APRIL 2025 EVENTS

On Monday evening, Sen. Cory Booker stood on the Senate floor and began a speech criticizing the Trump administration. The New Jersey Democrat continued speaking for 25 hours and 5 minutes.

His effort, which involved dozens of fellow Senate Democrats asking questions to relieve his speaking burden, set a record for the longest speech on record in the chamber. It surpassed the previous record set in 1957 by segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act. 

In his speech, the senator painted a picture of an administration that was corrupt, venal and chaotic. He pulled facts and figures from binders prepared by his staff, separated by issue, criticizing Elon Musk and the “oligarchy” that surrounds Trump.

“This is the people's house. It's Article One of the Constitution, and it's under assault!” he said in the 14th hour, with a raised voice, explaining what had motivated him to take his extraordinary action.

“Our spending powers, our budgetary powers, the power to establish agencies like the Department of Education and USAID, it's under assault by a president that doesn't respect this document,” he continued.

More than 60,000 people were tuned into his livestream of the speech on TikTok at one point. The video was liked more than 200 million times.

He quoted poetry, Bible verses, song lyrics and senators and generals to keep control of the floor. He drew from speeches by iconic American figures such as Harriet Tubman, John McCain and John Lewis. 

Booker also read personal stories of people impacted by Trump’s policies.

“These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such,” he said.

As he approached 20 hours, Booker invoked protest movements of America’s past and called for action.

“What do I want from my fellow Americans? Do better than me, do better than we, in this body. We are flawed and failed people,” he said.

“My voice is inadequate. My efforts today are inadequate to stop what they're trying to do. But we, the people, are powerful. We are strong. We have changed history. We have bent the arc of the moral universe. And now is that moral moment again.”

The Department of Health and Human Services has fired the teams that work on sexual violence prevention. The layoffs were part of recent cuts to the federal health agencies.

Most of the Division of Violence Prevention staff was fired, according to multiple sources, including current and former staffers. The leader of another HHS agency that works on domestic violence, the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services, was also placed on administrative leave.

Congress mandates the work these agencies do, which includes supporting state and local programs on sexual assault around the country. 

Mother Jones reports that on Tuesday, thousands of staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta received emails asking them to resign. The centers affected included those working on reproductive health, chronic disease, occupational safety, birth defects, smoking, tuberculosis, asthma and air quality, accidental and intentional injury, and prevention of violence and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

“I regret to inform you that you are being affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action,” the letters stated. “After you receive this notice, you will be placed on administrative leave and will no longer have building access beginning Tuesday, April 1, unless directed otherwise by your leadership.”

Trump released a statement for National Sexual Assault Awareness month, incorrectly stating that the main cause of sexual assault is the invasion of illegal aliens. Trump himself has been the subject of multiple sexual assault allegations and lawsuits, including being held liable for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.

A portion of the statement is listed below.

"This month, we recognize National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month by ending the unfathomable human abuse committed under open borders policies.

One of the leading causes of sexual violence over the last 4 years has been the invasion of illegal aliens at our southern border. In a treasonous act of betrayal against the American people, the previous administration unleashed an army of gangs and criminal aliens from the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world — causing a dramatic increase of sexual violence in our neighborhoods and communities. These reckless policies empowered some of the most depraved people on the planet to exploit women and children in the most vicious ways imaginable."

Scott Owen built a reputation over his 20-year therapy career as a specialist who could help gay men who were members of the Latter-day Saints Church.

Police began investigating Owen in 2023 after The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica reported on a range of sex abuse allegations against Owen.

Some of the men who spoke to The Tribune said their bishop referred them to Owen and used church funds to pay for sessions where Owen allegedly also touched them inappropriately.

In February, Owen pleaded guilty to three charges, admitting he sexually abused two patients who sought Owen’s help because they were struggling with their sexuality and their Latter-day Saints faith. Owen also pleaded no contest in another case, saying prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convict him on an allegation that he groped a young girl during a therapy session.

But the number of people who say that Owen harmed them filled a Provo courtroom on Monday as Owen was sentenced to spend at least 15 years in prison.

One by one, they stood at a podium in court and told Owen how he had hurt them. Most were his patients.

Also speaking was the brother of a man who committed suicide, who said his sibling disclosed to him that Owen had abused him just days before he took his life.

Even one of Owen’s own family members spoke up, his cousin, who alleges that Owen molested him on a family trip when he was a child. 

Fourth District Judge Kraig Powell sentenced Owen on Monday to 15 years to life in prison. Given Owen’s age and the nature of his crimes, it is likely he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

The US will spend $5.9 billion on Elon Musk's SpaceX in the name of national security. 

US Space Systems Command awarded National Security Space Launch contracts on April 4. SpaceX is expected to be awarded 28 missions, or approximately 60 percent. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 2,200 points — or 5.5% — after dropping almost 4% on Friday.

Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500, which tracks the largest U.S. companies, each also tumbled nearly 6% on Friday.

All told, the U.S. market lost more than $6 trillion in value over the past two days, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday sided with the Trump administration in a dispute over the Department of Education's freeze of DEI-related grants. 

By a 5-4 vote, the justices allowed the administration to keep frozen $65 million in grants for teacher training and professional development, halting a lower court order that had temporarily reinstated the grants.

The court majority ruled that even though Congress had already appropriated money for the programs, the Education Department could stop funding them while the case is litigated in the lower courts.

A federal district judge had issued two consecutive 14-day temporary restraining orders to consider the question of the frozen funds. While such orders are rarely appealable, the Supreme Court majority granted the Trump administration's request to block the lower court order from going into effect. In an unsigned 2-1/2-page opinion, the majority wrote that the lower court may actually not have had the authority to issue its order in the first place.

A notice sent on Friday, abruptly pulled U.S. funding for a program that had sent young Afghan women overseas for schooling because of Taliban prohibitions on women’s education, said an administrator for that project, which is run by Texas A&M University.

The interest pays for scholarships that allow 208 women to participate in online learning from their  homes in Afghanistan.  

For 120 women, the funds allowed them to relocate to Oman and Qatar to attend college in person, with living expenses covered. 

A federal judge in Maryland Friday ordered the Trump administration to take immediate steps to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison by mistake.

"This was an illegal act," U.S. Federal District Judge Paula Xinis told Justice Department lawyers at a federal court hearing in Maryland. Abrego Garcia was arrested and deported last month — despite having been granted protection by an immigration judge in 2019 that should have prevented him from being deported to El Salvador.

Judge Xinis ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7. She said keeping him in El Salvador constitutes irreparable harm.

"From the moment he was seized, it was unconstitutional," Judge Xinis said during the hearing. "If there isn't a document, a warrant, a statement of probable cause, then there is no basis to have seized him in the first place. That's how I'm looking at it," the judge said.

The Trump administration on Friday indicated it will appeal the ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Justice Department admits that Abrego Garcia was deported because of an administrative error. But DOJ lawyers argued in court papers that he is a member of the criminal gang MS-13 and that the judge lacks the authority to order his return since Abrego Garcia is no longer in the U.S.

Abrego Garcia's lawyers told the court that's nonsense and said the Department of Homeland Security should bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador immediately.

Erez Reuveni, a lawyer for the Justice Department, asked the judge for more time to discuss the matter with his clients in the Trump administration.

"I would ask the court to give us the defendants one more chance to do this" without an order from the court, Reuveni asked at the end of the hearing. Judge Xinis rejected that request.

She asked Reuveni to explain why Abrego Garcia was arrested last month. But Reuveni said he didn't know.

The White House has tried to portray Abrego García as a member of MS-13, and a threat to the public.

"You would think this individual was Father of the Year, living in Maryland, living a peaceful life, when that couldn't be further from the truth," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week.

But Abrego Garcia's attorneys say the government has offered no evidence that he was ever a member of MS-13. They say that allegation is based on a confidential informant's claim in 2019 that Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang in New York, a state where he has never lived, and on the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie. His lawyers say Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. or any other country.

