A US federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's executive order to cut federal funding to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, citing First Amendment violations. Judge Randolph Moss ruled the order constitutes viewpoint discrimination and retaliation. Moss wrote that the order punishes NPR and PBS for "past expression" and seeks to silence viewpoints Trump dislikes. He noted Trump had previously stated he would "love" to defund the organisations due to perceived liberal bias. NPR and PBS welcomed the ruling as a victory for press freedom. However, significant damage has already occurred, as Congress separately eliminated general federal appropriations, forcing the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The ruling's operational impact remains unclear pending likely appeals.

Court settlement calls for NPR to get $36M in government funds to operate US public radio system. National Public Radio will receive approximately $36 million in government funding to operate the nation's public radio interconnection system under the terms of a court settl By * Associated Press * Michael KunzelmanNovember 18, 2025 National Public Radio will receive approximately $36 million in grant money to operate the nation's public radio interconnection system under the terms of a court settlement with the federal government's steward of funding for public broadcasting stations. The settlement, announced late Monday, partially resolves a legal dispute in which NPR accused the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of bowing to pressure from President Donald Trump to cut off its funding. On March 25, Trump said at a news conference that he would "love to" defund NPR and PBS because he believes they are biased in favor of Democrats. NPR accused the CPB of violating its First Amendment free speech rights when it moved to cut off its access to grant money appropriated by Congress. NPR also claims Trump, a Republican, wants to punish it for the content of its journalism. On April 2, the CPB's board initially approved a three-year, roughly $36 million extension of a grant for NPR to operate the "interconnection" satellite system for public radio. NPR has been operating and managing the Public Radio Satellite System since 1985. But the CPB reversed course under mounting pressure from the Trump administration, according to NPR. The agency redirected federal interconnection funds away from NPR to an entity that didn't exist and wasn't statutorily authorized to receive it, NPR says. The Senate Appropriations Committee failed to include future funding in the latest budget pass. WHYY says its future remains though other area stations face challenges. CPB attorneys denied that the agency retaliated against NPR to appease Trump. They had argued that NPR's claims are factually and legally meritless. On May 1, Trump issued an executive order that called for federal agencies to stop funding for NPR and PBS. The settlement doesn't end a lawsuit in which NPR seeks to block any implementation or enforcement of Trump's executive order. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss is scheduled to preside over another hearing for the case on Dec. 4. The settlement says NPR and CPB agree that the executive order is unconstitutional and that CPB won't enforce it unless a court orders it to do so. Katherine Maher, NPR's president and CEO, said the settlement is "a victory for editorial independence and a step toward upholding the First Amendment rights of NPR and the public media system." Patricia Harrison, the corporation's CEO, said in a statement that the settlement marks "an important moment for public media." Play, pause, and rewind the live radio stream, access on-demand audio features, and dive into podcasts from both local and national sources. WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, WHYY, Inc rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today. The lawsuits were filed on similar grounds, saying Trump's complaint that public media is biased against conservatives represents viewpoint discrimination. The suit came after a Disney World oversight board appointed by DeSantis voted to void a deal that placed theme park design and construction decisions in the company's hands.

Newsletter Signup - Under Article / In Page"*" indicates required fields CRISPR-Cas9 is one of the biggest discoveries of the 21st century. Since it was developed in 2012, this gene-editing tool has revolutionized biology research, making it easier to study disease and faster to discover drugs. The technology is also significantly impacting the development of crops, foods, and industrial fermentation processes.The one application that has made it famous is the modification of the human genome, which brings the promise of using CRISPR to cure diseases. Since 2012, a lot has happened and drug candidates have progressed so far that one has even reached approval. So while scientists keep venturing into tweaking our DNA, it is worth taking the time to fully understand what CRISPR is, and what the actual benefits and possibilities are.First of all, what is CRISPR-Cas9?CRISPR is short for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.’ The term refers to a series of repetitive patterns in the DNA of bacteria and archaea that were extensively researched by Spanish scientist Francis Mojica in the ‘90s. These patterns are the basis of a primitive immune system that bacteria use to ‘remember’ the DNA of viral invaders by incorporating the DNA sequence of the virus within the CRISPR patterns. The Cas9 protein is then able to recognize the DNA sequence stored within CRISPR patterns and cut any DNA molecules with a matching sequence.But it wasn’t until 2012 that Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier took the discovery a step further and proposed that CRISPR-Cas9 could be used to cut any desired DNA sequence by just providing it with the right template