MARCH 2025 EVENTS

Vice President Vance was forced to change his weekend plans due to protesters, moving to an undisclosed location in Vermont, rather than the four-star inn near Sugarbush Resort where he orginally intended on staying.

Vance was met with hundreds of pro-Ukraine protesters while visiting the Vermont ski resort on Saturday, displaying signs that labeled Vance a “national disgrace,” accused him of being a “traitor” and encouraged the family to “go ski in Russia.”

While Fox did actually air video of the protesters, they blurred out any signs displaying messages against Vance and supporting Ukraine.

Protesters came out in support of Ukraine in cities and towns across the United States on Saturday, including New York, Los Angeles and Boston, where hundreds gathered to express their support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy.

Videos posted on social networks showed hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York’s Times Square, many carrying the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine. In Los Angeles county, protestors rallied in front of a SpaceX’s facility, and protesters in Boston suppoerted Ukraine at Boston Common.

Thousands of people gathered on Saturday at United States national parks from California to Maine to protest the Trump administration’s firing of 1,000 National Park Service employees, over 3,000 U.S. Forest Service employees nationwide, and the resulting threats to public lands.

The protests were organized by a group called Resistance Rangers. According to their website, the National Park Service Rangers are a "community of 700+ off-duty park rangers rallying to save public lands." Protests were organized at 169 National Park sites across the country. 

Protests were held in Yosemite in Northern California, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Acadia in Maine, Yellowstone in the Northwest, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Great Falls Park in Virginia, as well as lesser-known places like Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeastern Iowa.

The Resistance Rangers site states that upwards of 10,900 people (with numbers still being reported), showed up to protest.

Demonstrators gathered outside Tesla stores across the United States Saturday to protest Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, and his role in Trump’s organization.

More than 50 demonstrations were listed Saturday on the website Tesla Takedown, with more planned later in March across the United States along with England, Spain and Portugal. 

News reports showed recent demonstrations in Tucson, Arizona; St. Louis; New York City; Dayton, Ohio; Charlotte; and Palo Alto, California.

Legislation that aimed to bar transgender women and girls nationwide from participating in school athletic competitions designated for female athletes failed to advance Monday night in a divided Senate as Democrats stood united against an issue that Republicans leveraged in last year’s elections.

A test vote on the bill failed to gain the 60 votes needed to advance in the chamber as senators stuck to party lines in a 51-45 vote tally.

Trump launched a trade war Tuesday against Canada and China, sending financial markets into a tailspin.

Just after midnight, he imposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, with the exception of a 10% tariff on Canadian energy. Trump also doubled his previous tariff on Chinese products to 20%.

Beijing retaliated with tariffs of up to 15% on a wide array of U.S. farm exports. It also expanded the number of U.S. companies subject to export controls and other restrictions by about two dozen.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would place tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods over the course of 21 days.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico will respond to the new taxes with its own retaliatory tariffs, with products to be announced on Sunday.

Congressional Republicans are being advised against holding in-person town halls after several instances of protestors at town halls have been posted on social media.

The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the committee that works to get Republicans elected to the House, said in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that there were more efficient ways to reach constituents than in-person town halls, according to two sources in the room.

Trump threatened college protestors in a social media post on Tuesday.

"All federal funding will STOP for any College, School or University that allows illegal protests," Trump wrote. "Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!"

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to questions about how the White House would define illegal protests or how the government would imprison protesters. The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protects the freedom of speech and assembly.

The U.S. Department of Justice, led by Trump loyalist and anti-abortion extremist Pam Bondi, intends to drop the federal lawsuit, Idaho v. United States, which advocated for emergency abortions in Idaho. The lawsuit, originally filed by the Biden administration, argued that federal health care law still requires doctors to perform abortions in emergency situations, regardless of the state's laws and restrictions.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated Thursday that it will drop a case accusing Elon Musk's company SpaceX of discriminating against asylees and refugees in its hiring process. 

Department of Homeland Security started performing polygraph tests on employees in an attempt to learn who might be leaking information, according to four sources familiar with the matter. Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan have claimed recent leaks revealed the cities where ICE planned to conduct operations and perform arrests.

All employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., received unsigned emails Friday night offering them a “voluntary separation incentive payment.”

Mahmoud Khalil, 30, who graduated in December from Columbia with a master’s degree from its School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by immigration officers in New York on Saturday and sent to a detention center in Louisiana. Mr. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of the United States who holds a green card and is married to an American citizen. Mr. Khalil, who has Palestinian heritage, helped lead campus protests against Israel last year.

Trump said Mr. Khalil’s case was “the first arrest of many to come.”

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said on social media on Monday.

The administration did not publicly lay out the legal authority for the arrest. But according to an article by NPR, two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio relied on a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act which says that any “alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”

Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister. The governing Liberal Party elected him on Sunday in a landslide, winning 85.9% of the vote.

Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January but remains prime minister until his successor is sworn in in the coming days.

Crews in Washington, D.C., have begun removing the city's "Black Lives Matter" street mural, a notable symbol of the 2020 protests against the killing of George Floyd, after a Republican bill targeting the mural threatened city funding.

In June 2020, the city painted the phrase "Black Lives Matter" on the pavement in uppercase, yellow letters covering two blocks on 16th Street, about a quarter mile from the White House.

In 2021, Mayor Muriel Bowser said the mural would become permanent to commemorate the protests. But last week, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced a bill calling for the city to paint over the mural and rename the area Liberty Plaza — or lose federal funds.

According to a DDOT statement, work on the plaza will take six to eight weeks to complete. Mayor Bowser said that the plaza will be part of DC's America 250 mural project, "where we will invite students and artists to create new murals across all eight wards."

On Monday, a federal judge in Manhattan ordered the government not to remove Mahmoud Khalil from the United States while the judge reviewed a petition challenging the legality of his detention. Mr. Khalil’s lawyers also filed a motion on Monday asking the judge to compel the federal government to transfer him back to New York.

Mahmoud Khalil, 30, who graduated in December from Columbia with a master’s degree from its School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by immigration officers in New York on Saturday and sent to a detention center in Louisiana. Mr. Khalil, who has Palestinian heritage, holds a green card and is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.

Mr. Khalil was targeted by immigration because he helped lead campus protests against Israel last year. 

Several thousand New Yorkers marched through the streets of  Lower Manhattan on Monday evening to protest ICE’s detainment of Mahmoud  Khalil  

A House subcommittee hearing abruptly ended on Tuesday when Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self introduced the first openly transgender lawmaker in Congress as “Mr. McBride.” Rep. Sarah McBride responded by referring to Self as “Madam Chair.” The hearing was adjourned after Democrat William Keating asked self if he had “no decency.”

Self said in an interview with Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire that McBride can live however he wants, but he is not obligated to "participate" in his "fantasy." 

Tuesday’s town elections saw the first widespread application of New Hampshire’s new Republican-backed voting law. The new rules are considered some of the strictest in the country.

No  longer can would-be voters sign an affidavit if they don’t bring certain  identification documents with them to the polls. Now, all new voters in  the state must have paperwork in hand proving they are U.S. citizens —  including a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers — as  well as showing that they meet residency requirements. 

Women whose birth certificate did not match their current name required additional documentation in order to cast their vote.

The White House is defending the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, and says the Department of Homeland Security plans to arrest more protesters moving forward.

On Tuesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the decision to arrest Khalil fell in line with Trump's recent executive order. The order declares that the administration can revoke visas and deport international students if they're determined to be "pro-jihadist" or "Hamas sympathizers."

 On Tuesday evening, March 11, 1,300 Department of Education career employees were notified that they were laid off. They were told to turn in government property and clean out their desks before leaving as Trump prepares issue a planned executive order to try and abolish the agency.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.” She went on to say that “I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”

4,133 employees previously worked for the agency, about 3,000 in the department’s Washington headquarters, and around 1,000 in ten regional offices across the U.S. The total number is now 2,183.

The Texas Tribune reports that Robert Morris, the Dallas-area megachurch pastor who resigned last year amid sexual abuse allegations, has been indicted in Oklahoma for child sex crimes dating back to the 1980s.

Morris is a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump. In 2020, Trump held a “Roundtable on Transition to Greatness” there that was attended by then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr and other prominent Republicans.

Morris faces five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said in a Wednesday evening press release.

The indictment comes less than a year after Morris resigned from Gateway Church in Southlake after an adult woman, Cindy Clemishire, said Morris repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she was a child in Oklahoma in the 1980s. Morris was at the time working as a traveling preacher.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Wednesday morning signed into law House Bill 37, which will make the firing squad the primary death penalty in Idaho.

Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic told the Idaho Capitol Sun in February the agency is considering using “a remote-operated weapons system alongside traditional firing squad methods.” But the agency had not finalized its policies and procedures, she said. 

Both chambers of the Idaho Legislature widely approved the bill this year, with only three Republican state lawmakers joining all 15 Democratic lawmakers to oppose it. 

The bill takes effect July 1, 2026. 

USAID employees have been directed to clear out classified safes and personnel documents and shred or burn the records, according to two sources' screenshots of an email sent to USAID staff and obtained by CBS News.

