--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Amelia Nirenberg, in for Tracy Mumford.
--:-- [Sound of a newsroom]
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Today's Wednesday, April 16th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: A federal judge is turning up the pressure on the Trump administration in the case of the man it wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador. At a hearing yesterday, the judge criticized the administration for dragging its feet and not immediately complying with a Supreme Court order to facilitate his release.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: She said, quote, to date, nothing has been done. Nothing. Government lawyers had previously admitted that the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, was mistakenly deported, though on Tuesday, some of President Trump's top advisers abruptly changed their position, claiming that he was deported on purpose.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: The judge is now trying to force the administration to show how it's handling the case behind the scenes. She said she plans to let Abrego Garcia's lawyers request government documents and bring in officials for questioning.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Meanwhile, the case has sparked anger across the country.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Are you going to bring a guy back from El Salvador? Yeah. At a town hall in Iowa, constituents confronted Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who heads the Senate committee that oversees immigration policy and federal courts.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Grassley said he won't push for Abrego Garcia's release, arguing that it's out of his control. The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Grassley is one of just a handful of Republicans hosting town halls this week while Congress is in recess.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: In the first months of the Trump administration, the events have become flashpoints, not just about immigration, but about a range of Republican policies.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Many Republicans have gone into sort of hiding and are not engaging as much, if at all, with their constituents in unstructured, in-person settings.
--:-- Maya Miller: I was at one of the few other town halls, an event with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of President Trump's most loyal allies.
--:-- Maya Miller: You can head out. The protest is outside. Thank you very much. The protest is outside.
--:-- Maya Miller: She says it quickly became chaotic as protesters interrupted Greene repeatedly. Police used stun guns on two of them and forcibly removed multiple people while supporters of Green cheered and applauded.
--:-- Maya Miller: At the same time, there were folks there who stayed quiet and kept seated. And afterwards, they told me that they didn't feel like their concerns were really heard at all.
--:-- Maya Miller: So if you were a median voter who had genuine concerns that you wanted to bring to your congresswoman, this was not a good night for you.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: The fight between Harvard and the Trump administration heated up yesterday when President Trump threatened a new attack on the university, stripping the school of its tax-exempt status.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Like many schools, Harvard doesn't have to pay taxes for the most part. Trump suggested that should change, as his administration tries to force radical overhauls at the university and other top schools.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: The new threat came just after Harvard became the first school to refuse to comply with a list of demands from the administration, and the administration hit back by freezing more than $2 billion in federal funding.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Experts say that it's unlikely that Trump could actually make the IRS take away Harvard's tax-exempt status, and the university is uniquely well-equipped to face off against the White House.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: It's the richest school in the world, with more than $50 billion in its endowment, and spent months preparing for a showdown.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Still, even an attempt to change its tax status could force the school into a long and expensive legal fight, as the university is starting to feel the pressure from the funding freeze.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: The Times has learned that some public health research has already been halted there, and any more cutbacks could hit the 11 hospitals that are affiliated with Harvard.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: In his first major remarks since leaving the White House, former President Joe Biden gave a speech yesterday condemning the Trump administration and forcefully defending Social Security.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Well, they following that old line from tech startups, "move fast break things." They certainly breaking things.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: In Biden's speech, a paid address to disability advocates in Chicago, he said that the Trump administration was, quote, taking a hatchet to the program that more than 70 million Americans rely on.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: President Trump has promised not to roll back the benefits, but the Social Security Administration has said it wants to cut thousands of staffers.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: And Trump's budget cuts have already left many local offices understaffed and overwhelmed, with longer lines and longer wait times.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Biden's speech was one of his relatively few public events since leaving office, though The Times has learned he's expected to do more speaking engagements in the next few months.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: The former president is also working on a memoir.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: After years of rising overdose deaths, the U.S. got a glimmer of hope last year. Opioid fatalities were falling, treatments were expanding, and drugs like fentanyl seem to be getting less potent.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: But in some cities, including Portland, Maine, a once-popular drug has re-emerged with devastating consequences, methamphetamine.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: My colleague, Greta Ribas, a photographer, and I spent on and off six months in Portland getting to know people who use the drug and the emergency responders who really struggle to know what to do with someone when they are under extreme agitation from meth.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: Parts of Portland have been overrun by cheap meth, which is now being mass-produced by Mexican cartels and is sometimes cut with other dangerous drugs.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: The result is a stimulant that can lead to psychosis and violent episodes, and it has overwhelmed health officials.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: The neighborhood where much of this is concentrated, called Bayside, has a remarkable repertoire of social services.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: There are social workers on the street, there are health clinics for people who are unhoused, and yet with all this extraordinary outpouring of services, they are baffled by meth.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: One of the emergency responders I spent the most time with was a fellow named Bill Burns, who is a mental health specialist with the Portland Police.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: He has just been drowning in trying to help people who are under meth influence.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: He talked about one time putting his arms around a young guy who was flinging himself against concrete dividers in an alley, completely lost to the world.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: Another time, Bill was called to a woman's apartment. She was ripping tiles from her ceiling looking for spying devices. and Bill had to try to talk her down and also get her to the hospital.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: This has happened to him and frankly to people under the influence many, many times. It's not at all uncommon.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: As meth use surges in places like Portland, health officials are short on tools to help.
--:-- Jan Hoffman: Unlike with opioids, there are no medications specifically approved to treat addiction to meth and no drugs like Narcan that can be used to reverse an overdose.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: And finally, in Sweden, an annual TV phenomenon is getting underway this week. A live broadcast of the country's moose migration.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: The country's national broadcaster sets up more than 30 cameras in fields, along rivers and in forests, to capture and stream the migrating moose.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Last year, millions of people tuned in.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: I make sure I have coffee. I have snacks. I have prepared food so I don't have to be in the kitchen too long. Sleep. Forget it. I don't sleep.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Tens of thousands of diehard fans, like Ulla Malmgren, flock to a Facebook group as they wait for the huge mammals to lumber across their screens.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: When one appears, the page blows up in delight.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: But even when there are no moose on screen, part of the appeal is that it's just nice to have a little window into nature.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Unlike other animal programs, there is no background music or narration.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Arna Nilsson, a moderator of the Facebook group, calls it, quote, reality TV at its finest.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: Today on The Daily, an inside look at the negotiations over the future of Iran's nuclear weapons program.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Amelia Nirenberg: I'm Amelia Nirenberg. We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you.
