
Putin To Visit U.S. For First Time In 10 Years - The Source with Kaitlan Collins - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
One week from now, Vladimir Putin will be on United States soil. A look at this next summit and the face-to-face meeting between President Trump and President Putin.

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The Hill
9 minutes ago
- The Hill
Advocates fear Trump's plans after directive for transparent college admission data
Some higher education advocates have long sought transparency in college admissions data, but President Trump's latest actions to bring that dream to reality comes with trepidation in how the administration will use the information. In a memorandum signed Thursday, the president moved to require universities to give the Department of Education more admissions data. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is then instructed to build it into a database easily accessible to parents and students. While the information could be eye-opening into how institutions are choosing students, it comes with a backdrop of fear the president will target universities that produce unfavorable data in his view. 'I'll say lots of folks in the space, researchers and think tanks alike, have wanted more transparency on the black box that is college admissions. So, I think that from that perspective, lots of folks would be interested in seeing this data. What I question with this administration is the intention around the collection of the data,' said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of EdTrust. McMahon has 120 days to expand the scope of reporting requirements, leaving universities with the options to submit or fight in the legal the system. The move was made over the administration's concern universities are using 'race proxies' such as diversity statements, to circumvent the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that stated race cannot be considered in college admissions. 'American students and taxpayers deserve confidence in the fairness and integrity of our Nation's institutions of higher education, including confidence that they are recruiting and training capable future doctors, engineers, scientists, and other critical workers vital to the next generations of American prosperity. Race-based admissions practices are not only unfair, but also threaten our national security and well-being,' the order reads. Universities that accept federal money are already required to share some data with the Education Department, such as enrollment numbers and graduation rates. However, admissions data has largely been kept under wraps for various reasons. One reason is due to the complexities of compiling the data into an accurate spreadsheet. College admissions offices consider not only GPA and test scores, but extracurricular activities and personal essays that are hard to quantify. Universities may also fear what the public will think regarding whom they do and do not admit. 'I think one of the things that people are going to see is the amount of legacy admissions that have been taking place for a long, long time, and those admissions are typically white people,' said Marybeth Gasman, executive director for Rutgers University's Center for Minority Serving Institutions. After the affirmative action ruling, attention turned to legacy admissions, the practice of admitting applicants with connections to alumni or wealthy donors. Experts argue this practice largely favors applicants who are rich and/or white. The practice has been decried along partisan lines, and some schools have voluntarily banned it. Schools could also receive flack if it is discovered they admit fewer Pell Grant recipients or other types of applicants compared to rival institutions. 'I think that — that information — institutions have guarded that because they don't want narratives around them being closed to access for certain populations of students due to increased numbers of denied students. They don't want that narrative out,' Pilar said. Whatever the outcome, advocates fear the Trump administration will use this as another avenue to strip schools of their funding. The president has collectively paused billions of dollars to universities for alleged antisemitism, diversity, equity and inclusion practices, and transgender athletes in women's sports. While the focus of the Trump administration is returning to 'merit-based' admissions — a concept the federal government made Columbia and Brown agree to in their deals to release federal funding — some say the administration's moves WILL? have the opposite effect. Timothy Welbeck, director of the Center of Anti-Racism at Temple University, said this memorandum doesn't address 'legacy. They don't do anything about whether your family has the ability to donate large amounts of money to your desired institution. But they go after some of these other measures that they say are discriminatory and ignore these, which is why I believe that merit isn't really the intended outcome of these conversations to begin with.' 'This particular fight around the numbers is seeking to give another line of argument to people who are arguing that post-secondary institutions are discriminating against white people. That's ultimately a claim that's implicit in some of these arguments, and what I would say to that is that the facts typically do not bear out,' he added.


