Seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities are closed or on lockdown because of terroristic threats, according to Hearst sister stations and NBC affiliates.Alabama State University was briefly on lockdown Thursday morning because of a “terroristic threat” aimed at the campus.The university sent a statement to WVTM, stating that campus operations had been shut down that morning into the afternoon: “Alabama State University has received the all-clear from law enforcement and University officials. While the immediate threat has been resolved, all non-essential day-to-day operations remain suspended for the remainder of the day, and the campus is still closed to the public. We are still asking all students to shelter-in-place in their residence halls until further notice. The safety and well-being of our Hornet family continues to be our top priority.”FloridaIn Florida, Bethune-Cookman University is on lockdown and classes have been canceled after “a potential threat to campus safety” was made, the school told sister station WESH.GeorgiaClark Atlanta University received threats and is on lockdown, causing Spellman College to also go under lockdown because of proximity, according to a post on its social media page.”At this time, no threats have been directed toward Spelman’s campus. However, we have increased security presence across campus and at our two main entrances,” Spellman posted.LouisianaSouthern University is on lockdown due to a potential threat, according to NBC affiliate WAFB. VirginiaVirginia State University and Hampton University closed for terroristic threats, according to our NBC affiliates WWBT and WAVY. This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.
Seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities are closed or on lockdown because of terroristic threats, according to Hearst sister stations and NBC affiliates.
Alabama State University was briefly on lockdown Thursday morning because of a “terroristic threat” aimed at the campus.
The university sent a statement to WVTM, stating that campus operations had been shut down that morning into the afternoon:
“Alabama State University has received the all-clear from law enforcement and University officials. While the immediate threat has been resolved, all non-essential day-to-day operations remain suspended for the remainder of the day, and the campus is still closed to the public. We are still asking all students to shelter-in-place in their residence halls until further notice. The safety and well-being of our Hornet family continues to be our top priority.”
Florida
In Florida, Bethune-Cookman University is on lockdown and classes have been canceled after “a potential threat to campus safety” was made, the school told sister station WESH.
Georgia
Clark Atlanta University received threats and is on lockdown, causing Spellman College to also go under lockdown because of proximity, according to a post on its social media page.
“At this time, no threats have been directed toward Spelman’s campus. However, we have increased security presence across campus and at our two main entrances,” Spellman posted.
Louisiana
Southern University is on lockdown due to a potential threat, according to NBC affiliate WAFB.
Virginia
Virginia State University and Hampton University closed for terroristic threats, according to our NBC affiliates WWBT and WAVY.
This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Press conference we will first hear from Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Be Mason. Then we’ll hear from the FBI special agent in charge, Robert Bowles. Uh, we’ll then hear from Utah Valley University Vice President Val Peterson, who’s been in touch with President Timenez. And then we’ll hear from Governor Cox, turn the time over to Commissioner Mason. Hello everyone I’m Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety. Today at approximately 12:20 Mountain Standard Time. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot in an event at the Utah Valley University. He was taken by private vehicle to Timpanoga’s Hospital where he later passed. The Utah Department of Public Safety will be co-leading this criminal investigation to find this killer along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’re working in unison with the county sheriff’s office, the local police department, and the university police department, all of which have been very cooperative and fully engaged in this process. Shortly after the shooting, we did have *** suspect in custody, George Zinn. But he was released from custody after we identified that he did not match the shooting suspect, um, and was not an accurate person of interest. However, he has been booked into the uh county jail by Utah Valley University Police Department for obstruction of justice. We do still have an active investigation for the person of interest. This incident occurred with *** large crowd around. There was one shot fired and 11 victim. While the suspect is at large, we believe this was *** targeted attack towards one individual. This is *** tragic moment in our state and in our country. As we heal, we encourage everyone who’s struggling with news of the incident to call 988, our state mental health crisis line. In addition to that, our partners with the FBI will also be discussing other ways we can communicate through the public for tips and other information. Thank you. Good afternoon On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts are also with the people who witnessed this traumatic event. We know that you, what you experienced was very difficult. Our thoughts are with you as well. As soon as we heard about the shooting, special agents and personnel from the Salt Lake Field Office. Responded immediately. We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence. To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co-lead this investigation alongside with our partners. We’re working on setting up *** digital media tip line and as soon as it’s established, we’ll get that information out to everyone. I know there’s *** lot of questions. This is very much an active case and this investigation is in its early stages. We are following all the leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information, please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement. Thank you. On behalf of President Tenez, who we’ve been communicating with and she’s on her way back right now, I, um, say that on behalf of Utah Valley University we are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk. We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We grieve with our students, faculty and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy. He was invited by the student group Turning Point USA to speak on our campus. We firmly believe that UVU is *** place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully. Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here. We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus *** safe place for all. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this uh on this dark and and tragic occasion. I wanna thank our law enforcement officers who are leading this investigation, starting with Chief Long, uh, and, and his, uh, his response here with the UVU police department. Um, we’re grateful for your leadership and, uh, and your team, and again to the, the speakers that you’ve just heard from who are are co-leading this investigation. I also want to uh recognize Sheriff Mike Smith who has been an invaluable partner as uh as this investigation moves forward. I’ve been in touch with uh with with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel, um, we are completely aligned with our state and federal partners as uh as we work through this case now. This is *** dark day for our state. It’s *** tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is *** political assassination. We are. Celebrating 250 years of the founding of this great nation. That founding document, the Declaration of Independence. That this this great experiment on which we embarked together 250 years ago that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. The first one of those is life. And today, *** life was taken. Charlie Kirk was first and foremost. *** husband and *** dad to two young children. He was also Very much politically involved and that’s why he was here on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate. To shape ideas. And to persuade people. Historically Our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated. And that’s what he does. He comes on college campuses and he debates. That is foundational to the formation of our country. To our most basic constitutional rights. And when someone takes the life of *** person. Because of their ideas or their ideals. Then that very constitutional foundation is threatened. Now we have *** person of interest in custody. The investigation is ongoing. But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this. We will find you. We will try you And we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah. Our nation is broken. We’ve had Political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination. On *** presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States. Nothing I say can unite us as *** country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are broken. We mourn. With his wife, his children, his family, his friends, we mourn as *** nation. If anyone in the sound of my voice. Celebrated even *** little bit at the news of this shooting. I would beg you To look in the mirror. And to see if you can find *** better angel in there somewhere. I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American. We desperately need our country. We desperately need leaders in our country, but more than the leaders we just need every single person in this country. To think about where we are and where we want to be. To ask ourselves, is this, is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? I pray that that’s not the case. I pray that those who hated. What Charlie Cook stood for. We put down their social media and their pens. And pray for his family. And that all of us. All of us will try to find *** way to stop hating our fellow Americans. With that we’re happy to take *** few questions. The FBI director is posting that *** that *** suspect is in custody. I would just like clarification. Do you or do you not have *** suspected shooter? We have *** person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now. We do not that is not George Zim. That is correct. Are you still searching or looking for another shooter or anybody else related to this? Yes, we are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any any possible information relating to the shooting. Can you tell us details about the suspect being taken into custody, where, you know, how long ago. We, we cannot at this point, but we will get you that information when when we can. Is there believed to be *** second individual involved in the shooting? At this point there is no information that would lead us to believe that there is *** second person involved. Can you guys talk. Um, we. Do you want to talk about what we know there? Yeah. The only information we have on on the suspect, uh, the possible shooter is taken from closed circuit TV here on campus. Um, we do have that we’re, we’re analyzing it, um, but it is security camera footage so you can, you can, uh, kind of guess what the, what the quality of that is, um, but we do know, uh, dressed in, in all, all dark clothing, uh, but we don’t have *** much better description other than that. The shot came from here on campus, um, from, uh, *** location, um. And *** Uh, potentially from *** roof, yes, and longer distance shot from *** roof. So to clarify with the security camera footage you have and the personal interest that’s in custody, do those, does that match up? That’s what we’re trying to decipher right now. Did the FBI or DHS have anything on the threat for this morning? I can’t speak I’ll just say that the investigation is ongoing and as soon as we have further information, we will be sure to release it. Any indications of foreign intelligence involvement? As of now I can’t comment on any of that. Can you talk *** little about the security of the event itself, but who was there security wise and, and what happens on these kind of events. So my name is Jeff Long. I’m the police chief here at UVU, and I’ll tell you right now we’re devastated. We’re *** small, uh, small police department. Uh, we have *** very large campus. We have over 40,000 students, and we love our students. Uh, we love our visitors and we’re, we’re devastated by what happened today. This is the police chief’s nightmare. Um, I’m, I’m very saddened for the Kirk family. um, I know his, uh. His wife and parents, uh, found out about this, you know, obviously he’s away from home. He’s here in Utah they find out, uh, by police officer, uh, that that visits their home. That’s tragic. Nobody wants that, but I can tell you about our venue today. This was an open venue. This is outside. Uh, we did have, um, 6 officers working in that event. Um, we had, uh, probably over 3000 people that were in attendance, um, it sat down in kind of *** bowl area here on the central campus. We have *** waterfall area. And so he was uh kind of in *** *** lower area, uh, surrounded by uh by buildings, um, you know, we, we had, um, uh, some plain clothes police officers that were in the crowd as well, you know, we trained for these things and and you think you, you, you have things covered and um. You know, these things, um, you, you know, unfortunately they happen. You try to get, you try to get your bases covered and unfortunately today we didn’t and because of that we had this tragic incident, so we did have officers there. We had, uh, Charlie Kirk’s team, um, he has *** security team that travels with him and they were here with him when, when he, when he was shot. I’m sorry, the recovered. Um, I, at this point, I, I, I can’t disclose that. I was shot. There was *** question being asked about mass shooting. Was that person apprehended? And do you know who asked that question? Say the question again. I don’t know if I understand what you’re saying. When Charlie Kirk was shot, he was answering *** question about mass shootings specifically. Was that person apprehended and do you know who asked that question? Uh, I do not, we do not have that at this moment. ladies and gentlemen, we have time for just one more question, so thank you. Yeah, um, *** question for the chief as well, um, was it your team or Kirk’s team or *** combination of both that kind of set the security protocol for the event? So we worked together, you know, he has his team and and they do this all over the country we all know that this is not uncommon for them uh they’re very comfortable on campuses and I was coordinating with his lead security guy and, um, uh, so yeah, we were working together. Was this *** sharpshooter type shot? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s that’s, um, those are all the questions that will be answered today um again, thank you for for covering this. uh, we will be, uh, we’ll be updating you as soon as we have additional information through uh through normal channels working with law enforcement again our. Our deepest condolences uh to the uh to the Kirk family and uh and to the students who were who were there today um and uh I would, I would just ask everyone everywhere to please pray for their family and uh and to pray for our country and we need it now more than ever thank you.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Donald Trump ally, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump confirmed.Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shootingKirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities. A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shooting
Kirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities.
A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.
Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.
Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.
Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Press conference we will first hear from Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Be Mason. Then we’ll hear from the FBI special agent in charge, Robert Bowles. Uh, we’ll then hear from Utah Valley University Vice President Val Peterson, who’s been in touch with President Timenez. And then we’ll hear from Governor Cox, turn the time over to Commissioner Mason. Hello everyone I’m Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety. Today at approximately 12:20 Mountain Standard Time. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot in an event at the Utah Valley University. He was taken by private vehicle to Timpanoga’s Hospital where he later passed. The Utah Department of Public Safety will be co-leading this criminal investigation to find this killer along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’re working in unison with the county sheriff’s office, the local police department, and the university police department, all of which have been very cooperative and fully engaged in this process. Shortly after the shooting, we did have *** suspect in custody, George Zinn. But he was released from custody after we identified that he did not match the shooting suspect, um, and was not an accurate person of interest. However, he has been booked into the uh county jail by Utah Valley University Police Department for obstruction of justice. We do still have an active investigation for the person of interest. This incident occurred with *** large crowd around. There was one shot fired and 11 victim. While the suspect is at large, we believe this was *** targeted attack towards one individual. This is *** tragic moment in our state and in our country. As we heal, we encourage everyone who’s struggling with news of the incident to call 988, our state mental health crisis line. In addition to that, our partners with the FBI will also be discussing other ways we can communicate through the public for tips and other information. Thank you. Good afternoon On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts are also with the people who witnessed this traumatic event. We know that you, what you experienced was very difficult. Our thoughts are with you as well. As soon as we heard about the shooting, special agents and personnel from the Salt Lake Field Office. Responded immediately. We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence. To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co-lead this investigation alongside with our partners. We’re working on setting up *** digital media tip line and as soon as it’s established, we’ll get that information out to everyone. I know there’s *** lot of questions. This is very much an active case and this investigation is in its early stages. We are following all the leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information, please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement. Thank you. On behalf of President Tenez, who we’ve been communicating with and she’s on her way back right now, I, um, say that on behalf of Utah Valley University we are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk. We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We grieve with our students, faculty and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy. He was invited by the student group Turning Point USA to speak on our campus. We firmly believe that UVU is *** place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully. Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here. We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus *** safe place for all. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this uh on this dark and and tragic occasion. I wanna thank our law enforcement officers who are leading this investigation, starting with Chief Long, uh, and, and his, uh, his response here with the UVU police department. Um, we’re grateful for your leadership and, uh, and your team, and again to the, the speakers that you’ve just heard from who are are co-leading this investigation. I also want to uh recognize Sheriff Mike Smith who has been an invaluable partner as uh as this investigation moves forward. I’ve been in touch with uh with with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel, um, we are completely aligned with our state and federal partners as uh as we work through this case now. This is *** dark day for our state. It’s *** tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is *** political assassination. We are. Celebrating 250 years of the founding of this great nation. That founding document, the Declaration of Independence. That this this great experiment on which we embarked together 250 years ago that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. The first one of those is life. And today, *** life was taken. Charlie Kirk was first and foremost. *** husband and *** dad to two young children. He was also Very much politically involved and that’s why he was here on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate. To shape ideas. And to persuade people. Historically Our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated. And that’s what he does. He comes on college campuses and he debates. That is foundational to the formation of our country. To our most basic constitutional rights. And when someone takes the life of *** person. Because of their ideas or their ideals. Then that very constitutional foundation is threatened. Now we have *** person of interest in custody. The investigation is ongoing. But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this. We will find you. We will try you And we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah. Our nation is broken. We’ve had Political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination. On *** presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States. Nothing I say can unite us as *** country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are broken. We mourn. With his wife, his children, his family, his friends, we mourn as *** nation. If anyone in the sound of my voice. Celebrated even *** little bit at the news of this shooting. I would beg you To look in the mirror. And to see if you can find *** better angel in there somewhere. I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American. We desperately need our country. We desperately need leaders in our country, but more than the leaders we just need every single person in this country. To think about where we are and where we want to be. To ask ourselves, is this, is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? I pray that that’s not the case. I pray that those who hated. What Charlie Cook stood for. We put down their social media and their pens. And pray for his family. And that all of us. All of us will try to find *** way to stop hating our fellow Americans. With that we’re happy to take *** few questions. The FBI director is posting that *** that *** suspect is in custody. I would just like clarification. Do you or do you not have *** suspected shooter? We have *** person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now. We do not that is not George Zim. That is correct. Are you still searching or looking for another shooter or anybody else related to this? Yes, we are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any any possible information relating to the shooting. Can you tell us details about the suspect being taken into custody, where, you know, how long ago. We, we cannot at this point, but we will get you that information when when we can. Is there believed to be *** second individual involved in the shooting? At this point there is no information that would lead us to believe that there is *** second person involved. Can you guys talk. Um, we. Do you want to talk about what we know there? Yeah. The only information we have on on the suspect, uh, the possible shooter is taken from closed circuit TV here on campus. Um, we do have that we’re, we’re analyzing it, um, but it is security camera footage so you can, you can, uh, kind of guess what the, what the quality of that is, um, but we do know, uh, dressed in, in all, all dark clothing, uh, but we don’t have *** much better description other than that. The shot came from here on campus, um, from, uh, *** location, um. And *** Uh, potentially from *** roof, yes, and longer distance shot from *** roof. So to clarify with the security camera footage you have and the personal interest that’s in custody, do those, does that match up? That’s what we’re trying to decipher right now. Did the FBI or DHS have anything on the threat for this morning? I can’t speak I’ll just say that the investigation is ongoing and as soon as we have further information, we will be sure to release it. Any indications of foreign intelligence involvement? As of now I can’t comment on any of that. Can you talk *** little about the security of the event itself, but who was there security wise and, and what happens on these kind of events. So my name is Jeff Long. I’m the police chief here at UVU, and I’ll tell you right now we’re devastated. We’re *** small, uh, small police department. Uh, we have *** very large campus. We have over 40,000 students, and we love our students. Uh, we love our visitors and we’re, we’re devastated by what happened today. This is the police chief’s nightmare. Um, I’m, I’m very saddened for the Kirk family. um, I know his, uh. His wife and parents, uh, found out about this, you know, obviously he’s away from home. He’s here in Utah they find out, uh, by police officer, uh, that that visits their home. That’s tragic. Nobody wants that, but I can tell you about our venue today. This was an open venue. This is outside. Uh, we did have, um, 6 officers working in that event. Um, we had, uh, probably over 3000 people that were in attendance, um, it sat down in kind of *** bowl area here on the central campus. We have *** waterfall area. And so he was uh kind of in *** *** lower area, uh, surrounded by uh by buildings, um, you know, we, we had, um, uh, some plain clothes police officers that were in the crowd as well, you know, we trained for these things and and you think you, you, you have things covered and um. You know, these things, um, you, you know, unfortunately they happen. You try to get, you try to get your bases covered and unfortunately today we didn’t and because of that we had this tragic incident, so we did have officers there. We had, uh, Charlie Kirk’s team, um, he has *** security team that travels with him and they were here with him when, when he, when he was shot. I’m sorry, the recovered. Um, I, at this point, I, I, I can’t disclose that. I was shot. There was *** question being asked about mass shooting. Was that person apprehended? And do you know who asked that question? Say the question again. I don’t know if I understand what you’re saying. When Charlie Kirk was shot, he was answering *** question about mass shootings specifically. Was that person apprehended and do you know who asked that question? Uh, I do not, we do not have that at this moment. ladies and gentlemen, we have time for just one more question, so thank you. Yeah, um, *** question for the chief as well, um, was it your team or Kirk’s team or *** combination of both that kind of set the security protocol for the event? So we worked together, you know, he has his team and and they do this all over the country we all know that this is not uncommon for them uh they’re very comfortable on campuses and I was coordinating with his lead security guy and, um, uh, so yeah, we were working together. Was this *** sharpshooter type shot? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s that’s, um, those are all the questions that will be answered today um again, thank you for for covering this. uh, we will be, uh, we’ll be updating you as soon as we have additional information through uh through normal channels working with law enforcement again our. Our deepest condolences uh to the uh to the Kirk family and uh and to the students who were who were there today um and uh I would, I would just ask everyone everywhere to please pray for their family and uh and to pray for our country and we need it now more than ever thank you.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Donald Trump ally, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump confirmed.Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shootingKirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities. A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Donald Trump ally, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump confirmed.
Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shooting
Kirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities.
A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.
Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.
Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.
Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss.
Over the next few days, we are going to hear politicians, commentators and others remind us that political violence is never OK, and never the answer.
That is true.
There is no room in a healthy democracy, or a moral society, for killings based on vengeance or beliefs — political, religious, whatever.
But the sad reality is that our democracy is not healthy, and violence is a symptom of that. Not the make-believe, cities-overrun violence that has led to the military in our streets, but real, targeted political violence that has crept into society with increasing frequency.
Our decline did not begin with the horrific slaying Wednesday of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father and conservative media superstar, and it will not end with it. We are in a moment of struggle, with two competing views for where our country should go and what it should be. Only one can win, and both sides believe it is a battle worth fighting.
So be it. Fights in democracy are nothing new and nothing wrong.
We can blame the heated political rhetoric of either side for violence, as many already are, but words are not bullets and strong democracies can withstand even the ugliest of speeches, the most hateful of positions.
The painful and hard specter of more violence to come has less to do with far-right or far-left than extreme fringe in either political direction. Occasionally it’s ideological, but more often it isn’t MAGA, communist or socialist so much as confusion and rage cloaking itself in political convenience. Violence comes where trust in the system is decimated, and where hope is ground to dust.
These are the places were we find the isolated, the disenfranchised, the red-pilled or the blue-pilled — however you see it — and anyone else, who pushed by the stress and anger of this moment, finds themselves believing violence or even murder is a solution, maybe the only solution.
These are not mainstream people. Like all killers, they live outside the rules of society and likely would have found their way beyond our boundaries with or without politics. But politics found them, and provided what may have seemed like clarity in a maelstrom of anything but.
In the past few years, we have seen people such as this make two attempts on Donald Trump’s life. One of those was a 20-year-old student, Michael Thomas Crooks, still almost a kid, whose motives will likely never be known.
The American flag at the White House is lowered on Wednesday after the slaying of Charlie Kirk.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
A few months ago, we saw a political massacre in Minnesota aimed at Democratic lawmakers. Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed by the same attacker who shot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and attempted to shoot their daughter Hope. Authorities found a hit list of 45 targets in his possession.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home was broken into in 2022 and her husband, Paul, was attacked by a hammer-wielding assailant with a unicorn costume in his backpack.
Despite the fact that these instances of violence have been aimed at both Democrats and Republicans, we live under a Republican government at the moment, one that holds unprecedented power.
Already, that power structure is calling not for calm or justice, but retribution.
“We’ve got trans shooters. You’ve got riots in L.A. They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. They are at war with us,” said Fox News commentator Jesse Watters shortly after Kirk was shot. “What are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And that’s the question we’re just going to have to ask ourselves.”
On that last bit, I agree with Watters. We do need to ask ourselves how much political violence we are going to tolerate.
The internet is buzzing with a quote from Kirk on gun violence: “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
Like Kirk, I think some things are worth ugly prices. I don’t think guns are one of them, but I do think democracy is.
We can’t allow political violence to be the reason we curb democracy. Even if that violence continues, we must find ways to fight it that preserve the constitutional values that make America exceptional.
“It is extremely important to caution U.S. policymakers in this heated environment to act responsibly and not use the specter of political violence as an excuse to suppress nonviolent movements, curb freedoms of assembly and expression, encourage retaliation, or otherwise close civic spaces,” a trio of Brookings Institution researchers wrote as part of their “Monitoring the pillars of democracy” series. “Weaponizing calls for stability and peace in response to political violence is a real threat in democratic and nondemocratic countries globally.”
The slaying of Charlie Kirk is reprehensible, and his family and friends have suffered a loss I can’t imagine. Condolences don’t cover it.
But the legacy of his death, and of political violence, can’t be crackdowns — because if we do that, we forever damage the country we all claim to love.
If we take anything away from this tragic day, let it be a commitment to democracy, and America, in all her chaotic and flawed glory.
SEOUL — The immigration raid that snatched up hundreds of South Koreans last week sent a disconcerting message to companies in South Korea and elsewhere: America wants your investment, but don’t expect special treatment.
Images of employees being shackled and detained like criminals have outraged many South Koreans. The fallout is already being felt in delays to some big investment projects, auto industry executives and analysts said. Some predicted that it could also make some companies think twice about investing in the U.S. at all.
“Companies cannot afford to not be more cautious about investing in the U.S. in the future,” said Lee Ho-guen, an auto industry expert at Daeduk University, “In the long run, especially if things get worse, this could make car companies turn away from the U.S. market and more toward other places like Latin America, Europe or the Middle East.”
