This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Fox News chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream and ‘The Story' panel discuss the Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship and judicial power. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett sparred with U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer Thursday, pressing him on whether the Trump administration would follow federal court precedent. The exchange quickly became one of the day's most talked-about moments and could reignite criticism of Barrett from Trump allies. The back-and-forth took place Thursday during oral arguments in a case related to President Donald Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship with a specific focus on whether lower courts should be able to block executive actions from taking effect nationwide. Justice Barrett, a Trump appointee, grilled Sauer about the administration's stance toward lower court rulings, which followed similar lines of inquiry from her colleagues on the bench. "Well, no, not a potential tension, an actual tension that I see in answers that you gave to Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Kagan." President Donald Trump, alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, left, and Secretary of Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick, right, speaks to reporters as he signs an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund in the Oval Office of the White House Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Barrett then asked Sauer if the Trump administration "wanted to reserve its right to maybe not follow a Second Circuit precedent, say, in New York, because you might disagree with its opinion?" "You resisted Justice Kagan when she asked you whether the government would obey" such a precedent, she said. Sauer responded, "Our general practice is to respect those precedents. "Yes, as it was phrased to me, we generally respect circuit precedent, but not necessarily in every case," Sauer said. "Some examples might be a situation where we are litigating to get that circuit precedent overruled and so on," he added later. I'm talking about this week," Barrett stressed, pointing to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that Trump's birthright citizenship order is unconstitutional. "Generally, we follow this," Sauer said, which provoked a somewhat incredulous response from the justice. "And you still think that it's generally the long-standing policy of the federal government to take that approach?" Protesters demonstrating against President Donald Trump's during the early months of his second presidential term, and President Donald Trump signing an executive order at the White House. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Thursday, May 15, on a case involving Trump's birthright citizenship executive orders. The remarks sparked divided political reactions on social media, with Democratic strategist Max Burns noting, "Trump Solicitor General D. John Sauer tells Justice Amy Coney Barrett that Trump 'generally' tries to respect federal court decisions but he has the 'right' to disregard legal opinions he personally disagrees with. "John Sauer just said the quiet part out loud: unless the Supreme Court tells them directly, Trump's team might ignore lower court rulings," said Seth Taylor, a 2024 DNC delegate. "Amy Coney Barrett (ACB) is proving once again she may the the worst SCOTUS pick ever by a Republican," conservative commentator and podcast host Cash Loren said on social media. "She has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. … Yet you can hear her disdain for the Trump administration." Demonstrators hold up signs during a protest against President Donald Trump at the Washington Monument in Washington April 5, 2025. Earlier this year, Barrett sided with three of the Supreme Court's liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts in rejecting, 5-4, the Trump administration's request to block billions in USAID money for previously completed projects. The decision sparked fierce criticism from Trump supporters, who have attempted to label Justice Barrett an "activist" justice and someone who has been insufficiently loyal to the president who tapped her for the high court. Others have pointed out her track record as a reliably conservative voter and the fact the court has lifetime appointments to allow justices to ostensibly act without undue political interference. Trump later said he had no knowledge of the attacks against her, telling reporters, "She's a very good woman." "She's very smart, and I don't know about people attacking her. The court ruling could come in a matter of days or weeks. But it will likely hinge closely on the votes of two Trump appointees, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Barrett, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Friday. Overall, he said of the hearing, "it got pretty sporty in there." "There were some lively moments, at least lively for the Supreme Court," he said, before noting the justices to watch are Gorsuch and Barrett. Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

President Donald Trump listens as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks as he signs executive orders and proclamations in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Washington. People rally at Health and Human Services headquarters to protest the polices of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. President Donald Trump's administration must put the brakes on slashing billions in federal money for public health departments, a federal judge said Friday. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction request in the lawsuit brought last month by a coalition of Democrat-led states, allowing the money to keep flowing. “If we don't have our health, we don't have anything, and that's why today's preliminary injunction is such a critical win,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement, adding later: “A hacksaw approach to government reduction will never yield positive results for the American people, and we will continue to fight, and win, in court to minimize the harm the Trump Administration is causing the people of this country.” The lawsuit filed April 1 by 23 states and the District of Columbia sought to immediately halt $11 billion in cuts, alleging that it would decimate public health infrastructure across the country. The money, allocated by Congress during the pandemic, supported COVID-19 initiatives and mental health and substance abuse efforts. But McElroy, who granted a temporary restraining order last month in the case, wrote in her decision that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn't have the power to decide that money isn't necessary anymore. She went on to say that the agency ignored multiple requirements that govern how block grant programs are terminated, calling the federal government's argument for how it handled the situation “puzzling.” McElroy wrote that the federal government's decision to rescind the money isn't just an economic loss — “ample evidence” provided by the states shows that it will decimate “key mental health, substance abuse, and other healthcare programs ... worsening public health outcomes and placing their residents at risk.” She pointed to several instances of what the money funded, like vaccination efforts and building up disease surveillance and labs for “future health threats,” before writing, “The Court could go on.” “We're going to continue our lawsuit to protect the health and well-being of millions of Americans,” New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote on X shortly after the decision. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

French actor Gerard Depardieu, left, and Belgian actress Cecile de France pose during a photo call for the film “Quand J'etais Chanteur,” at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 26, 2006. PARIS (AP) — For powerful men in France's film industry, this was a week of reckoning. Gérard Depardieu — the country's most famous male actor — was convicted of sexual assault. Two days later, the Cannes Film Festival barred another actor accused of rape from walking the red carpet. Together, the decisions sent a message that France had long resisted: that artistic brilliance may no longer shield those who abuse their power. For decades, Depardieu was revered as French cinema's “sacred monster” — a towering talent whose gluttony, volatility and magnetism became part of his myth. With more than 250 films to his name, many believed he would remain untouchable even after more than 20 women accused him of sexual misconduct. The verdict has revived a broader question France has ducked since the dawn of the #MeToo movement: Can a country that celebrates seduction and irreverence finally hold its male icons to account? France has long lived its own #MeToo contradiction. That talent, charm, or intellect forgives misconduct. He denies the charges and is appealing. “It's the end of impunity of artists with a capital A,” Carine Durrieu Diebolt, a lawyer for one of the two women who won their case against Depardieu, told The Associated Press. Two days later, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival barred actor Théo