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    Federal Reserve keeps interest rates on hold amid Trump’s erratic trade strategy – live

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    A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled on Wednesday in favor of immigrant rights advocates who asked him to block the government from deporting migrants to Libya, amid reports that the US military planned to fly detained immigrants there this week.District court judge Brian Murphy agreed with the rights advocates that a previous injunction he had issued already barred such flights. The judge wrote that he had already explained on 30 April that “the Department of Homeland Security may not evade this injunction by ceding control over non-citizens or the enforcement of its immigration responsibilities to any other agency, including but not limited to the Department of Defense”.“If there is any doubt — the Court sees none — the allegedly imminent removals, as reported by news agencies and as Plaintiffs seek to corroborate with class-member accounts and public information, would clearly violate this Court’s Order” Murphy clarified.In a rare show of unity, Libya’s rival governments had already responded to news reports by saying that they would refuse to accept any deportatees from the United States.When Donald Trump was asked on Wednesday if his administration was planning to send migrants to Libya, the president replied: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Homeland Security please.”The Senate confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as US surgeon general, Fox News contributor Dr Janette Nesheiwat, has been cancelled amid reports that the White House is withdrawing the nomination.Bloomberg News first reported that the White House is pulling its nomination Nesheiwat, who has come under fire for allegedly misleading statements about where she went to medical school and, from vaccine skeptics, for promoting vaccination against Covid-19.The confirmation hearing was scheduled for Thursday, but Nesheiwat’s name has been removed from the revised witness schedule by the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions.When Trump announced the nomination of the Fox News regular, he described Nesheiwat as a “proud graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences”. However, as CBS News reported last week, Nesheiwat “actually earned her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) School of Medicine, located in St. Maarten” before completing her residency at the University of Arkansas.Until the CBS report was published, Nesheiwat’s LinkedIn profile incorrectly listed an MD from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and made no mention of AUC.The network also reported that the doctor previously used a formulation of the Caribbean university’s name that might have misled people into thinking she had attended the American University in Washington DC.“I completed my medical training and residency at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences near Little Rock where I served as Chief Resident”, Nesheiwat wrote on Facebook in 2018. “Initially pursuing training at the American University, I completed the majority of my studies in London, England, at St. Thomas & Guy’s Hospital.”Nesheiwat’s nomination has been heavily criticized by Trump supporters from the far-right, including Dr Simone Gold, an emergency physician who entered the Capitol on January 6 2021, and told Trump supporters not to take “an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine”. On social media, Gold complained that Nesheiwat had urged Americans to wear masks during the pandemic, said the vaccine was “safe and effective”, and praised Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for cracking down on misinformation about the pandemic. “Is she Dr. Fauci 2.0?” Gold asked.Trump’s confidante, the Islamophobic, 9/11 truther Laura Loomer campaigned against Nesheiwat on social media, writing on Sunday that her “promotion of DEI-focused initiatives” and “her advocacy for the China Virus ‘vaccine’” made her “unfit for the role of United States Surgeon General”.If Nesheiwat’s nomination has been withdrawn, it will be the second time in a week Trump has lost confidence in her family. Her older sister, Julia, a homeland security adviser to Trump during his first term who also served in the Obama administration, is married to Mike Waltz, Trump’s now former national security adviser.FBI director, Kash Patel, testified before a House appropriation subcommittee today, where he dodged questions about whether he would fire more agents who had investigated the January 6 insurrection.“Do you anticipate firing any additional employees that may have worked in relation to the January 6 investigations?” asked congresswoman Grace Meng, the top Democrat on the panel, which held a hearing with Patel on the FBI’s budget request.“The only way you get fired from the FBI while I’m the director is if you violate the ethical guidelines or break the law,” Patel replied.A longtime defender of Trump and critic of the alleged “deep state” he claims worked against the president during the first term, Patel narrowly won Senate confirmation to lead the federal law enforcement agency in February. He took office weeks after the agency’s interim director disclosed that he had been directed to fire eight senior leaders, and compile a list of all agents who had worked on January 6 cases, prompting a lawsuit to stop the list’s creation and sharing.Asked about the list in the hearing, Patel said: “That email or memo was sent out prior to my arrival at the FBI. We have not addressed that specific email since I’ve arrived because the matter’s in litigation in federal court.”

