Families Could Start Losing Access to Head Start if Shutdown Continues

Beginning Nov. 1, more than 65,000 children will be at risk of losing access to Head Start, the federal early-learning program for low-income families. That's because federal funding for individual Head Start programs cannot be disbursed while the government is shut down. Among the states hit hardest by this Nov. 1 deadline: Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio. Nationally, Head Start serves roughly 750,000 infants, toddlers and preschool-age children, providing not just childcare and early learning but also free meals, health screenings and family support.

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Casey Means' Confirmation Hearing for Surgeon General Canceled

The confirmation hearing for President Trump's surgeon general nominee scheduled for Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. was canceled. Dr. Casey Means, who is pregnant, went into labor. The hearing has not yet been rescheduled. Means is a wellness influencer, entrepreneur and author. There has been significant opposition against Means's confirmation from medical and public health experts. They point to her lack of leadership or clinical experience, something that surgeon generals traditionally have and some of her views. For example, she has raised concerns about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule and questioned hormonal birth control. She has also endorsed Raw milk, as has Kennedy, who would be her boss.

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Misinformation Online Driving Some Women to Quit Hormonal Birth Control

Some women are quitting hormonal birth control, even though they're not ready for pregnancy. Doctors warn some may be swayed by misleading medical claims online.

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F.B.I. Opposes Push for Gabbard to Take Lead on Counterintelligence

The F.B.I. informed Congress last week that it "strongly" opposed a proposal to make the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the lead counterintelligence agency for the federal government, bringing into public view a rift among top national security officials. The disclosure, made in a pointed and unusual letter obtained by The New York Times, underscored the broader concern at other agencies, including the F.B.I., over a House bill that would empower Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to play a more prominent role in counterintelligence issues. It also appeared to be an effort to undercut Gabbard, who planned to endorse the change in a separate letter, given that the bill would step into what has typically been the bureau's purview. The F.B.I. letter is unsigned, but administration officials said it would not have been sent without the approval of Patel. It pushes back against a handful of counterintelligence functions that Gabbard would effectively take over, using language like "vigorously disagrees with" and "strong objection." One of the changes, the letter said, would "cause serious and long-lasting damage to the U.S. national security."

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Jonathan Karl Explores Trump's Focus on Retribution in New Book

In his new book, ABC News' chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl offers a behind-the-scenes look at key moments on the 2024 campaign trail that ended one party's hold on the White House and brought another back to power. Geoff Bennett sat down with Karl to discuss "Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America."

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Top Researchers Consider Leaving U.S. Amid Funding Cuts: 'The Science World Is Ending'

A poll from the journal Nature found that 75 percent of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who's been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." Stephanie Sy examines what's behind a potential scientific brain drain.

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Activist Organization Sends Cash Payments to SNAP Recipients

Disability advocacy organization New Disabled South is sending one-time cash payments to disabled SNAP recipients in southern states. Robin Young speaks with Dom Kelly, founder and president of New Disabled South, about food insecurity among disabled people and how the government shutdown is threatening the food assistance program because the federal government says it will not have to funds to pay for SNAP benefits in November. About 30 percent of SNAP recipients are disabled or elderly.

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What Shutdown? Trump Isn't Canceling Travel, Golf or His Ballroom Even With the Government Shuttered

President Donald Trump isn't curtailing travel. He's not avoiding golf or making do with a skeleton staff in the West Wing. Even hamburgers served at the White House aren't from McDonalds, this time. It's often been hard to tell a shutdown is happening with so many staffers remaining at their desks.

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Federal Reserve Cuts Key Rate Yet Powell Says Future Reductions Are Not Locked In

The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring, even as inflation stays elevated. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell also cautioned that further rate cuts weren't guaranteed, citing the government shutdown's interruption of economic reports and sharp divisions among 19 Fed officials who participate in the central bank's interest-rate deliberations. Speaking to reporters after the Fed announced its rate decision, Powell said there were "strongly differing views about how to proceed in December" at its next meeting and a further reduction in the benchmark rate is not "a foregone conclusion -- far from it."

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Federal Judge Disqualifies Trump-Backed Prosecutor in Los Angeles

Judge J. Michael Seabright of the Federal District Court in Hawaii disqualified the United States Attorney in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the latest rebuke to the Trump administration's attempts to circumvent congressional approval for federal prosecutors. The ruling creates leadership uncertainty in the nation's largest judicial district, the Central District of California, which serves seven counties in the Los Angeles area. The judge ruled the Trump appointee, Bill Essayli, "is not lawfully serving as acting United States Attorney" and "cannot continue to perform any role" that job entails.

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In Utah, Trump's Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape

To glimpse the future of homelessness policy in the age of President Trump, consider 16 acres of scrubby pasture on the outskirts of Salt Lake City where the state plans to place as many as 1,300 homeless people in what supporters call a services campus and critics deem a detention camp. State planners say the site, announced last month after a secretive search, will treat addiction and mental illness and provide a humane alternative to the streets, where afflictions often go untreated and people die at alarming rates. They also vow stern measures to move homeless people to the remote site and force many of them to undergo treatment, reflecting a nationwide push by some conservatives for a new approach to homelessness, one embraced and promoted by Trump.

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Obamacare Prices Become Public, Highlighting Big Increases

The Trump administration has released a preview of the available plans sold through Obamacare marketplaces in 30 states, giving Americans who buy their own health insurance a first look at just how much prices would go up. Insurers have increased rates significantly for next year -- an average of about 30 percent in the states where the federal government manages markets and an average of 17 percent in states that run their own markets, according to a new analysis from KFF, the health research group. But most of the more than 20 million Americans covered by the Affordable Care Act don't currently pay the full price of their insurance, because they qualify for income-based tax credits that help make the plans affordable. The extra help is scheduled to expire next year unless Congress acts.

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Prosecutors Placed on Leave Hours After Describing Jan. 6 Attack as a 'Mob of Rioters'

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White have been placed on administrative leave just hours after describing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as perpetrated by "thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters," according to two people familiar with the move who were granted anonymity to discuss personnel matters. The accurate description of the attack came in a sentencing recommendation for Taylor Taranto, who was among those pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the riot. But Taranto had also been charged for unrelated threats and firearms crimes for which he is slated to be sentenced Friday. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

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'It's Horrible': Air Traffic Controllers Under Mounting Pressure as Shutdown Drags On

Air traffic controllers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep doing their jobs without getting a paycheck during the government shutdown. Some are starting to speak out.

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Union President Talks About Judge's Ruling Halting Shutdown Layoffs

Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, talks about a judge's ruling stopping the Trump administration from firing federal worker during the shutdown.

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Democratic Leaders Sue Trump Administration for Stopping Food Aid

Democratic leaders are suing the Trump administration for ending food aid programs during the shutdown. They argue, despite the administration's claims, there are emergency funds available.

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Iowa Has an OB-GYN Shortage. Some Doctors Blame the State's Strict Abortion Ban

Iowa ranks last among states for the number of OB-GYNS per capita. State legislators are trying to recruit more, but some doctors say the state's strict abortion ban is partially to blame.

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With the Government Shut Down, One Federal Worker Swaps Spreadsheets for Street Food

With the government shut down, one IRS bureaucrat has gone full time into serving up street food. We pay a visit to Shyster's Dogs in Northeast Washington, DC.

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U.S. Senate Passes Bill With Republican Support to Block Trump Tariffs on Brazil

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a measure that would terminate Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on Brazilian imports, including coffee, beef and other products, in a rare bipartisan show of opposition to the president's trade war. The legislation passed in a 52-48 vote, with five Republicans -- Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and the former Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky -- joining all Democrats in favor. The resolution, led by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, would overturn the national emergency that Trump has declared to justify the levies, though it is all but certain to stall in the U.S. House, where the Republican-controlled chamber acted to pre-emptively shut down any attempt to block the president's tariffs before it would meet Trump's veto. "Tariffs are a tax on American consumers. Tariffs are a tax on American businesses. And they are a tax that is imposed by a single person: Donald J Trump," Kaine said in a floor speech.

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Trump Fires Federal Arts Board in Charge of Reviewing White House Ballroom and 'Arc De Trump'

Donald Trump, notorious for his lack of taste, has fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency responsible for reviewing his controversial White House ballroom and planned "Arc de Trump" in Washington DC. A White House official told the Guardian, "We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump's America First Policies." The Commission of Fine Arts was established in 1910 and is tasked with "giving expert advice to the President, the Congress and the federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of design and aesthetics," according to its Web site. Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Trump's ballroom plan, according to a Yahoo/YouGov poll released on Tuesday. About 25 percent approve.

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Millions Face Losing SNAP Benefits as Shutdown Continues With No End in Sight

As the government shutdown continues with no end in sight, millions of Americans are on the verge of losing access to SNAP. Many food aid groups feel the government is legally obligated to provide funding to SNAP, but the Trump administration claims it cannot use emergency funds to keep the program operating further during the shutdown. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Sharon Parrott.

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Trump Administration Reinstalls Confederate Statue of Albert Pike in Washington

The Trump administration has reinstalled a statue honoring Albert Pike, a Confederate diplomat and general who worked closely with Native Americans from slave-owning tribes who sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. He was also a prominent leader of the Freemasons, a secretive fraternal society that included many powerful politicians and elite figures in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 11-foot bronze statue of Pike, who has been suspected by some historians to have been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, is the only one of its kind honoring a Confederate in the nation's capital. Local leaders in Washington had long called for the statue's removal. The office of Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's nonvoting delegate in Congress, criticized the restoration of the statue in a statement on Monday.

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Judge Admonishes Border Patrol Leader for Tactics in Chicago

In a courtroom in downtown Chicago on Tuesday, a federal judge admonished Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who has become a face of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, for his agency's use of force and tear gas in Chicago in recent weeks. For more than an hour, the judge, Sara L. Ellis of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, read Bovino restrictions she had previously set as part of a lawsuit over tactics that agents are using and cited examples of times his agents appeared to violate those restrictions. They used tear gas in a neighborhood where children were about to march in a Halloween parade, Judge Ellis said. They failed to warn residents before tossing tear gas canisters at them, she said, noting an incident in which an agent threw a canister out of a car as it drove away. The judge then ordered Bovino, who took the stand in his usual green fatigues and Border Patrol insignia, to appear at the federal courthouse at the end of every weekday to personally provide her with a report on the day's arrests and incidents.

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Judge Indefinitely Halts Shutdown Layoffs Noting Human Toll

A federal judge in San Francisco has indefinitely halted the Trump administration's mass layoffs of federal employees tied to the government shutdown. The decision came almost two weeks after U.S. District Judge Susan Illston temporarily paused thousands of layoffs, known as RIFs or reductions-in-force, at agencies where the federal employee unions that brought the lawsuit, including the American Federation of Government Employees, have members or bargaining units.

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Analyzing the History of Construction at the White House

Princeton University history professor Julian Zelizer joins Here & Now to explain why he believes President Trump's demolition of the East Wing is different than previous construction projects at the People's House.

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Texas Sues Tylenol Makers, Claiming They Hid Autism Risks

Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, sued the makers of Tylenol on Tuesday, claiming that the companies hid the risks of the drug on brain development of children. The lawsuit is the latest fallout from President Trump's claim last month that use of Tylenol during pregnancy can cause autism. That link is unproven. Paxton filed the suit against Johnson & Johnson, which sold Tylenol for decades and Kenvue, a spinoff company that has sold the drug since 2023. Kenvue has repeatedly defended Tylenol's safety and rejected Trump's claims about the drug's use during pregnancy and autism. "We will defend ourselves against these baseless claims and will respond per the legal process," Melissa Witt, a spokeswoman for Kenvue, said on Tuesday. "We stand firmly with the global medical community that acknowledges the safety of acetaminophen and believe we will continue to be successful in litigation as these claims lack legal merit and scientific support."

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MacKenzie Scott Backs Disaster Recovery in Marginalized Communities

MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire former wife of Jeff Bezos, is donating $60 million to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a nonprofit group that helps improve disaster resilience and recovery in struggling communities that otherwise lack the resources to rebuild. The grant is an early signal that philanthropists and foundations may be stepping up to fill the void expected as the Trump administration scales back the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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Trump Administration Relying on Unmarked Vehicles in Immigration Enforcement

Some federal immigration agents have been using masks to cover their faces when arresting migrants. But an NPR investigation found agents are also disguising their vehicles.

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Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Talks About President Trump's Visit to the Country

NPR's Steve Inskeep asks Rahm Emanuel, the former U.S. ambassador to Japan, about President Trump's priorities as he meets Japan's new prime minister.

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Trump Administration Will Revamp ICE Leadership in Quest to Intensify Deportations

The Trump administration is planning to revamp the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to reports, as the government seeks to intensify its mass deportation efforts. Multiple news outlets have reported that the government intends to reassign multiple directors of ICE field offices in the coming days, potentially replacing them with border patrol officials. It comes as the government is falling well short of its targets on immigration. Earlier this year, Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, set ICE a target of arresting 3,000 people every day. But as of late September, the agency on average was arresting 1,178 daily, NBC reported.

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Consumer Confidence Dips Modestly in October With Concerns About the Future

Consumer confidence weakened slightly in October as Americans remain anxious about their future financial prospects. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell by 1 point to 94.6 in October from an upwardly revised September reading of 95.6. Economists were expecting the reading to come in unchanged from the previous month. One year ago, the reading was 109.5. A measure of Americans' short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market dipped by 2.9 points to 71.5, remaining well below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead.

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Republicans Send Biden Autopen Report to the Justice Department, Urging Further Investigation

House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled their long-promised report on former President Joe Biden's use of the autopen, delivering a blistering critique of his time in office and inner circle that largely rehashes public information while making sweeping accusations about the workings of his White House. The GOP report does not include any concrete evidence that aides conspired to enact policies without Biden's knowledge or that the president was unaware of laws, pardons or executive orders signed in his name.

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Trump Asks Supreme Court to Let Him Fire the Top Copyright Official

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the president to remove Shira Perlmutter, the government's top copyright official, after a lower court allowed her to remain in her post that is part of the Library of Congress. The administration made the request after a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with Perlmutter, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office. The majority said the register is unique within the legislative branch and that her role is to advise Congress on issues related to copyright. "The president's purported removal of the legislative branch's chief adviser on copyright matters, based on the advice that she provided to Congress, is akin to the president trying to fire a federal judge's law clerk," Judges Florence Pan and J. Michele Childs wrote in the order.

