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President Donald Trump is continuing his efforts to  influence the Federal Reserve.   He’s calling on one of its governors to resign, publicly criticized Chair Jerome Powell, and is trying to fast-track a close ally onto the board. The White House continued its campaign against the Smithsonian Institution this week. Its given museums 120 days to adjust any content that the administration finds pro...

ChatGPT has at least 500 million weekly users. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that number is growing extraordinarily fast. When the chatbot went through an update a couple weeks ago, it brought to light how many users were relying on AI for their emotional wellbeing and even as a companion. People using AI for intimate, personal reasons is a phenomenon that we are only beginning to understand. There a...

Nearly 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt. Their borrowing totals more than $1.8 trillion. That’s according to  the Education Data Initiative. Now, the federal student loan system is facing significant changes under the Trump administration. One of the biggest differences is the  end of the Saving on a Valuable Education,  or SAVE plan, started by President Joe Biden. The income-d...

President Donald Trump gave Vladimir Putin what the Russian leader  wanted during their meeting in Alaska last week.   Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back in the U.S. for more talks. His last visit to the White House  was disastrous, to say the least.  This time, he’s bringing key European leaders with him to meet with Trump. What does the future of the conflict in his country loo...

President Donald Trump and his administration want control over exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution. In a letter sent Aug. 12, three White House officials told the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lonnie G. Bunch III, that the administration would conduct a review at certain Smithsonian museums.  The goal? To “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives,...

President Donald Trump put the police force in Washington D.C. under federal control. He also called in the National Guard and ICE to patrol the streets. The Justice Department says last year violent crime in the District of Columbia hit a 30-year low. Cuts to the social safety net are set to leave some 2.4 million Americans without access to the food stamps they were entitled to before the passag...

President Donald Trump has taken over Washington D.C.’s police force and deployed the National Guard in the capital. The president took over the city’s police department for 30 days, and says he wants Congress to grant him “long-term” control of the force. All this in the name of public safety, despite the fact that D.C.'s violent crime rate is at a 30-year low. He says he might do the same in pla...

The U.S. undertakes the census every 10 years . Hundreds of thousands of Census workers set out to count everyone living in the U.S., regardless of their citizenship status. That data is used to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives , redraw voting districts on the local level, and decide how federal funds should be allocated in each state. The next one is 5 years away, and President Do...

Commander and Astronaut James A. Lovell, Jr. – died Thursday at the age of 97. He was one of the three-man Apollo 13 spacecraft crew that set for the moon in April 1970.   In 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It captured the world's attention as America's third attempt to get to the moon. But after only two days, an explosion crippled the spacecraft and changed...

An extraordinary fight is underway in Texas over redistricting.  And it’s turning into a showdown that has nationwide implications for the House of Representatives. The situation paints another stroke in a portrait of a president who hasn’t been shy about his desire to consolidate power and shore up GOP prospects ahead of the 2026 midterms. So, what kicked this off? Last week more than 50 Democrat...

After months of delays, President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs went into effect on Thursday. A planned strategy meeting among top Trump administration officials whether to release the transcript from the Department of Justice interview with Ghislaine Maxwell was cancelled. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government considers a total takeover of the Gaza strip. The UN warn...

The president of the United States fired the head of the government's main economic statistics agency after a recent report showed a less than positive picture of U.S. employment. The civil servant President Donald Trump fired was former Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer, a labor economist nominated to the role in 2023 by President Joe Biden. The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed her...

Who do high profile people or companies facing a scandal call when they're in a crisis? Maybe their therapists. But definitely a crisis communications specialist. Like the work of Olivia Pope in the T-V series Scandal, crisis communications is the practice of shaping public perception and reputation during a crisis. And it's a vital tool for maintaining people's reputations in today's digital land...

Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to sport a beard. For the next 50 years, whiskers were commonplace in the White House. But then, they went out of style. Now, Vice President JD Vance is the first executive branch leader in more than a century with a furry face. And others are following suit. From the Senate to the campaign trail, more and more men in politics are letting their facial h...

The controversial immigration detention center — dubbed by Florida officials and the Trump administration, "Alligator Alcatraz"-- has already hit some legal snags since opening earlier this month. Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration over due process complaints. The lawsuit alleges detainees are being held without charges and aren't being given access to their attorneys. It comes...

The White House took a victory lap this week as President Donald Trump secured a trade deal with the European Union. The agreement sees goods imported to the U.S. subjected to a 15 percent tariff. As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to unfold, this week President Trump claimed that the New York financier "stole" young women working at his Mar-a-Lago estate. American workers are beginning to n...

Experts say a "worst-case" famine scenario is unfolding across the Gaza Strip. That's according to a new report published this week by a U.N.-backed commission that tracks food security worldwide. The starvation in Gaza is reawakening global attention to hunger crises unfolding around the world. Elsewhere in the world: most of Haiti's population is experiencing critical levels of food insecurity....

Across the country, K-12 teachers are prepping classrooms, reviewing lesson plans, and bracing for another school year that, for some, feels politically and personally charged. The Department of Education is slowly being dismantled by the Trump administration. In some districts, immigration officials have shown up at schools, which likely contributed to a rise in student absences last spring. And...

In this Trump administration it's another day, another deadline, another deal. On Monday, the president issued an ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. With this revised deadline, the president now wants peace efforts to make progress within 10 to 12 days. There has been little reaction from the Kremlin. We discuss how the U.S. ultimatum could change the course o...

Last week, more than 100 aid and human rights groups warned that Gaza is at risk of "mass starvation." They signed an appeal demanding Israel allow food shipments into the territory. On Saturday, Israel's military announced airdrops of aid began in Gaza and that humanitarian corridors will be established. Among those starving in the besieged strip are members of the press. Palestinian journalists...

How does the public know what's happening in the federal government, especially when it's information the government doesn't want to share? That's where whistleblowers come in. But in 2025, the Trump administration is cracking down on these brave folks and the journalists telling their stories. In this installment of our politics series, "If You Can Keep It," we discuss weakening whistleblower pro...

New reporting in The Wall Street Journal indicates that the FBI told President Donald Trump in May that his name was mentioned in the Epstein Files. Congressional Republicans have mostly shrugged off the news. Speaker Mike Johnson shuts down the House for the summer. Meanwhile, the European Union and at least 28 governments are criticizing Israel for "drip feeding" Palestinians in Gaza, as starvat...

President Donald Trump has nominated loyal associates to influential positions over and over. But one recent pick for the federal bench has legal experts and many lawmakers particularly up in arms. The Senate voted Tuesday to begin considering former Trump defense attorney Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals judge for the Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Bove, the...

Medicaid is a cornerstone of the American health care system. The program provides insurance to more than 70 million low-income people and people with disabilities. Now, addiction experts and nursing home leaders are sounding the alarm over cuts in President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill. When the cuts occur, Medicaid will lose $1 trillion over the next 10 years and over 11 million American...

President Donald Trump is suing the publisher and owner of the Wall Street Journal and seeking damages of $10 billion for defamation. Last week, the paper published an article describing a letter Trump sent to disgraced, self-styled financier Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. That letter reportedly included a lewd drawing. The president says — without evidence — that he didn't write t...