Author: rpnadmin

Over the past two weeks, immigration lawyers, scrambling from courthouse to courthouse, have secured provisional orders in five states stopping the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members to a terrorism prison in El Salvador.Judges have been harsh in appraising how the White House has used the powerful statute. “Cows have better treatment now under the law,” a federal judge in Manhattan said on Tuesday.But at least so far, the one thing the lawyers have not managed to do is protect another — and harder to reach…

During impromptu remarks to reporters outside the White House on April 23, President Trump said the U.S. will “have a fair deal with China.”  Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images We’ll be recapping what you need to know every Friday morning for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. Get more updates and analysis in the NPR Politics newsletter. After weeks of volatility because of Trump’s trade war, the stock markets this week responded positively to Trump softening his tone toward China and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,…

Nodules containing valuable metals can be found scattered across the seabed in some parts of the ocean. Here, manganese nodules found off the Southeastern U.S. in 2019. NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research hide caption toggle caption NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research President Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at making it easier for companies to mine the deep seafloor, saying it would create “a robust domestic supply for critical minerals.” There is currently no commercial-scale deep-sea mining anywhere in the world. But companies have long eyed the ocean floor as a potential source of metals…

Politics / April 24, 2025 The university’s case against the administration is incredibly strong. The question is whether normal rules still apply. Ad Policy Tourists in front of the main gate to Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.(Scott Eisen / Getty Images) On April 11, after weeks of saber rattling about “recapturing” higher education, Donald Trump’s ruling junta sent a list of demands to Harvard University. Under the guise of “combating antisemitism,” the Trump administration demanded that Harvard take a number of steps including: hiring professors who meet the administration’s own standards for “viewpoint diversity”; admitting a “critical mass” of students…

During President Trump’s first term, Ukraine worried that Mr. Trump might recognize Russian control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow forcibly seized in early 2014.As a candidate, Mr. Trump had said he would “take a look” at the matter, even though the Obama administration and America’s Western allies had rejected Russia’s annexation of the strategic territory. Mr. Trump even mused that “the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia.”But Mr. Trump never followed through and even doubled down against Moscow. In July 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued an official “Crimea Declaration” pledging that…

Republican lawmakers in Florida are investigating how $10 million in state money was diverted for use in a political campaign with ties to the wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images MIAMI — Fla. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is on the defensive over questions about how $10 million in state money came to be used to fund a political campaign. In two terms as governor, DeSantis has enjoyed strong support from the Republican-controlled legislature. But now, Republicans in the state House of Representatives say the alleged misuse of funds may warrant a…

An assortment of advocacy groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday aimed at stopping the Department of Homeland Security from permanently shuttering its internal oversight divisions after the Trump administration fired critical staff members, grinding operations to a halt.The lawsuit was filed in New York and brought by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, along with two immigration rights groups. It seeks to preserve some of the main guardrails within the agency, all created by Congress, that help uncover and prevent human rights abuses by its officers.The suit asked the court to restore the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to…

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-VA is pushing for CDC’s FOIA team to be restored, after the jobs were eliminated in the recent HHS layoffs. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability wants answers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about why its public records staff was gutted on April 1, when thousands of federal health agency workers were fired. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, sent a letter to CDC’s acting director Dr. Susan Monarez on Thursday, expressing “concern” about the 22 staffers…

Bewildered by the sudden embrace of “pronatalism” by the right? Or by the multiple New York Times stories about it (four this week alone!) focused on the Trump administration’s promotion of women—married women, that is—having more babies?You wouldn’t be if you read Project 2025, which opens with a pledge to “Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life.” Or particularly the chapter on its plans for the Department of Health and Human Services, which I covered here.Many of us knew, or have learned over time, that the wing-nut agenda aimed to cut back and even eradicate abortion, medication abortion…

The person who stole Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s handbag containing $3,000 in cash over the weekend was wearing a medical mask and snatched the bag from underneath her chair, officials said.“She could feel this person as they snatched her bag, but thought they were her grandchildren playing until realizing a minute later that her bag was gone,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “Her bag was under her feet and the perpetrator hooked the bag with his foot and dragged it across the floor and put a coat over it and took it.”The robbery…