Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 56 | Blog#42
News worth repeating
Postal Service chief hands DOGE a cost-cutting wishlist
Why it matters: DeJoy said he plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the budget.
DeJoy, who announced in February his intent to step down from the office at an undisclosed date, signed an agreement with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency last week.
The big picture: DeJoy said in the letter that legislation has stopped USPS from making progress under his Delivering for America plan.
"The fact is that DOGE is the only other game in town that seems oriented toward helping us to achieve our efficiency and cost goals that are reflected in the DFA Plan," he wrote.
Between the lines: President Trump has said that he wants some kind of Commerce Department "merger" to ensure the agency "doesn't lose massive amounts of money."
Continue reading at Axios
Schumer’s damage-control efforts fall flat with liberal base
The Senate minority leader and his aides have been talking privately with liberal groups.
Chuck Schumer is in damage-control mode. It isn’t going great.
The Senate minority leader and his aides in recent days have been talking privately with liberal groups in an apparent effort to ease tensions after sparking a civil war in the Democratic Party over a stopgap funding bill, according to five people familiar with the conversations. They were granted anonymity to describe them in a frank manner, and some of the discussions were confirmed by Schumer himself on Monday to POLITICO.
The outreach by Schumer and his team included officials at Indivisible. The pro-Democratic organization called for him to step down from his leadership position on Saturday over what it saw as his unwillingness to resist President Donald Trump. Schumer enraged Democrats across the party on Friday by voting for a GOP bill to prevent a government shutdown.
Schumer spoke with Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, the people said, and he and his staff have been in communication with the group’s local leaders in New York, as well.
Continue reading at Politico
US Institute of Peace says DOGE has broken into its building
The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts Monday.
The organization’s CEO, George Moose, said, “DOGE has broken into our building.” Police cars were outside the Washington building Monday evening.
The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts Monday and after having been turned away on Friday, a senior U.S. Institute of Peace official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit’s building, which is across the street from the State Department in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
Continue reading at Politico
Leaked memo: DOGE plots to cut Social Security phone support
Context: The memo was sent one day after the agency denied, in a press release, a report it was scrapping its toll-free phone line.
The agency, at the time, said the change would only preclude people from changing their bank account information by phone.
But the new memo — issued one day later — proposes changes that will further limit what people can do by phone. Under the proposal, phone service would still be available to people who call the agency and don't need to verify their identity, like someone making a general inquiry.
The draft of the memo viewed by Axios says the proposed limitations will be "significant" for those living in rural areas in particular.
Zoom in: The memo's focus is on identity verification. Currently, if you are unable to verify your identity using their online system, you can complete the process by phone.
Continue reading at Axios
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Yesterday’s post
Today’s news
Fed likely to pause rate cuts with clouds gathering over the economy
The Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates this week despite growing concern about the state of the U.S. economy and the impact of President Trump’s trade agenda.
Markets are expecting the Fed to maintain its pause on cuts, a move that would deprive them of stimulus following two weeks of sizable losses and that could incur the wrath of Trump.
Interest rate futures contracts indicate a 99-percent probability that the Fed will hold interbank lending rates steady at a range of 4.25 to 4.5 percent, as measured by the CME FedWatch prediction algorithm.
“We expect the Fed to hold rates steady for the second consecutive meeting and, given heightened uncertainty, provide limited guidance about the policy path ahead,” analysts for Deutsche Bank wrote in a Friday note to investors.
Continue reading at The Hill
Tariffs could bring the end of cheap clothes
The real price of clothes has been on a steady downward trend for 25 years. Across-the-board tariffs could be the one force powerful enough to reverse it.
Why it matters: "Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream," per Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The big picture: Should the era of cheap and fast fashion start coming to an end, MAGA won't mourn its passing.
Interestingly, neither will much of the left, which has spent decades bemoaning the social and environmental toll of cheap fashion.
Zoom out: "The infrastructure for domestic manufacturing at every level of the supply chain, from fiber through to fabric through to garments, has been methodically dismantled over the last 30 years to maintain low prices for North American customers," garment industry veteran Karuna Scheinfeld says.
"We do not have the infrastructure anymore to vertically manufacture in North America, and we're not going to rebuild that infrastructure in the next four years."
Zoom in: While there is some apparel employment in the U.S., it tends to be found in relatively small-scale operations like Mel Gambert shirtmakers in New Jersey, or Waterbury Button Company in Connecticut.
Continue reading at Axios
Where wine tariffs would hit hardest
U.S. wine importers spent $6.8 billion to bring wine into the country in 2024, 80% of which went to producers in the European Union, per the American Association of Wine Economists.
Why it matters: If tariffs were to bring that number to near zero, there would be devastating consequences down the chain, not only for the importers, but also for distributors, retailers, and anywhere that sells meaningful quantities of imported wine.
What they're saying: "It's a financial death sentence," according to wine importer Lyle Fass, who explains that millions of dollars' worth of wine is already paid for, and on ships headed for the U.S., and that if those imports are suddenly hit with 200% tariffs on arrival, most importers simply won't have the money to pay what they owe.
"This is obliteration," Fass says of that scenario.
Zoom out: If President Trump were to follow through on his threat of imposing 200% tariffs on E.U. wine imports, those tariffs would generate almost no revenue, since no one can raise their prices that much.
See the map and continue reading at Axios
Charted: Global economic effect of tariffs
The trade war is already expected to increase inflation and dampen growth, and it could get even worse if tariffs rise further.
The big picture: Additional trade levies could compound the risks to the world's biggest economies, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned yesterday.
By the numbers: The OECD modeled a scenario where the U.S. raises tariffs another 10% on all noncommodity imports, and all other countries respond with a similar countertariff on U.S. exports.
Continue reading and see the chart on Axios
Democrats set themselves up for year of primaries in 2026
Progressives are vowing to run primary challenges against Democrats who do not do enough to stand up to President Trump and the GOP, an effort that is intensifying after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) decision to provide votes to advance a GOP funding bill last week.
The progressives are increasingly frustrated with the current leadership of the party and with the messaging coming from Democrats in general. And the spending bill has spurred furious talk that a new crop of leaders should emerge.
“I’ve always believed that competition and primaries are healthy,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told The Hill. “No one is entitled to their seat. Voters want change and are fed up with the old guard in American politics.
“I expect many new generation leaders to run for the House and Senate in 2026 and 2028,” Khanna said. “Democracy depends on renewal.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Schumer in toughest fight of Senate leadership career
Senate Democratic colleagues say that Schumer, who is 74 years old, isn’t going anywhere as party leader, but they’re questioning his decisionmaking in a way they haven’t during his previous eight years as leader.
Multiple senators complained about the lack of a clear strategy from their leadership heading into last week’s standoff with Senate and House Republicans over the House-passed funding bill, according to sources familiar with the sometimes heated discussions within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
The legislation cut $15 billion from nondefense programs and didn’t include guardrails to slow Elon Musk’s assault on the federal bureaucracy.
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrats have a ‘lot of soul searching’ before next funding fight
Congress is already looking to the next spending fight after a bitter culmination to the fiscal 2025 funding battle last week that took the threat of a shutdown off the table through September.
But that doesn’t mean Democrats won’t be looking in the rearview mirror after a bruising fight with Republicans.
Indeed, frustrated Democrats in both chambers say they’re hoping to use the divisive experience — which severed Democrats while securing a huge victory for President Trump and congressional Republicans — to guide future tactics in their effort to block the GOP agenda from becoming law. How they do it, though, remains a work in progress.
“The obvious question is, how do you avoid this same situation happening again? I don’t have the answer to that question,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a senior appropriator, told The Hill on Friday.
Continue reading at The Hill
Centrist Democrats are having their moment
A string of special elections and some polling show the party might be getting pulled to the middle.
Democrats are overperforming at the state level, with centrist candidates flipping one seat and coming close in another in special elections in deep red parts of Iowa. Rahm Emanuel, who once orchestrated a takeover of the House by recruiting Blue Dog Democrats, is eying a 2028 bid for president. And leading Democrats like Gavin Newsom and Chuck Schumer are rebuffing the left — the California governor siding against trans players in women’s sports and the Senate minority leader veering away from progressive demands to shut down the government.
“Moderates are having their moment,” said Jonathan Kott, the onetime senior adviser to the former centrist Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. “I think people are realizing that there were many reasons we lost in 2024, but an acquiescence to all of the liberal groups and fighting and dying on hills about 1 and 2 and 3 percent of the voting population seemed really dumb.”
A fresh batch of public polling over the weekend showed the Democratic Party is facing its worst image crisis in some time. A NBC News poll showed more than half of independents have an unfavorable view of the party — just 11 percent of independents have positive views of Democrats — which could explain why Democrats are pivoting to reach these voters.
Continue reading at Politico
Minnesota AG strikes reduced-cost care deal with Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic agreed to provide free or discounted care to low-income patients in Minnesota as part of a settlement with the state attorney general following an investigation into methods the health system used to collect medical debt from patients.
Why it matters: The settlement, announced Friday, comes amid increasing scrutiny of nonprofit hospitals, which are required to provide some level of payment assistance or "charity care" to low-income patients but have wide latitude to set their own financial aid policies.
It's unclear how many people in the United States are eligible for free or reduced hospital care, according to KFF.
Catch up quick: The settlement ends an investigation launched into Mayo Clinic by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in 2022 after the Rochester Post-Bulletin reported that the health system allegedly sued patients who may have otherwise qualified for financial assistance to collect payments.
Mayo Clinic denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
What they're saying: "In exchange for their tax exemption, nonprofit hospitals are supposed to give back to their communities by providing free or reduced-cost health care to folks with low incomes," Ellison said in a news release.
Continue reading at Axios
UnitedHealth sees coming fight over Medicare Advantage
UnitedHealth Group is bracing for scrutiny from the Trump administration over the way it and other Medicare Advantage insurers bill the government, along with other cost-related topics, an executive at the health company told Axios.
Why it matters: Mehmet Oz's characterization of the Medicare Advantage system as "upside down" during his Senate confirmation hearing to become Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator on Friday may have surprised those who assumed he'd enter office as a champion for the program.
Driving the news: Oz pointed to the way the U.S. pays more for Medicare Advantage than traditional Medicare and specifically discussed the practice of "upcoding," in which insurers categorize patients as sicker in order to get higher payments.
"I pledge if confirmed, I will go after it," he said.
Oz also brought up prior authorization in MA, saying it could be streamlined and is a "pox on the system," Axios Pro reported.
He floated limiting the number of procedures subject to prior authorization by insurers at 1,000, and said reviews should happen more rapidly, including through the use of AI tools.
State of play: A growing chorus of MA critics, including a federal watchdog, has been calling for more scrutiny of the program.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump’s mass deportation plans hit riskier phase with legal immigrants, court fights
The new strategy, especially involving immigrants with green cards or American spouses, poses political test.
President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has reached a turning point in recent days, as the administration expands the group of immigrants it has targeted for removal, quarrels with judges and wades into increasingly risky political territory.
Trump spent his first weeks in office emphasizing a mass deportation campaign aimed at criminals who are in the country illegally.
But late last week, immigration agents arrested a Lebanese doctor on a legal visa, despite a court order temporarily blocking her immediate removal. That followed the detention of German tourists, a former Columbia University graduate student with a green card and multiple immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or have long lived in the United States.
Continue reading at Politico
Green-card holders rattled by Mahmoud Khalil case
The Trump administration’s efforts to deport Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil is triggering concern among green-card holders in the U.S., who are suddenly viewing their freedoms and immigration status with uncertainty.
Khalil, who is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, has been targeted over his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. He is a legal permanent U.S. resident on a green card and married to a U.S. citizen.
His arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York City and subsequent transport to a facility in Louisiana have raised a flurry of questions over the rights of green-card holders, immigration attorneys told The Hill.