Navarro-Mussy — accused of rape by three former partners — from attending the premiere of the movie “Case 137,” which he stars in, even though the file was dropped for lack of evidence. The women are launching a civil complaint. His lawyer said that she's unaware of any ongoing proceedings against him. Yet what stunned wasn't just the decision, but who made it. Cannes director Thierry Frémaux had long been seen as emblematic of the old guard. He defended Roman Polanski for years and continued to screen his films despite the director's 1977 guilty plea in the U.S. for sex with a 13-year-old. In 2018, when asked why Cannes still included Polanski, Frémaux said: “These are complicated matters.” Frémaux opened 2023's festival with a film starring Johnny Depp, despite the actor's highly public legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard over allegations of domestic abuse, in which he was never criminally charged. When asked about the backlash, Frémaux replied: “I only have one rule: it's the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and acting within a legal framework.” “The Cannes decision is of course linked to the Depardieu verdict,” said Céline Piques of Osez le féminisme (“Dare Feminism!”), a group that campaigns against sexual violence. “(They've) realized which way the wind is blowing. Frémaux is trying to right the wrongs.” Not everyone welcomed the verdict — or what followed — as a cultural turning point. Fanny Ardant, one of French cinema's grandes dames and a longtime friend of Depardieu, sat on his side in court. She completely missed the point,” said Piques. Juliette Binoche, Cannes jury president and one of France's most respected actors, struck a note of restraint: “He's not a monster. He's a man — one who has, apparently, been desacralized.” “The Depardieu verdict shows there's progress,” said lawyer Anne-Sophie Laguens, who works with victims of sexual assault. “But for most women, the barriers to justice remain enormous.” When Bertrand Cantat — front man of Noir Désir and once one of France's bestselling rock singers — launched a 2018 comeback tour, he had served just four years in prison for killing his partner, actor Marie Trintignant, during a violent assault. Despite public outrage, he returned to the stage and performed. “That would be unthinkable today,” said Piques. The conviction of 51 men for drugging and raping Gisele Pelicot — who chose to waive her anonymity and insisted on a public trial, turning private horror into public reckoning — marked a turning point. “It proved rapists aren't just strangers in alleys,” said Piques. That shift in shame is now rippling through the cultural world — once seen as a bastion of male privilege. Director Christophe Ruggia was recently convicted of abusing actor Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, though he is appealing; and actor-director Nicolas Bedos, was sentenced for sexual assault. Associated Press journalist Louise Dixon in Cannes, France contributed to this report

President Donald Trump's agenda has been thrown into chaos after a group of GOP hardliners blocked the bill in a key committee vote on Friday – dealing a major embarrassment to House Republican leaders and Trump himself. Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team will now spend the weekend trying to win over those Republicans before attempting to take that vote again, potentially as soon as Monday. But it will be a tough task to flip the right-wing Republicans, who are demanding more spending cuts from Medicaid and from federal clean energy programs, especially as Johnson must also be careful not to alienate moderates whose votes he also needs with any changes to the bill. A core of right-wing Republicans had warned Johnson and his leadership team, both privately and publicly, that they planned to oppose the vote in the House budget panel meeting on Friday. Their opposition enraged many of their fellow Republicans, many of whom have spent months helping to draft the bill, which includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts and a big boost to the US military and to national security — largely paid for by overhauls to federal health and nutrition programs and cuts to energy programs. And those five no votes just voted for the biggest tax increase in American history,” GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who voted to advance Trump's bill, said after it failed. The GOP hardliners have demanded stricter overhauls for Medicaid — specifically, putting work requirements into effect immediately, rather than waiting until 2029 — and deeper cuts to a clean energy tax program. But any changes to the bill could upset Johnson's fragile coalition in the House, where he can't afford any big changes that would upset the GOP's more moderate members. And Trump himself — who is closely watching any changes to Medicaid — also needs to sign off on changes. Roy and other GOP hardliners repeatedly urged Johnson to delay the vote. They warned party leaders both privately and publicly that they planned to oppose the vote in the House budget panel meeting on Friday. Johnson has said he wants to pass the bill next week on the floor, though that prospect is now uncertain. Some of them, we need to get answers from the Trump administration. But we got a pretty clear idea of what the final pieces are, and we're working through those right now,” Scalise said. The work requirements for able-bodied adults enrolled in Medicaid, for instance, would not go into effect until 2029, after Trump has left office. And some of the clean energy subsidies — which were enacted under Biden — wouldn't be phased out for years after that. Scalise said Trump, who is returning from an overseas trip, has been keeping track of the bill's progress. Norman, however, said he has not heard from the president directly. Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday, “We don't need ‘GRANDSTANDERS' in the Republican Party. “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!,'” he said. GOP leaders must follow strict budgetary rules as they draft the package because they plan to pass it without using Democratic votes — forcing the party to comply with Senate rules that allow a bill to bypass a filibuster. House budget chief, Rep. Jodey Arrington, could only afford to lose two GOP votes in the committee vote. In a sign of the gravity of the vote, GOP leaders pushed to have Rep. Brandon Gill, whose wife just had their second child, return to Washington on Friday morning for the vote. Two GOP sources previously told CNN on Thursday that Gill would not be in attendance — which would have meant House leaders could only lose a single vote. CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report. This story has been updated with additional developments.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Jacksonville Jaguars rookie Travis Hunter made a woman's day on a United Airlines flight to the point where she said she would get her sons to buy his jersey. Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) runs a route during a rookie minicamp at Miller Electric Center Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union) It was me being me," Hunter said over the phone while describing his experience with Sandy Hawkins Combs last week. "A nice lady sat next to me, we conversed, and made sure I took care of her like I do my grandparents or any elderly person. For Combs, though, it was more than just someone being nice to her, as she wrote in a Facebook post. "I had the most wonderful flight home from Denver," she wrote. "I met the nicest young man who sat next to me. Anyone would be proud to have him as a son or grandson – so polite," Combs said of Hunter. "People walking by were saying congratulations, great job, or even taking pictures. I looked at his Jaguar pants, smiled, and asked, ‘Are you an athlete?' Yes, I was drafted by the Jags.' After hearing about that last bit from Combs, Hunter called it a "blessing" that she wanted to support him after the one interaction. "I didn't expect nothing to go into the media, but it was just me being me," he said. Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter makes a reception during the NFL football team's rookie minicamp, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Despite it being "regular" for Hunter, the Colorado star has been dealing with spotlight for many years now. Hunter knows, though, that being humble plays a big role in his life, on and off the field. "Be humble and just put in the work. As Hunter continues to put in work, he's also excited for an important milestone in his early career – seeing himself on an NFL trading card for the first time. Hunter partnered with Panini America, along with several other incoming rookies, where they will receive their first Panini NFL trading cards at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere. Travis Hunter smiles while opening Panini America NFL trading card packs. "Just super excited to see myself on my own card, so it's definitely a blessing," he said. One day, Hunter's rookie card could be worth quite the pretty penny, but he understands it's up to him to make that happen. "I still got to put in some work." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Afghans for Trump leader Zoubair Sangi urged the president to reconsider his decision to end temporary protected status (TPS) for refugees who fled Taliban A group that once campaigned to put Donald Trump in the White House now says they feel abandoned by his administration's decision to revoke legal protections for thousands of Afghan refugees living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Now, he is urging the president to reconsider. "They target anyone who disagrees with them – anyone who worked with the U.S. government or allied forces. Sangi added that women face especially grim conditions in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where they are banned from education and public life without a male escort. They treat them worse than cattle," he said. "There is no freedom for ordinary Afghans. People are essentially under house arrest, and they can't escape." Despite his frustration, Sangi said he has not withdrawn his support for Trump – but he is pleading with him to rethink the decision. "We do have hope that any kind of mistake that is made specifically in regards to Afghanistan will be corrected." He praised Trump for refusing to recognize the Taliban and ending foreign aid to Afghanistan that fell into their hands, and he urged him not to strike any deals. "The Taliban mock America, reject your demands for the return of our $7 billion in military equipment, and harbor terrorists who threaten our homeland," said Sangi. "Engaging with them isn't America First." Members and supporters of the Taliban stand on a U.S. flag as they hold a rally to mark the third anniversary of the fall of Kabul, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 14, 2024. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security officially ended TPS for Afghan nationals, potentially forcing more than 9,000 individuals to return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem cited an "improved security situation" and a stabilizing economy as justification. "This administration is returning TPS to its original, temporary intent," Noem said. "We've reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation." Afghans' protected status is set to expire on May 20, with the program formally ending on July 12. TPS allows foreign nationals from countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters or other emergencies to live and work legally in the U.S. Then-President Joe Biden had originally designated Afghanistan for TPS following the Taliban's takeover in 2021. While many Afghans who assisted the U.S. military during the two-decade war arrived under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, others – including former Afghan government workers and those tied to U.S. missions – entered under TPS amid the post-withdrawal chaos. Former Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul argued against the assertion that the security situation had improved, and urged the administration against moving to revoke the immigration status of Afghans here on SIVs or P1 and P2 visas. The Taliban, he said, "have made their thirst for retribution against those who help the United States clear. Until they demonstrate substantial behavorial changes, I urge the administration to continue prioritizing the safety of the Afghan men and women who risked their lives to help our troops." Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and DHS with requests for comment. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

President Donald Trump listens as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks as he signs executive orders and proclamations in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Washington. People rally at Health and Human Services headquarters to protest the polices of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. President Donald Trump's administration must put the brakes on slashing billions in federal money for public health departments, a federal judge said Friday. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction request in the lawsuit brought last by a coalition of Democrat-led states, allowing the money to keep flowing. “If we don't have our health, we don't have anything, and that's why today's preliminary injunction is such a critical win,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement, adding later: “A hacksaw approach to government reduction will never yield positive results for the American people, and we will continue to fight, and win, in court to minimize the harm the Trump Administration is causing the people of this country.” The lawsuit filed April 1 by 23 states and the District of Columbia sought to immediately halt $11 billion in cuts, alleging that it would decimate public health infrastructure across the country. The money, allocated by Congress during the pandemic, supported COVID-19 initiatives and mental health and substance abuse efforts. But McElroy, who granted a temporary restraining order last month in the case, wrote in her decision that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn't have the power to decide that money isn't necessary anymore. She went on to say that the agency ignored multiple requirements that govern how block grant programs are terminated, calling the federal government's argument for how it handled the situation “puzzling.” McElroy wrote that the federal government's decision to rescind the money isn't just an economic loss — “ample evidence” provided by the states shows that it will decimate “key mental health, substance abuse, and other healthcare programs ... worsening public health outcomes and placing their residents at risk.” She pointed to several instances of what the money funded, like vaccination efforts and building up disease surveillance and labs for “future health threats,” before writing, “The Court could go on.” “We're going to continue our lawsuit to protect the health and well-being of millions of Americans,” New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote on X shortly after the decision. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Belichick, 73, and Jordon Hudson, 24, became a couple last year and have been the talk of sports. Hudson has been the topic of conversation, as reports have floated around that she forced her way into a Super Bowl commercial, shut down "Hard Knocks" at UNC, and has even been on email threads with university staff. North Carolina Tar Heels football head coach Bill Belichick and his girlfriend Jordon Hudson look on during the first half of the game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils at the Dean E. Smith Center on March 8, 2025 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. However, Belichick, while not diving too much into their personal relationship, said Hudson has been "very helpful" from a business standpoint. "She's been terrific through the whole process. She does the business things that don't relate to North Carolina that come up in my life so I can concentrate in football, and that's what I want to do," Belichick said. "I acknowledged her in the book, she was very helpful in the tribute pages, and giving a perspective of the book from a business side. Sometimes, I get a little football technical, so she did a good job of keeping me on balance there." Former cheerleader Jordon Hudson arrives at Sports Illustrated's SI The Party at Mardi Gras World on Feb. 8, 2025 in New Orleans. Belichick stopped short of getting too "personal" about Hudson, half-heartedly shaming "Good Morning America" host Michael Strahan in asking about it, but he noted that it is a "good personal relationship." Hudson, after a fiasco with CBS, was not at the interview Friday morning. She was not at an interview with ESPN, either. A report circulated that Hudson had been banned from the football facility at UNC, but the school said that was false. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Patel confirmed the plans in an interview set to air on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures this weekend. That's like a third of the workforce. A third of the crime doesn't happen here,” Patel said. “So we're taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out. “We want the American men and women to know if you're going to come work at the premier law enforcement agency in the world, we're going to give you a building that's commensurate with that, and that's not this place,” Patel said. Patel said moving agents out of Washington and the J. Edgar Hoover Building is part of his push to return the FBI to its core mission of fighting crime. “I think when we do things like that, we inspire folks in America to become intel analysts and agents and say, ‘We want to work at the FBI because we want to fight violent crime and we want to be sent out into the country to do it,'” Patel said, adding that the agents will go into the field in the next “three, six, nine months.” He walked back those comments during his confirmation hearing, but he now appears to be making good on the pledge to leave the FBI building in downtown Washington. The FBI had selected Greenbelt, Maryland, to house its new headquarters in a plan unveiled in 2023 under the Biden administration. President Donald Trump said in March that he is planning to stop the FBI's move to Greenbelt and instead propose building a new facility in Washington.

