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Anton Troianovski February 6 at 8:32 AM MOSCOW — A Russian court sentenced a Danish Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison for extremism Wednesday, one of the harshest verdicts in years against a Western citizen here and the latest incident in Russia’s crackdown on personal freedoms.  The Jehovah’s Witness, Dennis Christensen, was detained in May 2017 after a police raid on his congregation in the city of Orel, south…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told Congress on Tuesday that the economy would crash and no policy work could be done if lawmakers investigate his administration or stand in the way of his plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Syria. The lines, delivered early in his State of the Union address, were so clearly designed to draw cheers from his Republican allies that they even included a rhyme…

Video State of the Union 2019: Biggest moments from Trump’s address Alas for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., President Trump got to deliver his State of the Union address after all. And once again, America saw that Trump on the stump is very, very good. The speech Tuesday night was an important way for the president to reboot his standing with the American people. After a contentious several months and…

BOSTON (AP) — The involuntary manslaughter conviction of a young woman who encouraged her boyfriend through dozens of text messages to kill himself was upheld Wednesday by Massachusetts’ highest court. The Supreme Judicial Court agreed with a lower court judge who found that Michelle Carter caused Conrad Roy III’s death when she told him to ‘‘get back in’’ his truck that was filling with toxic gas after he told her…

Anton Troianovski February 6 at 8:32 AM MOSCOW — A Russian court sentenced a Danish Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison for extremism Wednesday, one of the harshest verdicts in years against a Western citizen here and the latest incident in Russia’s crackdown on personal freedoms.  The Jehovah’s Witness, Dennis Christensen, was detained in May 2017 after a police raid on his congregation in the city of Orel, south…

As the shutdown dragged on to become the longest on record, 35 days, the consensus was that Mr. Trump had met his match in Ms. Pelosi, so much so that a man known for giving foes insulting nicknames like “Cryin’ Chuck” and for labeling women “horseface,” “ugly” and “dog” could come up with only one term to refer to Ms. Pelosi: Nancy. But Ms. Pelosi’s playbook for handling the president…

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The governor of New Mexico ordered the withdrawal of the majority of the state’s National Guard troops from the U.S. border with Mexico on Tuesday, in a move that challenges President Trump’s description of a security crisis. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the partial withdrawal shortly before Trump’s State of the Union address. Her Republican predecessor deployed National Guard troops to the border in April…

President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) As President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi couldn’t help but shift her attention on multiple occasions from the president to several pieces of paper she was holding. Pelosi’s interest in the papers caught the attention of…

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSix takeaways from the State of the Union Ocasio-Cortez rejects criticism that she wasn’t ‘spirited and warm’ during Trump speech Lawmakers say Trump’s infrastructure vision lacks political momentum MORE called on lawmakers during his State of the Union address Tuesday night to ban “late-term” abortions, a policy that won’t pass a divided Congress. “To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit…

Image caption Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai: “Peace is more difficult than war” The Taliban official who has led the group’s peace negotiations with the US has told the BBC the insurgents do not want to seize “the whole country by [military] power”. “It will not bring peace to Afghanistan,” Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai said. However, he said the group would not agree to a ceasefire until foreign forces were withdrawn…

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was conspicuously absent from President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Ginsburg, who turns 86 next month, has been working from home in recent weeks as she recovers from treatment for cancer. Her son said this week she has been out walking and sees a personal trainer twice a week. She appeared in public Monday for the first time since her recent…

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For some, Stacey Abrams would seem an unlikely choice to give the Democrats’ response to the State of the Union. One of the most closely-watched candidates of the 2018 cycle, Abrams lost her race to then-Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Delivering the State of the Union address is a high-profile assignment typically is reserved for party luminaries with a long record of solid election wins. Abrams’ was far from…

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump used his second State of the Union address on Tuesday to push the familiar themes of his administration – urging a wall along the border with Mexico, pressing for an end to foreign wars and claiming credit for an expanding economy – using familiar arguments. Not all of them were true.  Trump told lawmakers he wanted them to build a border wall, suggested they had already voted…

President Trump declared in his State of the Union speech that America will “never be a socialist country,” a clear rebuke of a new generation of Democrats and socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” Trump told Congress Tuesday night. “We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve…

The pilot whose twin-engine plane crashed into a Southern California home on Sunday, killing him and four people on the ground, was not a retired Chicago Police Department officer as authorities initially believed. Antonio Pastini, 75, of Gardnerville, Nevada, piloted the plane that crashed into a single-family home in a residential section of Yorba Linda, California. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Monday identified Pastini as a former Chicago police…

Trump’s speech runs about 5,000 words 7:12 p.m.: President Trump’s speech runs about 5,000 words — easily an hour in length, depending upon the applause he receives. Aides say chief White House speechwriter Stephen Miller started drafting the address three weeks ago. Counselor Kellyanne Conway, daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner weighed in throughout the process. The president spent about four to five hours on practice sessions and revisions…