Author: rpnadmin

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that he did not know if President Trump had spoken to President Xi Jinping of China, casting further doubt on Mr. Trump’s recent suggestion that Mr. Xi had called him.Mr. Bessent’s comments, made on ABC’s “This Week,” come as the United States and China are locked in a trade war that is destabilizing the world economy and rattling global markets. The secretary attempted to ease concerns about trade tensions with China and other countries, insisting that the administration was in talks with various nations and acknowledging that the tariffs it has imposed on…

The following is the full transcript of an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a portion of which aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on April 27, 2025.MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. Good morning, Minister Lavrov, I want to ask you about what happened in Kyiv. There was a large Russian attack on that capital city about one o’clock in the morning. President Trump has said publicly, the Russian strikes are not necessary and very bad timing. “Vladimir, STOP!” was his quote. What made it worth killing civilians when Ukraine says…

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,…

For months, Republicans in North Carolina have tried to do what President Trump and his allies could not in 2020: overturn an election that did not go their way.What began as a sprawling effort to throw out 65,000 votes from the state’s Supreme Court election in November has shrunk to a legal skirmish over a small fraction of those ballots. But even as Republicans’ path to victory has narrowed, the final outcome still hangs in the balance.And even if the Democratic candidate’s victory is not reversed, the battle may have sketched a blueprint for overturning future elections.Never before, legal experts…

Fifty years ago, when the city of Saigon fell and the U.S. military intervention in Southeast Asia came to an end, President Gerald Ford faced a choice: Many anti-communist South Vietnamese feared forced relocation and political persecution at home, and looked to America for refuge. But the American public was bitterly divided over whether to accept such a large influx of refugees. At the time, Lesley Stahl reported on the “overwhelmingly hostile” mail received on Capitol Hill about the issue; one letter, from a Nebraska constituent, read, “They bring only disease, corruption, and apathy.”The U.S. unemployment rate sat at nearly…

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington had fewer big-name celebrity guests than it did during the Biden presidency, when Scarlett Johansson, Jon Hamm and Sean Penn mixed with journalists and politicians. But on Saturday a red carpet was rolled out nonetheless.President Trump, who skipped the annual black tie dinner during his first term, made no plan to attend the gathering before leaving Washington to attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome.An appearance by the comedian Amber Ruffin, who had been booked as the host, was scrapped last month “to ensure the focus is not on the politics…

The Trump administration’s swift initial rollout of orders seeking more control over universities left schools thunderstruck. Fearing retribution from a president known to retaliate against his enemies, most leaders in higher education responded in February with silence.But after weeks of witnessing the administration freeze billions in federal funding, demand changes to policies and begin investigations, a broad coalition of university leaders publicly opposing those moves is taking root. The most visible evidence yet was a statement last week signed by more than 400 campus leaders opposing what they saw as the administration’s assault on academia.Although organizations of colleges and administrators…

Is 100 days enough time to evaluate this president? His supporters generally don’t think so, but others do — perhaps because most Americans think President Trump is already making major changes to how the government — and the U.S. economy — work. Those opening days, in public opinion terms, have been marked by Mr. Trump’s continued support from a loyal base of supporters, but also a widespread and growing belief among others that the administration is focused too much on tariffs and not enough on lowering prices. That’s weighing on his approval ratings on the economy and inflation, which have gone…

Shirley Hopkins helped recruit countless Black students in Washington, D.C., for the National Institutes of Health’s internship and youth employment programs before retiring to Clinton, Md. Her career in the federal government reflects a generation of Black workers who found stability, purpose and opportunity in public service. Kyna Uwaeme for NPR hide caption toggle caption Kyna Uwaeme for NPR Shirley Hopkins built careers for herself and countless other Black workers through a federal government job. While working in the National Institutes of Health’s human resources office, she became known as the “recruitment lady.” It wasn’t spelled out in her job…

Somewhere along a roughly 7,500-mile journey that begins in Shenzhen, China, there are 19 shipments bound for Rick Woldenberg, the chief executive of Learning Resources, an educational toy company in Vernon Hills, Ill.Eventually, the containers of puzzle cards, child binoculars and other products will reach a port in the United States, and Mr. Woldenberg will face a difficult and expensive decision. He can pay the sky-high tariffs that President Trump has imposed on most foreign goods, or forgo at least some of the much-needed inventory, perhaps imperiling his bottom line.Mr. Woldenberg expects to do a bit of both. But he…