Trump task force to review Harvard’s funding after Columbia bows to federal demands. See a recap.

Tonya Alanez Globe Staff

With nearly $9 billion in federal funding at stake at Harvard University for perceived failures to protect Jewish students , the school’s president issued a letter of resolve Monday, saying that although the institution has adopted many reforms “to combat antisemitism” over the last year, “we still have much work to do.”

“If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation,” President Alan M. Garber wrote in the five-paragraph letter.

“Much is at stake here,” the letter said. “In longstanding partnership with the federal government, we have launched and nurtured pathbreaking research that has made countless people healthier and safer, more curious and more knowledgeable, improving their lives, their communities, and our world.”

“But we are not perfect,” Garber wrote. “Antisemitism is a critical problem that we must and will continue to address.”

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New York Times

The University of Minnesota graduate student who was detained by immigration agents last week had not participated in campus activism or been outspoken about political issues, according to a lawsuit he filed Sunday in federal court challenging the legality of his arrest.

Instead, the issue that appears to have put the student, Dogukan Gunaydin, on the radar of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is more mundane: a 2023 drunken-driving case in which he pleaded guilty.

After the university disclosed in a statement Friday night that a student had been taken into immigration custody, there was rampant speculation that the incident was related to pro-Palestinian activism, as has been the case at several other universities.

But no evidence of activism emerged in the case of Gunaydin, 28, a Turkish citizen who was pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. In an emailed statement, the Homeland Security Department said that Gunaydin had been arrested after the State Department revoked his visa over the DUI case. “This is not related to student protests,” the statement said.

Immigration lawyers and other experts say they worry that the detention may signal a new front in the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement.

New York Times

Elon Musk visited CIA headquarters Monday to discuss his efforts to downsize the government as a federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider its firings of employees who had been assigned to diversity recruiting.

The CIA in February moved to fire some of the people who had worked on diversity issues, pursuant to an executive order from President Donald Trump and guidance from his administration.

The court initially declined to block that move. But on Monday, Judge Anthony Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered the agency to grant appeals to 51 officers and consider them for other jobs at the CIA, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Officials would not describe in detail the nature of Musk’s visit. But CIA Director John Ratcliffe has been shrinking the agency and considering a wider reorganization.

Associated Press

A federal judge on Monday paused plans by the Trump administration to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a week before they were scheduled to expire.

The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco is a relief for 350,000 Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was scheduled to expire April 7. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the National TPS Alliance and TPS holders across the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also announced the end of TPS for an estimated 250,000 additional Venezuelans in September.

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Associated Press

As they readied to leave work Monday, some workers at the Food and Drug Administration were told to pack their laptops and prepare for the possibility that they wouldn’t be back, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

Nervous employees — roughly 82,000 across the nation’s public health agencies — waited to see whether pink slips would arrive in their inboxes. The mass dismissals have been expected since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week a massive reorganization that will result in 20,000 fewer jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services. About 10,000 will be eliminated through layoffs.

The email sent to some at the FDA said staffers should check their email for a possible notice that their jobs would be eliminated, which would also halt their access to government buildings. An FDA employee shared the email with AP on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to disclose internal agency matters.

By the Associated Press

Trump said Woods had called to tell him about the relationship with Vanessa Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump Jr., and the mother of their five children.

The golfer recently confirmed the once-secret relationship in a social media post.

Asked about the possibility of Woods becoming a member of the Trump family, the president said, “Let ‘em both be happy. They’re both great.”

“He told me about it, and I said, ‘Tiger, that’s good. That’s good.’ And I’m very happy for both,” Trump said.

By the Associated Press

“Enacting tax cuts for the wealthy will mean the Treasury has to borrow trillions of dollars more than it otherwise would, and billionaires win while working families pay the price,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the ranking Democrats on the Budget and Finance committees in a letter to GOP leadership.

As Senate Republicans push their framework forward, the Democrats said it is “an obscene fraud and the American people won’t stand for it.”

By the Associated Press

Trump says the trip will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and possibly the United Arab Emirates and “other places also.”

Trump previewed the trip, which could come as soon as May, saying he wants to reward Saudi Arabia for its investment in the US and says all three Gulf countries would be making commitments to creating jobs in the US during his trip. He didn’t detail the other potential stops.

By the Associated Press

“That’s a big deal. That’s a very big deal,” Trump said of the conviction and sentencing of the far-right leader in France. “I know all about it. And a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything.”

