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--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. Today's Thursday, May 15th.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. At the Supreme Court today, the justices will take up a case involving one of President Trump's most controversial policies, his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
--:-- Abby Van Sickle: Since the 14th Amendment was passed more than a century ago, it's been broadly accepted that everyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents' immigration status. But Trump has almost single-handedly elevated what was considered a fringe theory that the children of undocumented immigrants don't qualify.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's something that had been quietly batted around by a conservative think tank in California for years before Trump brought it up on Fox News during his first campaign.
--:-- Abby Van Sickle: I don't think you're right about that. I think it's going to be proven that you're wrong. If you were born here, you're an American. Period. Period.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But there are many lawyers, many lawyers are saying that's not the way it is. While Trump didn't challenge birthright citizenship in his first term, on day one of this term, he signed his executive order, setting off a tsunami of legal pushback.
--:-- Abby Van Sickle: In three separate cases, federal judges quickly blocked the order using what are known as nationwide injunctions, teeing up a legal fight that will now go before the justices.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today's arguments won't tackle Trump's theory about citizenship head on. They'll be centered instead on whether the federal judges had the right to block the order.
--:-- Abby Van Sickle: The question for the court today is, does one federal judge have the power to freeze a policy for the entire country?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Abby Van Sickle covers the Supreme Court. The Trump administration is arguing that these nationwide injunctions are an overreach, that they are too much power for one single federal judge to be able to block the executive branch's policies.
--:-- Abby Van Sickle: On the other side, lawyers for attorneys general offices and immigrant advocacy groups are expected to argue that this is an appropriate use of such a nationwide pause.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Because if a federal judge were to only block this for part of the country, you would have a patchwork of policies in this case a patchwork of birthright citizenship policies throughout the country.
--:-- Abby Van Sickle: Abbey says that the outcome of this case could have profound consequences for any legal efforts to push back on President Trump's stream of executive orders.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The court decision on the reach of judges' power will likely come next month. Meanwhile, other cases challenging Trump's birthright citizenship policy are still working their way through lower courts.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now, a few quick updates on Congress. The American people are counting on us to get this done and get it done quickly. And we are on target to do it.
--:-- House Republican: House Republicans pulled an all-nighter this week to push forward a major domestic policy package that President Trump has labeled the Big Beautiful Bill.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The bill would extend and expand certain tax breaks and pay for that, in part, by making cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and subsidies for clean energy.
--:-- House Republican: The Medicaid overhaul in particular has drawn intense criticism from Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, since it would force an estimated 8 million Americans off their insurance.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: These are working people and their children who need health care. And it's just wrong to go and cut their health care when they're trying to make ends meet, trying to make sure that they're able to provide for their families.
--:-- House Republican: The legislation will now go to the full House, where GOP leaders are hoping to get it passed by the end of next week, though they'll need the support of almost every Republican to do so.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: Also on Capitol Hill. Mr. Secretary, how many employees have been let go so far?
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Excuse me? How many employees have been let go so far from your... About 10,000.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Took the fork in the road. About 10,000.
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced fierce questions from House and Senate committees yesterday about his drastic revamp of the department.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Kennedy's plans have included cutting 20,000 jobs, which is one quarter of the workforce, and collapsing entire agencies.
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Democratic lawmakers accused him of undermining health programs Congress had already funded.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: If you appropriate me the funds, I'm going to spend them. We have. In the bill, you are cutting the NIH by $18 billion.
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Kennedy defended the cuts, saying they were painful but necessary to address the federal deficit.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He also tried to claim he had not fired, quote, any working scientists, even though hundreds of scientists from the National Institutes of Health the FDA and the CDC have lost their jobs.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the CDC released new data on drug overdose deaths in the U It shows deaths plummeted by nearly 30 last year.
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Addiction specialists say some of that is due to changes in the illicit drug supply. For example, some fentanyl on the street is getting weaker.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But they also point to greater access to drug treatment and overdose reversal medication.
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Some of Kennedy's proposed cuts affect programs many believe contributed to the drop in overdoses.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Manhattan this morning, the sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs, the music mogul known as Diddy and Puff Daddy, will resume with the cross-examination of the prosecution's star witness.
--:-- Julia Jacobs: The singer Cassandra Ventura, known as Cassie, has spent the last two days describing often violent and graphic details from her years-long relationship with Combs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She recounted wrenching descriptions of physical abuse, bruises on her body from that abuse, and emotional descriptions about how she felt after the sexual encounters at the heart of the government's case.
--:-- Julia Jacobs: She used words like disgusting, humiliated. She said she felt empty after them.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Julia Jacobs is covering the trial. She says Cassie's been testifying about the drug-fueled episodes that Combs called freak-offs.
--:-- Julia Jacobs: Cassie claims that Combs also blackmailed her with videos of the encounters to keep her quiet.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and claimed the encounters were consensual.
--:-- Julia Jacobs: His lawyers have suggested that, in the past, Cassie's tried to use her accounts of violence to get money from Combs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She revealed yesterday on the stand she'd received a $20 million settlement from him in a civil case in which she alleged abuse.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally. Eurovision is the most ridiculous television spectacle in the world.
--:-- Alex Marshall: It's an event held every year where dozens of countries submit a singer to represent them on the world stage.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Times culture reporter Alex Marshall is covering Eurovision this year, the highly campy singing competition that is also the most cultural event on the planet.
--:-- Alex Marshall: It got a long and storied history Back in the 70s it helped launch the Swedish pop sensation ABBA
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's also highlighted some lesser-known acts, like the heavy metal dance act from Croatia known as Baby Lasagna.
--:-- Alex Marshall: Tonight, there's a semifinal ahead of Eurovision's grand finale this Saturday in Switzerland.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm heading to Eurovision. So as part of my preparation for that, I've been looking back through the past 25 years, winners, to work out what it takes to actually win.
--:-- Alex Marshall: There are some musical things that do help. When we did our analysis, we realized that a lot of the winners feature folk music or feature folk instruments.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So it really does help if you've got an accordion or two in there somewhere.
--:-- Alex Marshall: And several of the acts this year do indeed have one.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And what I think I've ultimately decided is you need to have amazing staging.
--:-- Alex Marshall: I mean, the Beatles could have been on stage singing Hey Jude, and they wouldn't have stood a chance in Eurovision if it was just them standing in suits playing away.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: What they would have needed would have been barrel loads of pyrotechnics going off around them, maybe a piano burning on stage, maybe a man in a hamster wheel inexplicably spinning behind them.
--:-- Alex Marshall: To a lot of viewers, the song is almost irrelevant. It's the madness of the performance, the brilliance of the performance.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Like this year's favourite, according to British gambling companies, is Sweden's Act, a comedy troupe called Kai, who are singing a song about going to the sauna.
--:-- Alex Marshall: And when they perform it, they perform on stage in a fake sauna with sort of scantily clad dancers around them.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You know, that does tick all our boxes for what makes a great Eurovision hit. It's a spectacle, it has an accordion, and it's got an amazingly catchy chorus.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's the headlines today on The Daily. what President Trump's ongoing trade war with China means for fast fashion and online shopping. That's next in the New York Times audio app, where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
