been able to capture. A senior defense official tells The Associated Press that Ukrainian forces are already effectively using advanced rocket systems, and more will go into Ukraine with trained troops soon. An announcement is expected about the U.S. plan to buy and send a Norwegian-developed anti-aircraft system known as NASAMS.
President Vladimir Putin is making his first public foreign trip since Russia sent troops into Ukraine, heading for two former Soviet republics and meetings likely to be friendly. Ahead of the trip beginning Tuesday to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, there were no expectations of significant developments. But the trip gives Putin the opportunity to show that he is not isolated despite widespread sanctions and denunciations from the West because of the Ukraine operation. At the first stop in Tajikistan, Putin is to meet with authoritarian President Emomali Rahmon, in office since 1994, who has kept his country close to Russia. Tajikistan hosts 7,000 Russian troops, Moscow’s largest base abroad. Putin will attend a Caspian summit in Turkmenistan Wednesday.
Michigan lawmakers have approved a $101 million package as they try to encourage large companies to invest and create jobs in the state. Ford in return has promised to invest $1.14 billion in five production plants throughout the state and create over 3,000 jobs. The tax-funded incentive will be paid in increments and is contingent on Ford hitting promised employment targets. The incentive package comes just weeks after Ford announced plans to add 6,300 new jobs in the Midwest and invest $3.7 billion in manufacturing facilities across Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.
Twenty-two candidates are running in the August regular primary for Alaska’s U.S. House seat, with nine dropping out by a weekend deadline. Those running include the three candidates in an August special election: Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich and Democrat Mary Peltola. The Aug. 16 special election will coincide with the regular primary. The winner of the ranked choice special election will serve until January, the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s term. The top four candidates from the regular primary are to advance to the November general election. The winner of that election will serve a new, two-year term starting in early 2023.
The Supreme Court has ruled for doctors who face criminal charges for overprescribing powerful pain medication, in a case arising from the opioid addiction crisis. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court Monday that prosecutors must prove that doctors knew they were illegally prescribing powerful pain drugs in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act. The ruling came as the U.S. sees record numbers of drug overdose deaths, many from the highly lethal opioid fentanyl. But the justices did not throw out the convictions of two doctors whose appeal was heard in February. Instead, it ordered federal appeals courts to take a new look at their cases.
A $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch has arrived in San Diego Bay. The 348-foot-long Amadea flew an American flag Monday as it sailed past the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway and under the Coronado Bridge. The FBI linked the Amadea to the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, and the vessel became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture. The operation was launched in March to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. The U.S. won a legal battle in Fiji to take the Cayman Islands-flagged superyacht earlier this month.
Seven states are set to host primary elections Tuesday as the nation comes to terms with last week’s stunning Supreme Court ruling eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion. The slate of nominating contests could offer the first clues as to whether the political landscape has shifted. Abortion is a particularly relevant issue in Colorado, where GOP voters are deciding whether to nominate a rare pro-choice Republican in the state’s high-profile U.S. Senate contest. The primaries will also offer new insight about the state of the Republican Party. The central issue in virtually every GOP contest remains fealty to former President Donald Trump and his baseless conspiracy theories.
House Jan. 6 panel calls surprise hearing Tuesday to present new evidence, provides no other details
House Jan. 6 panel calls surprise hearing Tuesday to present new evidence, provides no other details.
Tens of thousands of suburban swing voters who helped fuel the Democratic Party’s gains of recent years are suddenly becoming Republicans. Overall, more than 1 million voters across 43 states have switched to the Republican Party over the last year. That's according to voter registration data analyzed by The Associated Press. They include both former Democrats and those previously unaffiliated with either major party. The phenomenon is playing out in virtually every region of the country — red states, blue states, in cities and in small towns — in the months since President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court has made it easier for certain prison inmates to seek shorter sentences under a bipartisan 2018 federal law aimed at reducing racial disparities in prison terms for cocaine crimes. The justices ruled 5-4 that trial judges who are asked to resentence inmates may look at a wide range of factors, including some that have nothing to do with crack cocaine offenses that had produced longer stints in prison, disproportionately for people of color. The high court on Monday settled a disagreement among the nation’s appellate courts over what judges should do in these cases.
