Protestors surround a dumpster that was set on fire in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building during a protest against federal immigration arrests Wednesday in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Protests over immigration raids pop up across the US with more planned
“Protests over federal immigration enforcement raids and President Donald Trump’s move to mobilize the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles are spreading nationwide and are expected to continue into the weekend. Read more.
Why this matters:
While many demonstrations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have been peaceful, with marchers chanting slogans and carrying signs, others have led to clashes with police, hundreds of arrests, and the use of chemical irritants to disperse crowds.
Activists say they will hold even larger demonstrations in the coming days, with “No Kings” events across the country on Saturday to coincide with Trump’s planned military parade in Washington, D.C.
Protest locations include Seattle, New York City, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Spokane.” [AP News]
Immigration
“A federal judge has granted Mahmoud Khalil’s habeas corpus petition and blocked the Trump administration from continuing to detain the former Columbia University graduate student. During the 2024 demonstrations on campus, Khalil served as a liaison between students protesting the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and school administrators. He was one of the first in a series of high-profile arrests of pro-Palestinian student activists caught up in the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses and his detention sparked protests across the US. In the three months he was imprisoned in Louisiana, Khalil missed his own graduation and the birth of his first son. In other immigration news, Khaby Lame, the world’s most popular TikTok personality and a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, has left the US after being detained at the airport by immigration agents in Las Vegas for allegedly overstaying his visa.” [CNN]
Vaccines
“Earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the entire panel of vaccine advisers that guides the CDC on the vaccine schedule and required coverage of immunizations. On Wednesday, he appointed eight new members, including several prominent critics of the government’s Covid-19 response. Kennedy’s overhaul of the panel has drawn rebukes from physicians, nurses, former health officials and the American Medical Association. The AMA even adopted a resolution calling for Kennedy to reverse his decision to remove the previous panel members. ‘With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,’ AMA President Dr. Bruce Scott said in a statement.” [CNN]
“David Hogg, the young vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, will exit his post. Democrats have been furious at his plan to challenge sitting lawmakers.” [New York Times]
‘America’s reputation is on the line’: Republican senators chide Hegseth over Ukraine
“Republican senators lashed into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s effort to end the Ukraine war by drawing in Russia, thrusting a glaring ideological divide within the party into public view.
Sen. Mitch McConnell — one of three Republicans who opposed Hegseth’s confirmation — led the criticism at a Senate budget hearing.
‘America's reputation is on the line,’ the Kentucky Republican said. ‘Will we defend Democratic allies against authoritarian aggressors?’
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a top Trump ally, pressed Hegseth over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would stop his expansion efforts with Ukraine. The Pentagon chief said it ‘remains to be seen.’
Graham shot back: ‘Well, he says he's not. This is the ‘30s all over. It doesn't remain to be seen.’”
Read the latest at POLITICO
“The U.S. Department of Justice is requesting an extensive amount of election data from Colorado. It’s specifically seeking ‘all records’ related to the 2024 federal elections, according to documents obtained by NPR. Additionally, the DOJ has asked the state to preserve any remaining records from the 2020 election. Several voting experts and officials have informed NPR that this request is highly unusual and concerning, especially in light of President Trump’s false claims regarding elections.” [NPR]
Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images
“Recent polling across various surveys shows a conflicting message about whether people approve of Trump's deportation policies. This week, a CBS poll found 54% of people approved of his approach to deportation. But yesterday, a Quinnipiac poll showed 56% disapproved. The numbers indicate unpredictability within the public’s opinion, showing that a percentage of people are open to being swayed, NPR’s Domenico Montanaro tells Up First.
Even though people say they are in favor of deporting people who do not have permanent legal status, there is a difference between the hardened criminal that the administration says it is focused on and hardworking community members, Montanaro says. He reports that the president has received pushback from members of his own party, who warn that the administration should be cautious of how far it goes on the issue. Democrats have shied away from making a strong case in favor of immigration, but the further Trump goes on the matter, the easier it is for Democrats to have a message and appear united on the topic.” [NPR]
Fulbright Board Resigns After Accusing Trump Aides of Political Interference
The board of the prestigious program told the State Department it had no right to cancel scholarships for nearly 200 American professors and researchers.
By Edward Wong
“The dozen board members of the prestigious Fulbright program that promotes international educational exchanges resigned on Wednesday because of what they said was political interference by the Trump administration in their operations, according to people familiar with the issues and a board memo obtained by The New York Times.
