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USA Today
24-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Russia strikes Kyiv in the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year
Russia strikes Kyiv in the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year | The Excerpt On Thursday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Russia slammed Ukraine's capital overnight in the biggest attack on the city this year. USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page discusses some concerning polling news for President Donald Trump on the economy. President Trump signs an executive order boosting AI in K-12 schools. Plus, Trump signs other orders ranging from accreditation to school discipline. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub explains how budget cuts are impacting important Alzheimer's research. Plus, you can listen to our special episode about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s impact on Health and Human Services here. It's NFL Draft Night. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, April 24th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, Russia attacks Kyiv. What's next for peace talks. Plus, Trump gets some rough polling news when it comes to the economy. And how budget cuts include important Alzheimer's research. ♦ In the biggest attack on Ukraine's capital this year, Russia slammed Kyiv overnight with missiles and drones. The attacks left at least eight people dead and dozens more injured. They also destroyed buildings and left fires throughout the city. The news comes at a critical moment for the conflict. President Donald Trump and his administration have threatened to walk away from efforts to broker a ceasefire if no progress is made, and European nations have been looking for their own solutions. Trump yesterday appeared to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a lack of progress after Zelenskyy said he would not recognize Russia's occupation of the Crimea Peninsula as part of a peace deal. ♦ Most Americans now express little or no confidence in how President Donald Trump is handling the economy, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. I caught up with USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief, Susan Page, to take a closer look at some of the polls findings. Susan, always a treat. How are you today? Susan Page: I'm well, Taylor. It's always great to be with you. Taylor Wilson: So let's start with tariffs. This has of course been the big headline-grabbing word in recent weeks. Do Americans mostly approve or disapprove of President Donald Trump's tariffs? Susan Page: They mostly disapprove. Six in 10 Americans in the new Pew Research Center poll say they don't like Trump's tariffs, and that includes 30% of Republicans. So even among his own party there's a lot of skepticism about whether tariffs are the right thing to do. Taylor Wilson: And how about the overall approval sense around Trump's job in office so far? How has this changed as well in recent months? Susan Page: In this new survey, 40% of Americans approve of the job he's doing as President. 59% disapprove. That is worse than his standing in February. His approval rating has gone down seven percentage points since then. And that is, I think, troubling for the White House. 40% is a pretty anemic approval rating. It is, though, in line with where Trump stood with Americans at this point during his first term. Taylor Wilson: And Susan, among his supporters, how do these numbers shake out at this point? Susan Page: Trump's core supporters are still behind him 100%. They have been unshakable, but we're beginning to see a little erosion among those who were more reluctant to support him but then ended up voting for him in November. These are, of course, the voters who enabled him to win the election. And while they were overwhelmingly in his corner the last time around, 88% approved, that's gone down to 75% approved now. That's not a terrible number, but it's lower than it was, and it is kind of a red flag for the White House. Taylor Wilson: Well, we knew the economy was a massive issue on the campaign trail, Susan. And maybe the biggest swing we've seen since Trump took office has to do with overall approval or disapproval of his approach to economic policy. What can you tell us about that? Susan Page: In my mind, this is the most important thing we're seeing in this survey because the economy is one of the big reasons that Trump got elected. Dissatisfaction with Joe Biden's handling of the economy contributed to his fall in standing and concern about whether Kamala Harris would be able to handle the economy. This has always been a strength for Trump, but not now. When this poll was taken, around the time of the election in November, Americans by 19 percentage points, 59% to 40%, said they were confident in Trump's ability to have good judgment about the economy. That has now flipped on its head. Most Americans, 54% say they don't have much confidence in Trump and the economy. Only 45% are confident. That is the loss of one of the biggest political assets he's had since the point he got interested in politics. Taylor Wilson: Well, he does appear to be softening his tone a little bit around tariffs this week, Susan. Let's hear what he said yesterday about tariffs on China, which are now at 145%, with some exceptions. Donald Trump: It'll come down