Cohen endures cross-examination under the eyes of Trump’s entourage
NEW YORK — The star witness against Donald Trump took the stand Monday for a fourth and final day at the former president’s criminal trial in Manhattan, fending off a fusillade of attacks from defense lawyers and acknowledging that he once stole from Trump’s company.
Sean Combs apologizes after video shows him assaulting Cassie
Two days after CNN published video footage showing him striking, kicking and dragging his former girlfriend, Sean Combs posted a video on social media Sunday calling his behavior “inexcusable.”
Helicopter carrying Iran’s president has crashed, state media reports
A helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and his foreign minister crashed Sunday in the country’s mountainous northwest, according to state media, deepening the turmoil that has gripped the nation on both the international and domestic fronts in recent months.
Renting forever and trying to create a strong financial future
Moving back and forth from Tennessee to Alaska, Michael Rogers and his wife Christy have twice been stuck simultaneously paying a mortgage and rent. Once, in 2006, the situation dragged on for eight months, finally ending when they sold their house in Tennessee for $20,000 below what they’d paid for it.
‘We’ll see you at your house’: How fear and menace are transforming politics
One Friday last month, Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of Congress from Maryland, spent a chunk of his day in court securing a protective order.
No survivors after Iranian president’s helicopter crashes
President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran was killed along with the country’s foreign minister in a helicopter crash on Sunday in the country’s mountainous northwest, state news media reported Monday, leaving the country without two of its most influential figures at a time of heightened foreign tensions and domestic discontent.
New Star Wars plan: Pentagon rushes to counter threats in orbit
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is rushing to expand its capacity to wage war in space, convinced that rapid advances by China and Russia in space-based operations pose a growing threat to U.S. troops and other military assets on the ground and U.S. satellites in orbit.
A new centrism is rising in Washington
WASHINGTON — It may be the most discussed fact about American politics today: The country is deeply polarized. The Republican Party has moved to the right by many measures, and the Democratic Party has moved to the left. Each party sees the other as an existential threat. One consequence of this polarization, politicians and pundits often say, is gridlock in Washington.
Trump pledges to be gun owners’ ardent ally
DALLAS — Former President Donald Trump, accepting the endorsement of the National Rifle Association on Saturday, cast himself as a powerful ally for gun owners and gun businesses, contending that under President Joe Biden the right to bear arms was “under siege.”
In his beloved Philadelphia, Biden faces wariness from Black voters
PHILADELPHIA — In Milwaukee on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted her work to close the racial wealth gap. In Atlanta on Sunday, President Joe Biden will deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College, an all-male historically Black institution. And in Detroit the same day, he is expected to speak at an NAACP dinner.
Russia presses attacks in northeast Ukraine, seeking buffer zone on border
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces continued to press a grinding advance Saturday into northeastern Ukraine, moving closer to a village about 10 miles from the outer ring of Kharkiv and raising fears that the city, Ukraine’s second largest, could soon be within range of Russian artillery.
Georgia’s president vetoes foreign influence law
TBILISI, Georgia — President Salome Zourabichvili of Georgia said Saturday that she had vetoed a bill on foreign influence that has sparked protests and plunged the nation into a political crisis, threatening to derail its pro-European aspirations in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Giuliani Is formally notified of his indictment in Arizona election case
Rudy Giuliani on Friday night was served with a notice of his indictment in the Arizona election interference case, becoming the last of the 18 defendants to receive the notice after nearly a month of unsuccessful attempts by authorities.
In a secret Manhattan garden, a birthday party for Katharine Hepburn
NEW YORK — Nearly every spring for over two decades now, a tender ritual has taken place in a leafy plaza in the Turtle Bay area of midtown Manhattan.
Aid starts entering Gaza through US-built pier, but officials say it isn’t enough
Trucks of humanitarian aid began moving ashore into the Gaza Strip early Friday via a temporary pier built by the U.S. military, the first supplies of aid to be sent into the enclave by sea in two months. But the new shipments of food and other supplies fall far short of what humanitarian groups say is needed to meet the staggering levels of hunger and deprivation in Gaza.
Mercedes workers in Alabama reject union
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, voted Friday against allowing the United Auto Workers to represent them, a stunning blow to the union’s campaign to gain ground in the South, where it has traditionally been weak.
China says it will start buying apartments as housing slump worsens
HONG KONG — In a housing crisis that shows no end, the Chinese government is stepping in as a buyer of last resort.
Struggling on front lines, Ukraine strikes harder at Russian energy
KYIV, Ukraine — Struggling to contain Russian advances on the battlefield, Ukraine is increasingly taking the fight to Russia beyond the front lines in an effort to disrupt its military operations and put pressure on its economy — targeting airfields, logistics hubs and critical energy facilities with missiles and drones.
Accustomed to disasters, Houston didn’t see this one coming
HOUSTON — The storm that hurtled through Houston late Thursday surprised a city long accustomed to bouts of serious weather. The Astros kept playing baseball, even as rain and wind whipped into the team’s closed-dome stadium. Many people, following their evening routines, were caught unaware on bikes or at the gym.
In the aging Senate, 80-somethings seeking reelection draw little criticism
WASHINGTON — While President Joe Biden tries to assuage voter concerns about his age in a presidential race that includes the two oldest men ever to seek the White House, a couple of miles away in the U.S. Senate, the gerontocracy remains alive and well — and little commented upon.