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Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump Flirting With the Idea of the 3rd Term

NPR's Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter join Geoff Bennett to discuss the latest political news, including President Trump testing political boundaries by hinting at the possibility of a third term, the government shutdown stretches into its fifth week and what to watch for ahead of next week's elections.

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ACLU Says Trump Administration Is Breaching Family Separation Settlement

A settlement was reached to reunite and provide services for immigrant families that were separated at the border, but the ACLU says the Trump administration is severely undermining the agreement.

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Despite Trump's Clearing of Encampments, Homelessness Still Exist in D.C.

Despite President Trump's federal intervention in D.C. and clearing of homeless encampments, there are people who still live on the streets. Service providers just have a harder time finding them.

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Former Deputy Secretary of State Talks About Trump's Visit to Asia

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell about Trump's visit to Asia, where he's looking to make deals and contain the rising influence of China.

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Trump Cuts Probably Hindered Warning Process for Alaska Storm, Experts Say

A faltering federal response to one of the worst storms in Alaska's history, which caused hundreds of people to become homeless, is drawing further scrutiny over the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle federal weather and climate protections. The powerful remnants of Typhoon Halong hit remote communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta of south-west Alaska on 12 October, inundating a vast low-lying area of tundra that is home to some of the most remote and inaccessible communities in the country. On Monday, Alaska's governor, Mike Dunleavy, said it could be more than 18 months before survivors could return to their homes due to the severity of the damage. Trump authorized a federal disaster declaration -- which frees up crucial federal assistance -- on Thursday, nearly a week after being requested by Dunleavy. "This is directly keeping funding out of the hands of disaster survivors who need it," wrote emergency management expert Samantha Montano in a post on social media, also calling the delay "absolutely insane."

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Biden Decries 'Dark Days' Under Trump and Urges Americans to Stay Positive

Joe Biden has decried "dark days" for the U.S. under Donald Trump's hardline presidency as he urged Americans to stay optimistic and not to "check out" from the way White House politics under his successor is affecting the nation. The former U.S. president was speaking publicly for the first time since completing a round of radiation therapy for an aggressive form of prostate cancer, in a speech on Sunday night that addressed Trump's agenda. Biden spoke of attacks on free speech and Trump's tests on the limits of executive power. "These are dark days," Biden said before predicting the country would "find our true compass again" and "emerge as we always have -- stronger, wiser and more resilient, more just, so long as we keep the faith."

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Private Donors Gave More Than $125-MB to Keep Foreign Aid Programs Going After U.S. Cuts

When the Trump administration froze foreign assistance overnight, urgent efforts began to figure out how to continue critical aid programs that could be funded by private donors. Multiple groups launched fundraisers in February and eventually, these emergency funds mobilized more than $125 million within eight months, a sum that while not nearly enough, was more than the organizers had ever imagined possible.

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Trump Administration Posts Notice That No Federal Food Aid Will Go Out Nov. 1

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on its Web site saying federal food aid will not go out Nov. 1, raising the stakes for families nationwide as the government shutdown drags on. The new notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November. That program helps about 1 in 8 a.m.ericans buy groceries.

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Indiana Gov. Braun Calls a Special Session to Redraw the State's Congressional Boundaries

Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun called Monday for state lawmakers to return to Indianapolis for a special session to redraw the state's congressional boundaries, escalating a national fight over midcycle redistricting. President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Republican governors to draw new maps that give the party an easier path to maintain control of the House in the midterms. While Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have moved quickly to enact new districts and California Democrats are seeking to counter with their own redistricting plan, Indiana lawmakers have been far more hesitant. Braun called for the General Assembly to convene Nov. 3 for the special session. It's unclear whether enough of the GOP majority Senate will back new maps.

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Under Trump, Voice of America Is Down but Not Out

Trump, who has called V.O.A. "a total left-wing disaster," signed an executive order in March effectively dismantling its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, putting nearly all of V.O.A.'s 1,400 journalists and support staff on paid leave. Now, amid the government shutdown, all V.O.A. programming is off the air. But while the Trump administration has largely succeeded in its efforts to permanently shrink parts of the federal bureaucracy it doesn't like, the battle over V.O.A. and other federally funded global news outlets is far from over. Courts have ordered the administration to resume news broadcasting at V.O.A. and disburse federal dollars to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, private nonprofit news groups that are fully dependent on government funding and share V.O.A.'s mission of using journalism to advance U.S. interests abroad. And some Republican lawmakers, reflecting a rare bit of bipartisan resistance to the Trump administration, have warned that ceasing their news broadcasting is ceding ground to Russian and Chinese propaganda networks that have moved aggressively to fill the vacuum.

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High Courts Aren't Writing Opinions on Crucial Judgments. Lower Courts Are Confused

NPR's Ayesha Racoe speaks with Yale Law School professor William Eskridge about confusion in the lower courts on many hot-button issues and the lack of direction from the Supreme Court.

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Trump's Redistricting Push Hits Roadblocks in Indiana and Kansas as Republican Lawmakers Resist

For most of President Donald Trump's second term, Republicans have bent to his will. But in two Midwestern states, Trump's plan to maintain control of the U.S. House in next year's election by having Republicans redraw congressional districts has hit a roadblock. Despite weeks of campaigning by the White House, Republicans in Indiana and Kansas say their party doesn't have enough votes to pass new, more GOP-friendly maps. It's made the two states outliers in the rush to redistrict -- places where Republican-majority legislatures are unwilling or unable to heed Trump's call and help preserve the party's control on Capitol Hill.

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Exxon Sues California Over New Climate Disclosure Laws

Exxon Mobil sued California late Friday claiming that two new state laws that aim to fight climate change would violate the oil company's free speech rights.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce Sues Trump Administration Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fees

Corporate America has been largely silent about the damage President Trump's policies could do to the economy. But now a powerful business lobby is suing over Trump's new $100,000 fees on H-1B visas.

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How U.S. Military Strikes on Boats in the Caribbean Have Impacted Trinidad and Tobago

The small island country of Trinidad and Tobago is in middle of an American military buildup. The U.S. has deployed warships and attacked alleged drug boats nearby, leaving residents on edge.

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What One Texas Republican Congressman Tells His Constituents About the Shutdown

The government shutdown is dragging on, with no serious negotiations between the parties. The House is not in session and most members are back home in their districts, hearing from constituents.

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Pentagon Accepts $130 Million Donation to Help Pay the Military During the Government Shutdown

The Pentagon confirmed Friday that it has accepted an anonymous $130 million gift to help pay members of the military during the government shutdown, raising ethical questions after President Trump had announced that a friend had offered the gift to defray any shortfalls. While large and unusual, the gift amounts to a small contribution toward the billions needed to cover service member paychecks. The Trump administration told Congress last week that it used $6.5 billion to make payroll. The next payday is coming within the week and it is unclear if the administration will again move money around to ensure the military does not go without compensation. (See Donor Who Gave $130 Million to Pay Troops Is Reclusive Heir to Mellon Fortune, which identifies Timothy Mellon as the donor. -- Editor)

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What Happens When No One Trusts a Country's Economic Data

The inflation report was delayed due to the government shutdown and the White House said there will likely be no report next month. But even before the shutdown, experts were sounding the alarm after President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, expressing anger about employment numbers. William Brangham reports on lessons from nations where trust in government data was lost.

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A Former Top U.S. Diplomat to Venezuela Weighs in on Trump's Actions There

NPR's Adrian Florido talks with ambassador James B. Story, a former top diplomat to Venezuela, about the rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela and what President Trump's goals might be.

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A U.S. Citizen Detained by ICE Is Pushing to Hold Agents Accountable

NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with George Retes, a U.S. citizen who was detained by federal immigration officers in July while attempting to enter his workplace.

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The CEO of the Alamo's Historic Site Has Resigned After a Top Texas Republican Criticized Her

The CEO of the nonprofit managing the Alamo resigned after a powerful Republican state official criticized her publicly, suggesting that her views aren't compatible with the history of the Texas shrine. Kate Rogers said in a statement Friday that she had resigned the day before, after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote a letter to the Alamo Trust's Board of Directors suggesting that she either resign or be removed. Patrick criticized her over an academic paper questioning the GOP-controlled Legislature's education policies and suggesting she wanted the historic site in Texas to have a broader focus. It is the latest episode in an ongoing conflict over how the U.S. tells its history. Patrick's call for Rogers' ouster follows President Donald Trump's pressure to get Smithsonian museums in Washington to put less emphasis on slavery and other darker parts of America's past.

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U.S. Is Sending an Aircraft Carrier to Latin America in Major Escalation of Military Buildup

President Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to "bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post. Deploying an aircraft carrier is a major escalation of military power in a region that has already seen an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela. The U.S. military has conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, leaving six people dead, Hegseth said earlier Friday, blaming the Tren de Aragua gang for operating the vessel. The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks when they first began to three this week, killing a total of at least 43 people since September.

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The Peril of a White House That Flaunts Its Indifference to the Law

Since he returned to office nine months ago, President Trump has sought to expand executive power across numerous fronts. But his claim that he can lawfully order the military to summarily kill people accused of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America stands apart. A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Trump's orders to the military patently illegal. They say the premeditated extrajudicial killings have been murders.

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Questions Remain Over Legality of Trump's Narcotrafficking Boat Strikes

Trump held a press event to claim victory against crime and narco trafficking and defend the controversial killings of almost 40 alleged drug smugglers by the U.S. military.

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Chicago South Shore Building Residents Recount 'Humiliating' ICE Raid

A federal judge in Chicago is weighing whether federal immigration agents have used appropriate force in recent enforcement efforts. NPR reports on a residential building raid that's become a symbol of these new and harsher tactics.

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Trump Spares San Francisco From Federal Law Enforcement Surge After Mayor Asks 'Very Nicely'

As federal immigration agents mobilized at a U.S. Coast Guard base in the Bay Area, Trump credited San Francisco's new mayor, Daniel Lurie, for "very nicely" persuading him to stand down from a planned "surge" of federal law enforcement into the city. "I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around," Trump wrote. "I told him, 'It's an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger and safer but, let's see how you do?'" During a news conference at City Hall on Thursday, Lurie said it was the president who initiated the conversation. "He picked up the phone and called me." Trump conveyed "clearly" that he was calling off the deployment of federal troops, Lurie added, assuring reporters that the president had "asked nothing of me" in return. It was not Lurie's assurances alone. According to Trump, "friends of mine who live in the area" called to vouch for the "substantial progress" San Francisco had made since Lurie took the helm in January. Trump specifically cited "great people" such as Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce who ignited a firestorm when he suggested the president should send national guard troops to his native San Francisco before apologizing and backtracking, as well as Jensen Huang, the president and chief executive of Nvidia.

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Social Security Recipients Get a 2.8 Pct. Cost-of-Living Boost in 2026, $56/Mont. Average

The Social Security Administration's annual cost-of-living adjustment will go up by 2.8 percent in 2026, translating to an average increase of more than $56 for retirees every month, agency officials said Friday. Some seniors say the cost-of-living adjustment won't help much in their ability to pay for their daily expenses. Linda Deas, an 80-year-old Florence, South Carolina, resident said "it does not match the affordability crisis we are having right now." Polling from the AARP shows that older Americans are increasingly struggling to keep up in today's economy. The poll states that only 22 percent of Americans over age 50 agree that a COLA of right around 3 percent for Social Security recipients is enough to keep up with rising prices, while 77 percent disagree. That sentiment is consistent across political party affiliations, according to the AARP.

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Ontario Premier Doesn't Back Down Against Trump, Posts Video of Reagan Opposing Tariffs

The leader of Canada's most populous province posted remarks by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan on social media on Friday showing Reagan opposed tariffs, hours after President Donald Trump announced he's ending "all trade negotiations" with Canada because of a television ad that Trump said misstates Reagan's opposition to tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn't back down and said Canada and the U.S. are friends, neighbors and allies "and Reagan knew that both are stronger together." Ford then provided a link to a Reagan speech where the late president voices opposition to tariffs.

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Trump Opens Pristine Alaska Wilderness to Drilling in Long-Running Feud

The Trump administration on Thursday announced a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest remaining tracts of pristine wilderness in the United States. The decision was the latest twist in a long-running fight over the fate of the refuge's coastal plain, an unspoiled expanse of 1.56 million acres that is believed to sit atop billions of barrels of oil but is also a critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.

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Pentagon's Ban on Books From Base Schools Faces Backlash From Military Families

The Trump administration made it clear it wanted to change the culture of the military. One effort targeted books on race, gender and sexuality in the libraries of schools on military bases attended by service members' children. Nick Schifrin and producer Dan Sagalyn have the story.

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Pennsylvania Election Official Responds as DOJ Sues State to Obtain Voter Data

President Trump has continued to perpetuate the lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden. He posted on his social media platform on Wednesday night that it was "an illegal scam/hoax." Since he reentered the White House, Trump has suggested his administration will crack down on mail ballots. Liz Landers reports on state voting systems ahead of next year's midterms.

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Federal Workers Set to Miss Full Paycheck as Government Shutdown Drags On

In the standoff over the government shutdown, Republicans tried something new, offering a Senate bill that would pay some federal workers who are still on the job. Democrats blocked that move, arguing that it excludes too many people. It comes as more than a million federal workers will miss a full paycheck on Friday. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports.

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Furloughed Federal Workers Turn to Food Pantries

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss their first full paychecks tomorrow. Here & Now's Scott Tong asks Washington, D.C.-area food bank leader Dave Silbert about the need he's seeing among federal workers furloughed during the ongoing government shutdown. His group is calling for people to sponsor a federal worker's family.

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Pelosi Says Police May Arrest Federal Agents Who Violate California Law

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with Kevin Mullin, a fellow Democratic representative, suggested on Wednesday that local police could arrest federal agents if they break California law while conducting immigration raids expected this week in the San Francisco Bay Area. "While the President may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not," they wrote in a statement on Wednesday. "Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law -- and if they are convicted, the President cannot pardon them." Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, scame up with the strategy after seeing federal agents repeatedly roughing up people in Los Angeles and Chicago. Jenkins said she did not envision police officers handcuffing federal agents on city streets. Instead, she said, local law enforcement could review camera footage of beatings to identify the agent involved. Then, she said, she would ask a judge to sign a warrant for the agent's arrest to prosecute the agent in court.