substantially, but it won't be at zero. It used to be zero. We were just destroyed. China was taking us for a ride, and just not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Taylor Wilson: Might a shift in rhetoric help him with any of these fading numbers, Susan? Susan Page: We see unhappiness with the economy, nervousness about it in this poll. We've also seen that in the markets with this roller coaster stock market we've been watching, and I think that President Trump is responding to that. He has started to talk about, yes, he'll negotiate a deal with China to reduce the very stiff tariffs he's imposed there. He also has said now that he doesn't intend to try to fire Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. That's another thing that kind of unnerved the market. So we see, I think, the President responding to some of the things we're hearing from Americans. Taylor Wilson: Susan, what do Americans like about Trump and his presidency so far? Susan Page: Well, in this poll there was an open-ended question asked, which is, "Describe in a few words the thing you like best about Trump's presidency so far." And the number one answer by 30% was, "Nothing." When you go to actual issues, the top-ranked issue that he got approval on was immigration. 20% cited that. That is not a happy electorate. Taylor Wilson: All right. And I know we have some findings here about views on the parties themselves. I think folks really are wondering what the future looks like for both Democrats and Republicans in this moment, Susan. What did we find here? Susan Page: A lot of bad news for Trump in this poll. But I tell you, this is not rebounding to the benefit of Democrats, at least not so far. In fact, the Republican Party has a more favorable rating now than the Democratic Party does. That's a reverse from what we've seen in recent years. And even among Democrats, only 75% of them say they approve of the Democratic Party. Taylor Wilson: All right. Fascinating findings. Folks can find this full story with a link in today's show notes. Susan Page is USA TODAY's Washington Bureau Chief. Thank you, Susan. Susan Page: Hey, thank you, Taylor. ♦ Taylor Wilson: President Trump signed an executive order yesterday aimed at bringing artificial intelligence into K-12 schools. The directive, reported first by USA TODAY before Trump's signing, instructs the Education and Labor Departments to create opportunities for high school students to take AI courses and certification programs and to work with states to promote AI education. Trump also directed the Education Department to favor the application of AI in discretionary grant programs for teacher training, the National Science Foundation to prioritize research on the use of AI in education, and the Labor Department to expand AI-related apprenticeships. Trump signed other executive orders yesterday, including a measure aiming to overhaul accreditation of colleges and universities, calling on the Justice Department and the Education Department to rule out unlawful discrimination and ideological overreach, according to a White House summary. Another Trump order rolls back guidance on school discipline, issued by the Obama administration. You can read more about his flurry of Wednesday moves with a link in today's show notes. ♦ Recent budget cuts from the Trump administration are impacting important research for Alzheimer's, a disease that affects some 7 million Americans and their loved ones. I spoke with USA TODAY Health reporter, Karen Weintraub, to learn more. Hello, Karen. Karen Weintraub: Hello. Taylor Wilson: Can you just start by telling us about Ken Kosik and his work researching Alzheimer's and this extended family in Colombia? Karen Weintraub: Yeah. So for 30 years, some American researchers have been studying this family in Colombia. They've looked at the genetics of almost 5,000 of this extended family. And the reason this family is interesting is that many of them have a gene that causes early onset Alzheimer's. Where most people might start losing their memory at 70 or 75, these people start at 40 or 45; much, much earlier, 30 years earlier than the average. And if they have this particular gene, they will get Alzheimer's. It is deterministic. It's been interesting because very few people have this gene, luckily, but many members of this extended family have it. So by studying what's different about these people, researchers have learned a lot about Alzheimer's. One of the things, for instance, we know that the signatures of Alzheimer's are two proteins, clumps of beta amyloid and tangles of this protein called tau. And it's this family that has taught us that, basically. And then five or six years ago, they found a 70-year-old woman in this family, extended family, who had the genetic mutation but did not develop Alzheimer's. She was 70, her memory was clear. She ended up dying recently, 75 I believe, of melanoma. So not related to Alzheimer's. It turned out, when they autopsied her brain, she had beta amyloid. She had one of these proteins, but not tau. And so by studying her, they're trying to understand what was protective; what other genes she had that protected her from getting this early onset Alzheimer's. And now, unfortunately, this research has had to be stopped because it's lost its federal funding. Taylor Wilson: Yeah. So, I mean, it's a great explainer there. So what has happened now to