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Sunny, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog, dies at 13
Sunny, the Portuguese water dog who romped into the White House at the start of President Barack Obama’s second term and injected the mansion with playful — at times, too playful — energy, has died. She was 13.
A Semiquincentennial of Apathy … and AI
My generation has never experienced politics untouched by algorithms. Every election I have been old enough to follow has unfolded, at least in part, on social media. From Obama’s historic victory in 2008 to Trump’s unconventional win for a second term in 2024, these campaigns showed how pol
Obamas inaugurate presidential center, cementing their political legacy in Chicago
The new campus on Chicago’s South Side is more than a traditional presidential library. It harkens back to former President Barack Obama’s political origins as a community organizer.
Detroit political voice: Obama won’t fix El-Sayed’s Black voter problem
Obama’s upcoming campaign appearance with Abdul El-Sayed may not be enough to win over skeptical Black voters in Detroit.
Barack Obama’s goal for his library: ‘I want them to put my presidency in context’
Barack Obama is expressing his hopes for what his presidential library in Chicago will achieve for his legacy, in an interview with Stephen Colbert.
She Was an Architect of Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal. Now She’s Watching Trump’s War in Horror.
Wendy Sherman knows better than almost anyone that this didn’t have to happen, and that a better future was possible.
Barack and Michelle Obama surprise first visitors to newly opened presidential center
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama surprised some of the first visitors to walk through the doors of Obama’s new presidential center, personally greeting them.
Obama’s Nuclear Deal Looms Over Trump’s Iran Negotiations
President Trump is under pressure to significantly improve upon the Obama-era deal in order to justify the huge human and economic cost of taking the United States to war.
Gas Prices, Gerrymandering and Obama’s Return to Texas
Co-hosts Brandon Rottinghaus and Jeronimo Cortina delve into the latest news in politics
Trump blasted Obama’s Iran deal. Now he faces similar tradeoffs.
As U.S. envoys pursue peace talks, the president confronts persistent sticking points: sanctions relief, enrichment limits and the risk of empowering Tehran.
The Beclowning of Scott Bessent
One iron law of current politics is that nobody who associates themselves with Donald Trump emerges with a shred of credibility. For some, that’s not a big loss — it’s not as if anyone respected Pete Hegseth even before he decided that the key to military success in an age of drones and AI was more testosterone. For others, however, the costs are real. I’m old enough to remember when Marco Rubio was widely considered a reasonable, thoughtful politician. Right now, however, my candidate for the biggest loser is Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury. Bessent started out with significant reputation to lose: When Trump selected him, this was the headline in the Financial Times: Jason Furman, Barack Obama’s chief economist, described him as a “credible Treasury secretary who has a real understanding of the global economy”. But Bessent has now transformed himself into the Baghdad Bob of bonds. Three weeks ago, after intervening (for reasons that remain somewhat unclear) to support the Japanese yen, Bessent boasted about his ability to move markets and dared investors to bet against his, declaring “I am the house now.” He then tried to push long-term interest rates down, buying 30-year U.S. Treasuries in a move some have compared to paying down part of your mortgage by running up your credit card balance. Here’s how that’s going so far: To get some perspective on how high interest rates have gone, here’s a longer-term perspective: We haven’t seen interest rates this high since the fading days of the dotcom bubble. Why are interest rates hitting new records? The backdrop, as I argued in last Sunday’s primer, is the huge AI-driven investment boom; more on that next week. But the immediate cause of the latest interest rate spike was Trump’s rejection of an Iranian proposal to end the war. This rejection sent crude oil prices, which for a while had fallen considerably, shooting back up: It’s notable, by the way, that oil prices remain high even though a significant amount of oil is now being shuttled through the Strait of Hormuz by night, on smaller vessels. That’s an interesting story, which has a lot to do with the fact that oil from the Hormuz shuttle runs must be transferred to larger vessels before being shipped to markets in Europe and Asia; around 15 percent of the world’s large crude carriers are now parked off the coast of Oman, waiting to be tanked up. This is creating a shipping crunch: But that’s a topic for another day. For now, the point is that with oil still high and refined products, especially diesel, still close to record levels, inflation will remain elevated. And this in turn means that the Federal Reserve will keep short-term interest rates high, an expectation that is feeding into longer-term rates. Hence Bessent’s bond-market humiliation. The truth is that Bessent might not have been able to get interest rates down even in the best of circumstances. But he certainly won’t get anywhere as long as Trump keeps believing that he can somehow convert his Iran debacle into a triumphant victory. And Trump will keep believing that as long as he is surrounded by sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear. Sycophants like, for example, Scott Bessent, who is predicting the imminent collapse of the Iranian economy, possibly within two weeks. Bessent is right to say that the embargo on Iranian oil exports is placing the country under great economic strain. But his implicit prediction that this will quickly produce a deal that Trump can call victory looks no more plausible than his boasts about the bond market. The big question now is, why would anyone with a reputation to lose work for Donald Trump? As the beclowning of Bessent shows, joining the Trump team won’t just damage your reputation; it will utterly destroy it.
Trump shares post calling for Obama’s arrest
The repost on social media was among a flurry of late-night posts in which President Donald Trump railed against his political opponents.
Exclusive: Barack Obama’s hidden hand shaping Democrats’ AI debate
The former president is pushing 2028 Democratic hopefuls to develop specific plans for how to tackle AI — but some of them are wary of antagonizing the industry.
With Oval Office replica and skyline views of Chicago, Obama's new museum is political and personal
Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the Chicago location to the textured stone adorning its dramatic tower, art installations and a striped reading chairs that resemble ones in his own home
Whole Hog Politics: What Democrats can learn from Tennessee, Aftyn Behn and Rahm Emanuel
It seems unlikely that former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel could capture the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. The guy who as Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff had a gag namep…
Trump promises a better Iran deal than Obama’s. Here’s what we know
President Donald Trump has made a few guarantees about a deal to end the war he started with Iran.
