by Akayla Gardner | May 22, 2026 | News
Kevin Warsh will be sworn in as Federal Reserve chair Friday at the White House, the first such ceremony held at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since the late 1980s. The location symbolizes the central challenge that Warsh faces in the months ahead: how to lead an independent institution while serving under a president who believes he should drive monetary policy decisions.
Warsh takes the helm of the nation’s central bank after President Donald Trump spent months publicly haranguing Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, to slash interest rates — demands Powell repeatedly rebuffed. Wall Street analysts and former Fed officials are now watching closely to see whether Warsh will ultimately bend to political pressure or uphold the institutional independence that has defined the chairmanship for decades.
Warsh’s background as a former Fed governor and an investment banker has provided some reassurance. But it had not been enough to put markets fully at ease.
“If we lived in an alternative universe and a different Republican president were appointing Kevin Warsh to be Fed chair, I would say, ‘Yeah, this is a great decision by this president,’” said Narayana Kocherlakota, who served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009 to 2015 and overlapped with Warsh during his first stint as Fed governor. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of uncertainty.”
Kocherlakota told MS NOW that he remains optimistic that Warsh will operate independently, but added that it is “bad optics” for his swearing-in to take place at the White House rather than the Federal Reserve, where many previous ceremonies have been held. The last chair to be sworn in at the White House was Alan Greenspan in
by The Associated Press | May 22, 2026 | News
WASHINGTON (AP) — What started as a widely backed proposal to locate a new Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum on the National Mall devolved into a partisan fight Thursday after Republicans revised the legislation to ensure no transgender people are included in the exhibits.
The House rejected the bill, 204-216, an outcome that leaves the next steps uncertain. The revised bill also would ban a “diversity” of views and give President Donald Trump the final say on where the museum would be located.
“It was a simple bill. You kind of ruined it with your trans obsession and your culture wars,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat from New Mexico and chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said earlier in the week.
But Republicans argued it was Democrats who were overreacting to the changes and now threatening progress toward establishing the long-sought women’s museum in the nation’s capital.
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, the bill’s chief sponsor, said “it’s a disgrace” that Democrats would be standing in the way of the bill’s passage.
“Perhaps the party that is opposing a women’s history museum on the National Mall because they want to have transgender exhibits — maybe they are the ones who are trans obsessed,” Malliotakis said.
In the final tally, a handful of Republicans voted against the bill, joining Democrats who led the opposition. The chamber came to a standstill as GOP leaders scrounged for support from their ranks.
Among the Republican opponents, some conservatives simply disapproved of a museum focused on women at all.
“We say we need to unite this country, but then we isolate every group,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who was among several from the conservative Freedom Caucus who
by Sydney Carruth | May 22, 2026 | News
Five years ago, a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and assaulted police officers in an attempt to stop the peaceful certification of the 2020 presidential election. Today, some of those individuals are among those most likely to profit from the Trump administration’s new $1.8 billion settlement fund, aimed at compensating the victims of a “weaponized” government in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.
The president and some 1,500 rioters he pardoned upon his return to the White House in 2025 are claiming the same grievance: that they were politically persecuted at the hands of former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.
The creation of the “anti-weaponization” fund enables those rioters, along with a host of Trump allies, to apply for taxpayer-funded payouts as compensation for their time in the criminal justice system.
And they are eager to get in line.
“This just changed EVERYTHING for January 6 defendants,” Tommy Tatum, who was arrested on felony charges for interfering with a police officer while storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, wrote in a post on X.
Trump’s Department of Justice established the fund as part of a settlement that resolved the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The fund, every penny of which comes from taxpayer dollars, establishes a “lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization” to “seek redress,” according to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Although the details of the application process, including who is eligible to apply and the amount of money they may receive, remain vague, Jan. 6 rioters and their lawyers are already celebrating.
Enrique Tarrio, the pardoned Proud Boys leader
by The Associated Press | May 22, 2026 | News
LONDON (AP) — British police appealed for witnesses Friday in their investigation into potential offenses by former Prince Andrew, including sexual misconduct.
Thames Valley Police also said they had been in contact with lawyers for a woman who alleges she was taken to a location in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes.
“Should she wish to report this to police it will be taken seriously and handled with care, sensitivity and respect for her privacy,’’ police said in a statement.
Florida attorney Brad Edwards told the BBC in January that he represented a woman who had a sexual encounter with the former prince, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, at his home in Windsor, after she was trafficked by late disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2010.
Andrew has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in connection with allegations against him.
The post U.K. police seek witnesses in an inquiry into possible offenses by ex-Prince Andrew appeared first on MS NOW.
by Ebony Davis | May 22, 2026 | News
President Donald Trump’s approval rating among Republicans has fallen to its lowest point of his second term, according to the latest Fox News poll that highlights mounting anxiety within the GOP over the economy and inflation.
Trump’s approval fell to 80% among Republicans, while the survey found his overall approval rating underwater at 39%, with 61% of registered voters disapproving of his job performance.
The polling also showed noticeable slippage among GOP voters who do not strongly identify with the MAGA movement, as well as among key constituencies that have long formed the backbone of Trump’s coalition. Only 54% of non-MAGA Republicans approve of Trump’s performance, while support among white and rural voters has fallen to 43%.
The findings come as Republicans face growing concerns that economic frustration could erode enthusiasm among key conservative voters at a pivotal moment for the party. Voters surveyed expressed deep pessimism about rising costs.
Trump’s economic approval rating among non-MAGA Republicans stands at 36%, far closer to independents at 18%, than to MAGA Republicans, where it remains at 74%. Overall, the president’s approval on handling the economy has slipped to 29%, a five-point drop from April.
Inflation has climbed to 3.8% over the past year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, including a sharp 0.6% jump in April alone, adding to growing economic pressure on American consumers.
The erosion in support also comes amid heightened global instability and rising fuel prices tied to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which Democrats have increasingly sought to tie directly to Trump’s leadership. The national average for a gallon of gas is currently $4.56, compared to $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA, causing some
by Chris Walker | May 22, 2026 | LGBTQ, LGBTQ Rights, Marsha P. Johnson, News, Omar Thomas, Stonewall Uprising, Transgender, Watertown, Wisconsin
On Wednesday evening, high school students from Watertown, Wisconsin, performed a song that had been banned by the city’s conservative school board before an audience of hundreds of supportive community members. The micropolitan city of over 23,000 people, which resides almost exactly between the two largest cities in the state, has made national headlines over the past several weeks due to…
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