NPR News: 06-29-2026 12PM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The U.S. Supreme Court says Lisa Cook can keep her job as a member of the Federal Reserve's governing board, at least for now. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the decision is a setback for President Trump.
In a 5-4 ruling, the high court said the president failed to give Lisa Cook due process when he tried to fire her from the Fed board.
What recent Supreme Court decision impacts Lisa Cook's position on the Federal Reserve?
The attempted dismissal was part of a broader campaign by the president to bend the central bank to his will in hopes of forcing lower interest rates. While the decision was made on narrow procedural grounds, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, the Fed was deliberately designed to be insulated from political pressure to help prevent the kind of economic panics that were common before the central bank was established. That carve-out for the Fed is in contrast to the Supreme Court's general direction of giving the White House greater control over agencies that were once considered independent. The high court ruled 6-3 today. The president can fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, reversing a precedent that has stood for nearly a century.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
In a GOP setback, the high court upheld a Mississippi law, allowing election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days later. And in a case over geofencing, the court is restricting use of the new law enforcement technique that allows police to tap into giant tech firm databases to see Who is near the scene of a crime? An administration program to build new kinds of nuclear power is reaching a critical deadline. Here's NPR's Jeff Brumfield.
Last year, President Trump announced he wanted three new experimental nuclear reactors up and running by this July 4th. Reactors that use a different kind of fuel.
Do you remember gobstoppers? Are you familiar with what that looks like?
Rita Baranwal is chief nuclear officer at a company called Radiant. The new spherical fuel looks like a nuclear gobstopper. It can resist meltdowns. But to get the reactors running, as NPR has reported, energy department officials slashed hundreds of pages of safety and environmental requirements. Despite those cuts, Barenwald says the new reactors are safe.
I feel that everyone is operating with safety first and foremost on their minds.
So far, two companies have already turned on their reactors. She says she hopes to have radians powered up by the end of the summer. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News.
Well, as a country celebrates its 250th birthday, a heat wave is expected through the holiday weekend. NPR's Chandeliers Duster says millions of people will be affected.
High temperatures in the 90s to low 100s combined with humidity could make temperatures feel like 115 degrees. National Weather Service forecaster Brian Putnam says those gathering outdoors should remain cautious at night because there may be little relief from the heat.
We're particularly concerned just with the higher amount of outdoor activity. You know, people just want to get out and celebrate and it's going to be potentially dangerous.
Officials are warning people to stay hydrated and remain in air-conditioned areas. Shondalese Duster, NPR News. This is NPR.
Changes are coming to the federal student loan system this week. NPR's Corey Turner reports.
The changes come courtesy of last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act and kick in Wednesday, July 1st. Among them, Republicans created two new repayment plans and they'll be the only options for new borrowers. The Biden-era SAVE plan is also being shut down. The millions of current borrowers still in SAVE will need to choose another plan or they'll be automatically moved into what is arguably the least flexible option. There will also be a big change for graduate students. Once allowed to borrow as much as they needed, most will now be limited to $20,500 a year. Only students in a handful of professional fields, including dentistry, podiatry, and medicine, will be able to borrow up to $50,000 a year.
Corey Turner, NPR News.
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