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Former Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Talks About New Pentagon Press Corps

NPR's A Martinez talks with former deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh about the new faces of the Pentagon press corps, which Secretary Hegseth expects to function more like a public relations firm.

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Pentagon Press Corps Gets a Right-Wing Makeover

The Pentagon has announced the new members of its press corps after major news organizations refused to sign a new policy. The replacements, familiar to fans of the president, are decidedly more partisan.

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Creator of App That Tracked ICE Talks About Its Removal and the First Amendment

ICEBlock, an app that could track ICE operations, has been pulled from Apple's App Store. Its creator Joshua Aaron tells NPR's Leila Fadel that government pressure led to the decision.

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'It's Really a Political Problem': Ray Dalio on the U.S. Debt Crisis

The U.S. debt has reached $37 trillion. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with billionaire and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio about the ramifications of the debt crisis.

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Trump Pardons Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao

President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. He has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. Trump's most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.

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Mother Speaks Out After Teen With Disabilities Mistakenly Arrested in Immigration Raid

As the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on immigration, an increasing number of U.S. citizens are finding themselves caught in the sweeping actions. An investigation by ProPublica revealed that immigration agents have detained more than 170 a.m.erican citizens during the first nine months of this push. Liz Landers spoke with the mother of one of these individuals.

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Why Millions of Americans Are Facing a Spike in Health Care Costs

Millions of Americans are bracing themselves for a significant hike in their 2026 health insurance premiums without the subsidies at the center of the government shutdown battle. It comes as insurance costs are rising significantly throughout the country. A KFF survey found the average annual premium for a family increased 6 percent from the previous year. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Cynthia Cox.

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Why Republicans Have Redrawn North Carolina's Congressional Districts

North Carolina Republicans approved new congressional maps aimed at bolstering their chances at holding onto Congress during next year's midterm elections. Here & Now's Tiziana Dearing speaks with political scientist Chris Cooper about the redistricting battles that have been sparked by President Trump's push for gerrymandered maps that could boost Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

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With Supreme Court Decision Still Pending, Judge Extends Block on Guard in Chicago Indefinitely

National Guard troops won't be deploying in the Chicago area anytime soon unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes because a judge on Wednesday extended her temporary restraining order indefinitely. Elsewhere around the country, it will be at least days before the Guard could be deployed in Portland, Oregon and federal appeals judges are weighing whether hundreds of California National Guard members should remain under federal control. President Donald Trump's push to send the military into Democratic-run cities despite fierce resistance from mayors and governors has unleashed a whirlwind of lawsuits and overlapping court rulings.

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California National Guard to Support Food Banks Due to Food Assistance Delays

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he will deploy National Guard troops to support food banks in November, a move that comes in light of anticipated delays to federal food assistance amid the government shutdown. About 40 million low-income people across the U.S., including roughly 5.5 million in California, receive federal food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. But Newsom, a Democrat, warned families should expect an interruption to those benefits next month. "This is serious, this is urgent -- and requires immediate action," he said. That's a starkly different mission from President Donald Trump's deployment of California National Guard troops to guard federal buildings and immigration agents in Southern California as part of his mass deportation agenda. He's also deployed or tried to send guard troops to Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Portland, Oregon.

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Federal Agents Stage Raid on Canal Street in New York City

More than 50 federal agents fanned out in the heart of Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, brushing past confused tourists and pedestrians to detain several men near Canal Street and quickly drawing dozens of protesters to the streets. The officers, from an array of federal agencies, detained several men who were standing on Church and Lispenard Streets, asking for their IDs and whisking them away into vans parked nearby, according to witnesses. Conlan Thompson, 30, a photographer who works at a studio on Broadway who saw the vans pull up, said he did not believe any of the men detained were selling goods. Many, he said, were just sitting on a street corner, smoking cigarettes. "These men, they are just grabbing people, putting them in cuffs," said Kaden Cummings, 23, who witnessed the arrests. "Nobody's identifying themselves, explaining. There's no due process going on. It's just straight to the back of a van if you're African on Canal."

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Trump Targets 'Democrat Priorities' in an Effort to End the Shutdown Standoff

As we enter another week of the government shutdown, the Trump administration continues to apply political pressures to Democrats by threatening to cut their priorities, but so far that has not swayed them to end the standoff.

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Democrats Call for a Hearing on the Use of the Military on Alleged Drug Boats

The White House has ordered several deadly strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. NPR's Michel Martin talks to Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., about why he's calling for a hearing on the missions.

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Preservation Groups Raise Concerns About the White House Renovations

Preservation groups are concerned about the renovations happening at the White House. NPR speaks with architecture professor Priya Jain about the history of construction at The People's House.

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Parts of the White House's East Wing Demolished to Begin Ballroom Construction

The White House started demolishing parts of the East Wing this week, as construction begins on President Trump's new ballroom.

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Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases

President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit. The situation has no parallel in American history, as Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims. It is also the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president's former lawyers atop the Justice Department.

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Trump Pick to Lead Federal Watchdog Agency Withdraws After Offensive Text Messages Were Revealed

President Trump's pick to lead a federal watchdog agency withdrew from consideration Tuesday evening, after his offensive text messages were made public and GOP senators revolted. Paul Ingrassia, who was nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel, had been scheduled to have his confirmation hearing this week. On Monday, however, Politico reported on a text chat that showed him saying the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be "tossed into the seventh circle of hell." Ingrassia also described himself in the chat as having "a Nazi streak" at times. After the texts came to light, several Republican senators said they would not support his nomination. They included some of the most conservative and stalwart Trump allies in the Senate.

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Another University Declines Trump's Offer for Priority Funding

Several colleges and universities are pushing back on pressure from the Trump administration. The president offered nine schools priority access to federal funding if they signed an agreement to meet his demands. So far, seven schools have rejected the deal. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education.

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How Trump Is Using Fake Imagery to Attack Enemies and Rouse Supporters

The era of A.I. propaganda is here -- and President Trump is an enthusiastic participant. Trump has posted A.I.-generated images or videos at least 62 times on his Truth Social account since late 2022, according to a review by The New York Times of his posts to the social network. The fake imagery has included blistering attacks on his political rivals, flattering depictions of himself and misleading political campaign materials made entirely by A.I. tools. Overall, he has attacked his opponents, including top Democratic leaders and his Republican rivals, with A.I. imagery at least 14 times.

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Exclusive: Wide-Ranging Group of U.S. Officials Pursues Trump's Fight Against 'Deep State'

A group of dozens of officials from across the federal government, including U.S. intelligence officers, has been helping to steer President Donald Trump's drive for retribution against his perceived enemies, according to government records and a source familiar with the effort. The Interagency Weaponization Working Group, which has been meeting since at least May, has drawn officials from the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Justice and Defense Departments, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Communications Commission, among other agencies, two of the documents show.

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'Rogue President': Growing Number of U.S. Judges Push Back Against Trump

S district and appeals courts are increasingly rebuking Donald Trump's radical moves on tackling crime, illegal immigration and other actions where administration lawyers or Trump have made sweeping claims of emergencies that judges have bluntly rejected as erroneous and undermining the rule of law in America. Legal scholars and ex-judges note that strong court pushback has come from judges appointed by Republicans, including Trump himself and Democrats and signify that the administration's factual claims and expanding executive powers face stiff challenges that have slowed some extreme policies.

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Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Rioter Arrested for Alleged Threat to Kill Hakeem Jeffries

A man who was pardoned by Donald Trump for his conviction in the U.S. Capitol attack carried out by the Republican president's supporters in early 2021 has been arrested for allegedly threatening to kill the Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, according to authorities and the New York representative himself. Christopher Moynihan, 34, was arrested by New York state police on a felony count of making terroristic threats, the agency announced. The police did not publicly name the member of Congress in its initial statement on Sunday. But in a statement released on Tuesday, Jeffries said he was "grateful to state and federal law enforcement for their swift and decisive action to apprehend a dangerous individual who made a credible death threat against me with every intention to carry it out."

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Anti-Science Bills Hit Statehouses, Stripping Away Public Health Protections Built Over a Century

More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections -- vaccines, milk safety and fluoride -- have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year, part of an organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law. An Associated Press investigation found that the wave of legislation has cropped up in most states, pushed by people with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The effort would strip away protections that have been built over a century and are integral to American lives and society. Around 30 bills have been enacted or adopted in 12 states.

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Appeals Court Lifts Block on Trump's Oregon Troop Deployment

The Trump administration can proceed with deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Ore., under a ruling Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that dismissed a lower court's contention that protests in the city have been largely peaceful and under control. Lawyers for Oregon and the city of Portland immediately asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for what's known as an "en banc" rehearing, an appeal before the chief circuit judge and 10 randomly selected judges. And on Monday afternoon, a Ninth Circuit judge requested a vote among active members of the appeals court on whether to hold an en banc hearing. Lawyers for both sides have until midnight Wednesday to file their arguments. Regardless, Monday's ruling opened the door to some federal troops being stationed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland that has been the site of street protests since June. In a dissent, Judge Susan P. Graber wrote, "Today's decision is not merely absurd, it erodes core constitutional principles," including state control over the National Guard and the First Amendment right to assemble and protest.

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How GOP-Led Redistricting Efforts May Disenfranchise Black Voters

Republicans in North Carolina moved forward with a plan to redraw the state's congressional map and eliminate its only swing district. It's part of a GOP push to maintain control of Congress through maps that have the effect of diluting Black political power and diminishing the voting strength of communities of color. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

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How European Leaders Are Responding as Trump Urges Ukraine to Cede Territory to Russia

President Trump expressed doubt that Ukraine could defeat Russia and win back all the land Moscow has seized since it first invaded in 2014. His renewed skepticism comes following his meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in which Trump declined Ukraine's requests for long range missiles. Nick Schifrin reports.

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Former ICE Director Weighs in on Immigration Agents' Tactics

Former ICE acting director John Sandweg, who served from 2013 to 2014 under former President Barack Obama, said he has concerns over the tactics used by agents in Chicago during immigration enforcement operations, protests and arrests. Sandweg said even though the standards around the use of force are consistent, the agents carrying out the operations are used to dealing with armed threats and more dangerous situations. "Dealing with protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights is incredibly nuanced work that requires [an] extensive amount of training," Sandweg said. "That responsibility, however, is normally done by the local police. But we have this very confrontational approach."

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Comey's Lawyers Say Case Against Him Is Driven by Trump's 'Personal Animus' and Must Be Thrown Out

Lawyers for former FBI Director James Comey urged a judge Monday to dismiss the case against him, calling it a vindictive prosecution motivated by "personal animus" and orchestrated by a White House determined to seek retribution against a perceived foe of President Donald Trump. The lawyers separately called for the indictment's dismissal because of what they said was the illegitimate appointment of the U.S. attorney who filed the case days after being hastily named to the job by Trump. The two-prong attack on the indictment, which accuses Comey of lying to Congress five years ago, represents the opening salvo in what is expected to be a protracted court fight ahead of a trial currently set for Jan. 5. The motions challenge not only the substance of the allegations but also the unusual circumstances of the prosecution, which included Trump exhorting his attorney general to bring charges against Comey as well as his administration's abrupt installation of a White House aide to serve as top prosecutor of the elite office overseeing the case.

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The White House Starts Demolishing Part of the East Wing to Build Trump's Ballroom

The White House on Monday started tearing down part of the East Wing, the traditional base of operations for the first lady, to build President Donald Trump's ballroom despite lacking approval for construction from the federal agency that oversees such projects. Dramatic photos of the demolition work showed a backhoe tearing into the East Wing façade and windows and other building parts in tatters on the ground. Some reporters watched from a park near the Treasury Department, which is next door to the East Wing. The White House has moved ahead with the massive construction project despite not yet having sign-off from the National Capital Planning Commission, which approves construction work and major renovations to government buildings in the Washington area.

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Colombia's Leader Accuses U.S. Of Murder, Prompting Trump to Halt Aid

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia accused the United States of murdering a fisherman in an attack on a boat that the American authorities claimed was carrying illicit drugs. President Trump responded on Sunday that he would slash assistance and impose new tariffs on the country. The feuding between the two leaders reflected rising tensions in the region over the huge U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean targeting Colombia's neighbor, Venezuela. U.S. forces have killed dozens of people in recent weeks aboard vessels that the Trump administration says were ferrying drugs from Venezuela. The administration has provided no evidence to support the claims beyond descriptions of intelligence assessments and declassified videos of portions of the attacks. Legal specialists have called such killings illegal, because militaries cannot lawfully target civilians who do not pose a threat in the moment and are not directly participating in hostilities.

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The Rise of the Inflatable Chicken Resistance

"I left the parade full of the pleasure of being a part of a vast humanity. It's a feeling that may soon be extinguished if we do not exercise our power of free assembly and free speech. The people of Chicago showed up in vast numbers. They demonstrated their love of country, their love of a particular handshake-drinking, tamale-eating, mostly mild-mannered, ketchup-shunning place and they demonstrated what one version of unity against oppression can look like. What is happening to us is as serious as a guillotine. We must harness our best creative, humorous and frivolous selves in order to keep it from falling."

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Judge Demands Answers on Trump Immigration Crackdown in Chicago

Federal officials are expected to appear before a judge on Monday to answer questions about whether the government violated a court order by using tear gas against protesters and residents in a crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area. The hearing before Judge Sara L. Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois is shaping up as the latest in a series of confrontations between judges and officials over whether the government is flouting the courts' authority. It is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. Central time.

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To Fight ICE, Portland's Leaders Turn to What They Know Best: Zoning

Oregon has one of the most complex sets of zoning and land use laws in the nation. Supporters of the policies say they encourage neighborhoods to be walkable and filled with independent businesses while also preserving vast open spaces and farmland. In the city's fight against the Trump administration, those land-use rules may prove to be a not-so-secret weapon, in large part because the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland may be uniquely vulnerable to the codes. "This is so Oregon of us, so Portland of us," said Elana Pirtle-Guiney, president of the Portland City Council, "to distill a huge federal policy issue that is also a moral issue that is also about the fundamental question of who we are as a country into a land-use problem."

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Trump Commuted the Prison Sentence of George Santos. A Look at How It Happened

Former New York Republican Congressman George Santos, convicted of wire fraund and identity theft, is out of prison after President Trump, a convicted felon himself, commuted his sentence Friday. NPR's Leila Fadel asks New York Times reporter Michael Gold how it happened.