Abrego Garcia was removed from the country on March 15th along with hundreds of other alleged gang members, who remain incarcerated at a supermax prison in El Salvador.

The Trump administration contends that all of the men have ties to MS-13 or Tren de Aragua, two gangs that the U.S. has designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. But many of the men do not have criminal records, and the men did not have a chance to contest the allegations against them before they were deported.

Tens of thousands of protesters mustered in cities and towns across the country on Saturday to sound off against the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government and its polices.

Carrying homemade posters and chanting "Hands Off," the protesters came out to the more than 1,200 rallies nationwide despite rain in many cities, according to organizers.

The Trump administration has canceled dozens of international student visas at California campuses, including UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and Stanford, university leaders, students and faculty at campuses confirmed to The Times.

At UCLA, the revocations hit at least eight international students, according to faculty groups and students. It’s unclear whether any students were detained by immigration authorities or why their visas were canceled. A UCLA spokesperson did not immediately confirm the number.

Friday’s final closure of the 150-person Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which protected the civil rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens, strips Homeland Security of its internal guardrails as the Trump administration turns DHS into a mass-deportation machine.

On March 21, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem shut down the office and fired most of the 150-person staff. As a result, about 600 civil rights abuse investigations were frozen.

In defending its move to shut CRCL, the administration said it was streamlining operations, “DHS remains committed to civil rights protections but must streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

CRCL staff “often functioned as internal adversaries to slow down operations,” McLaughlin added.

The office processed more than 3,000 complaints in 2023, including complaints about disabled detainees being unable to access medical care, abuses of power at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and reports of rape at its detention centers. 

Those cases would have gone nowhere without CRCL, its former staffers said.

Since the March shutdown, leaders told staff to stop launching investigations that came from media reports, previously a common avenue for inquiries. Only official complaints from the public would be considered. Because of this, CRCL staff was unable to open an investigation into Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest.

They are still technically employees, on paid leave until May 23 and many are exploring legal routes to get their jobs back. However, if complaints are coming in now, no one is available to investigate.

Trump on Wednesday announced expansive tariffs on more than 180 countries and regions to retaliate against what he said were unfair trade practices by other countries.

While Russia was not on the list, Trump slapped 10% tariffs on Heard Island and McDonald Islands, a mostly barren, tiny outpost largely populated by penguins.

The island group is in the middle of the Antarctic Ocean and is among the world’s most remote places with no human inhabitants. Administered by the Australian government as an external territory, the island group covers 140 square miles, is about 2,400 miles southwest of mainland Australia, and requires two weeks by boat to visit.

According to the World Bank, the Heard and McDonald islands exported about $1.4 million worth of goods to the U.S. in 2022, most of which were unspecified “machinery and electrical” products, while the U.S. exported about $21,600 to the islands in the same year. It is unclear how these goods are traded despite a lack of human habitation, but a report by The Guardian newspaper found that some goods may have been mislabeled as coming from the territory.

Nearly 400 books were removed from the Naval Academy’s library last week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office ordered it to remove books that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Navy provided the list of 381 books taken out of its library on Friday. 

Books on the Holocaust, histories of feminism, civil rights and racism, gender identity, sexuality and transgender issues were removed. 

Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, Navy spokesman said that “Nearly 400 books were removed from Nimitz Library to comply with directives outlined in Executive Orders issued by the President.”

The Pentagon has said the academies are “fully committed to executing and implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders.”

Millions of acres of national forests may be cleared for timber production to supposedly reduce wildfire risk under a new U.S. Department of Agriculture plan.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins issued a memo Thursday that created an "Emergency Situation Determination" involving 112.6 million acres, or about 59% of all National Forest System lands.

The memo follows Trump's March 1 executive order calling on Rollins to find ways to expand timber production by easing environmental reviews and simplifying federal permits in defiance of "heavy-handed Federal policies" that "have prevented full utilization of these resources" and made the United States "reliant on foreign producers."

“Healthy forests require work, and right now, we’re facing a national forest emergency. We have an abundance of timber at high risk of wildfires in our National Forests,” Rollins said in a statement released Friday. “I am proud to follow the bold leadership of President Trump by empowering forest managers to reduce constraints and minimize the risks of fire, insects, and disease so that we can strengthen American timber industry and further enrich our forests with the resources they need to thrive.”

Most of the impacted federal forest land is in the western United States. Some of the most affected states are Colorado, Idaho, Arizona and California.

In a statement, a USDA spokesperson said: "The USDA Forest Service stands ready to fulfill the Secretary’s vision of productive and resilient national forests outlined in the memorandum. In alignment with the Secretary’s direction, we will streamline forest management efforts, reduce burdensome regulations, and grow partnerships to support economic growth and sustainability."

Phone video from one of 15 Palestinian medics killed by Israeli forces last month appears to contradict Israeli claims that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in southern Gaza.

The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defense teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier. Three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance.

Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire, which goes on for more than five minutes with brief pauses. The owner of the phone can be heard praying.

“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he cries, his voice weak.

Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a U.N. staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along with their vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.

Estimates from the Hands Off protests put the total number of Americans protesting at 5 million. 

On Sunday at the Detroit Metro Airport, Michigan-based attorney Amir Makled, a U.S. citizen, was going through customs with his wife and children. The rest of his family entered the country without issue. But when Makled's turn came, one of the agents called for assistance from the "Tactical Terrorism Response Team."

Border agents pressured Makled to hand over his cell phone. He refused. After more than 90 minutes of back-and-forth, he did show agents his contacts list. He was eventually released, without being given any reason for his detainment.

However, one of Makled’s current clients is a student who has been charged in connection to a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Michigan.

Makled does not think it's a coincidence that he was targeted.

Three Harvard University students and two recent graduates had their visas revoked, officials reported Sunday. There was no reason given, and school officials said they learned about the immigration status changes during a routine review of records.

On April 6, J.K. Rowling shared a post on X, mocking the day with a sarcastic message aimed at those who identify as asexual. She wrote, “Happy International Fake Oppression Day to everyone who wants complete strangers to know they don’t fancy a shag.”

Rowling’s comments quickly sparked a mix of reactions. In the replies to her post, many users pushed back, calling her statement dismissive and harmful toward asexual individuals and the broader LGBTQ+ community. 

J.K. Rowling continued posting in the thread underneath her original post about asexual people. Replying to one of the users, she wrote, “I want an International Bored Of This Shit day.” In another follow-up, the author questioned how someone who is asexual could identify as gay or straight. She also wrote, “Sure, people are still killed for being gay in a lot of countries, but straight people who don’t fancy a quickie are being literally ignored to death, John. Is that what you want?”

Philadelphia Magazine reports that a Villanova University student who was sexually assaulted in a Villanova dorm room in 2022 is graduating the same day as Juan Eguiguren, who recorded the assault on his phone.

In 2022, Villanova student Elijah Katzenell sexually assaulted the student in his dorm room. He did so while she appeared to be unconscious.

Katzenell’s roommate, Andrew Polun, assisted in the sexual assault. 

During the assault, Juan Eguiguren, also a Villanova student, recorded part of it on his phone. 

The Delaware County District Attorney’s office charged Katzenell with sexual assault. Polun and Eguiguren were not charged with any crimes.

Last September, Katzenell pleaded guilty to sexual assault in exchange for a sentence that included zero jail time. Katzenell received seven years probation and lifetime registration on the sex offender registry.

Katzenell and Polun no longer attend Villanova University. 

Eguiguren is still a student at Villanova. He’s graduating in May on the same day that the victim is graduating. And now, she’s standing up and demanding that Villanova bar him from walking at graduation.

Philadelphia Magazine reports that on March 27th, her lawyer, Jay Edelstein, sent a letter to Villanova’s lawyer, James Keller.