The raid last week, in which more than 300 South Korean nationals were detained, targeted a factory site in Ellabell, Ga., owned by HL-GA Battery Co., a joint venture between Hyundai and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solutions to supply batteries for electric vehicles. The Georgia factory also is expected to supply batteries for Kia, which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group. Kia has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its factory in West Point, Ga.
“This situation highlights the competing policy priorities of the Trump administration and has many in Asia scratching their heads, asking, ‘Which is more important to America? Immigration raids or attracting high-quality foreign investment?’” said Tami Overby, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. “Images of hundreds of Korean workers being treated like criminals are playing all over Asia and don’t match President Trump’s vision to bring high-quality, advanced manufacturing back to America.”
A protester wears a mask of President Trump at a rally Tuesday in Seoul against the detention of South Korean workers in Georgia. The signs call for “immediate releases and Trump apology.”
(Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)
South Korea is one of the U.S.’ biggest trading partners, with the two countries exchanging $242.5 billion in goods and services last year. The U.S. is the leading destination for South Korea’s overseas investments, receiving $26 billion last year, according to South Korea’s Finance Ministry.
Trump is banking on ambitious projects like the one raided in Georgia to revive American manufacturing.
Hyundai is one of the South Korean companies with the largest commitments to the U.S. It has invested about $20 billion since entering the market in the 1980s. It sold 836,802 vehicles in the U.S. last year.
California is one of its largest markets, with more than 70 dealerships.
Earlier this year, the company announced an additional $26 billion to build a new steel mill in Louisiana and upgrade its existing auto plants.
Hyundai’s expansion plans were part of the $150-billion pledge that South Korea made last month to help persuade Trump to set tariffs on Korean products at 15% instead of the 25% he had earlier announced.
Samsung Electronics announced that it would invest $37 billion to construct a semiconductor factory in Texas. Similarly large sums are expected from South Korean shipbuilders.
Analysts and executives say the recent raid is making companies feel exposed, all the more so because U.S. officials have indicated that more crackdowns are coming.
“We’re going to do more worksite enforcement operations,” White House border advisor Tom Homan said Sunday. “No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heart. They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, undercut the competition that hires U.S. citizen employees.”
Many South Korean companies have banned all work-related travel to the U.S. or are recalling personnel already there, according to local media reports. Construction work on at least 22 U.S. factory sites has reportedly been halted.
The newspaper Korea Economic Daily reported Monday that 10 out of the 14 companies it contacted said they were considering adjusting their projects in the U.S. due to the Georgia raid.
It is a significant problem for the big planned projects, analysts say. South Korean companies involved in U.S. manufacturing projects say they need to bring their own engineering teams to get the factories up and running, but obtaining proper work visas for them is difficult and time-consuming. The option often used to get around this problem is an illegal shortcut like using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, a nonwork permit that allows tourists to stay in the country for up to 90 days.
Unlike countries such as Singapore or Mexico, South Korea doesn’t have a deal with Washington that guarantees work visas for specialized workers.
“The U.S. keeps calling for more investments into the country. But no matter how many people we end up hiring locally later, there is no way around bringing in South Korean experts to get things off the ground,” said a manager at a subcontractor for LG Energy Solution who asked not to be named. “But now we can no longer use ESTAs like we did in the past.”
Trump pointed to the problem on his social media platform, posting that he will try to make it easier for South Korean companies to bring in the people they need, but reminding them to “please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws.”
“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people … and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” the post said.
Sydney Seiler, senior advisor and Korea chair at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the timing of the raids was an “irritant” but that South Korean companies eventually would adjust.
“Rectifying that is a challenge for all involved, the companies, the embassies who issue visas, etc.,” Seiler said, adding that the raids will make other companies be more careful in the future.
Vladimir Putin is on a roll the past few weeks. First President Trump invited him to Anchorage. Then he got a three-way hug with China’s President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a summit in China. And an invitation to a grand military parade in Beijing.
Since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Putin had been shunted to the fringes of summit group photos. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he had been treated as a pariah by the United States and Europe. Indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, he could travel only to countries that wouldn’t arrest him. In short, Moscow was not being treated with the respect it believed it deserved.
Trump thought that by literally rolling out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska — and clapping as the Russian loped down the red carpet — he could reset the bilateral relationship. And it did. But not the way Trump intended.
The Alaskan summit convinced the Russians that the current administration is willing to throw the sources of American global power out the window.
Trade partners, geopolitical allies and alliances — everything is on the table for Trump. The U.S. president believes this shows his power; the Russians see this as a low-cost opportunity to degrade American influence. Putin was trained by the KGB to recognize weakness and exploit it.
There is no evidence that being friendly to Putin and agreeing with Russian positions are going to make Moscow more willing to stop fighting in Ukraine. Overlooking Russia’s intensifying hybrid attacks on Europe, in February, Vice President JD Vance warned Europe that it should be focusing instead on the threat to democracy “from within.” This followed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth‘s assurances that Ukraine would never join NATO. Trump has suggested that U.S. support for NATO and Europe is contingent on those countries paying up. In an event that sent Moscow pundits to pop the Champagne, Trump told Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office that he just didn’t “have the cards” and should stop trying to beat Russia.
Did any of this bring Putin to the negotiating table? No.
In fact, the Kremlin indicated a readiness to talk with Trump about the war only when Trump threatened “very, very powerful” sanctions in mid-July. This time, he seemed serious about it. The Alaska summit happened a month later. The tougher Trump is with Russia, the more likely he is to get any kind of traction in negotiations. It’s unfortunate that the president has now gone back to vague two-weekdeadlines for imposing sanctions that never materialize.
Russia believes it will win the war. China has been a steady friend, willing to sell Russia cars and dual-use technology that ends up in drones that are attacking Ukrainian cities. It has also become Russia’s largest buyer of crude oil and coal. Western sanctions have not been biting the Russian economy, though they have nibbled away at state revenues. Europe and the United States have not been willing to apply the kind of economic pressure that would seriously dent Russia’s ability to carry on the war.
Putin keeps saying that a resolution to the war requires that the West address the “root causes” of the war. These causes, for Russia, relate to the way it was treated after losing the Cold War. The three Baltic nations joined Europe as fast as they could. Central and Eastern European countries decided that they would rather be part of NATO than the Warsaw Pact. When Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine started asking for membership in the European Union and NATO, Russia realized it wouldn’t be able to convince them to stay with economic appeal or soft power. It had to use force. Unable to demonstrate the attraction of its suffocating embrace, or the value of its Eurasian Economic Union, Russia believed it had to use force to keep Ukraine by its side. It reminds one of a grotesque Russian expression: “If he beats you, it means he loves you.”
The real “root cause” of the war in Ukraine is Russia’s inability to accept that centuries of empire do not confer the right to dominate former colonies forever. Mongolia learned this. As did the British. And the French. And the Ottomans. The Austro-Hungarians.
Eventually this war will end. But not soon. Russia is insisting on maximalist demands that Ukraine cannot agree to, which include control over territory it hasn’t managed to occupy. Ukraine will not stop fighting until it is sure that Russia will not attack again. Achieving that degree of certainty with flimsy security guarantees is impossible.
In the meantime, Ukrainian cities on the frontline will continue being wiped out, citizens in Kherson will continue being subjects of “human safari” for Russian drone operators, people across Ukraine will continue experiencing daily air raids that send them scurrying into shelters. Soldiers, volunteers, civilians and children will continue dying. Trump appears to care about the thousands of daily casualties. Most of these are Russian soldiers who have been sent to their death by a Russian state that doesn’t see their lives as worth preserving.
Trump is understandably frustrated with his inability to “stop the killing” because he has assumed that satisfying Russian demands is the answer. The opposite is true: Only by showing — proving — to Russia that its demands are unattainable will the U.S. persuade the Kremlin to consider meaningful negotiations. Countries at war come to the negotiating table not because they are convinced to abandon their objectives. They sit down when they realize their goals are unattainable.
Alexandra Vacroux is the vice president for strategic engagement at the Kyiv School of Economics.
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Ideas expressed in the piece
Putin has successfully leveraged recent diplomatic engagements to break out of international isolation, using meetings with Xi Jinping and Modi, along with Trump’s invitation to Alaska, to demonstrate that Western attempts to sideline Russia have failed. These high-profile gatherings signal to the world that Russia remains a significant player on the global stage despite sanctions and international legal proceedings.
Trump’s accommodating approach toward Putin represents a fundamental misreading of Russian psychology and strategic thinking, as Putin was trained to recognize and exploit weakness rather than respond to friendship with reciprocal gestures. The president’s willingness to question support for NATO and suggest contingent relationships with allies signals to Moscow that American global influence can be degraded at low cost.
Russia only demonstrates willingness to engage in meaningful negotiations when faced with credible threats of severe consequences, as evidenced by the Kremlin’s indication of readiness to talk only after Trump threatened “very, very powerful” sanctions in July. Conversely, accommodating gestures and vague deadlines for sanctions that never materialize encourage Russian intransigence.
The fundamental driver of the conflict stems from Russia’s inability to accept the end of its imperial dominance over former territories, not the grievances about post-Cold War treatment that Moscow frequently cites. Russia’s resort to force against Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova reflects its failure to maintain influence through economic appeal or soft power, revealing an outdated imperial mindset that refuses to acknowledge former colonies’ right to self-determination.
Meaningful negotiations will only occur when Russia recognizes that its maximalist territorial and political demands are unattainable through military means, requiring sustained pressure rather than premature concessions. Current Russian demands for control over territory it hasn’t occupied and Ukraine’s complete capitulation demonstrate that Moscow still believes it can achieve total victory.
Different views on the topic
The Russia-China partnership faces significant structural limitations that constrain the depth of their cooperation, despite public declarations of “no limits” friendship. While both nations conduct joint military exercises and maintain substantial trade relationships, their military collaboration remains “carefully managed and circumscribed by each nation’s broader strategic interests,” with no mutual defense agreements or deep operational integration between their armed forces[1].
India’s apparent warming toward China and Russia reflects strategic autonomy principles rather than genuine alignment toward an anti-Western axis, as fundamental tensions between New Delhi and Beijing persist over unresolved border disputes and strategic competition in the Indian Ocean region[2]. Recent diplomatic gestures may be tactical responses to trade tensions rather than indicators of a permanent realignment away from partnerships with Australia, Japan, the European Union, and other democratic allies[2].
The potential for wedging strategies between Russia and China remains viable due to underlying structural tensions and competing interests, particularly in Central Asia where both powers seek influence. American policymakers increasingly recognize that the “reverse Nixon” approach of driving wedges between Moscow and Beijing could exploit inherent limitations in their partnership, as their relationship represents neither unlimited friendship nor a completely stable alliance[4][5].
China’s military cooperation with Russia serves Beijing’s interests in testing tactics and equipment while maintaining careful distance from direct involvement in conflicts that could jeopardize its broader strategic goals[1]. Chinese support for Russian drone production and dual-use technology transfers reflects calculated assistance that stops short of full military alliance, suggesting Beijing prioritizes its own strategic flexibility over unconditional support for Russian objectives[3].
SEOUL — South Korea says the U.S. has agreed to release the hundreds of Koreans caught in the largest-ever immigration raid last week.
South Korean presidential chief of staff, Kang Hoon-sik, said Sunday that negotiators were finalizing talks with U.S. officials to secure the release of the workers arrested in a federal immigration crackdown at a factory South Korean battery-maker LG Energy Solution and auto company Hyundai are building in Georgia.
The workers could return home on a chartered flight as early as this week, he said.
“The South Korean government will remain on guard and stay on the situation with responsibility until our citizens have safely returned home,” Kang said at a meeting with senior legislators and cabinet officials.
On Thursday, federal agents arrested 475 people at the factory site in Ellabell, Ga. More than 300 of those detained were South Korean citizens employed by LG and its subcontractors.
