Two ways Trump aims to reshape government. And, how U.S. children are doing in school

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President Trump is working to dramatically reshape the federal government, as shown by two actions this week. He has issued a sweeping memo to pause trillions of dollars in financial assistance. Only minutes before it was scheduled to take effect, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan temporarily blocked the funding freeze. The administration also proposed offering millions of federal employees a chance to quit.

Today, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will inform senators what he will do if his bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is confirmed. This is the first of the two hearings for the role, which oversees key health agencies like Medicare, the FDA and the National Institutes of Health. It also has an annual budget of $1.7 trillion, which is about the size of Australia’s GDP. The prospect of his confirmation has resulted in opposition from many people in the medical field, citing his extensive history of promoting inaccurate claims.

The Nation’s Report Card results are out today. The report, released every two years, uses data provided by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and gives a glimpse at how the nation’s students are doing in math and reading. The latest results, nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic first closed schools, have much to say.

The long, hot summer in Los Angeles set the stage for the wildfire disaster with dried-out plants and vegetation making it more flammable. Drought conditions dragged on as winter rain was yet to arrive. On top of that, the powerful Santa Ana winds brought gusts above 80 miles per hour. New studies are showing the fingerprints of climate change in these wildfires:

Majd Al-Waheidi.