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Court to Decide Validity of Trump's Appointment of Two Federal Prosecutors

The Trump administration's appointment of two federal prosecutors will be challenged Monday. If the court finds them to be invalid, cases against former FBI Director James Comey and others may vanish.

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U.S Boat Strikes in the Caribbean Raise Tensions and Questions

U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean this year have sparked fear and concern in areas like Trinidad and Tobago, where locals are questioning who is being targeted.

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Lawmakers Slam ICE After U.S. Military Veterans Are Arrested, Injured

Some of the most decorated military veterans in Congress say they are outraged after a report in the Guardian revealed U.S. military veterans have been arrested or injured amid protests over Donald Trump's deportation campaign and his push to deploy the national guard to American cities. "I went to war three times for this country to defend the right of Americans to say things I may not like," said Representative Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado and former army ranger who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq as a platoon leader with the 82nd airborne division. "Now is the time for every American to speak out." Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois who received a Purple Heart after her helicopter was shot down over Iraq, said: "No one -- especially those who have already sacrificed so much for this country -- should ever be assaulted, detained or thrown in solitary confinement for peacefully protesting government overreach." The Guardian has identified eight instances in which military veterans have been prosecuted or sought damages after being detained by federal agents.

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Artillery Shell Detonated Over Interstate 5 During Marines' Celebration

A 155-millimeter shell fired during a live-fire demonstration for the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday prematurely detonated, dropping fragments of the shell on a California Highway Patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of Vice President JD Vance's protective detail, according to a patrol report. "We love our Marines and owe a debt of gratitude to Camp Pendleton, but next time, the vice president and the White House shouldn't be so reckless with people's lives for their vanity projects," Newsom said in a statement to The New York Times.

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Shutdown Fight Reopens Debate in G.O.P. Over Health Care

The federal shutdown that is nearing its fourth week with no end in sight carries plenty of political risk for Democrats, who Republicans have accused of refusing to fulfill their responsibility to fund the government. But it has also thrust President Trump and the G.O.P. onto the defensive on health care, an issue that has long been a major weakness for the party. Trump, who told Republicans in 2023 to "never give up" in seeking to repeal the 2010 health law, has yet to clearly articulate what he favors instead. For now, Republican leaders in Congress have mostly opted to try to change the conversation, insisting that they have a health care plan but declining to describe what it is.

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Wealthy Americans Are Spending. People With Less Are Struggling.

Wealthier Americans, buoyed by a stock market that keeps setting records, have continued to spend freely. Lower-income households -- stung by persistent inflation and navigating a labor market that is losing momentum -- are pulling back. The top 10 percent of U.S. households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody's Analytics recently estimated, the highest share since the late 1980s. Consumer sentiment has climbed among high earners but steadily fallen for other groups.

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'No Kings' Protests Draw Bigger Crowds Across the Country in Second Iteration

Across the United States on Saturday, from Boise to Baltimore and San Diego to St. Louis, scores of people showed up to challenge President Trump and his administration as part of the "No Kings" protests. Every state took part in the peaceful protests organized in 2,600 registered events.

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Massive 'No Kings' Crowds Return to Bay Area Streets, Rebuking Trump

Huge crowds took to the streets for dozens of protests across the Bay Area Saturday, joining nationwide "No Kings" rallies against President Donald Trump. The Bay Area protests come after Trump this week appeared to renew his threat to send National Guard troops to San Francisco, something he's done in multiple American cities after his initial deployment of troops to Los Angeles over the summer. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she would "not hesitate" to prosecute federal law enforcement who break the law.

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'We Intend to Defend Our Democracy,' Says 'No Kings' Protest Organizer

Millions turned out across the country Saturday for a coordinated day of protest against Trump and his administration's policies. A similar event in June brought out more than 5 million demonstrators, but organizers say the mobilization was even bigger this time. Ali Rogin speaks with Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, for more on the protests.

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Photos Show 'No Kings' Rallies Against Trump Across the U.S. and in Europe

Protesting the country's direction under President Donald Trump, thousands of people brought a street party vibe to the nation's capital and communities across the U.S. for " No Kings " demonstrations, which the president's Republican Party is calling "Hate America" rallies. Earlier Saturday, a few hundred Americans had gathered in major European cities like London and Paris. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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'No More Trump!': Protesters Denouncing the President Unite Across the Country

They were teachers and lawyers, military veterans and fired government employees. Children and grandmothers, students and retirees. Arriving in droves across the country in major cities and small towns, they appeared in costumes, blared music, brandished signs, hoisted American flags and cheered at the honks of passing cars. The vibe in most places was irreverent but peaceful and family-friendly. The purpose, however, was focused. Each crowd, everywhere, shared the same mantra: No kings. Collectively, the daylong mass demonstration against the Trump administration on Saturday, held in thousands of locations, condemned a president that the protesters view as acting like a monarch.

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Coast Guard Buys Two Private Jets for Noem, Costing $172 Million

The Department of Homeland Security has purchased two Gulfstream private jets for Kristi Noem, the secretary and other top department officials at a cost of $172 million, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The jets, which a department official said were needed for safety, are the latest expenditures on behalf of Noem to draw scrutiny from Democrats and other critics who have noted her lavish spending on living and other expenses during her time in public life.

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Santos Is Released After Trump Commutes His Sentence

Former Representative George Santos of New York, the disgraced Republican fabulist whose lies made him an object of national scorn, was released from a federal prison on Friday night after President Trump commuted his seven-year sentence for fraud. Santos, 37, reported to prison in July after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He served fewer than three months of his 87-month sentence. He will also no longer be required to pay more than $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to his victims, according to a copy of the commutation posted online by Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney.

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He Was Detained by ICE. Here's What Happened When He Lawyered Up

ICE tried to send one immigrant to a country he never lived; then he lawyered up. Detainees like him who can afford to pay for more due process show the pitfalls of a mass deportation approach.

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A Policy Expert Reviews Trump's Assertive Foreign Policy Approach in Latin America

The Trump administration has adopted an aggressive approach to foreign policy in Latin America. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Ivan Briscoe at the International Crisis Group about the shift.

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Adm. Alvin Holsey, Who Was Overseeing the Venezuelan Boat Strikes, Steps Down

The admiral overseeing U.S. Southern Command is leaving as the Pentagon continues its attacks on small boats in the waters off Venezuela, claiming they are being used by drug traffickers.

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Indiana University Fires Student Newspaper Adviser Who Refused to Block News Stories

Tension between Indiana University and its student newspaper flared this week with the elimination of the outlet's print editions and the firing of a faculty adviser, who refused an order to keep news stories out of a homecoming edition. Administrators may have been hoping to minimize distractions this homecoming weekend as the school prepares to celebrate a Hoosiers football team with its highest-ever national ranking. Instead, the controversy has entangled the school in questions about censorship and student journalists' First Amendment rights. Advocates for student media, Indiana Daily Student alumni and high-profile supporters including billionaire Mark Cuban have blasted the school for stepping on the outlet's independence.

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After Voting Rights Act Case Arguments, Concerns Over Diminished Minority Representation Rise

For decades, the faces of American politics have grown more diverse by nearly every measure, especially as racial minority communities gained political representation after longtime legal disenfranchisement and violent discrimination. But after some Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark law that civil rights leaders credit with enabling pluralistic democracy in the U.S., Black lawmakers, civic leaders and organizers fear that the faces of the nation's elected representatives may soon return to a time before hard-fought civil rights gains.

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'No Kings' Protests Against Trump Planned Nationwide, in What the GOP Calls 'Hate America' Rallies

Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation's capital and communities across the U.S. for " No Kings " demonstrations -- what the president's Republican Party is calling "Hate America" rallies. This is the third mass mobilization since Trump's return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organizers warn are a slide toward American authoritarianism. Trump himself is away from Washington at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. More than 2,600 rallies are planned Saturday in cities large and small organized by hundreds of coalition partners.

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Senators Move to Force Vote to Bar Ground Strikes in Venezuela

A bipartisan group in the Senate is planning to force a vote on legislation that would bar the United States from engaging in hostilities inside Venezuela without explicit authorization by Congress. Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam B. Schiff of California, both Democrats, have teamed with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, on the resolution, worried that the Trump administration's order of covert C.I.A. action in Venezuela could be the first step toward an all-out war. "The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote," said Paul, a libertarian who routinely opposes U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts. "We ought to defend what the Constitution demands: deliberation before war."

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Unions Return to Court as Trump Eyes Additional Cuts During Shutdown

Days after a federal court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from laying off workers during the shutdown, a set of unions said that they had evidence the government might try to violate that order and fire thousands of civil servants imminently. The possible violation prompted the judge in the case to schedule an emergency status conference for Friday, the day that President Trump had promised to unfurl a list of steep cuts targeting what he has described as "Democrat programs."

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'No Kings' Organizers Project a Massive Turnout for This Weekend's Protests

Organizers of the "No Kings" protests are projecting that millions of Americans will demonstrate against the policies of the Trump administration on Saturday, amid ongoing ICE arrests and the deployment of National Guard troops to several Democratic-run cities around the country. "The purpose here is to stand in solidarity, to organize, to defend our democracy and protect each other and our communities and just say enough is enough," said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group that is one of the protest organizers. "We've been watching the Trump administration's abuses of power and millions took to the streets in June," she said.

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Former Ambassador to Russia Talks About the Future of the Russia-Ukraine War

President Trump scored a win in Gaza, but can he do the same in Ukraine? NPR's Steve Inskeep discusses the future of the Russia-Ukraine war with Michael McFaul, the former ambassador to Russia.

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Analysts Say the U.S. Military Buildup Near Venezuela Echoes Gunboat Diplomacy Era

The White House cites drug enforcement, but analysts say the military buildup just off the coast of Venezuela recalls a return to gunboat diplomacy.

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Volunteers Patrol Chicago Streets to Warn Neighbors When ICE Agents Are Near

There's growing concern around the ICE presence in the Chicago area. Meanwhile, grassroots community efforts to oppose ICE are ramping up.

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Federal Employees in 3 States Share How the Shutdown Is Affecting Their Work

Morning Edition visits three states -- Maine, Kansas and Wisconsin -- to hear how the government shutdown is affecting federal employees and the Americans who rely on their work.

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Former Justice Department Official Talks About John Bolton's Indictment

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with former Justice Department official Elliot Williams about the charges against John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Trump's first term.

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Trump Weighs Land Strikes in Venezuela Following Attacks on Suspected Drug Boats

The U.S. military destroyed a fifth boat in the Caribbean Sea this week that the Trump White House alleges carried narcotics bound for the U.S. Now, President Trump has raised the prospect of striking Venezuela on land. Amna Nawaz has two views on the actions from John Feeley and Sergio de la Pena.

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Young Republicans' Hateful Group Chat Sparks Bipartisan Condemnation

Fallout is growing after a Politico investigation revealed offensive text messages exchanged in a private Young Republicans group chat. The report details racist, homophobic and antisemitic language shared among about a dozen members over several months. Geoff Bennett spoke with Politico reporter Emily Ngo to discuss what the messages reveal and how party leaders are responding, including a serious mischaracterization of them by the vice president.

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Rescue Crews Airlift Hundreds Out of Rural Alaskan Villages After Powerful Storm

Rescue crews are airlifting hundreds of evacuees in rural Alaska after the remnants of a typhoon brought hurricane-force winds and record-breaking storm surge to the state's remote western coast. Geoff Bennett discussed the storm with Sage Smiley, the News Director at KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, a town that has become a hub for the recovery effort in recent days.

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The Trump Administration Is Rolling Out Changes to the U.S. Citizenship Test

The Trump Administration is making it harder to pass the civics test that applicants for U.S. citizenship must pass. It says the new test and other changes to the naturalization process are intended to ensure all new citizens are "fully assimilated."

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Ex-Trump National Security Adviser Bolton Charged With Storing and Sharing Classified Information

John Bolton, who served as President Donald Trump's national security adviser during his first term and later became a vocal critic, was charged Thursday with storing top secret records at home and sharing with relatives diary-like notes about his time in government that officials said contained classified information. The 18-count indictment also suggests classified information was exposed when operatives believed linked to the Iranian regime hacked Bolton's email account in 2021 and gained access to sensitive material he had shared. A Bolton representative told the FBI that his emails had been hacked, prosecutors say, but did not reveal that he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers now had possession of government secrets. Bolton is now the third Trump adversary prosecuted in the last month, meaning the case will unfold against the backdrop of concerns the president is using his Justice Department to pursue political enemies and to spare allies from scrutiny.

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More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents

When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn't be concerned. "If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States," Kavanaugh wrote, "they promptly let the individual go." But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They've had their necks kneeled on. They've been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

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How FEMA Is Forcing Disaster-Struck Towns to Fend for Themselves

FEMA has been delaying disaster declarations and aid payments to communities, adding new hurdles to access some grant funds and cutting off the flow of money intended to boost resilience and prevent future disasters from causing so much damage. In an emailed statement, the FEMA spokesman Daniel Llargues said that the agency has held back some disaster relief funding, saving it for the future. For example, a monthly report on the agency's spending this summer showed it withheld $11 billion for projects tied to a coronavirus pandemic disaster declaration that states had expected to receive by Sept. 30. "They're making good on their promise to shift the burden onto states without giving the states any runway to prepare for that," said Sarah Labowitz, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who tracks disaster recovery spending across the country.

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Former Intelligence Analyst on Trump, the CIA and Venezuela

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Ned Price, a former State Department official and CIA intelligence analyst, about President Trump's recent rhetoric about striking Venezuela.

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Troops Paid After Last-Minute Fix, but Military Families Still Face Uncertainty

A last-minute intervention ensured the military was paid despite the government shutdown, but military families remain anxious as the shutdown drags on without a long-term solution. And spouses who work on base have been not paid with the shift from research funds.

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Democratic Sen. Chris Coons Talks About the Ongoing Government Shutdown

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Sen. Chris Coons, D- Del., about the ongoing government shutdown and what he's hearing from federal workers in his state.

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Weeks After Winning Election, Arizona Congresswoman Still Waiting to Be Sworn In

Speaker Mike Johnson says he can't swear in Arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva because of the shutdown, but critics say he's trying to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files.