Continue reading at The Hill
MAGA media pushes for judicial showdown over Venezuelan deportations
Top MAGA-world figures are leaning into a fight with the judicial system over the constitutionality of President Trump's deportations last weekend of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Why it matters: A federal district judge ruled that flights carrying the migrants to El Salvador had to be turned around — an order the White House says had "no lawful basis."
But MAGA podcasts were adamant on Monday that the judge was in the wrong, indicating an appetite among Trump's base to lean into what could turn into a major showdown with the judicial branch.
Zoom in: "I think there ought to be a much broader swath of impeachments," Steve Bannon said on his show, talking about federal judges. "We have to fight fire with fire. … They want to slow the Trump administration's flood the zone."
"Immigration under national security concerns is obviously an area where number one, the judiciary, and particularly these district judges, have gone completely overboard," Jack Posobiec added on his own show.
Continue reading at Axios
Scoop: In video, Trump touts "self-deport" app to immigrants
President Trump has recorded a video for social media in which he urges unauthorized immigrants to "self-deport" — and use a newly launched app to report that they're leaving the U.S., Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The 90-second video — set to appear on Instagram, X, YouTube and Rumble — is part of a broader advertising campaign aimed at encouraging such immigrants to leave before U.S. officials arrest them.
The effort comes as Trump's push to deport "millions and millions" of unauthorized immigrants is facing a lack of funds, detention space, officers and infrastructure.
Zoom in: Pinched for such resources, Trump's team has used tough talk to try to get such immigrants to leave the U.S. — or never come here.
In his video ad Trump does the same, warning immigrants that if they have any hopes of eventually becoming U.S. citizens, they should register with the Customs and Border Protection app and leave now.
Continue reading at Axios
MAGA already looking to anoint Vance for 2028
Just eight months after President Trump picked JD Vance to be his vice president, Vance is already positioned to be MAGA's heir apparent for 2028.
"I think it's inevitable at this point that Vance will be the [GOP] nominee in 2028," Sen. Jim Banks (R-Indiana), a close Trump ally, tells Axios. "He's the future of the America First movement and he's already proven himself."
Why it matters: Many of Trump's longest-serving aides and most fervent supporters now see the vice president as the vehicle to lock in Trump's worldview for at least the next decade
In their view, Trump broke the old Republican Party — and Vance can finish building the new one.
Driving the news: Vance has won over Trump's base with combative public performances, by savvily managing relationships with Trump's team, and by showing unwavering fealty to Trump's vision.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump-backed Byron Donalds gets first congressional endorsement for Florida governor
The support landed as Florida first lady Casey DeSantis considers whether to enter the race.
GOP Florida governor candidate Rep. Byron Donalds has secured his first endorsement from a fellow Floridian House member: Rep. Vern Buchanan.
“My friend, Byron Donalds, is a fearless conservative and MAGA patriot,” Buchanan said in a statement first provided to POLITICO. “I have worked closely with him in Congress and know from personal experience his fight, tenacity, and effectiveness. He will be a great executive for our Sunshine State.”
Continue reading at Politico
How Matt Gaetz poisoned the House Ethics Committee
The panel is still reeling from accusations of leaks and breaches of confidentiality in the previous Congress.
Scandal-ridden former Rep. Matt Gaetz is gone from Congress, but the wounds he inflicted on the House Ethics Committee that investigated him remain fresh.
After the longest delay in recent history, the panel finally recruited enough members to perform its grim mandate of governing fellow lawmakers’ conduct in the 119th Congress. And they’ll have their work cut out for them: The committee is still regrouping from its crisis late last year over whether to break with recent precedent and release the results of an investigation into their former Florida GOP colleague, who was being considered for attorney general.
The Ethics Committee rarely releases findings of investigations into lawmakers who resign before those investigations can conclude. Gaetz tested that practice, with lawmakers on both sides arguing the information was critical for senators to review in advance of his confirmation hearings.
Continue reading at Politico
Europe is going full 1790s America
Trump and Russia are pushing the EU toward a “Hamiltonian moment,” where common debt helps build greater federalism.
This time, joint bonds really might forge a more united Europe.
With Donald Trump triggering the biggest reordering of the European security landscape since World War II, debt issuance may not sound like the most urgent matter in hand, but supporters of a more deeply integrated European Union reckon bonds for rearmament are crucial to realizing their federal dreams.
Trump's insistence that Europe will have to step up and look after its own regional security — and provide Ukraine with security guarantees against Russia — is pressing the EU to raise cash fast for military investments.
Only six weeks after the United States president's inauguration, the European Commission announced a plan to raise €150 billion of joint debt to finance European weapons purchases. It's a large sum for EU-level bonds, outstripping Russia's entire projected military spending for 2025.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
How much daylight you're gaining as spring begins
Ahh, spring. The season of thawing out, fresh air and, yes, more daylight.
Driving the news: Parts of the U.S. will gain three hours or more of daylight between Thursday's spring equinox and the summer solstice on June 20, per NOAA's solar calculator.
How it works: Here in the Northern Hemisphere, northern latitudes gain more daylight in the spring compared to areas closer to the equator as the Sun's path through the sky shifts northward.
See the map and continue reading at Axios
Israel resumes war in Gaza with a series of massive airstrikes against Hamas
Israel resumed the war in Gaza with a series of massive airstrikes against what it described as Hamas targets all across the enclave overnight.
The latest: More than 400 Palestinians were killed in the airstrikes, per the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told Axios, "Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war."
The big picture: The strikes come exactly two months after the signing of the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal that the Biden administration brokered with the help of the incoming Trump administration.
Continue reading at Axios
U.S. astronauts finally returning to Earth after 9 months in space
Two NASA astronauts who spent more than 280 days aboard the International Space Station undocked from the ISS early on Tuesday, kicking off their long-awaited return journey.
The big picture: Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams have been in a galactic holding pattern hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface after boarding the ISS in June 2024 as part of the Boeing Starliner's first crewed test flight.
Continue reading at Axios
Newsom sends prepaid phones, aka ‘burners’, to tech CEOs
California’s governor has employed an unusual outreach initiative to business leaders.
SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom is making sure California’s business elite can call him, maybe.
Roughly 100 leaders of state-headquartered companies have received a curious package in recent months: a prepaid, inexpensive cell phone (commonly known as a burner, for those of you who haven’t seen “The Wire” or “Better Call Saul”), programmed with Newsom’s digits and accompanied by notes from the governor himself.
“If you ever need anything, I’m a phone call away,” read one note to a prominent tech firm’s CEO printed on official letterhead, along with a hand-scrawled addendum urging the executive to reach out. (We agreed to withhold the executive’s identity to protect our tipster.)
It was Newsom’s idea, a representative said, and has already yielded some “valuable interactions.”
That arrangement surprised some people POLITICO spoke with, largely because Newsom is already known as an inveterate texter whose digits live in many business titans’ contacts. He’s also long been seen as more aligned with business interests than the Legislature, the proverbial adult in the room when private pillars like Silicon Valley need a sympathetic ear or a veto.
Continue reading at Politico
Will the threat of Trump end Germany’s austerity zeal?
Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz is about to break years of fiscal stringency to counter the erosion of the transatlantic alliance.
Just days ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election, Friedrich Merz, the eventual conservative winner and chancellor-in-waiting, was still championing the old gospel of financial self-denial, warning that borrowing big to solve his country’s massive problems would further imperil Germany and Europe at an already precarious moment.
“We cannot be as careless with our public finances as perhaps some of the others,” Merz said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the vote. “The next financial crisis is definitely coming.” Two days before the election, Merz declared the “end of the fantasy of all social democrats” to take on “more debt,” adding: “We’ll have to make do with the resources we have.”
Shortly after his victory, Merz began proclaiming a radically different creed, one fit for an alarming new reality in which U.S. President Donald Trump’s America could no longer be relied on to protect Europe — and could even act to harm it.
“In view of the threats to our freedom and peace on our continent,” the mantra “whatever it takes” must now apply to Europe’s defense, Merz told reporters earlier this month as he announced a historic borrowing plan that could unleash €1 trillion in new spending for defense and infrastructure over the next decade.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Exclusive: Mach Industries and Heven Drones partner on defense production
Mach Industries and Heven Drones are teaming up, with previously undisclosed plans to produce the latter's unmanned aerial vehicles at the former's flagship factory, Forge Huntington.
The big picture: California-based Mach Industries and Heven Drones, which is located in Florida and with roots in Israel, want to together "provide an offset" to Chinese dominance in the drone market, they told Axios.
Pentagon officials used similar language to describe Replicator 1.0, launched in 2023 to amass thousands of unmanned battlefield assets.
Zoom in: Heven's H100, H2D55 and Raider drones will be pumped out at the plant, 115,000 square-feet down the road from other defense-tech players like Anduril Industries.
There are commitments to codevelop components, including avionics, radios and propulsion systems.
Heven specializes in hydrogen-powered aircraft. It unveiled Raider in February at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.
Continue reading at Axios
“The President Wanted It and I Did It”: Recording Reveals Head of Social Security’s Thoughts on DOGE and Trump
In a recording obtained by ProPublica, acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek portrayed his agency as facing peril, while also encouraging patience with “the DOGE kids.”
Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that were as sweeping as those at USAID, the Treasury Department and elsewhere.
Dudek’s comments, delivered to a group of senior staff and Social Security advocates attending both in person and virtually, offer an extraordinary window into the thinking of a top agency official in the volatile early days of the second Trump administration. The Washington Post first reported Dudek’s acknowledgement that DOGE is calling the shots at Social Security and quoted several of his statements. But the full recording reveals that he went much further, citing not only the actions being taken at the agency by the people he repeatedly called “the DOGE kids,” but also extensive input he has received from the White House itself. When a participant in the meeting asked him why he wouldn’t more forcefully call out President Donald Trump’s continued false claims about widespread Social Security fraud as “BS,” Dudek answered, “So we published, for the record, what was actually the numbers there on our website. This is dealing with — have you ever worked with someone who’s manic-depressive?”
Continue reading at ProPublica
HHS drops gun violence advisory
The Trump administration has removed a Biden-era advisory on the public health impacts of gun violence and a related webpage from the HHS website.
The big picture: The 2024 advisory from then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy signaled that the Biden administration would promote gun safety measures heading into the election.
State of play: A tab for information on firearm violence in America no longer exists on the Office of the Surgeon General's website. A link to the firearm violence webpage returns a "Page Not Found" message.
An HHS spokesperson said the agency took down the information to comply with Trump's executive order on protecting Second Amendment rights.
HHS did not elaborate on how the advisory violated the order.
Continue reading at Axios
Playbook (newsletter)
To the victor, the spoils
MIDDLE EAST LATEST: “Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, saying it was striking dozens of Hamas targets in its heaviest assault on the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January,” per the AP’s overnight liveblog. “Hospitals reported more than 320 people killed, including women and children. The surprise attack shattered a period of relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised the prospect of a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News the Trump administration was consulted ahead of the attacks. … Expect plenty of fallout today.
A VERY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Eleven years to the day since Vladimir Putin illegally annexed Crimea — the first, calculated act of a military operation that would lead to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — the Russian president will today speak with the leader of the free world to carve up the spoils. After weeks of high-stakes diplomacy which lurched from the royal palaces of Jeddah to a blazing row in the Oval Office, the long-awaited phone call between Putin and Donald Trump is scheduled for this morning. The world is holding its breath.
What’s at stake? Plenty. The future of a sovereign nation which has spent years — and tens of thousands of young lives — trying to fight off its murderous neighbor. Trust in American leadership. The security of eastern Europe. Trump’s reputation as a negotiator. And the message other powerful nations might take away about the repercussions of military aggression.
