WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is using the government shutdown to reshape the federal workforce and target detractors. The president says he’ll meet with budget director Russ Vought to discuss potential spending cuts. Trump has already suggested slashing Democratic priorities and mass firings of federal workers. Vought has already withheld funds for projects in…… MORE
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and hundreds of activists raises questions about what any nation can legally do to enforce a blockade in international waters. As dozens of boats sailed closer to Gaza on Wednesday afternoon, the Israeli navy warned them to turn back. Then Israeli military…… MORE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. immigration judge has denied a bid for asylum from Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The judge in Baltimore on Wednesday denied an application to reopen Abrego Garcia’s asylum case, but he has 30 days to appeal. The Salvadoran national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for…… MORE
NEW YORK (AP) — On the eve of his sentencing, Sean “Diddy” Combs says he is a new man after realizing he was “broken to my core” and wondering if he was better off dead after his arrest last year. Combs wrote in a letter sent to the judge late Thursday that he is free…… MORE
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United States that supplies of long-range missiles to Ukraine will seriously damage relations between Moscow and Washington but will not change the situation on the battlefield. At the same time, Putin hailed U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to help negotiate peace in Ukraine and described…… MORE