Keller did not respond, but Eguiguren’s attorney, Douglas Maute, responded to Edelstein the next day. Maute referred to an “information resolution agreement” reached between the victim and Eguiguren. This term refers to an agreement frequently made in cases like this through a university’s Title IX office. Maute wrote that “no term therein bars Mr. Eguiguren from any Commencement-related event” and that the agreement and university policy “renders [the victim] ineligible from seeking further resolution.”

If Villanova does allow Eguiguren to participate in graduation, Edelstein wrote that this “would defy basic logic and would be yet another public offense to moral decency concerning victims/survivors of sexual assault… If Villanova bends once more to the wants of an individual who videotaped a rape and moved the body of an unconscious and unsuspecting rape victim, the institution will once again be protecting the wrong student. Respectfully, I cannot fathom that this is where Villanova wishes to draw a line in the sand, and plant its school flag, in favor of an admitted videographer of a rape in Villanova’s dormitory.”

The school did not respond to Philadelphia Magazine’s request for comment.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 on Monday to grant Trump’s request to vacate a lower court's ruling barring the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to immediately deport Venezuelan nationals from the U.S.

The ruling follows a temporary order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg last month blocking the administration’s use of the law for 14 days while he considered the case on its merits – a pause upheld by a federal appeals court in a 2–1 decision.

The Court did not rule on whether the Trump administration’s actions were constitutional. It ruled that the lawsuit brought by the detained immigrants was filed in the wrong jurisdiction (Washington, D.C.) when it should have been filed in Texas, where the detainees were being held. 

The Court ruled that detainees must be given a chance to challenge their deportations, even under the Alien Enemies Act. This safeguards some level of due process, which runs counter to the idea that the administration has unchecked authority. 

The Supreme Court’s decision was procedural, not a substantive endorsement of the Trump administration’s use of wartime powers. The ruling left open the door for legal challenges — just in the correct jurisdiction. 

The Trump administration has been contacting local leaders in the D.C. area about having a parade.

Trump attempted a similar parade in 2018, during his first term in office but had to cancel it because of cost concerns. At that time, military leaders said it would cost nearly $90 million.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed the request “Yes, they have reached out.”

“Military tanks on our streets would not be good,” she said. “If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads.”

 Budget carrier Avelo Airlines signed an agreement to fly federal deportation flights for ICE from Arizona starting in May, according to the company.

Andrew Levy, CEO of the Houston-based airline, said this is part of a “long-term charter program” to support the agency's deportation efforts. 

They will be providing domestic and international flights using three Boeing 737-800 planes based at Mesa Gateway Airport, Avelo said in a statement.

A mother and her three children who were taken into custody by ICE agents in the small town of Sackets Harbor, NY, where "border czar," Tom Homan lives, have been released following days of outcry calling for their freedom.

Over the weekend, about a thousand protesters marched outside Homan’s home, calling for the release of the family after they were detained last month. The family has not been named or spoken out publicly. The protests were organized with the help of the Jefferson county committee of the Democratic party.

The family was taken into custody in a 27 March raid at a large dairy farm in the remote town that has a population of fewer than 1,500. The target of the raid was reportedly a South African national charged with trafficking in child sexual abuse material, whom they apprehended. But authorities separately picked up and detained the family, as well as three other immigrants they said were without documentation. 

An ACLU statement said: “While agents were conducting a raid on the farm, they entered another home on the property without a judicial warrant and detained a mother and three children, aged 9, 15, and 18. The family was subsequently transferred thousands of miles away, to a detention facility in Texas. Today, after mounting public pressure and a historic rally in Sackets Harbor on Saturday, Ice released the family, who are now on their way home.”

The release of the family was confirmed on Monday by local officials, school administrators, and New York governor, Kathy Hochul.

Hochul said in a statement that she had direct confirmation from Homan that “this family – a third-grader, two teenagers and their mother – are currently on their way back to Jefferson county. I cannot imagine the trauma these kids and their mom are feeling, and I pray they will be able to heal when they return home.”

The Associated Press reports that the Trump administration has ended funding to U.N. World Food Program emergency programs helping keep millions alive in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and 11 other impoverished countries.

The World Food Program, the largest provider of food aid, appealed to the U.S. to roll back the new cuts in a social media post Monday. The contract cancellations targeted some of the last remaining humanitarian programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to two U.S. officials, a United Nations official and documents obtained by the AP.

“This could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation,” WFP said on X.

The agency said it was in contact with the Trump administration “to urge for continued support” for lifesaving programs and thanked the United States and other donors for past contributions.

Previously, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials pledged to spare emergency food programs and other life-and-death aid from cuts to U.S. foreign assistance. 

The projects were being canceled “for the convenience of the U.S. Government” at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at DOGE who was appointed to oversee the elimination of USAID programs, according to termination notices sent to partners and viewed by the AP.

This includes:

• Syria - $230 million in contracts with WFP and humanitarian groups including providing bread and other daily food to 1.5 million people.
• Yemen - all U.S. aid to WFP food programs across Yemen has been stopped, apparently including food that already had arrived in distribution centers.
• Lebanon and Jordan
• Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe - including programs providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war. $560 million in humanitarian aid was cut to Afghanistan, including for emergency food assistance, the treatment of severely malnourished babies, lifesaving medical care, safe drinking water, and emergency mental health treatment for survivors of sexual and physical violence.

About a dozen international students at Johns Hopkins University have had their visas revoked. The graduate students and recent graduates had F-1 visas through the Student Exchange Visitor Information System. 

An F-1 visa allows a full-time college student to live in the U.S. legally with proof of enrollment. The visa can often be extended if the path to graduation takes longer than expected.

The university said it has taken action to inform students and is providing support services to those affected. University officials said they have no information about why those student visas were revoked or if the changes are due to expressions of free speech on campus. 

So far, officials are not reporting any arrests or detentions of students, however visa terminations do require the students to leave the U.S. 

Four University of Michigan international students have had their visas revoked by the Department of Homeland Security, according to university officials. 

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered migrants who entered the U.S. via the CBP One app to leave "immediately."

The Biden-era CBP One app was created in an attempt to discourage illegal border crossings and allowed more than 900,000 people temporary entry beginning in January 2023. It was used to schedule appointments at ports of entry and helped migrants live and work under parole in the U.S. for two years. 

Authorities have confirmed that termination notices were sent to CBP One beneficiaries but did not verify how many notices were sent. The migrants were told to voluntarily self-deport using the same app, which has now been renamed CBP Home.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “boys will be boys!” when asked about the feud between Elon Musk and Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro at Tuesday’s briefing.

During the briefing, CNN’s Alayna Treene commented that Musk has characterized Navarro as being “dumber than a sack of bricks” and then asked “Is the administration and the president at all concerned that this is maybe impacting the public’s understanding of these tariffs? It might be messing with the message on it?”

Karoline Leavitt replied “No, look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade, and on tariffs. Boys will be boys! And we will let their public sparring continue. And you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history.”

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled it was unlawful to block the Associated Press news service and ordered the Trump White House to let AP journalists return to the Oval Office and other spaces immediately to cover news events.

An AP reporter and photographer were still prevented from joining a reporting pool on a presidential motorcade almost two hours after the decision came down.

The Internal Revenue Service has reached an agreement with ICE to share tax information about some immigrants without legal status.

The deal was signed Monday and made public the same day in a court filing. It's not clear when the IRS will begin providing information.

Under the terms of the deal, ICE can ask the IRS for information about immigrants who have final orders of removal or are under criminal investigation, including for the crime of failing to leave the country after 90 days.

Immigrants without legal status pay billions of dollars in taxes. For years, the IRS has assured undocumented taxpayers that their information is confidential, and that it would be safe for them to file tax returns.

The acting head of the US Internal Revenue Service, Melanie Krause, plans to resign over the agreement, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the situation.

Krause will participate in the deferred resignation program the government offered to agency employees recently, the newspaper said.

Responding to a question at Tuesday’s daily briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned President Donald Trump’s “idea” to potentially deport “violent” and “heinous” U.S. citizens.