A French court on Monday convicted Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years — a hammer blow to her presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.

“It sounds like this country,” Trump said.

By the Associated Press

Trump says he’s considering nominating former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and his special envoy Ric Grenell among others to serve as US Ambassador to the UN.

Trump pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination last week over concerns for Republicans holding their narrow majority in the House. Trump says he’s had a lot of interest from people seeking to fill the role, calling it “a star-making position.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley served in the role at the beginning of Trump’s first term in office. She later unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

By the Associated Press

Trump, who met with leader Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, said Monday “there is communication” between the two countries. He called the line of dialog “important” because the North is a nuclear power, and said he and Kim would “probably do something at some point.”

The isolated country previously refused outreach from former president Joe Biden’s administration.

By the Associated Press

The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco is a relief for 350,000 Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was scheduled to expire April 7. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the National TPS Alliance and TPS holders across the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also announced the end of TPS for an estimated 250,000 additional Venezuelans in September.

Chen said in his ruling that the action by Noem “threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”

By the Associated Press

The hypothetical matchup would require repealing the 22nd Amendment — which limits presidents to two terms — to bring about in reality.

The remarks come as Trump continues to muse about seeking a third term in office. “They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that, but I have not looked into it,” Trump told reporters about seeking a third term in the Oval Office.

He said of facing off against former President Barack Obama: “That would be a good one.”

By the Associated Press

Trump introduced Kid Rock as his friend, and said he’s sometimes known as “Bob.”

Trump said he didn’t know too much about the issue, “but I checked it out and it is a big problem,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

The president signed an executive order Monday that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “common-sense” changes to the pricing for live entertainment events.

Kid Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, wore a bedazzled red suit with American flag and eagle motifs. He said artists never see any of that money and that the issue isn’t political.

By the Associated Press

Secretary Scott Bessent and the White House’s chair of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett arrived on Capitol Hill for an evening huddle as Republicans try to resolve differences on what the president has called a “big, beautiful bill.”

GOP leaders are pushing this week to launch initial voting on a framework of some $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. But they are at odds over various provisions, including how much to offset the costs with spending cuts.

By Hilary Burns and Mike Damiano, Globe Staff

The Trump administration announced Monday it will “review” nearly $9 billion of federal funding for Harvard University and its affiliates, such as area hospitals, in an effort to “root out antisemitism,” according to the government’s antisemitism task force.

The announcement comes 10 days after the task force secured extraordinary concessions from Columbia University in a similar review that placed nearly $5 billion of that school’s federal funding at risk.

Directly targeting Harvard is a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on elite universities and what it describes as their failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitism and harassment. That campaign also includes arresting and threatening to deport international students linked to the pro-Palestinian campus movement, including a Tufts University graduate student who was arrested in Somerville last week.

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By the Associated Press

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to make fitness standards for all combat jobs gender neutral, formalizing a process that largely exists for many of those jobs already.

In a new memo, Hegseth told leaders of the military branches to distinguish which jobs are considered combat arms — such as special operations or infantry that require “heightened entry level and sustained physical fitness” — and which are not.

The new order reflects Hegseth’s public complaints about fitness standards well before he took on the Pentagon job. While working as a Fox News commentator, Hegseth spoke about his opposition to women in combat jobs and his belief that standards were lowered to accommodate women.

The order, however, could require some complicated assessments as all the services try to determine which jobs are classified as combat. Should all intelligence officers who often serve on the front lines count? Or should all sailors on a warship that’s under fire be considered combat arms? The services have 60 days to come up with answers.

By the Associated Press

The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund are suing the Trump administration over his sweeping executive order to overhaul the nation’s elections, including through a proof-of-citizenship requirement and new mail ballot deadline restrictions.

The lawsuit argues Trump’s order is unconstitutional and asks a court to block its implementation.

The lawsuit names three nonprofit plaintiffs it alleges are harmed by Trump’s demands: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students’ Association.

This marks the first major legal challenge to last week’s executive order, which election lawyers have warned may violate the Constitution and assert power the president doesn’t have over an independent agency.

Trump and his supporters have maintained the order is necessary to secure US elections.

By the Associated Press

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he is closing a one-room museum at the agency’s Washington headquarters, saving taxpayers about $600,000 a year.

Zeldin, who has vowed to slash agency spending, said in a video posted Monday that the museum cost $4 million to build and attracted fewer than 2,000 visitors since it opened last year.

