Poli Alert Politics & Civics

U.S. stocks opened lower Monday as oil prices surged amid signs that U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran were expanding across the Middle East, intensifying fears of potential disruptions to global petroleum supplies. The S&P 500 fell 53 points, or 0.8%, in early trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped …

Four American service members have been killed and four others seriously wounded during Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, U.S. Central Command said Monday. CENTCOM said one of the wounded troops died overnight after initially surviving Iran’s first wave of retaliatory attacks, raising the death toll …

For decades, statewide Democratic primaries in Texas were low-octane affairs. Then came the 2026 election cycle. In a year that Democrats see as a prime opportunity to finally flip Texas — amid flagging approval for the second Trump administration, a vicious Senate primary on the Republican side and the potential …

A New York businesswoman was sentenced Friday to nine years in federal prison for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that swindled more than $30 million from foreign investors and illegally funneled some of the stolen money into U.S. political campaigns, including a fundraiser for President Donald Trump, prosecutors said. Sherry …

Top congressional Democrats on Saturday called for Congress to immediately return to Washington and vote on whether to halt further U.S. military action against Iran, after President Donald Trump signaled a potentially extended conflict aimed at forcing regime change in Tehran. The House and Senate were already expected to consider …

Iran’s state media confirmed Saturday that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation, marking a dramatic escalation in a widening regional war and the first assassination of a sitting Iranian supreme leader since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979. The Iranian government …

Former President Bill Clinton on Friday denied any knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes during a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee, marking the first time a former U.S. president has been compelled to testify to Congress. “I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton said in …

Donald Trump used a wide-ranging speech Friday at the Port of Corpus Christi to tout his second-term record, revisit themes from his recent State of the Union address and attack Democrats, but stopped short of issuing a closely watched endorsement in Texas’ heated Republican U.S. Senate primary. Trump praised what …

President Donald Trump said Friday that he is banning all federal agencies from using the services of artificial intelligence company Anthropic, dramatically escalating a public dispute between the White House, the Pentagon and one of the nation’s leading AI developers. “I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States …

The U.S. government acknowledged Thursday that coordination between federal agencies must improve after the military reportedly used a high-energy laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection drone operating in Texas airspace. The incident, confirmed in a joint statement by the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and …

The nation’s main agency for handling disaster response and recovery is shuttered for the third time in recent months and its workers are on the verge of missing paychecks, as members of Congress and the White House remain divided in a separate dispute over immigration enforcement. Lawmakers are raising questions …

November 4, 2008, was supposed to symbolize progress. America elected its first Black president. The country talked about change. History was made. In Worse Than a Lie, that same night becomes something else. A Black man is shot ten times during a traffic stop, and his story is rewritten before …

President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, testified before a Senate committee Wednesday, defending her wellness-focused approach to public health while avoiding direct endorsements of routine childhood vaccinations and drawing sharp criticism over her qualifications and financial ties. Means, a physician turned wellness entrepreneur and author, appeared …

Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday the Trump administration will withhold $259 million in federal Medicaid money owed to Minnesota “in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.” The money is a small portion of …

The U.S. Department of Justice has not released summaries or notes from three FBI interviews conducted in 2019 with a South Carolina woman who accused convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of sexually assaulting her as a child and separately alleged sexual abuse by President Donald Trump, according to an analysis …