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75 percent of Americans Report Soaring Prices as Trump Claims Inflation 'Over'

Nine months after Donald Trump took office, promising to reduce prices on "day one," a clear majority of Americans say their monthly costs have risen by between $100 and $749, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian. The president has continued to insist that there is "virtually no inflation." "Prices are 'WAY DOWN' in the USA," Trump wrote on social media in late August. Yet according to a new Harris poll, Americans are still reporting soaring inflation and are increasingly pessimistic about the economy.

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Gun Safety Advocates Warn of a Surge in Untraceable 3D-Printed Weapons in the U.S.

As police departments around the country report a surge in 3D-printed firearms turning up at crime scenes, gun safety advocates and law enforcement officials are warning that a new generation of untraceable weapons could soon eclipse the "ghost guns" that have already flooded U.S. streets. They fear that as the printers become cheaper and more sophisticated -- and blueprints for gun parts spread rapidly online -- the U.S. could be on the brink of another wave of unregulated, homemade weapons that evade serial-number tracking and background checks.

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Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System To Favor 'Persecuted' White People

The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The proposals, some of which already have gone into effect, would transform a decades-old program aimed at helping the world's most desperate people into one that conforms to Trump's vision of immigration -- which is to help mostly white people who say they are being persecuted while keeping the vast majority of other people out.

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Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela

The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to U.S. officials, stepping up a campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the country's authoritarian leader. The authorization is the latest step in the Trump administration's intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela. For weeks, the U.S. military has been targeting boats off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to drive Maduro from power. Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he had authorized the covert action and said the United States was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.

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Brown University Rejects White House Deal for Special Treatment

Brown University on Wednesday rejected a White House proposal to steer public money toward schools that aligned with President Trump's priorities, defying the federal government it had negotiated with over the summer. Brown was the second university to rebuff the government's proposal of so-called compact, after M.I.T. did so last week. "I am concerned that the compact by its nature and by various provisions would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown's governance, critically compromising our ability to fulfill our mission," the university's president, Christina H. Paxson, told Trump administration officials in a letter on Wednesday.

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Union Says Education Dept.'s Civil Rights Office Was Hit Hard by Shutdown Layoffs

The Trump administration is cutting another 466 federal workers from the Department of Education, including staff who oversee funding that supports children with disabilities and low-income students.

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JD Vance Dismisses Outrage Over Racist and Offensive Young Republican Group Chat

The public release of a Young Republican group chat that included racist language, jokes about rape and flippant commentary on gas chambers prompted bipartisan calls for those involved to be removed from or resign their positions. The Young Republican National Federation, the GOP's political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40, called for those involved to step down from the organization. The group described the exchanges, first reported by Politico, as "unbecoming of any Republican." Republican Vice President JD Vance, however, has weighed in several times to speak out against what he characterized as "pearl clutching" over the leaked messages. Politico obtained months of exchanges from a Telegram conversation between leaders and members of the Young Republican National Federation and some of its affiliates in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont.

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Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump From Firing Workers During Shutdown

President Donald Trump's administration for now must stop firing workers during the government shutdown, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the emergency order after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government. The layoff notices are part of an effort by Trump's Republican administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues. The Trump administration has been paying the military despite the shutdown and continued pursuing its crackdown on immigration while slashing jobs in health and education, including in special education and after-school programs. Trump said programs favored by Democrats are being targeted and "they're never going to come back, in many cases." Illston's order came as the shutdown entered its third week.

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Trump Targets Democratic Districts by Halting Billions During Shutdown

Two weeks into the government shutdown, the Trump administration has frozen or canceled nearly $28 billion reserved for more than 200 projects primarily in Democratic-led cities, congressional districts and states, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Each of these infrastructure projects had received federal aid, sometimes after officials spent years pleading in Washington -- only to see that money halted as President Trump has looked to punish Democrats over the course of the fiscal stalemate. In some cases, recipients had started to receive the aid, only to become casualties in a funding battle that has no end in sight. Many Democrats said the announcements fit a broader pattern at the White House, where Trump has claimed vast authority to reprogram the nation's budget, even though the Constitution gives that power to Congress. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

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How the Pentagon's New Press Policy Could Affect Military Coverage

What does the Pentagon's restrictive new press policy mean for coverage of military affairs? NPR's Michel Martin asks longtime journalist and former Defense Department spokesperson Pete Williams.

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Author of Anti-Fascism Book Harassed by Right-Wing Activists for His Work

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Mark Bray, a professor at Rutgers University who has been targeted by right-wing activists for his writings on anti-fascism. Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA had added him to it professor watch list. Bray was subsequently "bombarded" with death threats and moved his family to Spain.

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Trump Awards the Medal of Freedom Posthumously to Charlie Kirk

President Trump posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom to conservative activist Charlie Kirk at the White House on Tuesday, just over a month after he was shot and killed during an event in Orem, Utah. Kirk, who died at the age of 31, was a prominent ally of the president and was seen as a leading force in mobilizing young Americans to vote for him. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is considered the highest civilian honor given by the U.S. government.

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L.A. County Board of Supervisors Declares ICE Raids a Local Emergency

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday with just one dissent to declare a local emergency in response to immigration enforcement actions in the area.

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Why a Supreme Court Case From Louisiana Will Matter for the Future of the Voting Rights Act

Voting rights activists were relieved in 2023 when, in a surprise to some, the Supreme Court upheld the most important remaining element of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling forced Alabama and later Louisiana to redraw their congressional maps to give Black residents greater representation, moves that eventually sent two additional Black lawmakers to Washington. Two years later, the Voting Rights Act's Section 2 is before the court again. This time, it's a rehearing of a Louisiana lawsuit over the state's redrawn congressional map in a case that revolves around the same part of the 60-year-old law. At the heart of Wednesday's arguments lies a simple question and one with potentially far-reaching consequences: Will the court, with the same lineup of justices who decided the 2023 case, change its mind about the landmark law?

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How the Latest Round of Federal Layoffs Could Impact Public Health

Over the weekend, roughly 1,300 employees at the CDC received notices they were fired. As the Trump administration realized it had fired some key staff, reportedly half of them were reinstated the next day. It still leaves the health agency without many crucial professionals. Amna Nawaz discussed the impact with Dr. Nirav Shah.

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Why News Organizations Are Rejecting the Pentagon's New Press Rules

Tuesday marks the deadline for journalists to decide whether to comply with the Pentagon's new rules for keeping credentials. Virtually every news organization, including PBS News, have refused to sign it, arguing that it infringes on First Amendment protections. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Nancy Youssef of The Atlantic and David Schulz of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic.

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Trump Says Six Were Killed in U.S. Strike on Another Boat Allegedly Carrying Drugs Near Venezuela

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard. Trump wrote that "intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics" and said that it was "associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks" but did not provide any evidence. Trump said that defense secretary, Pete Hegseth ordered the strike on Tuesday morning and also shared video footage of the strike, as he has with prior strikes.

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Democrats Launch Bid to Fund Nutrition Program for Low-Income Women and Kids Amid Shutdown

Congressional Democrats have launched a legislative effort to protect funding for a key nutritional support program for low-income women and children. As the federal government shutdown rolls on, there are growing fears the Women, Infants and Children program could run out of money. An estimated 40 percent of all infants in the U.S. use the program, which provides nutritious foods to pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, infants and children up to five years old and served 6.7 million each month last year, according to official data. "The benefits, if you lose them because of the lapse in funding, you can't make up for it," Robert C Scott, a Virginia congressman on the House education and workforce committee. He and Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon congresswoman, are set to introduce the WIC Benefits Protection Act today, which would ensure the program remains fully funded and not subject to any lapses during government shutdowns, by classifying it as mandatory program.

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News Organizations, Including Hegseth's Former Employer Fox, Reject New Pentagon Reporting Rules

Fox News, the former employer of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has joined a near-unanimous outpouring of news organizations rejecting new rules for journalists based in the Pentagon. Fox signed on to a statement with ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN saying they would not agree to Hegseth's new rules, saying "the policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections." So far, only the conservative One America News Network has said its reporters would follow the new regulations. Hegseth has said that outlets who don't agree to the new rules by the end of Tuesday, which restrict reporting on news not specifically approved by his team, will be evicted from the Pentagon on Wednesday. The Associated Press says it will not agree to the rules.

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Supreme Court Denies Alex Jones's Appeal of Payment to Sandy Hook Families

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review an appeal from Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, leaving in place a lower court judge's order that he pay $1.4 billion in damages to some of the families who lost children in a 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. In turning down Jones's appeal, the court gave no reasons, as is its custom in issuing such orders.

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Justice Anthony Kennedy Talks About His New Book, Abortion and Changing His Mind

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who served on the Supreme Court for 30 years, talks about his new memoir which explores his life on and off the high court.

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North Carolina Republicans Will Redraw Maps to Gain Extra Seat in Congress

Republican leaders in North Carolina said they will redraw their state's congressional maps to add another Republican seat, becoming the latest in a growing list of states conducting mid-decade gerrymandering to favor one party before the 2026 midterms. North Carolina, a swing state, has 14 congressional districts, 10 of which are held by Republicans. Before 2023, the state was evenly split in its representation, but that year the state debuted gerrymandered maps which made North Carolina and Texas the "two most extreme congressional maps currently in place," according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

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U.S. Airports Refuse to Air Kristi Noem Video Blaming Democrats for Shutdown

Several major international U.S. airports are opting to block a video from the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, that blames Democrats for the ongoing federal government shutdown from airing at their checkpoints. Airport authorities in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Charlotte and Westchester county, N.Y., have refused to display the footage at security checkpoints, saying the overtly political messaging potentially violates state and federal law, including the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from partisan political activity.

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Trump's Shutdown Firings Hollow Out Special Education Office

On Friday, the Trump administration fired most employees at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The Department of Education office is tasked with protecting the rights of millions of children with disabilities across the country and ensuring they get an education. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Laura Meckler, national education writer for The Washington Post.

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Experienced Mideast Negotiators Break Down How Gaza Peace Deal Came Together

To discuss the peace agreement and the release of hostages and detainees, Amna Nawaz spoke with two people with extensive experience trying to negotiate peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Dennis Ross has roles in the peace process for both Democratic and Republican administrations and Rob Malley had high-level national security positions in the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations.

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Originalist 'Bombshell' Complicates Case on Trump's Power to Fire Officials

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December about whether President Trump can fire government officials for any reason or no reason, despite laws meant to shield them from politics. There is little question that the court will side with the president. But a new article, from a leading originalist law professor, has complicated and perhaps upended the conventional wisdom. "Bombshell!" William Baude, a law professor at the University of Chicago who himself is a prominent originalist, wrote on social media. "Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation" of the Constitution. The article is particularly notable, said Richard H. Pildes, a law professor at N.Y.U. "If a highly respected originalist scholar like Professor Nelson, on whom the court relies frequently, denies that originalism supports the unitary executive theory," Professor Pildes said, "that inevitably raises serious questions about an originalist justification for the court's looming approach."

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Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are 'Cast Aside to Die' Under Trump

When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry. But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust. They have been waiting months for the government to enforce federal limits on silica dust, a carcinogen that has led to a recent spike in the disease. But mining industry groups have sued to block the rule and the Trump administration has paused enforcement while the lawsuit plays out.

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Former Israeli PM Talks About the Hostage Release and Israel's Standing in the World

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister of Israel, as he reflects on the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and how the war has affected Israel's standing in the world.

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White House Blames Dems for Shutdown Cuts, but Layoffs Align With Trump's Agenda

The White House is blaming Democrats for the thousands of reduction-in-force notices that were sent out Friday, but the layoffs have been central to President Trump's agenda since his reelection.

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Amid Shutdown, Trump Administration Guts Department Overseeing Special Education

Sweeping layoffs announced Friday by the Trump administration landed another body blow to the U.S. Department of Education, this time gutting the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department. The reduction-in-force or RIF, affects the dozens of staff responsible for roughly $15 billion dollars in special education funding and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation's 7.5 million children with disabilities. Caleb Strickland, age 4, is being carried in the arms of his mother, Nora Strickland. "This is decimating the office responsible for safeguarding the rights of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities," said one department employee, who, like the others NPR spoke with, requested anonymity for fear of retribution.

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This 4-Year-Old's Heart Is Failing. A Federal Grant That Might Help Him Was Canceled

The device is about the size of a AA battery and it has the potential to help a baby or infant heart keep beating in the face of failure. It's called the PediaFlow, an implantable artificial heart for the littlest, most vulnerable humans. James Antaki, a biomedical engineer at Cornell University in New York, has been developing this medical device for the last two decades. As of last spring, it was in the final stages of research and manufacturing before clinical trials, funded by a $6 million, multiyear grant from the Department of Defense. But in April, the Trump administration canceled Antaki's federal grant as part of a sweeping punishment of elite colleges and universities for what it considers civil rights violations and failures to counter antisemitism on campus. In total, about $10 billion in grants were canceled, including roughly $250 million for Cornell. "We feel like collateral damage," says Antaki, who doesn't see the link between what he's working on -- medical device research -- and accusations of campus wokeness or antisemitism. "There is no reason to punish us. We're trying to do good in the world."

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Supreme Court Takes Up Republican Attack on Voting Rights Act in Case Over Black Representation

A Republican attack on a core provision of the Voting Rights Act that is designed to protect racial minorities comes to the Supreme Court this week, more than a decade after the justices knocked out another pillar of the 60-year-old law. In arguments Wednesday, lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state's second majority Black congressional district and make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of race in redistricting. "Race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution," Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill wrote in the state's Supreme Court filing.

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A Chicago Clergy Member Talks About the Role Faith Leaders Play in Anti-ICE Protests

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Reverend Quincy Worthington, from Highland Park Presbyterian Church, about what he's seeing on the ground during ongoing ICE protests in Chicago.

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Five Things to Know About the Health Care Fight Behind the Shutdown

The tax credits that make ACA health care premiums affordable for many Americans don't expire until December, as Republican lawmakers note. But Democratic lawmakers want to see them extended before enrollment begins Nov. 1 and they have made that a condition of voting to reopen the government. It's not just a battle over political messaging. Here are five key facts about the policy. 1) The public supports the subsidies. 2) The issue is urgent since open enrollment starts soon. 3) Premiums are set to shoot up next year. 4) Most enrollees live in states that Trump won. 5) The subsidies are expensive for the government.

