Author: Sara William

In Saudi Arabia, he received a standing ovation from business elites as he announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria. In Qatar, he took home an investment pledge of billions of dollars in American goods and services. In the United Arab Emirates, he was awarded the country’s highest civilian honor. If President Trump has been dogged at home by backlash over his tariff policies, protests over his immigration crackdown and questions over his ethics, a week in the Arabian Peninsula produced nothing but wins for the president. “The last four days have been really amazing,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday, as he…

The Federal Reserve will reduce its work force by 10 percent over the next several years to ensure the institution is “right-sized and able” to carry out its duties to foster a healthy economy. Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the central bank, announced the plan on Friday in an internal note to staff members reviewed by The New York Times. Certain employees will be eligible to participate in a voluntary deferred resignation program that is aimed at giving those close to retirement the option of an earlier exit. That offer will apply only to people at the Washington-based Board…

President Trump announced in a speech in Saudi Arabia that he is lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria “to give them a chance.” Why it matters: Trump’s announcement is a dramatic shift in U.S. policy towards Syria less than six months after the collapse of the Assad regime. The sanctions crippled the Syrian economy and brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy. Trump is also expected to meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the plan. Assad’s son, Bashar al-Assad, was toppled in December in a lightning rebel offensive that brought al-Sharaa to power after 14…

Delaney Hall, an immigrant detention facility in Newark, has drawn controversy since President Donald Trump’s administration announced a billion-dollar deal with a private prison company in February to reopen the complex, part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s effort to expand its detention capacity in the Northeast. Immigrant rights activists oppose the transformation of the former Newark prison into an immigrant detention center, saying it violates state laws and represents an affront to the deeply immigrant community. The tension over Delaney Hall erupted Friday when Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was arrested and charged with trespassing after he tried to…

The Justice Departmentwill investigate whether a planned real estate development around one of North Texas’s largest mosques violates federal law, Sen. John Cornyn (R) said Friday after weeks of calling the project antisemitic and anti-Christian. Attacks over the developmentoutside Dallas have been amplified by Cornyn, TexasAttorney General Ken Paxton (R), Gov. Greg Abbott and right-wing bloggers who baselessly claim it would create a Muslim-only community and impose Islamic law on residents. Leaders for the East Plano Islamic Center, the mosque that is backing the project dubbed EPIC City, have repeatedly denied the accusations and called the attacks on their planned development Islamophobic.…

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into real estate transactions involving New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to a person familiar with the case — the first known criminal probe of a law enforcement official who took action against President Donald Trump. A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued subpoenas over a mortgage application in which James attested that she intended to make a single-family home in Norfolk her primary residence, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. James’s signature appears at the bottom of…

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is appointing Jeanine Pirro — a Fox News host whose misstatements about the 2020 election were cited in two defamation lawsuits against the network — as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro, a former New York judge and district attorney, is to replace Ed Martin, Trump’s initial nominee as D.C.’s top prosecutor who has spent 15 tumultuous weeks in office. Trump, in a Truth Social post, described Pirro as “incredibly well qualified for this position.” Brash and often blunt-spoken, Pirro has stood out among a stable of conservative Fox commentators as…

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a new trade pact with the United Kingdom that he touted as likely just the first of many agreements with countries around the world, as the administration races to mitigate the damage from its global trade war. Joined in the Oval Office by several of his top advisers and the new British ambassador to Washington, Trump praised the deal and said it would lower trade restrictions for U.S. exporters while bringing the two countries into closer economic alignment. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other administration officials said the deal would create $5 billion in…

More than 20 times during a roughly 45-minute news conference on Wednesday, Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, referenced the idea of waiting to see how President Trump’s policies would ripple through the economy before taking any action on interest rates. Mr. Powell, who spoke after the Fed opted to extend a pause on interest rate cuts, said the central bank had the flexibility to do so because the economy overall was still on solid footing. He also stressed that it was the most prudent decision at a time when there was so much uncertainty about how much tariffs…

On Monday, President Donald Trump met with Russian-American Ksenia Karelina, a former ballerina who was arrested during a family trip to Russia last year for donating roughly $52 to support Ukrainian aid in 2022. She was later sentenced to 12 years in a Russian penal colony for “high treason.” Of course, Karelina’s return to the U.S. is itself major news. Last month, after UFC CEO Dana White discussed Karelina’s plight with Trump, the Trump administration negotiated a prisoner swap in which Karelina was released in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian national indicted last year for allegedly exporting sensitive U.S.-sourced microelectronics. The release of…