WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily prevented a Louisiana law imposing strict regulations on abortion clinics from taking effect in a case that presents a key test on the contentious issue following last year’s retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, a pivotal supporter of abortion rights. FILE PHOTO: Anti-abortion marchers rally at the Supreme Court during the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File PhotoA one-page order issued by Justice Samuel Alito said that “the justices need time to review” the various court filings before making a decision on the emergency application filed by Shreveport-based abortion provider Hope…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure from fellow Republicans to reset his contentious presidency, Donald Trump plans to offer Democrats a choice in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday: Work together to make progress, or fight each other and get nothing done. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at a healthcare roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueHe signaled on Friday that the address, an annual rite of American politics, will include extensive remarks about his standoff with Democrats over building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the subject of an intense partisan battle that…

DORAL, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday listened to harrowing stories of deprivation, torture and escape from Venezuelans who fled their homeland, and pledged to ramp up pressure to help the opposition trying to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence listens as President Donald Trump hosts a roundtable with Hispanic pastors at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque     In a visit to the largest community of Venezuelan exiles in the United States - and flanked by four prominent Florida Republican politicians - Pence categorically rejected calls for talks with Maduro, and warned all options…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren has apologized to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test in a widely criticized effort to prove her claims to Native American ancestry, the tribe said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Potential 2020 U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks at an Organizing Event in Claremont, New Hampshire, U.S., January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoWarren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, called Bill John Baker, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, on Thursday to apologize for taking the DNA test last year, said Julie Hubbard, a Cherokee Nation spokeswoman. “It was a brief and private…

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner intends to run for the office again this year, two sources close to left-leaning politician told Reuters, the strongest indication yet that the populist leader will look to mount a challenge to incumbent Mauricio Macri. Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner attends a meeting of the World Forum of Critical Thought in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Martin AcostaFernández, who has yet to formally announce herself as a candidate in the elections in October, would make boosting consumer purchasing power a focus, the sources said, a counter to Macri’s austerity push that has dented…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump edged closer on Friday to defying the power of the U.S. Congress by declaring a national emergency in an attempt to obtain funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, a step that would likely draw a court challenge from Democrats. Trump said at a White House event that he might declare such an emergency because it did not appear that Democrats in Congress were moving toward a deal that would provide the money he wants to help fund the wall, which Democrats broadly oppose. “We’re not getting anywhere with them,” Trump said during an event at the White House, citing what he…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratically controlled U.S. House Judiciary Committee launched an inquiry on Friday into the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course on several key voting rights lawsuits and its efforts to add a citizenship question to the upcoming 2020 U.S. census. A banner urging people to vote in the midterm elections is displayed in Houston, Texas, U.S., November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughtonIn a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker seen by Reuters, the chairman of the committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler, demanded that the Justice Department turn over any internal records on a number of voting rights issues and said he was concerned by…

(Reuters) - Six executives from U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum held in a Venezuelan jail without a court hearing for more than a year have asked the U.S. State Department and lawmakers to help win their release, family members and lawyers said. FILE PHOTO: Citgo Corpus Christi Refinery is seen in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S., January 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erwin Seba/File PhotoJose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell and Gustavo Cardenas, all former vice presidents of the Houston-based company and most of them U.S. citizens, along with former Citgo President Jose Pereira were arrested in November 2017 after being called into a meeting at the Caracas office…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies are beating analysts’ expectations this earnings season, but to a smaller degree than normal, and S&P 500 companies are now barely expected to eke out an increase in profits for the first quarter of 2019. FILE PHOTO: A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo/File PhotoThe trend underscores fears about a potential decline in earnings this year, even as stocks just closed their best January in more than three decades, as the benchmark S&P 500 index rebounded from a swoon late last…