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Today’s top stories
Elias Rodriguez, who is suspected of killing two Israeli Embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., has been charged with first-degree murder, the murder of foreign officials and other crimes. Law enforcement officials are continuing to investigate the attack as a possible hate crime. According to the affidavit, Rodriguez flew from his Chicago home to the nation’s capital on Tuesday, the day before the attack. He also purchased a ticket for the museum event, which was a mixer for young diplomats, just three hours before it began.
A temporary memorial outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
- 🎧 NPR’s Jennifer Ludden reports to Up First that going forward, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said there will be more law enforcement officers around faith-based organizations, schools, and places like the Jewish Community Center. The couple that was killed was Yaron Lishinsky, a German and Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, who grew up in a Kansas City suburb. A friend of Milgrim’s informed Luden that she took the job at the embassy after Hamas attacked Israel a year and a half ago, as she wanted to combat what she sensed was a rise in antisemitism with “diplomacy, with love, with intelligence.”
The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students. This decision, communicated in a letter to the university, impacts currently enrolled international students. Harvard, which has been in a months-long dispute with President Trump, says the government’s actions are “unlawful.”
- 🎧 The letter sent to Harvard said the administration is terminating its student exchange certification, which means the school can no longer sponsor student visas. NPR’s Elissa Nadworny reports that nearly 7,000 international students attend Harvard, which accounts for roughly 25% of the student body. One senior at the school expressed worry that she wouldn’t be able to graduate next week and others are concerned about fall semester plans. Low enrollment of international students could have a big impact on the U.S. economy, as they contributed over $43 billion last year, according to a report last year.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to fire the heads of two independent agencies. The fired individuals are Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board. The 6-3 ruling is technically temporary, but it indicates how the higher court views the extent of the president’s power.
- 🎧 When creating the bipartisan agencies, Congress wrote into law that their members can only be fired for cause, like neglect of duty, NPR’s Andrea Hsu says. SCOTUS stated that the Constitution gives the president the power to fire officials who help him carry out his duties, with only narrow exceptions. The ruling isn’t definitive. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent that it isn’t just someone’s job at stake, but the very idea that Congress embraced when it created independent agencies. Wilcox and Harris warned that if the court found Trump had the power to remove them, nothing would stop him from firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
