Consider This from NPR

Tensions remain high in Minnesota. Despite the Trump administration signaling a willingness to de-escalate tensions in the state earlier this week, Minnesota’s governor is now skeptical. “I know who I'm dealing with. I know that they're not going to keep their word,” Walz told NPR. Walz, a Democrat, sat down with All Things Considered host Juana Summers on Friday following weeks of protests, and t...

The civilian killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Macklin Good by federal immigration agents have launched a larger debate in Washington about funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Senate Democrats want to carve off DHS money from the broader spending package to keep the government open, and they want new limits on immigration agents, like a prohibition on masks and a requirement that offi...

After the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Trump administration is making a leadership change in Minneapolis. Will anything change? A new Trump administration official has taken over the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Tom Homan, the  White House’s so-called border czar, takes over after the departure of Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino, who has been the public face of the operation, including enc...

Pennsylvania democratic Governor Josh Shapiro on resisting Trump policies, his faith and whether he plans to run for president. Shapiro is one of the most prominent Jewish officeholders in the US.  In a new memoir “Where we Keep the Light” Shapiro explores his faith, as well as his career in politics… one that's taken him from state representative, to Pennsylvania attorney general to a swing state...

Tensions escalate in Minneapolis after a second U.S. citizen is killed by immigration officers. It was a deadly weekend in Minneapolis.  On Saturday, federal immigration officers fatally shot a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen — Alex Pretti. Multiple videos captured the moments before, during and after the shooting. Federal officials claim Pretti “brandished” a weapon and tried to assault of...

The third Minneapolis shooting in three weeks has renewed questions about immigration agents’ role, training, and use of force. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, says the border patrol and ICE agents operating in Minneapolis aren’t using the kinds of de-escalating tactics that local police have been using for at least a decade. For sponsor-free episodes of Co...

Even before this latest war in Gaza, NPR’s Jerusalem-based Correspondent Daniel Estrin and Gaza reporter Anas Baba had spent years working together in challenging circumstances. Once war broke out, they had to adapt to a situation that made reporting together even more difficult. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org .  Email u...

So much has happened since ICE ramped up efforts in Minneapolis. It can be hard to get a sense of the big picture. Two NPR reporters on the ground do just that. It’s been nearly two months since ICE descended on the streets of Minneapolis.  In that time, Renee Macklin Good has been shot and killed, children have been detained, and the federal government’s campaign to arrest undocumented immigrants...

Scientists say research into a vaccine for HIV is further along than it’s ever been. But Trump administration cuts to scientific research have set that effort back. Including a promising trial for an HIV vaccine in Africa – which was shut down altogether. NPR’s Ari Daniel has the story of how researchers there refused to give up. Ari’s reporting for this story was supported by a grant from the Pul...

In the first year of his second term, President Trump has repeatedly said and done things that were previously assumed to be unacceptable to voters. Whether on Greenland or Gaza, federal prosecutions or federal spending, immigration enforcement or sending the U.S. military to protests of immigration enforcement, the Trump administration appears undeterred on almost all of its agenda. As Ashley Par...

President Trump’s insistence that the U.S. acquire Greenland could become a major international crisis. He's now threatened tariffs on eight NATO allies who have expressed their opposition to the idea, and that is shaking up the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.  And more tariffs would increase costs for American businesses at a time when American voters are talking about affor...

President Trump has spent his first year back in office blurring the lines between business and government.  The administration has bought shares in private companies like Intel and Nvidia, as well as others involved in mining and energy. Trump has also publicly pressured CEOs and forced the restructuring of social media giants like TikTok. NPR financial correspondent Maria Aspan says that’s gener...

A week after an arson fire at Mississippi's oldest synagogue, Rachel Myers, a leader of the congregation's religious school, talks about how the congregation is doing and how it will rebuild. It’s not the first time the congregation has been attacked. In the late 1960s, the synagogue and the rabbi’s home were bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in retaliation for the congregation’s work on behalf of civil...

Under the Trump administration, federal prosecutors have been sent to investigate federal lawmakers, the chairman of the Federal Reserve and the widow of Renee Macklin Good. The Department of Justice is once again at the center of the news. At least five federal lawmakers say they have been contacted for questioning from federal prosecutors. So has the chairman of the Federal Reserve. And in Minne...

Vice President J.D. Vance says the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Macklin Good last week has "absolute immunity." Some legal experts have pushed back. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org .  Email us at considerthis@npr.org . This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink. It was edited by Christopher Intagliata. Our executi...

What began two weeks ago as a demonstration against an economic crisis has become a broader antigovernment movement, in cities and towns across Iran. Iran’s authoritarian government has responded with violent repression. More than 2,500 people have been killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. NPR has not been able to independently verify that number. Many who watch...

The Trump Justice Department has subpoenaed the Federal Reserve for information related to its multibillion-dollar renovation of the Fed's headquarters in Washington. The move comes on the heels of months of President Donald Trump trying to influence Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. And while he told NBC News he doesn’t know anything about the Department of Justice i...

What do we know about what's happening in Iran? The country has been rocked by days of large antigovernment protests. First, sparked by the crippling economy, now anger at the theocratic regime.  More than 500 people have been killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. NPR is unable to independently confirm that figure. And now President Trump is considering whether to...

As the deputy chief of staff for policy and one of President Trump’s longest-serving aides, Stephen Miller has been the driving force behind many of Trump’s core policies. Ashley Parker, staff writer for The Atlantic, explains why Stephen Miller has President Trump’s ear. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at consi...

NPR International Correspondent Eyder Peralta has covered conflicts and crises from East Africa to Latin America. Sometimes just getting in place to cover a story is the hardest part of reporting. His latest deployment has taken him to Colombia where he has been covering the fallout from the U.S.’s intervention in Venezuela. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ vi...

President Trump raised eyebrows when he told the New York Times that there was only one thing that could stop him on the global stage: his own morality. So what do Americans think about the moral standing of the United States? Well, a new NPR-Ipsos poll finds Americans still want the U.S. to be a moral leader in the world — but far fewer think it actually is.  Senior Political Editor and Correspon...

"Make America great again." That phrase has been in our political ecosystem for 10 years now. But it's never been clear what time period in American history President Trump was referencing? Is it the 1980s? Or maybe the 1950s? What about further back, say the 1890s? As we enter the second year of Trump’s second term, is a 19th century presidency emerging? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This...

Today in Minneapolis, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer allegedly shot and killed a woman. ICE says she was shot in her car after attempting to run over immigration agents.  Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the woman’s actions a domestic act of terrorism. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the narrative that the shooting was done in self-defense “garbage.” An immigratio...

For almost three years, a civil war has decimated Sudan’s Darfur region. Bob Kitchen, who leads emergency humanitarian programs for the International Rescue Committee, just returned from the region. He described what he saw in a series of audio diaries that he shared with NPR. A warning — the audio you are about to hear contains graphic descriptions of violence and rape against women and children....

Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and his wife, politician and attorney Cilia Flores, made their first court appearance in New York City Monday afternoon, when they both pleaded not guilty to all charges. As Nicolás Maduro faces narco-terrorism charges in the US, Venezuelans try to figure out what it means for their future, and the rest of the world wonders what it could mean for theirs.  For sponsor-fre...