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The White House Is Using Layoffs of Federal Workers as Leverage to End the Shutdown

Federal workers, many already furloughed, may now face unemployment as the White House uses them as leverage in negotiations to end the federal government shutdown.

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Trump Administration Considers Sale of Federal Student Loan Debt

Trump administration officials are exploring options to sell off parts of the federal government's $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the private market, according to three people familiar with the matter. The discussions have taken place among senior Education Department and Treasury Department officials and have focused on selling high-performing portions of the government's massive portfolio of student debt, which is owed by about 45 million Americans. Selling federal student loan debt raises significant logistical and legal concerns, adding new uncertainty for borrowers. Key questions include what happens to borrower protections -- typically more generous than in the private market -- and whether the government would continue guaranteeing any of the loans.

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Trump Says He Will Pay Troops Despite Government Shutdown

President Trump said on Saturday that he had "identified funds" that would allow the administration to pay members of the military on Oct. 15, even though the government remains shut down and Congress has not approved additional money for the troops. The White House budget office said only that the money would be sourced from research and development funds previously approved for the Pentagon for a two-year period, but offered no further details about the president's plans. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Court: National Guard Troops Sent to Illinois by Trump Can Stay but Can't Be Deployed Yet

National Guard troops sent to Illinois by President Donald Trump can stay in the state and under federal control, but can't be deployed to protect federal property or go on patrol for now, an appeals court ruled Saturday. The decision comes after federal Judge April Perry on Thursday ruled to temporarily block the National Guard deployment for at least two weeks, finding no substantial evidence that a "danger of rebellion" is brewing in Illinois during Trump's immigration crackdown. The appeals court on Saturday granted a pause in the case until it can hear further arguments.

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How the Government Shutdown Is Impacting Farmers

Agriculture is in a deep recession. The government shutdown is making things worse for farmers. It's cutting off information and funding from the shuttered Department of Agriculture, which means an expected bailout is on hold.

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Analyzing Dominion Voting Systems Sale to Firm Run by Ex-Republican Elections Official

Dominion Voting Systems has been sold to Liberty Vote. Dominion was at the center of fraudulent vote rigging claims by President Trump and his allies during the 2020 election. None were proven true, Miles Parks reports, although the rumors never died and affected the company.

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Federal Judges, Warning of 'Judicial Crisis,' Fault Supreme Court's Emergency Orders

More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court's flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary's image with the public. At issue are the quick-turn orders the Supreme Court has issued dictating whether Trump administration policies should be left in place while they are litigated through the lower courts. That emergency docket, a growing part of the Supreme Court's work in recent years, has taken on greater importance amid the flood of litigation challenging President Trump's efforts to expand executive power. Sixty-five judges responded to a Times questionnaire sent to hundreds of federal judges across the country. Of those, 47 said the Supreme Court had been mishandling its emergency docket since Trump returned to office. The striking and highly unusual critique of the nation's highest court from lower court judges reveals the degree to which litigation over Trump's agenda has created strains in the federal judicial system.

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Stocks Fall Sharply on Trump's Renewed Threat of China Tariffs

The stock market slumped to its worst one-day showing since tariffs roiled markets in April, as the specter of the trade war returned between Beijing and Washington. The S&P 500 dipped 2.7 percent for the first time in six months and the Nasdaq Composite also fell by the most it has since April, when President Trump's tariff plans for dozens of countries spooked markets. Trump on Friday threatened to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports after its government put curbs on the export of rare earth materials, vital to a host of industries, including the production of valuable chips used in artificial intelligence. Friday's decline was the first time in two months that the S&P 500 had fallen more than one percent. Tech stocks were particularly hard hit on Friday, with Nvidia down almost 5 percent, Advanced Micro Devices falling almost 8 percent and the broader semiconductor sector sliding over 5 percent. U.S. oil prices fell more than 4 percent on Friday to less than $59 a barrel, their lowest level since May.

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Trump Blurs Lines Between Illegal Immigration and Crime in National Guard Deployments

As President Trump pushes to get National Guard troops patrolling American cities, his administration has, in effect, blurred the lines between traditional law enforcement and immigration enforcement.

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MIT President Says She 'Cannot Support' Proposal to Adopt Trump Priorities for Funding Benefits

The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday she "cannot support" a White House proposal that asks MIT and eight other universities to adopt President Donald Trump's political agenda in exchange for favorable access to federal funding. In a letter to Trump administration officials, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said MIT disagrees with provisions of the proposal, including some that would limit free speech and the university's independence. She said it's inconsistent with MIT's belief that scientific funding should be based on merit alone.

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Speaker Johnson Keeps House Lawmakers Away, Canceling Another Week's Session as Shutdown Drags

Mike Johnson is the speaker of a House that is no longer in session. The Republican leader sent lawmakers home three weeks ago after the House approved a bill to fund the federal government. They haven't been back in working session since. And on Friday, his leadership team announced they won't be returning next week either. In the intervening time, the government has shut down. President Donald Trump began a mass firing of federal workers. And a Democrat, Adelita Grijalva, won a special election in Arizona but has not been sworn into office to take her seat in Congress.

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Letitia James Is Among Prominent Black Women Targeted by Trump

Among the long list of political adversaries President Trump has targeted in his second term are several Black women in powerful positions. There's Lisa Cook, who serves on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, which has stood in the way of Trump's desire to lower interest rates. And Fani T. Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who brought election interference charges against him. And now, there is Attorney General Letitia James of New York, who brought a civil case against Trump and won. All three women have risen to their posts as firsts. The president has denigrated each of them and tried to destroy their ability to work against his interests. And Trump's singling out of Black women who have crossed him comes as he has fired a series of Black officials from high-profile positions in what is now an overwhelmingly white administration that has banished diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government.

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Ex-Federal Prosecutor Weighs in on the Indictment of New York's AG at Trump's Urging

What are the implications of the indictment of New York's attorney general? NPR speaks with Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, about the dangers of a "weaponized" Justice Department.

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Shut Down but Not Silenced: Federal Workers Find Their Voice

Even as the government shutdown has brought financial and emotional stress to federal workers and their families, it's also given a boost to some who see the standoff in Congress as an opportunity to get the word out that things are not OK. Nine months into President Trump's second term, federal workers tell NPR they are coming together to strategize, talk to reporters, meet with members of Congress and sound the alarm about everything the government has already lost: institutional knowledge, funding for vital services, the means for holding officials accountable.

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White House Claims "More Than 1,000 Pct." Rise in Assaults on ICE Agents, Data Says Otherwise

Immigration and Customs and Enforcement officials have claimed since June that assaults on their own officers have climbed sharply, with the White House insisting in a September executive order that attacks are up "more than 1,000 percent." But Colorado Public Radio's search of federal court records for charges of assault on a federal officer over the past five years found that while the number of assaults on federal officers has risen, there was no evidence for a rise in assaults on the scale the White House claims. The analysis of court records shows about a 25 percent rise in charges for assault against federal officers through mid-September, compared with the same period a year ago. Despite repeated requests for data to back up their eye-popping statistics, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly declined to provide any justification to CPR or NPR for continuing to make its assertions.

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News Organizations Hold Out on Signing Pentagon Media Policies 'Designed to Stifle a Free Press'

With days left before journalists covering the Pentagon must sign on to a new set of guidelines to retain physical access to the department, major U.S. news companies -- and organizations representing their interests -- remain concerned about specific policies they fear will stifle independent reporting on the Pentagon. An "in-brief for Media Members" that updated an earlier set of policies, released last month, drew strong condemnation from media companies and groups advocating for press freedom. On Monday, the Pentagon sent out a revised version. On Wednesday, the Pentagon Press Association, which said it has been "cautious" in communicating about the policy as it worked behind the scenes, said the changes made -- including an acknowledgment that signees may not "agree" with the policies -- are not sufficient. In particular, the revised policy still prohibits journalists from the "solicitation" of information from Pentagon employees, "such as public advertisements or calls for tips encouraging [Department of War] employees to share non-public [Department of War] information." Journalists fear that policy could infringe on their ability to seek information about the agency from employees.

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White House Slams Trump's Perceived Nobel Peace Prize Snub as 'Politics Over Peace'

The White House has denounced the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the Nobel peace prize to someone other than Donald Trump. Following Friday's announcement that Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado had been awarded the prize, senior aides to the U.S. president attacked the Norwegian committee as politicised while Norway braced itself for a potential diplomatic response from the White House. "The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace," wrote Steven Cheung, a Trump aide and the White House's director of communications. Trump had openly, if disdainfully, campaigned for the prize, pushing through a Gaza peace deal before the Friday announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee -- a factor that diplomats and former negotiators said played a role in his timeline for a ceasefire. The U.S. leader had also lobbied senior Norwegian officials and was backed for the prize by his political allies, who took to the airwaves this week to demand that the committee award Trump for his efforts in Gaza. In its announcement, the Norwegian committee attacked the growing wave of authoritarianism in Venezuela and in countries around the world. The sentiment was quickly seized upon by Trump's critics, who saw it as a not-too-subtle dig at the U.S. president's use of the military in American cities and pressure on his political enemies at home.

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Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman "who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness." The former opposition presidential candidate is a "key, unifying figure" in the once deeply divided opposition to President Nicolás Maduro's government, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee. "In the past year, Machado has been forced to live in hiding," Watne Frydnes said. "Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions. When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist."

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Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Troop Deployment in Chicago Area

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked National Guard operations in the Chicago area, saying that the Trump administration's version of events was "simply unreliable" and that deploying troops anywhere in the state would "only add fuel to the fire." A lawyer for the administration had argued in a hearing that the troops were needed to protect federal agents and property from protests, including at an immigration facility in the suburbs. But the judge, April M. Perry, sided with the state, saying that she had "seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion in the state of Illinois."

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N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James Indicted After Trump's Pressure Campaign

A prosecutor handpicked by President Trump secured an indictment of New York's attorney general, Letitia James, on bank fraud and false statement charges in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday after the president publicly demanded she be charged. The five-page indictment accused James of falsely claiming in loan documents that she would use a home she purchased in Norfolk, Va., as a secondary residence and using it instead as a rental investment property, allowing her to receive favorable terms that would save her close to $19,000. The charges, coming two weeks after the Trump-directed indictment of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, deepened the president's intervention in the justice system, casting away longstanding democratic norms as he seeks retribution on his political enemies. In a statement, James, a Democrat who had won a civil case against Trump accusing him of fraudulently inflating the value of his assets, called the indictment "nothing more than a continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system." She called the charges "baseless."

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Trump Fires Black Officials From an Overwhelmingly White Administration

While there are no statistics on firings by race, an examination of the people Trump is appointing to fill those and other jobs shows a stark trend. Of the president's 98 Senate-confirmed appointees to the administration's most senior leadership roles in its first 200 days, ending on Aug. 7, only two or 2 percent -- Scott Turner, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Earl G. Matthews, the Defense Department's general counsel -- are Black. The statistics, compiled for the Brookings Institution, track appointments to the 15 cabinet departments in the presidential line of succession: Treasury, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Energy, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs.

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Chicago Puts Up a Fight Against Trump, Deployment of National Guard Troops

Last month, the Trump administration ramped up its immigration enforcement operations in Chicago. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the mission dubbed "Operation Midway Blitz" has led to more than 1,000 arrests of migrants without legal status. Chicago residents have taken to the streets to push back. They have recorded -- and published -- the ICE arrests and have created ICE watch groups. On Wednesday night, hundreds of people marched in downtown Chicago to protest the deployment of the troops and the presence of ICE. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told NPR Wednesday his office will do whatever it takes to resist Trump's attacks on his city. He says Congress and the Supreme Court are complicit. A federal judge in Chicago will hear arguments Thursday afternoon on whether the deployment is legal or not.

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Former U.S. Surgeons General Call RFK Jr. A Threat to the Nation's Health in Op-ed

Six former U.S. surgeons general issued a warning about Health Secretary RFK Jr., calling him a "threat." NPR's A Martinez speaks with one of them, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

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Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin on the Shutdown and the National Guard Troops in His State

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., about the government shutdown and the Trump administration's deployment of National Guard troops to the Chicago area.

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Why Is the U.S. House Speaker Refusing to Seat an Elected Democrat?

Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, has refused to swear in Adelita Grijalva, Arizona's seventh congressional district's representative-elect, who won a special election to fill the seat vacated by her father, the late Raúl Grijalva, in a landslide late last month. in refusing to swear her in and allow her to take up the office to which she has been elected, Johnson, Grijalva thinks, is aiming to stop her becoming the final member of Congress whose signature is needed to force a vote on the release of confidential files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Currently, the petition has 217 signatures; it needs only 218. Grijalva has pledged to support it.

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Pennsylvania Republicans Reignite Bid to Unseat MAGA Congressman

The "Republicans Against Perry" group in Pennsylvania are relaunching their efforts to unseat Congressman Scott Perry, the fervent Trump ally who represents the state's 10th congressional district, according to plans first provided to the Guardian. Perry, the four-term incumbent, is a member and former chairman, of the House's ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. Following Joe Biden's presidential victory in 2020, he maintained the election was stolen and in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Perry introduced Trump to fellow election denier Jeffrey Clark, who was then a justice department official. Perry pushed for Clark's appointment as acting attorney general to continue an effort to undermine the 2020 election results. The congressman's district, which sits in the south-central corner of the state, includes the capital, Harrisburg, and is home to one of the largest shares of federal employees throughout Pennsylvania. The advertising campaign to oust Perry will use the ongoing government shutdown to appeal to furloughed government workers. "The government has shut down. Perry still gets paid, you don't," one billboard reads.

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'My Husband Is Not a Threat': ICE Detains Man Married to U.S. Citizen

Even as the Trump administration continues to insist that its immigration policies are just targeting the worst of the worst, many other immigrants in America are being detained as well. William Brangham spoke with Leslie Gonzales, whose husband was arrested by agents near Boston.

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Comey Pleads Not Guilty in Case His Lawyers Say Is Politically Motivated

Former FBI Director James Comey was arraigned on Wednesday after federal prosecutors charged him with lying to Congress five years ago. The charges were brought against Comey by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsay Halligan. Halligan's predecessor was ousted for refusing to charge Comey. Amna Nawaz discussed more with NPR's Carrie Johnson.

