Maya Angelou becomes first Black woman to appear on US quarter as Treasury begins distribution
CNN
A new US quarter featuring the late Maya Angelou went into circulation Monday, the US Mint announced, making the legendary poet and activist the first Black woman ever to appear on the coin.
The Maya Angelou quarter is the first in the American Women Quarters Program, which will include coins featuring prominent women in American history. Other quarters in the series will begin rolling out later this year and through 2025, the Mint said in a release on Monday.
"Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country -- what we value, and how we've progressed as a society," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a separate statement. "I'm very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America's most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou."
Former Navy sailor sentenced to 16 years for selling information about ships to Chinese intelligence
A former US Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and operating manuals for ships and operating systems to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The Defense Department has spent more than a year testing a device purchased in an undercover operation that some investigators think could be the cause of a series of mysterious ailments impacting spies, diplomats and troops that are colloquially known as Havana Syndrome, according to four sources briefed on the matter.
Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led two failed prosecutions of President Donald Trump, will testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on January 22, the panel announced Monday.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told people that he is unhappy with the decision to criminally investigate Fed Chair Jerome Powell, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN.
Venezuela’s promise last week to release “a significant number” of political prisoners is progressing far slower than many had hoped, as hundreds of families continue to wait in agony for their loved ones to be freed.
President Donald Trump billed strikes on Venezuela earlier this month as being about drugs, gangs invading the United States and law enforcement – i.e. arresting indicted leader Nicolás Maduro. But of late, he seems conspicuously preoccupied with the country’s oil wealth.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins announced Monday that he’s running for governor in 2026, hoping to take over for term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The top career prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Eastern District of Virginia office has been fired, according to three people familiar with the development Monday.
Lawyers for Sen. Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s move to cut Kelly’s retirement pay and reduce his rank in response to Kelly’s urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders. The lawsuit argues punishing Kelly violates the First Amendment and will have a chilling effect on legislative oversight.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling on her party to “read the room” and begin appealing to a wider swath of the working-class public by keeping a stringent focus on the economy.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, a senior White House official told CNN.
The jury in the case of former Uvalde police officer Adrian Gonzales is back in a Corpus Christi courtroom as the trial enters its second week.
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday said it would invest $115 million in counter-drone technologies to secure the World Cup and events marking 250 years of American independence.