--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, May 23rd. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last night, hundreds of guests done up in black tie arrived at President Trump's golf club in Virginia for what the marketing materials called the world's most exclusive invitation. The protesters outside called it the Crypto Corruption Club, chanting shame as the attendees pulled up.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: To get in the door for the dinner of filet mignon and pan-seared halibut, the guests, many of whom flew in from overseas, had to buy up massive amounts of Trump's personal cryptocurrency. The top 220 buyers made the cut, some spending more than $40 million for the chance to meet the president.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: While expensive galas are often used as political fundraisers, this was not a fundraiser. The arrangement directly enriched the president's family, which earns money every time Trump's crypto coin is traded. That's led critics to call it one of the most blatant acts of corruption by any president in American history.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The attendees, for their part, weren't shy about what they wanted in return. Several of the guests told The Times they went with the explicit intention of influencing Trump about cryptocurrency policy, with the potential to shape regulation in their favor.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Look at them, they're all dressed up in tuxedo. Why didn't you tell me that? I would have worn a tuxedo.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The president spoke briefly at the dinner, touting crypto investment and saying, quote, we're honored to be working on helping everybody here. I do it for a reason, not for me. I really do it because I think it's the right thing to do.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At a news conference earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt rejected any suggestion Trump was acting inappropriately by hosting the dinner, saying, It's absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In a major escalation of its pressure campaign against America's elite universities, the Trump administration says it's cutting off Harvard's ability to enroll international students, effective immediately.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The decision could have a profound impact on the school. More than a quarter of Harvard students this academic year were from abroad. In some of its graduate programs, like the Kennedy School of Government, that number is nearly 60%.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The decision announced yesterday by the Secretary of Homeland Security came after the department claimed that Harvard failed to turn over records about foreign students.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The government has demanded students' names and disciplinary records as part of an investigation into anti-Semitism on campus. Harvard said that request exceeded what was required by law.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It was the latest example of Harvard pushing back against the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to force the school to fall in line with the president's agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last month, Harvard sued the administration after it froze billions in federal funds to try and make the school overhaul its curriculum and hiring practices.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But behind closed doors, some Harvard officials tell The Times they're worried that fighting the Trump administration is a losing battle and that the school won't be able to avoid more investigations, funding threats, and potentially even criminal inquiries.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, for Harvard's international students, yesterday's decision set off a shockwave of fear and confusion. They'll be forced to transfer to another school or lose their immigration status, throwing them into limbo in the middle of getting their degrees.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One student from Wales who just finished his freshman year told The Times everyone freaking out no one knows what to do adding quote we being used like pawns in some game we have no control over.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Also yesterday, a federal judge in a separate case said the administration likely exceeded its authority by targeting international students for deportation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In the past few months, thousands of students across the U.S. have had their visas revoked. In some cases, they've been involved in pro-Palestinian activism. Others had years-old legal infractions on their records, like DUIs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The judge ordered a temporary halt to the widespread crackdown while a class-action lawsuit works its way through the courts, writing that government officials likely, quote, acted arbitrarily and capriciously.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At the White House on Thursday. At its core, this report is a call to action for common sense. We've relied too much on conflicted research, ignored common sense, or what some would call mother's intuition.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled a report outlining his vision for how to make America healthy again, or MAHA, starting with American kids.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There is a reason that the MAHA mom sided with you, President Trump. It's because this administration has the bravery to tell the truth and solve problems through innovation and not...
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The report paints a really bleak picture of the health of American children. It says American children are the sickest generation of children in history.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It talks about how 40% of American children have at least one chronic disease. By chronic disease, they are thinking of asthma or an autoimmune disease or obesity.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: My colleague Cheryl Gay Stolberg covers health policy for The Times. She says the administration's report, which was prepared by Kennedy's Maha Commission, puts the blame for rising chronic disease in kids on several factors.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: Among them are ultra-processed foods, chemical exposure, lack of physical activity, and excessive use of prescription drugs, including antidepressants.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: Some of those are factors the broader medical community agrees on, like the focus on ultra-processed foods.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: By one count, nearly 70 percent of the calories kids in the U.S. eat come from those kinds of foods, which have been linked to heart disease, diabetes and other conditions.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: And Cheryl says some public health experts were encouraged that Kennedy was willing to call out the influence that corporations have had on setting federal policy, pointing out lobbying by the food industry, along with chemical and pharmaceutical companies.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: I think the report demonstrated really a willingness to take on industry, at least in words. The report is more of a blueprint for, you know, a vision of what's to come.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: It doesn't offer any specific policy recommendations at this point, but it does suggest avenues of research. And the commission will now spend the next 80 or so days coming up with a strategy to pursue this agenda of reversing the childhood chronic disease epidemic.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: Notably, the report did contain a level of vaccine skepticism that worries some experts.
--:-- Cheryl Gay Stolberg: The report implies that the current recommended number of immunizations for kids may be harmful. In reality, vaccines are largely responsible for the sharp drop in deaths among children under five.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: New data tracking the world forests shows that they disappearing faster than ever.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Using satellite imagery researchers at the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute found that the planet lost a record amount of forests last year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Basically, the equivalent of 18 soccer fields of forested land disappeared every minute.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The amount of forest intentionally cleared for things like agriculture and cattle farming spiked, but for the first time since record-keeping began, the leading cause of forest loss was fire.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That appears to be in part because tropical forests, which used to be too wet to burn, now are catching fire more often because of a warming climate and human activity.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Scientists are warning that the loss of forests is setting off a kind of chain reaction.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Forests are crucial sponges for carbon dioxide, and when they burn, they release that carbon, which in turn drives more global warming.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, someday in the future, a small child may run up to you, clutching a strange little copper-colored disc they found in the dirt.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It has a bearded man's face on it and some words almost too small to read. They'll hold it up to you and they'll say, what is this?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And you'll tell them, that is a penny. Okay, I'm getting a little nostalgic about it, but the Treasury Department is officially winding down the production of pennies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The department has now ordered its last batch of blanks, which it stamps into one-cent coins.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Once the blanks run out, penny production will end as part of an executive order from President Trump earlier this year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's a cost-saving measure. The coins have long been more expensive to manufacture than they're worth.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They cost almost four cents to make, and the Mint estimates that the plan will save taxpayers at least $56 million a year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But penny fans, do not fear. There are still plenty of the coins to go around.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: According to the Treasury, about 114 billion pennies are still in circulation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At least one billion of those may be in your car in that little crack between the front seat and the armrest.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You know what I'm talking about?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines, but remember to stick around after the credits for the Friday News Quiz.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, how people in Israel are reacting to the shooting deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers this week in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in The New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Katie O'Brien, and Paula Schumann.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now for the quiz.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This month, we've been giving you a chance to test your news knowledge on Fridays.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So we've got questions about three stories The Times has covered this week.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Can you answer them all?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: First up. On this vote, the yeas are 215, the nays are 214, with one answering present. The bill is passed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Tucked into what President Trump has called the big, beautiful bill that passed the House of Representatives yesterday, there was a nice little bonus if you're a baby.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It calls for every American baby born over the next four years to receive $1,000 from the government that would be invested on their behalf in the financial markets.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Once they grow up, they'd be able to get access to it for college or buying a house, etc.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It was going to be called a MAGA account but Republicans changed the name of it at the last minute.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: To put a finer point on it the MAGA baby bonds are now going to be named
--:-- Tracy Mumford: What is the new name of the proposed program?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'll give you a second here.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The answer? If they happen, they will be called Trump accounts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Apparently the president got his way and these new savings accounts will be named in his honor.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: OK, next up.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: While being questioned by Congress this week about how the Trump administration is handling deportations, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, got the definition of habeas corpus, a key constitutional principle, wrong.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Habeas corpus, excuse me, that's that's incorrect.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Let's see if you can get it right.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Habeas corpus is, give you three options here.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A prohibition on unreasonable searches, a protection against unlawful detainment, or the right of children born in the U.S. to get citizenship?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The answer is the second one.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Habeas corpus is the right of people to challenge their detention by the government.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Trump administration has been discussing trying to suspend it to speed up deportations.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And I need you to trust me
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last question one last time after almost 30 years eight films and more threats to humanity than I can keep track of the final installment of the mission impossible series opens in theaters today it's called mission impossible the final reckoning and in it like in all the movies tom cruise does a lot of his own stunts
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Legend has it he once fired a safety guy who told him something was too dangerous.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So in honor of those stunts, I'm going to list four extremely nerve-wracking acts and you tell me which one of these Tom Cruise did not do for a Mission Impossible movie.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A. Dove into an underwater storage facility that required Cruise to learn how to hold his breath for six and a half minutes.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: B. Hung onto the outside of a military aircraft as it took off from a runway.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: C. Rode a rocket 62 miles above the Earth's surface into low orbit before dropping back down in a special capsule.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Or D. Drove a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuted into a Norwegian valley.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So that's A. Holding your breath for six and a half minutes. B. Holding onto a plane during takeoff. C. Blasting into low orbit. Or D. The motorcycle-parachute combo.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The answer is C.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Tom Cruise did all of those stunts except the rocket.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That is actually a Katy Perry stunt.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last month, the singer and five other women made a 10-minute trip into space aboard a rocket from Jeff Bezos' company.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Tom Cruise, as far as we know, has not been to space yet.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Though a few years ago, he did have early discussions with NASA to shoot a movie on the International Space Station.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That is it for the news quiz.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: If you want to tell us how you did, if you're enjoying the quiz, you can always email us at theheadlines at nytimes.com.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The show will be back on Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday with my colleague Will Jarvis hosting, and we'll try a few more questions next Friday.