Obama’s Reminder About the Futility of Purity Politics
The late, great journalist Mark Shields often propounded the idea that politics should be about looking for converts rather than punishing heretics.
Presidential museum showcases political and personal sides of Obama with sprawling community campus
Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the Chicago location to the textured stone adorning its dramatic tower to art installations and a pair of striped reading chairs in the library that are similar to the ones he owns.
Virginia’s redistricting fight ramps up as opponents wield Barack Obama’s past comments
An argument over former President Barack Obama’s past comments about gerrymandering reflects the conundrum that worries some Democratic allies ahead of an April 21 referendum. Having promoted nonpartisan redistricting in the past, Obama, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and other top Democrats now have to motivate voters to turn out for a special election to impose a gerrymander.
Presidential museum showcases political and personal sides of Obama with sprawling community campus
CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the location on Chicago's South Side to textured stone adorning its dramatic tower to striped reading chairs that are similar to ones in his own home.
How Obama’s Strategist Discouraged Biden From Running in 2016
In a new set of oral histories, David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s political adviser, described how he urged Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. not to challenge Hillary Clinton for the nomination.
A feature of the Obama White House, Sunny dies at 14
(CNN) — Sunny, the Portuguese water dog who romped into the White House at the start of President Barack Obama’s second term and injected the mansion with playful — at
PAS chief to face Malaysian police over explosive US remarks
The US has rejected Abdul Hadi Awang’s claim that it offered help to change Malaysia’s political leadership during Obama’s visit in 2014.
Political debate over AI intensifies amid warnings about ‘catastrophic risk’
(CNN) — The debate around artificial intelligence is ramping up in Washington, with Democratic lawmakers sounding alarms on the dangers they say the technology poses and Republican leaders suggesting those concerns are inflated and secondary to winning the AI race with China.Some Democratic lawmakers last week pressured House Speaker Mike Johnson to reconvene the chamber immediately to work on AI regulation, citing what they describe as the “catastrophic risk posed by advanced artificial intelligence.” But the Louisiana Republican on Sunday resisted those calls, instead saying industry leaders should meet with lawmakers to find “balance” in any potential guardrails.“If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American,” Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama told Democrats to make artificial intelligence regulation a central part of their agenda during a private fundraiser Thursday, warning that the technology could be dangerous “if we don’t get on top of it.”In a fireside chat with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Obama said whoever runs in the 2028 presidential election should have a “very clear plan” on AI, adding that he saw the need for a “blueprint” on AI guardrails even at the end of his presidency a decade ago.“Certainly, if I were running for president next year, this would be one of my central agendas, and I would have a very clear plan, and I would talk about this, and I would say, ‘Here’s our plan for safety, here’s our plan for making sure our kids are not corrupted by this,’” he said, per excerpts of the remarks provided to CNN by his office. Obama’s remarks were first reported by the New York Times.Concerns over the rapid acceleration of AI reached a fever pitch after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in a 3,800-word essay Saturday that the race to develop artificial intelligence is in dire need of a slowdown. The call to action came after an OpenAI test model breached the Hugging Face online platform, deepening concerns about cybersecurity.In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Saturday, Amodei called on industry leaders to work together to avoid “the wrong paths” and the possibility of AI harming humanity.One Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned from the firm over worries that the industry wasn’t doing enough to prevent AI from destroying humanity by the end of the decade.Obama said Democrats need a plan to get their agenda on AI underway should they win the House majority in this year’s midterms.Speaking to Jeffries, who is presumed to be speaker of the House should Democrats prevail in November, Obama said, “Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation, and you can break it out into three or four or five issues.”Obama stressed that the framework should be centered on the reality that the technology can’t be stuffed “back into a box.”“This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don’t get on top of it, I think can be dangerous. If we do get on top of it, I do think it’s beneficial,” Obama said, laying out examples of AI’s potential use in drug development and finding pathways to a clean energy future.“We don’t want to shut off those opportunities, but we have to understand that this is a tool,” he said.Jeffries agreed with the former president in a statement provided to CNN on Sunday.“President Obama is correct that decisive action must be taken on Artificial Intelligence,” he said, adding, “In the majority, we will move urgently on this issue with a legislative response that recognizes the importance of American companies continuing to lead in the Artificial Intelligence area, while putting in place meaningful guardrails that protect the American people from bad actors and the very real damage that can be done to humanity.”Jeffries also accused Republicans of having “abdicated their responsibility to govern” and said Democrats “will not repeat their error.”A source familiar with Obama’s thinking said the former president sees Amodei’s letter and similar reaction from other tech moguls as an encouraging development.But President Donald Trump waved off their concerns, saying he is not worried about any existential threat posed by AI, focusing instead on the US winning in its development of the technology over China.“We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way,” Trump said to reporters at the Amgen Irish Open on Sunday.About the concerns expressed by Democrats and others over the technology, the president said, “I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”One of Trump’s top economic advisers, Kevin Hassett, also rejected the calls for slowing the technology down, saying on Sunday the bigger concern is a scenario in which a “malevolent actor has access to an AI that’s better than the one we have that can protect us.”Hassett, the National Economic Council director, said on “State of the Union” the White House may hold meetings this week about addressing Amodei’s concerns, but he did not specify whether Trump had floated greater safeguards.“I have concerns that if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position,” Hassett said. “We are leading China right now.”CNN’s Alison Main and Molly English contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.THE-CNN-WIRE (TM) & © 2026 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.