Leavitt was asked to explain Trump’s  enthusiastic response to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s illegal proposition to relocate individuals incarcerated in the federal prison system, including American citizens, to his country.

“So, the president has discussed this idea quite a few times publicly, he’s also discussed it privately,” she said, making sure to say that Trump had only discussed “potentially” deporting U.S. citizens.

“These  would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws  repeatedly. These are violent, repeat offenders in American streets,”  Leavitt said. 

“The  president has said if it’s legal, if there’s a legal pathway to do  that, he’s not sure, we are not sure if there is, it’s an idea that he  has simply floated and has discussed uh, very publicly, in the effort of  transparency,” Leavitt said. 

Illinois House Democrats passed a plan Tuesday to require public universities and community colleges student health services to discuss contraception and abortion options with students before sending prescriptions to campus pharmacies. These services could be provided through in-person appointments, telehealth, or other licensed providers.

Students would be required to pay out-of-pocket or use their health insurance to receive the reproductive healthcare.

Rep. Anna Moeller said that this would “Take pressure off of our local clinics and Planned Parenthood organizations who have been inundated with the need for services here in Illinois because of the restrictions on access to abortion in many of our neighboring states.”

The bill now moves to the Senate for further consideration. If passed out of the Senate and signed into law, campus health centers would be required to provide the reproductive healthcare services at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he has opened an investigation into USA Fencing after they disqualified a female athlete who refused to compete against a transgender opponent in a tournament in Maryland.

Stephanie Turner took a knee when she was matched against Redmond Sullivan at a USA Fencing sanctioned tournament in Maryland on March 30. Sullivan has competed as a female since October 2023.

When Turner refused to fence Sullivan, USA Fencing issued her a black card, disqualifying her from the tournament. Her disqualification was “the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent,” Bryan Wendell, the director of communications for USA Fencing, said at the time.

Stephanie Turner has already competed several times against male opponents in mixed foil competitions, which are common in fencing. Her fencing record can be seen here https://fencingtracker.com/p/100173803/Stephanie-Turner/history.

Paxton says he will investigate the organization and issue USA Fencing a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) “over potential violations of Texas state law.”

“USA Fencing is on the wrong side of history and potentially the wrong side of the law due to violations of Texas consumer protection laws,” Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday. “USA Fencing’s policies are not only potentially illegal, but also deeply insulting to the young women like Stephanie Turner who have sacrificed so much and dedicated countless hours to compete and succeed in competitions. I will fight to stop these unfair policies, and I will never back down from defending the integrity of women’s sports.”

USA Fencing’s 2023 policy allows athletes “to participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/ expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.” 

After a video of the event went viral, USA Fencing said that it would always “err on the side of inclusion.”

Mentally and physically disabled Victor Perez was shot Saturday at his home in the town of Pocatello, Idaho, seconds after police arrived. His family told local news outlets he was experiencing a mental health crisis and was brandishing a knife. 

The family said he has cerebral palsy, affecting his ability to walk, and speaks limited English. 

Eyewitness video captured the moment police shot him nine times in his front yard, while they were separated from him by some distance behind a tall mental fence, leaving him fighting for his life and his family calling for answers. 

The video posted to Facebook shows a person lying on the ground holding a knife in a yard. A woman is seen remonstrating with him, saying "no, no," and attempting to restrain him or grab the knife. The police arrive, and four armed officers begin shouting, "Drop the knife" from behind the steel garden fence. Perez struggles to stand up before he moves toward the police officers, who open fire, followed by the terrified screams of his family. 

Ana Vazquez, an aunt of Perez, told news station KIFI: “He has the brain of a little kid, about 5 years old. He is disabled. He can hardly walk. People around here, they can tell you that.” 

Victor’s left leg was amputated in one of three operations at the hospital after the shooting, where he is in critical condition. 

 Kash Patel has been removed as the interim head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Dan Driscoll, secretary of the army, has replaced him.

Driscoll is expected to simultaneously run the ATF and continue with his current role. A spokesperson for the justice department did not respond to a request for comment about the long-term implication of the move.

 The Republican-led House voted Wednesday to limit district court judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. Currently judges have been issuing injunctions to attempt to prevent Trump’s executive actions.

The vote was 219-213, with just one Republican, Mike Turner of Ohio, joining all Democrats in opposing it. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Trump, who is friends with numerous millionaires and has several of these friends in his administration, continues to make tariff announcements which are causing the stock market to make sharp changes, cause the stock market to soar after ab abrupt drop when he  abruptly announced on Wednesday that he would pause big hikes on tariffs for most countries for 90 days, except for China.  

 At the 2025 Border Security Expo at the Phoenix, Todd Lyons, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” He said that he wanted to see a deportation process “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”. 

Organizers have announced that the annual Chicago Cinco de Mayo Parade has been canceled this year.

They said the Trump administration’s immigration policies are creating fear in the Mexican community and that their decision to cancel the event is about putting safety over profit.

"Our people are scared," said Hector Escobar, President of the Casa Puebla & Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce. "See, some of them, they don't even want to go to work and some of them, they've taken a high risk. And, definitely, it's not much to celebrate."

On April 11, 2025, a letter was sent to Harvard’s president, Dr. Alan Garber, from the US Government, demanding that they make numerous revisions to eliminate all DEI programs, crackdown on any student organizations, and allow the government to monitor their activities.

This includes:

• Governance and leadership reforms. 
• Merit-Based Hiring Reform. 
• Merit-Based Admissions Reform. 
• International Admissions Reform.  This included the statement that, “The University must reform its recruitment, screening, and admissions of international students to prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism. Harvard will immediately report to federal authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, any foreign student, including those on visas and with green cards, who commits a conduct violation.”
• Viewpoint Diversity in Admissions and Hiring. 
• Reforming Programs with Egregious Records of Antisemitism or Other Bias
• Discontinuation of DEI. 
• Student Discipline Reform and Accountability. Including, that they “must implement a comprehensive mask ban with serious and immediate penalties for violation, not less than suspension.”
• Whistleblower Reporting and Protections for those reporting DEI violations.
• Transparency and Monitoring

A link to the letter can be found here:

Col Susannah Meyers, the head of the US military base in Greenland, has been fired after she reportedly sent an email regarding Vice President Vance’s criticism of Denmark.

During his visit to Greenland last month, Vance said Denmark had "not done a good job" for Greenlanders and had not spent enough on security.

Following Vance's trip, Col Meyers is reported to have sent an email stating: "I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice-President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base."

The email was published in an article by Military.com.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell included a link to the Military.com article in a post on X, writing: "Actions [that] undermine the chain of command or to subvert President [Donald] Trump's agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense."

The Associated Press reports that Victor Perez, 17, an autistic, nonverbal teenage boy with cerebral palsy who was shot repeatedly by Idaho police, died Saturday after being removed from life support.

Victor had been in a coma since the April 5 shooting, and tests showed that he had no brain activity, his aunt, Ana Vazquez, told The Associated Press. He had undergone several surgeries, with doctors removing nine bullets and amputating his leg.

The officers who shot Victor were placed on administrative leave. Their names have not been released.

Decisions about whether charges should be filed against them will be made after an independent investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Team, Bannock County Prosecutor Ian Johnson told the AP via email.

"When that investigation is complete a report will be submitted for review," he said. "In a continued effort to ensure independent and objective consideration, said report will be reviewed by an agency outside of Bannock County."

On 4/14/25, A letter was sent in response from Harvard’s attorneys, refusing to comply with the government’s demands, stating that “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle."

"Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”

A copy of the complete letter can be found here:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, who has no medical training, experience or degrees, and previously promoted a scientifically debunked claim that autism is caused by vaccines, spouted autism misinformation and lies in his first press conference on Wednesday.