The crackdown came as South Korea’s biggest companies have pledged billions of dollars in new investment to boost their manufacturing operations in the U.S. as part of a trade deal reached by President Trump and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung earlier this year.
Trump announced in late July that tariffs on most imports from South Korea would be only 15% after South Korea agreed to invest $350 billion in key U.S. industries and purchase $100 billion worth of its liquified natural gas.
The fact that the raid targeted one of Korea’s most ambitious investments in the U.S at a time when the country is trying to rapidly ramp up its commitments prompted disbelief and indignation for some in Seoul.
In a press conference held on Sunday, ruling party lawmaker Oh Gi-hyoung stated that South Koreans should be treated with a level of respect commensurate with their country’s status as a major U.S. ally and investor.
The U.S. currently accounts for the greatest share of South Korea’s overseas investments, receiving $26 billion last year, according to South Korea’s finance ministry. South Korea is currently the U.S.’s 8th largest trading partner, with the two countries exchanging $242.5 billion in goods and services last year.
“If the U.S. genuinely wants to attract investment from South Korean companies, things like this cannot happen,” Oh said.
In a statement released Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Georgia said the operation — which was the largest single-site raid in the Department of Homeland Security’s history — was part of a nationwide initiative to “repel the invasion of illegal immigration” known as Operation Take Back America.
ICE has said that those arrested were found to be working illegally, many on “short-term or recreational visas,” which do not allow visitors to work.
As of 2022, there were around 110,000 unauthorized South Korean immigrants living in the U.S., representing 1% of the total, according to data compiled by the Pew Research Center.
Even if there is a swift release of the workers, experts in South Korea said this heavy-handed action could impact how the Asian nation sees its trade relationship with the U.S.
Industry experts say that the crackdown could lead to logistical challenges for both ongoing and future efforts by South Korean companies in the U.S.
South Korea recently announced a $150 billion project to help revive a declining American shipbuilding industry. There are also close to 10 other battery plant projects currently underway across the U.S.
For years, companies here have dispatched their own technical specialists to oversee the construction of U.S. factories using nonwork travel permits such as ESTA (or the Electronic System for Travel Authorization), a visa waiver that allows tourists to stay in the country for up to 90 days.
Though technically the visas do not allow holders to work, “it was tolerated for a long time by U.S. authorities,” said Hwang In-song, an industrial policy expert at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, a government think tank.
South Korean companies have long complained that the visas legally required for their dispatched workers are too time-consuming and challenging to obtain.
For example, the H-1B visa, which allows people to work, is awarded through a lottery held once a year. And getting one has gotten increasingly difficult under Trump, who has limited its eligibility under the banner of “Buy American, Hire American.”
“South Korean companies are reluctant to go that route because it takes at least 8 months of lead time before you can begin working on an H-1B, and there is no guarantee you will get it,” said Chun Jong-joon, a Korean American immigration lawyer based in Washington.
Hwang said it is nearly impossible to find enough Americans with the skills needed in order to staff South Korea’s U.S. factories, such as lithium-ion battery manufacturing or shipbuilding.
“As of now, there’s no way other than sending experienced South Korean specialists to help.”
After the release of the detained workers, South Korean officials said that they would pursue improvements to U.S. work permits for South Korean citizens.
Chile, Australia and Singapore have special work visa programs that allow their citizens to work in specialized roles in the U.S.
Until then, the arrests at the Georgia battery plant will likely mean months of costly delays, as the joint venture struggles to redeploy workers.
“In the case of LG Energy Solutions, they will have to think twice before sending their workers to the Georgia plant,” Hwang said.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Standing in the dilapidated ATM hall of his bank, Maher Elias huffed a sigh equal parts exasperation and exhaustion. Around him were lines dozens of people deep, all of them, like the 59-year-old Elias, waiting in the sweltering heat to withdraw cash.
Ahead of him was a wait of at least three hours — assuming the ATM didn’t shut down from electricity cuts or run out of bills. On one of the hottest days in the Damascene summer, his words interrupted by the occasional argument between other vexed patrons, Elias spoke while his eyes remained fixated on the front of the slow-moving queue.
“All this waiting, and for what?” he said, wiping the sweat from his brow. He could only withdraw 200,000 Syrian pounds (around $20) for the week.
“And we’re five people in my family. Between food, gas and rent, how long do you think that lasts?”
People queue up to enter Damascus’ Real Estate Bank to use a functioning ATM.
A stack of money sits on a desk in a bank. Syria’s banking and financial sectors are a shambles, with capital controls limiting withdrawals at about $60 per month.
Elias and the hundreds of others queuing in the lines that spilled out to the sidewalk of the Real Estate Bank of Syria were taking part in an often quixotic quest, as millions of Syrians contend with a cash crunch that resulted after former President Bashar Assad was toppled and a rebel-led government came in his stead.
For months now, withdrawing money has become almost a second job, with employees forced to take off from work to queue before banks, even as the lack of liquidity is strangling a ravaged economy struggling to shuffle off nearly 14 years of civil war.
And the worst part for Elias (and many others) was he would have to do it all over again another day so he could collect all of his 500,000 Syrian pound monthly salary — a little less than $50.
Still, as a state employee and a patron of one of Syria’s six state-owned banks, Elias was luckier than many others. Across the street, Mohammad, 63, was shouting at no one in particular in front of the private bank where he has his account. He had come with his granddaughter, 6-year-old Masa, from his home in a Damascus suburb, hoping to plead with a manager to OK a larger withdrawal.
But the manager told him there was no cash available; the ATMs weren’t even on. Mohammad, who gave his first name for reasons of privacy, didn’t have enough money for bus fare to go home.
“What am I supposed to do? Beg on the street? I’ve been coming for weeks, and these bastards refuse to give me my money,” he said, angrily pointing at the bank’s entrance. Masa looked at her grandfather and didn’t say a word.
A man reloads an ATM’s depleted stock of Syrian pounds in Damascus.
Sitting in his office, the bank manager, who refused to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to the media, insisted he had no choice but to turn away Mohammad and other patrons. Private banks, he said, were supposed to receive $20,000 in cash from the central bank every day. But more often than not, the banks got less, or nothing at all.
“And even when the cash does arrive, it’s barely enough to cover the number of withdrawals,” the bank manager said. Moments later, a businessman entered his office seeking a withdrawal amounting to $500 to pay his bills; he too left empty-handed.
When Syria’s new rulers came into power after a lightning fast offensive in December,they commandeered the Assad government’s financial institutions and took stock of a state-controlled economy enfeebled by war, corruption and sanctions: The Syrian pound, once valued at 47 to the U.S. dollar, plunged to 18,000 by the time Assad fled, turning most transactions into an arduous counting exercise involving sackfuls of pre-wrapped bricks of cash, each weighing more than a pound.
The exchange rate has since improved — if you can call it improvement — to around 11,000 to the dollar.
The economy’s output remains less than half of what it was in 2010, before the civil war erupted. A quarter of the country’s 26 million people live on less than $2.15 a day, according to a World Bank assessment in June. Two-thirds get by on less than $3.65 a day. Rebuilding the country will cost anywhere from $250 billion to $400 billion, estimates say.
A row of broken ATM’s inside Real Estate bank in Damascus.
The face of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad decorates Syrian pounds.
The banking sector is no less destroyed. Civil war-era sanctions all but isolated Syrian banks from the global financial system. Although President Trump recently ordered many of those sanctions lifted, and European governments have done the same, Western banks are still reluctant to move the massive amounts of money needed for reconstruction.
The new authorities swiftly loosened Assad-era restrictions, deluging the market with cheaper imports and lifting a moratorium that made dealing with dollars a criminal offense. They also imposed withdrawal limits, possibly in an attempt to prevent a run on the banks and stop former regime officials from emptying their accounts and fleeing.
But nine months on, the limits persist with little clarity as to why, according to bank employees and economic experts. The World Bank reported a shortage of physical bank notes, despite a 105-fold increase in the amount of currency between 2011 and 2024. It added that recent planeloads of bills printed in Russia — which had a monopoly on producing Syrian pounds under Assad — were too small to meaningfully alleviate the liquidity crisis.
Meanwhile, Syrians unable to access their bank accounts are relying on informal money changers — banned under Assad, but now flourishing — to buy Syrian pounds with gold or dollars they had amassed during Assad’s reign, despite the restrictions. Experts say such transactions are occurring at an artificially lowered exchange rate.
“This appears to be a systematic policy aimed at pulling dollars from people in a country where the dollar has been unleashed, and has become the main source of revenue because of remittances,” said Samir Aita, a Syrian economist who also heads the Circle of Arab Economists.
“Where are those dollars going? To the central bank? It seems not. This is something that keeps me up at night,” Aita said.
A customer passes U.S. dollars to a money collector. Possessing dollars was a crime when President Bashar Assad was in power.
Ammar Yusef, a Damascus-based economic expert, agreed with Aita’s assessment, adding that hard currency gathered by money changers is said to have been sent to the northwestern province of Idlib, for years the primary home of the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (or HTS) that ousted Assad.
One solution authorities have recently turned to for the cash crunch is e-payments. Earlier this year, they decreed all public sector salaries would be disbursed through Sham Cash, an app HTS first released in Idlib but that technical experts say is insecure and is linked to an Idlib-based bank that is not recognized by the central bank.
It’s unclear whether the app has the capacity to deal with an estimated 1.25 million civil servants, and whether it meets Western governments’ requirements on combating money laundering and terror financing — essential components to increasing trust in the country’s financial system.
Other experts point to serious concerns on fees charged by the two money transfer companies exclusively licensed to disburse money from Sham Cash. Both are considered close to the new government, and stand to collect more than $3 million annually in commissions.
“They’re in an open battle today with the country’s banks,” Aita said.
The government’s recently announced plans to redenominate the currency and eliminate two zeroes from each bill, he added, will do little to change the situation.
Inside Damascus’ Real Estate bank, with reflections from the Syrian capital outside.
Yet these machinations mean little for Elias. After waiting for almost four hours, and forced to switch queues twice before he encountered a functional ATM, he withdrew his Syrian pounds for the day. He would use them to buy bread and other essentials. He wouldn’t be able to take out money again for a few days.
“It feels like half the week is gone lining up for cash,” he said, huffing once more as he pushed through the crowds out of the ATM hall.
John Rich is grateful for the current administration’s help.
The country singer told Fox News Digital about his battle with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which inspired his new single, “The Devil & the TVA.”
The 51-year-old explained that the TVA was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and it only answers to the president, “so senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and definitely the general public has no sway over the TVA at all.”
He said there’s a long history of the TVA allegedly coming into “communities and towns and just ransacking these places – eminent domain, taking everybody’s land and building these monstrous projects. And so this started happening in my home county of Cheatham County, Tennessee.”
John Rich is grateful for the current administration’s help. The country singer told Fox News Digital about his battle with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which inspired his new single, “The Devil & the TVA.” (Jason Kempin/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
According to Rich, the TVA allegedly has a task force that tells homeowners, “‘Hey, we’re coming on your land whether you like it or not,’ which steps all over the Fourth Amendment and a lot of other rights that Americans have. And so, when I learned that’s what they were doing, and I actually saw a video of that exact thing happening to an 88-year-old woman in Cheatham County, that’s when I decided to enter this fight.”
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation that manages flood control, electric power, economic development and conservation.
Last fall, the TVA told FOX 17 in a statement: “TVA filed condemnation proceedings related to potential transmission lines that TVA may locate on these properties, and the Federal Judge overseeing the cases issued Orders of Possession. These orders immediately authorize TVA to enter the properties for the purpose of conducting surveys. The landowners’ objections do not bar TVA’s authorization to access the properties pursuant to the court’s orders, nor does authorization hinge on further activity in the lawsuits.”
In July, the public utility said Cheatham County is no longer the preferred site for its natural gas power plant.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the TVA and to the White House for comment.
