Year: 2025

In Washington these days, Elon Musk seems to be everywhere.

In the 15 days Donald Trump has been back in the White House, Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have been moving to change every corner of the federal government.

The billionaire entrepreneur and his team have gained access to a sensitive government payment system in the Treasury Department.

They’re pushing to drastically reduce the number of federal employees. How did the world’s richest man come to have such a big role in the federal government?

And why does he want it?

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The Panama Canal has sat at the center of global trade for more than a century, connecting two oceans. The things Americans use every day pass through here, from gas to food. And now, this spot is also at the center of President Trump’s global expansionist agenda.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has just wrapped up a trip to Panama where he told the President that if China’s influence over the canal isn’t curbed the United States will take measures to protect its rights.

Trump’s threat to take back the Panama Canal has the potential to reshuffle global politics. We’re meet the people and the 51-mile waterway in the middle of it all.

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Most presidents want as much power as they can get. And it’s not unusual to see them claim authority that they don’t, in the end, actually have.

We saw it just last term, when former President Biden tried to unilaterally forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loans.

Or when he announced, days before leaving office that the 28th Amendment, on gender equality, was now the law of the land.

So are the opening moves of Trump’s presidency just a spicier version of the standard playbook or an imminent threat to constitutional government as we know it?

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Schools, corporations, even churches, are wrestling with how to approach issues of racial and social justice in a highly polarized U.S. But what happens when people with shared political views disagree on how much is too much? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [email protected].

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What went wrong in the midair collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet over Reagan National Airport, outside of D.C.? As officials search for clues the country mourns those lost. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced senators today in a contentious confirmation hearing to serve as Health and Human Services Secretary under President Trump. He’s a former Democrat — turned independent presidential candidate — turned Trump loyalist.

He’s also someone who has pushed vaccine misinformation, something he was repeatedly questioned about during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

HHS is a massive system that oversees everything from the Food and Drug Administration to vaccine funding to the Affordable Care Act. What do we know about how Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would run it?

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Country music singer Charley Crockett was born and raised in Texas, grew up in a single-wide trailer with his mom and says his family lineage traces all the way back to the frontiersman Davy Crockett.

This Sunday is the music industry’s biggest night — the Grammy Awards. And Crockett is up for an award for the first time — Best Americana Album — for his record “$10 Cowboy.”

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Susie Wiles is doing something no woman has done before. She is the first in history to hold the position of White House Chief of Staff.

Now, we will find out if she can do something that no one — man or woman – has ever done before: Impose discipline and order on a Trump White House that was rife with leaks, drama, and by many accounts – chaos – during his first term.

A chief of staff can be the difference between a ground-breaking presidency and chaos. Is Susie Wiles up to the task?

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Former President Joe Biden championed DEI programs–initiatives aimed at diversity, equity inclusion and accessibility in recruiting, hiring and retention of federal government employees. In a matter of days – and a few pen strokes – President Donald Trump brought it all to an end this week.

NPR’s Pien Huang speaks with Timothy Welbeck, the director of Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism, to understand more about the history of DEI and how it became targeted by President Trump,

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As evacuation orders are lifted, people in Los Angeles are returning to their homes–if their homes survived. But the disaster doesn’t end when the fire stops.

A single block and a half separates the Altadena home of Jennifer and Ed Barguiarena from complete destruction. Just down the street lies charred, flattened debris.

But for families like the Barguiarenas — the seemingly lucky ones, whose houses survived — an altogether different ordeal is just beginning.

The water still isn’t safe to drink, cook or wash with. There are fine layers of ash and dust in people’s homes and yards. And families like the Barguiarenas are also worried about what they can’t see – the possibility that toxins like lead and asbestos might have drifted into their homes.

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