Fredericksburg, Va. has strong ties to the military and resettled Afghans. But Trump administration's suspension of the federal refugee program has created unease for many Afghans who immigrated during wartime and the faith-based allies who helped them. Phil Williams, a former Marine, and his wife Katlyn Williams pose for a portrait at their home in Stafford, Va., on Monday, April 7, 2025. St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Fredericksburg, Va., April 9, 2025. A parishioner prays during a morning Mass at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Fredericksburg, Va., on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. Kat Renfroe, a supervisor at Catholic Charities Migrant and Refugee Services, left, observes an Afghan refugee women's group at their offices in Fredericksburg, Va., on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Locals shop at the Finest Supermarket halal grocery store in Fredericksburg, Va., on Monday, April 7, 2025. Locals shop at the Finest Supermarket halal grocery store in Fredericksburg, Va., on Monday, April 7, 2025. Families and members of the military gather for service at Pillar Church in Dumfries, Va., on Sunday April 6, 2025. Jake Rogers, a pastor and former member of the U.S. Marine Corps, and his daughter help clean up the stage after church on Sunday, April 6, 2025, at Pillar Church in Dumfries, Va. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Kat Renfroe was at Mass when she saw a volunteer opportunity in the bulletin. Her husband, now retired from the Marine Corps, had deployed to Afghanistan four times. And Renfroe has made a career of working with refugees. As part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, his administration banned most incoming refugees in January and froze federal funds for the programs. Across the country, local resettlement agencies like hers have been forced to lay off staff or close their doors. The upheaval is particularly poignant in this part of Virginia, which boasts both strong ties to the military and to resettled Afghans, along with faith communities that support both groups. Virginia has resettled more Afghan refugees per capita than any other state. The Fredericksburg area now has halal markets, Afghan restaurants and school outreach programs for families who speak Dari and Pashto. Many of these U.S.-based Afghans are still waiting for family members to join them — hopes that appear on indefinite hold. Families fear a new travel ban will emerge with Afghanistan on the list. A subset of Afghans already in the U.S. may soon face deportation as the Trump administration ends their temporary protected status. “I think it's tough for military families, especially those who have served, to look back on 20 years and not feel as though there's some confusion and maybe even some anger about the situation,” Renfroe said. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced in April that it was ending its decades-old partnership with the federal government to resettle refugees. The Fredericksburg Catholic Charities office has continued aiding current clients and operating with minimal layoffs thanks to its diocese's support and state funds. But it's unclear what the local agency's future will be without federal funding or arriving refugees. Religious groups have long been at the heart of U.S. refugee resettlement work. They were aided by hundreds of local affiliates and religious congregations. For the last 10 years, most of its clients have been Afghans, with an influx arriving in 2021 after the Taliban returned to power. Area faith groups like Renfroe's large church — St. Mary's in Fredericksburg — have been key to helping Afghan newcomers get on their feet. Volunteers from local congregations furnish homes, provide meals and drive families to appointments. As Christians, we care deeply,” said Joi Rogers, who led the Afghan ministry at her Southern Baptist church. “As military, we also just have an obligation to them as people that committed to helping the U.S. in our mission over there.” Rogers' husband Jake, a former Marine, is one of the pastors at Pillar, a network of 16 Southern Baptist churches that minister to military members. Their flagship location is near Quantico, the Marine base in northern Virginia, where nearly 5,000 Afghans were evacuated to after the fall of Kabul. With Southern Baptist relief funds, Pillar Church hired Joi Rogers to work part time as a volunteer coordinator in the base's makeshift refugee camp in 2021. For Pillar's founding pastor, Colby Garman, the effort was an easy decision. “I said to our people, this is an opportunity, a unique opportunity, for us to demonstrate love for our neighbor.” Church members visited locally resettled families and tried to keep track of their needs. For one Pillar Church couple in nearby Stafford, Virginia, that meant opening their home to a teenager who had arrived alone in the U.S. after being separated from her family at the Kabul airport — a situation they heard about through the church. Katlyn Williams and her husband Phil Williams, then an active-duty Marine, served as foster parents for Mahsa Zarabi, now 20, during her junior and senior years of high school. She attends college nearby; the Williamses visit her monthly. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this spring, they broke fast with her and her family, now safely in Virginia. “She has and will always be part of our family,” Katlyn Williams said. Her friend Joi Rogers, while careful not to speak for Pillar, said watching the recent dismantling of the federal refugee program has “been very hard for me personally.” Veterans and members of the military tend to vote Republican. Most Southern Baptists are among Trump's staunch white evangelical supporters. For those reasons, Pillar pastor Garman knows it may be surprising to some that his church network has been steadfast in supporting refugees. “I totally understand that is the case, but I think that is a bias of just not knowing who we are and what we do,” Garman said after a recent Sunday service. Later, sitting in the church office with his wife, Jake Rogers said, “We recognize that there are really faithful Christians that could lie on either side of the issue of refugee policy.” “Regardless of your view on what our national stance should be on this,” he said, “we as Christ followers should have a heart for these people that reflects God's heart for these people.” Later that week, nearly two dozen Afghan women gathered around a table at the Fredericksburg refugee office, while children played with toys in the corner. The class topic was self-care, led by an Afghan staff member. She was in Qatar waiting to be cleared for a flight to the United States when the Trump administration started canceling approved travel plans for refugees. Qaderi worked for the election commission in Afghanistan, and she received a special immigrant visa for her close ties to the U.S. government. She was a child when her father disappeared under the previous Taliban regime. The resettlement office includes not only Catholic staffers, but many Muslim employees and clients. “We find so much commonality between our faiths,” Renfroe said. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

President Donald Trump condemned former FBI Director James Comey for a controversial social media post, arguing that Comey was calling for his assassination. In a Friday interview with Fox News, Trump dismissed Comey's apology and claim that he didn't know what seashells organized to read “8647” meant. He argued that Comey was openly calling for his assassination. And he did it for a reason, and he was hit so hard because people like me, they like what's happening with our country. Our country has become respected again, and all this, and he's calling for the assassination of the president,” he added. Trump dismissed the apology and explanation, and said it was up to Attorney General Pam Bondi whether or not to punish him. “I don't want to take a position on it, because that's going to be up to Pam and all of the great people, but I will say this, I think it's a terrible thing,” Trump said. But I'm going to let them make that decision.” Comey posted and deleted a picture of shells lined up on a beach to depict the numbers “8647” on Thursday, an ambiguous message interpreted by defenders as a call for Trump to be removed from office and by critics as a call for Trump to be assassinated. Comey later said he did not mean for the post to provoke violence. The FBI said it will provide “necessary support.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed that peace talks between Ukraine and Russia ended after just under two hours. Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on Friday that Leo could be made available for a meeting between the two countries so they could “at least talk.” “The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face-to-face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace,” Leo said Friday. Parolin added that the Holy See could be a “very suitable place.” After the talks in Istanbul on Friday, the two nations agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, according to Russian Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky. This exchange would be the largest between Russia and Ukraine since 2022. Medinsky also said Moscow and Kyiv agreed to send each other detailed proposals for a ceasefire deal. There were delegations from Russia and Ukraine, but neither country's leaders attended. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with Medinsky. President Donald Trump considered attending the talks during his trip to the Middle East this week, but ultimately decided not to.