    The vice-president JD Vance struck a far more soft, conciliatory tone towards Europe at the Munich leaders meeting in DC this morning than he did in February this year – he even joked about thinking he might not be invited back after that. This time, Vance repeatedly emphasized that the US and Europe are “real friends” who are “on the same team” – and said that things had simply “got off track, and I’d encourage us all to get back on track together”. He did stress that the US wants Europe to be “self-sufficient” and to see 5% spending on defense, and he also pressed the EU to lower tariffs and regulatory barriers, and to open the door to US weapons.

    Vance’s only harsh words were saved for Russia. Russia, he said, was “asking for too much” in its peace offer, and said the US is focused on a long-term ceasefire. The Trump administration wants Russia and Ukraine to move towards direct talks with each other as the next step towards peace, he said. On Iran, Vance said “so far so good” on nuclear talks, and said Iran should be allowed a “civil nuclear program” but not a “nuclear weapons program”. “So far we’re on the right pathway,” he said.
    Elsewhere

    In his first interview since leaving the White House in January, Joe Biden accused Trump of “modern-day appeasement” in his approach to Russia, and said it’s “foolish” to believe Vladimir Putin will stop the violence if he is handed over parts of Ukraine. He also condemned Trump’s aggressive talk toward Panama, Greenland and Canada. “What the hell’s going on here?” he asked. “What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are. We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity — not about confiscation.” Story here.

    The Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold as questions around the global economic outlook mount amid Trump’s erratic rollout of an aggressive trade strategy. Policymakers at the US central bank cautioned that “the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen” as they opted to maintain the benchmark interest rate for the third time in a row. Story here.

    Trump said there would be more information in the next day on a potential new proposal for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza. “A lot of talk going on about Gaza right now,” Trump told reporters at the White House today. “You’ll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours.”

    The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said he would summon the acting US ambassador to Denmark after the WSJ (paywall) reported the Trump administration ordered US intelligence agencies to step up surveillance on Greenland. “I have read the article … and it worries me greatly because we do not spy on friends,” Rasmussen told reporters. “We are going to call in the US acting ambassador for a discussion at the foreign ministry to see if we can confirm this information, which is somewhat disturbing,” Rasmussen added. Story here.

    A federal appeals court granted a judge’s order to bring Turkish Tufts University student, Rümeysa Öztürk, from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated. Story here.

    The upcoming face-to-face meeting in Geneva this weekend between US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and his China counterpart He Lifeng was requested by the Trump administration, Chinese officials said. Bessent had earlier suggested it was the other way around. Asked about it Trump said: “They said we initiated it? Well I think they should go back and study their files.”

    A hard-right, Trump-supporting US news network that perpetuated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election will provide news coverage for Voice of America (VoA), the Trump administration said. The move that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, will spur further fears about Trump’s crackdown on the press. Story here.

    The US National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have partnered to research the causes of the autism spectrum disorder, creating a database of autism-diagnosed people enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. “We’re using this partnership to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases,” HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said in a statement. “We’re pulling back the curtain—with full transparency and accountability—to deliver the honest answers families have waited far too long to hear.”

    The Trump administration is poised to kill federal research into pollution from satellites and rockets, including some caused by Elon Musk’s space companies, raising new conflict-of-interest questions about the billionaire SpaceX and Starlink owner. Story here.