Russia appeared to default on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution more than a century ago, further alienating the country from the global financial system amid its war in Ukraine. Moscow owed $100 million in interest on two bonds that was originally due May 27. A 30-day grace period expired Sunday, but there hasn't been an official determination of a default yet. Sovereign debt lawyer Jay S. Auslander says, “For all practical purposes, Russia is in default.” The U.S. ended Russia’s ability to pay international investors through American banks. Russia says it has the money to pay but Western sanctions created “artificial obstacles” by freezing its foreign currency reserves held abroad.
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Over the past several months, much of the world has taken a less-restrictive approach to COVID. Even once-rigid U.S. mandates have given way to a “living with COVID” mentality. That is, except for China.
The Rock Island Arsenal will become home to the largest 3D metal printer in the world as the U.S. Army increases its efforts toward modernization.
Sri Lanka is sending two ministers to Russia to negotiate for fuel — one of the necessities nearly exhausted as a result of the Indian Ocean nation’s economic collapse. The plan comes as Washington and its allies aim to cut off energy imports from Russia in line with sanctions over its war in Ukraine. Since its invasion in late February, global oil prices have skyrocketed, prompting a number of countries to seek out Russian crude, which is being offered at steep discounts. In a recent interview with the AP, Sri Lanka's prime minister said the country would try to buy from other sources, but may be compelled to turn to Russia again.
The Supreme Court says that a high school football coach who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games is protected by the Constitution. It's a decision that opponents say will open the door to “much more coercive prayer” in public schools.The court ruled 6-3 for the coach with the court’s conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. The justices in the majority emphasized that the coach’s prayer happened after the game was over. The liberal justices in the minority said there was evidence that the coach’s prayer at the 50-yard-line had a coercive effect and it let him incorporate his “personal religious beliefs into a school event.”
EU countries have agreed that all natural gas storage in the 27-nation bloc should be topped up to at least 80% capacity for next winter as they prepare for the possibility of Russia further reducing deliveries. In addition, the EU Council said Monday that gas reserves will need to be filled to 90% capacity before winter 2023. The EU is trying to slash its use of Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine and find other sources. Moscow is disrupting natural gas deliveries, which the EU didn’t include in its own sanctions for fear of seriously harming the European economy. Before the war, the bloc got about 40% of its gas from Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has underscored the urgency of helping his country’s military improve its position against Russia during a video meeting with leading economic powers. Zelenskyy, in his remarks on Monday to the Group of Seven summit, addressed the delicacy of the moment for Ukraine in its war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader's comments came as G-7 leaders prepared to unveil plans to pursue a price cap on Russian oil, raise tariffs on Russian goods and impose other new sanctions. The G-7 leaders in turn pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”
Farmers driving tractors are blocking highways in the Netherlands in the latest protest sparked by a government pledge to rein in pollution emissions, a move that will hit the country’s agriculture sector. Authorities urged motorists to check traffic updates Monday before setting off, amid the protests that follow a gathering last week of tens of thousands of farmers in the central Netherlands that also caused traffic chaos around the country. At least three highways were affected by the protests. The Dutch governing coalition has mandated reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia of up to 70% in many areas of the country close to protected nature areas — even reaching as high as 95% in some places.
The Swiss intelligence service says authorities should do whatever they can to prevent Russian spies who have been expelled from Western countries after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine from turning up in countries like Switzerland. The Federal Intelligence Service released its annual report Monday. It surveyed an array of threats including violent Islamic extremism, cyberattacks and an increasingly polarized world between autocracies and democracies — such as the growing standoff between the United States and China. But it sounded the alarm most about threats posed by a new conventional war in Europe, migration, and Russia.
Vice President Kamala Harris has spent weeks warning that the Supreme Court decision undermining the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling could open the door for sweeping new restrictions on privacy. She argues the fallout could affect birth control, in vitro fertilization, gay marriage, the right to vote, and more. The nation's first female vice president has emerged as a leading White House voice on abortion rights along with President Joe Biden. Harris' efforts on abortion rights come after she has struggled with other thorny policy problems that Biden assigned to the vice president, including immigration policy and expanding voting rights. Both issues have stalled in Congress.
The Supreme Court has sided with a football coach from Washington state who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games.