Author: Reporter

A day that began with the outgoing president’s pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with the incoming president’s pardon of supporters who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago. The clemency grants by departing President Joe Biden and new President Donald Trump — one benefiting uncharged people not accused of wrongdoing, the other aiding rioters convicted of violent felonies — are vastly different in scope, impact, and their meaning for the rule of law. But the remarkable flex of executive authority in a 12-hour span also shows the men’s deeply rooted suspicion of one another, with...

A federal judge on January 23 temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order denying U.S. citizenship to the children of parents living in the country illegally, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution promises citizenship to those born on U.S. soil, a measure ratified in 1868 to ensure citizenship for former slaves after the Civil War. But in an effort to curb unlawful immigration, Trump issued the executive order just after being sworn in for his second term on January 20. The order would deny...

Convicted felon and President Donald Trump has said since his first administration that he wants to end birthright citizenship, a constitutional right for everyone born in the United States. During his first week in the White House, he issued an executive order that would eliminate it, upending more than a century of precedent. On January 23, however, a federal judge temporarily blocked it after 22 states quickly mounted a legal challenge. Over the years the right to citizenship has been won by various oppressed or marginalized groups after hard-fought legal battles. Here is a look at how birthright citizenship...

The water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico, and Cuba will be critical to shipping lanes and vacationers whether it is called the Gulf of Mexico, as it has been for four centuries, or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered on January 20. North America’s highest mountain peak will still loom above Alaska whether it is called Denali, as ordered by former President Barack Obama in 2015, or changed back to Mt. McKinley as Trump also decreed. But Trump’s territorial assertions, in line with his “America First” worldview, sparked a round of rethinking by mapmakers...

U.S. weapons manufacturers could work with Vietnamese counterparts to help build up Vietnam’s armed forces, the U.S. ambassador to the southeast Asian country said in December. “Our goal is to ensure that Vietnam has what it needs to defend its interests at sea, in the air, on the ground and in cyberspace,” U.S. Ambassador Mark Knapper said at an international arms expo in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. Vietnam hosted the expo that brought together 250 exhibitors including geopolitical rivals including the U.S., China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Iran. U.S. exhibitors include Boeing and Textron Aviation. China is present with...

As President Donald Trump cracks down on immigrants in the U.S. illegally, some families are wondering if it is safe to send their children to school. In many districts, educators have sought to reassure immigrant parents that schools are safe places for their kids, despite the president’s campaign pledge to carry out mass deportations. But fears intensified for some when the Trump administration announced on January 21 it would allow federal immigration agencies to make arrests at schools, churches, and hospitals, ending a decades-old policy. “Oh, dear God! I can’t imagine why they would do that,” said Carmen, an...