We don't flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first. We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform, not overwhelm. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? Why are we mad at the football coach's girlfriend? When we look at the relationship between 73-year-old legendary football coach Bill Belichick and his girlfriend and business partner, 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, it's hard to know exactly what we're seeing. Two grown-ups in love forging a dynamic business partnership? Or is it, as the vitriolic comments in Hudson's social media posts would have it, good old-fashioned gold digging? It's a bizarre, slightly off-putting mystery that fits remarkably well into our current age of newly regressive gender politics. Hudson and Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl-winning former NFL coach, met on a flight in 2021 and went public with their relationship last December. It's a bizarre, slightly off-putting mystery that fits remarkably well into our current age of newly regressive gender politics. Belichick requested Hudson be cc'ed on all publicity and media emails about him at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is now a college football coach. Insider accounts say she essentially cast herself in a Dunkin Donuts commercial in which Belichick appeared, and that she blocked a docuseries about Belichick's career. But speculation around the relationship reached a fever pitch when Hudson interrupted during Belichick's interview on CBS Sunday Morning in April. “How did you guys meet?” host Tony Dokoupil asked Belichick, referring to Hudson. “We're not talking about this,” Hudson cut in tersely from off-camera. In the midst of this controversy, the couple has been manufacturing social media content about their relationship that isn't alarming so much as it is lightly uncanny, especially given Belichick's famously gruff public persona. On Hudson's Instagram account, she has posted beachside pictures of herself balancing athletically on Belichick's outstretched legs, and of Belichick, dressed as a fisherman, reeling in a mermaid-tailed Hudson from the surf. A few have defended the relationship between Belichick and Hudson. Sports media personality Colin Cowherd has said that Hudson's choice to hop into Belichick's interview was normal for PR directors, if “kind of a cringy thing.” Right-wing sports outlet The Outkick has rallied to Hudson's side on the grounds that she triggers the libs, saying, “If Jordon wants to spend her weekends at Bill's house on Nantucket, soaking up the sun and enjoying Cisco Brewery on Bill's dime, I say GO FOR IT.” But the most common reaction to the spectacle of Hudson and Belichick's relationship is the one outlined by sports media personality Katie Nolan on a podcast in February: This is weird and seems like it has sinister undertones. “We're already going, ‘You're how much younger than him?' And then you show up in a commercial. “It seems like you could be taking advantage of the guy. And he's obviously taking advantage of the girl.” But the nefarious reason implied about why Hudson wants to be with Belichick is the one people are misogynistically and freely throwing around: gold digger. I don't want to make any claims about who is using whom or what their private life is like. But as a feminist pop culture critic, I am interested to see the term “gold digger” swim back up from the collective unconsciousness again, ready and willing to go to work. The last time “gold digger” was thrown around in pop culture so much was when teenager Courtney Stodden skyrocketed to fame in 2011 after they got married at age 16 to 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison. Stodden would later describe their marriage as one characterized by grooming and sexual assault. Before that, the great pop culture gold digger was Anna Nicole Smith, the model turned paparazzi obsession who married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994. Since Smith's untimely death in 2007, she's found a place in the pantheon of wronged women of the 1990s, someone we came to believe over the last decade was publicly mistreated — in part by her tarring as a gold digger. “Rather than singling out and condemning Anna Nicole Smith, we should be pointing our fingers at the inequities and systemic failures that put people like me and Smith in positions where obtaining money and resources from men, directly or indirectly, is our best option for survival.” It's a way to deride women when they take seriously the idea that their financial well-being should depend on their relationships with men. So it's odd to see the term becoming so popular during a moment when popular culture has become rather infatuated with the idea that life is most pleasant, simple, and straightforward when women's finances do depend on romantic relationships with men. TikTok is full of tradwives explaining how their lives became better once they got out of the 9-to-5 grind to make cereal from scratch for their children and let their husbands do the breadwinning. Or there are the stay-at-home girlfriends cooing over how taking care of their boyfriends without even the financial safety net of a marriage contract has been their ticket to the soft life. Meanwhile, some of President Donald Trump's most vocal supporters are arguing that his tariffs will force women out of the workforce and make them once again financially dependent on men, either through marriage or through sex work, life paths these men treat as equivalent. It's an appealing fantasy to some of his more incel-adjacent fans: that under this economy, the sexes will revert to an older, allegedly more natural economic relationship, one in which women trade their sexuality and childrearing capabilities to men in exchange for financial security. The gold digger is simply a figure we can blame for how uncomfortable this dynamic makes us feel, without having to think through just what is so uncomfortable about it. So if we're angry at Jordon Hudson, it's worth asking the question: Are we angry with her, or with the fact that powerful people want to make gold digging one of a woman's most viable career paths again?

We don't flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first. We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform, not overwhelm. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? The most important part of a volcano is hidden deep underground. I personally imagine a mountain sticking up into the sky. At the top of that mountain, I see a crater with a fiery hot lake boiling and roiling in it, or lava pouring down a slope like bright red candle wax, or massive clouds of grey ash exploding into the air. If I were to descend down through my imaginary volcano, moving down through layers and layers of earth, I'd find what might be an even more incredible feature: my volcano's pulsing, fiery furnace of a heart, also known as its “magma chamber.” This is the reason that hot ash comes bursting up through the surface. It's where much of the important action in a volcano unfolds — and could hold secrets to help us better predict when a devastating eruption will occur. “We draw them as red balloons,” says Mike Poland, a geophysicist and scientist-in-charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. But it's a very difficult thing to represent.” And, making things even more complex, there's a multitude of different gases that might make pressure build up before an eruption. But if we could better represent magma chambers — and just generally better understand exactly how they work — Poland says we might be able to dramatically improve our understanding of how volcanoes operate, and therefore be better able to anticipate what to expect from an impending eruption. “We don't have, like, the glass-bottomed volcano where you can just sort of look into and go like, Oh, that's what's going on,” Poland jokes. But what if we could have a glass-bottomed volcano that we could sort of look into and go like, Oh, that's what's going on? What if we could build, say, a little observatory deep down under the ground, right in the hot little heart of a volcano? They want to drill into a magma chamber and put some monitoring equipment in the hole. … That would give us some idea of what's going on in there.” One of the key motivations for building an observatory like this is that volcanology has a prediction problem. On the one hand, volcanoes are much more predictable than, say, earthquakes — they tend to give us some warning signs before they erupt. But on the other hand, it's hard to perfectly interpret those warning signs, which means the predictions volcanologists can make with our existing technology