President Barack Obama

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- His standing with veterans damaged by scandal, President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended his administration's response to Veterans Affairs lapses that delayed health care for thousands of former service members, but conceded more needed to be done to regain their trust.

EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) -- The "vacation" is over and it's back to the White House for President Barack Obama.

CHILMARK, Mass. (AP) -- President Barack Obama has spent less time away from the White House than his predecessors. But his two-week break on the resort island of Martha's Vineyard and hours on the golf course have his detractors teeing up as they highlight the slew of foreign policy crises currently facing the United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Calling for understanding in the face of racially charged anger, President Barack Obama said Monday that the vast majority of protesters in a St. Louis suburb were peaceful, but warned that a small minority was undermining justice for the unarmed black man shot and killed by police.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is facing potential rifts with members of his own party in tough re-election contests as he barrels toward a fall fight with Republicans over his ability to change immigration policies.

EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) -- President Barack Obama will spend a bit of his summer vacation with Hillary Rodham Clinton, a get-together that comes amid signs that the former secretary of state is seeking to distance herself from Obama's foreign policy ahead of a possible 2016 White House bid.

CHILMARK, Mass. (AP) -- President Barack Obama welcomed new leadership in Iraq as "a promising step forward" Monday amid a political and security crisis in Baghdad, saying the only lasting solution is the formation of an inclusive government.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Islamic militants' growing influence in Iraq and Syria is a threat to Americans, lawmakers from both political parties agreed Sunday even as they sharply split on what role the United States should play in trying to crush them.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. unleashed its first airstrikes in northern Iraq against militants of the Islamic State group Friday amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The extremists took captive hundreds of women from a religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear.

President Barack Obama's statement Thursday night on authorizing U.S. airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq and airdrops of humanitarian aid for Iraqi religious minorities threatened by the extremists, as provided by the White House: