#us-politics

#us-politics

The NFL Super Bowl is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and the halftime show famed as the US's most-watched TV moment. This year, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny (Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) gave a historic performance, becoming the first artist to sing an entire halftime show in Spanish. His set called for unity across the Americas, underscored by a large billboard above the stage reading: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love."

These days, American politics is a highly charged and dramatic landscape - and nowhere more so than in the White House press room, which can, on occasion, feel like part reality show, part bear pit. Rarely a day goes by where a press room moment doesn't go viral, for any number of reasons. And, as RTÉ's new Washington correspondent, Galwegian Jackie Fox cannot wait to immerse herself in the belly of the beast.

Ryan, who had worked for seven years at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), Ethereum's de facto governing body, suggested that Ethereum could be on the cusp of an era-defining shift. Since its founding in 2014, the foundation had prioritized technical upgrades and had avoided centralizing power while its user base was growing, but Ethereum had now grown up, and the cryptocurrency world around it had grown up, too.

"The global human rights system is in peril," wrote HRW executive director Philippe Bolopion. "Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed."

On Jan. 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said terrorists were still threatening America and warned of an axis of evil consisting of North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Also on this date: In 1891, following the death of her brother Kalakaua, Liliuokalani was sworn in as the first and only queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The shift comes as some snowbirds grow uneasy about the political climate under U.S. President Donald Trump. John Kawiuk and Sharron MacKay, from Mississauga, told CBC Toronto they started feeling apprehensive after years of wintering in Florida. There was situations where we weren't welcome, MacKay said. Even from a security standpoint, as Canadians, we just didn't feel comfortable anymore. So they changed their plans and bought a place in Campeche, Mexico, last year.

President Donald Trump shifted toward a more conciliatory approach with Democratic leaders in Minnesota on Monday, a sudden change in tack following an outcry over the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the state this month during the administration's nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The about-face comes after Saturday's shooting death of Alex Pretti by federal agents raised doubts - including from some Republicans - over how the Trump administration has gone about aggressively deporting migrants and confronting protesters opposed to the policy.

There has been a significant increase in wealthy Americans moving to Ireland to escape life under Donald Trump, new figures from the Department of Justice reveal. The number of US citizens granted permission to live here on temporary Stamp O visas has jumped by almost 90pc in only a couple of years. The visas were granted to 387 US citizens last year, nearly double the 204 who were granted Stamp O visas in 2022.

Investors reacted emphatically to President Trump's insistence that he won't back down on his plan to take over Greenland: They hate it. The S&P 500 fell 2% yesterday, even though 81% of its companies have beaten their Q4 earnings expectations so far. The dollar fell off a cliff, losing nearly 1% of its value against a basket of foreign currencies. U.S. bond prices weakened modestly. Gold, the safe-haven investment, hit yet another new record high.

Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RTÉ News and has reported extensively on US politics and global affairs, including covering the 2024 US Presidential Election in Washington DC. She has worked as a journalist for RTÉ for 14 years, reporting on a range of foreign, national and regional news stories. She has reported for RTÉ from countries including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Seychelles on issues surrounding human rights and climate change.

That sun has provided him cheap power for 25 years, and this month he installed his fourth iteration of solar panels on his Vermont home. In an interview after he set up the new system, he said President Donald Trump's stance against solar and other cheap green energy will hurt the GOP in this year's elections as electricity bills rise.

As other oil executives lavished President Trump with praise at the White House, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods bluntly said the Venezuelan oil industry is currently "univestable," and that major reforms are required before even considering committing the many billions of dollars required to revitalize the country's dilapidated crude business. Two days later, a miffed Trump told reporters Jan. 11 that he would "probably be inclined to keep Exxon out" of Venezuela. "I didn't like their response. They're playing too cute," Trump said.

The increase in the US is all the more pronounced given the gradual decline in capital punishment that had been the prevailing wind in the US for most of the past two decades. It stands starkly discordant with the trend in public opinion. Gallup, which has been taking the pulse of the American public's views on the death penalty since 1937, found that this year 52% supported it for people convicted of murder a 50-year low. Most Americans under 55 now oppose the practice.

Yet it now seems that the biggest change to US federal drug policy for more than 50 years will happen through a Republican president. On Monday, Donald Trump confirmed the rumours that he is very strongly considering rescheduling cannabis (or marijuana, as it is still called in US state documents, due to an early-20th-century drive to emphasise the plant's foreignness) from Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act where its currently sits alongside heroin to Schedule III, next to drugs such as codeine.

On December 1st 2025, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio introduced the "Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025" to the US Senate. The proposed bill, if it ever became law, would effectively force Americans to choose between their American passport and any foreign citizenship. Understandably it sparked shockwaves among US passport holders living in Europe and around the world. While many have dismissed the bill as fanciful, publicity-seeking and against the constitution—pointing out it could never pass given how many people it would impact, including First Lady Melania Trump who is a dual Slovenian-American national—it has nonetheless raised big questions about the value of an American passport to those living abroad.

The year began with the art world-like much of the rest of the world-holding its breath, waiting to see what America's newly re-elected president, Donald J. Trump, had on his Washington to-do list. Meanwhile, on America's other coast, a series of wildfires in and around Los Angeles burned up around 60,000 acres, killing hundreds of people, displacing thousands more, and consuming architectural landmarks as well as untold works of art.

