A reluctant Donald Trump will be back in a New York City courtroom Thursday as his hush money trial resumes at the same time that the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Washington over whether he should be immune from prosecution for actions he took during his time as president. Jurors will hear more witness testimony from a veteran tabloid publisher, and Trump faces a looming decision over whether he violated a gag order imposed by the judge. But he had asked to skip out on his criminal trial for the day so he could sit in on the high court’s special session, where the justices will weigh ..read more

On their third attempt in three weeks, Arizona state House lawmakers voted Wednesday to pass a bill that would repeal the near-total ban on abortion from 1864 that was upheld by the battleground state’s Supreme Court earlier this month. After a dizzying course of votes throughout the afternoon, three state House Republicans joined Democrats in approving a repeal of the Civil War-era law that made abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs one or helps a woman obtain one. Members of the state Senate, where Republicans also hold a narrow majority, voted l ..read more

An Arizona grand jury has indicted former Donald Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani along with 16 others in an election interference case. The indictment released Wednesday names 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election. It shows seven other defendants whose names were not immediately released because they had not yet been served with the charges. The Associated Press was able to determine the identities of the unnamed defendants based on their descriptions in the ..read more

No, TikTok will not suddenly disappear from your phone. Nor will you go to jail if you continue using it after it is banned. After years of attempts to ban the Chinese-owned app, including by former President Donald Trump, a measure to outlaw the popular video-sharing app has won congressional approval and been signed by President Biden. The measure gives Beijing-based parent company ByteDance nine months to sell the company, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned. So what does this mean for you, a TikTok user, or perhap ..read more

 President Joe Biden signed into law on Wednesday a $95 billion war aid measure that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and that also has a provision that would force social media site TikTok to be sold or be banned in the U.S. The announcement marks an end to the long, painful battle with Republicans in Congress over urgently needed assistance for Ukraine. “We rose to the moment, we came together, and we got it done,” Biden said at White House event to announce the signing. “Now we need to move fast, and we are.” But significant damage has been done to the Biden a ..read more

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., a Democratic congressman representing New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District, has died after being hospitalized earlier in April, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday. Payne was 65. “Tammy and I are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of our friend, and a steadfast champion for the people of New Jersey, Congressman Donald Payne, Jr. Our heartfelt prayers are with his family during this difficult time,” Murphy said in an X post. On April17, Payne’s office said that the congressman had been hospitalized earlier in the month after suffering a “cardiac episode based ..read more

Protesters chanted “Blood on your hands” at Tennessee House Republicans on Tuesday after they passed a bill that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed. The 68-28 vote in favor of the bill sent it to Republican Gov. Bill Lee for consideration. If he signs it into law, it would be the biggest expansion of gun access in the state since last year’s deadly shooting at a private elementary school in Nashville. Members of the public who oppose the bill harangued Republicans lawmakers afte ..read more

David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified at Donald Trump’s trial Tuesday that the tabloid completely manufactured a negative story in 2016 about the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, who was then Trump’s rival for the GOP presidential nomination. The paper had published a photo allegedly showing Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963, not long before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Trump repeatedly referred to the story on the campaign trail and in intervi ..read more

Pennsylvania primary voters will cast ballots Tuesday in a series of critical races in the key battleground state, even as both the presidential and Senate primaries are mere formalities. They include a bitterly fought Democratic primary around Pittsburgh and a primary in eastern Pennsylvania that features a moderate Republican seeking to fend off a right-wing challenger.  What’s more, activists upset with President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war are urging Democrats to write “uncommitted” on the state’s primary ballot. And in the GOP primary, Republicans looking t ..read more

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to move ahead with $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, bringing the bill to the brink of passage after months of delays and contentious internal debate over how involved the United States should be abroad. The vote to end a filibuster drew the support of 80 senators — 10 more than supported the bill when the Senate first passed it in February — virtually guaranteeing that the bill will soon reach President Biden’s desk. A final vote could come as soon as Tuesday evening. The $61 billion for Ukraine comes as the war-torn countr ..read more