“I think one great thing about this particular Trump administration is they are paying attention,” he continued. “They are listening to voters. They are following what’s happening in the news, even on social media … And if they see something really bad going down, they engage.”
As an example, he said when he told Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins the TVA was planning to tear up 6,000 acres of farmland in the county, she was shocked.
“She goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t think so. And that’s my jurisdiction, farming, agriculture.’ And so, she stepped in, good for her, she’s a hero,” he said. “I mean, she helped save almost 500 houses, five school districts in less than five miles from this plant, the main water source for two towns in that County with a 900-megawatt methane gas plant with 10 acres of lithium battery storage. Literally, I mean, you might as well drop a bomb on that county.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Rollins for comment.
Rich said Rollins had been alerted to the problem after he started posting interviews with residents who had been affected by the TVA, which started getting clicks on his YouTube channel, and eventually the attention of the president.
“And that’s when we actually had a fighting chance to push TVA out,” he added.
Rich said that because of the administration’s intervention, the residents of his country are celebrating and literally plan to have a parade.
“I think one great thing about this particular Trump administration is they are paying attention.”
— John Rich
“They had given up hope. They’re like ‘There’s no way you beat the TVA,’” he explained, adding that the TVA had allegedly sued more than 100 families because they wouldn’t allow them on their property. But it’s a low-income county and only around half of the residents in the county could even afford attorneys.”
John Rich performing in 2011. (Sara Kauss/Getty Images)
“I mean, does that sound like America to you?” he asked. “Does that sound like anything our country was founded on? It doesn’t to me. And again, that’s why I decided to engage.”
Rich said his new single is about “People power — we the people power is an actual thing.”
He wants low- and middle-income people to know it’s possible to go up against a multi-billion-dollar entity and win.
Going back to the Trump administration, Rich said he doesn’t know how anyone could have made more progress than Trump in his first eight months.
John Rich with Donald and Melania Trump in 2011. (Jim Spellman/WireImage)
“And again, I think a lot of that is due to the engagement level of his cabinet, of Trump himself and of his Cabinet,” Rich said. “You know, when you see live Cabinet meetings and everybody’s sitting in a room, I think he’s done six or seven of them so far, and he just goes around the table, what have you done this month? Okay, tell us what you’ve done, what about you? And the whole table, have you ever seen anything like that? I haven’t. It’s because those people are patriots. They know they have a short window to get a lot of things done.”
Rich said he has been texting back and forth with the president about the TVA.
“He’s like, ‘What is going on?’ I said, ‘It’s bad.’ ‘What’s going on down here?’ And so he weighed in on it, started firing members of the board of the TVA and is gonna replace them all. What I want to see happen is TVA to completely have to change their charter, we’re … still: ‘Go build power, go build power.’ We need power in this country, but treat American citizens like they should be treated and respect their property rights and respect their constitutional rights.”
Protests in Indonesia sparked by economic hardship have elicited a heavy-handed response from police, triggering concerns that the Southeast Asian nation could be returning to its authoritarian past.
As police trucks have been spray-painted with anti-law enforcement slogans, President Prabowo Subianto has denounced the demonstrations as “treason and terrorism” while seeking to assuage wide-ranging discontent.
Thousands have taken to the streets in major cities in the last week, joined at times by rioters setting fire to government buildings and looters ransacking the homes of politicians. At least 10 people have died and hundreds have been injured in the ensuing unrest.
On Wednesday, a coalition of student unions met with lawmakers and demanded an independent investigation into the police violence, portending further protests.
Frustrations in the world’s third-largest democracy have been building since Prabowo, a former military general and businessman, took power last year, implementing austerity measures that have cut billions from public services such as healthcare and education.
Many ordinary Indonesians criticize the government for primarily serving the interests of the wealthy elite even as youth unemployment soars and wages stagnate.
The initial wave of demonstrations began Aug. 25, with thousands gathering outside the country’s parliament to decry one stark example of such inequality: a $3,000 housing allowance for lawmakers that was nearly 10 times the minimum wage in Jakarta.
The discontent escalated into violence when a 21-year-old motorcycle taxi driver was fatally struck by an armored police vehicle speeding through the crowd.
Prabowo and his police chief have apologized for the incident, and one of the officers involved in the crash has been fired.
At a televised news conference, Prabowo stressed that the right to peaceful assembly should be protected but that “the state must step in to protect its citizens.”
Neither these measures, nor the president’s promise to scale back the lawmakers’ perks, have quelled the outpouring of public anger, which has been met with a police response that human rights groups have decried as excessive.
“Nobody should die while exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” said Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s regional research director for East and Southeast Asia.
On Monday, the United Nations called for an investigation into the “alleged use of unnecessary or disproportionate force by security forces.”
Since the demonstrations began, Indonesian police have used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets against protesters, some of whom have lobbed back Molotov cocktails and rocks. Authorities have arrested over 3,000 people.
Two deaths have been attributed to the police crackdown: a pedicab driver in the city of Solo who died last week while being treated for tear gas exposure, and a college student who died Sunday after apparently being beaten by police.
Such incidents have resurfaced the Indonesian public’s festering distrust of the police force, said Jacqui Baker, a scholar of Indonesian security and policing at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
“Ordinary people have long repeated a saying ‘report a chicken, lose a buffalo,’ meaning if you engage the police in routine law enforcement … you are likely to suffer more material loss than the original theft,” she said.
In recent years, civic groups have accused police of dozens of extrajudicial killings and torture.
Many of the country’s policing problems stem from a three-decade-long period of authoritarian rule under then-President Suharto that ended in 1998.
With the police remaining wedded to political interests even after the country’s democratization, Baker said, the “historical sense of entitlement has generated a deeply corrupt, violent and predatory force that is widely hated by ordinary people.”
President Prabowo himself is accused of human rights abuses, such as the abduction of dissidents, under Suharto’s rule. Critics say he is now pulling the country back into authoritarianism by expanding the military’s involvement in civilian institutions. Prabowo denies these claims.
WASHINGTON — President Trump has asked the Supreme Court for a fast-track ruling that he has broad power acting on his own to impose tariffs on products coming from countries around the world.
Despite losing in the lower courts, Trump and his lawyers have reason to believe they can win in the Supreme Court. The six conservative justices believe in strong presidential power, particularly in the area of foreign policy and national security.
In a three-page appeal filed Wednesday evening, they proposed the court decide by next Wednesday to grant review and to hear arguments in early November.
They said the lower court setbacks, unless quickly reversed, “gravely undermine the President’s ability to conduct real-world diplomacy and his ability to protect the national security and economy of the United States.”
They cited Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s warning about the potential for economic disruption if the court does not act soon.
“Delaying a ruling until June 26 could result in a scenario in which $750 billion-$1 trillion have already been collected and unwinding them could cause significant disruption,” he wrote.
Trump and his tariffs ran into three strong arguments in the lower courts.
First, the Constitution says Congress, not the president, has the power “to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” and a tariff is an import tax.
Second, the 1977 emergency powers law that Trump relies on does not mention tariffs, taxes or duties, and no previous president has used it to impose tariffs.
And third, the Supreme Court has frowned on recent presidents who relied on old laws to justify bold, new, costly regulations.
So far, however, the so-called “major questions” doctrine has been used to restrict Democratic presidents, not Republicans.
Three years ago, the court’s conservative majority struck down a major climate change regulation proposed by Presidents Obama and Biden that could have transformed the electric power industry on the grounds it was not clearly based on the Clean Air Act of the 1970s.
Two years ago, the court in the same 6-3 vote struck down Biden’s plan to forgive hundreds of millions of dollars in student loans. Congress had said the Education Department may “waive or modify” monthly loan payments during a national emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, but it did not say the loans may be forgiven, the court said. Its opinion noted the “staggering” cost could be more than $500 billion.
The impact of Trump’s tariffs figures to be at least five times greater, a federal appeals court said last week in ruling them illegal.
In a 7-4 vote, the federal circuit court cited all three arguments in ruling Trump had exceeded his legal authority.
“We conclude Congress, in enacting the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, did not give the president wide-ranging authority to impose tariffs,” they said.
But the outcome was not a total loss for Trump. The appellate judges put their decision on hold until the Supreme Court rules. That means Trump’s tariffs are likely to remain in effect for many months.
Trump’s lawyers were heartened by the dissent written by Judge Richard Taranto and joined by three others.
He argued that presidents are understood to have extra power when confronted with foreign threats to the nation’s security.
Taranto called the 1977 law “an eyes-open congressional grant of broad emergency authority in this foreign-affairs realm” that said the president may “regulate” the “importation” of dangerous products including drugs coming into this country.
Citing other laws from that era, he said Congress understood that tariffs and duties are a “common tool of import regulation.”
SEOUL — At a military parade in Beijing featuring China’s next-generation weaponry, another momentous scene was on display: Chinese President Xi Jinping standing side by side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Their joint appearance on Wednesday at a parade commemorating the end of World War II, is the first time that the leaders of the three countries have appeared together in public. It comes amid growing concern about the increasing collaboration of the “axis of upheaval,” a term that denotes China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea and their opposition to the U.S.-led world order.
It marks Kim’s first foray into multilateral diplomacy since assuming power in 2011. While in the past the reclusive leader has tended to avoid overseas trips due to security concerns, he arrived Tuesday in Beijing on a heavily armored train known as “The Sun,” stepping out to a welcome that even Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung didn’t get as the last North Korean leader to attend the Victory Day parade in 1959.
“The trip was an undeniable political victory for Kim Jong Un,” said Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korea studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University. “To be seen standing shoulder to shoulder with two superpowers in China is an incredibly powerful image of propaganda to show to North Korean residents.”
Kim’s growing diplomatic ambitions have in recent years involved a defense pact with Russia and the deployment of North Korean soldiers to the war in Ukraine in exchange for technological and military assistance.
In a statement posted on the website of North Korea’s foreign ministry a day before the parade, Vice Minister Pak Myong Ho accused the U.S. and other Western governments of openly inflicting “tyranny” against “countless countries around the world,” while expressing support for a new balance of power led by Beijing.
Experts at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), a government think tank, say that Kim’s most pressing agenda item in Beijing will be reviving its economic exchange with China, which has slowed in recent years amid Beijing’s frustrations with Pyongyang’s ongoing nuclear missile program.
“In economic matters, the importance of China’s assistance is absolute,” INSS researchers wrote in a report published ahead of the parade.
While Moscow in recent years has reportedly violated U.N. sanctions to provide North Korea with assistance ranging from refined petroleum to military drones, China is by far North Korea’s largest trading partner, accounting for up to 98% of the latter’s exports in 2023, according to an analysis by the Seoul-based Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
Noting that trade between North Korea and China currently sits at around 80% of pre-pandemic levels, the INSS researchers highlighted that the shortage of Chinese economic support — and once-steady tourist flows — was being acutely felt in places like the Wonsan Kalma resort, a newly opened beachside vacation destination that Kim called the country’s “greatest achievement” of 2025.
Despite North Korea’s vocal embrace of the so-called “new Cold War” order, Russia and China have been reluctant to do the same, analysts said.
“China doesn’t gain anything by forming a bloc with North Korea,” Park, the professor, said. “Xi Jinping knows all too well that at most, any attempt of this kind will at most be a loose gathering of countries who are positioned against the U.S. without any real power or the cohesiveness of a bloc.”
In a joint statement issued after a meeting in May 2024, Putin and Xi said that the China-Russia partnership is “a more advanced form of interstate interaction compared to the military-political alliances of the Cold War era and not of a bloc or confrontational nature.”
While a trilateral summit between the three leaders is widely regarded as unlikely for this reason, Kim’s appearance in Beijing may, on the other hand, provide the leverage he needs for a potential round two of summits with President Trump.
“I think North Korea may be willing to discuss a rollback of its nuclear program and demanding in return things like a permanent end to any joint U.S.- South Korea military drills or halting the deployment of any strategic assets,” Park said.