The museum is “yet another example of waste by the Biden administration,” he said in the video, which was filmed in the museum. The project was overly focused on environmental justice and climate change, two Biden administration priorities, Zeldin said.

While admission is free, the museum’s operating costs — coupled with low attendance — means it costs taxpayers about $315 per visitor, he said.

“This shrine to EJ (environmental justice) and climate change will now be shut down for good,‘’ Zeldin said.

By the Associated Press

The move is a sign of Trump’s tightening grip over a law enforcement agency known for its long tradition of political independence.

On Friday, an assistant US attorney in Los Angeles was fired without explanation in a terse email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office shortly after a right-wing activist posted about him on social media, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were concerned about potential retribution.

That followed the White House’s firing last week of a longtime prosecutor who had been serving as acting US attorney in Memphis.

Justice Department political appointees typically turn over with a new administration, but rank-and-file career prosecutors remain with the department across presidential administrations and have civil service protections designed to shield them from being fired for political reasons. The breadth of terminations this year far outpaces the turnover typically seen inside the Justice Department.

By the Associated Press

The executive order he is set to sign Monday would direct federal authorities to prioritize cracking down on ticket scalpers and others who profit from reselling entertainment tickets to consumers at a markup.

The White House says Trump will call on the Federal Trade Commission to enforce an Obama-era law that outlawed the use of bots to purchase a large number of tickets for the purpose of resale. He’s also calling for price transparency in the ticketing industry, so consumers will know the true value of what they’re purchasing on the secondary market.

It’s one area where Trump and his predecessor, President Joe Biden, have agreed, as the Democrat sought to crack down on so-called “junk fees” across industries during his term in office.

By the Associated Press

“You guys keep asking the question,” Majority Leader John Thune said. And Trump is just “having some fun with it,” he said, “probably messing with you.”

By the Associated Press

The IMLS provides hundreds of millions of dollars each year in grants to libraries, museums and other cultural and educational institutions. According to a statement from the union representing the 77 IMLS employees, “all work processing 2025 applications has ended” and the status of previous grants is unclear.

The institute was among several agencies targeted earlier this month in Trump’s executive order that called for cutting federal organizations the president has “determined are unnecessary.”

On March 20, Trump replaced the institute’s acting director, Cyndee Landrum, with Keith Sonderling, who had recently been confirmed as deputy secretary of the Department of Labor. Sonderling said in a statement at the time that he was committed to “steering this organization in lockstep with this Administration.”

The decision to place IMLS employees on administrative leave was first reported by the independent journalist Marisa Kabas.

By Hilary Burns, Globe Staff

After canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for Columbia University and securing extraordinary concessions from the school’s leadership, the Trump administration has turned its attention to Harvard, announcing Monday that it will “review” nearly $9 billion of promised federal funding for the school and its affiliates.

The departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the US General Services Administration said in a Monday press release that it would begin a “comprehensive review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University and its affiliates,” as part of the government’s joint task force to combat antisemitism.

Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The task force said it will review more than $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard, its affiliates, and the federal government. The review also includes the more than $8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard and affiliated institutions, which could include hospitals such as Boston Children’s Hospital and Mass General Brigham, “to ensure the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities.”

“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations – the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination - all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry - has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”

By the Associated Press

Top agenda items for the meeting this week in Brussels include the Russia-Ukraine war, US efforts to end the conflict, European security and threats from China.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will leave Wednesday to attend the NATO meeting and hold separate bilateral talks with allied counterparts on Thursday and Friday, the State Department said Monday. Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the conversation would also include security priorities for the alliance and preparations for the upcoming NATO leaders summit to be held in the Netherlands this summer.

Trump has alarmed European allies by suggesting that NATO is obsolete and threatening not to defend them unless they meet minimum defense spending criteria.

By the Associated Press

President Trump is taking a blowtorch to the rules that have governed world trade for decades. The “reciprocal’’ tariffs he’s expected to announce Wednesday are likely to create chaos for global businesses and conflict with America’s allies and adversaries alike.

Since the 1960s, tariffs — or import taxes — have emerged from negotiations between dozens of countries. Trump wants to seize the process.

“Obviously, it disrupts the way that things have been done for a very long time,‘’ said Richard Mojica, a trade attorney at Miller & Chevalier. “Trump is throwing that out the window ... Clearly this is ripping up trade. There are going to have to be adjustments all over the place.‘’

Pointing to America’s massive and persistent trade deficits — not since 1975 has the US sold the rest of the world more than it’s bought — Trump charges that the playing field is tilted against US companies. A big reason for that, he and his advisers say, is because other countries usually tax American exports at a higher rate than America taxes theirs.

