Author: rpnadmin

President Trump met Wednesday in Saudi Arabia with Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, highlighting the stunning reversal in fortunes for a former Islamist militant with ties to al Qaeda who spent years with a U.S. government bounty on his head. Al-Sharaa’s rebel forces led the charge on Damascus last year that toppled the decades-long, iron-fisted rule of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and he has since installed himself as the head of a government presenting itself to the world as inclusive and democratic.Mr. Trump’s decision to meet with al-Sharaa, after some European leaders have done the same, could be a huge…

French politics are rarely predictable—and today is no exception. Ahead of the next presidential election, not only is incumbent Emmanuel Macron barred from running, but longtime poll leader Marine Le Pen has also been ruled ineligible after an embezzlement conviction this past March 31.For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of the left-wing France Insoumise, the hope is that this turmoil can change France’s political direction and the country will break out of a binary contest between the neoliberal center and a rising far right. The scale of protests against Macron’s recent pension reforms and then the New Popular Front’s breakthrough in…

As he called to order a marathon committee session to consider Medicaid cuts and other critical pieces of Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill, Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky surveyed a packed hearing room on Tuesday afternoon and asked for a respectful debate.“I know we have deep feelings on these issues, and we may not all agree on everything,” said Mr. Guthrie, a Republican who is in his first term as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.It was not to be.Minutes later, a group of protesters in the back of the Capitol Hill hearing room began shouting at lawmakers…

Flash floods sparked by heavy rain hit parts of Virginia, western Maryland and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, leaving a 12-year-old boy missing in Virginia and forcing elementary schools in rural Maryland to evacuate, authorities said. Severe flooding has left parts of Meyersdale Borough in Somerset County underwater after heavy rains pounded the area on Tuesday.In a message posted Tuesday night on social media, the Albemarle County Fire Rescue service in Virginia said county police had received a call late in the afternoon about a boy being swept away by a flood-swollen creek. The fire department said search efforts had to be…

Conservative states with a hands-off approach to development, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have become wind and solar energy dynamos in recent years. But a simultaneous push by Republicans in Washington and in Sun Belt state capitals to cut off tax incentives and tighten permitting regulations threatens to snuff out the red-state renewable energy boom.The one-two punch underscores the Republicans’ move away from embracing an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy to a one-sided effort to return to fossil fuels. Its success would unwind four years of Democratic efforts to address climate change and advance a clean-energy economy.The shift has been particularly…

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose drastic overhaul of the federal health apparatus has left scientists and patients reeling, will face a demand from the Republican chairman of the Senate health committee on Wednesday to explain to Americans how his reforms “will make their lives easier, not harder.”Mr. Kennedy will testify on Capitol Hill for the first time as health secretary, appearing back to back before the House and the Senate to promote President Trump’s budget for the Department of Health and Human Services. But he will also be asked to defend the huge reductions he has already imposed…

The U.S. Agency for International Development is trying to hire more lawyers to conduct investigations into employee misconduct, including “unauthorized communications with the media,” according to a job posting reviewed by CBS News. “Lawyers will be expected to conduct investigations into general employee misconduct, and more specifically violations of various federal government regulations and policies, such as, for example, rules governing unauthorized communications with the media,” reads the post, published by a recruiter called Highlight. The American Foreign Service Association, the union representing USAID employees, believes the posting is genuine.The effort to expand the Trump administration’s crackdown on fired employees who…

Relatives of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. who were flown to a prison in El Salvador by the U.S. government, which alleged they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, protest outside the United Nations building in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Cristian Hernandez/AP hide caption toggle caption Cristian Hernandez/AP A federal judge says President Donald Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan citizens who are shown to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The ruling Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines in Pennsylvania appears to be the first time a federal…

As he called to order a marathon committee session to consider Medicaid cuts and other critical pieces of Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill, Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky surveyed a packed hearing room on Tuesday afternoon and asked for a respectful debate.“I know we have deep feelings on these issues, and we may not all agree on everything,” said Mr. Guthrie, a Republican who is in his first term as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.It was not to be.Minutes later, a group of protesters in the back of the Capitol Hill hearing room began shouting at lawmakers…

Cedar Rapids, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, appeared to acknowledge Tuesday that he believed Biden should not have run for a second White House term. When asked by reporters if the Democratic party would have been better off without Biden as the nominee, Buttigieg responded, “Maybe, you know, right now, with the benefit of hindsight, I think most people would agree that is the case.”Buttigieg, who won the 2020 Democratic Iowa caucus, made the remarks following a town hall in the Hawkeye state hosted by a progressive veterans PAC. Buttigieg served as…