By Alanna Durkin Richer and Colleen Long | Associated Press WASHINGTON — Thousands more firearms dealers across the United States will have to run background checks on buyers at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores, according to a Biden administration rule that will soon go into effect. The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm. Gun rights groups are expected to fight it in cou ..read more

By David Goldman | CNN New York  — The Anti-Defamation League has graded 85 American universities for their policies to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on campus. It gave Stanford and 12 other schools an “F.” Just two schools got an “A.” Reports of antisemitism on college campuses across the United States have surged after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel and the country’s devastating response. The ADL said antisemitic incidents on campus have reached historic levels, leaving Jewish students feeling unsafe. RELATED: UC Berkeley dean who defends free speech la ..read more

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — When he was elected two years ago as Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, Alvin Bragg spoke candidly about his unease with the job’s political demands. A former law professor, he’s more comfortable untangling complex legal questions than swaggering up to a podium. But when the first of Donald Trump’s four criminal prosecutions heads to trial on Monday, about alleged hush money payments to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 election, Bragg will be at the center of a political maelstrom with few precedents. Even before annou ..read more

The day after Rep. Katie Porter flipped an Orange County congressional seat blue in 2018, she set her sights on what would be a defining issue in her congressional career: campaign finance reform. Money in politics, namely campaigns, is what she focused on after losing the primary for California’s open U.S. Senate seat last month — firing off a tweet and then having to field criticism over the language used in it — but it’s also a spot where she feels she can be helpful to other Democratic congressional candidates moving forward. Porter, an Irvine Democrat, will leave Congress in January after ..read more

By Tara Copp | Associated Press WASHINGTON — The top general for U.S. forces in Europe told Congress Wednesday that Ukraine will be outgunned 10 to one by Russia within a matter of weeks if Congress does not find a way to approve sending more ammunition and weapons to Kyiv soon. The testimony from Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command, and Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, comes as Congress enters pivotal weeks for voting for aid for Ukraine, but there’s no guarantee funding will be improved in time. Ukraine has been rat ..read more

By Anita Snow and Morgan Lee | Associated Press PHOENIX — Arizona abortion providers vowed Wednesday to continue service until they’re forced to stop, a pledge that comes day after the state Supreme Court cleared the way for enforcing an 1864 law criminalizing abortion throughout pregnancy unless a woman’s life is at risk. The court decision rocked the state as women, including physicians, grappled with how to respond to a law that comes without exceptions for rape or incest. State legislators convened as pressure mounted from Democrats and some Republicans, including former President Donald T ..read more

By Michael Goldberg | Associated Press/Report for America BRANDON, Miss. — Already sentenced to many years in federal prison, six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges for torturing two Black men were sentenced Wednesday in state court. The state sentences did not add time to the federal prison terms the defendants had already received, but the victims’ supporters hailed the yearslong sentences, saying they took on unique importance in Mississippi, where local residents saw echoes of the state’s history of racist atroci ..read more

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers tried for a third straight day Wednesday to get a New York appeals court to delay his hush money criminal trial, which is slated to begin next Monday. Trump’s legal team has asked the appeals court to halt the case indefinitely while it fights to have the trial judge removed, according to a person familiar with the matter. They are challenging several of Judge Juan M. Merchan’s recent rulings, including his refusal to postpone the trial until the Supreme Court rules on an immunity claim he raised i ..read more

By ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRI WASHINGTON — A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative impasse follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the measure. The breakdown comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the surveillance program fell apart before it even reached the House floor. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called the program “critically important ..read more

By JACQUES BILLEAUD and MORGAN LEE Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has delivered a landmark decision in giving the go-ahead to enforce a long-dormant law that bans nearly all abortions, drastically altering the legal landscape for terminating pregnancies in the state. The law predating Arizona’s statehood provides no exceptions for rape or incest and allows abortions only if the mother’s life is in jeopardy. Arizona’s highest court suggested doctors can be prosecuted under the 1864 law, though the opinion written by the court’s majority didn’t explicitly say ..read more