can be both incredibly helpful and frustratingly imprecise. For example, for the last year or so, a potential eruption has been brewing at Mount Spurr, a volcano near Anchorage, Alaska. Matt Haney, the scientist-in-charge at that observatory, told me while he can be sure that the volcano is displaying several key warning signs, he can't be sure exactly what the upcoming volcanic activity might look like — if there will be one eruption or many, exactly how intense they will be, or when they'll occur. Even with 11 seismic stations gathering real-time data about the Alaskan volcano — even with devices measuring how it is changing shape in response to incoming magma, with planes circling in the sky to understand the venting of gases, and with an enormous amount of truly impressive work — these volcanologists still can't give us as clear a picture of the future as we might like them to. That's tricky enough when you're dealing with the prospect of a clogging and choking coating of volcanic ash, but it gets even more complicated when you're trying to make determinations about people's lives. And they had very good reason to worry: In 1902, another Caribbean volcano eruption sent a deadly mix of hot gas and ash and rock careening through a nearby city at 300 miles an hour, killing 27,000 people. As one report put it, the “explosive emission of steam and debris was certainly impressive to those who had the misfortune to view it at close quarters. In 1991, at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, volcanologists once again read the volcanic tea leaves — stuff like seismic activity and steam explosions — and predicted a big eruption. You don't want to evacuate too little, or too late, at the cost of human lives, he says. But equally, you don't want to be the boy who cries wolf, or the volcanologist who cries, “ERUPTION!” “ It erodes trust in the scientists,” he says. Their ability to make predictions about volcanoes has improved dramatically as a result. How could volcanologists further improve their predictions in order to help people make decisions about how to prepare for eruptions? Poland has spent a fair amount of time thinking about the answers to this question. He wrote a whole paper about it, in fact. And he thinks that improving volcano forecasting is not just about continuing to improve our monitoring equipment. Instead, he says, what we really need is better information about volcanoes themselves, and the hot molten rocks that power them. Let's talk about how we currently forecast volcano eruptions. A lot of volcano prediction involves making very informed guesses about what a volcano might do in the future based on what that volcano has done in the past — what Poland calls pattern recognition. Essentially, he says, researchers will take a lot of very, very precise measurements of those phenomena that will allow them to then say ‘Alright. “It's not necessarily based on any special understanding of the physics of volcanic activity or that particular volcano,” Poland says, “It's more based on…We've seen this movie before, and we know how it's likely to evolve over time.” It's saved a lot of lives and helped scientists make some really good predictions about how a volcano might behave, broadly. But Poland likes to draw a comparison between this approach and with how we forecast the weather. Because in the past, weather scientists also relied heavily on pattern matching. But then, weather forecasting went through a kind of revolution. “This really abundant information was then used by modelers…to work out the physics of what's going on,” Poland says. Weather scientists still use a lot of historical data to inform their understanding of the future (and now, with AI, are actually turning back to their massive bodies of data to try some more advanced pattern recognition), but they have also built really sophisticated models of the physics of the atmosphere that help them make their predictions. “We can now forecast, with some degree of accuracy, whether a hurricane will form, how intense it is going to be, where it's going to go,” Poland says. And that's because our knowledge is still imperfect. Scientists have been working on making models like this — and have even been working on applying them to forecasting. But if the weather scientists built their models by flying directly into things like hurricanes and taking measurements, volcano researchers have had a bit of a harder time doing the equivalent for magma chambers. They can't take direct measurements, so they've used seismic and electromagnetic imaging to take the equivalent of X-rays of the Earth, and they've studied places where ancient volcanoes have eroded away, bringing their cooled, frozen magma chambers up to the surface. This has been helpful, but it's kind of like studying your neighbors by eavesdropping on their conversations through the wall and going through their trash instead of just talking to them directly. In some ways, the dream of a magma observatory started with an accident. Or to be a little more specific, it started with three different accidents in three different countries, each more than a decade ago. In each case, people set out to drill a deep hole into the rock near a volcano, and in each case, they accidentally drilled right down into the magma chamber. These accidents were a big surprise to the people doing the drilling, but to John Eichelberger, they were a big opportunity. Eichelberger has been studying volcanoes for around five decades. For much of that time, he's been curious about magma chambers. He thinks that knowing more about them could not only help us forecast volcanoes better, but also maybe tap into them for geothermal power. Unfortunately, he says, for a long time, it was difficult to find a way to drill into magma chambers and find out more about them, because people were not sure what would happen if you did. “Really the only way [drilling down to a magma chamber] could happen was by serendipity,” Eichelberger says. They provided some real-world examples of what would happen if you drilled down to a magma chamber. And the answer was, it turns out, not all that much. As he remembers it, he wound up meeting someone from a power company that was involved in one of these accidents. That representative let him know that they would be open to letting Eichelberger and other researchers do some more research near their power plant in the Krafla volcanic region of Iceland. And so, in 2014, Eichelberger gathered researchers together for a consortium – including a researcher named Yan Lavallée, now at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. “First, we're going to install a drill rig at the Earth's surface, and we're going to start drilling,” Lavallée tells me. “It will vitrify to a glass,” Lavallée says. This glass will likely not be transparent like a window. Instead, it will be obsidian — dark black and full of minerals. The researchers will then continue to keep things cool while they carve into that black glass, creating something like a pocket within it. Once that pocket is made, they hope to drop measuring devices into it. Lavallée works with tools in his lab that are made of the same kinds of heavy-duty materials that we put into things like jet engines and other materials that can withstand extremely high temperatures. Once everything's in place, they will stop cooling things down. Then, hopefully, the researchers will finally have their observatory: a set of measuring devices feeding them real-time data about an active magma chamber. If this first project succeeds, then Eichelberger and Lavallée are brimming with ideas for further drilling projects that could help them tease out more information about volcanoes. They both hope this research could help the world tap into volcanoes as a source of power, but also that it could help with forecasting — to help us build the models of volcanoes' hearts that will give us the tools to predict their behavior as effectively as we predict hurricanes. And overall, Lavallée thinks that if this dream of theirs succeeds, it might revolutionize volcanology. “I don't think we can really fully conceive how it's going to change things,” he says. Obviously, Lavallée has a clear reason to think this way, but when I asked Poland, who has no involvement with this project, what he thought, he was also pretty enthusiastic. “I am excited to hear what they can come up with,” Poland said, “I mean, you go into a magma chamber, you're going to learn some things.” What happens if you get a life-changing device implanted…and the company that maintains it goes bankrupt? The battle over artificial intelligence is just beginning. Our earliest studies of Neanderthals were fundamentally flawed.