The members are concerned that political appointees at the State Department, which manages the program, are acting illegally by canceling the awarding of Fulbright scholarships to almost 200 American professors and researchers who are prepared to go to universities and other research institutions overseas starting this summer, said the people, including Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.
The board approved those scholars over the winter after a yearlong selection process, and the State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, the people said. But instead, the board learned that the office of public diplomacy at the agency had begun sending rejection letters to the scholars based mainly on their research topics, they said.
In addition, the department is reviewing the applications of about 1,200 scholars from other countries who have already been approved by the board to come to the United States, the people said. Those foreign scholars were also supposed to receive acceptance letters around April.
The memo written by the board says that members are resigning ‘rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago,’ according to a copy obtained by The Times.
The board posted the memo online on Wednesday morning, after sending a resignation letter to the White House.
The board is also concerned that the budget that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is requesting from Congress for the next fiscal year cuts spending for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which includes the Fulbright program, to $50 million from $691 million this fiscal year.
The State Department did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday morning.
The actions come as President Trump and his top aides seek to bend academic institutions to their ideological beliefs. The State Department’s public diplomacy office is run by Darren Beattie, a political appointee who was fired from a job during the first Trump administration after he gave a talk at a conference attended by white nationalists. He has made social media posts on white grievances, including one saying ‘competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,’ and ones ridiculing Mr. Rubio.
The administration is trying to withhold federal funding, mainly for science research, from several universities and in some cases is demanding changes to departments. It has tried to stop foreign students and scholars from coming to Harvard University, but a court has temporarily barred the administration from acting on that order.
Mr. Rubio told the State Department last month to stop taking new appointments for foreign citizens applying for student or exchange visas while the agency expands scrutiny of social media posts by the applicants. American universities rely on tuition payments by foreign students for a major part of their revenue and value the research expertise of those students and visiting scholars.
Top Trump administration officials say many American universities are too liberal in their curricula and must insert more conservative ideas into their teaching, research and hiring practices. The administration has also dismantled research institutions established by Congress, including the Wilson Center and the United States Institute of Peace. A federal judge ruled last month that the administration’s gutting of USIP was illegal.
The Fulbright program was established in 1946 after legislation introduced by J. William Fulbright, a Democratic senator from Arkansas. The Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 formalized legal statutes for the program. It says the selection of scholars, teachers and others falls under the authority of a 12-member board appointed by the president.
The nearly 200 scholars who are receiving rejection letters are part of a group of about 900 American scholars approved by the board over the winter.
‘The bipartisan Fulbright Board was mandated by Congress to be a check on the executive and to ensure that students, researchers and educators are not subjected to the blatant political favoritism that this administration is known for,’ Ms. Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
‘While I understand and respect the bipartisan Fulbright Board for resigning en masse rather than grant credibility to a politicized and unlawful process,’ she added, ‘I am painfully aware that today’s move will change the quality of Fulbright programming and the independent research that has made our country a leader in so many fields.’
Ms. Shaheen and the board asserted that the State Department was violating the congressional statute by rejecting or reviewing the scholarship candidates already approved by the board, the people familiar with the issues said.
The selection process for the American scholars usually starts with career diplomats in overseas missions and U.S. educational institutions, and proceeds for months until the board gives essentially pro forma approval over the winter. Across Republican and Democratic administrations, the board has generally approved of the candidates submitted by the State Department because of the long and rigorous selection process and to avoid the appearance of political interference.
The United States has 49 bilateral commissions established by treaties with other nations, many American allies, to help with the selection process and match scholars with institutions. More than 35 countries contribute half or more of the funding for the scholarships.
The makeup of the board changes as members finish their three-year terms. The current board members are appointees of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. because those who began serving on it during the first Trump administration have rotated out.
The nearly 200 American scholars who are receiving rejection letters from the State Department are about a fifth of the total U.S. scholars approved by the board over the winter.
Mr. Beattie and his aides appear to be rejecting them based on their stated research topics, which include climate change, environmental resilience, migration, gender, race and ethnicity and homelessness, said the people familiar with the State Department’s actions. The topics also include ones in the sciences, such as biology, agriculture and animal studies, according to the board memo.
The Fulbright program encompasses about 8,000 scholars, students, teachers and researchers in different categories at any given time.
