Author: Reporter

At a former American air base in southern Vietnam, work abruptly stopped in February on efforts to clean up tons of soil contaminated with deadly dioxin from the military’s Agent Orange defoliant. The Trump administration’s broad cuts to USAID also halted efforts to clear unexploded American munitions and landmines, a rehabilitation program for war victims, and work on a museum exhibit detailing U.S. efforts to remediate the damage of the Vietnam War. In addition to exposing thousands of people to health hazards, the cuts risk jeopardizing hard-won diplomatic gains with Vietnam, which is strategically increasingly important as the U.S....

Wisconsin voted on April 1 for Jill Underly to remain as the state’s top education official during Donald Trump’s second term, choosing the Democratic-backed incumbent over a Republican-supported critic. Wisconsin voters also decided to enshrine the state’s voter ID law in the state constitution. Both contests had sharp partisan divisions, though they have drawn far less spending and national attention than the race for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Here is a look at the two races: UNION-BACKED INCUMBENT DEFEATS GOP-BACKED VOUCHER ADVOCATE Underly, the Democratic-backed state education chief, defeated her Republican-aligned opponent, Brittany Kinser. Unofficial results showed...

Judge Susan Crawford preserved the narrow majority of liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 1 by defeating conservative Brad Schimel, but in a way the real loser of the election was billionaire Elon Musk. The South African oligarch and his MAGA affiliated groups sunk at least $21 million into the normally low-profile race and paid three individual voters $1 million each for signing a petition in an effort to goose turnout in the pivotal battleground state contest. That made the race the first major test of the political impact of Musk, whose prominence in Donald Trump’s destructive...

The rent is due, but Rahmani has no money to pay it. The Afghan father of two worked for a U.S.-backed organization in Kabul, which put him at risk of Taliban retribution. Now he is among thousands of newly arrived refugees who lost financial assistance when the Trump administration cut off funding for the federal refugee program in January. His family’s monthly rent and utilities total nearly $1,850, an unfathomable amount compared to what he once paid in Kabul. He has spent weeks looking for work, walking along the suburban highway across from his family’s apartment, inquiring at small...