Kennedy said the rise in autism diagnoses constitutes an “epidemic” and vowed to identify the “environmental causes” responsible for the disorder, denying that the uptick in diagnoses can be explained by experts learning more about the disorder.

“One of the things that I think that we need to move away from today is this ideology that…the autism prevalence increase, the relentless increases, are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria," he said. “This epidemic denial has become a feature in mainstream media.”

Kennedy went on to claim that "Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this," he said. “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted." 

The backlash from those with autism and their family members was immediate, with thousands posting their condemnation of his statements and sharing their own personal stories on social media. 

Juan Carlos Gomez-Lopez, 20, a U.S.-born American citizen was detained at the request of immigration authorities Thursday despite providing his social security card and Georgia state ID to the Florida state trooper who pulled him over, as well as an advocate showing his U.S. birth certificate in court, and a county judge finding no reason for him to be detained. He was arrested Thursday and released later in the evening after numerous news stories and protests regarding his being held illegally.

Gomez-Lopez was arrested Thursday evening after being pulled over for speeding on his way to work by Florida Highway Patrol. He was charged under SB 4-C, a state immigration law that has been temporarily blocked since early this month and should not have been enforced. 

The law makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants over age 18 to “knowingly” enter Florida “after entering the United States by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 4-C into law on Feb. 14, however U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams blocked its enforcement on April 4.

After inspecting Gomez-Lopez’s birth certificate, Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans said during the hearing that “this is indeed an authentic document,” but that she did not have jurisdiction to release him because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had formally asked the jail to hold him for 48 hours.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s role is to enforce immigration laws that generally apply to noncitizens. American citizens are protected under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution from unreasonable search and seizure, arrest and detention.

The arrest record filed by the trooper stated that Lopez-Gomez said he was in the country illegally but handed over his ID. There was no mention of the Social Security card in the report. However, Lopez-Gomez told reporters he had shown the trooper a copy of his Social Security card and Georgia state ID.

After reuniting with his mom, Lopez-Gomez met protestors in the parking lot of the jail, who cheered his release.

Lopez-Gomez will have to return to the Leon County Courthouse on May 6. 

In response to Senator Van Hollen’s planned visit to El Salvador, Karoline Leavitt criticized his visit and brought out the mother of a woman whose convicted murderer was an immigrant from El Salvador. 

“It’s appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

She was joined in the briefing room by Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, a Maryland resident who was brutally murdered in 2023 by an immigrant from El Salvador. The administration has pointed to Morin’s death as an example to justify its stance on immigration, despite statistics showing immigrants are less likely than U.S.-born citizens to commit crimes.

Rachel's oldest daughter, 19-year-old Faye McMahon, and the fathers of her four sibling are currently suing their grandmother Patricia Morin, aunt Rebekah Morin, and family attorney Randolph Rice, alleging that the  $53,441.00 raised by a GoFundMe did not benefit her young siblings as initially intended.

It is worth noting that the majority of those who were kidnapped by ICE and taken to El Salvador had no criminal records, are from Venezuela, and were arrested based on loose criteria such as just having a tattoo on their body.

The U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Wednesday that transgender women do not fall under the legal category of “women” in their equality legislation.

The court's decision clarified that the term “sex” in Britain’s 2010 Equality Act only applies to “biological women” or “biological sex.” This will impact transgender women’s access to women-only services and spaces, including charities, sports, hospitals, and more.

The law still protects transgender people against discrimination and harassment due to gender reassignment, however, expanding the definition of “sex” in the Act to include transgender women would give them greater rights.

The Scottish government had argued last November that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC)—a document that allows a transgender person to have their gender legally recognized in the U.K.—are protected under the law. 

The head of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission said Thursday that it will issue new guidance on single-sex spaces by this summer. Those spaces will likely include women-only bathrooms, changing rooms, hospital wards, hostels, prisons, sports clubs, domestic violence women’s shelters and more.

Due to this ruling, trans women arrested on Britain’s railways will in future be strip-searched by male officers in an updated policy. The British Transport Police said same-sex searches in custody would be conducted “in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee”.

The anti-trans J.K. Rowling-backed group For Women Scotland—which spearheaded the lengthy legal battle and believes there are only two sexes—called the decision a “victory for women’s rights.” 

"I love it when a plan comes together," Rowling posted to X alongside "#SupremeCourt" and "#WomensRights" while posing with a drink and a cigar. Rowling reportedly donated £70,000 to For Women Scotland, according to U.K. news outlet The Times.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Thursday night that he had met in San Salvador with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was kidnapped by ICE and sent to El Salvador last month.

Van Hollen shared a photo of the two men speaking on Thursday evening, hours after the senator had been denied entry to the prison where Garcia was being held. The meeting took place at a hotel in San Salvador.

“Our purpose today was very straightforward,” Van Hollen said in an interview before the meeting. “It was simply to be able to go see if Kilmar Abrego Garcia is doing OK. I mean, nobody has heard anything about his condition since he was illegally abducted from the United States. He is totally beyond reach.”

El Salvador’s president, Bukele, acknowledged Van Hollen’s visit with Garcia late Thursday, stating in a post on social media, “Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.”

In exchange for El Salvador’s detention of the illegally deported immigrants, Bukele has said he is being paid $6 million by the U.S. government.

When asked Thursday afternoon whether he would move to return Garcia to the United States, Trump said, “Well, I’m not involved.”

“You’ll have to speak to the lawyers, the D.O.J.,” he said.

Trump’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposed a rule to amend the civil service regulations to include Schedule Policy/Career for career employees with important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties.

From the proposal:

“These employees will serve as at-will employees, without access to cumbersome adverse action procedures or appeals, overturning Biden Administration regulations that protected poor performing employees.

Line federal employees who implement those policies, like Border Patrol agents or wage and hour inspectors, will generally be excluded.

This rule empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles…

These employees will keep their competitive status and are not required to personally or politically support the President, but must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies.

OPM estimates 50,000 positions will ultimately be moved into Schedule Policy/Career, approximately 2% of the Federal workforce.

The proposed rule does not directly move positions into Schedule Policy/Career. That will be done by a subsequent executive order after a final rule issues.”

MedPage Today reports that Edward R. Martin Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has sent letters to at least three medical journals questioning their viewpoints.

The letter which was sent to CHEST Editor-in-Chief Peter Mazzone has been shared on social media. CHEST was established in 1935 and focuses on pulmonary medicine, critical care, and related fields. 

According to MedPage Today, at least two other journals have received similar letters. The other journals were not identified. 

"It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates," the letter stated.

Martin's letter asks five questions:

“How do you assess your responsibilities to protect the public from misinformation? How do you clearly articulate to the public when you have certain viewpoints that are influence by your ongoing relations with supporters, funders, advertisers, and others? Do you accept articles or essays from competing viewpoints?

How you assess the role played by government officials and funding organizations like the National Institutes of Health in the development of submitted articles? How do you handle allegations that authors of works in your journals may have misled their readers?”

Martin requested a response by May 2.

Adam Gaffney, MD, MPH, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, said the letter "should send a chill down the spine of scientists and physicians."

"It is yet another example of the Trump administration's effort to control academic inquiry and stifle scientific discourse -- an administration, it warrants mentioning, that has embraced medical misinformation and pseudoscience to reckless effect," Gaffney said in an email to MedPage Today. "Journal editors should join together and publicly renounce this as yet more thinly guised anti-science political blackmail."

JT Morris, a senior supervising attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, noted that in a First Amendment case such as this, the law is clear: "A publication's editorial decisions are none of the government's business, whether it's a newspaper or a medical journal."

"When a United States Attorney wields the power of his office to target medical journals because of their content and editorial processes, he isn't doing his job, let alone upholding his constitutional oath," Morris said in an email to MedPage Today. "He's abusing his authority to try to chill protected speech."

"Like with any bully, the best response is to stand up to them -- and that includes officials who try to intimidate Americans into parroting the government's view," he added. "The First Amendment packs a powerful punch, and it has these medical journals' backs."