The board sent separate messages last month to Mr. Beattie and Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state, expressing concern over the undermining of the selection process for the American scholars, the people said.
Most of the American and foreign scholars approved by the board had gotten early signals from officials and commissions of their acceptances so they could arrange leaves from their universities and prepare to move overseas for about a year.” ]New York Times]
Trump to revoke Biden's climate rule on power plants
“President Donald Trump's administration is moving to wipe out federal limits on power plants' climate pollution — attacking the Biden era's most ambitious attempt to use regulations to lessen the nation's output of heat-trapping gases.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it would scrap the 2024 regulation that requires existing coal-burning power plants, and future plants burning natural gas, to begin capturing their carbon dioxide pollution in the 2030s. The Trump proposal would leave the nation's second-largest source of climate pollution — the power sector — free of federal requirements to address global warming.
The first Trump administration repealed a similar rule that had been written under President Barack Obama and replaced it with a weaker regulation.
The United States is the world's second-biggest climate polluter, lagging only behind China. But in its draft rule, EPA argues that the U.S. power sector's pollution by itself doesn't significantly contribute to global climate change, making it unnecessary to regulate it.
The administration also announced it would repeal a separate Biden-era rule aimed at reducing power plants' releases of toxic mercury into the air.”
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'No Kings Day' protests planned for Saturday nationwide
“Protests are planned for 1,800 communities across the country Saturday, the same day President Trump holds a military parade in Washington. The rallies, named "No Kings Day" to oppose what they see as Trump's power grab, are expected to be the largest and most numerous protests since Trump's second term began. Organizers say the march putting American flags and American imagery front and center is ‘very intentional’ because the protesters believe Trump's actions, from attacking universities and political institutions to holding a military parade, are ‘un-American.’ About a dozen veteran groups partnered to create the protests.” [USA Today]
Major student loan changes just came one step closer to becoming law
“GOP lawmakers in the U.S. Senate this week proposed their version of the higher education section of President Trump's tax and spending megabill. The 71-page portion of the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" would set new caps on student loan borrowing while drastically cutting the number of repayment plans. Like the House bill, the Senate measure proposes cutting the number of student loan repayment plans to just two. The Senate bill would also dramatically curb lending for graduate students and parents (though at lower caps than House Republicans wanted). Here's what big changes would mean for how Americans pay for college.” [USA Today]
Harvey Weinstein Convicted of Sexual Assault in Second New York Trial
Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
“Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of one count of sexual assault and acquitted on another in his sex-crimes retrial in New York.
The mixed verdict comes after two trials and dozens of allegations against the former Hollywood producer. Weinstein was tried and convicted on similar sex crimes in 2020. But New York’s highest court overturned that conviction last year.”
Read More at Wall Street Journal
Musk Retreats on Trump Attacks After Call from JD Vance, Susie Wiles
“JD Vance and Susie Wiles pushed Elon Musk to repair his relationship with President Trump after the tech billionaire blew up at the president in a dramatic and public falling out, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Read More at Wall Street Journal
FBI leaders seek to move Quantico, Va.'s elite law enforcement training program to Huntsville, Alabama
“The proposal to move the training for state, local and federal law enforcement leaders is part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to shrink the FBI's footprint in and around the nation's capital. The training academy for FBI recruits and personnel would stay at Quantico, people familiar with the plans said.”
Read more at Washington Post
INTERNATIONAL
UN nuclear watchdog board censures Iran, which retaliates by announcing a new enrichment site
“The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board of governors on Thursday formally found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year. Read more.
Why this matters:
Iran reacted immediately, saying it will establish a new enrichment facility ‘in a secure location’ and that ‘other measures are also being planned.’
U.S. President Donald Trump previously warned that Israel or America could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed. The escalation over Iran’s nuclear program comes ahead of a new round of Iran-U.S. talks Sunday in Oman.” [AP News]
UN refugee agency says more than 122 million people forcibly displaced worldwide
“The findings come as the U.N. refugee agency released its Global Trends Report on Thursday, which said the number of people driven abroad or displaced in their home countries by war, violence, and persecution as of April rose to 122.1 million, up from 120 million last year. Read more.