Your move, Vlad: It’s far from clear whether Putin even wants to sign up to a rapid peace deal, especially given recent successes on the battlefield. But he’s under some pressure to do so following the tentative 30-day ceasefire agreed between the U.S. and Ukraine last week — or risks wrecking the dramatic improvement in U.S.-Russian relations under Trump, as the WSJ’s walkup story notes. Mike Carpenter, a former National Security Council official in the Biden administration, tells POLITICO’s Amy Mackinnon and Nahal Toosi that if Putin won’t even match the 30-day ceasefire, it suggests he’s playing “rope-a-dope” with Trump. And it’s safe to say Trump won’t like that.
Feeling good: Trump insists there’s a deal to be done, however, after his overseas envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow last Thursday to hammer out substantial parts of a draft agreement. Trump said discussions are focused on “dividing up certain assets” — which in truth means Russian-occupied Ukraine. “We’ll be talking about land,” Trump said bluntly.
Continue reading at Politico Playbook newsletter
South Carolina attorney general says 14th Amendment ‘misinterpreted’
Trump signed executive order to end birthright citizenship
The 14th Amendment says 'all persons born in US' are citizens
South Carolina AG says it's been misinterpreted
The Supreme Court is requesting responses from states and groups challenging President Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.
About two dozen states have sued over the order. They argue it violates the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are American citizens.
South Carolina is one of 18 states that joined a Supreme Court brief supporting the executive order.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson says he disagrees with the way the amendment has been interpreted by those wanting to block Trump’s order.
“That amendment was rightfully designed to bestow citizenship on emancipated slaves, which needed to happen, but it has been misinterpreted over the last 160 years to incentivize the ridiculous notion that somebody can come to the United States in the dead of night, drop a child like an anchor, like a boat drops an anchor, and all of a sudden, they have been bestowed citizenship for henceforth evermore,” Wilson said.
“That was not the intention of the framers of the 14th Amendment,” he added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Record number of Americans working more than one job
The report comes from the Bureau Labor of Statistics
8.9M Americans reported working multiple jobs
It equates to approximately 5.4 percent of the workforce
At least 5 percent of the American workforce has a second job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In a release earlier this month, the BLS reported that a record high of approximately 8.9 million Americans stated they work multiple jobs. That is the highest rate since the Great Recession in April 2009.
A March report from the Federal Bank of St. Louis revealed that 50.2 percent of multiple job holders in 2024 had a college degree, which is a 9.1 percent increase from 2019.
“If you’re going to try to have some semblance of a traditional life with kids, and a house and transportation, [it] takes a lot of money to do that,” Carolyn McClanahan, certified financial planner, told CNBC.
Continue reading at The Hill
Allergy sufferers in these US cities face a tough 2025 season, study finds
With less than a week before the arrival of spring, allergy sufferers are bracing for the season, which will be especially bad in 20 U.S. cities, according to an Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) report released Tuesday.
These “allergy capitals” are located largely in the southern and eastern parts of the country, with Wichita, Kansas, taking the top spot for the third year in a row.
The AAFA’s 2025 Allergy Capitals study ranks the top 100 cities based on pollen scores for trees, grasses and weeds, along with over-the-counter medication usage and the number of local allergy specialists.
Continue reading at The Hill
Kremlin says Trump-Putin ‘normalization’ call set for 9-11 a.m. DC time
Ukraine — and the world — watches with bated breath.
A hotly anticipated phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to take place this afternoon (between 9 and 11 a.m. Washington, D.C. time), according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
He said Putin and Trump are expected to discuss the “further normalization” of Russia-U.S. relations and the situation in Ukraine — where Moscow has been waging an all-out war — Russian state-owned media TASS reported.
“Certain discussions have already taken place,” Peskov said, citing Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Putin in Moscow last Thursday, the meeting between U.S. and Russian diplomats in Istanbul on Feb. 27 and a previous phone call between the two leaders on Feb. 12.
“So there is a certain understanding indeed. But there are many issues [on the agenda],” he added.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Google to buy cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion
Google on Tuesday agreed to acquire cloud security firm Wiz for $32 billion in cash.
Why it matters: This would be Alphabet's largest-ever acquisition, and an early Big Tech antitrust test for the Trump administration.
Flashback: Alphabet and Wiz last year held failed deal talks at around a $23 billion valuation.
Zoom in: A big part of Wiz's appeal is that it's cloud-agnostic, so one question is if it would stay that way, or instead focus on Google Cloud (particularly as Alphabet has been leaning into security to differentiate Google Cloud from AWS and Microsoft.)
By the numbers: Wiz has raised $1.8 billion in VC funding, including in early 2024 at a $12 billion valuation.
Continue reading at Axios
China's oil slowdown is a global wild card
The growth of China's oil thirst is slowing, and whether it's a brief downshift or something deeper will influence the future of global petro-demand.
Why it matters: China's economy, stumbling in recent years, and its commodity markets have outsize sway.
When it comes to oil, it's the largest importer and second-largest consumer behind the U.S.
Oil is the second-biggest source of China's CO2 emissions, which are by far the world's largest, though those emissions are well behind coal.
Driving the news: China accounted for a stunning 60%-plus share of global oil demand growth from 2013-2023, but it fell to under 20% last year, per the International Energy Agency.
Continue reading at Axios
Tesla’s Self-Driving Fails the Wile E. Coyote Test
Turns out LiDAR might have some benefits.
One of the biggest obstacles, figuratively, facing self-driving cars is the ability to expect the unexpected, quickly identify potential issues, and respond in a well-reasoned manner to produce a safe outcome. One of the biggest obstacles, literally, facing self-driving cars are giant Wile E. Coyote-style walls painted to look like the road ahead in an attempt to trick them into crashing.
Okay so the latter is pretty unlikely to arise in the real world, but that didn’t stop former NASA engineer and current YouTuber Mark Rober from seeing just how well self-driving vehicles stand up to the Looney Tunes test. In his most recent video titled, “Can You Fool A Self Driving Car?” Rober pits two different autonomous vehicle systems—Tesla’s computer vision-only Autopilot and an unnamed system that uses Light Detection and Ranging sensors—up against each other in a series of tests that culminates in an attempt to stop a car in its tracks using the same technique that Wile E. Coyote tried to use to stop the Road Runner.
At the risk of spoiling the video for you, the Tesla leaves a cartoonishly large hole in the wall after Autopilot plows right through the thing at about 40 miles per hour.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Trump calls for impeachment of judge who tried to halt deportations
It represents a significant escalation of the president’s attempts to push the boundaries of the separation of powers with the courts.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for the impeachment of the federal judge who ordered a two-week halt to his efforts to remove Venezuelan migrants using extraordinary war powers that haven’t been invoked for decades.
Trump’s call to remove U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C. — is the first time since taking office for his second term that he’s asked Congress to seek a judge’s removal, joining increasingly pointed calls by his top donor and adviser Elon Musk and a segment of his MAGA base.
Trump also suggested that “many” of the judges who have ruled against him in other cases should be impeached as well. It’s a significant incursion on the judiciary that comes as Trump has asserted unprecedented unilateral power over federal spending — despite Congress’ constitutional power of the purse — and sweeping authority to remove executive branch officials that previous presidents believed were protected by law.
Although the call represents a significant escalation, any impeachment effort is all but certain to be doomed in Congress, where narrow Republican majorities would lack the votes to remove a judge along party lines. Congress has been loath to entertain impeachment efforts for judges based purely on rulings they disagree with and has typically invoked the extraordinary procedures in cases of clear corruption or misconduct.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump administration moves to reinstate 24,000 federal workers after judge’s order
The Trump administration has taken steps to reinstate thousands of probationary workers who were fired in its effort to downsize the federal government, according to court filings in one of two cases where the terminations were deemed unlawful.
U.S. District Judge James Bredar, an appointee of former President Obama, last week ordered the mass reinstatement of fired probationary workers at 18 federal agencies, after determining that the government’s claims its terminations stemmed from “performance” issues “isn’t true.”
More than a dozen declarations filed by the government Monday night indicate that the administration has moved to reinstate more than 24,000 federal probationary employees. The filings provide the clearest look at the sweeping terminations yet.
In them, officials at the agencies said that most reinstated workers were placed on paid administrative leave, though some have been returned to full employment.
Continue reading at The Hill
Bondi on continued deportation flights despite judge’s order: ‘Absolutely’
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration would “absolutely” continue to remove undocumented Venezuelan immigrants on deportation flights despite a ruling from a federal judge ordering them to pause their efforts.
“These are foreign terrorists, that the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Bondi said Monday during an appearance on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday temporarily blocked President Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which would grant him the authority to detain and deport individuals of countries deemed foreign adversaries with little due process.
Bondi ripped Boasberg for attempting “to meddle” in foreign affairs.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump rips The Atlantic over interview request
President Trump denied a request to be interviewed by The Atlantic and blasted one of its newest high profile hires in the process.
“Third Rate Magazine, ‘The Atlantic,’ that made up the ‘Suckers and Losers’ Hoax about me and the Military, and refused to even acknowledge the vast horde of people who emphatically denied this FAKE STORY, has asked me to do an interview,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday night.
The president attached a response he sent to the news magazine in his social media post.
“Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview,” the president wrote in reference to the journalist who recently left the Washington Post to write for the Atlantic. “If you have some other reporter, let us know, but Ashley is not capable or competent enough to understand the intricacies of High Level politics.”
The Atlantic hired Parker, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who covered Donald Trump’s first term, late last year along with fellow Washington Post reporter Michael Scherer.
Continue reading at The Hill
Gerolsteiner Sparkling Water Bottles Recalled Due to Laceration Hazard; Manufactured by Gerolsteiner
More than 61,000 bottles of sparkling water manufactured by Gerolsteiner and sold at Trader Joe's were recalled due to a laceration hazard, according to a notice posted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Continue reading at the Consumer Product Safety Commission
Fired probationary workers must be returned to their job, federal judge says
A federal judge told the Trump administration late Monday that fired probationary workers must be returned to their old jobs, not just placed on administrative leave as many departments have been doing.
“The Court has read news reports that, in at least one agency, probationary employees are being rehired but then placed on administrative leave en masse. This is not allowed by the preliminary injunction, for it would not restore the services the preliminary injunction intends to restore,” California-based U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup wrote in a brief order.
Probationary workers, those hired within the last year or two depending on the agency, have scored numerous court victories ordering them returned to their jobs after the Office of Personnel Management directed that they be fired last month.
Continue reading at The Hill
EPA considers eliminating its science arm
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering the elimination of its science arm and firing most of that branch’s employees according to documents reviewed by the Democratic staff of the House Science Committee.
A plan reviewed by the committee staffers calls for the elimination of the Office of Research and Development as an EPA National Program Office. It called for the elimination of 50 to 75 percent of the office’s 1,540 staffers.
This office is the agency’s science branch and provides the underlying research that guides the EPA’s work to protect the public from pollution.
According to The New York Times, which first reported on the plan, it was presented to the White House on Friday for review.
Meanwhile, the EPA said that nothing is final.
Continue reading at The Hill
Housing secretary wants to move out of ‘ugliest building in DC’
New Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner is no fan of the massive Weaver office building that houses his agency and is hoping to relocate.
“You know, HUD is known as the ugliest building in D.C., which is not a mantra I like,” Turner told Fox News’ Bret Baier in a Monday interview at the HUD headquarters south of the National Mall. “We want to create an environment here, including our building where people want to be proud of where they come to work and carry out the mission and the assignment that we have.”
Asked if that meant “moving everybody out” to a new location, Turner said yes and said he’s had discussions with the General Services Administration, which manages federal office space, among other duties.
Continue reading at The Hill
Minnesota bill labels Trump derangement syndrome as mental illness
The bill, introduced by five Republican state senators, would add Trump Derangement Syndrome — or “TDS,” as President Trump and his supporters frequently refer to it — to the state’s definition of mental illness.
The bill defines “TDS” as “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,” it reads.
The legislation specifies that “TDS” can be expressed by “verbal expressions of intense hostility” toward Trump and by “overt acts of aggression and violence” against Trump supporters or against “anything that symbolizes President Donald J. Trump.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Americans deeply divided over DEI programs: Survey
Americans are deeply divided over diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, with significant differences emerging depending on voters’ political affiliation, according to a new survey published on Tuesday.
The NBC News Survey, which was conducted by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, found that 49 percent of registered voters said DEI efforts should be terminated in the workplace “because they create divisions and inefficiencies in the workplace by putting too much emphasis on race and other social factors over merit, skills and experience.”
A nearly equal share of U.S. adults, 48 percent, said DEI programs should be preserved “because diverse perspectives reflect our country, create innovative ideas and solutions, encourage unity and make our workplaces fair and inclusive,” according to the poll.
One percent of respondents did not agree with either of the statements. One percent were unsure.
Continue reading at The Hill
Multiple Teslas vandalized at California dealership
ENCINITAS, Calif. (KSWB) – A California Tesla dealership was vandalized early Monday.
Multiple cars were found with swastikas spray-painted on them, and several windows of the dealership building were spray-painted with swastikas and profanity.
The incident occurred around 5 a.m., the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release Monday. No suspects have been identified, and no arrests have been made.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump spokesperson: ‘We played a little game of catch me if you can’ on deportations
A White House spokesperson asserted the federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to turn around flights with Venezuelan migrants headed to El Salvador was “too slow.”
“The president will always follow the law, but this judge was too slow. We played a little game of ‘catch me if you can,’ and guess what, the judge wasn’t able to catch us on this one,” White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”
Fields also argued the judge overstepped on President Trump’s authority, echoing other administration officials who have claimed the president’s authority under the Alien Enemies Act supersedes such court orders.
The Trump administration has faced broad scrutiny over its moves to bypass orders over the weekend from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg aimed at halting the deportations.
Continue reading at The Hill
Walz knocks Schumer over government funding blowup
Walz piled on the Senate minority leader during Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most recent podcast episode.
Tim Walz took a jab at Chuck Schumer over his decision to avert a government shutdown, accusing the party of ceding to Republicans.
“I believe that Chuck 100 percent believes that he made a decision that reduced the pain and the risk to Americans,” the Minnesota governor said in the latest episode of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast released on Tuesday. “I see it now that we’re in a point where … that pain is coming anyway and I think we gave up our leverage.”
Walz’s comments are the latest in the chorus of Democratic backlash aimed at Schumer over the Senate Democratic leader’s support for a Republican-backed stopgap measure last week to keep the government funded and prevent a government shutdown.
Walz has long been scheduled to be a guest on Newsom’s podcast, which launched on Tuesday. But Newsom’s conversation with Walz was rerecorded on Monday, according to a person familiar with the discussion who was granted anonymity to discuss it. The original conversation came on the same day Newsom taped his episode with the campus culture warrior Charlie Kirk.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump’s mass deportation plans hit riskier phase with legal immigrants, court fights
The new strategy, especially involving immigrants with green cards or American spouses, poses political test.
And even as the administration targeted a group of Venezuelans this weekend who officials said are affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang, they used an archaic, war-time law to round them up and then seemingly ignored a judge’s order to halt deportation flights.
The striking shift has captured the public’s attention and is likely to define Trump’s strategy in the months ahead as he looks to convey progress on his lagging promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. But the expanded list of targets — especially immigrants married to U.S. citizens — carries political risks on an issue that has long been a strength for the president.
“Public opinion varies dramatically depending on the kind of illegal immigrant you’re talking about,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres, adding that some undocumented immigrants, including those who came to the country as children, tend to garner much more public sympathy in surveys than others.
Continue reading at Politico
More Americans say Ukraine not getting enough help: Gallup
More Americans now think the U.S. is not doing enough to help Ukraine in its war against the Russian military invasion, an uptick from late last year, according to a new Gallup poll released on Tuesday.
The Gallup survey found that 46 percent of Americans said the U.S. is not providing enough assistance to Ukraine in its three-year war with Russia, a 16-point increase since December last year, closely resembling the numbers seen during the summer of 2022.
Some 30 percent said Washington is doing too much to help the war-torn country while 23 percent said the U.S. is offering the right amount of help. Both figures have dropped since December.
Continue reading at The Hill
Top House Democrats seek DOGE details under Freedom of Information Act
Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.), the top Democrat on each panel described DOGE as being “”cloaked in secrecy” and “evidently ha[ving] broad powers to shutter federal agencies, fire federal workers, and access the most sensitive government databases.”
“We write today to demand that, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), you provide us, the U.S. Congress and the American people, with clear answers to basic questions about DOGE, including who is in charge, the scope of its authority over federal agencies and workers, what government data it has access to, and whether DOGE is serving the interests of the American people or the interests of Mr. Musk’s companies and his foreign customers,” they wrote in a letter to the agency.
It’s unusual for lawmakers to file a FOIA request to gain information, but Republicans on the House Oversight Committee blocked a move from Democrats on the panel in February to subpoena Musk.
Continue reading at The Hill
Schumer defends funding vote: ‘I’m the best leader for the Senate’
Schumer was defiant when pressed about the vote and his standing, saying that he knew he’d take flak, but still thought he made the right decision.
“We would have had half the federal government we have right now,” Schumer told “CBS This Morning,” pointing to what he believed would be a hollowing out during a shutdown. “I thought I did the thing a leader should do. Even when people don’t see the danger around the curve, my job was to alert people to it, and I knew I’d get some bullets.”
“I’m the best leader for the Senate,” Schumer continued. “I am the best at winning Senate seats. I’ve done it in 2005. Just in 2020, no one thought we’d take back the Senate. Under my leadership, we took it.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Jeffries says he has confidence in Schumer going forward
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should remain at the top of the party ranks despite the outcry over his support for a GOP spending bill last week.
In the hours leading up to that vote, Jeffries had declined to weigh in on Schumer’s leadership chops. But speaking Tuesday at an event in Brooklyn, Jeffries didn’t hesitate when asked if he thinks Schumer should keep his leadership seat.
“Yes,” Jeffries said. “Yes, I do.”
The remarks were significant given separate public remarks Jeffries had made Friday on Capitol Hill. As the Senate considered the GOP funding legislation that day, Jeffries replied “next question” when asked if Senate Democrats needed new leaders.
Continue reading at The Hill
Appeals panel appears skeptical of Trump administration’s independent agency firings
A federal appeals court panel raised skepticism Tuesday that President Trump’s firings of two independent agency leaders complied with Supreme Court precedent.
Trump’s terminations of Democratic appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Gwynne Wilcox, and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), Cathy Harris, have set off a consequential court battle over presidential power.
Despite the administration’s contention that the president can unilaterally fire them because their statutory removal protections are unconstitutional, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday insisted that the Supreme Court’s decades-old precedent permitting such protections remains good law.
“I understand you’re doing your best,” U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett, an appointee of former President Obama, told the government’s lawyer at one point.
“But I’m sitting here with Supreme Court precedent, one on each shoulder — multiple on each shoulder, honestly — saying ‘still law,’ ‘still law,’ ‘still law,’ ‘still law,’” Millett said.
Continue reading at The Hill
John Roberts, in rare statement, hits back after Trump calls for impeaching judges
It’s the most intense public conflict between Trump and Roberts since 2018.
Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s call to impeach judges who’ve ruled against the administration.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said Tuesday in a rare and brief statement issued just hours after Trump publicly joined demands by his supporters to remove judges he called “crooked.”
It’s the most intense public conflict between Trump and Roberts since 2018, when the chief justice came to the defense of federal judges who’d ruled against Trump policies.
Continue reading at Politico
The Fed's fat-tailed dilemma
Earlier this month, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell made a sneakily profound comment, important for understanding how the central bank will approach policy in its meeting this week and beyond.
The big picture: "However fat you think the tails are, they're fatter than you think," Powell said, referring to the outer edges of a probability distribution.
Translation: The odds of some seemingly unlikely, extreme scenario occurring are higher than most people comprehend.
Powell made the comment in discussing the pandemic-era economy, but it could apply just as well in thinking about the Trump 2.0 economy, where an onslaught of policy change is creating a wider range of possibilities than usual for how the economy will evolve.
State of play: Projecting the future is never easy. With trade, fiscal, immigration and regulatory policies all in extreme flux, charting how the economy will fare over the next couple of years is a fool's errand.
Fed officials have to do it anyway. They have the unlucky task of penciling in their projections for growth, inflation, unemployment and interest rates at this meeting, to be released Wednesday afternoon.
Look for an even wider dispersion than usual in these projections.
Zoom in: Fed officials are reluctant to react to the kinds of financial market moves and soft, survey data that have been the main developments of the last two months.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump and Putin hold two-hour call on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire
President Trump spoke for around two hours on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed his proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine, the White House said.
Why it matters: Ukraine agreed last week to the U.S. proposal for a full, immediate and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, but Putin so far hasn't. Details from the call have yet to emerge.
The Russian president earlier laid out a series of conditions and requests for clarification he wants addressed before he agrees to stop the fighting.
The call began around 10 am ET, according to Trump adviser Dan Scavino.
Driving the news: White House envoy Steve Witkoff met the Russian president for several hours on Thursday.
Continue reading at Axios
Vance slams globalization for hampering American innovation
Vice President Vance defended the Trump administration’s push for technology innovation despite any risks in a Tuesday speech to entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, arguing globalization has stifled this mission over the past several decades.
“Our workers, the populists on the one hand, the tech optimists on the other, have been failed by this government. Not just the government of the last administration, but the government — in some ways — of the last 40 years, because there were two conceits that our leadership class had when it came to globalization,” Vance said during his keynote address to the American Dynamism Summit.
Vance argued the first conceit of globalization — describing the interdependence of the world’s economies and services — was the assumption the U.S. would be able to separate the manufacturing of products from their design process.
Continue reading at The Hill
H5N1 bird flu spread ‘unprecedented,’ UN agency warns
A United Nations food agency warned that the continued spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus is an unprecedented food security risk that requires a coordinated global response.
In a briefing held on Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations cited the loss of hundreds of millions of poultry around the world and the increasing spillover into mammals as key concerns stemming from the spread of the H5N1 bird flu.
The agency noted a major shift in bird flu’s geographic spread in the past four years, with at least 300 newly affected wild bird species since 2021.
Calling the spread unprecedented, FAO Deputy Director-General Godfrey Magwenzi said the disease was “leading to serious impacts on food security and food supply in countries, including loss of valuable nutrition, rural jobs and income, shocks to local economies, and of course increasing costs to consumers.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Interior offers employee buyouts as job cuts loom
The Interior Department will offer buyouts to some employees as it eyes major staffing cuts.
In a notice obtained by The Hill, employees were told that they could apply for voluntary early retirement or voluntary separations at the agency.
It said that employees who take the buyout would be given money in a lump sum totaling no more than their total severance package or $25,000 – whichever is less.
Staffers at the department will have a little more than a week to apply.
An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment on the buyouts specifically, but acknowledged an effort to reduce staff broadly.
Continue reading at The Hill
Newsom advances cross-border climate, clean energy partnership with Sonora, Mexico
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his counterpart in Sonora, Mexico, have cemented a bilateral partnership with the aim of bolstering clean energy development and supply chain resilience for both states.
The four-year memorandum of understanding, announced Monday by Newsom and Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo Montaño, outlines opportunities for the two parties to advance their collaborative leadership in transnational climate action.
“The hot is getting hotter, the dry is getting drier, the wets getting wetter, as it relates to these atmospheric rivers, this nature of extremes — extremes in our politics, certainly, but also the extremes as it relates to the realities of climate,” Newsom said at a Monday signing ceremony.
Newsom also took the opportunity to offer the Trump administration a poetry slam, by means of a William Butler Yeats line: “Wisdom is a butterfly, not a gloomy bird of prey.”
Continue reading at The Hill
FBI extradites ‘Ten Most Wanted’ list fugitive from Mexico: Patel
The FBI extradited one of the “Ten Most Wanted” list fugitives, an alleged key leader of international criminal gang MS-13, from Mexico.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, a Salvadoran national, was extradited on Monday night and is being transported to the U.S. The federal law enforcement agency worked with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and “other interagency partners.”
“He was arrested in Mexico and is being transported within the U.S. as we speak, where he will face American justice,” Patel said in a Tuesday morning post on social platform X.
Patel touted the extradition as a “major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission targets law firms over DEI practices
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sent letters to 20 top law firms demanding information about their employment practices, a sign it plans to target their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The letter from Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, appointed by President Trump the day after his inauguration, said firms’ efforts to diversify their workforce could violate employment laws.
“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” Lucas said in a statement.
“No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”
Continue reading at The Hill
How Trump is providing an unexpected boost to the housing market
Any revival of the market would be a welcome development for Trump as consumer confidence falters in the early days of his administration.
Americans are increasingly worried that President Donald Trump’s policies will force the economy into a stall. For homebuyers, that prospect may actually bring some good news.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have been sliding below 7 percent over the last several weeks, a reflection of plunging economic sentiment that’s roiled Wall Street and scrambled investment plans. Applications for new mortgages shot up by more than 11 percent during the first week of March — a 31 percent improvement over the same period last year and just in time for the housing market’s spring buying season. Refinancings have surged from historic lows as homeowners capitalize on lower borrowing costs.
And the government reported on Tuesday that construction of new, single-family homes climbed an eye-popping 11.4 percent last month.
“No one should underestimate the pent-up demand in housing across the economy,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consulting firm RSM US. “Once unleashed,” he said, it would “bolster the overall economy.”
Continue reading at Politico
Judge restores teacher preparation grants axed by Trump administration
A district judge temporarily restored teacher preparation grants that were axed by the Trump administration in February.
District Judge Julie Rubin issued an injunction restoring the grants, saying “the Department’s action was unreasonable, not reasonably explained, based on factors Congress had not intended the Department to consider.”
If followed, the ruling restores hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts the department canceled because it said the programs promoted divisive ideologies in schools.
The lawsuit was brought on by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), the National Center for Teacher Residencies, and the Maryland Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Continue reading at The Hill
What to know about the U.S. Institute of Peace targeted by DOGE
The Trump administration's efforts to reshape the federal government entered perilous territory on Monday when Department of Government Efficiency workers entered the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Why it matters: USIP officials maintain that their status as an independent agency means DOGE staffers should not have been able to access the building.
The move also represents an escalation in the government's crackdown on agencies involved in foreign assistance work.
What is USIP?
USIP describes itself as a "nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to protecting U.S. interests" by helping prevent violent conflicts and brokering peace deals abroad.
The agency was founded as a nonprofit by Congress in 1984. It regularly holds briefings on Capitol Hill for members of Congress and works closely with the Department of Defense.
"USIP is governed by a bipartisan, Senate-confirmed Board of Directors that includes the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and President of the National Defense University," its website states.
How has the Trump administration targeted it?
President Trump singled out USIP, alongside three other entities, in a Feb. 19 executive order as ones that ought to be "eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law."
The order called on each "unnecessary governmental entity" to reduce their functions and personnel to the "minimum presence and function required by law."
Continue reading at Axios
Moscow and Beijing rejoice at looming death of Radio Free Europe, VOA
“We couldn’t shut them down, unfortunately, but America did so itself,” editor-in-chief of Russia’s state broadcaster said.
Russia and China are ecstatic over President Donald Trump’s cuts to United States-funded media including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
The outlets are well-known for their independent reporting from places with curtailed freedom of press, including Russia and China.
The Global Times, a Chinese state media outlet reporting in English, published an editorial on Monday in which it called VOA “a lie factory.”
“The so-called beacon of freedom, VOA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag,” the Global Times said.
“When it comes to China-related reporting, VOA has an appalling track record,” it said, adding that “almost every malicious falsehood about China has VOA’s fingerprints all over it.”
VOA has reported on human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, which are well-documented, and debunked China’s disinformation efforts in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A columnist for the regime-friendly Beijing Daily said VOA “has been notorious for spreading lies” and that the “world is waking up.”
‘Undoubtedly caused us harm’
Moscow, for its part, was also quick to pour cold water on the outlets’ reporting.
“These media outlets can hardly be called popular or in demand in Russia; they are purely propagandistic. This is an internal sovereign matter of the United States; it does not particularly concern us,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
DOJ remains defiant about Venezuela deportation flights
The Trump administration on Tuesday in court filings defended its deportation of Venezuelans, including gang members, saying that two of three flights took off before a judge ordered them not to.
Why it matters: The Trump administration insists they were within their rights to conduct deportation flights after the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 via an executive order.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg initially ordered the flights return to the U.S., though the administration argued the planes were already in international waters and the ruling did not apply, Axios Marc Caputo previously reported.
Boasberg's ruling has generated ire from Trump allies, with GOP Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) vowing to draft articles of impeachment against the federal judge.
Elon Musk and President Trump have also called for Boasberg to be removed from the bench.
What they're saying: Robert Cerna, an acting field office director within ICE, said in a court filing that two of three planes carrying migrants departed for El Salvador before 7:25pm ET, when the judge issued the order.
Continue reading at Axios
Playbook PM: Trump and Putin agree to energy ceasefire
TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: The White House said President Donald Trump made progress toward achieving a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine during a more than two-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, but Moscow laid out steep demands for a full pause.
“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” the U.S. readout of the call said, “as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.” The White House also said Trump and Putin talked about the Middle East and improving U.S.-Russia relations overall, which “has huge upside.” More from POLITICO’s Eli Stokols
Russia’s readout: The Kremlin said Putin agreed to a monthlong halt to targeting energy infrastructure, while negotiations toward maritime and full ceasefires take place. Moscow said a prisoner exchange will take place tomorrow.
What Russia wants for a full ceasefire: Bloomberg had scooped this morning that Putin wants an end to all arms shipments to Ukraine, as a prerequisite to agreeing to the pause in its war on Ukraine. At a minimum, Russia would demand a halt to weapons from the U.S. Indeed, “stopping the rearmament of the Ukrainian Armed Forces” was specifically mentioned in Russia’s readout, which called for “the complete cessation of foreign military aid and intelligence sharing.” That could be very difficult for Europe and Ukraine to accept. European leaders fear that it would produce a scenario in which Russia rearms to attack Ukraine again after the ceasefire ends, while Ukraine can’t prepare a defense.
Public pressure on Trump: The latest Gallup poll shows political downside for Trump in his recent moves to limit support for Ukraine. The share of Americans who think the U.S. is doing too little to help Ukraine has leapt to 46 percent, the highest ever since Gallup started asking in August 2022. That’s mainly due to significant increases from Democrats and independents. Thirty percent of Americans say the U.S. is doing too much, down 7 points from December.
In the dark: The State Department has axed a contract that funded the Conflict Observatory, a Yale/MITRE initiative tracking and gathering documentation of alleged Russian war crimes, WaPo’s John Hudson reports. The work included a database of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children thought to have been abducted by Russia. That has stopped evidence from being shared with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and elsewhere. Lawmakers sounded a siren that the data may have been permanently deleted, hampering efforts to find the kids.
Continue reading at Politico
DOJ again refuses to share info with judge on Venezuelan deportation flights
The Justice Department (DOJ) once again rebuffed a federal judge’s demands to provide a rationale for why it was declining to provide information about deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants.
The Tuesday filing escalates the battle between the Trump administration and Judge James Boasberg after he convened a hearing to determine whether officials violated his order by continuing deportation flights he ordered to be halted.
After a remarkable exchange Monday evening in which a DOJ attorney said he was “not authorized” to provide more information on the flights, Boasberg ordered the Justice Department to detail what legal authorities it was relying on in declining to provide evidence it complied with his order.
“The Government maintains that there is no justification to order the provision of additional information, and that doing so would be inappropriate,” the Justice Department wrote in the filing Tuesday.
Continue reading at The Hill
4 nations bordering Russia to withdraw from land mine treaty
The Ottawa convention sought to outlaw APLs, which target humans in explosive blasts and have killed thousands of civilians. The treaty also notes that the minds can cause “unnecessary suffering or superfluous injury.”
“Military threats to NATO Member States bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased,” the four countries wrote in a statement.
“In light of this unstable security environment marked by Russia’s aggression and its ongoing threat to the Euro-Atlantic community, it is essential to evaluate all measures to strengthen our deterrence and defense capabilities,” they added.
The four nations have expressed fears about Russian aggression since it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Three of the four were once part of the Soviet Union, while Poland was controlled by a Soviet-bloc government.
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for hours Tuesday working to secure a peace deal, which the White House has promised will come soon.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump eyes more coal power
Trump wrote he is “authorizing” his administration to “immediately begin producing Energy” with coal.
It’s not entirely clear what authorization he’s referring to, though when he first took office, Trump declared an energy emergency, unlocking additional powers to boost energy production.
He later said he would use that declaration to approve more energy for power-hungry artificial intelligence.
A White House official told The Hill that Trump’s post is one of many actions to come on coal but didn’t elaborate on what any forthcoming actions would be.
Continue reading at The Hill
Republican files impeachment against judge who ruled against Trump deportations
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) introduced a resolution to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who over the weekend ordered the Trump administration to halt deportations of Venezuelans whom it said were gang members.
The move comes as President Trump is also calling for Boasberg’s impeachment, as the administration argues that his ruling, blocking Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to swiftly deport the migrants, was not lawful.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday pushed back at that statement, saying it had been established that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Bessent reveals how Trump will decide reciprocal tariffs
In an interview, Bessent said the Trump administration will consider policies including currency manipulation, industrial subsidies and labor conditions when calculating a country’s new tariff rate.
“We are going to go to them and say, ‘Look, here is where we think the tariff levels are, nontariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression, and if you will stop this, we will not put up the tariff wall,’” Bessent told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria.”
If a country doesn’t change those policies, he continued, “then we will put up the tariff wall to protect our economy, protect our workers, and protect our industries.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Schumer on Trump CR compliment: ‘He’s trying to confuse people’
“He was trolling me,” Schumer told “The View” co-host Joy Behar during his Tuesday appearance on the morning show. “I know this guy.”
“He’s trying to confuse people. He always tries to confuse people. He tries to hide what he does, and by the way, that’s another — you know, we, we Democrats are fighting them very hard,” Schumer said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Hunter Biden IRS whistleblowers promoted at Treasury
IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler — who alleged the Justice Department slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden — were promoted to leadership positions at the Treasury Department on Tuesday.
The Treasury said in a press release that the two, who spent years investigating the Biden tax evasion case, would come to the department as senior advisers and “help us drive much-needed cultural reform within the IRS.”
“These veteran civil servants join us to help further the agency’s focus on collections, modernization, and customer service, so we can deliver a more effective and efficient IRS experience for hardworking American taxpayers,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Continue reading at The Hill
Texas, New Mexico measles outbreak grows to more than 300
The measles outbreak impacting Texas and New Mexico has now exceeded 300 cases, surpassing the number of measles cases reported in all of the U.S. last year.
According to the latest update from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), 279 measles cases have been reported in the state. In neighboring New Mexico, 38 cases have been confirmed as of Tuesday, totaling 317 cases across both states.
In all of 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed 285 cases nationally.
Continue reading at The Hill
Judge finds Elon Musk likely acted unconstitutionally in shuttering USAID
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang’s ruling in favor of 26 current and former USAID workers seeks to “delay a premature, final shutdown” of the agency while litigation continues.
His order requires DOGE to reinstate email and system access to current USAID employees and blocks DOGE personnel from taking “any actions relating” to the agency, without express permission of a USAID official with legal authority.
It marks the first time a judge has ruled that Musk is likely exercising enough independent authority to require him to be confirmed by the Senate under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
Continue reading at The Hill
Musk effort to dismantle USAID likely violated Constitution, judge rules
The ruling Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang appears to permit the Trump administration to ratify and maintain the draconian cuts.
But the ruling Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang appears to permit the Trump administration to ratify and maintain the draconian cuts — as long as they are ordered by USAID’s official leadership, rather than by Musk or his allies at DOGE.
Musk and DOGE “shall not take any action, or engage in any work, relating to the shutdown of USAID,” Chuang wrote in an injunction against the billionaire and his controversial cost-cutting initiative.
Chuang, an appointee of President Barack Obama, also ordered Musk and DOGE personnel to restore access to official computer systems for USAID employees, including those on administrative leave. The judge said Musk and DOGE can have no involvement in further staff reductions or contract cancellations.
In a 68-page opinion accompanying his injunction, Chuang said Musk and DOGE appeared to have violated the Constitution’s separation of powers when they “effectively eliminated” USAID and left the aid agency unable to perform even its basic, legally required functions.
Continue reading at Politico
Jordan sidesteps Jack Smith amid demands to interview ‘politically motivated’ DOJ figures
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded interviews from a series of Justice Department (DOJ) officials he accused of weaponizing the department, pushing to speak with several figures tied to President Trump’s criminal cases but failing to include special counsel Jack Smith.
The request from Jordan demands an interview with former special counsel David Weiss, who has already sat with the committee to discuss his work investigating Hunter Biden. This would be his first appearance, however, since producing a short report recapping the probe into the former president’s son.
The Ohio Republican also requested interviews with top prosecutors on Smith’s team, including J.P. Cooney and Thomas Windom.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump touts ‘energy and infrastructure’ ceasefire after call with Putin
“My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one. We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump and Putin spoke for nearly three hours earlier Tuesday, after which there appeared to be consensus that any pause in fighting would begin with a halt in attacks on energy infrastructure.
Continue reading at The Hill
Appeals court partially overturns Ohio ban on transgender care for minors
An Ohio appeals court declared Tuesday that a portion of a 2023 law banning gender-affirming medical care for minors is unconstitutional, ruling that a lower court erred in deciding the law does not infringe on the rights of parents or violate parts of the state’s constitution.
A three-judge panel for Ohio’s 10th District Court of Appeals reversed an August judgment that allowed House Bill 68 to take effect after a district court temporarily halted the measure’s enforcement last spring. The ruling sends the case back to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
Continue reading at The Hill
Treasury Department to cut IRS taxpayer advocate staff
The Trump administration is intending to make cuts to the office of the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) — its third announced staffing reduction at the Internal Revenue Service that comes amid a broader initiative to drastically reduce the federal workforce.
In response to a question from The Hill about reductions to the workforce of the NTA, which reports to Congress about IRS service levels and advocates individual taxpayer cases to the IRS, a Treasury Department spokesperson told The Hill that the agency was seeking to “right-size” its workforce.
“These adjustments to right-size the NTA will in no way negatively impact that mission nor service to taxpayers in any meaningful way,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said in a statement.
The confirmation of the NTA layoffs follows a report from The Washington Post that the NTA would lay off 25 percent of its staff.
Continue reading at The Hill
Chinese state media welcomes Trump’s cuts to Voice of America
Chinese state media is applauding President Trump’s decision over the weekend to shutter the government agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA).
“The so-called beacon of freedom, VOA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag,” the Chinese Global Times wrote in an editorial published this week, calling it “a frontline propaganda tool in the ideological confrontation of the Cold War.”
“When it comes to China-related reporting, VOA has an appalling track record,” the outlet wrote. “Perhaps the US government has also realized that continuing to waste substantial national funds on these outdated and ineffective institutions is neither meaningful nor in the best interest of the country.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Indian prime minister joins Trump’s Truth Social platform
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has joined President Trump’s Truth Social platform.
“Delighted to be on Truth Social! Looking forward to interacting with all the passionate voices here and engaging in meaningful conversations in the times to come,” Modi said in a post on Monday.
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrats push back on plans to use military installations as migrant detention centers
Democratic lawmakers are pushing back against Trump administration plans to detain thousands of immigrants living in the country illegally at U.S. military sites.
In a letter signed by nine Democrats and sent to the White House and Pentagon on Monday, the lawmakers question the use of military resources to hold and deport migrants, arguing the effort takes Defense personnel away from their mission.
“As you know, the mission of the Department of Defense (DoD) is to protect and defend our nation against military threats, not to conduct migrant detention, immigration enforcement, or deportation operations,” according to the letter, led by Democratic Reps. Veronica Escobar (Texas), Jason Crow (Colo.) and John Garamendi (Calif.).
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrats ask Trump to remove Patel as acting ATF director
Fourteen Democratic members of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, chaired by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), expressed “grave concerns” over Patel’s leadership position at the agency in a letter to Trump dated March 3 and shared on social media by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday.
“As you are aware, ATF is the lead law enforcement agency responsible for addressing the gun violence epidemic in our country. At a time when gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States, it is unconscionable that someone without experience fighting crime, responding to mass shootings or confronting domestic terrorism has been named as ATF’s Acting Director,” the Democrats wrote.
Continue reading at The Hill
European leaders warn Putin’s talk of peace is a mirage
Allies voice deep skepticism as Trump and Putin hold a 90-minute call.
NEW DELHI — As United States President Donald Trump pushes ceasefire talks with Russia, top European officials gathering for a security conference on the other side of the world warned that Vladimir Putin isn’t actually interested in any meaningful peace deal.
“There’s not a single indicator that Russia wants peace,” Baiba Braže, Latvia’s foreign minister said.
“We assess with absolute certainty that Russia has not changed any of its goals, that Putin continues to want all of Ukraine, all of it, total domination,” said Jonatan Vseviov, secretary-general of Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
These warnings underscore a deep sense of unease in European capitals over how far Trump, who portrays himself as the ultimate dealmaker, can actually get in clinching a viable peace deal with Putin.
After the Trump-Putin call, the White House said the two sides agreed that a “movement to peace” will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, meaning a halt to the attacks that are hurting both economies. However, there was no deal on a 30-day ceasefire, which will be the subject of talks beginning “immediately” in the Middle East.
Continue reading Politico Europe
Putin, in call with Trump, agrees to partial ceasefire in Ukraine
The deal, if Ukraine agrees, would spare energy infrastructure from attacks, but falls short of a broader pause on fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a partial 30-day ceasefire of attacks on energy infrastructure with Ukraine Tuesday, conceding little to President Donald Trump but keeping negotiations open for a broader deal to end the conflict.
The White House celebrated the news even though it fell short of the full 30-day pause that Ukraine had agreed to.
Russia “will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” and additional negotiations are being planned on the implementation of “a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the White House said in a readout.
Trump, in a social media post, described the call with Putin as “a very good and productive one,” and said the two share “an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump Plan To Eliminate Federal Taxes At $150K: What It Means In CA
If the proposal comes to pass, a vast majority of Californians would be eligible under it.
Impact on California Residents
If the proposal comes to pass, a vast majority of Californians would be eligible under it.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, California's median household income as of 2023 was $96,334. The median income is derived after dividing households into two groups: half having an income above the median and half having an income below it.
The state's per capita income for 2023 was $47,977, the census data show. The per capita income figure includes every adult and child in California. The state's population is hovering just under 40 million.
Continue reading at Patch.com
Trump ends diversity programming at the State Department
President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order eliminating diversity programming at the State Department, wiping out the Biden administration’s initiative to remove barriers to employment for underrepresented groups.
Trump’s order directs the State Department to remove the “‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility’ Core Precept from Foreign Service tenure and promotion criteria.”
The order further directs the U.S. government to not base Foreign Service recruitment, hiring, promotion or retention decisions on an individual’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
“Relevant agencies shall identify and take appropriate action regarding any Foreign Service Officer who knowingly and willfully engaged in illegal discrimination,” the order reads.
Continue reading at The Hill
Pentagon aims to cut up to 60,000 civilian jobs through buyouts, attrition
The Pentagon plans to cut 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs over the next several months via voluntary resignations and not replacing workers who leave, a senior defense official confirmed Tuesday.
With a goal of cutting 5 to 8 percent of the Defense Department’s civilian workforce of more than 900,000, Pentagon leadership is looking to weed out roughly 6,000 positions a month by not refilling roles as employees leave — either through retirement or moving to a job in the private sector.
The Pentagon also is going about the cuts in two additional ways: Voluntary resignations and firing probationary workers, the official said.
The outline is part of the broader effort by the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, to take an axe to the federal civilian workforce.
Continue reading at The Hill
Radio Free Europe sues after Trump administration halts funding
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sued Kari Lake and the Trump administration Tuesday over efforts to defund the organization.
Last week, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at eliminating the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which funds the radio station and Voice of America (VOA).
Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit says the radio station’s funding immediately froze and it has not been paid a $7.4 million invoice submitted Monday. The station claims the freeze undermines Congress’s power of the purse.
“Whether to disburse funds as directed by appropriations laws, and whether to make those funds available through grants as directed by the International Broadcasting Act, is not an optional choice for the agency to make. It is the law. Urgent relief is needed to compel the agency to follow the law,” the lawsuit states.
Continue reading at The Hill
Zelensky eager for details on Trump-Putin talk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday called for more details in President Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire with Russia that would spare energy and infrastructure targets, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin is pressuring Ukraine in ground operations.
Zelensky made his remarks in a press conference organized shortly after Trump held a phone call with Putin to discuss the terms of a potential ceasefire. Putin held back committing to a U.S.-pitched a ceasefire that Ukraine accepted last week and that would halt ground and air attacks.
“We support all steps aimed at the end of the war. We will support them. But in order to support them, we need to understand what exactly we support,” Zelensky said in remarks in Ukrainian and shared by Reuters.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump boots Democratic members at another federal regulator
FTC Democratic Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said they were “illegally fired.”
President Donald Trump ousted the Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday, the latest in a string of firings at agencies designed to be insulated from the White House.
“The president just illegally fired me,” wrote FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in a post on X Tuesday, who was booted alongside Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.
Bedoya added that he would be testifying Wednesday before the Colorado Joint House and Senate Judiciary Committees “and will have more to say then.”
In a statement, Slaughter said that her firing violated “the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent. Why? Because I have a voice. And he is afraid of what I’ll tell the American people.”
The FTC focuses on protecting consumers from deceptive business practices and promoting private-sector competition — a major plank of former President Joe Biden’s economic policy that sometimes aligned with now-Vice President JD Vance and other conservative populists.
Continue reading at Politico
As Trump cuts aid, EU leaders make plans to contain ISIS-linked camps
55,000 Islamic State-linked detainees are being held in Al Hol and Roj camps in northeastern Syria.
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s diplomatic arm will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday to deal with 55,000 ISIS-linked detainees, some of which are EU citizens, after the United States abruptly paused much of its aid to the two camps in Syria.
Al Hol and Roj camps have in recent years been seen as a means to contain the Islamic State, even more so since the ouster of dictator Bashar Assad in December 2024.
The meeting will be with all concerned services and cabinets, and EU partners, said two EU officials, granted anonymity to speak openly about the sensitive matter.
“The EU citizens there are not necessarily people member states will be rushing to welcome back in a disorganized manner,” said one of the officials.
The camps, run by U.S. Kurdish allies in Syria, relied primarily on international aid, including hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
'Trump attacking foundations of US liberal democracy & explicitly supporting anti-liberal populists'
France 24
National Security Daily
Why an ‘energy infrastructure’ ceasefire may be doable
Russian leader VLADIMIR PUTIN’s agreement to a ceasefire with Ukraine that covers energy-related infrastructure today is striking because that’s close to what Kyiv initially was pushing for — a limited ceasefire that included energy sites.
It was only under intense pressure from President DONALD TRUMP that Ukraine said it would go for a full, 30-day ceasefire. Putin wasn’t up for that either (at least not in any way Ukraine would accept). Instead he and Trump agreed simply to begin negotiations for a future “a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and a permanent peace,” according to the White House.
Now, both sides can keep up some fighting while avoiding, for example, power plants for a few weeks. (Russia’s readout of the call says the energy ceasefire is for 30 days; the White House readout didn’t offer a timeframe.)
A person familiar with the thinking in Kyiv told NatSec Daily that while Ukraine will be parsing the details as they emerge, there’s hope there that the readouts of the call can be taken at their word because they align with Ukraine’s earlier proposals. NatSec Daily granted the individual anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues.
But there’s certainly frustration inside some parts of the Ukrainian government that Kyiv won’t be able to hit Russia where it hurts the most: its sprawling network of oil refineries. Ukrainian member of parliament and soldier ROMAN LOZINSKYJ said in a Facebook post that “in essence, Putin has quietly confirmed to Trump how much our deep strikes are hurting the Russian energy sector. This is our card.”
Continue reading at Politico National Security Daily
JD Vance Maps Out a Future for the Tech and MAGA Right
The VP wants the competing factions of Trump’s base to stop bickering.
In recent months, as a testy war of words has begun to strain Donald Trump’s coalition of hardline MAGA populists and right-leaning Silicon Valley tech elites, one member of that alliance has remained surprisingly mum: Vice President JD Vance.
Vance’s silence has been especially conspicuous considering his unique position in the skirmish. A former Silicon Valley venture capitalist who rose to national prominence as the face of MAGA’s populist-nationalist wing, Vance sits at the center of the slow-simmering conflict that has been brewing between the so-called tech right — led by figures like Elon Musk and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen — and the populist right, championed by MAGA stalwarts like Steve Bannon. Yet even as the two leading factions of the Trump coalition have repeatedly clashed in recent months — over the Trump administration’s approach to immigration restrictions, tax policy, artificial intelligence and more — Vance has stayed studiously quiet.
But on Tuesday, Vance went public with a clear message to both factions: Squash the beef.
Vance’s comments, delivered at a high-profile tech summit in D.C. hosted by Andreesen’s venture capital firm, marked the vice president’s first public intervention in the ideological skirmish between the tech right and the populist right. But even more importantly, they suggested that, as speculation is already brewing about whether he will be Trump’s heir in 2028, Vance is angling to position himself as a moderator between the warring factions within MAGA.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
The SEC's retrenchment
The Securities and Exchange Commission is starting over Friday, hosting its first of a series of roundtables exploring the future regulation of crypto assets.
Why it matters: The agency has spent the first two months under the new administration making it clear that it intends to regulate by writing rules, rather than taking firms to court.
The big picture: Since Inauguration Day, which coincided with the departure of former SEC chair Gary Gensler, the securities regulator has backed off a lot of cases against crypto companies.
If you put all these cases built up during the Biden administration together, it illustrates a strategy of going after key elements of the industry.
It's like if you wanted to prevent movies from being made: You'd bring a case against a big talent agency, a few studios, a couple of theater chains and a distributor.
The heart of the crypto industry is trading, and the SEC went after more exchanges than any other category.
Zoom in: Probably the most impactful move came in February when it dropped its case against Coinbase, in which the SEC alleged the exchange had failed to register. The court agreed to the withdrawal this month.
Continue reading at Axios
Cyber council's demise shakes public-private sector trust
The Department of Homeland Security's quiet dismantling of a key cybersecurity council is raising alarms among experts who fear it could weaken intelligence sharing and make critical infrastructure more vulnerable to cyber threats.
Why it matters: The move has raised concerns across the cybersecurity community about whether the new Trump administration can be trusted to maintain sensitive relationships.
Driving the news: Earlier this month, DHS terminated the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC) alongside additional "discretionary" advisory bodies as part of a broader effort to streamline operations.
Unlike other advisory groups, CIPAC had unique legal standing within DHS, providing a protected forum for private sector and federal agencies to exchange threat intelligence, craft cybersecurity policies, and discuss risks to critical infrastructure.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the move aims to "eliminate redundancies to create a more efficient, streamlined department" and "minimize government waste, abuse, reduce inflation, and promote American freedom and innovation."
A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency spokesperson added that the agency is "taking this opportunity to review ways to improve information sharing and collaboration."
Continue reading at Axios
Nvidia and Yum Brands team up to expand AI ordering
Yum Brands — the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut — is teaming up with technology giant Nvidia in a move that could accelerate the adoption of AI ordering in drive-thrus.
Why it matters: The future of fast food is here with AI already taking orders at some restaurants' drive-thru lanes.
Driving the news: Yum — the world's largest restaurant company with more than 61,000 locations — and Nvidia announced an "industry-first collaboration" Tuesday.
It's Nvidia's first AI restaurant partnership and the technology will power and scale the fast-food company's existing Byte by Yum platform.
The big picture: Artificial intelligence can help restaurants simplify and speed up the drive-thru experience, which could boost sales and cut costs.
Continue reading at Axios
Democrats hammer GOP on Medicaid after weeks of turmoil
Democrats in Congress are attempting to reset after a chaotic few weeks with a "Medicaid Day of Action" on Tuesday aimed at putting Republicans back on the defensive.
Why it matters: The first half of March has been dominated by headlines about disruptions at President Trump's speech to Congress and internal divisions over shutting down the government.
Democrats are now trying to turn their attention back to what has been giving them and their grassroots allies juice since January: Republicans' planned reconciliation bill.
Republicans will likely have to pare down Medicaid spending to reach the spending cuts they need to pass roughly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
State of play: The Democratic Policy and Communications Committee — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-N.Y.) messaging arm — sent guidance to House offices urging them to hold Day of Action events.
Continue reading at Axios
West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government
The agency shakeup states might want
LATEST: A BLOW TO MUSK: A federal judge rebuked DOGE today for its efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, arguing that ELON MUSK’s efforts likely violate the Constitution, our JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY report. Still, the ruling from District Judge THEODORE CHUANG seems to permit the Trump administration to ratify and maintain the USAID cuts, as long as they are ordered by the agency’s leadership, not DOGE.
Musk and DOGE “shall not take any action, or engage in any work, relating to the shutdown of USAID,” Chuang wrote.
FEMA: BRACE FOR IMPACT: FEMA is poised for a shakeup. Some emergency management officials say it’s not a bad thing.
Last month, President DONALD TRUMP on Truth Social suggested “terminating” the federal agency, which he said was a “disaster” and had been “totally ineffective,” instead calling for emergency management to be handled by the states. It followed the president signing an executive order in January to review the agency — which he said showed “serious concerns of political bias” — and came after the administration froze millions of dollars in federal disaster aid and flood assistance, an order that has been challenged in court.
This is, however, a case where some emergency management officials are taking the president seriously but not literally. They’re hopeful Trump could usher in an overhaul of FEMA they think could be better both for the federal government and for states, by delegating more responsibility for emergency management to the latter.
“We all believe it’s long overdue. FEMA has become an easy button for states to say, ‘I need help,’ and press the FEMA easy button,” said PETER GAYNOR, a former Rhode Island emergency manager who served as FEMA administrator during the first Trump administration. “We all need to have a better balanced stake in recovery.”
Continue reading at Politico West Wing Playbook newsletter
Inter-American Foundation sues to block takeover as DOJ says Trump can appoint new leaders
The Justice Department (DOJ) on Tuesday defended the right of President Trump to dismantle two development organizations in the face of a lawsuit from the Inter-American Foundation (IAF).
Through its Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the DOJ said Trump was entitled to remove board members and appoint new ones without the advice and consent of the Senate.
“When no statute says otherwise, a President’s responsibility to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ grants him the concomitant authority to designate acting officers through whom he can temporarily maintain the constitutional chain of supervision over an organization created by Congress to perform executive functions,” the OLC wrote in its memo.
“The President needs time to appoint new Board members through the advice and consent process—particularly in the season of a presidential transition. He need not leave the foundations leaderless in the meantime.”
Continue reading at The Hill
EPA weighs elimination of research office
EPA weighs elimination of research office
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering the elimination of its science arm, according to documents reviewed by the Democratic staff of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
A plan reviewed by the committee staffers calls for the elimination of the Office of Research and Development as an EPA National Program Office. It called for the elimination of 50 percent to 75 percent of the office’s 1,540 staffers.
This office is the agency’s science branch and provides the underlying research that guides the EPA’s work to protect the public from pollution.
According to The New York Times, which first reported on the plan, it was presented to the White House on Friday for review.
Meanwhile, the EPA said that nothing is final.
Continue reading at The Hill’s environment newsletter
IRS taxpayer help office in crosshairs
Staff at IRS taxpayer help office on chopping block
The Internal Revenue Service is gearing up for another round of staffing reductions, as the Trump administration targets the office of the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA).
The key office reports to Congress about IRS service levels and advocates individual taxpayer cases to the IRS.
In response to a question from The Hill about reductions to the workforce of the NTA, a Treasury Department spokesperson said the agency was seeking to “right-size” its workforce.
“These adjustments to right-size the NTA will in no way negatively impact that mission nor service to taxpayers in any meaningful way,” the Treasury Department spokesperson said in a statement.
The confirmation of the layoffs follows a report from The Washington Post that the NTA would lay off 25 percent of its staff.
The Trump administration is also planning to get rid of nearly 20 percent of the IRS workforce in general, according to reports, though Treasury Department officials said Friday they didn’t have a specific number in mind for the overall staffing reduction at the national tax collection agency.
The IRS has already fired nearly 7,000 trial employees, more than 5,000 of whom were focused on tax compliance.
Continue reading at The Hill’s Business and Economy newsletter
FDA launches effort to review infant formulas
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new initiative Tuesday titled “Operation Stork Speed” aimed at reviewing infant formula ingredients and expanding available options.
According to the FDA, the goal of its new initiative is to ensure the “quality, safety, nutritional adequacy, and resilience of the domestic infant formula supply.”
In 2022, the U.S. infant formula supply was hampered following the temporary closure of Abbott Nutrition’s Michigan facility due to bacteria contamination. The FDA shut down the facility for months, and a nationwide recall was issued.
“The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement, calling this action “critical” to his Make America Healthy Again agenda.
Continue reading at The Hill
Pelosi shivs Schumer: ‘Don’t give away anything for nothing’
The former House speaker offered a sharp critique of the Senate minority leader over his decision to allow a vote on Republicans’ government funding bill.
SAN FRANCISCO — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a sharp critique of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday, suggesting he had forfeited a crucial bargaining chip by allowing a vote on Republicans’ government funding bill.
“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” Pelosi told reporters during a news conference at a children’s hospital in San Francisco. “I think that’s what happened the other day.”
Pelosi — who spoke during an event to oppose House Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid — said she still supports Schumer, her longtime ally who’s come under fire from within his own party in recent days over his decision to allow the GOP’s bill to avert a government shutdown through last Friday.
But Pelosi suggested that if Schumer hadn’t cleared the way, it would have given Democrats more leverage to fight proposed cuts to Medicaid and other social safety-net programs.
“We could have, in my view, perhaps, gotten them to agree to a third way,” Pelosi said. She said a potential outcome could have been a bipartisan continuing resolution to delay a shutdown for three to four weeks while negotiations continued.
She added, “They may not have agreed to it, but at least the public would have seen they’re not agreeing to it — and that then they would have been shutting (the) government down.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump: Roberts didn’t mention my name
President Trump said that Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement on Tuesday didn’t mention him by name while doubling down on his call to impeach a federal judge who ruled against his administration in a high-profile deportation case.
In an interview on Tuesday with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Trump was asked what his reaction was to Roberts stepping in to make a statement after Trump called for impeaching U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.
“He didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name. But many people have called for his impeachment. The impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is. He is radical left. He is Obama-appointed,” Trump said, according to an early clip shared on the social platform X.
Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama, blocked Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants the administration has labeled as gang members.
On Tuesday, Trump said that the decision to remove people from the U.S. should be left to the president.
Continue reading at The Hill
Texas AG announces multiple arrests over alleged illegal abortions
Texas AG makes multiple arrests over alleged illegal abortions
Ken Paxton this week announced the arrests of three people for allegedly providing abortions in the state, where nearly all abortions are outlawed and punishable with jail and fines.
Paxton, a Republican who has been Texas’s AG for a decade, announced Monday the arrest of certified nurse midwife Maria Margarita Rojas.
Rojas is accused of running a network of clinics in the Houston area that “unlawfully employed unlicensed individuals who falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals to provide medical treatment,” according to Paxton’s office.
Rojas’s case is one of the first to challenge the illegal operation of abortion clinics since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Jose Manuel Cendan Ley was arrested Monday and Rubildo Labanino Matos was arrested earlier in March. Ley, an employee of Rojas, has been accused of performing abortions illegally and for practicing medicine without a license along with Rojas. Matos was arrested in connection to the investigation.
Continue reading at The Hill
Judge blocks implementation of Trump transgender military ban
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, an appointee of former President Biden, barred Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military officials from implementing Trump’s order or otherwise putting new policy into place effectuating it. She also said the plaintiffs’ military statuses must remain unchanged, until further order of the court.
The judge said her order intends to “maintain the status quo” of military policy regarding transgender service that existed before Trump’s signed the order titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” She stayed her order until Friday, to give the administration time to appeal.
“The Court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals,” Reyes wrote in her opinion. “In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes.”
Continue reading at The Hill
National Archives releases JFK files at Trump’s direction
The National Archives has released numerous files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday at President Trump’s direction after he pledged to do so on the campaign trail and in office.
The release of the documents follows an executive order that Trump signed in January, just a few days after the start of his second term, to order the release of remaining federal government documents concerning the assassinations of JFK, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
It wasn’t immediately clear which, if any, documents have been released in some form or are entirely new to the public.
The order called on the director of national intelligence and attorney general to present a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release of records” related to JFK’s assassination.
Continue reading at The Hill
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sue over grant termination
The U.S. Agency for Global Media terminated the global news outlet’s federal grant Saturday, a move that would effectively gut its operation.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sued the U.S. Agency for Global Media and officials Kari Lake and Victor Morales on Tuesday, seeking to block the termination of the news platform’s federal grant funding.
USAGM on Saturday informed RFE/RL, along with Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, that it would terminate grants supporting their global news operations effective immediately, sparking global outrage as critics questioned the implications of the move for the future of the free press under the Trump administration.
The sudden termination came on the heels of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump late Friday calling for the elimination of the “non-statutory components” of several government entities, including USAGM.
In its suit, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty argues that funding its operations is a “statutory function” of USAGM. It further alleges that the agency’s refusal to disburse the federally allocated funds violates federal law, as RFE/RL is funded by Congress through USAGM to promote the free flow of information worldwide.
“Whether to disburse funds as directed by appropriations laws, and whether to make those funds available through grants as directed by the International Broadcasting Act, is not an optional choice for the agency to make. It is the law,” RFE/RL argues in the filing.
The suit also names Kari Lake, Trump-appointed special adviser to USAGM, and Victor Morales, acting chief executive officer of the agency.
Continue reading at Politico
Venezuela to face more sanctions if it won’t take its citizens back, Rubio says
The warning comes after Trump’s special envoy said the Maduro government had already agreed to take in repatriated citizens.
Venezuela will face new “severe and escalating” sanctions if it refuses to accept citizens being repatriated from the U.S., Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
The warning comes as the Trump administration seeks to increase the removal of migrants in the U.S. without legal status and ends a temporary residency program for about 350,000 Venezuelans who fled the economic collapse and authoritarian rule of President Nicolas Maduro.
“Unless the Maduro regime accepts a consistent flow of deportation flights, without further excuses or delays, the U.S. will impose new, severe, and escalating sanctions,” Rubio wrote on X.
The threat raised immediate questions because Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy tasked with securing the release of U.S. citizens imprisoned in Venezuela, announced Friday on X that the Maduro government had agreed to accept repatriation flights.
Continue reading at Politico
Laura Ingraham presses Trump on whether he’d defy a court order
Ingraham noted that the Trump administration’s decision to carry out the deportation flights despite a judge’s order directing the flights be turned around has sparked concerns from critics that the president would defy court orders he didn’t like.
“Well I think that, number one, nobody’s been through more courts than I have. I think nobody knows the courts better than I have … and what they’ve done to me — I’ve had the worst judges. I’ve had crooked judges,” Trump said.
“But going forward would you defy a court order? We all know that,” Ingraham interjected.
“I never did defy a court order,” Trump said.
“And you wouldn’t in the future?” Ingraham asked.
“No, you can’t do that,” Trump said. “However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to look at what do you do when you have a rogue judge.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Supreme Court wont delay Louisiana execution as Gorsuch, liberal justices dissent
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote declined to stop Louisiana from carrying out its first execution in 15 years later Tuesday with Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the court’s three liberal justices in agreeing to delay it.
Jessie Hoffman, 46, is set to be executed for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Molly Elliott, making Louisiana the second state to carry out an execution by nitrogen gas. The Supreme Court has also declined to step in since Alabama began employing the method last year.
Five of the court’s conservatives — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — refused Hoffman’s final appeal to delay his execution without comment.
The three liberal justices dissented in that decision, joined by Gorsuch, President Trump’s first appointee to the court.
Continue reading at The Hill
Las Vegas police searching for suspect after Teslas set on fire, seemingly shot
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said during a press conference that at around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday, his police department got multiple “911 calls about a fire at a Tesla collision and sales center.” He said that multiple vehicles were burning when officers got to the scene.
“I can tell you that we believe the suspect approached the business wearing all black clothing, and he used what appeared to be Molotov cocktails and a firearm to conduct his attack. At least five Tesla vehicles were damaged, to include two of which were engulfed in flames,” he said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Zelensky says Ukraine civilian infrastructure hit after Trump-Putin call
“Unfortunately, there have been hits, specifically on civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said in a post on the social platform X. “A direct hit by a ‘Shahed’ drone on a hospital in Sumy, strikes on cities in the Donetsk region, and attack drones currently in the skies over the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.
“It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night is no exception shows that the pressure on Russia must continue for the sake of peace,” he added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Deadline approaches for claiming $1,400 stimulus check from 2021
The deadline is approaching for the more than 1.1 million Americans who have yet to claim their $1,400 stimulus check from the pandemic-era relief.
The deadline to claim a stimulus check is April 15, 2025, but individuals may only be eligible to receive it if they did not file their 2021 tax return, the IRS noted.
The funds will be directly deposited into eligible taxpayers’ bank accounts or sent via a paper check to the address on file.
The Recovery Rebate Credit is a refundable credit for people who did not receive one or more COVID-19 stimulus payments.
The IRS began issuing payments to people who were eligible in December 2024.
In December, the agency said it found many eligible taxpayers who filed a return but didn’t claim the available credit. Those filers were able to receive their payment from the IRS by January.
Continue reading at The Hill
Officials detain immigration activist who sheltered in church in 2017
Jeanette Vizguerra, a Colorado advocate for immigrants who sheltered in a church for months in 2017, was detained by officials on Monday, local advocates said.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition demanded the immediate release of Vizguerra after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained her at her workplace.
“Jeanette is a pilar of the community and has supported countless families,” the organization said in a statement. “ICE had no reason to detain her—this cruel and unnecessary action is causing irreparable harm to her family and community.”
The group said it was clear Vizguerra was targeted for her criticism of deportation and her advocacy for the immigrant community.
“ICE’s actions raise serious due process concerns, and her attorneys are working to correct the legal errors behind her detention,” the organization said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Inside House Democrats' anti-Schumer vent sessions
Why it matters: Some House members are urging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) behind closed doors to mount a primary bid against the New York senator in 2028.
"From the threads I am on, [people are] pissed off ... and not just the typical lefties," one House Democrat told Axios on the condition of anonymity to share details of members' private communications.
A senior House Democrat said of their colleagues' mood toward Schumer: "His popularity is hovering somewhere between Elon Musk and the Ebola virus."
A third House Democrat who represents a swing district, when asked about Schumer, responded sarcastically: "Who?"
State of play: Schumer invited the lower chamber's wrath last week by supporting a Republican stopgap spending bill that virtually all House Democrats had voted against.
Many Democrats in both chambers wanted to use the measure — and the threat of a government shutdown — to force limitations on DOGE's ability to lay off federal workers and cut whole programs and agencies.
But Schumer argued that such a plan would ultimately backfire by empowering President Trump's downsizing efforts.
Jeffries, after initially dodging questions about Schumer, spoke with his Senate counterpart on Sunday and said Tuesday he supports his fellow New Yorker continuing as Senate leader.
What we're hearing: Rank-and-file House Democrats' anger toward Schumer has continued to simmer and spill over into their internal discussions this week, according to more than half a dozen House Democrats.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump administration ends "segregated facilities" ban in federal contracts
The Trump administration has announced the federal government will no longer unequivocally prohibit contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.
Why it matters: The change announced last month in an overlooked public memo is a symbolic move, first reported by NPR, and comes after President Trump revoked President Lyndon Johnson's decades-old order diversity and affirmative action practices in the federal government.
The big picture: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as many state laws, still makes segregated facilities illegal in all businesses, including federal contractors.
Yes, but: Critics say the recent change sends a message about the government's priorities and potentially eliminates a crucial enforcement tool.
The change follows the Trump administration's reinterpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism," rather than discrimination against people of color.
Zoom in: A public memo the General Services Administration issued said the change was needed after Trump revoked LBJ's 60-year-old executive order requiring federal contractors to refrain from employment discrimination.
Continue reading at Axios
Scoop: Dems target GOP "cowards" for avoiding town halls
Democrats are slamming vulnerable Republicans for avoiding town halls — launching a billboard campaign and scheduling their own Q&As in competitive districts, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's a town hall war, with both parties accusing the other of being afraid of their voters.
The DNC is targeting nine of the most vulnerable House Republicans with a billboard campaign launching Wednesday — as they prepare to hold their own town halls featuring top Democrats in the same competitive districts.
Minnesota Governor and VP candidate Tim Walz kicked off the town hall campaign over the weekend in Iowa and Nebraska.
Zoom in: The new DNC billboards will say that lawmakers "won't talk to his/her constituents," and include the member's office phone number — urging people to call and demand a town hall.
The campaign will target:
See the list and continue reading at Axios
What to know about James Boasberg, judge Trump is targeting for impeachment
Boasberg's background
Boasberg, also known as "Jeb," has been the chief judge of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia since 2023, according to his court bio.
The native Washingtonian received his B.A. in history from Yale College, where he also played basketball, in 1985. He then received an M.St. in Modern European History from Oxford University in 1986 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990.
He lived with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during law school.
Legal career: Boasberg served as a law clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, after which he was a litigation associate in San Francisco and then in Washington.
In 1996, he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia as an assistant U.S. Attorney, where he served for more than five years and specialized in homicide prosecutions.
Then-President George W. Bush in 2002 gave Boasberg his first job on the bench as an associate judge of the D.C. Superior Court, where served in the civil and criminal divisions and the domestic violence branch.
He was then appointed to the federal bench in 2011 by then-President Obama.
Continue reading at Axios
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