Trump has a fix: He’s raising US tariffs to match what other countries charge.

By the Associated Press

No suspect has been named in the Sunday morning blaze in Albuquerque that’s under investigation by local authorities, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Incendiary materials were found on the scene, according to an ATF spokesperson. Spray paint on the side of the building read “ICE=KKK,” said Lt. Jason Fejer with Albuquerque Fire Rescue. Fejer said federal officials were taking over the arson investigation.

Republican leaders described the fire as a deliberate attack. The building had extensive smoke damage, which Republican party spokesperson Ash Soular said left the offices uninhabitable.

The weekend fire followed vandalism across the US in recent weeks targeting dealerships for Tesla, the electric car company owned by Elon Musk, who’s leading Trump’s efforts to slash the federal workforce.

By the Associated Press

Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer, was tried alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes but acquitted of seditious conspiracy — the most serious charge brought in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Caldwell’s pardon is dated March 20. Defense attorney David Fischer said he informed Caldwell of the pardon Monday after learning about it from news reports.

“And he’s elated,” Fischer added.

A jury convicted Caldwell of obstructing Congress on Jan. 6 and of obstructing justice for tampering with documents after the riot. One of those convictions was dismissed in light of a US Supreme Court ruling last year.

On Jan. 10, US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Caldwell to time served with no supervised release. Prosecutors had recommended four years in prison for Caldwell.

Ten days later, on his first day back in the White House, Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the Capitol riot. Trump commuted the sentences of several defendants who were leaders and members of the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys extremist groups.

By the Associated Press

Jason Galanis, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence for various fraud schemes, is the second Hunter Biden associate to get clemency from Trump. Last week, he pardoned Devon Archer, a onetime business partner of the son of former President Joe Biden.

Galanis testified via video last year in the House impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Galanis told lawmakers he expected to make “billions” with Hunter Biden and other associates, using the Biden family name in their foreign business dealings.

Galanis described a particular time in May 2014 when Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for a brief chat with potential foreign business partners — a Russian oligarch and her husband — during a party at a New York restaurant.

But Hunter Biden directly rebuffed involvement with Galanis in his own deposition, testifying he met Galanis for about 30 minutes 10 years ago.

In earlier testimony, Galanis acknowledged he unsuccessfully sought a pardon in the final days of Trump’s first term.

By the Associated Press

Those six sanctioned by the State Department on Monday include Hong Kong’s secretary of justice and its police commissioner.

The sanctions are over their role in the extraterritorial enforcement of a security law that’s targeted nearly 20 pro-democracy activists, including one US citizen and four other US residents. The US government said the six sanctioned officials “have engaged in actions or policies that threaten to further erode the autonomy of Hong Kong in contravention of China’s commitments, and in connection with acts of transnational repression.”

Also sanctioned were two assistant police commissioners, the Beijing official heading the Hong Kong office on safeguarding national security, and a top Hong Kong official serving on the committee of safeguarding national security. The sanctioned officials will see their property and interests in the U.S. blocked from transactions.

The Hong Kong police in 2023 issued arrest warrants for five overseas-based activists and offered rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) for information leading to each of their arrests.

By the Associated Press

The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city filed the complaint in state court Monday saying the Trump administration and the private company GEO Group moved ahead with opening a new 1,000-bed immigration detention center without getting the proper permits.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement that the administration and the company failed to get construction and other permits in violation of city ordinances and state law. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced last month the opening of a detention center in Newark, saying it would be the first to open under the president’s second administration.

Baraka is one of six Democrats running for governor in New Jersey this year. Messages seeking comment were left with ICE and GEO Group.

By the Associated Press

President Trump has just started his second term, his last one permitted under the US Constitution. But he’s already started talking about serving a third one.

“There are methods which you can do it,” Trump insisted to NBC News in a telephone interview Sunday.

That follows months of Trump making quips about a third term, despite the clear constitutional prohibition on it. “Am I allowed to run again?” Trump joked during a House Republican retreat in Florida in January. Just a week after he won election last fall, Trump suggested in a meeting with House Republicans that he might want to stick around after his second term was over.