The faculty senates in the United States Big Ten Academic Alliance are creating a “mutual defense compact” to fight against Trump’s attacks on higher education. 

Rutgers University began the initiative, passing a resolution on April 6 to establish the compact among the Big Ten’s 18 universities.

The Big Ten Conference currently consists of 18 universities: University of Illinois, University of Indiana, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Michigan State, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, University of Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), USC (University of Southern California), University of Washington, and University of Wisconsin.

The Big Ten Conference is the oldest NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. While it currently consists of 18 Universities across the United States, the conference is still officially called “The Big Ten”, as it consisted of 10 schools from 1950-1990.

University of Michigan already folded to Trump’s demands on March 27, shuttering the doors of the school’s DEI office and ending DEI in their admissions, hiring, promotion, award, and annual review processes.

“Be it resolved that, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance,” the resolution said. 

The resolution says it is in response to the Trump administration’s “legal, financial and political” attacks on academic freedom and the missions of universities. 

So far University of Nebraska, Indiana University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Michigan State University have all joined Rutgers.

The resolution says participating schools should be willing to make legal counsel, experts and public affairs offices available to any institution that is facing pressure from the Trump administration, as well as creating a fund to provide “immediate and strategic support” to universities. 

“Senators have a moral and ethical responsibility to review matters that are impacting anything related to university level, academic freedom, curriculum, policies, etc, and if they see any kind of dangers of infraction on those fronts, then it’s the [university] senate’s responsibility to collect that information and have a pretty robust conversation about it, and then take a vote on it and bring it to the [university] president’s attention,” Lucille Foster, chair of the Rutgers senate, told The Hill. 

Resolutions by faculty senates are nonbinding, but Foster argues at universities you want to start “on a micro level and then work your way up.” 

Rutgers will host a meeting in May and is encouraging any schools with hesitations to come and ask questions.

“It’s an unrealistic bar to think that … you will get 100 percent support, right? That’s unrealistic. But I think that, quietly, there were a lot of schools that had contacted me and said, ‘I don’t know if we can sign on, but we’d love to participate in the conversation,’ and that, to me, is successful.” Foster said.

Trump has threatened federal funding for colleges and universities and has been making demands that they purge their diversity programs and assist with suppression of student protests, as well as assisting with deportations of international students.

NPR reports that the State Department's annual reports on international human rights are being heavily edited to remove numerous specific areas of abuse, as well as limiting examples of abuse.

The reports, which are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call out governments out for numerous abuses which have been included in previous reports.

This includes references to:

• Harsh prison conditions
• Government corruption
• Restrictions on participation in the political process
• Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution
• Serious harassment of human rights organizations
• Denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly
• Retaining political prisoners without due process
• Restrictions on "free and fair elections."
• Reports of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people
• All references to DEI
• Sexual exploitation of women and children
• Denial of political rights to minorities
• Involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices.
• Arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy.
• Serious restrictions to internet freedom.
• Extensive gender-based violence.
• Violence or threats of violence targeting people with disabilities.

(It is notable that many of these areas of abuse being removed from the report coincide with actions recently taken by the United States Government.)

According to an editing memo and other documents obtained by NPR, State Department employees are directed to "streamline" the reports by stripping them down to only what is legally required. The memo says the changes aim to align the reports with current U.S. policy and "recently issued Executive Orders."

Officially called "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," the annual documents are required, by statute, to be a "full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights."

A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on the memo or the human rights reports. NPR confirmed the memo's authenticity with two sources close to the process.

The reports, typically released in March or April, are highly anticipated by foreign leaders and diplomats with a stake in how their countries are portrayed, and are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance. The 2024 reports were initially completed in January, before Trump took office, but now they are being re-edited by the new administration. State Department sources say the revised versions won't be released until May.

The cuts ordered in the Trump administration memo are not targeted at specific countries. Rather, they eliminate entire categories of abuses from all the reports.

But some deletions are more specific than others. In a draft of the forthcoming report on El Salvador, the section on prison conditions is erased. The only remnants of any violations are reports on prison deaths that fall into the category of "extrajudicial killings" and a mention of abuse by prison guards in a legislatively mandated section on "Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment."

In the report on Hungary, the section titled "Corruption in Government" is struck out. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been called an authoritarian, and previous reports have noted restrictions to civil liberties. Trump has called him "a great man and a great leader in Europe."

The reports on Hungary and El Salvador are among 20 countries whose reports, the memo directs, must be flagged for special review by a "Senior Advisor" in the department. The other countries flagged include Argentina, Egypt, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Italy, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

During the first Trump administration, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complained about what he called "a proliferation of human rights," and moved to pare them back. He formed a Commission on Unalienable Rights that focused on de-emphasizing issues like discrimination and reproductive rights, putting more focus on religious freedom and the right to private property. At the time, Rubio criticized this.

As secretary of state, Rubio is now responsible for the reports. Under his stewardship, even more violations are being deleted from the reports.

The reports will still include human rights matters that are specifically required by law, including war crimes and genocide, antisemitism, worker rights and child marriage. Attacks on freedom of the press have to be reported, although not those on freedom of expression for regular citizens.

However, for these required categories, the memo dictates that where multiple examples were cited in the original draft, reporting should be "reduced" to just one example.

On Friday Trump swore in Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), granting the former TV host vast influence over the nation’s largest public health insurance program.

“We’re delighted to swear in Dr. Mehmet Oz as the next administrator of the Centers for Medicine and Medicaid Services, which is a big deal,” said Trump, misnaming the title of the agency.

“As CMS administrator, Dr. Oz will work tirelessly to strengthen and protect Medicare for our nation’s seniors and Medicaid for the needy, just as I promised. There will be no cuts. We’re not going to have any cuts. We’re going to have only help,” he added.

The Senate voted 53-45 along party lines to confirm Oz earlier this month.

In his remarks, Oz said he wanted to “provide America with access to great care.”

Oz signaled his plans to focus on chronic disease in the U.S., saying it was “the patriotic duty of all Americans to take care of themselves.”

“Because it’s important for serving in the military, but it’s also important because healthy people don’t consume health care resources,” he added. “The best way to reduce drug spending is to use less drugs, because you don’t need them, because you’re healthy, and it feels a lot better.”

Aligning with the administration’s aims of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, Oz said will he go after fraudulent practices in Medicaid, listing off brokers who enroll patients into plans without their knowledge, funds spent on undocumented migrants, individuals eligible for Medicaid in more than one state, and program funds being used for nonmedical expenses like child care.

“Together, we’re going to make the care better. We’re going to make … the outcomes improve, and we’re going to make sure that America can actually be the healthiest country it could ever possibly be. We’ll make America healthy again,” Oz said.

Oz has faced criticism for his involvement with promoting dietary supplements, as well as his comments and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2012, Oz entered into an arrangement with Usana Health Sciences, a multi-level marketing dietary supplement manufacturer, which has been accused of being a pyramid scheme. Oz was paid over $50 million over a five year period to promote Usana products on his show.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz became an informal advisor to the Trump administration. Oz promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on more than 25 Fox News broadcasts in March and April 2020. Trump claimed to be taking the drug in May 2020. In June 2020, the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine, saying that it was "no longer reasonable to believe" that the drug was effective against COVID-19 or that its benefits outweighed "known and potential risks". Oz also owns at least $630,000 of stock in two companies that manufacture or distribute hydroxychloroquine, Thermo Fisher and McKesson Corporation.

In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause. Referencing an article published in the medical journal The Lancet, Oz said, "I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet [medical journal] arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us 2–3% in terms of total mortality." Oz's comments provoked backlash, and he later apologized, saying he had misspoken and that his goal was "to get our children safely back to school."

Hundreds of protests and rallies against the Trump administration and the current actions of the United Staes Government are taking place in cities across the U.S. this weekend.

Many of the protests are part of a "day of action" organized by the 50501 Movement. 505001 stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement.