USAID staffers received an email from USAID acting executive secretary Erica Carr directing them to clear out classified safes and personnel documents, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. The shredding instruction regarding sensitive documents was first reported by ProPublica. 

"Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break," the email reads. If you need to use the burn bags, do not overfill, and ensure the burn bag can be closed with staples at the top. The only labeling required on the burn bags are the words 'SECRET' and 'USAID/(B/IO)' in dark sharpie if possible. If you need additional burn bags or sharpie markers, please let me or the SEC InfoSec team know." 

The documents being ordered destroyed could be evidence for multiple court filings against the Trump administration and the government aid agency, one source familiar with the instructions about the handling of USAID records told CBS News.

Nearly 100 activists with Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist Jewish group, were arrested Thursday after staging a sit-in at Trump Tower in New York City. 

According to police, roughly 150 people dressed in civilian clothes entered Trump Tower just before noon. Once inside, they removed their shirts to reveal red t-shirts with pro-Palestinian slogans on it and staged a sit-in. 

"We're seeing the Trump regime weaponize antisemitism to attack freedom of speech," Tal Frieden of Jewish Voice for Peace said.

"If you are American and you believe in the Constitution, you should be standing here today," actor Morgan Spector said.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, broke with his party on Thursday and lined up enough Democrats to advance a Republican-written bill to keep federal funding flowing past a midnight Friday deadline, arguing that Democrats could not allow a government shutdown that many of them have demanded.

During a private luncheon with Democrats, Schumer announced that he planned to vote to allow the G.O.P. bill to move forward, and indicated that he had enough votes to help Republicans break any filibuster by his own party against the measure.

It was a turnabout from just a day earlier, when Mr. Schumer proclaimed that Democrats were “unified” against the legislation, and a move made at a time when many of the party’s members in both chambers and progressive activists have been agitating vocally for senators to block it in defiance of Trump.

 U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Trump administration to “immediately” reinstate thousands of probationary employees at six federal agencies who lost their jobs in recent waves of mass firings.

Alsup ruled that the firings violated federal law and ordered the administration to issue immediate offers of reinstatement.

The fired workers fired employed by the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.

Alsup, an appointee of former President Clinton, said the firings were unlawful because the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its acting director did not have the authority to order the terminations.

He added that it was clear federal agencies had followed OPM’s directive to use a loophole — which he called “a gimmick” — to fire the workers based on poor performance, even though they had received positive feedback from supervisors.

“It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” he said. “It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements.”

In a statement provided to NPR, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the firings and said the administration would fight back against what she called an “absurd and unconstitutional order.”

“The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch — singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President’s agenda,” Leavitt said. “If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves.”

The White House withdrew Trump's nomination of former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon to serve as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shortly before his scheduled Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.

Weldon, a physician who has criticized vaccines, said in a four-page statement sent to Reuters that he had been informed 12 hours before the hearing by the White House that there were not enough votes for confirmation.

Trump on Thursday threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey.

The European import tax, unveiled in response to steel and aluminum tariffs by the U.S. administration, is expected to go into effect April 1, just ahead of separate reciprocal tariffs that Trump plans to place on the EU.

But Trump, in a social media post, vowed a new escalation in his trade war.

“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote. “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

 The Boston City Council passed a resolution Wednesday declaring the city to be “a Sanctuary City for members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, with a specific commitment to protecting transgender and gender-diverse individuals.”

The move comes amid Trump’s efforts to fight “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex”.

The resolution is largely symbolic, but it does urge city agencies not to comply with federal efforts that would take away the resources that safeguard the rights of the LGBTQ community. It says that Boston will not cooperate with federal or state policies that harm transgender or gender-diverse people, and asserts that the city will remain committed to ensuring they can access health care, housing, education, and employment without fear of discrimination. 

Councilor Liz Breadon, the first openly gay woman to be elected to the council, was one of the resolution’s primary sponsors. 

“During the election and since, there’s been an incredible escalation in anti-trans rhetoric and violence that has caused incredible stress and anxiety to our LGBTQIA+ community and especially to our trans brothers and sisters,” Breadon said. 

The resolution passed with a 12-1 vote. Only Councilor Ed Flynn opposed it. 

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to work with DOGE and cut 10,000 workers.

DOGE will assist USPS with addressing “big problems” at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has sometimes struggled in recent years to stay afloat. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration in an effort to help the Postal Service identify and achieve “further efficiencies.”

USPS listed such issues as mismanagement of the agency’s retirement assets and Workers’ Compensation Program, as well as an array of regulatory requirements that the letter described as “restricting normal business practice.”

“This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” DeJoy wrote.

U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia said in a statement, “This capitulation will have catastrophic consequences for all Americans — especially those in rural and hard to reach areas — who rely on the Postal Service every day to deliver mail, medications, ballots, and more.” 

USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers tasked with making deliveries.

The service plans to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program, according to the letter.

The National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement “Common sense solutions are what the Postal Service needs, not privatization efforts that will threaten 640,000 postal employees’ jobs, 7.9 million jobs tied to our work, and the universal service every American relies on daily.”

According to an Associated Press article, U.S. authorities have removed immigrants from detention facilities at the Guantanamo Bay naval base as a federal court in Washington weighs a challenge by civil rights advocates to holding immigrants at the offshore military station.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Southern Command on Thursday said that no “illegal aliens” are being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after 40 immigrants were flown off the base on Tuesday to Louisiana.

Officials declined to specify why the immigrants were transferred to the U.S. or to share their names and nationalities.

Additionally, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity, to provide additional details on the movement, that while the 40 immigrants have been removed, it doesn’t mean that the facility won’t be used in the future — it’s just not decided yet.

Future “high-threat” detainees may be sent there, the officials said.

Trump has said he will send the worst criminal migrants to Guantanamo Bay, but civil rights attorneys say many detainees transferred there don’t have a criminal record and that the administration has exceeded its authority in violation of U.S. immigration law.

Task & Purpose, an American online publication that was founded in 2014 with a mission to inform, engage, entertain, and stand up for active-duty military members, veterans, and their families, has reported that the website for Arlington National Cemetery "unpublished" links to lists of notable graves, walking tours and educational material pertaining to Black, Hispanic and women veterans, as well as some Medal of Honor recipients.

Arlington National Cemetery contains over 400,000 graves of U.S. service members dating back to the Civil War, including two presidents, and more than 400 Medal of Honor recipients.

Task & Purpose has confirmed that in recent weeks, the cemetery’s public website has scrubbed dozens of pages on gravesites and educational materials that include histories of prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members buried in the cemetery, along with educational material on dozens of Medal of Honor recipients and maps of prominent gravesites of Marine Corps veterans and other services.

Cemetery officials confirmed to Task & Purpose that the pages were “unpublished” to meet recent orders by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth targeting race and gender-related language and policies in the military.

Gone from public view are links to lists of dozens of “Notable Graves” at Arlington of women and Black and Hispanic service members who are buried in the cemetery. About a dozen other “Notable Graves” lists remain highlighted on the website, including lists of politicians, athletes and even foreign nationals.

Links to three lists of Black, Hispanic and female service members buried at the cemetery have been removed in recent weeks, Arlington confirmed, to comply with Pentagon edicts on race- and gender-related policies.

Also gone are dozens of academic lesson plans — some built for classroom use, others as self-guided walking tours — on Arlington’s history and those interred there. Among the documents removed or hidden from the cemetery’s “Education” section are maps and notes for self-guided walking tours to the graves of dozens of Medal of Honor recipients and other maps to notable gravesites for war heroes from each military service. Why information on recipients of the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest award for combat valor — would be removed is unclear, but three of the service members whose graves were noted in the lessons were awarded the Medal of Honor decades after their combat actions following formal Pentagon reviews that determined they had been denied the award on racial grounds.

Like the “Notable Graves” lists, some of the lesson plans remain live but ‘walled-off’ on the cemetery’s website, with no way to reach them through links on the site. Task & Purpose located the de-linked pages by copying the original URL addresses from archived pages at Archive.org or by searching specifically for the pages on Google, which still lists them.

On at least one page that can still be accessed on search engines, language referring to civil rights or racial issues in the military appears to have been altered. A page on Black soldiers in World War II read in December that they had “served their country and fought for racial justice” but now only notes that memorials in the cemetery “honor their dedication and service.”

Altered language on a since-hidden page on African American History at Arlngton National Cemetery. In December, the page was home to over a dozen lesson plans, maps and fact-sheets intended for school groups and visitors. All of those documents have been “unpublished,” according to an Army spokesperson, but will be reposted after they are “updated.”

A spokesperson at Arlington National Cemetery — which is operated by the Army under the Army Office of Cemeteries — confirmed that the pages had been delisted or “unpublished” but insisted that the academic modules would be republished after they are “reviewed and updated.” The spokesperson said no schedule for their return could be provided.