Now it's President Trump who's trying to persuade the public that the state of the economy is sound, after prices rose 3% in the 12 months ending in September and with consumers spending less on big-ticket items. Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, says making that argument could be a tall order in the face of rising costs for a number of goods and services.

Kamala Harris lost last year's US presidential election because she chased the wrong voters with the wrong message, ultimately demobilising the very base that she needed to win, according to an autopsy by a progressive grassroots advocacy group. The vice-president focused on courting moderate Republicans over motivating core Democratic working-class, young and progressive voters, a misstep compounded by her failure to break from Joe Biden on Gaza, says the report by RootsAction.

🏒 The gay hockey romance Heated Rivalry has been a massive hit, and the show has fans taking a closer look at the NHL -- the only major North American men's sports league with no current or former out gay players. Mey Rude explores whether that might change soon. Speaking of professional sports, the World Cup is coming to the U.S. this summer, and this week we learned that the Seattle-based game designated locally as the "Pride Match" will feature two countries where being gay is illegal.

It has been another week of unfettered moral depravity in the United States. Donald Trump held a Klan rally lightly disguised as a cabinet meeting where he railed against Somali immigrants. Pete Hegseth defended the cruel and illegal boat strikes that have murdered at least 83 civilians. Marco Rubio put forward a "peace plan" for Ukraine that amounts to giving Vladimir Putin everything he's ever wished for. And saddest of all? Most people probably don't even know any of it happened.

US officials debate who to blame for the military killing of shipwrecked alleged drug smugglers; Democrats celebrate despite losing a special election in Tennessee; and the future of self-driving cars. If you can't access your feeds, please contact customer support. Set up manually: How does this work? We are showing you options for a computer but if you're on a phone or tablet

The former Honduran president was found guilty of taking bribes from drug traffickers to enable the movement of some 400 tons of cocaine to the US through Honduras. It took place as Hernandez portrayed himself as an ally to US authorities in the fight against drug trafficking. Trump's pardon of Hernandez drew criticism, coming at a time when his administration has vowed to intensify efforts against drug trafficking in the region, while threatening Venezuela and accusing President Nicolas Maduro of running a narcotrafficking cartel.

At a Thanksgiving gathering with voters, another candidate in the same race fielded questions about affordability but also about moral leadership when it came to Israel's war in Gaza. A third candidate vying for the same seat devoted much of his campaign's launch video to lambasting the current member of Congress representing the district over the funding he's received from the pro-Israel lobby.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a longtime Trump ally who recently split with the president, made headlines last week by announcing her plans to resign in January. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a Trump critic, told Axios he nearly resigned over the Trump administration's 28-point peace plan for the Russia-Ukraine war. "I have made the decision, after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday, to focus on my family and return home after this Congress," Nehls said in a statement.

Many of us libbed out so hard this past week with the New York City mayoral victory of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, as well as huge wins for statewide races in Virginia and New Jersey. It's so exciting!! Turns out having a plan for things to suck shit less is a winning position. Who'd have thought, besides literally every young person? Even Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who declined to endorse Mamdani throughout the race, eventually had to snivel through a congratulatory post.

He tells me the following, and this is a quote: The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America. She was evil, corrupt, and only focused on bad things for our country. She was rapidly losing control of her party, and it was never coming back. I'm very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice. Nancy Pelosi is a highly overrated politician.

His political career also included stints as defense secretary, a White House chief of staff and a Wyoming congressman.

Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria, Trump wrote on Friday. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN' But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!

Millions of Americans yearn for 7 November 2028, the scheduled date of the next presidential election. That's the day the Trump era effectively ends. Probably. That's the day the Democrats will atone for Kamala Harris's calamitous 2024 failure. Possibly. That's the day US democracy is reborn. Hopefully. Succession talk is tantalising Washington. Gavin Newsom, California's governor, has given the clearest sign yet that he'll run and glossing over past blunders, Harris reckons she deserves a second chance.

From 1988-1992, Yale grad and oil company founder George H.W. Bush was commander-in-chief; not only did Bush. Sr. improbably make vocal his belief that global warming ("The Greenhouse Effect") was real, but promised to employ "the White House effect" to counter it. Which included appointing as EPA chief Bill Reilly, an avid conservationist and veteran of Nixon's Presidential Council on Environmental Quality and the World Wildlife Fund.

It's beneath [Graham] to say what he just said. He knows, as well as I do, there is no legal authorization for these strikes. There isn't, Himes started off by saying. He continued: If Lindsey Graham and other Republicans want to go the route of saying it's okay to kill people illegally, just so long as the American public supports it,' the American public needs to really think that through, you know? There will be a Democratic president someday.

United States President Donald Trump threatened to change FIFA World Cup 2026 host cities if concerned by safety. Organisers of the 2026 FIFA World Cup have dismissed concerns that United States President Donald Trump could move matches from cities he does not deem safe. Republican President Trump said last month that he would consider moving games from Democrat-led San Francisco and Seattle if they did not cooperate with his immigration and crime initiatives.

An aerial view of al-Mawasi area, where thousands of displaced Palestinians live in makeshift tents by the sea Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images A Palestinian woman cleans an area next to tents in Gaza City Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters President Donald Trump inside Marine One, arriving back at the White House after participating in a world leaders' summit in Egypt Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/Reuters

It's good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden Administration developed after months of discussion with Arab partners, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. (6/12) It starts with a clear and comprehensive post conflict plan for Gaza. It's good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden Administration developed after months of discussion with Arab partners, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It centers on