NPR News: 07-11-2025 11AM EDT
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What is the State Department’s biggest reorganization and staff‑cut plan announced today?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Hundreds of State Department employees are being laid off today. As MPR's Michelle Kelleman reports, it's part of what the department is calling the biggest reorganization in decades.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cut many offices at the State Department and now is letting go hundreds of staffers. They include 246 Foreign Service officers and 1,107 civil servants, all based at the Washington, D.C. headquarters. His aides say that if you add that to the staff that took early retirement, they have reached their goal of a 15% cut at the agency's home base. Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee say that this will undermine US national security. They warn that as the US retreats, China and other adversaries are expanding their diplomatic reach.
How are Senate Democrats reacting to the State Department layoffs and the alleged impact on U.S. national security?
Michelle Kellaman, NPR News, the State Department.
President Trump is headed to central Texas today to survey the damage from the catastrophic flash floods last week. That left at least one hundred people dead, more than one hundred and seventy missing. Steve Futterman has more.
The president is coming to an area still reeling from the July 4th disaster. Dozens of people are still missing, with virtually no hope that anyone is going to be found alive. It's a painstakingly slow examination. Jonathan Lamb is with the Kerrville Police Department. It is a methodical search which ensures that every area in an area to be searched.
What is the scope of President Trump’s visit to Texas after the July 4th flash‑flood disaster?
Is covered and searched, and that no stone is left unturned. The president is scheduled to spend around three hours here. His trip comes as more questions are being raised about whether more could have been done before the disaster and immediately afterwards. For MPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Kerrville, Texas.
President Trump says a new thirty five percent tariff on goods from Canada, set to begin august first, is punishment for that country failing to stop the flow of deadly street fentanyl into the US. But Trump's false claim linking Canada and fentanyl has been debunked again in a new study, and here's Brian Mann reports.
Trump has often said Canada is a major source of street fentanyl killing Americans. The statement was repeated in a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media Thursday. Trump accused Canada of failing to stop fentanyl pouring into the U.S., but numerous studies and data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency have shown almost no fentanyl is smuggled south from Canada into the U.S. A new study published this month by the conservative-leaning Manhattan. Institute, analyzed large drug seizures and found the same. Canada isn't a significant factor in U.S. fentanyl deaths. In their report, the authors concluded that tariffs on Canada cannot, quote, be justified as a response to the threat of fentanyl.
Does the new study refute Trump’s claim that Canada is fueling the U.S. fentanyl crisis?
Brian Mann, NPR News.
While Street's trading lower at this hour, the Dow is down two hundred and fifty-eight points. You're listening to NPR News.
How are the record‑setting wildfires in Manitoba affecting nearby U.S. states like Minnesota and Wisconsin?
In Canada, officials in Manitoba have declared the second emergency this year, as more than one hundred wildfires are burning across the central Canadian province, with at least a dozen considered to be out of control. Thousands have been evacuated. The fires are fueled by higher temperatures and most of the blazes were triggered by lightning strikes. Smoke and ash from the fires are blowing into Minnesota and Wisconsin, where Republican lawmakers complain to Canadian officials, telling them to mitigate the fires because it's limiting their summer activities in those states. The fires are on pace to burn the most land there in thirty one years. Threats and harassment of local school officials have nearly tripled in recent years, according to a new study from Princeton University, and Pierce Frank Langfitt has more.
School board meetings used to be polite, often dull affairs. The pandemic changed that, setting off battles over mask mandates. As COVID ebbed, Princeton's Bridging Divides initiative says new flashpoints emerged over DEI and LGBTQ rights.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the State Department’s biggest reorganization and staff‑cut plan announced today?
0:00–0:53
2
How are Senate Democrats reacting to the State Department layoffs and the alleged impact on U.S. national security?
0:53–1:33
3
What is the scope of President Trump’s visit to Texas after the July 4th flash‑flood disaster?
1:33–2:51
4
Does the new study refute Trump’s claim that Canada is fueling the U.S. fentanyl crisis?
2:51–3:01
5
How are the record‑setting wildfires in Manitoba affecting nearby U.S. states like Minnesota and Wisconsin?
3:01–4:00
6
Why have threats and harassment of school officials surged by over 150% nationwide?
4:00–4:38