Trump’s musings often spark alarm among his critics even when they’re legally impossible, given that he unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss and has since pardoned supporters who violently attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But Trump, who will be 82 when his term ends, has also repeatedly said this will be his last term. Trying for another also would flatly violate the Constitution.

By the Associated Press

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said National Security Adviser Mike Waltz continues to have Trump’s confidence and that it was done discussing the embarrassing matter of senior officials communicating about plans for an airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen on a commercial messaging app.

“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” Leavitt said.

Waltz added a journalist to the sensitive group chat on the platform Signal, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth divulged operational details on the strike and Vice President JD Vance discussed his reservations about the operation.

Leavitt said “there have been steps made to ensure that something like that can, obviously, not happen again,” but did not provide any clarity on what those steps were. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for an investigation into the sensitive conversation playing out on Signal.

By the Associated Press

He’ll be joined in the Rose Garden by his Cabinet, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Monday.

Leavitt said Trump believes “it’s time for reciprocity” but said the details of the announcement — which have roiled the financial markets — are up to Trump to announce. She said Trump had been presented with several proposals by his advisers but the president would make a final decision and, right now, Trump wasn’t contemplating any country-wide exemptions from the tariffs.

By the Associated Press

The State Department said in a statement Monday that they were removed Sunday night and that the group included murderers and rapists.

The statement didn’t give nationalities, but the office of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Salvadorans and Venezuelans were among the prisoners.

The men were transported to El Salvador’s maximum security prison, where they changed into the standard white T-shirts and shorts and had their heads shaved. Hundreds of migrants facing deportation were sent there earlier this month.

By the Associated Press

The Trump administration is pulling back a final round of federal pandemic aid from schools across the country, saying the money wasn’t being spent on academic recovery.

States were notified Friday that the Education Department will not disburse the remainder of the federal aid passed by Congress, although the vast majority has already been sent to schools.

The department didn’t say how much money is left of the total $189 billion approved by Congress, though officials said it’s in the billions. As of Feb. 19, the department said there was $4.4 billion left, or about 2 percent.

A senior department official said the money was being misused on costs including astroturf fields and “sets of bouncy glow balls.” The agency said it will consider requests for individual projects related to pandemic recovery.

Schools were supposed to spend the last of the relief by January, but the Biden administration allowed schools to request extensions.

The Council of Chief State School Officers urged the department to rethink the decision, saying schools have already spent the money for pandemic recovery efforts and were promised reimbursement.

By the Associated Press

The US Institute of Peace is a congressionally created and funded think tank targeted by President Trump for closure.

Two board members of the institute have authorized replacing its temporary president with Nate Cavanaugh, the filing says. They ordered him, it says, to transfer the institute’s property to the General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate manager, which is terminating hundreds of leases at the behest of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The court filing asks US District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington to stop the action or schedule a status conference to address the issues as soon as “practicable.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The action follows a Friday night mass firing of nearly all of the institute’s 300 employees.

By the Associated Press

President Trump’s preferred candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court and his Democratic-backed challenger made a final blitz across the state Monday, the day before voting concludes in a race where early turnout has surged and spending is nearing $100 million.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser, held a rally in Green Bay on Sunday night to push for the election of Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican attorney general. He faces Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge and former attorney who fought for abortion rights and to protect union power.

Liberals currently hold a 4-3 advantage on the court, but the retirement of a liberal justice this year put the ideological balance in play. The court in battleground Wisconsin is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting regulations in the coming years.

By the Associated Press

The White House Correspondents Association canceled her from performing at its annual dinner because it wants to refocus the event on journalistic excellence.

The association’s announcement over the weekend made no mention of Ruffin’s appearance on a podcast by the Daily Beast last week in which she referred to the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers.”

Ruffin, a writer for NBC’s Seth Meyers and formerly a host of a Peacock talk show, also said she wouldn’t try to make sure her jokes would target politicians of different stripes, as she was told by the correspondents’ association.

Her comments drew angry responses from the Trump administration. The president isn’t expected to attend the April event, which in past years has featured comics such as Stephen Colbert and Colin Jost. The last time a comedian did not perform at the dinner was in 2019, when historian Ron Chernow spoke.

By the Associated Press

Tocorón once had it all. A nightclub, swimming pools, tigers, a lavish suite and plenty of food. This wasn’t a Las Vegas-style resort, but it felt like it for some of the thousands who until recently lived in luxury in this sprawling prison in northern Venezuela.

