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Hurricane Irma gained strength early Sunday as it bore down on the Florida Keys, with officials upgrading it to a Category 4 storm and reporting maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. The hurricane’s eye was expected to cross the Lower Florida Keys during the next several hours, the National Hurricane Center said at 2 a.m. Irma had been downgraded to a Category 3 storm as it churned toward Florida on Saturday, after leaving a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean.

“Chuck and Nancy.” The way President Donald Trump talked about the meeting with congressional leadership Wednesday, it would be easy to forget Republicans were even there. It’s too early to tell whether Trump’s willingness to strike a deal with Democrats to fund the government in the short-term was a sign of a new strategy to work across the aisle, or simply an impulsive decision from a president already frustrated with his own party. But his move did not happen in a vacuum.

During a five-hour meeting with Senate Judiciary Committee staffers today, Donald Trump Jr. denied any wrongdoing in his meeting with a Russian lawyer during his father's presidential campaign, according to his prepared remarks, which were obtained by ABC News. In his statement, Trump Jr. said he took the meeting with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya — on June 9, 2016, more than a month after Donald Trump Sr.

The five former living US presidents have banded together to launch "One America Appeal," an initiative that will raise funds for organizations assisting victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, George H.W. Bush's office announced Thursday. Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush. NFL's season opening game. Another PSA will launch this weekend. "People are hurting down here," George W. Bush says in Thursday's PSA, "but as one Texan put it, 'we've got more love in Texas than water.'" His father, George H.W.

After a five-hour meeting with congressional investigators, personally dictated the first statement his son gave in response to questions about the June 2016 meeting. Sources said Thursday the president’s son today tried to distance himself from the White House response and his father’s involvement. Sources also said Trump Jr.

The House passed a sweeping package today that authorizes billions of dollars for hurricane recovery efforts, raises the debt limit and funds the government through December, with some Republicans opposing the measure after panning top administration officials' efforts to sell the legislation. With a vote of 316-90, the measure, which Trump signed into law Friday afternoon, adds more than $15 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s coffers to aid the recovery efforts in areas impacted by H

Most popular on BostonGlobe.com Based on what you've read recently, you might be interested in theses stories WASHINGTON — President Trump on Saturday urged any US residents still in Hurricane Irma’s path to ‘‘just get out of its way’’ and not worry about possessions, as he monitored the powerful storm’s advance on Florida from the secluded Camp David presidential retreat. Irma was expected to strike the Florida Keys at daybreak Sunday, with Hurricane Jose following closely behind. Trump said Irma is a ‘‘storm of enormous destructive power, and I ask everyone in the sto

Most popular on BostonGlobe.com Based on what you've read recently, you might be interested in theses stories The president was monitoring the powerful storm’s advance on Florida from the secluded Camp David presidential retreat.  Leaders from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, after speaking by phone for the first time in months, exchanged dueling, contradictory statements.  THOMAS FARRAGHER What the former Massachusetts governor saw that day 50 years ago at the Walter E.

Most popular on BostonGlobe.com Based on what you've read recently, you might be interested in theses stories DATA: Twitter Daniel McLaughlin / Globe Staff © 2017 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC

Most popular on BostonGlobe.com Based on what you've read recently, you might be interested in theses stories CAPITAL SOURCE Payton Corbett, a 34-year beer truck driver, is challenging Mayor Joe Curtatone this year in Somerville.  CAPITAL SOURCE Lindstrom announced her US Senate candidacy last month.  CAPITAL SOURCE The former Trump campaign manager will be a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.