The Hill
9 minutes ago
- The Hill
Miami-Dade is red, but Democrats aren't giving up on Florida
MIAMI — When Miami-Dade County helped elect President Trump in November, effectively taking on a conservative bent after nearly three decades of being solid blue, political operatives here had their worst fears realized: Florida was in fact a red state. The signs of a big political change in southern Florida had been seen for several cycles, including Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R) 2022 win, when he flipped the metropolitan county for the first time in more than 20 years. 'There is nothing more maddening to me than the self-inflicted wounds in Dade,' said Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who is based in Florida and ran former President Obama's 2008 operation in the state. 'Too many in my party — particularly those outside of Florida — thought the Obama '12 and [Hillary] Clinton '16 numbers in Miami were signs the county had become a progressive bastion.' 'But we are talking about a place where most people came here to escape socialist authoritarian governments and crime — so when people on the extreme left tried to justify things like 'Democratic socialism,' imagine how that sounds to the ears of a family that left everything behind — or a family who came here seeking safety to hear things like 'defund the police,' Schale added. Another longtime Democratic operative in Florida said losing Miami-Dade was a 'gut punch' for Democrats. 'We could see the trainwreck coming before the crash happened, but that was a particularly painful moment for any Democrat who cares about this state,' the operative said. Florida Democrats see their problems in Florida as the result of years of neglect following Obama's win in 2012. But they say they haven't given up on trying to move the Sunshine State back into purple state territory. In fact, they say, they're doubling down on their efforts. 'We're still rebuilding, but we've had a lot of success,' said Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, in an interview with The Hill. Fried pointed to an 8 percent increase in Democratic voter turnout from the 2020 election to the 2024 election. She also credited work the state party has done to generate gains on school boards and county commissions. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) was also able to win reelection by a wide margin even as the county went in the other direction in 2024. Still, Fried acknowledged there is 'a lot of work to be done and resources we've brought into the state to do that work.' Democrats' voter affiliation in Florida has declined rapidly since 2020. Republican affiliation in the state has also increased, surpassing Democrats by a hair in 2021 and booming to almost 1,500,000 more as of late June. Political observers attribute the drastic changes in party affiliation to a number of factors, including a massive migration of Republican voters to the state during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump — who lives in Palm Beach — also has attracted top Republican operatives and donors during his rise to party stardom. Some Democrats don't seem convinced that there's been much movement in their direction at all. 'On the organizational, operational side of things, I don't think things are any better or any worse,' Schale said. He added there's 'still a lot of donor skepticism and donor fatigue' about the most recent cycles in the state. But Democrats can move incrementally with key wins in the next cycle, Schale said. 'Success in 2026 is showing gains and showing improvement, and if you do that you can make the case to donors that there's a trajectory you can invest in,' he said, pointing to David Jolly, the gubernatorial candidate and former Republican congressman who switched parties, and Jose Javier Rodriguez, a former state senator who is a Democratic candidate for Florida attorney general. 'You build back by fixing what you can fix and getting success,' he added, referencing work that Democrats can do to improve their standing with Hispanic voters, among other efforts. And as Trump has stumbled recently in polls and messaging, strategists say now is a good time for Democrats to pounce and try to regain momentum in the state. 'If [Republicans] continue to push for these policies that now have Trump at the lowest approval rating of any president at this point in his second term, I think it would create an environment where, for the first time in decades, Florida voters may say, 'Look, it's time for a change, and the only change now is to give the Democrats a shot at governing,' said Democratic strategist Fernand Amandi, who is based in Miami. He added that the desire for change in Florida is exacerbated by an 'unprecedented affordability crisis that is the sole responsibility' of Republicans, who have had 'total control of state government for almost three decades.' Despite the ripe moment, strategists say it will still be a heavy lift for Democrats to recapture voters — at least right away. 'I live here. I have to be an optimist … but I'm also a realist. It's f‑‑‑ing hard, and there's a lot of work to be done,' Schale said. But the efforts are underway, including the Florida Democratic Party's Pendulum initiative, a year-round organizing program that Fried said has already contributed to significant gains in two deep-red congressional districts where there were off-cycle elections. Fried also pointed to the party's Front Porch Swing initiative, which aims to listen to voters in rural Florida and meet them where they are. Even with small wins in 2024, Fried said there were lessons to be learned from the overall loss in 2024, including how to best connect with voters. While Democrats had more than $1 billion of earned media nationally, 'At the end of the cycle, most voters said, 'What is the message?' from the party,' Fried said. 'We missed the mark on breaking through to everyday Floridians that aren't watching us on the traditional news stations,' she said. Strategists say connecting with voters is especially key right now as Democrats have struggled with getting their base to the ballot boxes in recent election cycles. '[Democrats] have got to field candidates and rally around a disciplined, focused message of where the voters are, and where the voters are right now is they want solutions to this Republican politician-created affordability crisis,' Amandi said. 'If they can do those two things, then they can position themselves to surprise a lot of people next November.' Strategists say that Democrats — from operatives to donors — will have to invest time and money back into Florida if they want to see their party in power once again. 'Democrats don't have the luxury of writing off Florida because Florida is only going to continue to play a critically important role in the Electoral College math as they're only going to gain electoral seats going forward,' Amandi said. 'If you cede states like Florida and Texas, you're in essence saying you're ceding any pathway to win the White House as a Democrat.'


