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FEMA officials weigh changes including less DC ‘centralization’ and ‘realigning’ some staff

The Trump administration is eyeing changes to the structure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including less “centralization in Washington, D.C.,” according to two recent memos obtained by The Hill. One, sent out by FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton last week, said the agency “must reduce unnecessary centralization in Washington, D.C. and strengthen the roles…

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FEMA officials weigh changes including less DC ‘centralization’ and ‘realigning’ some staff

The Trump administration is eyeing changes to the structure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including less “centralization in Washington, D.C.,” according to two recent memos obtained by The Hill. One, sent out by FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton last week, said the agency “must reduce unnecessary centralization in Washington, D.C. and strengthen the roles…

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National Guard member shot in DC after trying to break up fight

A member of the National Guard was shot in the leg late Sunday while attempting to break up a fight in Southeast Washington, police said Monday. The injured guard member and the suspected shooter were hospitalized, and their injuries were not deemed life-threatening. The shooting occurred around 11:10 p.m. EDT in the 400 block of…

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Katie Zacharia ouster recalls turbulence of Trump’s first administration

Donald Trump’s second presidency, it was said, would not be like the first. He was back after a period in the wilderness, but with lessons learned; this time he was surrounded by an army of loyalists and not, as in 2017, by a team of aides willing to disagree with him now and then. Nor would it once again be a nonstop spectacle of leaks, backstage betrayals and impulsive firings communicated through social media.

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© Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS)

Katie Zacharia at her first (and last) White House press briefing on Tuesday.
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Trump announces plan for new East Potomac Links golf course

President Trump on Sunday announced a plan for a new golf course at East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. “I am pleased to announce that the Department of the Interior, under the auspices of Secretary Doug Burgum, and in conjunction with famed Golf Course Architect, Tom Fazio, has developed a plan to build a World…

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Trump says he will close historic D.C. golf course for 15 months of renovations

A judge last week, however, ordered a halt to his redevelopment plans until at least Oct. 26 after scolding the government for starting a large-scale tree removal at the course over a holiday weekend while providing little notice to the court or the plaintiffs trying to stop the makeover.

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The midterms in maps: A guide to the key Senate, House and governor races

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On November 3, voters will head to the polls for the midterm elections, which will determine whether Donald Trump’s Republicans retain a friendly Congress or whether Democrats take control of one or both chambers, enabling them to mount a more aggressive opposition by blocking legislation, budgets and appointments during the final two years of his term.

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Trump fires Katie Zacharia after five days as White House press secretary

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday fired his brand new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, just five days into the job. The story broke right after Trump told reporters that he had asked Zacharia to reconsider whether she wanted to remain in the job after her bumpy first briefing on Monday.

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© JIM LO SCALZO (EFE)

Donald Trump, flanked by White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia.
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Sofía Monsalve, UN special rapporteur on the right to food: ‘Famine is being normalized by dehumanizing a population’

Sofía Monsalve, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, in Turin, Italy, last September.

Seasoned in defending rural communities and smallholder farmers, Sofía Monsalve, 56, was appointed United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food in May. In exchange for throwing herself into an unpaid position, the Colombian political scientist says she enjoys complete independence. “I have the freedom to call things by their name,” she tells EL PAÍS in Turin during Terra Madre, the gathering of the international sustainable food network Slow Food.

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No Kings movement calls marches to polling places this weekend to boost early voting

No Kings coalition leaders at the Supreme Court in Washington on Wednesday.

The No Kings movement, which organized the largest protests against the government so far during Donald Trump’s second term, is taking its mobilization to the polls to promote early voting ahead of the midterms. The goal is to get as many voters as possible to cast ballots before November 3, the official day of the midterm elections, to counter abstention and problems that could arise at a time when, they say, the government is doing everything it can to restrict the right to vote.

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US lifts sanctions against Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly

Jorge Rodríguez in Caracas, April 10.

The United States on Wednesday lifted sanctions against Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly and brother of the South American country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, the Treasury Department reported.

