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Cardinals enter Sistine Chapel for papal conclave under total digital lockdown
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Cardinals enter Sistine Chapel for papal conclave under total digital lockdown

By Timothy Nerozzi | Washington Examiner VATICAN CITY — On Wednesday afternoon, red-hatted clerics who carry the same weight and dignity as princes within the Catholic Church entered the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave to choose Pope Francis‘s successor. At 5:46 p.m. local time, the doors were sealed.The 133 cardinals will remain in total seclusion within the chapel and its adjoining buildings until they choose from among themselves the next bishop of Rome, the servant of the servants of God and Vicar of Christ on Earth. As the clock struck 4:30 p.m. in Rome, the screens in St Peter’s Square came to life, and the booming Latin remarks of Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin rang out through Vatican City. READ THE FULL STORY AT TH...
Trump cuts federal funding for NPR and PBS over ‘biased’ coverage
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Trump cuts federal funding for NPR and PBS over ‘biased’ coverage

By Jack Birle | Washington Examiner President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday night cutting federal funding for NPR and PBS, decrying both outlets for their allegedly “biased” coverage. The president’s order calls on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding” to NPR and PBS. It also notes that the “heads of all agencies shall identify and terminate, to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, any direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS.” In his order, Trump said the CPB should “fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage” and that NPR and PBS do not fit that standard. “The CPB fails to abide ...
New ‘Urbanist Party’: Sanders, AOC, Hogg
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New ‘Urbanist Party’: Sanders, AOC, Hogg

By Paul Bedard | Washington Examiner With the Democratic Party continuing to splinter, progressives are building and expanding their base, especially in big cities and suburbs. As worn-out old bulls fight for power in Washington, the big population zones are opening their arms to the progressives led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and party Vice Chairman David Hogg in numbers so large and supportive that a pollster tracking the movement has given it a name. “Call it the ‘Urbanist Party,’” said Jeremy Zogby, the managing partner of John Zogby Strategies, which polled for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2024 populist bid. “I think it has legs,” he added. Upset with how Democratic leaders are fumbling their attacks on P...
A perfect storm comes for elite universities
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A perfect storm comes for elite universities

By Sarah Bedford | Washington Examiner The country’s most elite universities are panicking over President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against them, but their problems run far deeper than a stand-off with the White House. Fewer students are applying to top schools. Private donors are closing their checkbooks. Lucrative foreign student visas are in the State Department’s crosshairs.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump trashes Powell as ‘too late and wrong,’ hinting at Fed chairman’s ‘termination’
Washington Examiner

Trump trashes Powell as ‘too late and wrong,’ hinting at Fed chairman’s ‘termination’

By Jack Birle | Washington Examiner President Donald Trump took aim at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Thursday morning, arguing he “should have lowered Interest Rates” and hinting at a looming “termination.” Powell spoke at an event with the Economic Club of Chicago on Wednesday, arguing that “significant policy changes” pursued by the Trump administration may deviate from the Fed’s goals for the rest of the year. Less than 24 hours later, the president trashed Powell on a Truth Social post as the European Central Bank is set to cut interest rates. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Judge orders Trump EPA to release $20 billion in funding for green groups
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Judge orders Trump EPA to release $20 billion in funding for green groups

By Maydeen Merino | Washington Examiner A federal judge ordered the Trump Environmental Protection Agency to release $20 billion in climate grants that it has withheld, a major blow to the administration’s efforts to stop what it has called the improper awarding of money to nonprofit green groups. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction late Tuesday preventing the EPA from “unlawfully suspending or terminating” billions of dollars in climate money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which the Trump administration has said distributed the funds without proper oversight. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump administration claims it has no duty to return deported migrant from El Salvador
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Trump administration claims it has no duty to return deported migrant from El Salvador

By Kaelan Deese | Washington Examiner The Trump administration says it has no obligation to retrieve a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, despite a Supreme Court ruling that ordered the government to “facilitate” his return. In a court filing Sunday, U.S. officials argued that the high court’s directive regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia simply requires that the Trump administration not block his return should El Salvador elect to send him back, but that it does not require actively securing his release from a Salvadoran prison. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump’s big move: It wasn’t bungling. It wasn’t 4D chess. It was being flexible enough to get what he wanted
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Trump’s big move: It wasn’t bungling. It wasn’t 4D chess. It was being flexible enough to get what he wanted

By Byron York | Washington Examiner As a week of intense tariff mania ends and a new period of negotiations begins, President Donald Trump has 1) started a trade war with China, imposing a 125% tariff on all imports from that country; 2) imposed a 10% global baseline tariff on the world; 3) imposed tariffs on steel, aluminum, some autos, and auto parts; and 4) paused for 90 days a long list of higher “reciprocal” tariffs on many countries. And here’s the kicker: After all that, the world, in the words of many analysts, is “breathing a sigh of relief.” Trump has imposed a tariff regime that would have horrified much of the political and financial establishment just a few months ago, and now, they are happy that he did not do more. Both Trump’s detractors an...
White House clarifies new China tariff rate of 145%, not 125%
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White House clarifies new China tariff rate of 145%, not 125%

By Christian Datoc | Washington Examiner President Donald Trump is leveraging a 145% tariff rate, higher than previously thought, on Chinese goods, according to White House officials. Trump made headlines and shifted financial markets Thursday by announcing a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariff agenda for all U.S. trading partners besides China, Canada, and Mexico. Throughout the pause, the administration will seek to broker bilateral agreements with more than 80 trading partners now facing a 10% tariff rate for the next three months. Canada and Mexico will still be subject to a 25% tariff rate for all non-USMCA-compliant goods, but the president bumped China’s tariff rate to 125% after Beijing placed new tariffs on American exports. However, White Hou...
IRS chief Melanie Krause resigns after agency agrees to hand over immigrants’ data to ICE
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IRS chief Melanie Krause resigns after agency agrees to hand over immigrants’ data to ICE

By Jack Birle | Washington Examiner The acting head of the IRS reportedly plans to resign shortly after a data-sharing agreement between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security was announced. Melanie Krause will resign via the deferred resignation program set up by the Trump administration over disagreements with the IRS’s direction, according to the Washington Post. Krause’s resignation will be the third by an IRS chief this year. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER