– The FBI arrests Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly helping a man escape from immigration agents. According to the FBI, this amounts to deliberately misleading federal agents in her courtroom.
– Trump reiterates in an interview with TIME that he is not “trolling” with his idea to add Canada as the 51st state. He wants Canada and Greenland because they are both important to US national and international security. He also says he does not want to use “loopholes” to seek a third term, despite previous comments to that effect. He also refuses to respond to questions about a possible vice presidential run with JD Vance as the presidential candidate in 2028. Finally, he says Crimea will remain with Russia.
– The Trump administration cancels a $3.8 billion contract to build a detention center in Texas shortly after it was awarded, saying the contract was terminated “for practical reasons.” The plan for the camp remains in place, and a new tender is being prepared.
– Attorney General Bondi tells Fox: “What’s happened to our justice system is beyond me. They’re confused. We’re sending a very clear message today. We’re coming after you and we’re going to prosecute you. We’re going to find you.”
– The Kennedy Center is canceling multiple LGBTQ+ events planned for the World Pride festival in Washington.
– The Department of Education is investigating the New York Department of Education, which is threatening to withhold funding from a local school district over the use of a Native American mascot that it considers culturally inappropriate.
– Trump takes to social media to say that the agreement on US access to Ukrainian minerals is still pending. He says Zelenskyy hasn’t signed the paperwork for “at least three weeks” and urges immediate action.
– Trump claims to have signed 200 trade deals but refuses to say which countries. He promises to provide more details about the deals in the coming weeks, once negotiations are complete.
– The Trump administration is rolling back Biden’s policy that strengthened press protections in leak investigations. The Justice Department is resuming subpoenas to journalists in leak investigations and making it easier to obtain phone and email records.
– ICE is restoring the residency status of more than 1,200 international students after it was recently abruptly terminated without notice to the students or their institutions. Judges had already issued temporary injunctions to restore their records to the ICE system.
– The Justice Department is restoring funding for the National Crime Victims Hotline after outcry over the shutdown.
Fallout
– National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman Panchanathan is stepping down early after sweeping reforms and deep budget cuts under the Trump administration. Under DOGE, the NSF cut hundreds of jobs and more than $230 million in research funding. Panchanathan says he did everything he could. He was known for his commitment to innovation and inclusivity in science and technology.
– The Lancet medical journal is calling for Robert Kennedy to resign as science and healthcare institutions in the US are being dismantled. According to the journal, they are being “violently dismantled” while the world watches.
– The Trump administration is considering making Christian Afghan refugees an exception to the cancellation of their residency status.
– Michael Alexander Gloss, a 21-year-old American, was killed earlier this month during fighting in Ukraine. He was fighting on the Russian side. His details appear in a leaked Russian medical file, which shows he signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in September 2023. His mother is Julianne Gallina Gloss, deputy director for digital innovation at the CIA.
– A memo obtained by USA TODAY shows that the Trump administration ordered law enforcement nationwide on March 14 to detain and, in some cases, enter homes of immigrants suspected of being members of criminal gangs without warrants. Law enforcement officials are given discretion to act on their “reasonable belief” and enter homes “if necessary” without first obtaining a search or arrest warrant.
– The ACLU has added Andry Hernandez Romero, the openly gay hairdresser and makeup artist, as lead plaintiff in its class action against the Alien Enemies Act in Washington, D.C. They allege that the U.S. is the de facto party to the detention of people at El Salvador.
– Suspending US aid for HIV treatment is expected to lead to 150,000 additional deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years, according to research by Erasmus MC. The cuts under Trump have not only disrupted healthcare, but also undermined groundbreaking HIV and tuberculosis research in South Africa.
– Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the intelligence service, has three employees prosecuted for leaking classified information to the Washington Post, New York Times and HuffPost.
– Putin ignores Trump’s call to stop the attacks on Ukraine and launches deadly kamikaze planes. Several people are killed in the attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.
– Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter reports that the US has plans for ‘privileged’ trade negotiations with 15 countries, including Switzerland, to reach deals on import duties. It is unknown which countries these are, apart from Switzerland.
– British and Irish academics are canceling trips to US conferences over immigration risks. They are concerned about the tightening of checks under Trump, including the possible confiscation of phones and questions about their work.