Here, between parties, concerts and weeks-long visits from wives and children, is the birthplace of the Tren de Aragua, a dangerous gang that has gained global notoriety after Trump put it at the center of his anti-immigrant narrative.

But kidnappings, extorsion and other crimes were planned, ordered or committed from this prison long before Trump’s rhetoric.

The tiny, impoverished town where the Aragua Penitentiary Center is used to bustle with residents selling food, renting phone chargers and storing bags for prison visitors. Now, the prison is back under government control, and streets in the town, also called Tocorón, are mostly deserted.

By the Associated Press

US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday instructed the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit. Georgia Republican lawmakers passed the sweeping election overhaul in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2021 under former President Joe Biden, alleged the Georgia law was intended to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. Bondi said the Biden administration was pushing “false claims of suppression.”

“Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us,” she said.

The law was part of a trend of Republican-backed measures that tightened rules around voting, passed in the months after Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden, claiming without evidence that voter fraud cost him victory.

READ MORE

By the Associated Press

The letter — released Monday — was penned by a group from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which was created in 1863 to provide expert guidance to the government.

Up to 19 Nobel laureates signed Monday’s letter, which described how the administration is slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories and hampering international scientific collaboration. Those moves will increasingly put the United States at a disadvantage against other countries, the letter predicted.

The signees said they’re speaking up for colleagues who “have kept silent to avoid antagonizing the administration and jeopardizing their funding.”

By the Associated Press

On the campaign trail, Trump used contentiousness around transgender people’s access to sports and bathrooms to fire up conservative voters and sway undecideds. And in his first months back in office, Trump has pushed the issue further, erasing mention of transgender people on government websites and passports and trying to remove them from the military.

For transgender people and their allies — along with several judges who’ve ruled against Trump in response to legal challenges — it’s a matter of civil rights for a small group. But many Americans believe those rights had grown too expansive.

Trump’s spotlight is giving Monday’s Transgender Day of Visibility a different tenor this year.

“What he wants is to scare us into being invisible again,” said Rachel Crandall Crocker, the executive director of Transgender Michigan who organized the first Day of Visibility 16 years ago. “We have to show him we won’t go back.”

By the Associated Press

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was down 1.3 percent following one of its worst losses of the past couple of years Friday. It’s on track to finish the first three months of the year with a loss of 6.4 percent, which would make this its worst quarter in nearly three years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 295 points, or 0.7 percent, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.3 percent lower.

The US stock market’s drops followed a sell-off that spanned the world earlier Monday as worries build that tariffs coming Wednesday from Trump will worsen inflation and grind down growth for economies. Trump has said he’s plowing ahead in part because he wants more manufacturing jobs back in the United States.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 4 percent. South Korea’s Kospi sank 3 percent, and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.5 percent.

By the Associated Press

Calls from the US to Roustan Hockey headquarters in Canada in recent weeks have been anything but routine, as bulk orders of name-brand sticks have suddenly become complicated conversations.

“These customers want to know: When their orders ship, will they have to pay an additional 25 percent tariff? And we respond by saying, ‘Well, right now we don’t know, so they postpone their order or cancel their order because they want to know before they order what the cost is going to be,” said Graeme Roustan, who owns the company that makes and sells more than 100,000 hockey sticks annually to the US market.

The prospect of 25 percent tariffs by Trump on Canadian imports, currently paused for some goods but facing full implementation Wednesday, has caused headaches if not havoc throughout the commercial ecosystem. The sports equipment industry is certainly no exception, with so many of the products manufactured for sports-loving Americans outside the US.

By the Associated Press

US immigration officials are asking the public and federal agencies to comment on a proposal to collect social media handles from people applying for benefits such as green cards or citizenship, to comply with an executive order from Trump.

The March 5 notice raised alarms from immigration and free speech advocates because it appears to expand the government’s reach in social media surveillance to people already vetted and in the US legally, such as asylum seekers, green card and citizenship applicants – and not just those applying to enter the country. That said, social media monitoring by immigration officials has been a practice for over a decade, since at least the second Obama administration and ramping up under Trump’s first term.

By the Associated Press

Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”

Musk and groups he supports have spent more than $20 million to help conservative favorite Brad Schimel in Tuesday’s race, which will determine the ideological makeup of a court likely to decide key issues in a perennial battleground state.

A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.

Two lower courts had already rejected the legal challenge by Democrat Josh Kaul, who argues that Musk’s offer violates a state law.