    And finally, a fan of renaming gulfs, Trump plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the United States will now refer to the Persian Gulf as the “Arabian Gulf” or the “Gulf of Arabia”, none other than the Associated Press reports, citing two US officials. Iranian leaders said the move was “politically motivated”.
    The Trump administration is considering exempting car seats, baby strollers, cribs and other essential items for transporting children from tariffs on China up to 145%, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.Reuters reports that Bessent made the comments under questioning from Democratic representative Ayanna Pressley at a House financial services committee hearing that those exemptions were under consideration.Pressley, of Massachusetts, noted that more than 3.5 million babies are born annually and almost all strollers are made in China. “Now that cost is going up,” she said.In 2018, the Trump administration exempted some products produced in China from 25% tariffs including bicycle helmets and child-safety furniture such as car seats and playpens. However, car seat component parts, cribs, bassinets, diaper bags and wooden safety gates were not exempted.Chris Peterson, the CEO of Newell Brands, the maker of Graco strollers, car seats and other children’s goods, said last week on an earnings call that approximately 97% of baby strollers and 87% of baby car seats in the US are sourced from China. The company has hiked prices of imported baby gear products by about 20% because of tariffs.Peterson said the company has not priced in the latest 125% tariff hike and has temporarily halted shipments from China as it sells a few months of inventory.“At some point, we will begin to run out of inventory. Retailers will begin to run out of inventory and we will turn back on reordering from China,” he said. “When that happens, because the whole industry sources from China, we would expect that we and the rest of the industry will take additional pricing to offset the tariff cost.”The Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold as questions around the global economic outlook mount amid Donald Trump’s erratic rollout of an aggressive trade strategy.Policymakers at the US central bank cautioned that “the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen” as they opted to maintain the benchmark interest rate for the third time in a row.“Uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased further,” they said in a statement.The US president has repeatedly demanded in recent months that the Fed cuts rates – and even raised the prospect of firing Jerome Powell, its chairperson, before walking back the comments – as Trump’s tariffs plan appeared to knock the US economy.The Fed has been sitting on its hands for months, however, citing heightened uncertainty. It last cut rates in December, to a range of between 4.25% and 4.5%.As Trump pushed ahead last month with sweeping tariffs on imported goods from much of the world, Powell cautioned this would probably raise prices and slow growth – despite the administration’s pledges to revitalize the US economy and reduce the cost of living for millions of Americans.Trump was also just asked about the comments I just reported from China that the US initiated this weekend’s upcoming trade meetings in Switzerland, to which he replied:
    They said we initiated it? Well I think they should go back and study their files.
    Donald Trump said there would be more information in the next day on a potential new proposal for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza.“A lot of talk going on about Gaza right now,” Trump told reporters at the White House today. “You’ll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours.”The upcoming face-to-face meeting in Geneva this weekend between US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and his China counterpart He Lifeng was requested by the Trump administration, Chinese officials have said.“The US said repeatedly it wants to negotiate with China. This meeting is requested by the US side,” said the foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, at his regular press conference on Wednesday.China will be entering the talks “firmly” opposed to tariffs, Lin said in a post on X. “Meanwhile, China is open to dialogue, but any dialogue must be based on equality, respect and mutual benefit.”His comments contradict Bessent’s earlier claims that the high-stakes meeting was taking place in Switzerland by coincidence. “I was going to be in Switzerland to negotiate with the Swiss,” he said in an interview on Fox News. “Turns out the Chinese team is traveling through Europe, and they will be in Switzerland also. So we will meet on Saturday and Sunday.” China, meanwhile, had said He was going to be in Switzerland at the invitation of the Swiss government.In the last few weeks China has repeatedly denied that it has proactively reached out to the Trump administration to propose trade talks. Instead, Chinese officials said the country was evaluating the possibility of starting trade negotiations with the US after senior US officials reached out “through relevant parties multiple times” hoping to start tariff negotiations.A hard-right, Trump-supporting US news network that perpetuated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election will provide news coverage for Voice of America (VoA), the Trump administration said.Kari Lake, a special adviser to the body that oversees the government-funded VoA, announced on X that One America News (OAN), which was sued by voting machine companies for promoting claims of election fraud, will provide “newsfeed and video service”.“Every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” Lake said. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”The news that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, is a move that will spur further fears about Donald Trump’s crackdown on the press.OAN, which spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus epidemic, almost exclusively interviews Republican politicians and rightwing voices, including this week the founder of an organization that denies the existence of the climate crisis.A federal judge in Florida has used a routine court filing to lament the exodus of attorneys from the justice department.US district judge Donald Middlebrooks of the middle district of Florida made the comments after four justice department attorneys all informed the court they would be withdrawing from the case because they were leaving the department. Usually, judges grant such requests without much fanfare.But Middlebrooks took the opportunity to call out the lawyers.“This case was expertly litigated by a team of lawyers from the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, specifically the Disability Rights Section. Now it appears that multiple members of that team are ending their tenure with the Department,” wrote Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton. “I will grant the Motions to Withdraw, but I do so with disappointment that capable litigators and dedicated public servants have felt moved to leave their positions with the Department of Justice.”He went on to “commend” the lawyers for “the extraordinary efforts they took in arguing these important issues and granted their request to withdraw.More than 250 lawyers have left or are planning to leave the civil rights division, a flood of departures that amounts to about a 70% reduction in personnel. The head of the division, a political appointee, has made it clear in new “mission statements” to each of the sections that their longstanding priorities will shift to more closely align with the president’s priorities.Former and current employees have said that the reduction in personnel makes it virtually impossible for the division to enforce civil rights laws.A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a judge’s order to bring Turkish Tufts University student, Rümeysa Öztürk, from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated.A judicial panel of the New York-based US second circuit court of appeals ruled in the case after lawyers representing her and the US justice department presented arguments at a hearing on Tuesday.