Polls show Trump’s approval rating ‘stabilized’ but underwater

President Donald Trump’s international trade war may not be as popular as he might wish, but his approval rating hasn’t suffered as a consequence, new polling shows.

According to a Morning Consult survey of more than 2,200 registered voters, Trump’s approval rating has “stabilized” but remains underwater.

“Sentiment about Trump’s job performance has stabilized, with 46% approving, up 1 percentage point from last week, and his disapproval rating unchanged at 52%,” they wrote.

The pollsters found that the president’s current approval rating is a reversal from where he started in January, when 52% of voters approved of his work in those early days and just 45% disapproved.

—Boston Herald

‘Critical race theory’ lawsuit against Texas school district is resolved, AG Ken Paxton says

DALLAS — After suing Coppell ISD alleging educators were breaking state law by teaching critical race theory, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday he “resolved” the case with the district.

The lawsuit, filed in March, based its claims on a hidden-camera recording originally published in 2023 by a group called Accuracy in Media. Video appeared to show a Coppell ISD administrator discussing ways to get around the state’s anti-CRT laws. District officials insisted in a court filing that the footage was “heavily edited and manipulated so to be grossly misleading.”

Critical race theory is an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism — such as in education, housing or criminal justice. In recent years, many conservatives conflated it with work aimed at making schools more equitable for students.

In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law aiming to eliminate critical race theory from public schools, though it did not use those three words.

—The Dallas Morning News

CSU students start ‘indefinite’ hunger strike in support of Palestinians

Around two dozen California State University students say they have started an “indefinite” hunger strike in support of Palestinians facing starvation in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Students are demanding each CSU campus and the California State University system as a whole adopt policies divesting from companies that “supply weapons, military and surveillance technology, infrastructure, or conduct activity that violates human rights as defined by international law.”

California State University did not immediately respond to a request for comment from this news organization. Students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach are participating in the hunger strike.

Students are also calling for the universities to end any academic partnerships with “Zionist universities and the CSU International Program at the University of Haifa” and demanding CSU end its “time, place and manner” policy, which limits where, when and how students can protest on campus.

—The Mercury News

India launches airstrikes in Pakistan after days of soaring tensions

ISLAMABAD — Indian fighter jets launched airstrikes at multiple locations inside Pakistan on Tuesday night after days of soaring tensions following a deadly militant attack in the disputed Himalayan valley of Kashmir, the Pakistani military said.

Indian warplanes dropped missiles on at least three points, two in the Pakistani side of Kashmir and one in a border city in the central province of Punjab, a statement said. In Punjab, missiles hit a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur, killing a child and wounding two civilians, the military said.

India's strikes also targeted the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, and a small town called Kotli in the same region, the military said. It was not immediately known which targets were hit and whether anyone died or was injured by the missiles.

Bahawalpur is said to be the town where the militant groups Jaish-e-Muhammad, which India has accused of being behind several deadly cross-border attacks, is based.

—dpa