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The U.S. Supreme Court has stripped federal agencies of authority over millions of acres of wetlands, weakening a bedrock environmental law enacted a half-century ago to cleanse the country’s badly polluted waters. A 5-4 majority significantly expanded the ability of farmers, homebuilders and other developers to dig up or fill wetlands near rivers, lakes and streams, finding the government had long overreached in limiting such activities. The ruling Thursday may nullify key parts of a rule the Biden administration imposed in December, which two federal judges already had blocked from being enforced in 26 states. It’s the latest turn in...

CNN — Latest revelations from the special counsel’s probe into ex-President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents deepen a sense that a grave political moment is approaching. An exclusive CNN report that appears to point to a core weakness in Trump’s case is reinforcing the possibility that the 2024 presidential contender is in a heap of legal trouble. Possible evidence that Trump knew that his claims that he could simply declassify material on a whim were false highlight his characteristic belief that laws and codes of presidential behavior do not apply to him. This is a factor that made his...

WASHINGTON — The limping conclusion to John Durham’s four-year investigation of the Russia inquiry underscores a recurring dilemma in U.S. government: how to shield sensitive law enforcement investigations from politics without creating prosecutors who can run amok, never to be held to account. At a time when special counsels are proliferating — there have been four since 2017, two of whom are still at work — the much-hyped investigation by Durham, a special counsel, into the Russia inquiry ended with a whimper that stood in contrast to the countless hours of political furor that spun off from it. Durham delivered...

NEW YORK (AP) — At the end of “The Searchers,” one of John Wayne’s most renowned Westerns, a kidnapped girl has been rescued and a family reunited. As the closing music swells, Wayne’s character looks around at his kin — people who have other people to lean on — and then walks off toward the dusty West Texas horizon, lonesome and alone. It’s a classic example of a fundamental American tall tale — that of a nation built on notions of individualism, a male-dominated story filled with loners and “rugged individualists” who suck it up, do what needs to be...

In little over an hour, Donald Trump suggested the United States should default on its debts for the first time in history, injected doubt over the country’s commitment to defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion, dangled pardons for most of the Capitol rioters convicted of crimes and refused to say he would abide by the results of the next presidential election. The second-term vision Trump sketched out at a CNN town hall event Wednesday would represent a sharp departure from core American values that have been at the bedrock of the nation for decades: its creditworthiness, its credibility with international allies...

Bankruptcy-bound Vice Media will reportedly be bought out of Chapter 11 by investors who include billionaire George Soros for about $400 million — after the Brooklyn-based company was once valued at nearly $6 billion. The cash-strapped media company has been prepping for the bankruptcy filing after failing to find a buyer over the past year, The Post reported last week. The company’s post-bankruptcy arrangement will be to sell itself to the Soros Fund Management — founded by the 92-year-old left-wing activist — and Fortress Investment Group in a deal that would value the once-high-flying Vice at just $400 million, the...

Austin Goss, who has been fired from his position at Dakota News Now, reportedly used software to make prank calls to former South Dakota GOP chairman Dan Lederman appear as though they came from Gov. Kristi Noem's personal cellphone number. Goss could face up to a year in jail and $2,000 in fines for a misdemeanor charge of making threatening, harassing, or misleading contacts. The pre-recorded call Lederman received used the voice of a mafia member accusing him of stealing boxes of vaccines, using lines like "You telling me you didn't tell Vito that you were gonna try to move...

The death of Jordan Neely reveals a wide societal belief that “any homeless person is likely to be violent or likely to attack them,” one expert said. Protesters gathered on crowded subway platforms across New York City and marched down city streets in the days after a subway rider killed Jordan Neely, 30, by placing him in a chokehold for several minutes on a train in the middle of the day. Advocacy groups and Neely’s supporters are demanding justice, requesting social services for people with mental health issues and calling attention to local policies that, they say, further marginalize unhoused...

“It reignites the terror in the souls of Black folks when we witness these killings of our people without trial, without jury, without adjudication,” one psychologist said. In the moments before New York City subway entertainer Jordan Neely was killed on an F train in lower Manhattan in the middle of the day, a witness said he had been yelling, asking for food and saying that he didn’t care if he went to jail. For Donald Grant, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, the deadly act represents a white vigilantism that has become an ever-present threat to Black Americans, manifested...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Friday by stepping out for a quesadilla and tacos at a Washington food hall. His unannounced visit prompted one onlooker to remark, “This is the most D.C. thing that’s ever happened to me.” Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris at Taqueria Habanero, in the Edgewood neighborhood of the capital. The president paid in cash for his order and posed with staff for pictures. Aides said Biden ordered a chicken quesadilla and churros, as well as an assortment of tacos for White House staff. To the people peering...

