Three US Congress members have made a brief visit to opposition-held northwest Syria in the first known trip to the war-torn country by American lawmakers in six years.

Wisconsin Democrats are calling for the Republican leader of the state Senate to remove his appointee to the state's bipartisan election commission over comments he made about minority turnout in Milwaukee.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has announced a ban on the use of TikTok and certain China and Russia-based platforms in the state’s executive branch of government.

Debates over the future of democracy aren't new.

In his first show since 2019, Ralph Lauren transformed a long room at the Museum of Modern Art into a cozy salon Tuesday night to debut a moneyed collection of mostly black and white for men and women.

President Joe Biden is urging U.S. governors to ramp up their construction plans as his administration rolls out a guidebook for accessing the nearly $1 trillion made available by the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Harry’s Bar in Paris is celebrating the 100th birthday of the bloody mary, the vodka-tomato juice cocktail believed to have been invented at the iconic watering hole in 1921.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – House Democrats passed the most ambitious effort in decades to overhaul policing nationwide, avoiding a potential clash with moderates in their own party who were wary of reigniting the “defund the police” debate they say hurt them during last fall's election. Approved 220-212 late Wednesday, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is named for the man whose killing by police in Minnesota last Memorial Day sparked demonstrations nationwide. “We want to feel safe when we encounter law enforcement. “Our law enforcement officers need more funding not less,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis. Another possible point of contention is provisions easing standards for prosecution of law enforcement officers accused of wrongdoing.

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)NEW YORK – Book publishing in 2020 was a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same. To its benefit and to its dismay, publishing was drawn into the events of the moment. Penguin Random House, among other initiatives, asked all employees to read Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be an Anti-Racist.” Kendi later presided over a company town hall. Macmillan CEO Don Weisberg, who cited a wide range of diversity programs at the publishing house that began before “American Dirt,” said he “understands the skepticism." The CEO of Penguin Random House U.S., Madeline McIntosh, noted how well book publishing could meet the public's needs during the pandemic and other events of 2020.

A man walks by the closed English and American literature Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris, France, Thursday, Nov. 05, 2020. Since sending the email appeal, Whitman says she has been “overwhelmed” by the offers of help Shakespeare and Company has received. Founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, Shakespeare & Company became a creative hub for expatriate writers including Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Sylvia Whitman looked to the past for a solution to her new problem. A lot of expats had to leave Paris, as it was too expensive, so she and her friends set up a Friends of Shakespeare and Company,” Whitman said.

If the ruling stands, absentee ballots will have to be delivered to Wisconsin election clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day if they are to be counted. Under state law, absentee ballots are due in local clerks’ offices by 8 p.m. on election night. Wisconsin, like much of the rest of the country, is already seeing massive absentee voting for November and the state expects as many as 2 million people to vote absentee. After the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed that standing, the same three-judge panel delivered Thursday's ruling. Conley came up with a “limited, reasonable set of modifications” to election rules to preserve “the precious right of each Wisconsin citizen to vote,” she wrote.

This image taken from video by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services shows Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday, July 30, 2020, in Madison, Wis. Evers issued a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in coronavirus cases. The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court in May tossed out an order from Evers health secretary closing most nonessential businesses in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. But he said it was a sad commentary that Nass wanted to reconvene just to kill the mask order. Evers had been under pressure from local governments, and even some Democrats, to issue a statewide order.