Politics

Washington — A former top U.S. diplomat who is accused of spying for Cuba for decades pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. Victor Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, wasindicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 5 on charges that he allegedly spied for Cuba’s intelligence agency for four decades. In a court document filed Wednesday saying he …

Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzidefeated Republican Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip in Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District to finish the term of former GOP Rep. George Santos, who wasindicted on federal charges and expelled from Congress in December. With 97% of votes counted, Suozzi was winning the race for the 3rd Congressional District seat by a margin …

Washington — The House voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, casting a historic vote that marks the first time a Cabinet secretary has been impeached in nearly 150 years. Under two articles of impeachment accusing Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust,” House Republicans …

Washington — President Biden urged House Republicans to “immediately” take up a $95 billion foreign aid bill that includes assistance to Ukraine and Israel after the Senate passed the measure early Tuesday, saying that “there’s no question” that it would pass if brought to the House floor. “I call on the speaker to let the full House speak its mind …

After undergoing a medical procedure, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been released from the hospital and resumed the responsibilities that he had delegated to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Austin was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Sunday afternoon following symptoms of an “emergent bladder issue,” according to the Pentagon. He underwent what …

Washington — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with Paul Whelan, an American businessman the U.S. considers to be wrongfully detained in Russia, on Monday. “Yesterday, as it happens, I spoke on the phone with Paul Whelan,” Blinken said Tuesday at an event on hostage diplomacy at the Wilson Center in Washington. “Our intensive efforts to bring Paul …

Washington — The Senate approved a major foreign aid package Tuesday, as a bipartisan group of senators propelled the long-delayed legislation over the finish line after an overnight session. But new, steep opposition from House Speaker Mike Johnson has thrown the bill’s prospects in the lower chamber into question. President Biden urged the House to move forward with the legislation …

Washington — The House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, with Republicans issuing the chamber’s harshest constitutional punishment against a Cabinet secretary for just the second time in U.S. history. The vote on two articles of impeachment was 214 in favor to 213 opposed, with three Republicans voting with …

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee says he’ll move forward with an evidentiary hearing Thursdayto consider a Trump co-defendant’s motion to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from prosecuting the 2020 election interference case in Georgia and to drop all the charges against him. Michael Roman, a former Republican National Committee staffer, alleged that Willis …

Migrants in Mexico have made more than 64.3 million requests to enter the U.S. using a smartphone app that the Biden administration has tried to establish as the main gateway to the American asylum system at the southern border, internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News show. In the first year of the program’s implementation, migrants used the phone …