Öztürk has been detained in Louisiana for six weeks following an op-ed she cowrote last year that criticized the school’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza. The court ordered her to be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody in Vermont no later than 14 May.A district court judge in Vermont had earlier ordered that the 30-year-old doctoral student be brought to the state for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Öztürk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.The justice department, which appealed that ruling, said that an immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction over her case.Robert Tait and Miranda BryantThe Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, has said he would call in the acting US ambassador to Denmark after the Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported the Trump administration ordered US intelligence agencies to step up surveillance on Greenland.“I have read the article in the Wall Street Journal and it worries me greatly because we do not spy on friends,” Rasmussen told reporters during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Warsaw on Wednesday.“We are going to call in the US acting ambassador for a discussion at the foreign ministry to see if we can confirm this information, which is somewhat disturbing,” Rasmussen added.The WSJ report, published last night, said high-ranking officials working under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, issued the instruction to agency heads in a “collection emphasis message”. Such messages customarily help to set intelligence priorities and direct resources and attention to high-interest targets.The Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency were all included in the message. It told chiefs to study Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes to American efforts to extract resources on the island, according to the report, citing two unnamed officials familiar with the matter.The move, which will further alarm Denmark and Europe, underlines the seriousness of Trump’s intent to increase US influence over Greenland. Just last weekend, he refused to rule out using military force to gain control of the island. Denmark, a US ally and Nato member, has repeatedly vowed that Greenland is not available for sale or annexation.Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo and Edward Helmore in New YorkThe Trump administration is planning to deport a group of migrants to Libya, according to reports, despite the state department’s previous condemnation of the “life-threatening” prison conditions in the country. Libya’s provisional government has denied the reports.Reuters cited three unnamed US officials as saying the deportations could happen this week. Two of the officials said the individuals, whose nationalities are not known, could fly to Libya as soon as Wednesday, but they added the plans could still change. The New York Times also cited a US official confirming the deportation plans. It was not clear what Libya would be getting in return for taking any deportees.Human rights groups condemned the reported plans, noting the country’s poor record on human rights practices and harsh treatment of detainees. Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), wrote on X:
    Migrants have long been trafficked, tortured and ransomed in Libya. The country is in a civil war. It is not a safe place to send anyone.
    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on the platform alongside a picture of a Libyan detention facility:
    Don’t look away. This is what Libya’s migrant detention facilities look like. This is what Trump is doing.
    Amnesty International called these places a ‘hellscape’ where beatings are common and sexual violence are rampant. There are reports of human trafficking and even slavery.
    It comes as the Trump administration expands its aggressive efforts to negotiate the swift deportations of migrants to third-party countries which, as well as Libya, includes Angola, Benin, Eswatini, Moldova and Rwanda, as reported by CBS News and Reuters earlier this week. This is alongside its existing arrangement with El Salvador, which it has paid millions to detain hundreds of migrants in its notorious mega-prison.US customers could face higher energy bills amid reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to end the Energy Star program whose blue labels have certified energy efficiency on home appliances for more than 30 years, experts warn.“If you wanted to raise families’ energy bills, getting rid of the Energy Star label would be a pretty good way,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the non-profit research organization the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).The reports of Energy Star’s elimination come after Donald Trump has railed against showers and toilets that conserve water. In April, he signed an executive order to “restore shower freedom”.The New York Times reported that staff were told: “The Energy Star program and all the other climate work, outside of what’s required by statute, is being de-prioritized and eliminated.”President Donald Trump accused the US courts of preventing him from deporting “murders and other criminals” in a post on Truth Social.“Our Court System is not letting me do the job I was Elected to do. Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our Country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!” the president wrote.Recent reports have revealed the intentions of the Trump administration to deport immigrants to more countries other than the one designated as the immigrant’s country of origin, also called third-country deportations.The US National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have partnered to research the causes of the autism spectrum disorder, creating a database of autism-diagnosed people enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, the agencies announced today.The partnership will “focus first on enabling research around the root causes of autism spectrum disorder” in order to help NIH build a real-world data platform using claims data, electronic medical records, and wearable consumer health-monitoring devices. The agencies said the project will comply with applicable privacy laws.“We’re using this partnership to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said in a statement. “We’re pulling back the curtain—with full transparency and accountability—to deliver the honest answers families have waited far too long to hear.”The Trump administration’s health department has already faced backlash for this project following the announcement that the NIH would be collecting the private medical records of many Americans from several different federal and commercial databases.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the upcoming meeting with Chinese officials on trade set to begin on Saturday as “negotiations.” He added that Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, will not be joining him and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the discussions in Switzerland. He also declined to say which countries are close to reaching trade agreements with the US.When asked during today’s House Financial Services Committee hearing whether discussions with China were considered advanced, Bessent replied: “I said, on Saturday, we will begin, which I believe is the opposite of advanced.”After Wolfgang Ischinger thanks Vance and says he hopes he will come back to the Munich Security Conference again, the vice-president jokes:
    I appreciate the invitation back. I wasn’t sure after February whether I’d get the invitation back, but it’s good to know that it’s still there.
    Ischinger lightly interjects “we thought about it”, to which they both laugh.Vance also congratulates Friedrich Merz after the conservative leader was elected German chancellor.
    I know that we’ll have a conversation with him in the next couple of days.
    Vance goes on to say that what he said in his February speech “applied as much to the previous American administration as much as it did to any government in Europe”.In stark contrast to the tone of his February speech – as this whole Q&A session has been – Vance says he means “from the heart and as a friend” that “there’s a tradeoff between policing the bounds of democratic speech and debate, and losing the trust of our people”.He says he accepts and understands that “some things are outside the realm of political debate” and every country will draw those lines slightly differently.“We have to be careful that we don’t draw the lines in such a way that we don’t undermine democratic legitimacy,” he says.
    It’s not: Europe bad, America good. It’s that I think we got a little bit off track, and I’d encourage us all to get back on track together. We’re certainly willing and able to participate in that work and I hope all of you are too. More

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      Colbert on Trump administration’s ethos: ‘Take full responsibility and dump it on somebody else’

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      Late-night hosts dug into the chaos at Newark airport leading to a cascade of cancellations, Donald Trump’s alleged Hollywood tariffs and the visit of the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, to the White House.Stephen ColbertOn Tuesday’s Late Show, Stephen Colbert looked into the cascade of delays at Newark airport this week, causing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The culprit was a terrifying 90-second blackout during which air traffic controllers temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, making them unable to see, hear or talk to them. “Those are three fairly important things,” Colbert deadpanned.The blackout was caused by a fried piece of copper wire. “Unlike the other blackouts at Newark, which are caused by the grand coconut margarita at terminal A Chili’s Too,” Colbert joked.In response to the crisis, Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, went on Fox News to, as Colbert put it, “take full responsibility and dump it on somebody else”.Duffy criticized old infrastructure in the US that hasn’t been updated in “30 or 40 years”, but said “this should’ve been dealt with in the last administration. They did nothing.”“Yes, this problem has been going on for years,” Colbert agreed. “Biden should’ve done something about it. Or really, the guy before him should’ve done something about it.”In truth, Biden did do something about it; in the 2021 infrastructure bill, he approved $25bn to improve airports. The upgrades began, but were partially derailed by Trump’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) laying off more than 400 staffers at the Federal Aviation Administration shortly after taking office, including maintenance mechanics and employees who work on electrical issues. “Those are the people who do the stuff!” Colbert exclaimed. “There are plenty of useless people you could’ve fired, like the TSA agent who says you can’t bring in a snow globe. I hate having to chug my snow globe right before security.”Duffy claimed that he was going to spend the money on a new system, but warned that it would take three to four years. “Not exactly what you want to hear in a crisis,” Colbert noted.And it’s a crisis that probably won’t get better soon, as many air traffic controllers are now out on a 45-day trauma leave following the blackout. “Wait a second, there’s such a thing as trauma leave?” Colbert wondered. “Bye! I’m off to the tropics.”Jimmy KimmelIn Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel recapped the visit of the new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, to the White House, where Donald Trump insisted that “regardless of anything, we’re going to be friends with Canada”.“Poor Mark Carney had a helluva job today,” said Kimmel, noting that Trump keeps referring to Canada as the “51st state”. “It was like an Ewok going to a meeting on the Death Star.”But Carney “handled it well”, according to Kimmel. “In a friendly way, he made sure Trump knows they have no intention of becoming our 51st state.” Carney diplomatically told Trump that Canada is “not for sale, won’t be for sale”, to which Trump interjected: “But never say never!”“He doesn’t take no for an answer – in fact, he was found liable for it in a court of law,” Kimmel said, referring to a May 2023 verdict in which a New York court found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer E Jean Carroll, and ordered him to pay $5m.Kimmel also addressed Trump’s threat to (somehow) slap a 100% tariff on any movie made outside the US, “which caused every studio executive in Hollywood to double up on their Ativan yesterday,” he quipped. “No one seems to know what’s going on with these tariffs, including our own secretary of the treasury.“Remember how everyone said the main requirement to get a spot in his cabinet was to be good on TV? Well, here is our treasury secretary, Scott Bessent,” Kimmel continued before a clip of Bessent struggling to answer the basic question “who pays tariffs?” before Congress.“Try unplugging him and plugging him back in,” Kimmel laughed. “Scott Bessent has the demeanor of a headmaster at an all-boys school that’s under investigation.”Seth MeyersAnd on Late Night, Seth Meyers opened with Trump’s Truth Social post on Monday in which he claimed that he would order the government to reclaim and reopen the infamous Alcatraz prison. “I love that you can tell from his social media post what movie he watched on the plane,” said Meyers, referring to Clint Eastwood’s 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz, which played on public television in Florida while he was at Mar-a-Lago.Trump also joked with reporters about the possibility of becoming pope and said: “I would not be able to be married, though.”“And it looks like Melania has voted,” Meyers quipped next to a photo of white smoke.The Vatican’s conclave to elect a new pope is set to begin on Wednesday. “So just remember, black smoke means no decision, white smoke means a new pope and pink smoke means it’s a girl!” Meyers joked.The Late Night host also touched on reports that the US army is planning a parade to honor its 250th anniversary as well as Trump’s 79th birthday, including military vehicles, aircraft and nearly 7,000 soldiers. “And to honor Trump’s military service, he won’t be there,” Meyers quipped. 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      Trump news at a glance: Canada not for sale, says Carney; trans military ban proceeds for now