“The Army has taken immediate steps to comply with all executive orders related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) personnel, programs, and policies,” an Army spokesperson at Arlington told Task & Purpose. “The Army will continue to review its personnel, policies, and programs to ensure it remains in compliance with law and presidential orders. Social media and web pages were removed, archived, or changed to avoid noncompliance with executive orders.”

As of March 12, the three original “Notable Graves” lists and the dozens of educational pages appear to still be posted on Arlington’s military domain — arlingtoncemetery.mil — as webpages. Some can be accessed on the cemetery’s website by tracing a multi-click trail of embedded links on other still-public pages. 

Task & Purpose compared Arlington website pages available on March 12 to copies preserved on Archive.org in December and early January. Between those dates, several web pages appear to have been walled off from public view on the main Army-run Arlington website, though not fully deleted. 

They are:

Three lists of “Notable Graves” that highlight several dozen gravesites of notable Black, Hispanic and female service members and public figures buried in Arlington. The pages list the location of graves in the cemetery and provide a one-paragraph biography of each person. The pages that host the three lists are still on the website but have been removed from links and navigation menus on the site. They can still be found using Google or other search engines. They were previously linked to on the main page’s side-bar menu that leads visitors to other “Notable Graves” pages, but have been removed.

Also gone are any mention of six educational sections — which an Army spokesperson referred to as “modules” and the website calls “themes” — containing dozens of lesson plans, maps, biographies and other educational information created by Arlington, linking to dozens of documents. The lesson plans covered six topics, ranging from Women’s History to Medal of Honor recipients. The six modules have been removed from both a drop-down menu and from the site’s main Education page.

Under the “History of Arlington National Cemetery” menus, pages on Freedman’s Village (archived version) and Section 27 (archived version) — two fundamental chapters in the cemetery’s post-Civil War history as a home for freed slaves — have been delinked. The pages were still accessible on March 12 among links embedded in the text on the main “History of Arlington” page.

Some pages appear to have had phrases like “civil rights” and “racial justice” erased in favor of cliches referring to “service.” 

NOTE: Women Refusing to Be Erased is pulling data from the archived version of the site and adding this information to the website.

Trump issued an executive order to rescind previous executive orders, including the following:

(a) Executive Order 13994 of January 21, 2021 (Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats).

(b) National Security Memorandum 3 of February 4, 2021 (Revitalizing America’s Foreign Policy and National Security Workforce, Institutions, and Partnerships).

(c) Presidential Memorandum of February 4, 2021 (Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World).

(d) Executive Order 14026 of April 27, 2021 (Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors).

(e) Presidential Memorandum of March 31, 2022 (Finding of a Severe Energy Supply Interruption).

(f) Presidential Determination 2022-13 of May 18, 2022 (Delegating Authority Under the Defense Production Act to Ensure an Adequate Supply of Infant Formula).

(g) Presidential Determination 2022-15 of June 6, 2022 (Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, on Solar Photovoltaic Modules and Module Components).

(h) Presidential Determination 2022-16 of June 6, 2022 (Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, on Insulation).

(i) Presidential Determination 2022-17 of June 6, 2022 (Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, on Electrolyzers, Fuel Cells, and Platinum Group Metals).

(j) Presidential Determination 2022-18 of June 6, 2022 (Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, on Electric Heat Pumps).

(k) Executive Order 14081 of September 12, 2022 (Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy).

(l) Presidential Memorandum of January 17, 2023 (Delegation of Authority Under Section 6501(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022).

(m) National Security Memorandum 18 of February 23, 2023 (United States Conventional Arms Transfer Policy).

(n) Presidential Memorandum of February 27, 2023 (Presidential Waiver of Statutory Requirements Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, on Department of Defense Supply Chains Resilience).

(o) Presidential Memorandum of November 16, 2023 (Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally).

(p) Executive Order 14112 of December 6, 2023 (Reforming Federal Funding and Support for Tribal Nations to Better Embrace Our Trust Responsibilities and Promote the Next Era of Tribal Self-Determination).

(q) Executive Order 14119 of March 6, 2024 (Scaling and Expanding the Use of Registered Apprenticeships in Industries and the Federal Government and Promoting Labor-Management Forums).

(r) Executive Order 14126 of September 6, 2024 (Investing in America and Investing in American Workers).

On Friday, ten Senate Democrats joined with the Republican majority in voting to move forward with a stopgap spending bill drafted by Republicans.

In addition to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), the following voted yes.

•  Richard Durbin (IL)
• Catherine Cortez Masto (NEV)
• John Fetterman (PA)
• Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
• Maggie Hassan (NH)
• Gary Peters (MI)
• Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
• Brian Schatz (HI) 
• Angus King (ME) - an Independent who caucuses with Democrats

An appeals court on Friday lifted a block on executive orders seeking to end government support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The decision from a three-judge panel allows the orders to be enforced as a lawsuit challenging them plays out. The appeals court judges halted a nationwide injunction from U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore.

Judge Pamela Harris was one of three judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia that made the decision.

In an internal VA memo seen by NPR Friday, the Veterans Affairs Department says it's rescinding Directive 1341, which contains detailed guidance on the kinds of care transgender veterans can receive at VA facilities. The VA currently offers gender-affirming healthcare that includes hormone treatment, prosthetic devices, as well as tools to help transgender veterans present as the gender identity of their choice. The policy had also directed healthcare providers to use pronouns veterans preferred, directed facilities to allow veterans to use bathrooms and be assigned rooms in accordance with their self-identified gender.

The internal memo said that the rescission of the directive "does not affect existing clinical guidance" and that the VA "affirms its commitment to provide care to all Veterans." The VA also said it will "conduct a comprehensive review of care with respect to trans-identifying Veterans and will undergo the rulemaking process to revise the medical benefits package as deemed necessary".

In a public letter sent to U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer, Tesla expressed concerns over the recent Trump tariffs, stating, "U.S. exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to U.S. trade actions."

"For example, past trade actions by the United States have resulted in immediate reactions by the targeted countries, including increased tariffs on EVs imported into those countries."

The source of the unsigned letter was not immediately clear, and Tesla did not respond to questions asking if Musk had any involvement with the letter.

In a speech given from the Department of Justice, Trump blasted former officials and lawyers who investigated him, saying they turned the department into one of "injustice."

"They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people," Trump said.

Trump specifically called out former Attorney General Merrick Garland, Marc Elias, a lawyer who worked against Trump's legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Mark Pomerantz, a lawyer who investigated Trump's business practices, calling them "really bad people."

Trump's administration has been demoting attorneys who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and firing officials who investigated Trump.

"We're turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to violent criminals, and we're restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law," Trump said to dozens of people gathered at the DOJ, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

NPR reports that on Friday, the department's Office of Civil Rights said that 45 schools, particularly their graduate programs, violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctoral degrees in business. The program focuses on supporting Black, Latino and Native American students.

The Education Department alleges that The PhD Project limits eligibility based on the race of participants, and therefore, universities involved with the organization are engaging in "race-exclusionary practices."

"Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin. We will not yield on this commitment," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

In response to the allegations, The PhD Project told NPR, "Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders..." The organization added, "This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision."

The schools under investigation include dozens of state schools and two Ivy Leagues, namely Cornell and Yale. A number of private schools are also facing scrutiny, include Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Rice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and New York University. The full list of schools is here.

Six additional institutions of higher education are being probed for awarding alleged "impermissible race-based scholarships." Another one has been accused of "administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race."

The seven schools affected are: Grand Valley State University; Ithaca College; New England College of Optometry; University of Alabama; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of South Florida; and University of Oklahoma, Tulsa School of Medicine. The Department of Education did not respond to NPR's request to clarify which school is being accused of segregation.

Trump released an Executive Order stating that the following government entities will reduce their functions and personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law and that funding can be rejected for these entities. 

• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
• United States Agency for Global Media
• Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution
• Institute of Museum and Library Services
• United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
• Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
• Minority Business Development Agency

As Vance and his wife Usha entered the Kennedy Center Concert Hall for a National Symphony Orchestra concert, audience members booed loudly. Videos of the episode have gone viral on social media.

Describing the scene in the Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey writes the Vances were "greeted less than cordially with a sustained chorus of loud booing."

"This video should challenge us all to commit to making the Kennedy Center a place where everyone is welcomed," writes Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, a Trump appointee who is also the special presidential envoy for special missions, on X. "It troubles me to see that so many in the audience appear to be white and intolerant of diverse political views. Diversity is our strength. We must do better. We must welcome EVERYONE. We will not allow the Kennedy Center to be an intolerant place."

NOTE: We're not sure how Grenell possibly wrote that with a straght face.

Military.com reports that a new Marine Corps policy says troops with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a genetic skin condition that can cause pain and scarring from shaving and mainly affects Black men can be separated if the health issue persists.

According to Military.com., the "interim guidance" issued Thursday gives military health care providers 90 days to reevaluate Marines diagnosed with PFB. If they don't recover based on a four-phase treatment program outlined in the message, have to remain on a shaving waiver for more than a year, and a commander deems it fit, the Corps can administratively separate them "due to incompatibility with service," according to the message.

The previous Marine Corps policy issued in 2022 prohibited the service from administratively separating Marines solely based on the condition.

"In cases where a medical condition prevents a Marine from meeting required standards for an extended period -- exceeding one year -- administrative separation may be considered if it affects long-term service compatibility," Maj. Jacoby Getty, a spokesperson for the Corps' Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said in an emailed statement Friday.

"However, every effort will be made to support Marines through treatment and recovery before such decisions are considered," he added. Getty emphasized that the new guidance is meant to imbue consistency across medical exemptions and that the service remains "fully committed" to supporting Marines with PFB.

If a Marine with PFB is discharged solely based on their diagnosis, they would receive an honorable discharge, he said.

A currently practicing military dermatologist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press, told Military.com on Friday that the Marine Corps' new policy could have discriminatory effects against Black service members, who disproportionately have this condition compared to their peers and often require a shaving exemption to avoid making it worse.

Black service members make up about 15% to 16% of the active-duty force, they said, but 66% of shaving waiver holders are Black. The dermatologist said that shaving waiver holders promote more slowly than their peers and often leave the military earlier due to its cultural aversion to beards.

"You could have a white person, Black person, a Hispanic person, Asian person on a shaving waiver, they're all going to get discriminated against. They're all going to promote slower," they said. "But again, the vast majority of the waiver holders are Black and African Americans, so that's where the racial discriminatory impact comes."

"So anything that is a negative that you can apply broadly to shaving waiver holders -- whether they promote slower, whether we're going to separate them from service, whether they received disciplinary action more often -- anything that's negative you apply broad strokes to a shaving waiver group is going to disproportionately affect Black and African American individuals," the dermatologist said.

The treatments for PFB, which is a genetically determined condition, are limited, they said.

"We can't undo genetics," the dermatologist said. "And so really the only way around is you just shave and you endure the pain and the scarring; you do laser hair removal; or a shaving waiver. That's really the end of it."

In the middle of a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials worry that residents are relying on unproven remedies endorsed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and not bringing their children in until the illness has worsened.

“I’m worried we have kids and parents that are taking all of these other medications and then delaying care,” said Katherine Wells, director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, where some of the sickest children have been hospitalized.

Some seriously ill children had been given alternative remedies like cod liver oil, she added. “If they’re so, so sick and have low oxygen levels, they should have been in the hospital a day or two earlier,” she said.

At first, Kennedy minimized the situation, saying it was “not unusual” and falsely claimed that many people hospitalized were there “mainly for quarantine.”

In the following weeks, Kennedy offered muted recommendation of vaccines for people in West Texas while promoting unproven treatments like cod liver oil, which has vitamin A, and touting “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries with steroids or antibiotics.

The outbreak has spread to nearly 260 people in Texas, where 34 patients have been hospitalized, and one child has died. In neighboring New Mexico, the virus has sickened 35 and hospitalized two. Two cases in Oklahoma have also been linked to the outbreak.

Texas health officials believe the number of cases is far higher. In all, there have been 301 measles cases in the United States this year, the highest number since 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday.

Trump signs executive order to attempt to invoke the Alien Enemies Act due to the "invasion" of the United States by Tren De Aragua, a transnational criminal organization and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization from Venezuela, believed to have over 5,000 members..

The Alien Enemies Act provides that "Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any  foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is  perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the  United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President  makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens,  or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of  fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not  actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained,  secured, and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in  any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to  direct the conduct to be observed on the part of the United States,  toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the  restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon  what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the  removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United  States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any  other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the  public safety." 

Trump calls this order "  Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of The United States by Tren De Aragua"

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he's kicking out the new Ambassador from South Africa — accusing him of hating America and hating Donald Trump.

In a fiery post on X on Friday, Secretary Rubio called Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool a "race baiting politician" and said he was considered "a persona non grata."

This came after Rasool spoke about MAGA in an online seminar hosted by a South African think tank.

"So in terms of that — the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement — the Make America Great Again movement — as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white, and that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon," said Rasool.

Vincent Magwenya, spokesman for the South African president, called the ambassador's expulsion "regrettable."

"We urge all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter," he said. "South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America."

Things have been tense between South Africa and the US, after Trump falsely accused the South African government of confiscating land from white farmers and he invited white Afrikaners to resettle in the US as refugees.

Ranjani Srinivasan, a Fulbright recipient from India who was pursuing a doctoral degree in urban planning, saw her student visa revoked by U.S. immigration authorities, and had U.S. Immigration authorities knocking on her door. She did not open her door to them and packed a few belongings, left her cat behind with a friend and jumped on a flight to Canada at LaGuardia Airport before the agents returned a third time and entered her apartment with a judicial warrant.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement that characterized Ms. Srinivasan as a terrorist sympathizer and accused her of advocating violence and being “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.” The department did not provide any evidence for its allegations.

Ms. Srinivasan’s lawyers have vehemently denied those allegations and have accused the Trump administration of revoking her visa for engaging in “protected political speech,” saying she was denied “any meaningful form of due process” to challenge the visa revocation.

The basis for Homeland Security’s accusations can be traced back to last year, when she was arrested at an entrance to Columbia’s campus the same day that pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Hamilton Hall, a university building. She said she had not been a part of the protest, but was returning to her apartment that evening through a crowd of protesters and barricades when the police pushed her and arrested her.

She was briefly detained but her case was quickly dismissed and did not result in a criminal record. Ms. Srinivasan said that she never faced disciplinary action from the university and was in good academic standing.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg barred the Trump administration Saturday from carrying out deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations. Trump attempted to invoke the act hours earlier to speed removal of Venezuelan gang members from the United States. Trump claims the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is invading the United States.

Boasberg said he needed to issue his order immediately because the government was already flying migrants it claimed were deportable under the act to be incarcerated in El Salvador and Honduras. El Salvador already agreed this week to take up to 300 migrants that the Trump administration designated as gang members.

“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg said during a Saturday evening hearing in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” he added, noting they remain in government custody but ordering that any planes in the air be turned around.

Trump administration officials on Sunday announced the deportations of hundreds of immigrants it alleges are members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the wartime Alien Enemies Act after a judge temporarily blocked the effort on Saturday.

“The president invoked this authority to deport nearly 300 of them who are now in El Salvador, where they will be behind bars where they belong, rather than roaming freely in American communities,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

It’s unclear how the government determined the men were part of the gang or if they were given any hearings.

A judge on Saturday ordered any current flights deporting anyone based on the act to return to the United States. The ruling, however, did not apply to migrants that already landed in a foreign country prior to the court order or those subject to removal from the country not under the act.

The government said in a filing Sunday afternoon that “some gang members subject to removal under the Proclamation had already been removed from United States territory" before the issuance of the court's order.

It is unclear, however, if any of the deportees had already landed in El Salvador ahead of the judge’s ruling or if the Trump administration defied the order. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the timing of deportation flights.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who temporarily blocked President Trump’s bid to rapidly deport Venezuelan gang members via the 18th century Alien Enemies Act is facing an impeachment push.

Shortly after the judge’s temporary order was issued, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) announced plans to file articles of impeachment against the judge, drawing praise from Musk.

Gill, 31 is a freshman congressman who recently championed a petition to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar (despite her being an American citizen), and introduced legislation to put Trump’s face on the $100 bill.

“Necessary,” Musk wrote on X after Gill revealed his plans to introduce articles of impeachment against the judge.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion.

Dr. Alawieh, 34, a Lebanese citizen who traveled to Lebanon last month to visit relatives, was detained on Thursday when she returned to the United States. When Dr. Alawieh landed at Boston Logan International Airport, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.

She had an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. Brown Medicine, a nonprofit medical practice, had sponsored her application for the visa.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday.

US Institute of Peace says Doge workers have broken into its building. USIP is a congressionally funded independent non-profit that works to advance US values in conflict resolution, ending wars and promoting good governance.

After being rebuffed since Friday, when the institute’s lawyer told them of USIP’s “private and independent status”, Chief of security Colin O’Brien said police helped Doge members enter the building and that the private security team for the organization had its contract canceled.

It was not immediately clear what the Doge staffers were doing or looking for at the Institute.

By law, the United States Institute of Peace is governed by a bipartisan Board of Directors. The board is composed of twelve members from outside federal service appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate, and four ex-officio members: the secretary of state (who may designate another Senate-confirmed State Department official), the secretary of defense (who may designate another Senate-confirmed Defense Department official), the president of the National Defense University (who may designate the vice president of the National Defense University), and the president of the Institute (nonvoting). The board is prohibited by law from having more than eight voting members of the same political party.

The Trump administration fired most of the board of the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and sent its new leader into the Washington DC headquarters of the independent organization on Monday, in its latest effort targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.

The remaining three members of the group’s board – defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and national defense university president Peter Garvin – fired president and CEO, George Moose, on Friday, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear what the Doge staffers were doing or looking for.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly pointed to USIP’s “noncompliance” with Trump’s order.

“11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president,” she said. “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage. The Trump administration will enforce the President’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.”

The US Institute of Peace is a nonpartisan, independent organization “dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad”. It was created by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation”, and it does not meet US code definitions of “government corporation”, “government-controlled corporation” or “independent establishment”.

President Donald Trump visited the Kennedy Center on Monday, where he presided over a meeting of its refashioned board of trustees and discussed changes to the institution’s annual Honors.

The Washington Post obtained audio of the meeting, in which the board voted to expand the committee that chooses Kennedy Center honorees. It is unclear how many members will be added to the committee. “We’re expanding the committee so that the search for the Kennedy Center Honors is more inclusive,” said one board member, who could not be identified by voice.

Trump and board members floated names such as Paul Anka, Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Mathis and Andrea Bocelli for the award.

The president also suggested giving awards to Elvis Presley, Luciano Pavarotti and Babe Ruth, though the Kennedy Center Honors are not given posthumously. Pavarotti was honored in 2001. Trump floated expanding the event to include politicians, executives and athletes.

During the board meeting, Trump railed against previous Kennedy Center Honors, saying, “In the past, I mean, these are radical left lunatics that have been chosen. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t watch it. And the host was always terrible.”

Honorees are chosen by a Special Honors Advisory Committee, primarily composed of former honorees and some of the center’s trustees. The general public can make recommendations.

Trump seemed to say he would agree to be the ceremony’s host. “I don’t want to, but I want this thing to be successful,” he told the board. 

The Kennedy Center Honors, which began in 1978, is the center’s premier event. The awards are given to artists who made “an impact on the rich tapestry of American life and culture through the performing arts,” according to the center.

“We’ll go slightly more conservative, if you don’t mind, with some of the people,” Trump said, referring to future honorees. It is unclear what role he would have in influencing who is chosen. “There are people out there that would not be considered that are much bigger stars than the ones that were being honored.”

“Just get some good people, some people who are worthy,” Trump added. “Because some of the people that they put on are just, just terrible.”

In a late-night social media post, Trump claimed without evidence that President Joe Biden used an autopen to sign the pardons and so he considered them "hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT."

Despite his claims, legal experts told ABC News that Trump does not have the power to overturn Biden's actions.

A president's clemency power is vested in Article II of the Constitution and is "broad and virtually unlimited," said Jeffrey Crouch, an assistant professor at American University and expert on presidential pardons.

Its few restrictions include that it can only apply to federal offenses and can't interfere with the impeachment powers of Congress.

The Justice Department as recently as 2005 determined autopens (mechanical devices used to automatically add a signature to a document) were constitutional and could be used for a president to sign a bill into law in a study commissioned by then-President George W. Bush.

A federal judge Monday ordered the U.S. Justice Department to provide a sworn declaration by noon ET Tuesday with details on how planeloads of alleged members of Tren de Aragua were deported despite his order to turn the planes around.

The plaintiffs cited FlightAware data that showed two planes carrying the deportees were still in the air by the time of the judge's written order at 7:26 p.m. A third plane took off at 7:37 p.m., after the written order was released, they said.

The hearing on Monday centered on whether the government complied with Judge James Boasberg's temporary restraining order, and it included a debate about when exactly the order was issued and where U.S. custody over deportees ends. The hearing also reviewed whether an oral order versus a written order holds the same weight when it comes to restraining government action.

Senior Justice Department officials in a filing on Sunday argued that the order came too late to stop the deportations, as planes were already outside U.S. territory.

But lawyers from the civil rights groups argued that even though the judge's written order came at 7:26 p.m., the judge issued an oral order between 6:45 p.m. ET and 6:48 p.m. ET that directed the government to turn around any planes carrying people being removed under the Alien Enemies Act. And that oral order should hold the same weight, they said.

The groups quote the judge as saying "that you shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States. … However that's accomplished, whether turning around a plane or not embarking anyone on the plane or those people covered by this on the plane, I leave to you. But this is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately."

"Plaintiffs remain extremely concerned that, regardless of which time is used, the government may have violated the Court's command," the groups wrote in a filing on Monday. They said that the U.S. government retained custody of people until the planes landed and they were turned over to El Salvador — and that it didn't matter whether the plane was over international waters or not.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon awarded the Medal of Honor to then-Lt. Col. Charles C. Rogers, for his courage and leadership in defeating repeated attacks in southern Vietnam. Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers is the highest-ranking Black servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor. 

But a Department of Defense profile of Rogers was taken down on Friday. It comes as the Trump administration has pushed to remove references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the federal government. The removal prompted outrage over what many saw as a disrespectful erasing of history. As of Monday afternoon, the page had returned to the website.

The Defense Department "has restored the Medal of Honor story about Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers," a spokesperson told NPR in an email, adding, "The story was removed during auto removal process."

The agency did not provide details about the removal process, or why the page's URL was briefly altered to add the letters "dei."

Law enforcement authorities in South Dakota say a woman who had been missing since last summer was murdered by a member of the U.S. Air Force.

Quinterius Chappelle was arrested on a federal charge of second-degree murder in the death of Sahela Sangrait, according to a social media post by the Pennington County Sheriff's Office. 

Authorities say Chappelle, a 24-year-old active-duty airman stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, murdered Sangrait on the military installation near Rapid City. Investigators did not say how or when  Chappelle killed Sangrait or whether they knew each other. Sangrait's remains were found in early March by a hiker in Hill City, nearly 40 miles southwest of the base.

Sangrait, a 21-year-old Native American, had been missing since August. Sangrait was staying with a friend in Eagle Butte, but was planning to gather some belongings in her hometown of Box Elder, which borders the base, before traveling to California.

More than 400 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza, including 174 children, and over 550 more were hospitalized. Mahmoud Abu Wafah, the highest-ranking Hamas security official in Gaza, was reportedly among those killed. 

The Israel Defense Forces struck Hamas targets throughout Gaza in an effort to secure "the release of all our hostages — living and dead," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, adding that Israel would act against Hamas "with increasing military force."

The strikes were the biggest on Gaza since a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect Jan. 19.

The White House said Israel consulted with the Trump administration before the strikes. 

The Trump administration likely violated the Constitution when it effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, a federal judge has ruled.

In a 68-page opinion Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee, wrote that "the Court finds that Defendants' actions taken to shut down USAID on an accelerated basis, including its apparent decision to permanently close USAID headquarters without the approval of a duly appointed USAID Officer, likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways, and that these actions harmed not only Plaintiffs, but also the public interest, because they deprived the public's elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress."

The plaintiffs are more than two dozen unnamed current or recently fired employees and contractors of USAID. The defendants are Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

In his ruling, Chuang wrote that "the evidence presently favors the conclusion that contrary to Defendants' sweeping claim that Musk has acted only as an advisor, Musk made the decisions to shutdown USAID's headquarters and website even though he lacked the authority to make that decision."

President Trump responded to the ruling in an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, saying, "We have a judge from a very liberal state who ruled like that — so bad for our country." He added that the agency needed to be closed because of waste, fraud and abuse.

"I guarantee you we will be appealing it," Trump said, of the decision. "We have rogue judges that are destroying our country."

"Today's decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his DOGE attack on USAID, the United States' government, and the Constitution," Norm Eisen — executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, the group that represented the plaintiffs — said in a statement. "They are performing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, harming not just the people USAID serves but also the majority of Americans who count on the stability of our government. This case is a milestone in pushing back on Musk and DOGE's illegality."

Trump on social media Tuesday called for the impeachment of the judge who ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Trump said, "This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges' I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!" He also called Boasberg a "Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama."

Reacting to the post, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a written statement of his own: "For more than two centuries it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreements concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

Boasberg is a highly respected judge and former prosecutor. He has ties with conservatives and liberals alike, having shared a house with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at Yale Law School.

As of 3/18/25, 127 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration. The cases challenge an enormous range of subjects, from the president's national security powers to the firing of tens of thousands of federal employees.

Washington D.C. U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes has issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration banning transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military.

In a strongly worded opinion, Reyes wrote that the ban violated the constitutional rights of transgender troops.

"Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed — some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them," Reyes wrote.

This is the latest example of a federal court moving to pause or block efforts by Trump to enact his agenda through executive actions. 

The Trump administration has admitted in federal court documents that “many” Venezuelans it accused of being dangerous gang members and deported have no criminal records in the United States, but argued it was only because they had only been in the U.S. briefly.

“The lack of criminal records does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with Tren de Aragua, the lack of specific information about each specific individual actually highlights the risk they pose,” said Robert Cerna, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, in a sworn statement filed Monday night to the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.

Cerna’s statement is part of a lawsuit challenging an executive order in which Trump directed his administration to use the wartime powers to deport Venezuelan citizens over 14 years old if they are Tren de Aragua members.

Cerna is the Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE in Harlingen, Texas. Over the weekend, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the deportations blocked, telling the administration during a hearing to bring back any planes already in the air carrying deportees.

The Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador anyway, raising questions about whether the White House violated the court ruling. The Justice Department has denied the government defied U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s written orders.

Neither Cerna nor the federal government has released any evidence publicly on the deported Venezuelans.
Cerna said that ICE “carefully vetted” the individuals through court records, surveillance, law enforcement encounters, interviews, victim testimonies, criminal evidence members, financial transactions, computer checks, and confessions of membership. He said the agency did not rely solely on social media, photos of gang gestures and tattoos to link people to the Tren de Aragua gang.

U.S. authorities have linked some tattoos to Tren de Aragua, but experts say that Tren de Aragua members don’t have any specific tattoos tied to affiliation.

Venezuelan families have told the Miami Herald that their relatives — Gustavo Adolfo Aguilera Agüero, 27 (left), Henry Javier Vargas Lugo, 32 (center), and Mervin Jose Yamarte Fernandez, 29 (right) — were wrongly identified as gang members. Two of the families were able to identify their loved ones through videos posted by the Salvadoran government on social media.

Families of three men told the Miami Herald that their relatives have no gang affiliation – and two said their relatives had never been charged with a crime in the U.S. or elsewhere. One has been previously accused by the U.S. government of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, but his family denies any connection.

The second body discovered in the Prairie Green Landfill site earlier this month has been identified as Marcedes Myran, an Indigenous woman murdered by a convicted serial killer. 

Two women’s bodies were found in a landfill in central Canada, and Morgan Harris's remains were identified earlier this month as the first body.

Marcedes Myra and Morgan Harris were both slain three years ago by Jeremy Skibicki, who is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted of four murders last year. Skibicki met his victims in homeless shelters.

Testimony at Skibicki's trial said he raped, killed and dismembered Myran and another woman, Morgan Harris, in 2022.

Authorities believed their remains were dumped at the Prairie Green Landfill site, north of Winnipeg, and had been searching the site for months.

The families of Harris and Myran had pushed authorities in Manitoba to search for the bodies.

The body of another of Skibicki's victims, Rebecca Contois, was found in a separate landfill and in a garbage bin, while the remains of a fourth unidentified victim in her 20s are still missing.

Indigenous women represent about one-fifth of all women killed in gender-related homicides in the Canada, despite comprising just 5% of the female population.

In the U.S., Native American women are also disproportionately targeted in murders, sexual assaults and other acts of violence, both on reservations and in nearby towns.

Immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra is being held at the Aurora, Colorado, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility following her arrest by ICE agents.

ICE agents arrested Vizguerra on Monday afternoon in the parking lot of the Target store where she is employed.

Vizguerra has lived in the United States for 30 years and has four children. 

"There are serious concerns about ICE's actions to detain Jeanett Vizguerra," U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., wrote in a social media post. "Targeting a mother who has been an active part of our Colorado community for nearly three decades will not fix our broken immigration system or secure our border."

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., called Vizguerra “a pillar in her community.”

Bennet said he is "deeply concerned" about her arrest by ICE agents without any due process and called on ICE to immediately release her and provide her with legal representation.

The pro-immigration American Friends Services Committee said ICE "acted without a valid deportation order and without notifying Ms. Vizguerra or her lawyers" when they took her into custody.

AFSC officials said ICE appears to be readying her to deport her without a deportation order in place, KDVR reported.

Vizguerra's immigration status is unknown, but supporters say she is a lawful resident of the United States.

ICE officials did not respond to an email request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

NPR reports that after a recent change by the Trump administration, the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated facilities.

The segregation clause is one of several identified in a public memo issued by the General Services Administration last month, affecting all civil federal agencies. The memo explains that it is making changes prompted by President Trump's executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion.

While there are still state and federal laws that outlaw segregation and discrimination that companies need to comply with, legal experts say this change to contracts across the federal government is significant.

The clause in question is in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, known as the FAR - used by agencies to write contracts for anyone providing goods or services to the federal government.

Clause 52.222-21 of the FAR is titled "Prohibition of Segregated Facilities" and reads: "The Contractor agrees that it does not and will not maintain or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any of its establishments, and that it does not and will not permit its employees to perform their services at any location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained."

It defines segregated facilities as work areas, restaurants, drinking fountains, transportation, housing and more - and says you can't segregate based on "race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin."

Several federal agencies, including the departments of Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security, have notified staff who oversee federal contracts that they should start instituting these changes.

A recent notice from the National Institutes of Health shows that the change is already in effect. The notice, regarding a maintenance agreement for scientific freeze dryers, cites the GSA memo and reads, "FAR 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities and FAR 52.222-26 — Equal Opportunity will not be considered when making award decisions or enforce requirements."

The speedy process which has been used to institute these changes, without a typical public notice or comment period of 45 to 90 days, is usually reserved for national emergencies.

The General Services Administration did not answer NPR's question about why the agency did not follow the usual public notice and comment procedure, or a question about why the "segregated facilities" clause was removed.

 Several websites under Pentagon jurisdiction have removed thousands of pages of people of color, LGBTQ people, women and others from marginalized  backgrounds and their contributions to the American military. Multiple  pages about Jackie Robinson were taken down, including a page about Negro League Players talking about serving in the military. But as of Wednesday afternoon, at least one page about Robinson, in a series about athletes who served in the military was reinstated.

“As Secretary Hegseth has said,  DEI is dead at the Defense Department," Pentagon Press Secretary John  Ullyot said Wednesday in a statement to NBC News. "Discriminatory Equity  Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our  military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with  the services’ core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid  compliance across the Department with the directive removing  DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is  removed -- either deliberately or by mistake -- that is out of the  clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and  they correct the content accordingly.” 

The Social Security Administration’s plans to require in-person identity checks for millions of new and existing recipients while closing  47 Social Security Administration offices.

The agency announced Tuesday that, beginning March 31, those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s “my Social Security” online service will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process. Starting March 31, benefit claimants will no longer have the option to verify their identity with the SSA over the phone.

The new requirements will impact anyone who needs to verify their bank information with the agency, as well as families with children who receive Social Security benefits and cannot verify a child’s information on the SSA website. According to Trump’s Administration, these changes are intended to combat fraud and waste within the system, however, this means that vulnerable recipients who may have difficulties using online services and may find traveling to the nearest government office difficult.

 Jasmine Mooney, 35, said she was put “in chains” after immigration  enforcement officers flagged her visa application paperwork. The former  actress was finally allowed to return to Vancouver. 

She has written about her experience.

Per ProPublica, GEO Group is continuing to fight against paying a fair wage to detainees.

GEO Group is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Their facilities include immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. GEO also operates government-owned facilities. pursuant to management contracts. As of September 30, 2024, the company owned or managed 80,000 beds at 99 facilities, making it the largest prison operator in the United States.

Their stock is currently valued at $4 billion. Its stock price doubled after Trump was last elected. 

They currently run a 1,575-bed detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tacoma, Washington. Its gross profit from its Tacoma facility, was about $20 million a year in 2017.

Prior to 2021, they hired detainees to prepare meals, do laundry, and clean the facilities, work which would have required 85 full-time employees. They paid the detainees $1 a day for their work.

Detainees participate in a voluntary work program in order to earn money for things like phone calls to family members. Without a work program, they have no way to earn money while being detained.

In 2017, Washington sued GEO to force them to pay the detainees the state minimum wage, and in October 2021 a federal jury ruled unanimously in the state’s favor.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that GEO had to pay state minimum wage at the Tacoma facility as well as paying over $17 million in back wages, plus $6 million for “unjust enrichment.” The penalties amounted to less than 1 percent of GEO’s total revenues in 2024.

After the rulings, GEO hired contract cleaners at the Tacoma facility.

GEO is once again in court trying to reverse the decisions, petitioning on Feb. 6 for a rehearing by the full 9th Circuit.

GEO faces similar lawsuits in California and Colorado. 

If they are forced to pay state minimum wages across the country, the company would need to decide whether to pay detainees more or hire outside employees, eating into its profits, stock price and dividends.

GEO’s contract with ICE states that the prison company must follow “all applicable federal, state, and local laws and standards,” including “labor laws and codes.” It also holds that GEO must pay detainees at least $1 a day for the Voluntary Work Program, but it does not state a maximum rate.

Even with outside employees working at the facility, there are reports of the overall conditions worsening as more detainees are housed at the facility. 

Detainees have testified about the cleanliness of the facility as well as the food. GEO budgeted less than $1 per meal for the detainees.

“So the grade of food is abysmal,” Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the Washington state attorney general’s office said of a detainee’s testimony. “He routinely picked out grasshoppers/insects from the food.”

Politico reports that on Monday night, masked immigration agents arrested Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher who was studying and teaching on a student visa, and told him his visa had been revoked.

According to Suri’s petition for release, he was arrested under the same provision of immigration law that the government has invoked to try to deport Mahmoud Khalil. 

Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, his petition says. 

Suri’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, argued in his petition that Suri is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife (who is a U.S. citizen) and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. policy toward Israel.

The petition says the couple has “long been doxxed and smeared” on anonymously run, far-right websites due to their support for Palestinian rights and their Hamas family connections. A 2018 article about the couple published in the Hindustan Times, said Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, served as a “senior political adviser to the Hamas leadership.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a determination on Saturday that Suri’s visa should be canceled for foreign policy reasons.

“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” McLaughlin wrote on X. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”

Articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as part of the DEI content removal.

A database obtained by CNN shows that more than 24,000 articles could be purged, with many gone already. The scrub includes articles from across more than 1,000 websites hosted by the department.

 The Guardian reports that a French scientist was denied entry to the US on March 9th after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

“I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added.

Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled.

NOTE: We recently added a pocket guide about Electronics Border Search that you can access using the link below.

Trump’s US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, who indirectly owns Tesla (TSLA) stocks through his firm told Americans to buy stock in Elon Musk’s electric car company.

“I think, if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla,” Howard Lutnick told Fox News on Wednesday. “It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again.”

He added: “I mean, who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk? You gotta be kidding me.”

Lutnick is the former Chairman and CEO for the investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald. Starting in 2022, Cantor Fitzgerald began to buy Tesla stocks and significantly increased its investment in the automaker in 2024.

Tesla is recalling 46,096 of its Cybertruck vehicles over a safety issue relating to a cosmetic panel that could fall off.

The recall includes all 2024 and 2025 Cybertrucks manufactured from November 13, 2023, to February 27, 2025.

A Republican Minnesota state senator who was caught in a sting operation resigned under fire Thursday after he was charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution, stepping down before the Senate could vote on whether to expel him.

Justin Eichorn, of Grand Rapids, submitted his resignation in a brief email to Gov. Tim Walz, saying: “I must focus on personal matters at this time. It has been an honor to serve in the Minnesota Senate.”

Eichorn, 40, has been jailed since his arrest in Bloomington on Monday in an undercover operation targeting commercial sex involving juveniles.

Eichorn, who is married with four children, had made headlines Monday, just hours before his arrest, for a bill he co-sponsored with three fellow Republican senators. The legislation would classify “Trump derangement syndrome” as a mental illness in the state statute.

“‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ means the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior.”

Trump wrote the following posts on Truth Social Thursday night.

“Unlawful Nationwide Injunctions by Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country! These people are Lunatics, who do not care, even a little bit, about the repercussions from their very dangerous and incorrect Decisions and Rulings. Lawyers endlessly search the United States for these Judges, and file lawsuits as quickly as they find them. It is then the obligation of Law abiding Agencies of Government to have these “Orders” overturned. The danger is unparalleled! These Judges want to assume the Powers of the Presidency, without having to attain 80 Million Votes. They want all of the advantages with none of the risks. Again, a President has to be allowed to act quickly and decisively about such matters as returning murderers, drug lords, rapists, and other such type criminals back to their Homeland, or to other locations that will allow our Country to be SAFE. It is our goal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and such a high aspiration can never be done if Radical and Highly Partisan Judges are allowed to stand in the way of JUSTICE. STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!”

He later posted.

“Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency. He is a local, unknown Judge, a Grandstander, looking for publicity, and it cannot be for any other reason, because his “Rulings” are so ridiculous, and inept. SAVE AMERICA!”

Musk’s political action committee America PAC is attempting to bribe Wisconsin voters to sign a petition in opposition to “activist judges,” a move that comes two weeks before the state’s Supreme Court election.

America PAC announced the petition in a post on X on Thursday night. It promises $100 for each Wisconsin voter who signs the petition and another $100 for each signer they refer.

The petition says that “Judges should interpret laws as written, not rewrite them to fit their personal or political agendas. By signing below, I’m rejecting the actions of activist judges who impose their own views and demanding a judiciary that respects its role — interpreting, not legislating.”

The campaign for Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate, said Musk was trying to buy votes ahead of the election. The offer was made two days after early voting started in the race between Crawford and Brad Schimel, the preferred candidate of Musk and Republicans.

The winner of the election will determine whether the court remains under liberal control or flips to a conservative majority.

Britain, Germany, Denmark and Finland have all updated their travel recommendations to the United States, urging citizens to be informed and cautious due to either possible issues with border officials, or concerns for transgender travelers.

All four countries stopped short of recommending against travel, instead urging nationals to stay informed.

U.K.'s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office updated their recommendations to state that, "You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules." 

The German Foreign Ministry warned that having a valid visa or ESTA does not guarantee entry and emphasized that border officials have full discretion to deny access. This is following the detention of several German nationals by the United States border authorities.

Denmark’s updated guidance notes that U.S. visa applications now require travelers to select either "male" or "female" as their gender, without a third option for those whose passports list an "X" designation or who have changed their gender.

The ministry advised such individuals to contact the American embassy prior to traveling.

Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs warned that valid visas or ESTAs do not guarantee entry into the country and that new U.S. rules require travelers to list their birth-assigned gender as either "male" or "female."

A veteran FBI agent who blew the whistle on alleged political bias with regards to former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani during Donald Trump’s first presidency was arrested at New York’s JFK airport before boarding an international flight.

Johnathan Buma, a 15-year counterintelligence officer, faces charges of illegally disclosing confidential information through a prospective book about his career.

Federal prosecutors allege Buma printed approximately 130 files of confidential materials clearly marked with security warnings in October 2023 before going on leave.

He allegedly shared draft portions of a book manuscript via email that contained information about “the FBI’s efforts and investigations into a foreign country’s weapons of mass destruction (‘WMD’) program”, the filing reads.

During a Brooklyn federal court hearing on Tuesday, Buma was released on $100,000 bail, though the case will be handled in California federal court. He has not entered a plea.

The investigation into the FBI agent began during the Biden administration, when his home was raided in late 2023. Following the October 2023 raid on Buma’s home, his attorney Scott Horton denied any wrongdoing and claimed no confidential information was found.

Trump has rescinded an executive order targeting the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP law firm after it promised to abandon diversity policies and provide $40m (£31m) worth of free legal work to support White House initiatives.

Trump's 14 March executive order had terminated federal contracts with the firm and suspended security clearances for its lawyers, saying it was undermining the US judicial system. It had cited "a Paul Weiss partner" who had filed a pro bono lawsuit against the perpetrators of the 6 January 2021 riots at the Capitol.

It also took direct aim at Mark Pomerantz - a former partner who had worked on the case involving hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Trump was convicted by a jury last year of having committed a felony in the case.

The White House rescinded the order on Thursday after a meeting between Trump and Brad Karp, the chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton.

Trump announced Friday that the Education Department would no longer manage student loans or supervise “special needs” programs.

Trump said that student loans will move under the Small Business Administration, while special education services, along with nutrition programs, will move under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Trump told reporters that the moves would take place “immediately,” adding that he believed the restructuring would “work out very well.”

“They’ll be serviced much better than it has in the past. It’s been a mess,” he said of the loans. He added, “You’re going to have great education, much better than it is now, at half the cost.”

On Thursday, Trump released an executive order aimed at closing the Education Department. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress, which created it. But since Trump took office, his administration has attempted to slash the department’s work force by more than half and eliminate $600 million in grants.

There are 378 measles cases in the U.S. so far this year, according to a Friday update from the CDC, surpassing the 285 measles cases recorded in the entirety of 2024.

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported its measles outbreak had grown to 309 cases as of Friday, with 40 of the patients having been hospitalized and one person, a child, confirmed dead from the illness.

The Texas health department said just two of the cases are in vaccinated people, with the remainder of the 307 sick patients being unvaccinated or having an unknown vaccination status.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last month the outbreak was “not unusual” before recently recognizing its “serious impact.”

The Hill reported that during an appearance on the “All-In” podcast that was released on Thursday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the government doesn’t “have to take one penny from someone who deserves Social Security, not one penny for someone who deserves Medicaid, Medicare.”

“What we have to do is stop sending money to someone who’s not hurt, who’s on disability for 50 years,” he claimed. “It’s ridiculous, and they have another job.”

At one point in the nearly two-hour conversation, Lutnick also said that if Social Security “didn’t send out their checks this month,” his “mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain.”

“She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining,” the billionaire businessman said.

“Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing,” he said. “Because my mother-in-law’s not calling, come on, your mother, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, they trust the government.”

“So, the people who are getting that free money, stealing the money, inappropriately, getting the money, have an inside person who’s routing the money,” he said. “They are going to yell and scream.”

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is a unique building that straddles the border between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont. 

It was founded in 1901 and provides access to reading material, library services, and programming in both English and French, as well as the visual and performing arts.  

The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side. Previously, Canadian visitors were easily able to enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side, just being encouraged to bring documentation.

Now, however, the US has blocked Canadian access to the library straddling the Canada-US border, requiring Canadians to go through a formal border crossing before entering the library.

In a statement to Reuters, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the US was responding to drug trafficking.

“Drug traffickers and smugglers were exploiting the fact that Canadians could use the US entrance without going through customs. We are ending such exploitation by criminals and protecting Americans,” the statement said.

The department provided no evidence of drug trafficking or smuggling.

Because of this, the library is having to build a separate Canadian entrance to the library. They are “calling on the public and media to stand with us against the U.S. government’s unilateral decision to shut down the primary Canadian access point to this world-renowned, one-of-a-kind heritage landmark.”