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Senate Republicans Vote Down Legislation to Check Trump's Use of War Powers Against Cartels

Senate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on President Donald Trump's ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration's extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean. The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voting against. It was the first vote in Congress on Trump's military campaign, which according to the White House has so far destroyed four vessels, killed at least 21 people.

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Lawsuit Against National Guard Deployment Exposes Country's Deep Partisan Divide

A partisan battle is playing out in a Washington courtroom that could decide the fate of President Donald Trump's federal law enforcement intervention in the nation's capital. Dozens of states have taken sides in a lawsuit challenging the open-ended National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C., with their support falling along party lines. It shows how the law enforcement operation in the nation's capital remains a flashpoint in the Republican president's broadening campaign to send the military to cities across the country and underscores the deepening divisions over the move.

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Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America's Story Should Be Told

As the Trump administration attempts to remove exhibits focused on race and slavery from national parks and reviews the Smithsonian Institution's approach to history, cultural institutions are struggling with how best to respond. Bryan Stevenson, 65, is a civil rights lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law group that represents imprisoned and condemned inmates. He has a message for those cultural institutions: expand your efforts, don't retreat. "We dishonor those who came before us if in this moment of crisis we remain silent," Stevenson said. "I don't think it's just unempathetic. I don't think it's just cowardly. I think it's dishonorable." He adds, "It's so interesting when [Trump] says, 'Stop talking about how bad slavery was.' He thinks of himself as being anti-crime and tough on criminals. Well, kidnapping 13 million people is a crime. He would never say to the people who lost loved ones on 9/11, 'Oh, you guys should stop talking about what happened on 9/11.' I want him to understand that what Black people went through is the exact same thing, except we never got comforted. We never got embraced.

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Justice Kennedy, Off the Bench but Still Rendering Opinions

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was for years the most powerful member of the Supreme Court. In a two-hour conversation last week in his Supreme Court chambers overlooking the Capitol, he denounced what he said was a spike in ignorance, partisanship and vulgarity in the nation's public life. The justice also discussed why he thinks his majority opinion establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage a decade ago should endure, a question the court may soon face. He talked about his bitter falling out with Justice Antonin Scalia and their reconciliation shortly before his colleague's death in 2016. He criticized originalism, the dominant mode of constitutional interpretation among conservatives. And he reflected on his relationship with President Trump, whose rise appears to have played a role in the justice's critique of declining civility in public discourse.

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Comey Will Seek to Dismiss Case as Malicious Prosecution

James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director reviled by President Trump and targeted as part of his retribution campaign, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday morning in federal court in Alexandria, Va. The judge overseeing the hearing set a trial date for Jan. 5. But Comey's lead lawyer, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said he intended to file two motions to dismiss the case before then, including one accusing the government of malicious and selective prosecution based on Trump's public demand that Comey be prosecuted. Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor, also said the Justice Department's rush to charge Comey had left the defense unclear about the specifics of the counts against him. Comey was indicted last month in a two-page filing that did not detail the accusations against him. "We still have not been told who Person 3 and Person 1 are," Fitzgerald said, referring to the indictment. He later added: "We still haven't been told precisely what is in count 1 or count 2."

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Left-Wing Streamer Hasan Piker Talks About the State of Free Speech

NPR's Leila Fadel talks with left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who describes himself as the late Charlie Kirk's "counterpart," about the state of free speech.

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Gold Tops $4K an Ounce for the First Time as Economic Concerns Grip Investors

The price of gold rose above $4,000 an ounce for the first time, signaling investors are concerned about the state of the broader economy.

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President of Air Traffic Controllers' Union on the Delays Caused by the Shutdown

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, about the delays happening at airports nationwide because of the government shutdown.

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A GOP Push to Restrict Voting by Overseas U.S. Citizens Continues Before 2026 Midterms

U.S. expatriates and their advocates say voting faces more uncertainty than usual, as Republican officials continue a push for more restrictions on overseas voters, including U.S. military members stationed abroad. U.S. expatriates and their advocates say voting faces more uncertainty than usual, as Republican officials continue a push for more restrictions on overseas voters, including U.S. military members stationed abroad.

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Renewable Energy Overtakes Coal

A new study finds that renewables, like wind and solar, outpaced coal as an energy source globally during the first half of the year. The findings suggest a path toward weaning the world off fossil fuels. Here & Now talks with Roben Farzad, host of the podcast "Full Disclosure," about what these finds could mean for energy production.

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Fracking Companies Promised Low Utility Bills to Pennsylvanians, but They're Higher Than Ever

Energy prices are rising across the country, but they've spiked in Pennsylvania. The state welcomed natural gas companies after they promised that their fracking projects would lower utility bills. Decades later, the opposite happened. The picture in Pennsylvania may be a preview of what's coming to the rest of the country. Host Rob Schmitz finds out why from Inside Climate News reporter Kiley Bense.

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Trump Considers $10 Billion Bailout for Farmers as Tariffs Disrupt the Market

President Trump is said to be preparing a bailout package of at least $10 billion that could provide relief to farmers facing the financial pain of tariffs on China. To discuss what this means for farmers and for the heartland, Liz Landers spoke with Aaron Lehman. He is the President of the Iowa Farmers Union, representing growers in the second-largest soybean-producing state in the country.

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Trump Threatens No Back Pay for Furloughed Federal Workers After Shutdown Ends

As the government shutdown hits the one-week mark with no end in sight, President Trump issued a new threat, saying that furloughed federal workers may not be reimbursed with back pay once the government reopens. It reverses what's been a long-standing policy and possibly goes against a 2019 law that ensures back pay for federal workers. White House correspondent Liz Landers reports.

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Supreme Court Hears Case on LGBTQ Conversion Therapy Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical today about Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors. About half the states have such laws.

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Attorney General Bondi Talks at Senate Judiciary

Attorney General Pam Bondi faced questions about her leadership of the Justice Department at a Senate hearing.

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Flight Delays Begin as Air Traffic Staffing Shortages Worsen

Flights into airports serving New York, Denver and the Los Angeles area were delayed on Monday night because of shortages of air traffic controllers, hours after the transportation secretary warned that flying could be disrupted by the government shutdown. The delays began in the late afternoon at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where incoming flights were delayed nearly an hour on average and at Denver International Airport, where arriving flights were delayed about 40 minutes. Later in the evening, Hollywood Burbank Airport near Los Angeles reported average incoming delays of about two and a half hours, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory. The air traffic control tower that serves Burbank had no controllers working on Monday night, so management of incoming flights was being assumed by counterparts at Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control in San Diego, one of the busiest air traffic facilities in the world.

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Head of Social Security Tapped to Run IRS, Sparking Concerns

Frank Bisignano has been tapped to run the IRS, but he's already in charge of the Social Security Administration. Critics worry one person running two critical agencies is a mistake.

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The Federal Election Commission Is Down to Two Members. So Its Work Is at a Standstill

The Federal Election Commission, an independent agency tasked with regulating campaign finance, has lost yet another member. But the FEC has actually been without a quorum -- at least four members -- for months, leaving the agency unable to do much of its work. Republican Trey Trainor told the Washington Examiner that he would be resigning as commissioner, effective Friday. Trainor did not reply to NPR's request for comment.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi to Testify Before Congress

Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify before Congress Tuesday. The hearing comes as concerns the Justice Department is being weaponized to target President Trump's political adversaries grow.

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New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Where Negotiations to End the Shutdown Stand

NPR's Michel Martin interviews Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire about the state of negotiations in Congress to end the government shutdown.

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What You Need to Know About the Healthcare Subsidies at the Heart of the Shutdown

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with KFF Health News' Chief Washington Correspondent Julie Rovner about the healthcare subsidies at the center of the government shutdown.

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Oregon Governor Calls Trump's Actions 'An Abuse of Power and Threat to Our Democracy'

President Trump's plan to deploy National Guard troops to U.S. cities is setting up a new showdown in federal courts over the limits of his authority. Illinois sued the administration to stop plans to send in 400 troops from Texas. It comes after a separate judge blocked Trump from sending California's National Guard to Oregon. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.

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Judge Refuses to Block Trump's Deployment of National Guard to Illinois

A federal judge will not immediately block national guard troops from being deployed in Illinois after a lawsuit from the state against the president on Monday. Troops from Texas could be deployed to Chicago later this week and Trump is also seeking to federalize Illinois' national guard. A similar effort to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon, was blocked by a judge in that state. Illinois sued the Trump administration on behalf of the state and the city of Chicago on Monday after the president ordered national guard troops to deploy in the state against the governor's wishes.

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Is Trump's War on Drug Cartels Legal?

John Yoo helped developed the legal framework for the post-9/11 wars in the George W. Bush Justice Department. He argues Trump trying to invoke war powers too extraordinary to be used against crime.

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Psychiatrists Call for RFK Jr. To Be Replaced as Health Secretary

Psychiatrists have joined other public health groups in calling for the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. Two psychiatry organizations -- the Southern California Psychiatry Society and the recently formed grassroots Committee to Protect Public Mental Health -- have released statements saying that the actions of the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services have increased stigma, instilled fear and hurt access to mental health and addiction care. "As physicians committed to evidence-based care, we are alarmed by the direction of HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr," the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health said in a statement.

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The CDC Says People Must Consult a Health Professional Before COVID Shot

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Monday accepted controversial new guidelines for the updated Covid-19 vaccines that could make it harder for many people to protect themselves this winter compared with previous years. Acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill agreed to the recommendations for the COVID shots from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which met in September. A June meeting of vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public Health 5 new members added to CDC vaccine advisory panel ahead of key meeting Unlike in earlier years, the new guidelines call for people to talk to a doctor, pharmacist or some other health care provider about the risks and benefits of getting vaccinated before they get a shot.

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Groups Sue E.P.A. Over Canceled $7 Billion for Solar Energy

A coalition of solar energy companies, labor unions, nonprofit groups and homeowners sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday over its termination of $7 billion in grants intended to help low- and moderate-income families install solar panels on their homes. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island, accused the agency of illegally revoking the money under the Solar for All program without congressional approval. It expanded an ever-widening legal battle over President Trump's efforts to claw back billions of dollars in climate funding that had been approved by the Biden administration.

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We Asked 50 Legal Experts About the Trump Presidency

Last year, we surveyed 50 members of what might be called the Washington legal establishment about their expectations for the Justice Department and the rule of law if Donald Trump were re-elected. The group was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. They had worked as high-level officials for every president since Ronald Reagan. A majority of our respondents told us they were alarmed about a potential second Trump term given the strain he put on the legal system the first time around. But several dissenters countered that those fears were overblown. We recently returned to our group with a new survey and follow-up interviews about Trump's impact on the rule of law since retaking office. The responses captured almost universal fear and anguish over the transformation of the Justice Department into a tool of the White House. All but one of the respondents rated Trump's second term as a greater or much greater threat to the rule of law than his first term. They consistently characterized the president's abuses of power -- wielding the law to justify his wishes -- as being far worse than they imagined before his re-election. And every single one of the 50 respondents believe that Trump and his attorney general, Pam Bondi, have used the Justice Department to go after the president's political and personal enemies and provide favors to his allies.

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Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland Talks About the Government Shutdown

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., about the government shutdown and the ongoing stalemate between Republicans and Democrats.

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Illinois and Chicago Sue to Stop Trump From Deploying the National Guard

Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit Monday aiming to stop President Donald Trump's administration from sending hundreds of National Guard troops to the city, just as troops prepared to deploy and hours after a federal judge blocked troops from being sent to Portland, Oregon. Trump moved to deploy the National Guard in another city on Saturday by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago. Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago, but it was not immediately clear when or exactly where they would be deployed. The lawsuit alleges that "these advances in President Trump's long-declared 'War' on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous." "The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president's favor," the lawsuit says.

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Using Helicopters and Chemical Agents, Immigration Agents Become Increasingly Aggressive in Chicago

Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital. Activists, residents and leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation's third-largest city. "They are the ones that are making it a war zone," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Sunday on CNN. "They fire tear gas and smoke grenades and they make it look like it's a war zone."

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Government Shutdown Threatens Food Aid Program Relied on by Millions of Families

A food aid program that helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children will run out of federal money within two weeks unless the government shutdown ends, forcing states to use their own money to keep it afloat or risk it shutting down, experts say. The $8 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, provides vouchers to buy infant formula as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other healthy staples that are often out of financial reach for low-income households.

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Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration From Deploying Troops in Portland, Oregon

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, ruling Saturday in a lawsuit brought by the state and city. She said the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalized forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon's state sovereignty. "This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs," Immergut wrote. She later continued, "This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law." The president had called the city "war-ravaged." Oregon officials said that characterization was ludicrous. "The President's determination was simply untethered to the facts," Immergut wrote.

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Visitors Turned Away From the California Redwoods as the Government Shuts Down

Thousands of travelers arrive at Muir Woods to find locked gates and few answers as the shutdown ripples through America's national parks.

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Border Patrol Agents Shoot Woman in Chicago as Protesters Confront Immigration Personnel

U.S. Border Patrol personnel shot an armed woman in Chicago on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said, as scores of protesters faced off against federal immigration agents on the city's southwest side. No law enforcement officers were seriously injured in the incident in which a group that included the woman rammed cars into vehicles used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. The woman, a U.S. citizen who was not identified, drove herself to the hospital, according to the statement.

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Trump Plans to Deploy National Guard in Illinois, Governor Says

The Trump administration plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday. Pritzker said the guard received word from the Pentagon in the morning that the troops would be called up. He did not specify when or where they would be deployed, but President Donald Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago. "This morning, the Trump Administration's Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops or we will," Pritzker said in a statement. "It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will." The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to questions about Pritzker's statement.

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Judge Blocks Trump Policy to Detain Migrant Children Turning 18 in Adult Facilities

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Trump administration policy to keep migrant children in detention after they turn 18, moving quickly to stop transfers to adult facilities that advocates said were scheduled for this weekend. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to not detain any child who came to the country alone and without permission in ICE adult detention facilities after they become an adult. The Washington, D.C., judge found that such automatic detention violates a court order he issued in 2021 barring such practices. ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond Saturday to emails seeking comment.

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What to Know About the Threats to Fire Federal Workers Amid the Government Shutdown

The White House is using the government shutdown to push aggressive plans to further cut the federal workforce and control spending. The administration, however, does not have control of these suggested reductions in force.

