Author: Press Room

Washington — Democratic Sen. Cory Booker is delivering a marathon speech on the Senate floor, which started Monday evening and has continued into Tuesday, in a protest of the Trump administration’s policies.Booker, a 55-year-old who first came to the Senate in 2013 and is now the fourth-ranking Democrat, began speaking around 7 p.m. on Monday and said he would continue speaking “for as long as I am physically able.” As the sun rose on Tuesday morning, and well into the day, he was still speaking from the Senate floor. Booker cited the legacy of leaders, like late congressman and civil rights…

Before the election, Julisa Rojas believed that Democrats were by no means perfect, but she thought they could steer the country in a better direction. So, she said she canvassed neighborhoods in Georgia, where she helped register people to vote.Now, her hope has curdled into frustration — not just with President Donald J. Trump but with her own party. The Democrats’ response to an unrelenting Republican administration, she said, has seemed too scattershot and clumsy. When she saw them show up to Mr. Trump’s address to Congress in March wearing pink and holding matching signs, she scoffed. “A little pathetic,…

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” of tariff implementation fast approaching, Senate Democrats are putting Republican support for some of those plans to the test by forcing a vote to nullify the emergency declaration that underpins the tariffs on Canada. Republicans have watched with some unease as the president’s attempts to remake global trade have sent the stock market downward, but they have so far stood by Trump’s on-again-off-again threats to levy taxes on imported goods.Even as the resolution from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia offered them a potential off-ramp to the tariffs levied on Canadian imports,…

A “divisive” Peter Dutton is more interested in clinching the nation’s top job than working for his electorate, says an independent looking to unseat him.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting and killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division, in New York last year. In a statement, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo called the decision to seek the death penalty “barbaric.” “While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi,” Friedman Agnifilo said. Mangione, 26, has pleaded not guilty to New York state charges of murder as an act of terrorism and weapons offenses. He could face life in prison without parole if convicted in that case.…

German police officer among those held in raids against the ‘Ndrangheta over sales of expensive food and equipment.German and Italian authorities have arrested dozens of suspects, including a policeman, in raids against the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organisation over fraud involving the sale of expensive food and pizza-making equipment. The ‘Ndrangheta is considered Italy’s wealthiest and most powerful Mafia and is also heavily involved in drug trafficking, controlling the bulk of cocaine flowing into Europe. Hundreds of law enforcement officials carried out about 40 searches in four German states and several areas of Italy as part of a five-year investigation that involved…

A few days ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, embarked on a media tour to defend his decision to lay off thousands of his department’s workers.He announced a plan last week to cut 10,000 jobs, in addition to the estimated 10,000 jobs cut through retirements and buyouts in the early weeks of the Trump administration.Mr. Kennedy had called the Health and Human Services Department “the biggest agency in government, twice the size of the Pentagon, $1.9 trillion dollars,” during an interview with NewsNation. He went on to suggest that the department was doing little to improve the health…

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube7. The Main Ingredient: “Everybody Plays the Fool”The main ingredients to this 1972 single were a catchy piano-and-flute lick and a lead vocal by Cuba Gooding Sr. “Everybody Plays the Fool” shot up the pop charts and earned the Main Ingredient a Grammy nomination for best R&B song, although it lost out to the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.”▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube8. Candi Staton: “I’d Rather Be an Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than a Young Man’s Fool)”“You may think I’m silly to love a man twice my age,” the…

Sir Elton John has millions of fans all over the world, but few of them as devoted as a young girl who first heard his music more than 30 years ago.In 1992, Brandi Marie Carlile was a kid living in a single-wide trailer in rural Washington State, and to her, Elton John was everything. Young Brandi collected everything about him she could get her hands on – records, photos, even an Elton John book she borrowed from a library 33 years ago, and kept(!). “The date is still on here. Boulevard Park Library, May 10, 1992. It’s all time stamped.…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds a smartphone as he makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.Manuel Orbegozo | ReutersMeta’s head of artificial intelligence research announced Tuesday that she will be leaving the company. Joelle Pineau, the company’s vice president of AI research, announced her departure in a LinkedIn post, saying her last day at the social media company will be May 30. Her departure comes at a challenging time for Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a top priority, investing billions of dollars in an effort…