Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

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What A Day - Job Cuts Come For the State Department

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent part of his Thursday gilding President Donald Trump's lily, saying during an Oval Office Q&A with reporters that ‘no leader is working harder to prevent wars or end them.’ Rubio’s confident air, however, runs contrary to reports of fear and chaos reigning at the State Department under his leadership. Earlier this week, the agency released plans for a pretty sizable reorganization. They call for the elimination of hundreds of domestic positions and the axing of offices that focus on things like war crimes and global conflict. Nahal Toosi, senior foreign affairs correspondent for Politico, explains what the State Department reorganization will mean for American foreign diplomacy, and what it says about the Trump administration’s worldview.

And in headlines: Trump begged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “STOP” bombing Ukraine amid ongoing peace talks, Trump asked the Supreme Court to let his administration enforce its ban on trans troops in the military after a lower court judge put it on hold, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly had Signal installed on a desktop computer at the Pentagon.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | The Immigration Data Dragnet

One of DOGE’s goals is to get government data out of “silos” and make it more easily shared across departments. But there are good reasons for some data to be kept apart. 


Guest: Vittoria Elliot, WIRED reporter covering platforms and power.


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort.

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What A Day - Will Trump Abandon Ukraine?

The Trump administration is putting pressure on Ukraine to accept a U.S.-backed peace plan with Russia that closely aligns with Moscow's goals in the three-year war. The deal calls for freezing the battle lines that exist today — essentially forcing Ukraine to cede a vast swath of its eastern territory to Russian control. The U.S. also wants Ukraine to recognize the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, as Russian territory, and give up its goal of joining NATO. Vice President J.D. Vance said Wednesday that the U.S. would 'walk away' from negotiations if the two countries refused to accept the administration's terms. Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and a former adviser to Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, breaks down why the Trump administration wants to strong-arm Ukraine over Russia and what it says about President Trump's views on power.

And in headlines: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to ease fears over the administration's trade war with China, Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin announced plans to retire at the end of his term, and more Democratic members of Congress traveled to El Salvador to highlight Trump's threats to due process.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - The Flight Attendant Who Wants You to Go on Strike

The Trump administration’s actions on immigration and firing the federal workforce have drawn condemnation from all sorts of unions—from building trades to graduate students. What happens when labor speaks as one?


Guest: Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL–CIO.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Ethan Oberman, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther.

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Cato Daily Podcast - Best of Cato Daily Podcast: Asserting Liberty and the Power of ‘No’

Caleb O. Brown hosted the Cato Daily Podcast for nearly 18 years, producing well over 4000 episodes. He has gone on to head Kentucky’s Bluegrass Institute. This is one among the best episodes produced in his tenure, selected by the host and listeners.


In the long history of the ebb and flow of liberty, some examples stand out. Jim Otteson of Wake Forest University offered a few of those examples at Cato Club 200.

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What A Day - MAGA Baby Bucks

MAGA is in full-on panic mode about the declining birth rate in the U.S., and so the doors of the West Wing are wide open to figuring out how to get more people to have more babies. That's right, Trump administration officials want you to get pregnant and stay pregnant. Nothing creepy about that! Carter Sherman, a reproductive health and justice reporter for The Guardian, explains the right-wing panic around predictions of a coming baby apocalypse.

And in headlines: President Donald Trump now says he has 'no intention' to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the DOJ asked a federal judge to force Google to sell off Chrome, and more migrant children are left to represent themselves in immigration court.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Fed Up!

Why Trump wants to ouster his own appointee, Jerome Powell, from the Fed chair—and why the rest of the world is rooting for Powell to stay put.


Guest: Liz Hoffman, Semafor’s business and finance editor, host of Semafor’s World Economy Summit, and author of Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink.



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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Ethan Oberman, and Rob Gunther.

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What A Day - A Week of Big Cases At SCOTUS

It's a busy week at the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, the justices heard oral arguments in yet another legal attack on Obamacare, this time over requirements that insurers cover some preventative care services at no cost to patients. Today, they'll weigh a parental rights case over LGBTQ-themed children's books in public schools. And tomorrow, they'll hear a challenge to California's ability to set stricter emission standards for new cars. All the while, the court is facing serious questions over whether it's prepared to stand up to the Trump administration's assault on rule of the law. Leah Litman, co-host of Crooked's legal podcast 'Strict Scrutiny,' tells us what we need to know about this week's big cases and the big-picture debate over the court's ability to protect our rights.

And in headlines: The Catholic Church began the search for a new leader after Pope Francis' death early Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly shared military plans on a second private Signal chat, and U.S. stocks slumped again amid Trump's repeated attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

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Cato Daily Podcast - Caleb O. Brown Bids Farewell to the Cato Daily Podcast

Caleb O. Brown has hosted the Cato Daily Podcast since 2007, CatoAudio since 2008, and all told has created several thousand interviews, videos, and other pieces for the Cato Institute. On his final episode, he is interviewed by Cato's Deirdre McCloskey about the art of the interview and his pending move to head Kentucky’s Bluegrass Institute.

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