Chinese authorities were preparing on Sunday (Apr 30) to release a man who disappeared three years ago after publicising videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the COVID-19 outbreak, a relative and another person familiar with his case said. Fang Bin and other members of the public who were dubbed citizen journalists posted details of the pandemic in early 2020 on the internet and social media, embarrassing Chinese officials who faced criticism for failing to control the outbreak. The last video Fang, a seller of traditional Chinese clothing, posted on Twitter was of a piece of paper reading, “All citizens...

An ABC News host admitted the network edited statements Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made about the COVID-19 vaccine out of an exclusive interview it conducted with the longshot Democratic presidential candidate. “We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” anchor Linsey Davis said in a disclaimer when the interview aired Thursday. “We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.” “Data shows that the COVID-19 vaccine has prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease,” Davis added. “He also made misleading claims about the relationship...

Activist Jose Vega interrupted a Columbia Journalism School panel during the “FaultLines: Democracy” conference and demanded answers on some very uncomfortable topics such as the Nord Stream pipeline, Russiagate, Syria, and the war in Ukraine. “Oh, is this the lecture hall with Seymour Hersh?” he asked the press panel and was met with shocked silence. “I’m looking for the one with Seymour Hersh because it’s a policy and press hall event. So, shouldn’t we be talking about the Nord Stream since that’s the biggest story of the century?” he bluntly asked them. “Any you guys, you know… I mean, you...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The song is simple and tinny, but that hasn’t stopped it from being embraced by former President Donald Trump and his allies in their campaign to rewrite the history of the deadly Capitol riot. The tune, “Justice for All,” is the Star-Spangled Banner, and it was sung by a group of defendants jailed over their alleged roles in the January 2021 insurrection. Recorded over a prison phone line, the national anthem sounds more like a dirge than celebration and is overlaid with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Despite its low fidelity, “Justice for All” has garnered...

A Democratic delegate to Congress appears to have threatened “Twitter Files” journalist Matt Taibbi with up to five years in prison for purportedly lying under oath when he testified before Congress last month. Stacey Plaskett (D-USVI) made the threat in an April 13 letter to Taibbi, accusing the Racket News journalist of contradicting his congressional testimony about Twitter in a subsequent interview with MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Intercept reporter Lee Fang. Hasan invited Taibbi onto his show after his March 9 testimony before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of...

Extreme views adopted by some local, state and federal political leaders who try to limit what history can be taught in schools and seek to undermine how Black officials perform their jobs are among the top threats to democracy for Black Americans, the National Urban League says. Marc Morial, the former New Orleans mayor who leads the civil rights and urban advocacy organization, cited the most recent example: the vote this month by the Republican-controlled Tennessee House to oust two Black representatives for violating a legislative rule. The pair had participated in a gun control protest inside the chamber after...

Federal investigators are asking witnesses whether former President Donald Trump showed off to aides and visitors a map he took with him when he left office that contains sensitive intelligence information, four people with knowledge of the matter said. The map has been just one focus of the broad Justice Department investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents after he departed the White House. The nature of the map and the information it contained is not clear. But investigators have questioned a number of witnesses about it, according to the people with knowledge of the matter, as the special counsel...

NEW YORK (AP) — Legally, the most important words former President Donald Trump said after he was charged with 34 felonies by the Manhattan District Attorney last week were “not guilty.” But, politically, the most significant may be “election interference.” Trump’s repetition of those words, which have been taken up by other top Republicans, show how he is trying to turn his historic position as the first former president charged with crimes to his advantage. It’s another example of what’s been a consistent refrain throughout his political career — claiming without evidence that an election is being rigged against him....

BUCKINGHAM, Virginia — Lindsey Taylor loved running elections here. The previous registrar had spent nearly three decades in the job, and Taylor, 37, hoped to do the same when she was first hired in 2019. She loved her staff and the volunteer poll workers, and she took pride in the detail-oriented work. She implemented dozens of new laws in 2020, ran elections through the pandemic and impressed many in the rural, conservative, tight-knit community of Buckingham County. But then the voter fraud claims started. In January, the GOP assumed control of the Buckingham County Electoral Board that oversees her office,...

Republicans in the Tennessee legislature reached a new political low on Thursday with their decision to expel two Black members for having participated in an anti-gun protest following the March 27 deaths of three children and three adults in a Nashville Christian school mass shooting. As if blind to the racial implications, lawmakers voted narrowly to let a white House member keep her seat after she participated in the same protest. Tennesseeans are holding high-profile protests to put much-needed pressure on lawmakers to stop sidestepping the significance of school mass shootings. Apparently, the protests inside the Tennessee House chamber hit...