Christian groups win Obamacare birth control battle
Christian organizations do not need to comply with Obamacare’s birth control mandate, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Washington
Trump Admin. Declares War on Russian, Chinese, Iranian Propaganda
The State Department has launched a new effort to counter propaganda and disinformation campaigns launched across the globe by a host of rogue nations, including Russia, China, and Iran, according to senior U.S. officials who briefed the Washington Free Beacon on the new undertaking, which they say will put the United States ‘on the offense’ against these countries.
Trump foes scrambling to derail ‘cruel’ rule requiring immigrants to show they aren’t public burden
The Trump administration is now on the clock to finalize one of the biggest changes to legal immigration policy in a generation, after the official comment period ended Monday on a plan to require immigrants to show they aren’t a public burden if they want to extend their visas or get on the path to citizenship.
Judge rules Trump administration justified in ending Obama-era immigration program
The Trump administration provided adequate justification for its decision to end a program that reunited hundreds of immigrants from Central America with family members in the U.S., a federal judge ruled Monday.
Trump corners Democrats with threat to kill NAFTA: ‘It is going to force Congress to act’
Democratic congressional leaders are loath to acknowledge it, but President Trump has them cornered with his threat to terminate NAFTA if his new trade deal with Mexico and Canada isn’t approved.
U.S., China trade negotiations could be derailed by diplomatic, legal issues
Washington and Beijing labored to keep trade negotiations on track Monday amid diplomatic and legal flaps jolting business relations between the two economic superpowers, including a Chinese court ruling against Apple.
51,856 apprehended on Mexican border in November, most of Trump’s presidency
More than 51,000 people were caught illegally entering the United States from Mexico in November, according to Department of Homeland Security data released Thursday evening, the highest number recorded since President Trump took office almost two years ago.
US fails to win UN condemnation of Hamas militants in Gaza
A U.S.-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.
U.S. warns Russia with ‘extraordinary flight’ over Ukraine
Blasting Russia’s ‘dangerous escalation’ in the region, U.S. planes on Thursday conducted an ‘extraordinary flight’ over Ukraine in what Pentagon officials cast as a blunt warning to Moscow.
Record imports push US trade gap to $55.5 billion in October
Record imports in October drove the U.S. trade deficit to the highest level in a decade.
Satanic statue displayed at Illinois capitol building alongside nativity scene, menorah
A ‘snaketivity’ gifted by the Chicago branch of the Satanic Temple stands in the Illinois Capitol rotunda this month alongside a nativity scene and a menorah.
U.K. Parliament delivers rebuke to government over Brexit
The British government received a historic rebuke from lawmakers on Tuesday over its Brexit plans — an inauspicious sign for Prime Minister Theresa May as she opened an epic debate in Parliament that will decide the fate of her divorce deal with the European Union.
Trump’s impromptu China trade deal unravels
Skepticism mounted Tuesday about President Trump’s impromptu trade agreement with the president of China, as Mr. Trump threatened new penalties against Beijing if the deal falls through. Stock markets plummeted.
In about-face, Trump targets ‘uncontrollable’ arms race, decries ‘crazy’ defense budget
President Trump in the last two years has never missed an opportunity to tout his $700 and $716 billion budgets to rebuild the ‘depleted’ U.S. military. He also has vowed to rebuild America’s nuclear arsenal by adding new low-yield weapons. He further has announced his intention to abandon a landmark Cold-War era arms control treaty with the Russians. Now, in a single tweet, the president has signaled he’s rethinking the whole idea of winning an arms race by outspending and outlasting America’s adversaries.
Mike Pompeo says Trump rallying world to create ‘new liberal order that prevents war’
Western powers must ‘build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity,’ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Tuesday in an address on the sidelines of the assembly of NATO’s top ambassadors.
Census confirms: 63 percent of ‘non-citizens’ on welfare, 4.6 million households
A majority of ‘non-citizens,’ including those with legal green card rights, are tapping into welfare programs set up to help poor and ailing Americans, a Census Bureau finding that bolsters President Trump’s concern about immigrants costing the nation.
U.N. Security Council to meet on Iranian ballistic missile test
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday is set to hold closed door consultations on Iran’s test over the weekend of a medium-range ballistic missile, according to media report.
Report: Russia completes Syrian air defenses, troubles Israel, U.S.
Russia has completed a comprehensive air defense system in Syria that constrains the United States’ ability to operate in the country and in the eastern Mediterranean, according to a new report published by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Former president George H.W. Bush’s state funeral set for Wednesday; he will lie in state at U.S. Capitol
Former president George H.W. Bush will lie in state next week at the U.S. Capitol, giving the American public an opportunity to bid farewell to the 41st president, and then will be honored with a state funeral Wednesday morning at the Washington National Cathedral before being returned to Houston for burial.
Michigan to be first Midwest state to allow recreational pot
Michigan clears a threshold this week as the first state in the Midwest to allow marijuana for more than just medical purposes. In the Nov. 6 election, voters by a wide margin endorsed recreational use by adults who are at least 21. The move comes 10 years after voters approved marijuana to alleviate the effects of certain illnesses. Many supporters believe that decadelong experience, as well as similar legalization efforts in other states, led to victory at the ballot box.