Though Trump expressed a willingness to sit down with Kim during a summit with South Korean president Lee Jae Myung last month, Park says that Pyongyang no longer sees the U.S.’ long-standing goal of North Korean denuclearization as a viable starting point — and that Kim’s parade appearance is likely to be seen as yet another vindication of that position.
During the trial, though, a concerning but little-noticed exchange popped up between lawyers for the state of California and Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who was in charge of the federalized National Guard forces in L.A. It should have been an explosive, red-flag moment highlighting the pressure our military leaders are under to shake off their oath to the Constitution in favor of fealty to Trump.
Sherman testified that he objected to National Guard involvement in a show-of-force operation in MacArthur Park, where Latino families often congregate.
That action, Sherman said, was originally slated for Father’s Day, an especially busy time at the park. Internal documents showed it was considered it a “high-risk” operation. Sherman said he feared his troops would be pushed into confrontations with civilians if Border Patrol became overwhelmed by the crowds on that June Sunday.
Gregory Bovino, in charge of the immigration efforts in L.A. for the Border Patrol, questioned Sherman’s “loyalty to the country,” Sherman testified, for just showing hesitation about the wisdom and legality of an order.
It’s the pressure that “you’re not being patriotic if you don’t blow by the law and violate it and just bend the knee and and exhibit complete fealty and loyalty to Trump,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Tuesday. And it’s a warning of what’s to come as Trump continues to press for military involvement in civilian law enforcement across the country.
For the record, Sherman has served our country for decades, earning along the way the prestigious Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star and the Meritorious Service Medal among other accolades.
The MacArthur Park operation, according to the Department of Homeland Security, was itself little more than a performative display of power “to demonstrate, through a show of presence, the capacity and freedom of maneuver of federal law enforcement within the Los Angeles,” according to agency documents presented in court. It was dubbed Operation Excalibur, in honor of the legendary sword of King Arthur that granted him divine right to rule, a point also included in court documents.
But none of that mattered. Instead, Sherman was pushed to exhibit the kind of blind loyalty to a dear leader that you’d expect to be demanded in dictatorships like those of North Korea or Hungary. Loyalty that confuses — or transforms — a duty to the Constitution with allegiance to Trump. Military experts warn that Sherman’s experience isn’t an isolated incident.
“There’s a chilling effect against pushing back or at least openly questioning any kind of orders,” Rachel E. VanLandingham, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, told me. She’s former active duty judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force who now teaches at Southwestern Law School and serves as a national security law expert.
VanLandingham sees the leadership of our armed forces under pressure “to not engage in the critical thinking, which, as commanders, they are required to do, and to instead go along to get along.” She sees Sherman’s testimony as a “telling glimpse into the wearing away” of that crucial independence.
Such a shift in allegiance would undermine any court order keeping the military out of civilian law enforcement, leaving Trump with exactly the boots on the ground power he has sought since his first term. This is not theoretical.
Through Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump has purged the top ranks of the military of those who aren’t loyal to him. In February, Hegseth fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Black soldier who championed diversity in the armed forces. Hegseth has also purged the head of the Pentagon’s intelligence agency, the head of the National Security Agency, the chief of Naval Operations, multiple senior female military staff and senior military lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. In August, he fired the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency after that general gave a truthful assessment of our bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, angering Trump.
At the same time, the military is being pushed farther into civilian affairs, and not just as erstwhile cops. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Hegseth ordered 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges.
Not to dive too deep into the convoluted immigration system, but these are civilian legal positions, another possible violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, VanLandingham points out.
And beyond that, can a military lawyer — trained and bound to follow orders — really act as an impartial judge in proceedings where the administration’s wish to deport is clearly known?
Goodbye due process, goodbye fair trial.
That “looks like martial law when you have militarized … judicial proceedings,” VanLandingham said. “How can we trust they are making unbiased decisions? You can’t.”
And even though Sherman pushed back on a full-blown military presence in MacArthur Park, that raid did happen. Federal agents marched through, about three weeks after Father’s Day, with National Guard troops remaining in their vehicles on the perimeter. It was Hegseth himself who authorized the mission.
Sherman also said on the stand that he was told there were “exceptions” to the Posse Comitatus Act — the law being debated in the trial that prevents the military from being used as civilian law enforcement — and that the president had the power to decide what those exceptions were.
“So your understanding is that while [some actions] are on the list of prohibited functions, you can do them under some circumstances?” Judge Charles Breyer asked.
“That’s the legal advice I received,” Sherman answered.
“And the president has the authority to make that decision?” Breyer asked.
“The president has the authority,” Sherman answered.
But does he?
Breyer also asked during the trial, if the president’s powers to both command troops and interpret law are so boundless, “What’s to prevent a national police force?” What, in effect, could stop Trump’s Excalibur-inspired inclinations?
For now, it’s the courts and ethical, mid-level commanders like Sherman, whose common-sense bravery and decency kept the military out of MacArthur Park.
Men and women who understand that the oaths they have sworn are to our country, not the man who would be king.
Colleges and universities across the United States are preparing for a significant drop in international student enrollment this fall as President Donald Trump aims to overhaul the vetting and admission process for foreign students.Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA), said, “In terms of tuition dollars to universities, that will certainly be an impact, but in addition to universities, they contribute to the local economy.”The Association of International Educators says the drop in foreign enrollment could be as high as 15% this fall, which could deprive the U.S. economy of about $7 billion in spending, result in more than 60,000 fewer jobs, and strain school budgets across the country.Trump acknowledged the importance of international students last week, saying, “I like that other country students come here. And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly.” However, he has also argued that foreign students take slots from Americans and only wants those who “can love our country.”Critics claim that the administration’s policies are contributing to the decline by pressuring colleges to limit enrollment, tightening visa screening, and revoking thousands of visas, arguing that those students broke the law or supported terrorism. Trump stated, “We don’t want troublemakers here.”The administration maintains that these measures are about security, but experts like Aw argue, “This idea that international students are a national security threat is one that there is no evidence to support that at all.”Trump last week suggested doubling the number of Chinese students in American universities, a move that contrasts with his previous crackdown and has sparked criticism from conservatives.
WASHINGTON —
Colleges and universities across the United States are preparing for a significant drop in international student enrollment this fall as President Donald Trump aims to overhaul the vetting and admission process for foreign students.
Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA), said, “In terms of tuition dollars to universities, that will certainly be an impact, but in addition to universities, they contribute to the local economy.”
The Association of International Educators says the drop in foreign enrollment could be as high as 15% this fall, which could deprive the U.S. economy of about $7 billion in spending, result in more than 60,000 fewer jobs, and strain school budgets across the country.
Trump acknowledged the importance of international students last week, saying, “I like that other country students come here. And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly.” However, he has also argued that foreign students take slots from Americans and only wants those who “can love our country.”
Critics claim that the administration’s policies are contributing to the decline by pressuring colleges to limit enrollment, tightening visa screening, and revoking thousands of visas, arguing that those students broke the law or supported terrorism. Trump stated, “We don’t want troublemakers here.”
The administration maintains that these measures are about security, but experts like Aw argue, “This idea that international students are a national security threat is one that there is no evidence to support that at all.”
Trump last week suggested doubling the number of Chinese students in American universities, a move that contrasts with his previous crackdown and has sparked criticism from conservatives.
Jason Aldean revealed he suffered a “breakdown” months after the Las Vegas festival shooting in 2017.
“It was a festival like we’ve done a million times,” Aldean recalled on the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “It was just obviously something that we weren’t prepared for.”
Aldean was performing on Oct. 1, 2017 when shots rang out at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Sixty people died and more than 800 were injured after a man opened fire from the window of a Mandalay Bay casino hotel room.
“We finally got out of there the next afternoon, home, and you’re just glad to be home, show up my mom’s crying,” Aldean told host Dax Shepard. “You know, my oldest daughter was in school, freaking out, thinking that somebody was trying to shoot us, so all the details were still kind of coming out.”
Jason Aldean revealed he suffered a breakdown months after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting left 60 people dead.(Getty Images)
Aldean had a busy schedule in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. He opened “SNL” days later then traveled back to Vegas to honor the victims.
“Sunday morning, I was on a flight going back to Las Vegas to go to the hospital and see all the victims. That was tough,” he shared. “People hadn’t recovered from their wounds yet.”
Jason Aldean appeared in the cold open of “SNL” days after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.(Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Jason Aldean and Brittany share two kids together. The country singer also is dad to two daughters with his ex.(Getty Images)
Aldean’s wife gave birth to their first child together two months after the shooting, giving the country singer a moment to begin processing at home.
“All of a sudden at home, we kind of had something else to focus on versus watching that on the news every day,” Aldean recalled. “I think for me, you know, I kind of had a breakdown in my house one day. It was after my son was born and just all that heaviness of everything, just getting laid on you.”
The “She’s Country” singer struggled thinking of what could have happened during the fatal shooting.
“I ended up having a moment at my house where I kind of broke down thinking about just all the people that I could have lost, all the people that we did lose as far as fans, but my inner circle of people and my wife was there eight months pregnant with my son and all these things,” he said.
CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. warships steam toward the southern Caribbean. The Trump administration denounces embattled “narco-president” Nicolás Maduro and doubles a bounty on his head to $50 million. Rumors of an invasion, coup or other form of U.S. intervention flood social media.
For the beleaguered people of Venezuela, mired in more than a decade of crisis — hyperinflation, food shortages, authoritarian rule and rigged elections — a new phase of anxiety is once again rattling nerves. Even so, Venezuelans are trying to soldier on.
“We try to keep up our activities, our schedules despite the uncertainty,” said Leisy Torcatt, 44, a mother of three who heads a baseball school in a nation where a passion for sports helps fend off despair.
Students of the little league team for the Los Angeles de Baruta school practice in a park in Caracas.
“Our daily problems continue, but we cannot become paralyzed. … We keep on going forward trying to work out our differences,” she said.
There is an inescapable sense here that matters are largely out of people’s control. The massive anti-Maduro street protests of past years did little to dislodge, or undermine, Maduro, and the opposition has long been deeply divided. Authorities have jailed dissenters and broken up coup attempts.
And now, once again, Venezuela appears to be in Washington’s crosshairs.
“We have already seen it all,” said Mauricio Castillo, 28, a journalist. “It’s not that we have lost faith in the possibility of real change. But we are fed up. We cannot just stop our lives, put them on hold waiting for ‘something’ to happen.”
People shop in the central business district downtown.
Here in the capital, Venezuelans are accustomed to the enhanced martial ritual: more blockaded avenues, more troops on the streets, more barricades shielding the presidential palace of Miraflores, where Maduro launches diatribes against the “imperialist” would-be invaders.
Yet, despite the current naval buildup in the Caribbean, the Trump administration has given very mixed signals on Venezuela.
During Trump’s first presidency, his administration recognized a shadow opposition president, indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and imposed draconian sanctions on the oil and financial sectors. The sanctions effectively collapsed an already shaky economy in what was once South America’s wealthiest nation.
The economic meltdown led to an exodus of some 8 million Venezuelans, almost a third of the population. Most ended up elsewhere in South America, but hundreds of thousands made it to the United States. Trump has signaled emphatically that they are not welcome, ending Biden administration-era protections and stepping up deportations.
A man fixes a Spider-Man costume at the San Jacinto popular market in Caracas.
During the presidential campaign — and since returning to the White House — Trump has repeatedly said, without evidence, that Venezuela had emptied its prisons and sent the worst offenders to the U.S.
But shortly after taking office for his current term, Trump dispatched a special envoy, Richard Grenell, to meet with Maduro, generating hopes of improved relations. Washington later granted Chevron, the U.S. oil giant, a license to continue operating in Venezuela — home to the globe’s largest oil reserves — in a move that provided much-needed hard cash for Caracas, and oil for the U.S. market.