Why this matters:
The agency says the number of people forcibly displaced by violence and persecution around the world has nearly doubled over the last decade. Among those, the number of internally displaced people jumped by more than 9% to 73.5 million at the end of last year. The numbers represent cumulative figures from years of conflict, violence, and persecution, and some displaced people returned home last year, even as others fled.
The report comes at a time when humanitarian groups are facing budget cuts from the United States and other traditional Western donors.” [AP News]
Rescue team members work as smoke rises at the site where an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
“An Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India's western city of Ahmedabad the airline and police said, and India's federal health minister said that ‘many people’ were killed. Follow live.” [Reuters]
“Middle East leaders and their Western allies have been warning that Islamic State could exploit the fall of the Assad regime to stage a comeback in Syria and Iraq, where the extremist group once imposed a reign of terror over millions.” [Reuters]
“Masked youths in Northern Ireland set fire to a leisure center that had been sheltering migrant families, but a third night of anti-immigrant violence was smaller in scale in the primary flashpoint of Ballymena.” [Reuters]
“Austrian investigators were slowly piecing together the character of the man who carried out the country's worst school shooting this week, with officials struggling to reach anyone who knew the deceased 21-year-old well.” [Reuters]
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Beijing Puts Six-Month Limit on Rare-Earth Export Licenses
The limit on licenses for U.S. automakers and manufacturers gives Beijing leverage if trade tensions flare up again while adding to uncertainty for American industry.
Chinese negotiators agreed to the temporary restorations of the licenses after the latest round of talks with their American counterparts in London.
Read More at Wall Street Journal
U.S. Inflation Remains Muted, With Limited Effects From Tariffs
“The Consumer Price Index rose 2.4 percent in May from a year ago, a reading that reflects only the initial impact of President Trump’s tariffs.”
Read more at New York Times
HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Cancer rates have risen among adolescents and young adults since 2000.
Rates of cancer diagnoses in younger and older people. Data for 2020 was omitted because of changes in diagnoses during the pandemic. (The Washington Post)
“The data: The rate of new cancer diagnoses for people 50 or older has fallen by 11% in the past two decades, a Post analysis found. For people 15 to 49, it has climbed by 10%.
Why? That’s a question many people are asking themselves, but doctors are perplexed. If you’re worried about cancer, find 11 scientifically backed ways to reduce your risk here.”
Read this story at Washington Post
SCIENCE
An amazing new discovery could help explain how T. rex came to be.
Khankhuuluu was an early tyrannosaur and evolutionary ancestor of the T. rex. (Julius Csotonyi/AFP/Getty Images)
“What is it: A species of tyrannosaur, named khankhuuluu mongoliensis. It existed 86 million years ago and, according to one expert, was kind of like a large, predatory horse.
Why it’s exciting. It’s about 20 million years older than T. rex. So the species, announced in a paper yesterday, helps to fill in the family tree of the most famous of all the dinosaurs.”
Read this story at Washington Post
RELIGION
Southern Baptists vote to seek repeal of historic same-sex marriage ruling
“The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution supporting a concerted effort to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges as the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage approaches its 10-year anniversary. The June 10 vote by the nation’s largest Protestant denomination represents a doubling down on issues of gender and sexuality as the predominant group of evangelical Christians signals the SBC’s hopes of replicating the successful campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade. But whether the latest vote will move the needle on same-sex marriage, a right backed by a strong majority of Americans, remains to be seen.” [USA Today]
SPORTS
“N.B.A.: The Indiana Pacers reserve guard Bennedict Mathurin scored a game-high 27 points to secure his team a 116-107 win and a 2-1 series advantage against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
M.L.B.: The Red Sox pitcher Hunter Dobbins created a stir by saying he would never play for the Yankees, adding that the team had drafted his father and then traded him. That story wasn’t true.” [New York Times]
CULTURE
Trump was booed and cheered while taking in “Les Mis” at the Kennedy Center.
“Last night: Trump enjoyed one of his favorite musicals while marking his takeover of a D.C. institution. Some people jeered and yelled expletives, but others tried to drown it out.” [Washington Post]
TRANSITIONS
Brian Wilson dies at 82. The Beach Boys co-creator helped make the group the most popular American rock act of the 1960s.
“The band’s early hits — “Surfin’,” “Surfer Girl,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda” and “California Girls,” among others — evoked a world of fast cars, beautiful youth, eternal surf and sunshine on an idyllic and immaculate beach.”
Read more at Washington Post