– People with disabilities in ICE detention centers are complaining of overcrowding and lack of care, The Guardian reports. They are experiencing severe neglect, including being denied medical care and necessary prosthetics, making their situations life-threatening.
– US consumer confidence has fallen 32 percent in three months, the biggest drop since 1990, partly due to uncertainty over trade policy and high tariffs.
– Judge Dugan appears briefly in court and is then released. Her lawyer for Judge Dugan says she regrets and disputes the arrest warrant, and that it was not executed in the interest of public safety.
– Lawyers point to court documents showing that Dugan’s alleged “escape aid” is questionable because SWAT officers were in the lobby and elevator with the immigrant immediately afterward and could have easily apprehended him.
– The Atlantic reports that government officials were exploring options to bring Garcia back from El Salvador until the White House intervened and halted the effort.
– A federal judge blocks a portion of Trump’s executive order that would have restricted the collective bargaining rights of hundreds of thousands of federal employees. The order applies to about 36 agencies where the National Treasury Employees Union operates.
– Several cities in Republican-led states, including Columbus and Houston, are suing the Trump administration for withholding billions in federal health care funds that they say Congress has already approved.
– Nineteen states are suing the Trump administration to prevent the Department of Education from withholding funding from states that enforce diversity policies in education.
– There has been a lot of criticism in the media and from lawyers about Trump’s memorandum in which he wants to investigate ActBlue. It is the progressive platform for financing political campaigns and that Trump wants to attack a platform of his political rivals is seen by them as a direct attack on the free election process.
– Journalists say the new Justice Department policy seriously undermines press freedom and could lead to arrests of journalists. They point out that, as in the Watergate affair and the revelations about the wiretapping practices after 9/11, strong protections for journalists are crucial to revealing important information.
– A federal judge expresses concern after a Honduran woman was deported to Honduras with her 2-year-old American daughter, despite the father’s efforts to keep her in the US. After the woman is arrested, the father is given only one minute to consult by phone about the child. The judge rules that an American citizen has been deported without a trial and schedules a hearing on the case for May 16.
– A judge delays the opening of an ICE office on Rikers Island, delaying Mayor Eric Adams’ plans. The New York City Council complains that cooperation with federal immigration authorities harms immigrants and threatens their safety.
– Environmental groups are raising concerns about Trump’s decision to accelerate deep-sea mining, saying it harms ecosystems and ignores the ongoing process of updating and revising international rules.
– Former Republican congressman George Santos is sentenced to more than seven years in prison for fraud and identity theft. He stole campaign money and used donors’ credit card information to pay for luxury goods, travel and cosmetic treatments. He also lied about his race and his resume and stole money from at least three elderly people. Santos criticizes the sentence and calls on Trump to intervene.
– TIME asks whether Trump agrees with John Adams’ statement that America is a country “ruled by laws, not by men.” Trump responds that someone has to enforce the law. “I wouldn’t agree with it 100%. We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you’re going to have honest men like me.”
– A federal judge in California blocks the Trump administration from deporting a Venezuelan prisoner under the Alien Enemies Act without giving him at least 14 days to appeal.
– Former Chief Legal Officer Eric Epstein is forced out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after 32 years of service. Epstein is considered the chief architect of the Biden administration’s gun policy. He wrote the rules against ‘ghost guns’ and gun sales without background checks.
– There has been much criticism of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw a plan to limit salmonella levels in raw poultry. Critics also point out that Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the country’s largest chicken processors, appears to have effectively bribed Trump through a trick. The company was the largest donor to Trump’s inaugural fund with a donation of five million.
– News site Axios says that Musk arrived in Washington as the most powerful political outsider ever, but leaves with a damaged reputation, broken relationships, businesses in crisis, a shrunken fortune and little else but chaos and disputed budget cuts around DOGE.
– Tammy Baldwin calls the arrest of a sitting judge a serious and drastic step that threatens the separation of powers. She says that Trump is undermining democratic values with his attacks on the judiciary and ignoring court orders.
– Student journalists are increasingly being asked to edit articles or remove names due to deportation fears among international students. Media organizations are calling on them to be more cautious about transparency to protect those involved.