Then, in July, the Trump administration hailed the release of 10 U.S. citizens and permanent residents being held in Venezuela in exchange for the return of hundreds of Venezuelan nationals who had been deported to El Salvador.
Meantime, the United States has regularly been sending other deportees back to Venezuela in another sign of bilateral cooperation.
“So far we’ve seen President Trump very clearly endorse a policy of engagement with Venezuela,” said Geoff Ramsey, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group. “The U.S. is not going to invade Venezuela anytime soon.”
Janeth, 45, a teacher of a community school, poses for a portrait in Caracas.
Others say they’re not so sure, despite Trump’s stated aversion to getting involved in more wars — and the likely negative blowback in much of Latin America, where the prospect of U.S. intervention inevitably revives memories of past invasions, land grabs and support for right-wing dictators.
In the view of U.S. officials, Maduro and drug trafficking are inextricably entwined. The White House labels Maduro the head of the “Cartel of the Suns,” a smuggling network allegedly tied to the Venezuelan government and military. And Trump has reportedly directed the Pentagon to plan possible military action against Latin America cartels. (Maduro denies the drug charges, dismissing them as a U.S. disinformation campaign.)
The massive scope of the U.S. naval employment seems to reflect the policy viewpoint of hawks such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long championed a hard-line stance against Venezuela.
The buildup reportedly includes more than a half-dozen warships, including at least one submarine, and thousands of Marines and sailors. The White House says it’s meant to deter maritime narcotics trafficking, not topple Maduro.
“This is a lot of effort to put into something that’s performance, no?” said Laura Cristina Dib, who heads Venezuelan research at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research group.
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1.“Faith in our people” says a billboard with President Nicolás Maduro’s face in Caracas.2.A patriotic backpack with the Venezuelan flag colors and stars.
In response, Maduro has bolstered militia sign-ups, deployed 15,000 troops to the border with Colombia and insisted there’s “no way” U.S. forces can enter Venezuela. He scoffs at the U.S. contention that the naval buildup is an anti-smuggling effort, noting — correctly — that most cocaine is produced in neighboring Colombia and enters the United States via Mexico.
“It’s ridiculous to say they are fighting drug trafficking with nuclear submarines,” Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador, told reporters Thursday.
By most independent accounts, Maduro likely lost last year’s election — monitors disputed his claimed victory — but his many backers are making a high-profile show of support given the U.S. saber-rattling.
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1.People walk in front of a politically charged mural near Bolivar Square. The Iranian Forest vessel depicted on the right side of the mural arrived in Venezuela during fuel shortages in 2020.2.An old military tank at Los Próceres near the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas.
The government has orchestrated public sign-ups of militia members demonstrating their eagerness to fight for the socialist legacy of the late Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor and predecessor in Miraflores Palace.
“None of us will be afraid when the moment comes to defend our country from foreign aggression,” said Orlando López, 54, a grandfather and proud militiaman. “It’s not justified that the president of some other country wants to impose his will.”
He rejected the notion of a pervasive sense of nervousness.
“The climate in the city is one of tranquility, of peace,” said López, who is part of a more-than-1-million civilian militia force backing Maduro.
On a recent Sunday at Santo Domingo de Guzmán Roman Catholic Church in the capital’s Baruta district, Father Leonardo Marius urged parishioners to ignore the drumbeat of war pounding the airwaves and internet. Venezuelans, he said, should focus on more basic concerns.
“In Venezuela, a half a million children don’t have enough to eat — no one talks about that,” Marius told parishioners in his sermon. “But we love the Hollywood stories of boats and aircraft carriers, the show. … ‘They are coming! They are are disembarking!’ Please! Hollywood has done a lot of damage. Let the stories be.”
An all-girls skating team skates at Los Próceres near the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas.
Across town, at an upscale sports club, Javier Martín, a businessman, said the noise was hard to ignore.
“The atmosphere across the country, but especially here in Caracas, is one of fear, distress, uncertainty,” said Martín. “You see hooded officials on the streets and it makes you feel fear, like you are in a war.”
Venezuelans, he explained, live a kind of “surreal” existence, struggling to maintain their lives and families while always anticipating improvements, and changes, that never seem to come.
“We live cornered every day,” he said. “It’s not sustainable.”
What’s next?
“Everyone expects something to happen,” Martín said. “I just hope it’s positive.”
Special correspondent Mogollón reported from Caracas and Times staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City.
SEOUL — The first summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and President Trump was a picture of easy chumminess.
On Monday, the two leaders bonded over the fact that they both have survived assassination attempts, and they talked golf. When Trump admired the handcrafted wooden fountain pen Lee used to sign the White House guest book, saying “it’s a nice pen, you want to take it with you?” Lee offered it as an impromptu gift. At a Q&A in front of reporters, Lee thanked Trump for bringing peace to the Korean peninsula through his previous summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and urged him to meet with Kim again.
“If you become the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker,” Lee told Trump, drawing a chuckle.
These scenes, along with the two-hour closed door meeting between the two leaders that followed, seemed to put to rest fears that Lee — a former governor and legislator with little prior experience on the international stage — might be subject to a “Zelensky moment”: cornered and berated by a counterpart who has long complained that Seoul takes Washington for granted.
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, holds a trade letter sent by the White House to South Korea during a news conference. On July 30, the U.S. struck a trade deal with South Korea, but details have been scant.
(Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It was an outcome for which South Korea painstakingly prepared.
As a presidential candidate earlier this year, Lee had vowed he would bring home a diplomatic win at all costs, even if it meant he had to “crawl between Trump’s legs.” To smooth along trade negotiations with the U.S. in late July, South Korean officials brought with them red caps emblazoned with the slogan: “MAKE AMERICA SHIPBUILDING GREAT AGAIN.” And ahead of Monday’s summit, Lee compared notes with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whom he met last week, and brushed up on his assignment by reading “Trump: The Art of the Deal.”
Those early efforts so far have seemingly paid off. Key South Korean proposals, such as a $150-billion plan to help revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry, have been received favorably, helping secure the trade deal with Washington last month, according to South Korean officials.
“We’re going to be buying ships from South Korea,” Trump said on Monday. “But we’re also going to have them make ships here with our people.”
But despite what is widely viewed as a positive first step for Lee — establishing face-to-face chemistry with a figure known for both unpredictable swings and a deeply personal style of diplomacy — analysts say it is too early to call it a win. Several unresolved issues still loom large, and these may yet be snarled in the details as working-level negotiations play out.
“I actually thought they could get along surprisingly well because both Lee and Trump aren’t ideologically motivated in their thinking and practice of foreign policy,” said James Park, an East Asia expert at the Quincy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“But it remains to be seen how their relationship unfolds. Should strong tensions emerge on trade and security issues that both sides find it difficult to compromise on in the future, the relationship between Lee and Trump will be tested. There’s a case in point — how the friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fractured in recent months over tariffs and India’s purchases of Russian weapons.“
Although Trump promised on Monday to honor last month’s trade agreement — which lowered the tariff rate on Seoul to 15% from 25% — details have been scant and the deal has yet to be formalized in writing. But both sides have touted it as a win, leaving room to reignite long-running disagreements over issues like U.S. rice and beef, which have been subject to import restrictions in South Korea.
As part of that deal, South Korea also pledged to invest $350 billion into key U.S. industries. But behind the scenes, officials from both countries reportedly continue to disagree how this fund will be structured or used, with U.S. officials seeking far more discretionary power than the South Korean side is willing to give.
U.S. Army soldiers attend a transfer of authority ceremony in South Korea. In the past, President Trump has said that South Korea should pay $10 billion a year to help keep the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country.
(SOPA Images / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The summit hasn’t fully quelled South Korean concerns over defense and military cooperation either.
In the past, Trump has said that South Korea should pay $10 billion a year to help keep the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country. That is around nine times what Seoul currently pays under an existing agreement between the two countries.
While South Korean officials said that the defense cost-sharing issue was not discussed during Monday’s summit, Park says that the issue may resurface down the line.
“The alliance cost-sharing issue has been a consistent interest of Trump’s over the years,” he said.
Trump’s grievances over the cost of stationing the U.S. military in South Korea has fueled concerns that the U.S. will pull out troops from its bases here to counter China, making the country more vulnerable to North Korea’s military threats.
The scenario has gained plausibility in recent months, following reports earlier this year that U.S. defense officials were reviewing a plan to relocate thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea to other locations in the Indo-Pacific, such as Guam.
While any reduction of troop size has long been a political anathema in South Korea, Lee Ho-ryung, a senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), says that this may be less of a sticking point for President Lee than history might suggest, citing a speech the South Korean leader delivered shortly after the summit in which he pledged to increase Seoul’s own defense spending.
“The content of that speech and Q&A suggest that the two sides have somewhat aligned on these issues,” she said. “But it will still need to be further discussed at the working level.”
When asked by a reporter on Monday whether he was considering reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea, Trump deflected by saying “I don’t want to say that now because we’ve been friends.”
But then he pivoted to another suggestion that raised eyebrows in South Korea.
“Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort,” he said. “I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease.”
Under an existing arrangement known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), South Korea currently grants the U.S. military rent-free use of the land where its bases are located. Speaking to legislators on Tuesday, South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back summarily dismissed the suggestion, hinting that it may have been a negotiating tactic.
“It is impossible in the real world,” he said. “But from the perspective of President Trump, I think it may have been a comment intended to allow him to make a different strategic demand.”
In the meantime, a second round of negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would be a win for both leaders.
But many experts believe that the window for getting North Korea to denuclearize under the previously discussed terms — partial sanctions relief — has closed since the failed summits between Trump and Kim in 2018 and 2019. North Korea recently dismissed any attempts to convince it to give up its nuclear weapons as a “mockery of the other party.”
Personal chemistry between President Lee and Trump can go only so far this time, says Lee of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
“North Korea is effectively evading any economic sanctions through Russia and China,” she said. “Sanctions relief is no longer the enticing carrot that it once was.”
Carly Pearce admitted she knew immediately that she shouldn’t have married ex-husband Michael Ray.
The country crooner explained the relationship with fellow musician Ray was more about lust than love during an appearance on Bunnie XO’s podcast, “Dumb Blonde.” Despite marrying Ray for the right reasons, Pearce claimed the two weren’t living in reality.
“I thought he was so cute,” she told Jelly Roll’s wife while recalling her short-lived marriage. “I’d heard he’s the nicest guy in the world. I invited him to my (Billboard Country Airplay) No. 1 party for ‘Every Little Thing.’ Looking back on it, it was a hot and heavy lust. It wasn’t love. It was just passionate.
Carly Pearce admitted her relationship with Michael Ray was based on lust, not love, years after the couple’s divorce.(John Parra/Getty Images for Sandals)
“I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” Pearce insisted.
“I think that when you travel like this, I thought I was doing the right thing by waiting to get married till I was 29. But we didn’t have real conversations, and we didn’t really know about each other. We were kind of living this life that wasn’t really reality, now looking back on it. So, I just think we didn’t really know each other.
“I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have,” she admitted. “I think the best thing that ever happened to me was COVID because it allowed me to deal with that in private. I think that I probably would have stayed in it longer if I could have avoided it and not had to. … I was embarrassed when it happened … and I had shame around that and was heartbroken.”
Carly Pearce and Michael Ray married in October 2019.(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“It wasn’t what I signed up for,” she explained. “It just wasn’t the marriage that I know I deserved. I knew that very quickly.
“And I think in the first — we were only married for eight months. Plenty happened to where it was very clear to me this was not, this just wasn’t a marriage.”
Carly Pearce filed for divorce from Michael Ray after eight months of marriage.(Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
Pearce and Bunnie XO briefly touched on the speculation Ray had cheated on the singer during their marriage.
“People have all their opinions, and, at first, that was so hard for me because I was like, ‘That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s not true. What he’s saying isn’t true.’ But, at the end of the day, like my friends who walked that with me, they know,” she said. “My parents know and God knows, and that is enough. It’s enough.”
