Author: rpnadmin

President Trump on Friday publicly waffled over whether Republicans in Congress should embrace a tax increase on the rich, underscoring his differences with members of his own party on what should be in a megabill to carry out his agenda.Mr. Trump on Wednesday had privately urged Speaker Mike Johnson to create a higher tax bracket for those making more than $2.5 million a year. He also told the top Republican that he supported closing what is known as the carried interest loophole, which allows hedge fund, private equity and venture capital executives to pay taxes of only about 20 percent…

At least half a dozen USAID employees who spoke to reporters after they thought they had been fired by the Trump administration have now received notices from the foreign aid agency’s internal human resources office that they are facing investigation for participating in interviews.The workers, whose formal dismissal date was delayed after leaders encountered bureaucratic snags, received an email in recent days carrying the subject line, “Administrative inquiry.” The email accused them of having “engaged with the press/media without authorization” and threatened “disciplinary action” including “removal from the U.S. Agency for International Development.” The emails were sent by Employment Labor Relations,…

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico on Friday morning said her government had sued Google over the company’s decision to label the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America” — a spat going back to February, when the Trump administration issued an executive order to rename the gulf.The order prompted some local governments and lawmakers in the United States to embrace the use of the name on official documents. It also caused Google to implement the change on its maps. Users in the United States would see the body of water with the new name while people in Mexico would continue…

President Trump fired the librarian of Congress because she promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, the White House said Friday, making Dr. Carla Hayden one of the most high-profile leaders of color to be targeted in the administration’s campaign to suppress discussions about race and gender at America’s cultural institutions.Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the administration believed Dr. Hayden “did not fit the needs of the American people,” and that her firing resulted from “quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of D.E.I.”Ms. Leavitt did not offer any evidence of…

The mayor of Newark, N.J. was arrested at an ICE facility during a visit with members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation. Mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody Friday at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, which quietly started housing detained migrants this month. “The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba wrote on social media. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken…

President Trump and his adviser Elon Musk speak to the press on March 11 in Washington, D.C. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images A federal judge in San Francisco appeared ready to temporarily block the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul of the federal government. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, held a hearing Friday in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments, who argue in their complaint that President Trump’s efforts to “radically restructure and dismantle the federal government” without any authorization from Congress violate…

After resolving the latest round of legal hurdles, a Los Angeles judge has scheduled a hearing for next week to decide whether Lyle and Erik Menendez should be eligible for release after more than three of decades behind bars.The long-awaited resentencing hearing, which had first been scheduled for December and then was repeatedly postponed will now take place over two days, on May 13 and 14, the judge, Michael V. Jesic of Los Angeles Superior Court, said on Friday.Once again, family members of the brothers were arranging to travel to Los Angeles for the proceedings. Others, including people who were…

Washington — A federal appeals court on Friday said Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi can remain released from immigration custody while a legal challenge to his detention moves forward, denying a request from the Trump administration to allow immigration officials to re-detain Mahdawi.The three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit unanimously rejected the government’s bid for emergency relief, finding that it is unlikely to succeed on its arguments that a Vermont district court did not have jurisdiction over Mahdawi’s habeas petition. The 2nd Circuit panel also said that the Justice Department was unlikely to succeed on…

The Federal Unionists Network is the first large-scale network for government workers, and they’re building solidarity across departments and the labor movement. Ad Policy Chris Dols, founding member of FUN, addresses the crowd during the May Day rally at Foley Square in New York City on May 1, 2025. (Phoebe Grandi) New York City—On May 1, at 5 pm, around 30 federal workers gathered in a corner of Foley Square in Manhattan. Jammed between bright blue Hotel & Gaming Trades Council signs and Federal Plaza street, members of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN) passed out signs with Environmental Protection Agency…

Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican who has resisted his party’s efforts to cut Medicaid to pay for President Trump’s domestic agenda, says he has a powerful ally on his side: Mr. Trump himself.“He does not want to hurt Medicaid,” said Mr. Van Drew, a congressman from New Jersey. “He hasn’t said it once, twice, three times — it’s been about half a dozen times. And I’ve had those conversations with him one on one.”Mr. Trump has traditionally acted as House Republicans’ most effective whip when they are facing tough votes, leaning on holdouts in person and on social media…