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      In the White House on Tuesday, the prime minister of Canada told Donald Trump: “As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale.” Trump agreed: “That’s true.”Mark Carney continued: “Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign … it’s not for sale. Won’t be for sale, ever.” “Never say never,” said Trump. Carney smiled and mouthed “never, never, never, never.”The light sparring between the two leaders came as Trump’s script about a 100% tariff on foreign-made movies was undergoing a further rewrite as the president said he would consult with the industry.Here are the key stories at a glance:Trump and Carney meet amid trade and sovereignty disputesDonald Trump has said he “just want[s] to be friends with Canada” after his first post-election meeting with the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney – who used the gathering to shoot down any prospect of his country becoming the 51st state.Read the full storyUS supreme court backs Trump trans military banThe Trump administration can begin to enforce a ban on transgender troops serving in the military while a challenge to the policy plays out in the courts, the supreme court ruled on Tuesday, a significant decision that could lead to the discharge of thousands of military members.Read the full storyPentagon stopped Ukraine aid without Trump’s approvalRoughly a week after Donald Trump started his second term as president, the US military issued an order to three freight airlines: stop 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weaponry that were bound for Ukraine. The order to cancel the flights – which were quickly reinstated – originated in Pete Hegseth’s office, without Trump’s approval.Read the full storyTrump claims Houthis to stop ship attacks in truce The US will halt its bombing of Yemen’s Houthis after the group agreed to stop targeting shipping in the Red Sea, Donald Trump has said. It comes after Israel claimed its jets had bombed Yemen’s main airport out of service in retaliation for a missile strike on Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Oman, which has been mediating, confirmed a deal to ensure “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea.Read the full storyTrump softens tone on movie tariffsDonald Trump appeared to be softening his tone after widespread dismay in Hollywood and further afield at his shock announcement of 100% tariffs on films “produced in foreign lands”, saying he was “not looking to hurt the industry”.Read the full storyAmericans’ health at risk as Trump cuts EPA staff Americans’ health is being put at risk after new cuts were announced by Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce staffing to 1980s levels and gut its scientific research arm, experts and advocacy groups warned.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Columbia University is slated to cut 180 staff whose work was supported by federal grants that have now been revoked by the Trump administration.

