Category: International

Measles is an extremely contagious disease. It’s also extremely preventable. There’s a vaccine. It’s highly effective.

For decades it has made measles outbreaks in the U.S. relatively rare, and measles deaths rarer still. But the U.S. has now seen more than 700 measles cases this year, and 3 deaths so far with active outbreaks across six states.

The federal response is under scrutiny because Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has made a career spreading false information about vaccines.

What are this administration’s views on vaccines, and what do they mean for what is already one of the worst U.S. measles outbreaks this century.

Kennedy publicly promised he would support vaccines. Dr. Peter Marks, who was forced out as the nation’s top vaccine regulator says his department isn’t doing enough.

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The Trump administration admitted that it wrongfully deported a man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

It had also been arguing that courts cannot compel the U.S. government to return him to this country.

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously determined the government must “facilitate” his release from the El Salvador prison where he is being held, but the Department of Justice has so far only confirmed his presence at that prison.

If he is not returned to this country to face due process, people following this case point out a troubling implication: The government could potentially send anyone to a foreign prison – regardless of citizenship – with no legal recourse.

Harvard University emeritus professor of constitutional law Laurence Tribe explains his argument.

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For weeks, President Trump has been targeting certain law firms with executive orders. Some have fought back, but others have cut deals to avoid the damage.

For our weekly Reporter’s Notebook series, we dive into this legal drama with NPR’s Justice Correspondent Ryan Lucas, to see how this use of executive power is changing the landscape of the American legal system.

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During his second Presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to carry out the largest deportation program the U.S. has ever seen.

And true to his word – Trump’s administration is arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants without legal status.

But as part of the crackdown on illegal immigration, legal immigrants are getting caught up in the mix.

And then there’s people like Amir Makled – a U.S. Citizen and lawyer. Makled was detained by Border agents at a Detroit airport as he returned from a family vacation in the Caribbean.

How is the Trump administration’s immigration policy changing who is getting arrested and detained?

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It’s pretty rare for one person to do one thing that affects nearly every business in the United States. But that’s the power of the presidency and the new tariffs that took effect this week.

Over the last few days, as the tariffs have gone up and down, NPR has been talking to Americans who run different kinds of businesses.

Even though their companies don’t have much in common, all of them are doing the same thing right now: Trying to figure out what’s going on and how to respond.

Trump’s tariff plans affect nearly every company in America. We’ll hear from a few business owners about what it means for them

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After a week of market turmoil, President Trump announced he would reset his most extreme tariffs to 10 percent across the board, with the exception of China — which he boosted to a 125% tariff rate. Even at the reduced level, the tariff rates are the highest the nation has seen in many decades.

And higher tariffs translate to higher prices for American consumers. Martha Gimbel of the Budget Lab at Yale takes an imaginary walk through a big box store to look at how much more people might pay for t-shirts, rice, medication and other staples.

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It’s been 25 years since measles was officially “eliminated” from the United States.

That’s a technical term. In public health, it means measles has not had a steady twelve month spread.

Right now there are measles cases in several states The biggest number of cases are in West Texas where two kids have died.

A quarter of a century after measles was officially eliminated in the US, the disease is once again spreading in West Texas, New Mexico and there are cases in several other states. What can be done to get the virus under control?

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Billionaire Elon Musk told Fox News recently that falling birth rates keep him up at night. It’s a drum he’s been beating for years.

Musk is one of the world’s most visible individuals to elevate this point of view. Vice President JD Vance also talks about wanting to increase birthrates in the U-S.

But it’s not just them. There are discussions across the political spectrum about birth rate decline and what it means for the economy.

One response to this decline is a cause that’s been taken up by the right, and it has a name – Pronatalism. Many of its advocates met up recently in Austin, Texas, at “Natal Con.”

Pronatalists think they have a friendly audience in the White House. How do they want to use it?

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Deportation is a complicated process — with lots of layers. As the Trump administration expands the number and scope of deportations – what does that mean in practice? NPR’s Asma Khalid and Ximena Bustillo unpack how deportations are supposed to work — and why so many lawsuits have been filed saying court process has been sidestepped in recent cases.

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The video game industry is huge. Last year alone it generated an estimated $187 billion dollars in revenue.

But it’s also facing a host of serious issues: massive layoffs, the advent of A.I., games that take years to be released, and a schism between big and small developers.

This week’s Reporter’s Notebook takes us inside this evolving industry with NPR’s Vincent Acovino, who recently covered the annual Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.

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