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Ousted CDC Official Raises Alarm Over RFK Jr Approach to Infectious Disease

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has avoided meetings with top health officials, even as deadly outbreaks unfolded and pushed to make unprecedented changes to the childhood immunization schedule, according to a recently ousted leader of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Debra Houry, the CDC's former chief medical officer, spoke with the Guardian after testifying before a Senate committee about her eight months serving under Kennedy, offering insight into a health secretary who has been criticized as shunning expertise in favor of spreading misinformation, denigrating science and dismantling institutions crucial for Americans' health. Houry's account adds to depictions from former CDC director Susan Monarez of a distant and at times explosively angry leader of the U.S. public health system -- leading Houry to call for Kennedy's resignation. The CDC's priorities have changed dramatically, she pointed out. "It really represents a hostile takeover of the agency," she said. "It gives me concern about what we can trust coming out of the overall agency as well, not just on vaccine safety."

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Abrego Garcia Wins Request for Hearing on Whether Smuggling Charges Are Illegally 'Vindictive'

A federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice's prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador. The case of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda. U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw late Friday granted a request by lawyers for Abrego Garcia and ordered discovery and an evidentiary hearing in Abrego Garcia's effort to show that the federal human smuggling case against him in Tennessee is illegally retaliatory. Crenshaw said Abrego Garcia had shown that there is "some evidence that the prosecution against him may be indictive." That evidence included statements by various Trump administration officials and the timeline of the charges being filed. The departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case Saturday.

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U.S. Military Attacked Boat Off Venezuela, Killing Four Men, Hegseth Says

The U.S. military killed four men aboard a boat in international waters near Venezuela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday, in the first such strike since the Trump administration told Congress that the United States was engaged in a formal "armed conflict" with Latin American cartels. In his posting, Hegseth accused the four dead men of having been smuggling narcotics, without offering evidence. He also asserted that they were "affiliated" with one of the cartels and gangs that the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, but did not specify which.

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Supreme Court Lets Trump Revoke Deportation Protections for Venezuelans

The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to lift protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelan immigrants who had been living in the United States without risk of deportation. It was the second time in four months that the justices had agreed to allow the migrants to be deported. In its brief, unsigned order, the court's conservative majority said that "although the posture of the case has changed, the legal arguments and relative harms generally have not." For that reason, the court said, "the same result that we reached in May is appropriate here." The three liberal justices noted their dissent, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sharply criticizing her colleagues for a "grave misuse" of the emergency docket. The majority, she wrote, has used its power "to allow this administration to disrupt as many lives as possible, as quickly as possible." Justice Jackson accused the majority of wrongly "privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families' pleas for the stability our government has promised them."

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A Look at the Major Cases the Supreme Court Will Take Up in Its New Term

The Supreme Court begins a new term on Monday following a summer-long recess shaped by legal battles over the Trump administration's agenda. William Brangham discussed the high-profile cases with News Hour Supreme Court analyst and SCOTUSBlog cofounder Amy Howe and Stephen Vladeck, constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.

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What the H1B Visa Application Fee Hike Could Mean for the U.S. Economy

An economist explains the impact the H-1B visa program has had on the U.S. economy and native-born workers. And what the new hundred thousand dollar fee could mean for the future of the program.

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Says New Pentagon Rules on Reporting Misconduct May 'Silence People'

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, said new rules outlined in a speech by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this week may make it harder to report misconduct. "It will silence people who want to make sure if there's a rapist in the ranks or a sexual harasser in the ranks that somebody knows about it so that efforts can be made to protect other victims," she predicted. Gillibrand has spent more than a decade working to combat sexual assault in the military.

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How U.S. Attorney's Office Firings Are Upending the Prosecution of Former FBI Director Comey

U.S. attorney's office firings and resignations are upending the prosecution of former FBI director Comey. "It's incredibly unusual," Rizzo observes. "These are prosecutors that have years of experience."

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Gender Pay Gap Grows as Wages of Women Backslide

The wages of women are backsliding. They're not keeping pace with what men earn on average and at the same time, women are increasingly leaving the workforce. Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd speaks with Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist and co-host of the Optimist Economy podcast.

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Kennedy Fires N.I.H. Scientist Who Filed Whistle-Blower Complaint

Three weeks after a leading scientist at the National Institutes of Health filed a whistle-blower complaint against the Trump administration, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy fired her, according to her lawyer and a copy of the termination letter. Dr. Marrazzo said in her complaint last month that the N.I.H. had placed her on administrative leave after she objected to Trump administration actions that she said had endangered research subjects, defied court orders and undermined vaccine research. "The Trump Administration terminated Dr. Marrazzo for her advocacy on behalf of critical health research and for her support of the overwhelming body of evidence that shows vaccines are safe and effective," Debra S. Katz, a lawyer for Dr. Marrazzo, said.

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Deepfakes, Insults and Job Cuts: A Government Shutdown Like No Other

During the first government shutdown in nearly seven years, President Trump has used insults and mockery to try to bend Democrats to his will in ways that have no obvious parallel in modern history. At the same time, he is using the shutdown to make lasting changes to the federal bureaucracy to inflict pain on his political adversaries. As thousands of federal workers faced mass layoffs and Americans faced critical service cuts, Trump on Thursday reveled in a threat to target what he called "Democrat Agencies" for temporary and permanent cuts.

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Government Shutdown Delays Release of Monthly Jobs Report

Typically, the first Friday of the month is when the Labor Department releases its report on jobs and unemployment. But because of the government shutdown, that report is delayed.

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Energy Department Canceling Over $7 Billion in Funding for Clean Energy Projects

Sixteen states that voted for Kamala Harris last year could see their clean energy projects defunded. Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, says it's politically motivated.

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How Is the Economy Doing During the Government Shutdown? An Economist Weighs In

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi about the strength of the economy during the government shutdown who says, "The labor force has gone nowhere since this time last year."

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Trump Tells Congress That the U.S. Is in 'Armed Conflict' With Drug Cartels

President Trump says the U.S. is in an "armed conflict" with unspecified drug cartels. That's according to a document sent to Congress about the military strikes on suspected drug boats. "What this boils down to is the president of the United States assserting a prerogative to kill people based solely on his own say so," says one legal expert.

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Millions of Seniors Lose Access to Telehealth Services in Wake of Shutdown

Two Covid-era Medicare programs -- telehealth benefits and in-home hospital care -- have ended abruptly for millions of Americans as a result of the government shutdown. Funding for both expired on Sept. 30 and Congress failed to pass a new budget plan for either. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Kyle Zebley of the American Telemedicine Association.

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White House 'Using Shutdown as Excuse' for More Mass Firings, Democrat Says

On the second day of the government shutdown, party leaders are not budging and President Trump is increasingly threatening Democrats and taking aim at Democratic-led states. To discuss the Democratic perspective on the shutdown, Geoff Bennett spoke with Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Biden and now a distinguished scholar at NYU Law.

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Amid Government Shutdown, OMB Director Works to Overhaul the Federal Workforce

As Democrats and Republicans trade barbs, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought works to carry out what the Trump administration calls the "good that can come" from a shutdown as he cancels energy projects in 15 blue states and infrastructure spending New York City.

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Retired General Talks About President's Use of the Military in U.S. Cities

NPR speaks with retired Gen. Randy Manner, who was once a top official in the National Guard, about the president's use of the military in American cities. "It's just so absurd," he says, pointing out the ignorance behind the idea.

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Hundreds of Celebrities Relaunch a McCarthy-Era Committee to Defend Free Speech

On Wednesday, over 550 celebrities relaunched a group first organized during the post-World War II Red Scare: the Committee for the First Amendment. Their intent is to stand up in what they call a "defense of our constitutional rights," adding: "The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia and the entertainment industry."

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Trump Offers Top Universities Funds if They Boost Conservative Ideas

Donald Trump is offering nine top universities a deal in which they would agree to advance conservative ideas on their campuses and commit to a range of other conditions in exchange for federal funding. The extraordinary offer, which was sent out from the White House on Wednesday, presents the universities with a 10-point "compact." As a sweetener, any university that signs up to the deal is promised "multiple positive benefits," including "substantial and meaningful federal grants." In return, they must agree to provide a "vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus." That involves enhancing the profile of conservatives and scrapping academic departments that "purposefully punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas." Other demands include banning race or sex as factors in student admissions and hiring, a freeze on tuition fees for five years and a cap of 15 percent on international undergraduate students. The nine universities are: Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia.

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Judge Denies Kilmar Ábrego García's Bid for Asylum in the U.S.

An immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Ábrego García's bid for asylum on Thursday, but he has 30 days to appeal. Ábrego's case has drawn national attention since the 30-year-old was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. Following widespread pressure, the Trump administration returned him to the U.S. in June. Upon his return, however, he immediately faced criminal charges related to human smuggling, allegations that his lawyers have rejected. Ábrego, a Salvadorian native, was released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday while awaiting trial. But the Trump administration announced new plans to deport him to Uganda. Then Ábrego was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during a scheduled immigration check-in in Baltimore, which was one of the conditions of his release.

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Trump Revives Family Separations Amid Drive to Deport Millions: 'A Tactic to Punish'

The Trump administration has revived the practice of separating families in order to coerce immigrants and asylum seekers to leave the U.S., attorneys and former immigration officials allege. In several cases, officials have retaliated against immigrants who challenged deportation orders by forcibly separating them from their children, a Guardian investigation found. The officials misclassified the children as "unaccompanied minors" before placing them in government-run shelters or foster care. The new practice has taken effect as the administration has also issued stringent new limits on who can take custody of unaccompanied minors -- which advocates say keep thousands of children away from their relatives. "This is a tactic to punish people for not acquiescing," said Faisal Al-Juburi, head of external affairs at the legal aid group Raíces. "It's a tactic to get immigrants to relent, to agree to self-deport."

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Hundreds of VA Doctors Warn That Cuts Threaten Vets Health Care

Hundreds of current and former VA clinicians have sent an open letter to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, warning that cuts and increased privatization threaten the VA health care system.

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People Are Already Starting to Feel the Effects of the U.S. Government Shutdown

Across the United States, people are learning what is and is not functioning on the first day of the shutdown.

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Federal Agencies Are Rehiring Workers and Spending More After DOGE's Push to Cut

Despite DOGE's promise that canceling contracts and terminating leases would help reverse the trend of the government spending more money than it brings in, the most recent Treasury data shows an increase in expenditures by hundreds of billions of dollars more than the year before. The bulk of that spending goes to debt service, national defense and entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. When it first launched this year, NPR found DOGE's savings and efficiency tracker to be riddled with factual errors, overstatements and unverifiable claims. As a new fiscal year begins, that remains true today. The White House declined to answer NPR's questions about rehiring workers, increasing federal spending and DOGE data errors. The ad-hoc DOGE initiative's controversial and often haphazard insertion into the federal government is now further complicated by a government shutdown that began Wednesday.

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Shutdown Puts a Divided Fed in a Perilous Position Without Essential Data

The Federal Reserve was already facing a tough decision about how quickly to lower interest rates after restarting cuts last month. But that judgment call is set to get much harder if the government shutdown deprives the central bank of essential data points that help it gauge the state of the economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has said it would not publish Friday's hotly anticipated jobs report. Other key data releases, including the next Consumer Price Index report, are also in peril if Congress and President Trump do not reach a deal soon. "It pains me that we wouldn't be getting official statistics at exactly a moment when we're trying to figure out is the economy in transition," said Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a voting member on this year policy-setting committee.

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Federal Workers Union Leader Talks About the Government Shutdown

The American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump's threat of mass layoffs during the shutdown. NPR speaks with the union's president Everett Kelley.

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Judge Rules Trump Administration Violated Rights of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

In a scathing opinion, a federal judge called the Trump administration's attempts to deport non-citizens because of their Palestinian activism a "full-throated assault on the First Amendment."

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Poll: Agreement That Political Violence May Be Necessary to Right the Country Grows

Three in 10 people now say that Americans may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. That is up 11 points since April 2024, an increase driven by Democrats. Eighteen months ago, just 12 percent of Democrats agreed; now, 28 percent do. Republicans are higher still at 31 percent. And by a 62 percent-to-38 percent margin, respondents said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Additionally, a whopping 79 percent think the country has gone too far in restricting speech. There's more....

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U.S. Government Shuts Down After Senate Fails to Advance Both Parties' Bills

The U.S. government shut down on Wednesday, after congressional Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments. "Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America's healthcare," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday evening. He said that the Republican strategy was to lie to the American people with false talking points that Democrats wanted to give healthcare benefits to undocumented immigrants. "It's a total absolute effing lie," he said, adding: "They are afraid of the truth, they know that what they have done has decimated healthcare for 20 million Americans." Shortly after the failed votes, Russ Vought, director of the White House office of management and budget, released a letter blaming "Democrats' insane policy demands" for a shutdown.

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Hegseth's Decision on Wounded Knee Medals Sparks Outrage in Native American Communities

Native American communities that had long wanted the removal of military honors for the soldiers involved in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre had their hopes dashed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in his effort to root out what he calls a "woke culture" in the armed forces. Hegseth had announced last week in a video on social media that Wounded Knee soldiers will keep their Medals of Honor, part of a wider Trump administration move that Indigenous leaders and historians on Tuesday called part of a culture war against racial and ethnic minorities and women's rights. In 1890, an estimated 250 men, women and children were killed by U.S. soldiers on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, many as they fled the violence and well after orders to cease fire. Some estimates put the number of dead over 300, more than half women and children. "The actions at Wounded Knee were not acts of bravery and valor deserving of the Medal of Honor," Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire said. "There is nothing Hegseth can do to rewrite the truth of that day." Sen. Elizabeth Warren vowed to keeping pushing for the medals to be revoked through legislation. "We cannot be a country that celebrates and rewards horrifying acts of violence," Warren said. "Secretary Hegseth is valorizing people who committed a massacre."

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Supreme Court Lets Lisa Cook Remain as a Federal Reserve Governor for Now

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now, declining to act on the Trump administration's effort to immediately remove her from the central bank. In a brief unsigned order, the high court said it would hear arguments in January over Republican President Donald Trump's effort to force Cook off the Fed board. The court will consider whether to block a lower-court ruling in Cook's favor while her challenge to her firing by Trump continues. The high-court order was a rare instance of Trump not quickly getting everything he wants from the justices in an emergency appeal.

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