A federal judge blocked an executive order to shut down the Education Department. The agency was ordered to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The move came after House Republicans passed their “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill by one vote, a priority for President Donald Trump and his administration. – The Associated Press

The killing of two Israeli Embassy staff members is being probed. Wednesday’s fatal shooting outside a Jewish museum in Washington was being investigated Thursday as an act of targeted violence, according to federal authorities. Police say the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, yelled “Free, free Palestine” after his arrest. – AP

The U.S. Senate stopped states from banning sales of gas-powered cars. Lawmakers overturned California’s first-in-the-nation rule that required all new cars, trucks, and SUVs sold in the state to be zero-emissions by 2035. Eleven other states and Washington, D.C., had implemented similar mandates. The Biden administration had given California a waiver for the policy to exceed national environmental standards. California officials say the state will sue the Trump administration for striking the waiver down. – Staff

Brazil loosened some environmental restrictions. Its Senate approved a bill that would allow projects considered to have a small or midsize impact to proceed without the approval of environmental agencies. The legislation, which still needs approval from Brazil’s lower house, highlights internal divisions as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tries to burnish his green credentials before Brazil hosts a United Nations climate summit in November. – AP

Finland is building a border fence. The Nordic country knew joining NATO in 2023 would have consequences. Those are now becoming clear. Russia sees NATO as an existential threat and so has begun to build military infrastructure along its Finnish border. For its part, Finland on Wednesday announced completion of the first 22 miles of a 15-foot-high barrier on its border with Russia. The project is in part a reaction to Russia sending migrants across the border in 2023, Finnish officials say. They are not alarmed by the new developments, seeing them as a new normal. – Staff

The Naval Academy brought back hundreds of purged books. After nearly 400 books from the academy’s library were removed, all but about 20 are back on the shelves. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had ordered a review of books tackling topics like racism and gender studies, which the Trump administration has described as “promoting divisive concepts.” A temporary Pentagon committee provided a list of search terms to determine which books to scrutinize, including affirmative action, diversity, and white privilege. – Staff

Aid groups are unloading food and other critical supplies in the Gaza Strip, after a monthslong blockade that has put children at risk of famine. The trickle of relief comes amid growing pressure on Israel to ease the suffering among civilians. Yet even the stepped-up attention from world leaders is too measured, aid groups working in Gaza say, and has not yet resulted in anywhere near enough tangible supplies and food on the ground.

The U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped a decision about whether to allow the nation’s first public religious charter school, preserving the church-state wall for now. The case, which had the potential to erode that wall and upend public schooling in America, ended in a rare  4-4 tie, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself. The opinion does not create any precedent, opening the door for a similar case to be brought forward in the future.

The Harvard community is processing the loss of $3 billion in funding from the Trump administration. Ahead of graduation, students, faculty, and local businesses share what is unifying them – and fueling their pride in the school even amid challenges that lie ahead. 

This is the story of two men suddenly sharing the international stage as the most powerful Americans on Earth. In background, experience, and demeanor, President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV could hardly be more different, on issues from immigration to Ukraine. But the elevation of Chicago-born Robert Prevost to the papacy could have an important impact, setting up a juxtaposition between two divergent views of power: the Trump White House’s reliance on “hard power” and the softer, more collegial, morally grounded approach that Leo championed at his inaugural Mass.

Unexpected bonds forged among strangers. Dreams deferred and creativity redirected. The power of correspondence to sow forgiveness, love, and second chances. Memorial Day weekend in the United States signals the start of summer and a season of good reads, and our reviewers have plenty of captivating recommendations. From a New York crime thriller by James Comey – yes, that James Comey – to insightful new biographies of Mark Twain, Paul Gauguin, and Rose Valland, who documented Nazi art thefts in Paris, you’ll find plenty of reasons to keep turning the page.

State lawmakers in Big Sky Country are once again demonstrating big-time bipartisanship, perhaps setting a model in governance. This time, they have tackled an issue vexing communities around the United States: how to lower the price of housing. 

For the second consecutive legislative session, Republicans and Democrats in Montana’s Legislature have worked with a broad coalition of interest groups to pass changes in zoning and other reforms. The just-approved bills aim to reduce paperwork and the price of new housing by removing parking-space mandates, allowing taller buildings, and expanding permissions for backyard cottages.  

This year’s changes build on a package passed in 2023 dubbed the “Montana Miracle” for its speed and scope. Part of that “miracle” was finding common ground between typically urban, blue-state priorities for housing densification and rural red-state preferences for limited government reach.

With pandemic-related in-migration and population growth, Montana has experienced a spike in home prices. In 2024, its housing market had the largest gap between the average home price and the state’s average income – higher than California’s gap – according to the National Association of Realtors.

Rents also increased, squeezing residents and “gutting the core of our communities,” Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, told the American Planning Association in 2023. “We knew that if we didn’t get our arms around affordable housing, we wouldn’t have communities.” 

The spark for these reforms was lit in mid-2022, when Mr. Gianforte established a Housing Task Force “to cast a really broad net and bring me your best ideas.” It included lawmakers and government officials as well as community-focused nonprofits and free-market think tanks. Task force members played to their strengths, according to Kendall Cotton, president of the conservative Frontier Institute. 

“We were able to go to mostly Republicans,” Mr. Cotton told Bloomberg CityLab, “and talk about free markets [and] property rights,” emphasizing freedoms to build additional housing. Other members, he said, went to “folks on the left [to] talk about climate and social impacts” of easing zoning restrictions to allow densification and reduce sprawl.

Similar alliances have since emerged in Arizona, Texas, Minnesota, and North Carolina, though with varying success.

“Not everything is so hyper-partisan,” Democratic state Sen. Ellie Boldman, who sponsored the building height bill, told the news site Governing. “There’s always room to try to find the common thread of what our values are and bring everybody together.”