Post Reports

Today on Post Reports, how the Justice Department is investigating former president Donald Trump’s actions surrounding the 2020 election. Plus, how same-sex marriage has become a bipartisan issue.

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This week, a Washington Post investigation revealed that the Justice Department is investigating former president Donald Trump’s conduct surrounding efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Devlin Barrett reports on what the investigation looks like and whether any criminal charges could result.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Congress is considering a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage — two long-standing rights that some fear could be revoked by the court in the future. While the Senate still needs to vote on the bill, almost 50 House Republicans joined Democrats to approve it. Congressional reporter Marianna Sotomayor explains why some Republicans' views of marriage have changed, and the political calculations others could be making with their vote.

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency over the weekend — leading to debate within the White House over whether the United States should do the same as case numbers continue to climb.

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The Biden administration is weighing whether to declare the nation’s monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency. As health policy reporter Dan Diamond explains, officials are hoping to make a decision this week – but the deliberations are complicated by politics. 

Monkeypox is the latest global health emergency. Here's what to know. 

As the United States confronts its largest-ever monkeypox outbreak, public health authorities navigate a delicate but familiar balancing act: how to warn gay men about their risk without fueling hate. This story was published last month during Pride.

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While the U.S. government is scrambling to lower inflation for Americans, there’s a growing concern about what rising interest rates means for the rest of the world, especially poorer countries. 

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It has been said that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold, and White House economic reporter Jeff Stein says in this case, it could be much worse than a cold.

“We're on the precipice of a tsunami of debt slamming into dozens, if not hundreds, of countries with rising interest rates in the U.S.,” Jeff said. “That could have tremendous consequences, tremendous humanitarian impacts, tremendous impacts for hunger across the globe.”

As the Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates again this week, Jeff explains how poorer nations could suffer from the U.S. efforts to slow inflation. Can economic policymakers prevent a crisis?

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The House committee investigating Jan. 6 has wrapped up its first series of hearings. Today on “Post Reports,” a debrief on what we’ve learned about what happened behind-the-scenes that day, and what’s next for the committee.

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For over a month now, members of Congress have been calling witnesses and making the case that former president Donald Trump played a critical role in the attack on the Capitol. 

On Thursday night, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol held its last scheduled hearing this summer. But the committee is still interviewing potential new witnesses — and it’s not over till it’s over.

Marianna Sotomayor, a congressional reporter for The Post, hosts today’s show and guides us through a conversation with political investigations reporter Rosalind Helderman. They discuss the big reveals from Thursday night’s hearing, as well as the big questions on Americans’ minds: What should we take away from all this? And how will these hearings shape our understanding of the insurrection and Trump’s role on Jan. 6?

Also, take our quiz to test your knowledge on the Jan. 6 hearings.

Today on “Post Reports,” we talk about the end of a grand experiment: universal free school lunch. The program started to address childhood hunger early in the pandemic, but it's set to expire at the end of the summer.  

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For many school administrators, providing universal free meals has been a no-brainer. 

“The reason we like this program is that it takes all the shame out of all the kids that eat free lunch,” said Donna Martin, a school nutrition director in a rural county in Georgia where kids have had universal free lunch for years under a provision that allows districts with high concentrations of poverty to feed every child for free. “You try not to identify them, but everybody knows who eats free lunch. So, in my community, everybody eats lunch and there's no shame.”

Education reporter Moriah Balingit explains what this program did, and why it’s going away now, despite how popular it is among schools. 

“The pandemic became sort-of this policy laboratory to try out things that a lot of progressives have wanted for a long time, like the Child Tax Credit and universal free lunches. And I think there was some hope, some optimism that these programs would continue. But, of course, as we saw with the Child Tax Credit and now we're seeing with the free lunches, they are being allowed to expire because there's not the political will to continue them.”

Today on “Post Reports,” how the rising cost of living is pushing many Americans into homelessness, even if they have good jobs. 

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The sheriffs arrived at 6 a.m. in early June to tell Josanne English what she already knew: She was being evicted.

She’d lost her job as a project manager near Sacramento in April, then fell behind on rent as $6-a-gallon gas and higher costs for food and utilities depleted her monthly budget. By the time she lost her home two months later, she owed $9,160 in rent and late fees, and her bank account was nearing zero.

English never thought she would be in this situation. She made nearly $100,000 last year. But, economics correspondent Abha Bhattarai says, she’s not alone. 

“What's been striking this time around, just in conversations with families and also with homeless shelters and service providers, is that the people who are losing their homes now often have jobs. Sometimes they're even really good-paying jobs. But, you know, maybe their lease comes up for renewal. It's going up by 20 percent or 30 percent and they just can't afford that.”

Today on Post Reports, the 104-degree day that came years too soon in Britain. Plus, why President Biden is contemplating declaring a climate emergency in the U.S.  

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London correspondent Karla Adam takes us to a non-air-conditioned housing bloc in London on the hottest day ever recorded in Britain. One tenant tells her he’s unplugged the fridge because he’s scared it’ll catch fire. Plus, London bureau chief William Booth explains why Britain's heat wave is just the beginning of dangerously high temperatures.

In the United States, President Biden has a goal to halve emissions by 2030. But since talks with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) stalled, Biden is considering taking executive action to bypass Congress. Tony Romm covers congressional economic policy, and he takes us through the rocky road ahead for the White House’s environmental agenda.

Today on “Post Reports,” the most comprehensive report to date on the Uvalde school shooting blames multiple “systemic failures” of law enforcement on the scene.

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On Sunday, a special committee from the Texas House of Representatives released the most exhaustive report yet on the May 24 mass shooting inside a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school. 

The mass shooting left 19 children and two teachers dead. The report spread blame on every law enforcement agency responding to the attack, faulting local police for mistakes and more experienced agencies for failing to take charge. 

Surveillance video was also released along with the report that showed the gunman entering the school. The video also shows law enforcement outside of the hallway where the shooter is; they appear to be waiting in the hallway for more than an hour. 

Texas correspondent Arelis Hernandez has been following the story and explains how the report found “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” by the nearly 400 members of law enforcement on the scene and why agencies across the board are to blame.

Today, we join an elite police squad in Mexico trying to solve an immigration problem we don’t often hear about: American fugitives fleeing south across the border.

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The Mexican police squad is officially called the International Liaison Unit. But to locals, they’re known as “the Gringo Hunters.” 

This spring, Mexico City Bureau Chief Kevin Sieff rode along with this team as they worked to apprehend fugitives who fled American soil for the freer terrain of Baja California. What happens when “the Gringo Hunters” come face-to-face with a murder suspect? 

In a political party that has been criticized for its lukewarm response to the Dobbs decision, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan appears to stand out. We take you inside her fight — and her family’s — to protect abortion access in her home state.

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A year before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was already thinking about how to protect abortion rights in her home state. In particular, she was working to overturn a 1931 abortion ban that would go back into effect were Roe v. Wade ever ruled unconstitutional. 

Many in the party labeled her an alarmist for her messaging well before the Dobbs decision. But now, she’s considered ahead of the curve in the fight to protect abortion rights.

As Whitmer prepares for her reelection campaign this November, her push for abortion rights will be one of the issues Michiganders will be judging her on in the polls. 

Ruby Cramer, a political enterprise reporter for The Post, spent time with Whitmer shortly after the Dobbs decision to better understand her unique presence — and her family’s — in politics.