Post Reports

Montgomery County is a small, rural area in the middle of North Carolina. The county has struggled financially for years, and its school district depends on government grants to survive. This year, the Trump administration cut $600 million in grants to teacher-training programs across the country, and Montgomery County’s $21 million grant was included. The Trump administration says the grants were...

The songwriter was unconscious, but his voice filled the operating room. Mike Frazier’s dirty-blond locks had been partially shaved and his head sanitized. The surgeon standing over him slid his blade in a crescent over Frazier’s right ear and tugged his scalp into position. Then he began opening a window into the musician’s brain. The task that day was to reach and remove the cause of the grievou...

Congress has less than a month to figure out how to fund the government. But instead of that pressing business, calls for greater government transparency over allegations against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein dominated Capitol Hill this week. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 documents related to the investigation, most of which are already publicly avail...

The sparks flew in Thursday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing.  Senators – Republicans and Democrats alike – grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his handling of vaccines and the shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Kennedy, for his part, doubled down on his ouster of CDC director Susan Monarez, claiming she was not “trustworthy.” He i...

Character. AI became one of the world’s most popular artificial intelligence apps by letting tens of millions of users, many in their teens, text and talk to chatbot versions of celebrities and fictional characters. But conversation with these seemingly friendly chatbots can easily veer into topics unsafe for minors. Host Colby Itkowitz talks to tech culture reporter Nitasha Tiku about this new wo...

In March, as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the United States sent more than 250 migrants , the majority being Venezuelan nationals, to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a megaprison often referred to by its Spanish acronym, CECOT.  In July, four months later, the men from Venezuela were released to Venezuela as part of an international prisoner swap . U.S....

Labubus — small plush toys that look like mischievous monsters — have taken the world by storm. Chinese toymaker and retailer Pop Mart has sold millions of dollars’ worth of Labubus. There’s even a booming resale market, on top of a thriving operation of counterfeits called Lafufus. Host Elahe Izadi speaks with reporter Kelly Kasulis Cho about how Labubus became the latest trend , and why these li...

Susan Monarez says she refused to restrict access to vaccines as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It wasn’t long until Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decided she needed to go. Monarez’s firing led to the resignations of some of the CDC’s top scientists . It comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s attempted firing of Lisa Cook , a Fed...

Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce announced their engagement Tuesday . Fans mobilized, groups chats lit up, and social media posts of Swifties celebrating went viral.      “Post Reports” host Elahe Izadi speaks with pop culture reporter Emily Yahr about this announcement, why it was an unusual move for Swift, and what it could mean for Swift’s music career and busin...

On Wednesday morning, students from Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis were in church for an all-school Mass when a shooter opened fire through the church windows .  An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old from the private K-8 school were killed, and the shooter died after shooting himself. More than a dozen people were injured, and several remain in critical condition.  Minneapolis May...

Late last week, President Donald Trump announced the federal government will now own 10 percent of the chipmaker Intel. The move is just one in a pattern of unprecedented deals the Trump administration has struck with tech companies, reshaping the relationship between the federal government and big business.  Host Elahe Izadi talks with technology reporter Gerrit De Vynck about how the Intel...

The Defense Department is outlining plans to send troops to Chicago as soon as September.  These plans have been in the works for weeks – long before Trump’s declaration Friday that “it won’t even be tough” to send troops to the third-largest city in the U.S.  Pentagon reporter Dan Lamothe uncovered the details of these military plans, which are part of Trump’s broader crackdown on Ameri...

Christopher Kinnison, 46, worked at his own one-man law firm in the central Louisiana city of Alexandria, putting him within a two-hour drive of the state’s nine ICE facilities, the highest number of any state other than Texas. Most of his clients were detainees, and his business cards promised “Fervent Representation for Uncertain Times,” because he knew how quickly immigration policy could chang...

This week, President Donald Trump claimed he’s ended six — or maybe even seven — wars. But his efforts to bring about peace in Ukraine, three years after Russia’s invasion, appear stalled. Guest host Cleve Wootson speaks with White House reporter Cat Zakrzewski and White House correspondent Michael Birnbaum about the latest in the negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, and they fact-check Trump’s p...

With a vote of 88 ayes and 52 nays, the Texas House passed a controversial new election map on Wednesday night. If approved in the state Senate, the redrawn lines would create five new congressional districts that lean heavily red. The Texas House vote comes a few weeks after Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state in an attempt to stall the GOP effort. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) threatened the...

At the end of July, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reinstating the presidential fitness test . The test was administered in public schools around the country from 1950 to 2012, when it was ended by President Barack Obama. After health columnist Gretchen Reynolds heard the news, she put out a call to Post readers asking about their memories of the presidential fitness test. Hundre...

A team of “Post Reports” producers join Post reporter Olivia George for a Friday night out on U Street NW , a major hub for nightlight in the nation’s capital and an area that has experienced one of the highest number of crimes reported this year. They speak with businesses, partygoers and workers to hear their experience during the first weekend since President Donald Trump’s takeover of D.C.’s l...

President Donald Trump stunned the international community when he invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska for a high-stakes summit on the war in Ukraine. Just hours after Trump greeted Putin on his first visit to the U.S. in a decade, he watched him leave with no ceasefire deal in hand, however.  Now, Trump is turning to Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky and NATO leaders to help...

President Donald Trump began his second term with a playbook in hand for how he might take control of aspects of D.C.’s government, according to Post reporting. Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department this week was just one possible outcome. Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with White House reporter Cleve Wootson and The Post’s White House bureau chief, Matt Viser, about how Trump set the stage...

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has long been an important cultural landmark in D.C., bringing a variety of arts programming to the region while also serving as “ the Nation’s Cultural Center .” Since it opened in 1971, the Kennedy Center has also been largely apolitical. It receives some federal dollars, but sitting presidents have allowed the Kennedy Center’s board of director...

Gen Z is having a rough go at finding a job. AI tools are making it easier for companies to downsize. In an effort to cut costs, many workplaces are laying off people en masse. And all of that talent is flooding a job market where entry-level positions often require multiple years of experience. That’s leaving Gen Z workers at the bottom of the hiring pool. Audio intern Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval intervi...

Israel has announced a plan that could eventually allow it to take military control of the entire Gaza Strip . But the announcement has been met with widespread criticism inside and outside Israel. Foreign leaders and protesters say this approach lacks clarity and will prolong the suffering of Palestinian civilians and endanger hostages still held by Hamas. Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Tel Aviv...

On Monday morning, President Donald Trump announced that he is putting Washington, D.C., under federal control and deploying the National Guard to fight crime.  While police data shows a drop in violent crime in D.C. in recent years, Trump said this historic action would “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” He suggested he could deploy the Nationa...

In the past week, President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries – and made moves to suppress signs of a weakening economy. Today on the politics roundtable, host Colby Itkowitz speaks with White House reporter Emily Davies and senior national political correspondent Naftali Bendavid about how Trump’s recent economic moves are playing politically. They also cover his re...

David Lynch covers trade for The Post, and he joins us to explain how the tariffs will affect consumer prices and the broader economy.  David is the author of the forthcoming book “ The World’s Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (And What Would Make It Right) .” Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Maggie Penman with help from Reena Flores. It was mixe...