By the Associated Press

The group of Democrats, most of whom serve as their state’s top election official, is telling Congress the legislative proposal to add a proof of citizenship requirement when registering to vote could disenfranchise voters and upend election administration.

On Monday, the House Rules Committee is expected to consider the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The letter signed by 15 secretaries of state was sent Friday.

Voting by noncitizens is rare, but Republicans say any instances undermine public confidence. Last week, President Trump directed, among other things, an update to the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship. Legal challenges are expected.

In the letter, Democrats say it’s the “job of election officials to verify the eligibility of citizens to cast a ballot, not the job of citizens to convince the government that they are eligible to exercise their right to vote.”

By the Associated Press

President Trump says Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” — a moment when he plans to roll out a set of tariffs that he promises will free the United States from foreign goods.

The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average US families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. But an undeterred Trump is inviting CEOs to the White House to say they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new projects to avoid the import taxes.

It is also possible that the tariffs are short-lived if Trump feels he can cut a deal after imposing them.

“I’m certainly open to it, if we can do something,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll get something for it.”

At stake are family budgets, America’s prominence as the world’s leading financial power and the structure of the global economy.

By the Associated Press

Trump will sign executive orders twice today, first at 1 p.m. ET and again at 5:30 p.m. ET, according to the White House.

By the Associated Press

Immigration remains a strength for President Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

About half of US adults approve of Trump’s approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about 4 in 10 have a positive view of the way he’s handling the economy and trade negotiations.

The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that his threats to impose tariffs might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.

Views of Trump’s job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About 4 in 10 US adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove.

By the Associated Press

President Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”

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By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff

The question looms large for millions of working Americans: Will Social Security be there when I retire?

Jim Roosevelt would like to reassure people that it will. But he sees “a direct threat to the most popular government program that has ever existed” as the Trump administration cuts staff, closes offices, and has made moves, which it later reversed, making it harder to transact Social Security business by phone.

An attorney, Democratic Party official, and former chief executive of insurer Tufts Health Plan, the 79-year-old Roosevelt served as associate commissioner of the Social Security Administration during the Clinton administration. He founded the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare in 1982 and now sits on its advisory board.

Social Security, the $1.5 trillion program that sends retirement, survivor, and disability payments to about 73 million Americans, has personal significance for Roosevelt. His grandfather, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935.

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By Mike Damiano and Hilary Burns, Globe Staff

The university community is in full outcry over President Trump’s higher education agenda, with academics describing it as an authoritarian crackdown, and former college presidents calling it a “reign of terror.”

But the people actually leading elite universities are taking a far more conciliatory approach.

Some presidents and trustees are hiring conservative lobbyists, jetting to Washington to meet Republican grandees, rolling back diversity programs, and trying to reposition universities as politically neutral institutions that advance the national interest by fostering scientific breakthroughs.

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By the Associated Press

France’s minister for foreign trade says the country won’t compromise after the US State Department reportedly demanded that French companies drop diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Laurent Saint-Martin spoke to RTL Radio on Monday following reports that US diplomats are interfering in the operations of French companies.

French media reported last week that major French companies received a letter telling them that US President Trump’s rollback of DEI initiatives could also apply outside of the United States.

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By Bloomberg

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer held “productive” discussions about “an economic prosperity deal” on a call with President Trump Sunday evening ahead of a crunch week in which the government hopes to carve out exemptions from looming US tariffs.

A statement from Downing Street said the two leaders agreed that negotiations “will continue at pace this week” and that they will “stay in touch in the coming days.” Washington is scheduled to unveil a series of reciprocal tariffs worldwide on Wednesday, branded “Liberation Day” by Trump, that would remake the global trading system. Economists say the move would hammer UK growth and could lead to tax increases in the autumn.

By The New York Times

The F-35, a fifth-generation fighter, was developed in partnership with eight countries, making it a model of international cooperation. When President Trump introduced its successor, the F-47, he praised its strengths — and said the version sold to allies would be deliberately downgraded.

That made sense, Trump said last week, “because someday, maybe they’re not our allies.”

For many countries wedded to the United States, his remark confirmed a related conclusion: that America can no longer be trusted. Even nations not yet directly affected can see where things are heading, as Trump threatens allies’ economies, their defense partnerships and even their sovereignty.

For now, they are negotiating to minimize the pain from blow after blow, including a broad round of tariffs expected in April. But at the same time, they are pulling back. Preparing for intimidation to be a lasting feature of US relations, they are trying to go their own way.

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