On today’s show: Linda McMahon led WWE and the Small Business Administration. The U.S. Education Department may be next. NPR’s Jonaki Mehta reports on her background and details how the Trump administration targeted an Education Department research arm in recent cuts. The Washington Post reports that McMahon has a record at odds with Trump’s agenda. As the U.S. battles fentanyl, Mexico is fighting the flow of American guns into the country. The Wall Street Journal’s Zusha Elinson explains why it’s so easy to smuggle weapons across the border. Wired looks at how online maps are handling Trump’s Gulf of Mexico name change. Plus, a judge cleared the way for federal employees to accept the president’s “buyout” offer, Trump FBI pick Kash Patel was accused of orchestrating a staff purge at the agency while still a nominee, and how Trump has reshaped the Kennedy Center. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu. Correction: A previous version of this episode said Apple Maps had changed “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” for all users. At the time of this episode’s publication, that change has only been made for U.S. users.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Thursday, February 13th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, as America battles the flow of fentanyl from across the border, Mexico is fighting the flow of American guns. Some maps have officially adopted the name the Gulf of America, and Trump assumes a new title as chair of the Kennedy Center.
But first, President Trump's nominee for education secretary might end up leading a department that's on the administration's cutting block. Linda McMahon's confirmation hearing is today. She'll field questions from senators in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. At the same time, Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency are working to shrink the Department of Ed.
Here's Trump yesterday answering a reporter who asked, how soon do you want the Department of Education to be closed?
Oh, I'd like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education's a big con job.
Shutting down the department altogether would require congressional approval. It's an idea that's been floated by Republicans for decades, as long as the Department of Education has existed. Many have argued education policy should be handled entirely at the state level. But recent efforts have failed.
In a vote last year, 60 Republicans joined every single Democrat in voting against abolishing the department. Janaki Mehta is an education reporter at NPR, and she told us millions of dollars worth of contracts for projects that were already underway have been canceled, including at the Institute of Education Sciences, or IES.
It's one of the country's biggest funders of education research. And slashing this research could mean that the public, so parents, educators, students, policymakers, district officials, they don't have access to key data about things like student achievement, enrollment, school safety, teaching strategies that help students, you name it.
According to Mehta's sources who have insight into these canceled contracts, at least one program was already being used in classrooms to help students make up lost ground in math, which schools have struggled to make progress on since the pandemic. An employee of IES told Mehta they don't understand how Musk can defend the cancellations as being efficient.
The way one of them put it is that by canceling these contracts, they have, in the words of this employee, have wasted millions and millions of dollars.
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