More than 800 local protests were planned for Saturday in response to what organizers say are the "anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration."

The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to halt the deportation of a group of alleged Venezuelan gang members, with Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had sued to stop the removal of the men, currently in detention in Texas, saying they had not been able to contest their cases in court.

Donald Trump has already sent accused Venezuelan gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which gives the president power to detain and deport natives or citizens of "enemy" nations without usual processes in wartime or during threatened invasion. Trump had accused the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua of "perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion" on US territory.

Out of 261 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador as of 8 April, 137 were removed under the Alien Enemies Act. A lower court temporarily blocked these deportations on 15 March.

The Supreme Court initially ruled on 8 April that Trump could use the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members, but deportees must be given a chance to challenge their removal.

This lawsuit said the Venezuelans detained in north Texas had only been given notices about their imminent deportation in English, despite one detainee only speaking Spanish. It also said the men had not been told they had a right to contest the decision in court.

"Without this Court's intervention, dozens or hundreds of proposed class members may be removed to a possible life sentence in El Salvador with no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal," the lawsuit read.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government should facilitate bringing back Mr Ábrego García, but the Trump administration has said he will "never" live in the US again.

John Palfrey the president of the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation recently authored a joint article with Tonya Allen of the McKnight Foundation and Deepak Bhargava of the Freedom Together Foundation warning that charitable organizations could be the next institutions under attack, and announcing a public solidarity campaign to support philanthropy’s freedom to give. More than 300 organizations have already signed on.

Palfrey insists that charitable organizations choose resistance over capitulation.

“We have an opportunity to unite and advance,” Palfrey said “There’s a chance here for us to stand together on a series of very important bedrock principles, and do so with linked arms, and do so in such a way that allows us to serve every community in America in a way that will ensure a strong republic for years to come.”

The MacArthur Foundation, founded in 1978, funds work in fields including social justice, climate change, criminal justice reform, journalism and media, community development and international peace and security. It has assets of about $7 billion.

The article stated “..millions of people across the nation depend on nonprofits to meet their basic needs—and those nonprofits depend on resources from foundations to deliver important services, support their communities, and pay their workers. Which is why today we are announcing a public solidarity sign-on campaign to support philanthropy’s freedom to give.”

“Nonprofits promote economic opportunity, invest in education, foster healthy communities, support scientific research, and protect the rights of vulnerable people. From legal aid clinics helping veterans in Alabama, to religious groups supporting refugees in Minnesota, nonprofit organizations are the connective tissue of our communities and our American democracy. “

“The onslaught of executive orders; revenue and funding freezes; and investigations against universities, law firms, and businesses demonstrate a pattern of attacks foundations may see next: attacking individual institutions to silence a sector and forcing concessions that seek to limit our freedoms.”

“We in the philanthropic community must not wait like sitting ducks. We must prepare and unite to defend our freedom to support the millions of people who rely on charitable foundations to build stronger, healthier communities and opportunities for all.”

“We three are presidents of foundations responsible for supporting tens of thousands of organizations over a collective 128 years. We are also presidents of foundations responsible for the care and health of our own teams and staff. We know the risk of standing up to a hostile government."

“But complacency is complicity. Foundations must lead—not just with grants, but with guts.”

They outlined three steps that charitable organizations can take.

“1. Prepare for what’s coming, but don’t obey in advance.

2. Stand in solidarity with each other.

3. Step up to provide more support to communities who need us.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, The New York Times reported.

The second chat on Signal — which is a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information — included 13 people.

The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, who is a former Fox News producer, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. Both have traveled with the defense secretary and attended high-level meetings.

On April 21, 2025 — the day Pope Francis died — U.S. Rep. Marjorie  Taylor Greene posted, "Today there were major shifts in global  leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God." 

"Starting probably in next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly," Musk said on a conference call to discuss Tesla's earnings. 

Tesla's sales have taken a hit as the automaker's vehicles have increasingly become a symbol of the Trump administration, causing boycotts of the vehicles as well as protest demonstrations across the world. The stock has also plunged more than 50% from its most recent high in December, when the shares surged after the presidential election on optimism that Musk's role advising Mr. Trump would help the EV maker's bottom line. 

But Musk added he plans to continue his involvement with DOGE, saying he will likely spend one to two days a week on government issues moving forward. "Starting next month, I'll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla," he said.

Tesla's first-quarter earnings, announced Tuesday, fell far short of analyst expectations, with revenue tumbling 9% and profit slumping 71%. 

The Gothamist reports that an increasing number of migrant children are making immigration court appearances without the assistance of attorneys, which will lead to more children getting deported.

The Trump administration on March 21 terminated part of a $200 million contract that funds attorneys and other legal services for unaccompanied children, children who arrive without parents or legal guardians, typically coming with aunts, uncles or older siblings.

The contract paid for attorneys to represent 26,000 children across the country and “friend of the court” programs for children.

While the contract termination is being challenged in court, immigrant advocates say the impact is already being felt, as lawyer groups pull back on services – leaving some children on their own.

The federal contract funnels $18 million to nine legal providers across New York state to represent some 1,800 children, according to Sierra Kraft, executive director of the ICARE Coalition, a New York-based organization that advocates for expanding access to legal representation for immigrant children.

Kraft said that before the contract was terminated, she saw 30% to 40% of children in a given docket without lawyers. Now, she said, the number has increased to 50% to 60%.

“The reason we’re here is because the government of the United States wants you to leave the United States,” Judge Ubaid ul-Haq, presiding from a courtroom on Varick Street, told a group of about a dozen children on a recent morning on Webex.

“It’s my job to figure out if you have to leave,” ul-Haq continued. “It’s also my job to figure out if you should stay.”

The children included a 7-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister. None of the children were accompanied by parents or attorneys, only shelter workers who helped them log on to the hearing.

“How is a child supposed to navigate this?” said Beth Krause, supervising attorney of the Immigrant Youth Project at the Legal Aid Society. 

Without representation, the children are more likely to be ordered deported, according to Meena Shah, co-managing director of the Legal Services Center at The Door, a New York City-based nonprofit.

96% of people appearing in New York state immigration courts without legal counsel are eventually ordered deported. Meanwhile, only 23% of those with representation are deported.

Immigration lawyers leave no doubt about prospects for children appearing without counsel.

“That child will be ordered deported from this country — that could all happen without that child ever speaking with an attorney and given the opportunity to obtain representation,” Shah said. “The cruelty is really apparent to all of us out here in the field.”

Migrant children who arrive in the United States without parents or legal guardians are considered “unaccompanied children,” and are transferred to shelters run by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. Most children are then transferred out of shelters and placed with adults called sponsors to take care of them. 

Last fiscal year, 98,356 unaccompanied children entered the country. The vast majority of the unaccompanied children are Spanish speakers, hailing from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador or Mexico.

Children who enter the United States without authorization are placed into deportation proceedings, just like adults in that situation. Unlike in criminal court, people in immigration court aren’t guaranteed pro bono attorneys if their incomes fall below a certain threshold.

Nonprofit legal groups representing unaccompanied migrant children are currently struggling with massive funding gaps. Some have laid off staff; others are considering layoffs in the future. Several groups say they’re making impassioned pleas to private funders and foundations. 

“We’re just scrambling to try to replace the funding, at least partially … if possible,” Kraft said.

A federal judge recently ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore the contract, but funding still isn’t flowing to legal providers, who continue to face difficult decisions about how to move forward.

The website for the $Trump meme coin says its 220 biggest holders will be invited to a private gala dinner with the president on 22 May, describing it as the "most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world."

As well as the gala dinner, which will be held at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington DC, there will be "an ultra-exclusive private VIP reception with the President" for the top 25 coin holders, the coin's website said.

The Guardian reports that the Veterans Affairs department (VA) is ordering staff to report colleagues for instances of “anti-Christian bias” to a newly established taskforce.

