Author: rpnadmin

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said the Trump administration has an “opportunity for a big deal” on trade between the U.S. and China, providing a hint that a brutal tariff war between the two nations could ease up.Bessent, who delivered the keynote address at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, D.C., today, said that the Trump administration wants the U.S. economy to rebalance toward more manufacturing, while urging China to shift away from what he called “export-led manufacturing growth.””China needs to change. The country knows it needs to change. Everyone knows it needs to change. And we want…

A sign for new voter registration is seen outside a polling location in Derry, N.H., on March 11. Reba Saldanha/AP hide caption toggle caption Reba Saldanha/AP A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has paused a key section of President Trump’s executive order that makes sweeping changes to voting and elections. Critics of Trump’s March 25 executive order say it could disenfranchise millions of would-be voters, and exceeds presidential authority. The executive order instructs the independent Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to change the national mail voter registration form to require that applicants show a document proving U.S. citizenship before they can…

Momentum from a two-day relief rally in the stock market slowed considerably on Thursday, with mixed signals about tariff negotiations tempering investor’s optimism.Before trading kicked off, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures and S&P 500 futures were down, 194 points, or 0.5%, and 10 points and 0.2%, respectively, signaling a weaker start to the day on Wall Street. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite futures, on the other hand, were up 2.5%. “Stocks are sliding so far this morning after China threw cold water on hopes of a trade détente w/the U.S. while investors shrugged at reports of some auto tariff exemptions…

The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week. Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts. And Signalgate promises to be the first of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence at the core of the American empire. At a time when elite universities, powerful law firms, and influential media outlets are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation,…

Gov. Whitmer talks tariffs with Michigan auto dealers Gov. Whitmer talks tariffs with Michigan auto dealers 00:56 President Trump is set to visit Michigan next week for the first time since he won the battleground state in the 2024 election.Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed on X that he will be in the state on Tuesday, to mark the Trump administration reaching the 100-day mark. The Detroit News first reported on the president’s upcoming visit. “President Trump is excited to return to the great state of Michigan next Tuesday, where he will rally in Macomb County to celebrate the first…

Vincent van Gogh once advised aspiring artists to treat their creative pursuits like a flame: “One must never let the fire go out in one’s soul,” he said, “but keep it burning.”Billy McFarland, a felon whose so-called creative pursuits have cost victims millions of dollars, has burned down plenty along the way. His internationally mocked and infinitely memed Fyre Festival in 2017, now cultural shorthand for hubris of the elite, was a scam that sent Mr. McFarland to prison for nearly four years. While awaiting sentencing in the Fyre Festival case, Mr. McFarland started a V.I.P. ticket service that promised…

Produced by Susan Mallie and Jennifer Terker  [This story previously aired on August 17, 2019. It was updated on February 22, 2020.]The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month on whether a father and daughter convicted of second-degree murder should get a new trial. In August 2015, former FBI agent Tom Martens and his daughter Molly Corbett admitted killing her Irish-born husband Jason Corbett, insisting they beat him in self-defense with a brick paver and a baseball bat because Jason was choking Molly and threatening to kill her. Prosecutors said Corbett’s death was murder.Now, Tracey Lynch is trying to…

The U.S. Capitol on April 21, 2025. Democratic lawmakers are asking the National Labor Relations Board to respond to a recent whistleblower disclosure that documents concerns that officials with the Department of Government Efficiency team may have taken sensitive information about workers. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Over fifty Democratic lawmakers have signed a letter demanding answers from senior U.S. government officials about a recent potential exposure of sensitive data about American workers. The letter is addressed to the acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, William Cowen. The…

Gov. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota vetoed a bill this week that would have required most libraries in the state to keep material considered sexually explicit in areas difficult for minors to access. Under the measure, librarians who do not comply could have faced prosecution.Mr. Armstrong, a Republican former congressman in his first year as governor, said in his veto message that the bill “represents a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship.”“The bill imposes vague and punitive burdens on professionals,” Mr. Armstrong added in a letter dated Tuesday, “and opens the door to a host of unintended…

Washington — Hundreds of U.S. universities and colleges, including Harvard, Princeton, Penn, Brown, MIT, Cornell and Tufts issued a joint letter Tuesday condemning President Trump’s “political interference” in the nation’s education system. The move comes a day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration, which announced an initial funding freeze of $2.2 billion and later signaled its intention to suspend an additional $1 billion in grants. The moves came after weeks of escalation between the administration and Harvard, which had rejected the administration’s demands to change many of the school’s policies and leadership, including auditing the student body and faculty for “viewpoint diversity.””We speak…