Their website fundraiser states that, “For over a century, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House has stood as a powerful symbol of unity and cross-border friendship—one of the only buildings in the world that quite literally connects two nations.” And goes on to say “We refuse to let a border divide what history has built together. Join us to raise your voice and take action to protect this irreplaceable piece of our collective heritage.”

An estimated 34,000 people gathered Friday evening at Civic Center Park in Denver to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak on their "Fighting Oligarchy Tour.".

Hours later, they spoke before a crowd of about 11,000 at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. 

Columbia University has agreed to a list of demands by the Trump administration in order to restore $400 million in federal funding stripped from the university earlier this month.

The university’s federal grants were cancelled on March 7, due to "inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students." 

Last week, the administration sent a letter to the university laying out nine demands that Columbia needed to accept to potentially restore the funds.

In a document the university provided to the federal government and published online Friday, the university has agreed to ban students from wearing masks at protests, hire 36 new campus security officers who, will have the ability to arrest students, and appoint a new senior vice provost to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies.

Columbia also committed to “greater institutional neutrality” and said it is “working with a faculty committee to establish an institution-wide policy implementing this stance.” The university added that it will review its admissions procedures to “ensure unbiased admission processes,” as the Trump administration requested.

Columbia's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, said Friday that the school responded to the Trump administration to "ensure uninterrupted academic activities."

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the final stop of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in Tucson on Saturday to an estimated crowd of 23,000.

Top Trump national security officials, including his defense secretary, texted plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg.

The story broke when Jeffrey Goldberg posted an article titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans”.

In it he wrote:

“The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.

I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.

This is going to require some explaining.”

On Tuesday, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was headed to way to meet friends to break the Ramadan when plainclothes officers in hooded sweatshirts, some masked, grabbed her. 

Security video captured the horrifying incident as they quickly grabbed her and dragged her away screaming.

The person taking one of the videos can be heard shouting to them, "You want to take those masks off? Is this a kidnapping? Can I see some faces here? How do I know this is the police?"

Ozturk, a 30-year-old from Turkey, is a Fulbright scholar working on a PhD in child study and human development on an F-1 student visa, her lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai said in an email. “We should all be horrified at the way DHS spirited away Rumeysa in broad daylight,” she wrote, adding that Ozturk has not been accused of any crime.

A federal district judge, considering a petition from her lawyer, ordered officers Tuesday not to move the student out of Massachusetts without advance notice. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator page showed Ozturk’s location as Louisiana late Wednesday. According to a court filing, ICE had already transferred Ozturk out of the state when the federal judge ordered she be kept in Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported.

“DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” DHS said in an emailed statement, without sharing evidence for the claim or responding to questions about the video. It added that “supporting terrorists” is grounds for visa termination.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is now cooperating with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help officers verify the names and residential addresses of undocumented immigrants ICE is trying to deport from the United States.

Three government officials recently spoke with New York Times reporters revealing that the tax agency will be helping facilitate Trump’s mass deportations.

This shift in policy is extremely concerning given that thousands of undocumented immigrants provide information about where they are living when filing tax returns with the IRS using individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) instead of Social Security numbers.

Initially, the IRS had refused Trump’s requests to hand over the residential addresses of undocumented immigrants in removal proceedings because federal law prohibits improper disclosure.

Since then, the Trump administration has replaced the top lawyer at the IRS and is requiring the IRS to confirm the addresses of undocumented immigrants subject to deportation, rather than provide a complete unauthorized disclosure.

When asked to confirm whether such an agreement existed, neither the IRS nor ICE spokespersons gave a response.

During a speech at a White House event on Wednesday to commemorate Women’s History Month, Trump said there will be “tremendous goodies in the bag for women” including what he called “the fertilization and all the other things we’re talking about.”

“Fertilization,” he said as the crowd laughed, “I’m still very proud of it, I don’t care. I’ll be known as the fertilization president and that’s OK.”

“That’s not bad,” Trump went on, adding that he had been called “much worse” than the nickname he seemed to have just made up on the spot. “Actually, I like it, right?”

He went on to brag about women’s support for him in the last election, attacked transgender people and hailed his executive order to abolish the Education Department.

Elon Musk announced on X that he would visit Wisconsin Sunday to give a talk where he would personally give $1 million each to two people ahead of the state’s pivotal Supreme Court election - despite a state law that explicitly bans giving people anything of value in exchange for voting.

Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to block the event, calling it an “illegal event” and a “blatant attempt” to violate Wisconsin’s ban on election bribery.

After being called out as a possible violation of Wisconsin’s bribery statute, Musk deleted the initial post and reworded a new one.

NPR reports that the Trump administration is terminating nearly all of the remaining 900 employees of USAID, with staff members being ordered to leave "the front office" by 1 p.m. on Friday, officials said. 

In an email to USAID staff, Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE official who took over running operations at USAID from Pete Marocco on March 20, said the reductions in force would go into effect on either July 1 or Sept. 2.

The Trump administration has been attempting to dismantle of the 64-year-old USAID, having terminated 5,200 contracts, and attempting to shift the remaining portion of USAID's work to the State Department.

"As you can imagine, there will be lots of work to responsibly migrate operations and responsibility to the State Department," Lewin wrote in the email to staff.

Lewin said that until their official end-of-work date, staff members would not be put on administrative leave but would be allowed to select one of two options on a form that would be provided to them on Saturday, March 29.

"Active Duty: A substantial portion of the Agency will be required to remain on duty to support the successful drawdown of operations and the transfer of programs to the State Department. If you are interested in remaining on active duty in this capacity, we would be grateful for your continued service.”

"Administrative Leave: If you prefer to step away and focus on next steps, voluntary administrative leave will be available. Unless otherwise instructed, all staff with RIF notices who are not already on administrative leave may opt to cease work activities and request leave."

The email also stated that overseas staff "will be offered safe and fully compensated return travel."

According to the email, that there would be a separate process established "for hiring personnel into available roles at the State Department" and that additional information would become available "likely in April or May."

"In the next three months, we will work closely with the State Department to build their capacities to assume the responsible administration of USAID's remaining life-saving and strategic aid programming," Lewin wrote in the email.

The University of Michigan announced that it is ending its flagship diversity, equity and inclusion program and closing its DEI office and their office for health equity and inclusion, becoming the latest university to capitulate to Trump’s anti-DEI demands.

The university launched the program in 2016, and it quickly became a model for other DEI initiatives across the country. 

While announcing the DEI strategic plan’s end, university leaders pointed to the success the program had.

“First-generation undergraduate students, for example, have increased 46% and undergraduate Pell recipients have increased by more than 32%” the statement said. “The work to remove barriers to student success is inherently challenging, and our leadership has played a vital role in shaping inclusive excellence throughout higher education.”

The school also decided last year to no longer require diversity statements for faculty hiring, tenure or promotions.

The university said that it will now focus on student-facing programs, including expanding financial aid, maintaining certain multicultural student spaces and supporting cultural and ethnic events on campus.

CNN has reported, that according to their sources, the plans for cutbacks at the Department of Veterans Affairs include call center employees, medical and health care support staff, administrative roles including HR personnel, and regional and central office staff.

Under the proposal, sources said the call centers, which America’s military veterans rely on to schedule appointments and arrange medical care, would move to automation.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins acknowledged in an interview with Fox News earlier this month that laying off 80,000 VA employees (nearly 20% of the VA’s workforce) was “a goal, our target.”

About 2,400 employees at the department have already been fired.

VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz said they are aiming to fix “major problems” at the agency, and he stressed that no final decisions have been made.

“As part of this process, we’ve asked career subject-matter expert employees and senior executives for recommendations on how to improve care and benefits for Veterans without cutting care and benefits for Veterans,” he said in a statement. “The end result of our reforms will be maintaining and expanding VA’s mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors, while phasing out non-mission essential roles like interior designers and DEI officers.”

Following publication of the story, Kasperowicz said the layoff plan as described by sources amounted to “disinformation” and faulted CNN for “creating unwarranted fears” by reporting on it.

“This story is based on deliberately leaked false information that does not reflect VA’s reform plan, which is still being developed,” Kasperowicz said in a statement. “The fact is almost everything in this story is false.”

Federal judges in two separate cases have temporarily blocked a White House effort to punish law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, with one judge calling the effort "disturbing" and the second calling it a "constitutional harm."

The lawsuits came after Trump signed executive orders this week, which attempted to restrict both firms' access to federal buildings, yank any active security clearances held by its personnel, and direct government employees not to meet with the firm or its members.

In the case of Jenner & Block, Judge John Bates with the federal district court in Washington, D.C., issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration, citing violations of the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment and an unconstitutional interference with the rights of its clients to select lawyers of their choosing.

In the case of WilmerHale, Judge Richard Leon temporarily blocked a separate executive order against WilmerHale, writing that "There is no doubt this retaliatory action chills speech and legal advocacy, or that it qualifies as a constitutional harm." 

“The injuries to plaintiff here would be severe and would spill over to its clients and the justice system at large," he said.

 As part of the "Tesla Takedown" campaign, hundreds of nonviolent demonstrations are planned to take place on Saturday. Organizers are calling it a "global day of action" with a goal of 500 protests worldwide.