Criticism of the World Trade Organization by Donald Trump has been "damaging", said the body’s chief, Roberto Azevêdo, conceding that its rules need to be updated. The U.S. president has argued that the WTO is too soft on China. In retaliation, Washington undermined the organization’s highest dispute-resolution forum, the Appellate Body, by blocking the nomination…
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday accused a top Democrat of “hackery” over his public questioning of whether the chief U.S. diplomat had violated regulations governing American officials’ political activity. In a blistering written attack on Bob Menendez, Pompeo also revealed that he’d been cleared by a federal watchdog of any rules violations. It…
President Donald Trump on Monday morning threatened to move August’s Republican National Convention out of North Carolina unless there are guarantees the state will let everyone attend. “I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August. Unfortunately,…
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Republican Party has thrown its full weight behind challenging California’s move to a mail-ballot November election during the coronavirus pandemic. A lawsuit from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the California Republican Party seeks to invalidate Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order that county election officials mail every registered…
TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge on Sunday dismantled Florida’s restrictive felon voting rights law in a ruling that could open the door to hundreds of thousands of new voters being added to rolls just ahead of the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declared key portions of the state’s felon voting law unconstitutional,…
Aides to President Donald Trump are considering a plan to shift the government’s global response to future infectious disease outbreaks to a new unit inside the State Department, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. The proposal, discussed during a National Security Council deputies committee meeting on Thursday, already has set off a turf battle between…
TALLAHASSEE — Republicans are seeking to join a high-stakes voting rights battle in Florida, claiming that Democrat-aligned groups are using the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse to strike down voting laws. The Republican National Committee, the Republican Party of Florida and the National Republican Congressional Committee on Thursday asked a federal judge for permission to…
YPSILANTI, Mich.—At the intersection of Rawsonville and Textile Roads, on a slender stretch of turf that runs the length of a half-deserted strip mall, Kathryn Prater and Kelra Rise are dancing. The longtime friends, white women in their early 40s, haven’t had much to celebrate recently. Rise lost her job as a shipping clerk two…
Trump administration officials are preparing plans to extend the federal deployment of more than 40,000 National Guard members performing coronavirus relief work across the country, after scores of lawmakers moved to pressure President Donald Trump to keep the Guards in place past June. Four people familiar with the matter said the administration is prepared to…
The raging public debate over statewide coronavirus lockdowns is running parallel to a series of legal battles in state capitals — and the lockdown skeptics got a big boost this week. The decision by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court on Wednesday to toss Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide shelter-in-place order set off a scramble in cities across the…
SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday proposed a slimmed-down $203 billion state budget that relies on help from Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump to avoid $14 billion in trigger cuts, with the state facing its first deficit in eight years after being blindsided by the coronavirus pandemic. The trigger cuts go back…
TRENTON — New Jersey officials swore it would never happen again. Almost a year after a 2018 adenovirus outbreak killed 11 children at a long-term care facility in northern New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation requiring every such facility in the state to develop outbreak response plans to prevent future tragedies. There was just one…
North Carolina Roy Cooper has got a doozy on his hands. He’s a Democratic governor, up for reelection in a Republican-leaning Southern swing state, pushing a go-slow approach to reopening the economy as protests intensify and neighboring states move quicker. But that’s just the start: How the first-term governor handles his state’s reopening will likely…
America’s governors indicated Sunday they are continuing to walk a fine line in dealing with a global pandemic and economic desperation, as well as pushing back against a backlash over the measures designed to curb the spread of Covid-19. Governors from both parties discussed a range of difficult choices that would have been almost unimaginable…
With reports of new coronavirus cases flattening and the number of hospitalizations falling, New Jersey is now shipping ventilators it received from the federal stockpile to hospitals in other states, Gov. Phil Murphy said during his daily briefing on Wednesday. New Jersey will send 50 ventilators to Massachusetts, which has started to see a spike…
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s presidential office says no suspicious activities have been detected in North Korea, a statement made Tuesday after reports surfaced that Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition after recent heart surgery. The presidential Blue House said it couldn’t confirm Kim’s current health. CNN had cited an anonymous U.S. official…
The only hospital in Grand Island, Neb., is full. The mayor has asked for a statewide stay-at-home order that the GOP governor insists isn’t needed. More than one-third of those tested for coronavirus in the surrounding county are positive — and there aren’t enough tests to go around. Grand Island is the fourth-biggest city in…
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York warned Tuesday that he and President Donald Trump "would have a problem" if the White House forged ahead with plans to reopen the state absent Albany’s approval, setting the stage for a potential constitutional clash against the backdrop of a global pandemic. "Look, if he pushed it to that…
President Donald Trump insisted Monday that he alone could declare the United States reopen for business, continuing a contradictory line of messaging toward the nation’s governors as they have taken on greater responsibilities to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the face of federal inaction. “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the…
ALBANY, N.Y. — Six Northeast governors will form a working group to come up with a plan to restart the regional economy, they announced on Monday. Speaking on a conference call, the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island agreed that it was essential to work together in developing plans…