these budget cuts from the Trump administration? What else can you tell us about this? Karen Weintraub: In this particular case, the researchers no longer have money to continue studying this family. They have all this data. I'm not exactly sure what the storage implications are. They have all this blood samples stored. I don't know what happens to that. But they're not the only ones even in the Alzheimer's, in the dementia field who are affected by budget cuts. There are many others. One who I traded emails with is a gentleman at Harvard who studies testing, diagnostics, and developing diagnostics for, in this case, ALS, but also Alzheimer's and other dementias. And he's lost his funding as well. And so from a lot of different angles, Alzheimer's research is being affected, from the diagnostics to the really basic science deep understanding of what goes wrong in the human brain to cause Alzheimer's. And the concern is some of this a little bit might be made up with private funding, but for 75, 80 years, the American scientific establishment has been supported with federal money. And Trump is changing that dynamic right now. And so, if given a number of years to adjust, maybe the system could adjust, but it's been very abrupt. It's been essentially overnight that these folks have lost their funding. And so they're really struggling to figure out what to do next and how to continue their life's work. Taylor Wilson: And Karen, do we hear anything from, I guess, the Trump perspective on all this? Karen Weintraub: The focus there is they're saying it's on efficiency and that the federal priorities have changed, and this is not it anymore. Much of the funding that was cut was directed at what they considered diversity funding. So studying specific populations of people, women included. A lot of that funding has been cut. But again, because of the widespread cuts, it has affected even things like Alzheimer's that affect everybody. 7 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's, and many more are predicted to develop it in the future. Taylor Wilson: Karen Weintraub covers health for USA TODAY. Thank you, Karen. Karen Weintraub: Thanks. Taylor Wilson: To hear about some of the impacts Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is having on public health, check out our special episode from yesterday. We have a link in today's show notes. ♦ The first round of the NFL draft is tonight. You can tune in at 7:00 PM Eastern, before the following rounds over the next couple of days. And as always, be sure to follow along with USA TODAY Sports. ♦ If you've ever seen someone dolled up in an extravagant costume at Comic-Con, you've maybe spotted a superfan. But is the experience of being in a fandom even deeper? Michael Elliott: We need to take popular culture seriously, as something that generates meaning and give people purpose. Taylor Wilson: That's sociologist Michael Elliott, who has researched Comic-Con for seven years. He joined my colleague, Dana Taylor, to share what he found. You can find that episode on this feed beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern Time. ♦ And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you're on a smart speaker, as always just ask for the Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NY Giants NFL draft picks 2025: Live round-by-round selections
EAST RUTHERFORD - One of the few benefits of a 3-win season - perhaps the only one - is not having to wait long on NFL Draft Night to be on the clock for a team's first selection. The Giants certainly will not be sitting around doing nothing when the festivities kick off at 8 p.m. Thursday night at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll are certainly facing a complicated situation heading into their fourth draft together, but when it comes to their first pick - No. 3 overall - the reality appears simple, relatively speaking. Advertisement Still, there's little doubt that what the Giants do over the course of the rest of the draft will shape the future of the franchise, good or bad. The expectation is, provided the first two picks go chalk with the Titans taking Miami quarterback Cam Ward and the Browns selecting Colorado cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter, that the Giants will choose Penn State pass rusher Abdul Carter at No. 3. Even Carter - a Philadelphia Eagles fan all his life - indicated Wednesday that he was anticipating a new home in the Big Apple, not to mention a change in his loyalty. "Once I go to New York, I'm all New York," Carter told Bruce Beck of WNBC 4 New York at a Play 60 event in Green Bay. "I'm gonna have to leave Philly behind.' Here is a look at all eight of the Giants' selections, and keep checking back throughout the draft with instant analysis of every pick once it is made: NY Giants draft picks 2025 Round 1: No. 3 overall Round 2: No. 34 Round 3: No. 65 Round 3: No. 99 (compensatory selection) Round 4: No. 105 Round 5: No. 154 (from Seattle) Round 7: No. 219 Round 7: No. 246 (from Buffalo) Where is the NFL Draft 2025? This year's draft will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the Packers. NY Giants draft class 2024 Round 1: Malik Nabers, WR Round 2: Tyler Nubin, S Round 3: Dru Phillips, CB Round 4: Theo Johnson, TE Round 5: Tyrone Tracy, RB Round 6: Darius Muasau, LB This article originally appeared on What picks do NY Giants have? Complete list of Big Blue picks