The VA secretary, Doug Collins, in an internal email seen by the Guardian, said the department had launched a taskforce to review the Biden administration’s “treatment of Christians”.

“The VA Task Force now requests all VA employees to submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination to Anti-ChristianBiasReporting.@va.gov,” the email reads. “Submissions should include sufficient identifiers such as names, dates, and locations.”

The email states that the department will review “all instances of anti-Christian bias” but that it is specifically seeking instances including “any informal policies, procedures, or unofficially understandings hostile to Christian views”.

In addition, the department is seeking “any adverse responses to requests for religious exemptions under the previous vaccine mandates” and “any retaliatory actions taken or threatened in response to abstaining from certain procedures or treatments (for example: abortion or hormone therapy)”.

Trump signed an executive order within weeks of his second term aimed at ending the “anti-Christian weaponization of government”, and announced the formation of a taskforce, led by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to end all forms of “anti-Christian targeting and discrimination” in the government.

The Washington Post reports that the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration without due process, was forced to move to a safe house with her children, after the government posted their home address to social media.

White House officials have spent weeks trying to justify their deportation of Abrego Garcia, even after admitting in court that sending him to El Salvador was an “administrative error,” claiming with no evidence that he is a violent criminal and gang member.

At one point, the Department of Homeland Security posted online an order of protection that Jennifer Vasquez Sura had sought, but later abandoned, against her husband. That order contained Vasquez Sura’s home address, unredacted.

“I don’t feel safe when the government posts my address, the house where my family lives, for everyone to see, especially when this case has gone viral and people have all sorts of opinions,” Vasquez Sura told The Washington Post. “So, this is definitely a bit terrifying. I’m scared for my kids.”

Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, is now staying in an undisclosed location with her three children while her husband remains thousands of miles away, despite a Supreme Court order requiring the U.S. government to facilitate his return. Both the Trump administration and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele say that Abrego Garcia will not be coming back to the U.S.

The FBI on Friday arrested a judge whom the agency accused of obstruction after it said she helped a man evade US immigration authorities as they were seeking to arrest him at her courthouse.

The county circuit judge, Hannah Dugan, was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 8.30am local time on Friday on charges of obstruction.

Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, wrote on X: “We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject – an illegal alien – to evade arrest.” Later in the day, he also posted a photograph of the judge in handcuffs on X with the caption: “No one is above the law”.

Dugan appeared briefly in federal court in Milwaukee later on Friday morning before being released from custody. Her next court appearance is 15 May.

Members of ICE planned to arrest Flores-Ruiz during a court hearing in a domestic violence case before Dugan on April 18, according to the affidavit. 

Dugan was on the bench when the ICE agents appeared in the hallway, and a courtroom deputy told the FBI that Dugan became visibly angry and called the situation "absurd" when a clerk spoke with her about ICE's presence. Dugan and another unnamed judge then confronted deportation officers in the hallway, the affidavit alleges, and Dugan asked if they had a judicial warrant.

"No, I have an administrative warrant," one of the agents replied, according to the affidavit. Dugan then "demanded" that the agent speak with the chief judge while members of the arrest team were in the chief judge's chambers, the complaint states.

Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through a jury door, the government alleges. But the ICE team was able to make the arrest after a foot chase.

An arrest record from the Milwaukee Police Department shows that Flores-Ruiz was arrested in March after a dispute involving three other roommates, when Flores-Ruiz allegedly struck one of the roommates in the body and face after a dispute over loud music.

Pam Bondi, the attorney general, gave a media interview in which she said the administration would target any judges it believed were breaking the law.

Bondi said on a Fox News segment that she believed “some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today … if you are harboring a fugitive, we will come after you and we will prosecute you.”

A March 14 Department of Justice memo uncovered by a records request grants officers the authority to enter residences without a warrant to search for undocumented migrants they suspect of being part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, if getting one is deemed “impracticable.” 

The memo discovered by the watchdog group Property of the People, titled “GUIDANCE FOR IMPLEMENTING THE ALIEN ENEMIES ACT” and signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, outlines a four-step process for determining whether someone is part of TdA before issuing a warrant and apprehending them. This is elaborated in Section A, titled “Apprehension and Removal Procedures in Proactive Matters,” explaining that an Alien Enemy must be at least 14 years old; must not be a citizen or lawful resident of the United States; must be a citizen of Venezuela; and must be a member of TdA. Any law enforcement officer is “responsible for determining whether an individual qualifies as an alien enemy,” and after a supervisor signs off on a Warrant of Apprehension and Removal under the Alien Enemies Act, that officer is allowed to apprehend the suspected TdA member “wherever they are found in the United States, including, but not limited to, inside Alien Enemies’ residences and workplaces.”

However, in the following section it states, “Given the dynamic nature of enforcement operations, officers in the field are authorized to apprehend aliens upon a reasonable belief that the alien meets all four requirements to be validated as an Alien Enemy, This authority includes entering an Alien Enemy’s residence to make an AEA apprehension where circumstances render it impracticable to first obtain a signed Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal.” The four steps outlined in the previous section can then be completed after the fact.

ICE warrants are not signed by a judge, which means they do not grant officers the right to enter a place where a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, like their residence. Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, and this memo outlining its execution, attempts to get around these barriers meant to protect rights to privacy and due process that apply to everyone in the country, regardless of their immigration status.

The memo also outlines a point system for determining if someone is part of TdA. “Aliens scoring 8 points and higher are validated as members,” the guide states, and “aliens scoring 5 points or less should not be validated at this time as members” of the gang. However, in a footnote, it is qualified that “a tally of 5 points or less […] is not a finding that an alien is not an Alien Enemy.”

Categories include their criminal records and communications, as well as “symbolism” and “association” – these last two include potentially innocuous factors like group photos and tattoos. 

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students around the country after many filed court challenges against the Trump administration crackdown.

More than 1,200 students across the US suddenly lost their legal status or had visas revoked, leaving them at risk for deportation. Many had only minor infractions on their record or did not know why they were targeted. Some have already left the country while others have gone into hiding or stopped going to class.

Judges across the U.S. had already issued orders temporarily restoring students’ records in dozens of lawsuits challenging the terminations.

A lawyer for the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, Brian Green, provided The Associated Press with a copy of a statement a government lawyer emailed to him on the restoration of legal status for people whose records were recently terminated.

It says: “ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain Active or shall be re-activated if not currently active and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.”

SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database that tracks international students’ compliance with their visa status. NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, a database of criminal justice information maintained by the FBI.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said ICE had not reversed course on any visa revocations but did “restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.”

Several colleges said Friday they noticed legal status already had been restored for some of their students, but uncertainty remained.

“It is still unclear whether ICE will restore status to everyone it has targeted and whether the State Department will help students whose visas were wrongly revoked,” said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Virginia Giuffre, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse and one of the first and loudest voices calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his enablers, has died by suicide, her family said Friday. 

Giuffre, 41, died in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.

Giuffre's tragic death comes after surviving a collision with a bus in March.

She provided critical information to law enforcement that contributed to the conviction of Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other investigations by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

"It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia," her family said in a statement to NBC News. "She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking."

"Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors," the statement said. “In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight."

Giuffre had a troubled childhood and was abused by a family friend, triggering a downward spiral that led to her living on the streets for a time as a teenager.

She was attempting to rebuild her life when she met Maxwell, Epstein’s close confidant. Maxwell groomed her to be sexually abused by Epstein, and that abuse continued from 1999 to 2002, according to Giuffre. Giuffre also alleged that Epstein trafficked her to his powerful friends, including Prince Andrew and French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Giuffre moved to Australia with her husband before Epstein’s 2019 arrest. The couple has three children.

Her brother, Danny Wilson, told NBC News she "pushed so hard to snuff the evil out" of the world.

"Her biggest push was, 'If I don’t do this, nobody’s going to do it,'" he said, regarding her advocacy. "She was in real physical pain — suffered from renal failure. But I think that the mental pain was worse."