Carly Pearce wrote her album “29” about her life during her marriage to Michael Ray.(Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Stagecoach)
After the hardships Pearce faced during that year of her life, she found happiness after the divorce.
“I am in the happiest season of my life,” the “Should’ve Known Better” singer told Bunnie XO. “I’m — actually if I ever saw him, if he ever watches this, thank you, because you taught me more about myself. You taught me how strong I am. You put me through things that have made me better now. And I don’t wish him evil. I don’t wish anything on him. I’m so glad that I’m not in that anymore.
“I think I was really shown just how much I care about me,” Pearce added. “You know, like, I actually really have a lot of self-worth and that showed me that.”
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the California State Capitol to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, creating a somber yet spirited celebration as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues.”This day is a reminder to the whole world what freedom is about. And Ukraine fighting for their freedom,” said Vlad Skots, a Ukrainian American.Skots explained the evening’s significance, noting, “I would say we are not necessarily celebrating. We are here to remark the courage of the Ukrainian people. We are here to celebrate the American support.”While many Ukrainians want to celebrate, they are also mourning the lives lost in the fight to protect their freedom as the war continues.”The war today, it’s not only Ukrainian problem, that’s the global problem. And I deeply believe the United States will support Ukraine,” Skots said.Despite the current state of their country, attendees waved Ukrainian flags, danced to music and created a sense of community for refugees like Liana Lischenko, who arrived in Sacramento three years ago. “I remember my country, and I realize that I’m in Ukraine right now, and I have friends here who speak Ukrainian. And this is so kind,” Lischenko said.The gathering served as an important reminder of what they are still fighting for. “It’s not something particularly about country. It’s not about this group as a country only. No, that’s more than country. This is our value, our freedom, independence, what we stand for and what we will fight for,” Skots said.The event raised money for the Ukrainian military and featured multiple resource tents for those looking to get involved in the community.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the California State Capitol to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, creating a somber yet spirited celebration as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues.
“This day is a reminder to the whole world what freedom is about. And Ukraine fighting for their freedom,” said Vlad Skots, a Ukrainian American.
Skots explained the evening’s significance, noting, “I would say we are not necessarily celebrating. We are here to remark the courage of the Ukrainian people. We are here to celebrate the American support.”
While many Ukrainians want to celebrate, they are also mourning the lives lost in the fight to protect their freedom as the war continues.
“The war today, it’s not only Ukrainian problem, that’s the global problem. And I deeply believe the United States will support Ukraine,” Skots said.
Despite the current state of their country, attendees waved Ukrainian flags, danced to music and created a sense of community for refugees like Liana Lischenko, who arrived in Sacramento three years ago.
“I remember my country, and I realize that I’m in Ukraine right now, and I have friends here who speak Ukrainian. And this is so kind,” Lischenko said.
The gathering served as an important reminder of what they are still fighting for.
“It’s not something particularly about country. It’s not about this group as a country only. No, that’s more than country. This is our value, our freedom, independence, what we stand for and what we will fight for,” Skots said.
The event raised money for the Ukrainian military and featured multiple resource tents for those looking to get involved in the community.
In an evening social media post about a supremely partisan battle that could reshape American political power for generations, President Trump sounded ebullient.
“Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself,” Trump wrote, of the nation’s most populous red state pushing a mid-decade redistricting plan designed to win more Republican seats in Congress and protect Trump’s power through the 2026 midterms.
“Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing,” Trump wrote — nodding to a potential proliferation of such efforts across the country.
The next day, Gov. Gavin Newsom — projecting a fresh swagger as Trump’s chief antagonist on the issue — stood with fellow lawmakers from the nation’s most populous blue state to announce their own legislative success in putting to voters a redrawn congressional map for California that strongly favors Democrats.
“We got here because the president of the United States is one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history,” Newsom said, couching the California effort as defensive rather than offensive. “We got here because he recognizes that he will lose the election, [and that] Congress will go back into the hands of the Democratic Party next November.”
In the last week, with lightning speed, the nation’s foremost political leaders have jettisoned any pretense of political fairness — any notion of voters being equal or elected representatives reflecting their constituencies — in favor of an all-out partisan war for power that has some politicians and many political observers concerned for the future of American democracy.
“America is headed towards true authoritarian rule if people do not stand up,” Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from the Houston area, said Friday on a call with reporters.
The race to redistrict began with Trump, whose approval ratings have plummeted, pressuring Texas to manipulate maps to secure more House seats for Republicans so he wouldn’t face a hostile House majority in the second half of his second term. It escalated when Newsom and other California leaders said they wouldn’t stand idly by and started working to put a new map of their own on the November ballot — formally asking voters to jettison the state’s independent redistricting commission to counter Trump’s gambit in Texas.
Those two states alone are home to some 70 million Americans, but the fight is hardly limited there. As Trump suggested, other states are also eyeing whether to redraw lines — raising the prospect of a country divided between blue and red power centers more than ever before, and the voice of millions of minority-party voters being all but erased in the halls of Congress.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom answers questions on Thursday after signing legislation calling for a special election on a redrawn congressional map.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
Of course, gerrymandering is not new, and already exists in many states across the country. But the bold, unapologetic and bipartisan bent of the latest redistricting race is something new and different, experts said. It is a clear product of Trump’s new America, where political warfare is increasingly untethered to — and unbound by — long-standing political norms, and where leaders of both political parties seem increasingly willing to toss aside pretense and politeness in order to pursue power.
Trump on the campaign trail promised a new “Golden Age,” and he has long said his goal is to return America to some purportedly greater, more aspirational and proud past. But he has also signaled, repeatedly and with hardly any ambiguity, an intention to manipulate the political system to further empower himself and his fellow Republicans — whether through redistricting, ending mail-in ballots, or other measures aimed at curtailing voter turnout.
“In four years, you don’t have to vote again,” Trump told a crowd of evangelical Christians a little over a year ago, in the thick of his presidential campaign. “We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
‘No democracy left’
The redistricting war has dominated political news for weeks now, given its potential implications for reshaping Congress and further emboldening Trump in his second term.
Sam Wang, president of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University, has studied gerrymandering for years, but said during the media call with Wu that he has never received more inquiries than in the last few weeks, when his inbox has filled with questions from media around the world.
Wang said gerrymandering reached a high point more than a decade ago, but had been subsiding due to court battles and state legislatures establishing independent commissions to draw district lines.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defends his state’s redistricting move while calling California’s “a joke.”
(Eric Gay / Associated Press)
Now, however, the efforts of Texas and California are threatening that progress and pushing things “to a new low point,” he said — leaving some voters feeling disenfranchised and Wang worried about further erosion of voter protections under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which he said the conservative Supreme Court may be preparing to weaken.
Wu said allowing politicians to redraw congressional lines whenever they want in order to “make sure that they never lose” sets a dangerous precedent that will especially disenfranchise minority voters — because “politicians and leaders would no longer listen to the people.”
“There would be no democracy left,” he said.
That said, Wu drew a sharp distinction between Texas Republicans unilaterally redrawing maps to their and Trump’s advantage — in part by “hacking” apart minority populations — and California asking voters to counteract that power grab with a new map of their own.
“California is defending the nation,” he said. “Texas is doing something illegal.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday took the opposition position, saying Texas’ new map was constitutional while California’s was “a joke” and likely to be overturned. He also hinted at further efforts in other Republican-led states to add more House seats for the party.
“Republicans are not finished in the United States,” Abbott said.
Two legal experts on the call expressed grave concerns with such partisanship — especially in Texas.
Sara Rohani, assistant counsel with the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF, said her organization has been fighting for decades to ensure that the promises of the Voting Rights Act for Black and other minority groups aren’t infringed upon by unscrupulous and racist political leaders in search of power.
“Fair representation isn’t optional in this country. It’s the right of all Americans to [have] equal voting power,” she said.
That said, “voters of color have been excluded” from that promise consistently, both before and after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and “in 2025, it’s clear that our fight for fair maps continues,” Rohani said.
Major victories have been won in the courts in recent years in states such as Alabama and Louisiana, and those battles are only going to continue, she said. Asked specifically if her group is preparing to sue over Texas’ maps, Rohani demurred — but didn’t back down, saying LDF will get involved “in any jurisdiction where Black voters are being targeted.”
Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said there are definitely going to be challenges to Texas’ maps.
By their own admission, Saenz said, Texas lawmakers redrew their maps in 2021 in order to maximize Republican advantage in congressional races — with the only limits being those imposed by the Voting Rights Act. That means in order to gain even more seats now, “they have to violate the Voting Rights Act,” he said.
Texas Republicans have argued that they are acting in part in response to a warning from the Justice Department that their current maps, from 2021, are unlawful. But Saenz noted that the Justice Department dropped a lawsuit challenging those maps when Trump took office — meaning any threats to sue again are an empty ploy and “clearly orchestrated with one objective: Donald Trump’s objective.”
Is there a legal case?
The fate of any legal challenges to the redistricting efforts is unclear, in part because gerrymandering has become much harder to challenge in court.
In 2019, the Supreme Court threw out claims that highly partisan state election maps are unconstitutional. Chief Justice John G. Roberts said such district-by-district line drawing “presents political questions” and there are no reliable “legal standards” for deciding what is fair and just.
It was not a new view for Roberts.
In 2006, shortly after he joined the court, the justices rejected a challenge to a mid-decade redistricting engineered by Texas Republicans, but ordered the state — over Roberts’ dissent — to redraw one of its majority-Latino districts to transfer some of its voters to another Latino-leaning district.
Roberts expressed his frustration at the time, writing that it “is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”
Some legal experts say the new Texas redistricting could face a legal challenge if Black or Latino lawmakers are in danger of losing their seats. But the Supreme Court conservatives are skeptical of such claims — and have given signs they may shrink the scope of the Voting Rights Act.
In March, the justices considered a Louisiana case to decide if the state must create a second congressional district that would elect a Black candidate to comply with the Voting Rights Act, and if so, how it should be drawn.
But the court failed to issue a decision. Instead, on Aug. 1, the court said it would hear further arguments this fall on “whether the state’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority Congressional district” violates the Constitution.
Justice Clarence Thomas has long argued it is unconstitutional to draw election districts based on racial lines, regardless of the Voting Rights Act, and he may now have a majority that agrees with him.
If so, such a ruling could squelch discrimination claims from Black and Latino lawmakers in Texas or elsewhere — further clearing the path for partisan gerrymandering.
Looking ahead
Given the intensity of the battle and the uncertainty of the related legal challenges, few of America’s top political leaders are thinking to the future. They’re fighting in the present — focused on swaying public perception.
In a YouTube Live video with thousands of supporters on Thursday, Newsom said Trump “doesn’t believe in the rule of law — he believes in the rule of Don; period, full stop,” and that he hoped it was “dawning on more and more Americans what’s at stake.”
Newsom said that when Trump “made the phone call to rig the elections to Greg Abbott in Texas,” he expected Democrats to just roll over and take it. In response, he said, Democrats have to stop thinking about “whether or not we should play hardball,” and start focusing on “how we play hardball.”
On Friday, Newsom said he was “very proud of the Legislature for moving quickly” to counter Texas, and that he is confident voters will support the ballot measure to change the state’s maps despite polls showing a sluggish start to the campaign.
A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, conducted for The Times, found 48% of voters said they would cast ballots in favor of temporary gerrymandering efforts, though 20% were undecided.
Asked if he is encouraging Democratic leaders in other states to revisit their own maps, Newsom said he appreciated both Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signaling that they may be willing to do just that.
“I do believe that the actions of [the California] Legislature will inspire other legislative leaders to … meet this moment, to save this democracy and to stop this authoritarian and his continued actions to literally vandalize and gut our Constitution and our democratic principles,” Newsom said.
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Kevin Rector, David G. Savage, Melody Gutierrez, Laura J. Nelson