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A new Supreme Tribunal for Venezuela, rushed and without clear rules

Washington has stepped on the accelerator to renew Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal. It is its first major democratizing initiative in the country and the main task of the negotiation table between the 2015 National Assembly and the government of Delcy Rodríguez, which meets again this Wednesday. The goal is to have a new court by December, but beyond the outline the United States published last week, nothing is as yet known about the timetables, the profiles sought, the procedures to challenge appointments and how civil society will take part in a process crucial to a country that is supposedly moving toward a democratic transition.

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© Ariana Cubillos (AP)

Ceremony at the Supreme Justice Tribunal in Caracas, in January 2024.
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US ambassador to Greece resigns over corruption after pressure from Trump

On Tuesday, three weeks before the midterms, the White House went back to its news conferences after a 47-day hiatus following the departure of former press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Her successor, Katie Zacharia, made a very brief appearance in which she only took three questions and fell short of the cool aplomb with which Leavitt made a name for herself defending the policies of her boss, President Donald Trump, resorting to lies when necessary.

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© WILL OLIVER (Pool/EFE)

Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump last March in the White House.
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Pressure mounts on Maduro’s inner circle after Álex Saab ally is turned over to the US

The government of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez has handed Álvaro Pulido — Álex Saab’s Colombian-born associate who had been held in Caracas since 2023 — over to the United States. The transfer was announced Sunday on X by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, while the Venezuelan government has remained silent on the case.

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© DEA

Mugshot of Álvaro Pulido.
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Why Democrats think they can finally flip Texas in the Senate

Despite years of political defeats in Texas, Democrats are hoping that the 2026 midterm elections will finally turn a Senate seat in the staunchly red state purple. James Talarico, a rising star within the party, is seen as one of the keys to achieving that new shade. For Republicans, he has become one of the biggest challenges in this closely contested campaign. So much so that a substantial share of the money being spent in the race has gone not toward promoting their controversial Senate candidate, Attorney General Ken Paxton, but toward attacking his opponent.

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© Eric Gay (AP)

Supporters of James Talarico in Austin, Texas, on March 3.
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At the epicenter of the mysterious health alert in Siberia: ‘Plague? There’s no panic, people are calm’

A street in Irkutsk, Siberia, where a woman died of pneumonia suspected to be related to plague.

“What plague?” an Irkutsk resident exclaims when the epidemiological crisis that has put this small Siberian city near Mongolia on the front pages over the past week is mentioned. “Do you see me wearing a mask?” the annoyed clerk at a pharmacy retorts when asked whether she has noticed any concern over reports of quarantines and the death of a laboratory worker. “Whatever the authorities say, we’ll obey. We all obey the authorities,” say two elderly women, carefree as they sit on swings in a park in Shelekhov, the suburb that their own governor advised people not to visit due to “a particularly dangerous infection.”

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US moves spy drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador to combat drug trafficking

The United States has sent spy drones to Colombia and Ecuador to support both countries’ actions against organized crime, two military sources told the newspaper The New York Times. The aircraft involved are an undetermined number of MQ-9 Reapers that had been stationed in Africa. Although their primary roles are linked to surveillance, they can be used in offensive operations. The arrival of these aircraft, announced by Colombia in August, cements Washington’s growing active role in the operations of the armed forces of the two South American countries, which in recent months have agreed to begin “joint operations.”

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© William Rio Rosado (EFE)

An MQ-9 Reaper drone during a training mission in Nevada.
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María Elvira Salazar and her broken promise to half a million Cubans: ‘She presented herself as our advocate, but she manipulated us’

María Elvira Salazar wore a dark blouse and a striking pearl necklace when she arrived at journalist Juan Manuel Cao’s studio in Miami. She took a seat, tucked her hair behind her ears, made sure she had good lighting and found the best camera angle. She’s well trained in the ways of television.

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© Elizabeth Frantz (REUTERS)

María Elvira Salazar demands a formal indictment of Raúl Castro at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 20, 2026. 
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