The Biden administration said on Tuesday that Israel made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and that it therefore would not limit arms transfers to Israel as it threatened to do a month ago.  However, relief groups say conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.  State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Tuesday the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained but that “we at this time have not made an...

After several cycles of remarkable electoral luck and timing, three-term Pennsylvania Democratic senator Bob Casey Jr. finally met his match and was defeated by Republican businessman Dave McCormick. Only Casey refuses to admit it, claiming that uncounted provisional ballots could erase what currently stands as a 0.5 percentage-point lead of 33,000 votes for McCormick. This is beyond mere statistical improbability to the point of impossibility, given where the outstanding...

Republican senators will gather behind closed doors Wednesday to decide who will replace longtime Senate leader Mitch McConnell and lead their new majority next year — a decision that could shape the future of the Senate, and the party, as Donald Trump reclaims the presidency. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Florida Sen. Rick Scott have been scrambling to win the most votes in the secret ballot election, promising a new direction in the ...

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said he would vote to confirm his colleague Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as secretary of State if selected by President-elect Trump.  “Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own. That being said, my colleague @SenMarcoRubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation,” Fetterman wrote in a Tuesday morning post on the social platform X.  The news of Trump’s expected...

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has raised concern among supporters of the country’s current foreign policy direction under the Biden administration, and brought hope to those interested in its transformation. The pressing question, resonating not only within American political circles, but also among Washington’s allies and adversaries worldwide, is how much change in US foreign policy can be expected from a new Republican administration. Many experts, drawing on...

Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci received $15 million in taxpayer-funded security after his retirement in December 2022, documents obtained by Open the Books reveal. The protective detail, provided by the U.S. Marshals Service through an agreement with Health and Human Services, covered security services for Fauci from January 2023 through September 2024. The security arrangement, unprecedented for a former federal...

Donald Trump has chosen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “department of government efficiency”, putting the two entrepreneurs in charge of a promised effort to slash rules, bureaucracy and spending throughout government. “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!” Musk, the world’s richest man and an ardent Trump backer, wrote on his X social media platform. “We will not go quietly, @elonmusk,” Ramaswamy wrote in another X post. Trump said the duo would work with him...

How do you slash, cut, restructure and even dismantle parts of the federal government? If you’re President-elect Donald J. Trump, you turn to two wealthy entrepreneurs: the spaceship-inventing, electric-car-building owner of a social media platform and a moneymaking former pharmaceutical executive who was once one of your presidential rivals. Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead what he called the Department of Government Efficiency. It will be, he said...

Democrat Sen. Bob Casey Jr. still refuses to concede his race against Republican Dave McCormick, even though The Associated Press and other media outlets have called the race in McCormick's favor. In a new video message, the three-term incumbent Casey said the democratic process "will play out" once all the votes are counted. As of early Tuesday afternoon, McCormick was leading Casey by 34,561 votes, according to Pennsylvania's election results website.  "My priority has...

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., hasn’t conceded the Pennsylvania Senate race, despite The Associated Press and other news organizations calling it for his Republican challenger Dave McCormick. As of Monday, Nov. 11, McCormick was up by approximately 40,000 votes with a little over 100,000 ballots left to be counted.  “There are more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted – including tens of thousands of provisional ballots in counties favorable to Senator Casey,” a member of...