Boston Globe
9 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Trump's immigration crackdown could cause widespread workforce disruption
In including roles held by immigrants with work permits and US-born workers, according to the Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up This culling of the workforce, alongside tariffs and other uncertainty, will cause the economy to contract, said Tarek Hassan, a Advertisement 'If somebody is gainfully employed,' he said, 'the economy is always worse off if you deport them.' Some of the jobs undocumented immigrants have are ones American workers don't want because they involve manual labor and low wages, employers say. At least half of Greater Boston's housekeepers, janitors, painters, taxi drivers, nursing assistants, and cooks were born in another country, If President Trump succeeds in his goal of carrying out the largest mass deportation in history, the loss of workers could hurt employers' ability to generate revenue and potentially lead companies to shut down entirely, economists say. Over the next four years, these aggressive enforcement actions could lead to the loss of nearly 6 million jobs nationwide, according to the Economic Policy Institute — nearly half of them filled by American workers. The threat of deportation could also drive more undocumented immigrants to work underground for lower wages, which could lead to more exploitation, advocates said. In response to these claims, a White House spokesperson said in a statement that Trump is enforcing federal immigration law and ending the exploitation of temporary programs, noting that 'there is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force.' 'Since President Trump took office, 100 percent of job gains have gone to native-born American workers,' spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed a Advertisement Since March, the number of foreign-born workers has The removal of immigrants is just one element of a massive economic shakeup under Trump, along with the Immigrant workers have accounted for more than half of US labor force growth over the last three decades, according to the Some immigrants are being fired before their legal status is fully vetted. At Logan Airport, immigrants with clearance to work in areas requiring Customs and Border Protection clearance started receiving letters in late April revoking their security seal. In all, about 80 people have lost their jobs as ramp workers, baggage handlers, and cabin cleaners, even though all of them were still authorized to work, according to their union, SEIU 32BJ. Nationwide, about 600 airport workers have lost their jobs due to the changes in immigration policy, the union said. The impact so far has been limited, said local 32BJ leader Kevin Brown, but service is bound to decline as more workers are forced out. Advertisement 'The net that [Trump officials] have cast, it's so wide and so fraught with errors and generalities that it's ended up in a disastrous employment issue,' he said. Daysi Rocha Cruz had been making $20 an hour cleaning airplane cabins at Logan until she was fired in May. Cruz, 27, who is from Nicaragua, has a work permit valid through 2028, when her asylum hearing is scheduled. The fact that she's still authorized to work didn't change anything, she said. One of the immigration lawyers she talked to told her: 'Fighting with the federal government is like trying to fight a dinosaur,' she said in Spanish through an interpreter. The health care industry is also feeling the effects of Trump's policies. Providers who have been asked to verify the employment status of their workers have 'It's going to lead to catastrophe,' she said. If the hotel industry starts losing immigrants, employers will likely push harder for technology that could displace staff permanently, said Carlos Aramayo, the head of Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers' union in Boston. The loss of foreign-born workers could also lead to a greater reliance on foreign guest-worker programs, which are ripe for abuse because workers' legal status is dependent on employers. 'I don't know if it's even feasible to run this industry without first-generation immigrants,' Aramayo said. Advertisement In some sectors, the impact is already evident. A workplace raid in early July 'I've seen whole companies go under after a raid,' the company's human relations director told The New York Times. 'The supply chain stalls. Beef prices go up. Consumers pay more.' Nationwide, construction and child care are expected to be especially hard hit by increased immigration enforcement, each shrinking by at least 15 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. So far, there haven't been major disruptions reported in Massachusetts, but workers are more afraid to speak up than they used to be, said Noel Xavier, organizing director for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. At a job site in New Hampshire, a group of immigrant workers owed about $150,000 is refusing to come forward because of the fear of deportation, he said. 'It's harder for us to find out the exploitation that's ongoing,' Xavier said. The construction industry already has a 439,000-person nationwide labor shortage that has contributed to higher costs and project delays, said John Ferrante, chief executive of the Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts. 'If we have folks who have been here for 20 years and have developed the skills and expertise to perform a particular trade or craft, and all of a sudden they're being deported or aren't employable,' he said, 'it could really hurt the industry now and may lead to a lack of confidence in hiring immigrant workforces in the future.' Advertisement Patricia Carbajal, a native of Honduras who works for an excavation company, is enduring the potential 'Every single day you can see a body in the streets,' she said. A judge in San Francisco recently extended TPS protections for This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Katie Johnston can be reached at