Catherine D’Amato, the president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Food Bank, looks up a shelves of food at the facility in Boston, on April 22, 2026. Legislation and regulatory tweaks enacted over the past year have altered who is eligible, what recipients can buy and how much some receive in benefits, among other changes. (Sophie Park/The New York Times) By LINDA QIU President Donald Trump and his top officials have cast a sharp decrease in the number of food stamp

By DEVLIN BARRETT and NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS The Trump administration said late last week that it would allow firing squads and readopt lethal injection as part of a broader push to revive the death penalty. In an accompanying report, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said that decisions by President Joe Biden to pull back on capital punishment “inflicted untold damage on victims of crime, and, ultimately, to the rule of law itself.” The Justice Department, he said

By JONAH E. BROMWICH The U.S. government late last week conceded that the Venezuelan government could pay for Nicolás Maduro’s defense lawyers, an issue that had been hanging over the case for weeks. In a letter filed in Manhattan federal court, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, said that the Treasury Department had issued amended licenses that would allow defense lawyers for Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, and his wife, Cilia F

President Donald Trump briefs reporters at the White House after shots were fired during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington on Saturday, April 25, 2026. Trump was rushed from the stage but was unharmed. (Salwan Georges/The New York Times) By LUKE BROADWATER, MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM, SHAWN McCREESH, TYLER PAGER, DEVLIN BARRETT and MAGGIE HABERMAN President Donald Trump said Sunday that the gunman who stormed a security perimet

By GREG JAFFE, ERIC SCHMITT and HELENE COOPER Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired earlier this week after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program. Phelan is leaving the Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, in a terse statement. In his role leading the Navy, Phelan had championed the “Golden Fleet,” a major in

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida during a meeting with President Donald Trump and other Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 9, 2025. DeSantis has called state lawmakers for a special redistricting session — but he has yet to unveil a new map for legislators to consider. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By TIM BALK, NICK CORASANITI, REID J. EPSTEIN and PATRICIA MAZZEI Frustrated Republicans are looking to rebound from another setback in a nationwide redistr

Wind farms outside of Rock Port, Mo., on April 14, 2025. A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a series of permitting decisions that wind and solar developers say have throttled hundreds of renewable energy projects across the country. (David Robert Elliott/The New York Times) By BRAD PLUMER A federal judge earlier this week blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a series of decisions that wind and solar developers say have thrott

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, center, a Virginia Democrat whose district covers Loudoun County, speaks at a sparsely attended rally in Chantilly, Va., April 15, 2026. Democrats maintained their electoral momentum on Tuesday by securing the passage of an aggressively gerrymandered House map in Virginia. (Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times) By REID J. EPSTEIN Democrats maintained their electoral momentum earlier this week by securing the passage of an aggressively gerrymandered Hou

By ALEXANDRA E. PETRI A Michigan gas station clerk helped save a 16-year-old girl who entered his store and mouthed the word “help” after a man had kidnapped her at gunpoint on her way to school last week, authorities said. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday charged the suspect, Donald James Joseph Arthur Fields, 48, of Hamtramck, Michigan, with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of kidnapping, one count of possession of a firearm by a

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 15, 2025. Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump’s embattled labor secretary, stepped down on Monday, April 20, 2026, as multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her. (Al Drago/The New York Times) By REBECCA DAVIS O’BRIEN Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s embattled labor secretary, stepped down earlier this week as multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her. “Labor Sec