Historians have long debated whether the end of slavery in the United States was primarily driven by moral campaigns or economic changes. But what if both perspectives are looking at only part of the puzzle?

We are experts in economic development and social movements. Our new research uncovers what we believe to be a surprising and ...Read more

Florida leads the nation in the number of immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.

Soon after taking office, the Trump administration moved to scale back protections for the largest groups of these immigrants – those from Haiti and Venezuela.

TPS applies to immigrants from designated countries that the Department ...Read more

The U.S. State Department declared on Feb. 20, 2025, that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, as well as some Mexican drug cartels, are now considered foreign terrorist organizations.

Is the new label warranted?

Tren de Aragua is at the center of a controversial immigration case that the Supreme Court is going to consider.

...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Iran was willing to engage in direct talks over its nuclear program, a day after Tehran indicated it would only negotiate through intermediaries.

“Forget about letters, I think they want to have direct talks,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

Trump said his preference was ...Read more

A former Missouri GOP chairman and key leader of the “Stop the Steal” movement who defended a Kansas City-area Proud Boy in his Capitol riot case faces a contentious confirmation battle as President Donald Trump’s nominee for Washington, D.C.’s top prosecutor.

Ed Martin, who led the state Republican Party from 2013 to 2015 and was ...Read more

For years, White House press conferences included sign language interpreters for the deaf.

No longer. Interpreters have been noticeably absent from Trump administration press briefings, advocacy groups say. Gone, too, are the American Sign Language interpretations that used to appear on the White House’s YouTube channel. A White House webpage...Read more

WASHINGTON — Two new Smithsonian museums meant to honor the contributions of women and Latinos have been tied up for years as fights over their location and content have raged.

Despite these snags and the Trump administration’s vows to snuff out many diversity initiatives, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is projecting optimism this Congress...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The food day begins early for the poorest students in the Los Angeles Unified School District — with breakfast available before the start of class. Then there's breakfast-for-all brought to the classroom, followed later by a snack, lunch, more snacks for after-school programs and sometimes a dinner sent home for the child.

It'...Read more

One thing you can say in favor of President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday from the Rose Garden: He did what he promised during the campaign.

For months as stock markets gyrated on news and rumors of Trump’s tariff plans, with the president making protectionist pronouncements and then backtracking in the face of resistance from ...Read more

If Wednesday was indeed Liberation Day in America, perhaps Thursday represents the hangover.

Before markets opened, with futures trading showing some serious signs of impending negative economic reaction, President Donald Trump proclaimed his unilateral decision to hike tariffs was going precisely according to plan.

“The operation is over! ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Trump administration has subpoenaed personal information of hundreds of University of California, Berkeley professors who signed petitions during escalating Israel-Hamas campus protests to bolster its case that college campuses are hotbeds of antisemitism and not worthy of federal funding.

But at least some of them, who...Read more

The Trump administration is poised to block $510 million in federal grants and contracts for Brown University over the school’s response to antisemitism on campus, The New York Times reported.

Following the report, Brown Provost Frank Doyle said in an email that the school couldn’t substantiate the information but was aware of “troubling...Read more

California joined 18 other states in challenging President Donald Trump’s recent effort to overstep states’ election laws and voting requirements by filing a federal lawsuit Thursday.

The executive order imposes new voting guidelines states must follow in order to receive federal funding to conduct elections, including a voter ID ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s trade salvo was years in the making. The details came down to the final moments.

Hours before Trump announced his signature tariff plan, aides were still rushing to hone key elements, including its size and scope as well as how to sell it to the American public and communicate some of its chief ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s big tariff rollout was supposed to reduce uncertainty for businesses. Economists say it did the exact opposite, while also raising recession risk.

Some 76% of the 54 forecasters who responded to a Bloomberg survey conducted April 2-3 after the announcement said the imposition of sweeping levies only adds to the ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has avoided the worst of the Trump tariff onslaught.

At least for now.

That was the message of relief that Mexican officials were sending Thursday, a day after the Trump administration unveiled its much-anticipated “Liberation Day” tariff regimen, imposing import levies on scores of nations worldwide.

Spared in the...Read more

The wide-ranging new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday represent the biggest change to global trade in a century, prompting urgent questions about how the new taxes were calculated, how long they will last and what exactly the White House hopes to achieve with them.

Confusion over the details — and the fact that the ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his shocking plan for massive tariffs by claiming “the patient lived,” a less-than-reassuring message about the American economy as global markets melted down in a stunning selloff that knocked more than 1,600 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

“The operation is over. The patent lived,...Read more

As with many of his political positions, President Trump's extraordinary new tariffs are based on the presumption that the United States is being treated unfairly by the rest of the world.

He proclaims his tariffs are merely "reciprocal." "They do it to us, and we do it to them," Trump said. "Very simple."

But are the new levies on foreign ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing global blowback after announcing a dramatic series of tariffs on countries around the world, with U.S. adversaries and allies alike promising crushing responses that could devastate the American economy.

Stocks plummeted at the market’s close Thursday, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial ...Read more