We don't flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first. We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform, not overwhelm. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? Though their final vote choices were a bit more nuanced than some pre-election polls suggested, young men and women, aged 18 to 29, had the largest divergence in their vote among the age groups. Gen Z men supported Donald Trump by 14 percentage points; Gen Z women supported Kamala Harris by 17 points, per one post-election analysis. Those dynamics, particularly the aggressive rightward shift of young men, have raised some interesting questions: What was driving this divide? Could it be the manosphere, economics, or old-school sexism? Or could it be something else, like the apparent resurgence of organized religion? Particularly since the pandemic, data shows Gen Z is no longer continuing the rapid decline in religious affiliation, particularly Christianity, that started with previous generations. If anything, religious belief has seen a small revival with that youngest cohort. That shift suggests a curious dynamic at play among America's youth. Those trends suggest that modern politics and religious beliefs may be having a bit of self-reinforcing effect on each other: As young men find faith and religious belonging, their politics are drifting to the right too, in turn reinforcing their existing beliefs. The opposite seems to be true with young women: Religious customs are not jibing with their political and social beliefs, pushing them out of churches, and reinforcing that drift away from some organized religions. As religious and political beliefs of young men and women move away from each other, it stands to complicate not just electoral choices, but the future of family life, dating, and social belonging. The last 10 years have seen American Christianity bottom out. Now, what we've seen since 2020 is a kind of dead cat bounce: a slightly higher level of Christian religious affiliation among the youngest adults. And overall, Gen Z seems to be more Christian than past trend lines predicted they should be: at 46 percent compared to a projected 41 percent. At the heart of that halt and slight reversal is a dual dynamic: Young women are leaving religious congregations, while young men's religious identification and practice rises. These changes come across in a few ways. The religious researcher and data scientist Ryan Burge has found in his analysis of survey data from the Cooperative Election Study that while women used to attend religious services more regularly than men, the reverse is now happening. Looking at other reference points suggests something similar. Young women are more likely than young men to say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life research. Young women are now as likely as young men to say religion is “not that important” to them — a significant development since women have traditionally been more fervent believers. And the religious gender gap among the youngest cohort appears to be narrowing in other ways, too: Regardless of which religion they identify with, young women and young men report about the same rates of daily prayer. For older generations, women greatly outpace men in praying daily. We could still stand to get better data about what is happening. Some data suggest young women remain religious or spiritual but just don't identify with organized churches in the same way men do. But the religious gender gap still appears to be changing among Gen Z. But is politics driving these changes in religious behavior and belief? The data is a little less definitive here, but two things seem to bear out: According to AEI's Survey Center, young women who are leaving churches report doing so because their congregations' beliefs are more conservative than the beliefs they hold. Additionally, young Christian women who remain in their churches are still more likely to be liberal and hold progressive beliefs than young Christian men. According to the Pew Religious Landscape Survey, young Christian women are 13 points more likely than young men to say that abortion should be legal. As the researcher Daniel A. Cox of the AEI's Survey Center points out, these are all shifts from what young Christians believed 10 years ago. “The gender gap in views of abortion has since quadrupled,” he notes in a recent analysis, but when it comes to views on homosexuality and gay marriage, it seems like young men have moved right. On a range of other views of government, political parties, and ideology in general, what's happening with non-religious young people is also happening among believers. Cox notes that it might not be religion making these political views so different but the degree to which young Christian women have more connections and exposure to diverse communities and are consuming different kinds of media. Still, while we can confidently say young women are becoming more liberal and less religious in that process, we can't say the same for men. Religion may or may not be making young men more conservative, but it does seem likely that their conservative religious and political beliefs are at least keeping young men in churches. It appears to be slowing down their drift away from organized religion. It's the youngest cohort of Gen Z, those born between 2000 and 2006, that is narrowing religious gender gaps while widening political ones. That poses issues for their social, romantic, and familial futures. Gen Z already reports struggles with socializing, dating, maintaining healthy relationships, and combating loneliness. So as young men and women drift away from each other, it's hard to see how prospective partners breach these divides. And these dynamics may very well end up having electoral effects. The lessons liberals should take away from their election defeat — and a closer look at where they should go next. How to navigate finding family in an age of at-home DNA testing.

It has long been an unwritten rule of the Catholic Church that no citizen of a world superpower can be pope. But at the most unexpected moment, the College of Cardinals broke this understanding by electing the first American pontiff in a line of succession more than 2,000 years old, stretching right back to Christ's selection of St. Peter. When Pope Leo XIV, formerly known as Cardinal Robert Prevost, emerged as the bishop of Rome on May 8, jaws dropped to the cobbled pavement of Vatican City. Even in secular society and among nonbelievers, the Holy See enjoys unparalleled prestige that dwarfs other religious leaders and most monarchies. Trump, whose superpower is a talent for self-advertisement, forced all eyes worldwide to turn to watch America and what is happening here. There is much speculation about why the cardinals selected a Chicago-born prelate to lead them at this moment, when Trump is reasserting American power and fighting to build or restore the power of the presidency itself. The only evidence produced for it was past retweets and social media posts advocating “sensible gun control laws” and questioning Trump's rhetoric on immigration. If the College of Cardinals simply wanted an American pope whose views would clash with Trump's, there were more fitting candidates. Something else seems to have been at work — something that is less about standing athwart Trump's pursuit of power and American greatness and more about building bridges where possible. Dichotomies such as “right-wing” and “left-wing” mean little to an institution that predates the discipline of political science by nearly two millennia. Trump was asked in the days leading up to the conclave who he would like to see elected pope. His second answer mentioned Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Dolan, a jovial Irishman who has pastored the massive New York archdiocese since 2009, is perhaps the most powerful cardinal in America. He knows Trump personally and has cordial relations with him. He delivered a benediction at both Trump inaugurations, in 2017 and 2025, and he has been photographed many times buddying up with the president at public events such as the Al Smith Dinner. But Dolan is not a toady of the White House. Among the “anti-Trump” social media activity attributed to then-Cardinal Prevost was his retweeting of an article by Dolan titled “Why Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic.” Speaking to reporters after the conclave, Dolan called the president's recent AI-generated image of himself as pope a brutta figura — Italian for “ugly figure” or “bad impression.” Several Italian news outlets identified Dolan as playing a pivotal role in the conclave and securing votes for Prevost among his fellow Americans and other English-speaking cardinals from countries that were once part of the British Empire. “When we went in there Wednesday afternoon, I think most people had a clean, clear idea about the candidate that they wanted — and it didn't take that long,” Dolan said after the election of Leo. The new pope's solemn and sober demeanor is immediately obvious. Thus far, he has rarely spoken without prepared remarks. In his first address to members of the media in Paul VI Audience Hall, Leo urged news figures to exercise restraint in their language and to escape the Tower of Babel created by polarized, hostile discourse. “We do not need loud, forceful communication but rather communication that is capable of listening and gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice,” he said. Disarming communication will allow us to share events of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.” He led the church during a time of political, social, and economic revolutions as the world hurtled toward modernization and industrialization. His papacy offered spiritual stability amid the breakdown of feudal-era political systems. Trump did not respond to Leo's election as though the church had just chosen a new rival to challenge him. “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following Leo's ascension. “I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. Trump was elected to improve the lives of average citizens and resuscitate traditional American culture, which has been gutted by hostile secular leftist forces. Many of his allies in America and abroad see their mission as restoring Western civilization. Vice President JD Vance is prominent in pushing this theme of Trump's presidency. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 after years of spiritual wanderings that began in the evangelical theology of his youth. His is not a unique story among modern conservatives. Christianity's role in public life is diminished compared to the founding of the country, which was at a time when state churches were common in many countries and atheism was scandalous. Vance lamented “where Western civilization has gone” during an address at the Heritage Foundation last month, asserting that “the Christian faith” is among the “very founding ideas of the West” that “all Western nations were in some important respect really based on in their original charter.” That was the work of elites who no longer appreciated their cultural inheritance. “Those very ideas have not just fallen out of favor, and they're not just less popular than they were 200 years ago or 300 years ago; of course, in the case of our friends in Europe, a thousand years ago,” Vance said. Social media is abuzz with speculation about whether Leo has shopped at Costco and how many times he's visited a Buc-ee's. Fans are showing up at Rate Field in fake liturgical vestments and mitres. The president of Villanova University, of which Leo is an alumnus, said he was “getting so many congratulations” that “you would think I became the pope.” A bipartisan group of lawmakers from over a dozen states is pushing a resolution in Congress that would officially recognize and celebrate Leo as “the 267th pontiff of the Holy Roman Catholic Church” and “the first American pontiff.” In his estimation, the contrasting forces of liberty and historical Christianity were slowly but constantly pulling Americans in opposite directions. “Our descendants will increasingly divide into only two parts, some leaving Christianity entirely and others embracing the Church of Rome,” he wrote. Trump has reiterated his desire to meet with Leo soon. Formal requests have already been filed asking for an invitation to be made for the pontiff to speak in Congress. But perhaps he did not account for the Church of Rome extending a hand to help pull Americans in.

