Linda McMahon promised to cut off federal money from schools that defy President Donald Trump’s orders against transgender athletes in women’s sports, campus antisemitism and DEI initiatives across the country.

Park advocates say the permanent staff cuts will leave hundreds of national parks — including some of the most well-known and most heavily visited sites — understaffed and facing tough decisions about operating hours, public safety and resource protection.

“We don’t have kings in America, and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “If we don’t want to repeat history, then for God’s sake, in this moment, we better be strong enough to learn from it.”

The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.

“It is research that is essential, it is research that is nonpartisan, it is research that improves lives and improves communities,” said Aaron Krall, president of the UIC United Faculty union. “This is deadly serious, these are life-and-death matters.”

More than 200 people rallied in downtown Chicago on Tuesday to push back on President Donald Trump’s sweeping efforts to cut government spending and reduce the size of the federal workforce.

The Education Department gave an ultimatum to stop using “racial preferences” as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other areas. Schools are being given 14 days to end any practice that treats students or workers differently because of their race.

The $880 billion Medicaid program is financed mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states. And states, too, have said they’re having trouble financing years of growth and sicker patients who enrolled in Medicaid.

“At a time of such political division, Americans need to find common ground,” said Dr. Scott Oakes, who studies the role of cells in diseases at the University of Chicago. “We should all agree that medical research is one of those areas where we can all come together.”

“He has stuck a middle finger in the face of the American people,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (14th District) said, “and it’s unacceptable.”

The firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency’s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products — which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted.

The move comes less than three weeks since the midair collision over Washington, DC, that killed 67 people and that highlighted shortages of air traffic controllers and FAA infrastructure issues.

Leaders of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the European Union arrived at the Elysee Palace for talks on Europe’s security quandary. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is also attending.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance used his first major speech as vice president to lambast European politicians for suppressing free speech, losing control of immigration and refusing to work with hard-right parties in government.

Critics see the task force initiative as unnecessary and pandering to Trump’s base. But some Christian supporters said it is overdue, claiming the Biden administration had discriminated against them through actions and inactions.

Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, and five high-ranking Justice Department officials resigned Thursday after she refused an order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a stunning escalation in a dayslong standoff over the Trump administration prioritizing political aims over criminal culpability.