Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday made clear he supports another round of stimulus checks to Americans. The economy needs “another shot of adrenaline” amid the coronavirus pandemic, he said. McConnell, R-Ky., has been in negotiations with top congressional Democrats and the White House on what the next coronavirus bill would look like, as the Trump […] Read more

Monday was the first day of the Democratic National Convention. You might be forgiven for not knowing that, as the news was nowhere. Not in the papers, not on the shows, and not in the morning news letters most of Washington relies on for what to think that day. The long-planned dates — July 13-17 […] Read more

Right now, the attention of most Americans is, understandably, captured by the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national debate over criminal justice. But the 2020 presidential election continues to trod along in the background, and Wall Street is starting to worry about the outcome. The New York Times reports that investors are growing alarmed over […] Read more

The U.S. government has long imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has presided over more than nine years of a civil war that has claimed the lives of an estimated half a million people. But for the first time ever, on June 17 his British wife Asma was targeted with economic restrictions of her own. “We anticipate many more sanctions, […] Read more

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, the national Republican Party and four Pennsylvania Republican members of Congress, on June 29 filed a federal lawsuit opposing Pennsylvania’s decision to expand mail-in voting ahead of November’s elections. The federal lawsuit (pdf) filed Monday in Pittsburgh sues Pennsylvania’s secretary of state Kathy Boockvar, and 67 county election boards. It claims that […] Read more

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the federal government is trying to expand coronavirus testing, not slow it down as President Donald Trump has suggested in recent days. In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked about the president’s recent comments […] Read more

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made it clear the central bank will not move on interest rates unless it sees a significant and persistent move in inflation, which has been stubbornly below the Fed’s target. Markets took Powell’s comments as dovish, meaning the Fed is leaning toward an easing policy and keeping interest rates low rather than […] Read more

The U.S. budget gap more than doubled in May, pushing the deficit for the fiscal year to near $2 trillion, as federal revenues plunged and government spending soared to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. The federal deficit last month widened to $424 billion, more than twice what it was in May 2019, the Congressional Budget […] Read more

America’s new socially distant reality has warped the landscape of the 2020 election. Candidates aren’t out knocking on doors, and U.S. election officials are bracing for a record surge in mail ballots. But another subtler shift is also occurring — inside people’s brains. Four years after Russia’s expansive influence operation, which touched the feeds of […] Read more