As the US and China came to an agreement to lower tariffs sharply this week, trade war uncertainty has, for now, subsided. But Wall Street has a new question for President Donald Trump: What about tax cuts? A lower tax burden could could mean more money for consumers, the engine of the economy, to splash out at stores, in addition to providing a boost to Wall Street. But Trump's tax cuts could also increase the deficit, and investors might demand higher interest rates to hold US debt. Alan Auerbach, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, told CNN that he thinks investors could balk if the tax bill lowers taxes without cuts to government spending as well. “I think there may still be some belief in markets that there's going to be large spending cuts, and I think when they find out there really aren't, that might have some impact,” he said. Related article Here's what's in the House GOP's sweeping tax and spending cuts package While many investors have been enthusiastic about potential tax cuts, concerns about the federal debt have also increased substantially since 2017, when Trump's first tax cuts were passed, Auerbach said. A higher debt-to-GDP ratio signals the government might have “greater difficulty in repaying its debt,” according to Treasury Department. “We're now talking about deficits and a national debt-to-GDP ratio that are really going to be unprecedented, except for recent recessionary times,” Auerbach said. While Trump is set on extending his tax cuts, there just aren't that many places in the federal budget to cut spending, he said. Volatility has settled this month as Trump walked back his most aggressive tariff policies. Investors' ire (or joy) could come out in the bond market, Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, told CNN. “I think we have to watch closely the bond market, because it will give us a signal as to whether it dislikes whatever Trump does with taxes,” Stovall said. Trump's tariff chaos spooked markets deeply last month, making investors nervous about US assets. That was the largest weekly increase since 2001, they said. Related article The bond market is acting weird. US Treasuries have typically been considered a safe haven and the best kind of place to park your cash during tough times. A March report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Trump's proposed tax cuts would add to the federal debt, which the report said is already on an unsustainable path. “They (lawmakers) should not add further to the debt by enacting or extending tax cuts and spending without offsets,” the report said. For now, investors are largely waiting to see what happens, said Chip Hughey, managing director for fixed income at Truist Advisory Services. Not all the proposed changes are likely to make it in. While Capitol Hill and Wall Street begin to think more about tax cuts, the worries about tariffs haven't entirely gone away, either. Tariff rates still remain substantially higher than before Trump took office, and investors are waiting for more economic data to see how American consumers are faring, Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at US Bank Wealth Management Group, told CNN. More trade agreements could be coming, and the frameworks of the deals announced so far still need to be fleshed out, Hainlin said. “Even with the trade deal with China and suspension of reciprocal tariffs against other trade partners, tariffs remain a substantial headwind for the US economy,” David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie, said in a Tuesday note. “While a positive development, the de-escalation does not mean that everything is ‘all clear' on the trade war front.” US market indices are shown in real time, except for the S&P 500 which is refreshed every two minutes. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Market holidays and trading hours provided by Copp Clark Limited.

A veteran air-traffic controller at the facility that handles flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport is calling for more resources and speaking out about the intense pressures workers face amid a staffing shortage and tech outages. “It's like playing 3-D chess at 250 miles an hour,” Jonathan Stewart told the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview. “Like anything else, you're going to have a breaking point.” A meeting of airline and FAA officials is underway Friday to discuss reducing the number of flights at Newark following recent weeks' flight delays and cancellations fueled by runway construction, congestion and air traffic control staffing shortages. Stewart is among several traffic controllers on trauma leave, including some who were shaken by the blackouts, which left them unable to talk to planes or see where they were located. “I don't want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” he told the Journal. His testimony is one of the first public narratives of overworked and understaffed US controllers, who are combatting the declining working conditions, alongside aging infrastructure and outdated technology. The problems at control towers and facilities overlay an ongoing stress passengers feel over a string of technology outages, close calls and fatal accidents. Stewart – who has been writing plane callsigns in a notebook fearing another blackout – said he averted a potential mid-air collision between two aircraft flying nose-to-nose at the same altitude on May 4, the Journal reported. On departure around 6:10 p.m. local time May 4 from New Jersey's Morristown Municipal Airport – about 30 miles from Manhattan – a Gulfstream business jet and Pilatus PC-12 plane conflicted, “resulting in a temporary loss of separation,” the FAA told CNN. The Gulfstream pilot was given correct instructions from controllers, it said. Feeling shaken after the close call, Stewart said he sent an email to FAA managers criticizing their leadership and is now speaking out to set the record straight about controllers, the Journal reported. While the controllers who manage Newark's airspace are elite, they need more resources to be able to do their jobs, Stewart told the Journal. Five controllers took a 45-day trauma leave after the outage on April 28 caused their radar screens to go blank for 90 seconds and their radios to go out for 30 seconds during the busy afternoon. Similar systems are in use across the US, said McIntosh, who acknowledged the tight staffing at TRACON, including just three controllers working all Newark arrivals and departures for over an hour Monday night. Two similar incidents have occurred at Newark's airport within the last week. On Sunday morning, the FAA said it implemented a ground stop for flights heading to Newark because of a “telecommunications issue.” On the early morning of May 9, another 90-second radar outage happened. CNN has not been able to independently verify its authenticity. Authorities have been working to address the challenges at Newark. The FAA created an “emergency task force” to make sure the airport operates safely, its acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau has said. Another equipment outage impacts flights at Newark Liberty International Airport The control facility responsible for traffic at Newark has been “chronically understaffed for years,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a message this month about the delays. The shortage was compounded by over 20% of FAA controllers who “walked off the job” last week at Newark Airport, he said. Stewart said controllers hadn't “walked off the job” and aren't to blame for the recent delays, the Journal reported, adding safety events might not be stressful initially but can have a cumulative effect. CNN's Alexandra Skores, Pete Muntean, Rene Marsh and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.