      North Carolina election officials must certify Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of a state supreme court election, a federal judge ruled.

      The California governor proposed a $7.5bn tax credit program and offered to work with Donald Trump to boost US film production.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 5 May 2025. More

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      Handshakes, friendship and ‘never, never, never, never, never’: five takeaways from Carney-Trump meeting

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      Perhaps no world leader can ever be completely sure how an encounter with Donald Trump will play out, but Canada’s Mark Carney had grounds to be especially wary before heading to the White House for his first post-election meeting with the US president.For months now, Trump has waged a campaign of diplomatic and commercial intimidation against his northern neighbour, launching a trade war and belittling Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau.Shortly before the briefing, the US leader once again took to social media to post a debunked figure that the US is “subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year” and to complain the country was receiving “FREE Military Protection”.But from the moment the pair shook hands, it was clear the tone of the meeting would be remarkably cordial, with Trump praising Carney as “a very talented person” and Carney describing Trump as a “transformational” president.The mood grew less relaxed as Trump again falsely claimed that the US was “subsidizing” Canada and repeated his calls for Canada to become the 51st state.Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s meeting:1. Canada is not for saleCarney used the meeting to tell Trump to his face what he’s told Canadians ever since he became prime minister: the country isn’t for sale.When asked by reporters about his proposal for Canada to become the 51st state of the USA, Trump seemed to walk back the idea, conceding “it takes two to tango”. But he then said Canada would get a “massive tax cut” if it became an American state.Trump said it would be “beautiful” to merge the two countries, saying the prospect “would really be a wonderful marriage”.Carney, drawing on Trump’s pride in real estate dealings, reminded the president that in the industry, “there are some places that are never for sale”.“That’s true,” said Trump.“Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign … it’s not for sale,” said Carney. “Won’t be for sale, ever.”Later in the meeting, Trump brought up the idea again, telling Carney and the assembled media: “I say, never say never.”“Never, never, never, never, never,” Carney appeared to say quietly.2. Tariffs remain – for nowOne major task for Carney and his team is to better understand the rationale – if there is one – behind the tariffs on Canadian goods, and to find any possible off-ramps. Carney set the bar low before the meeting, suggesting he didn’t anticipate any big announcements from the first gathering of the two leaders.Near the end of the meeting, Trump was asked whether there was anything Carney or the Canadian delegation could offer for tariffs to be removed.“No,” he said, adding that it’s “just the way it is”.The prime minister was likely to use the working lunch to nonetheless chip away at the American position in search of common ground.In Canada, the tariffs have led to a broad boycott by consumers of US-made products.“Usually those things don’t last very long,” Trump said. “We have great things, great product. The kind of product we sell, nobody else can sell. Including military. We make the best military equipment in the world. And Canada buys our military equipment, which we appreciate.”3. Both sides predict a revised trade dealThe country’s trade relationship came up during the meeting, with Trump signalling he was interested in renegotiating key aspects of the free-trade US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), calling the prior deal, Nafta, the “worst in the history of the world”.The current pact governing free trade across the continent is due for renewal next year.“We’re going to be starting to possibly renegotiate that,” Trump said, “if it’s even necessary. I don’t know that it’s necessary any more.”Trump refused to answer questions on which specific provisions of the deal he wanted to renegotiate, telling reporters the leaders were “dealing more with concepts right now”. But later, he repeated claims that the United States didn’t need Canadian exporters, including for Canadian cars, steel or energy. “We want to do it ourselves,” he said.Carney pushed back on Trump’s characterization of the current deal, including the use of tariffs by American officials, but agreed the existing deal was a “framework” for future talks and a “bigger discussion”.“We are the largest client of the United States, in the totality of all the goods,” he said.In a nod to the importance of the trade relationship between the two nations, both sides brought their most senior officials. Attending for the Canadians were some of the country’s top trade and diplomatic officials, including international trade minister Dominic LeBlanc, foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly, public safety minister David McGuinty and Canada’s ambassador to the US, Kirsten Hillman.On the American side, Trump had JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer.4. Trump just wants to be lovedWhen asked by reporters what the biggest concession Canada could offer might be, Trump said “friendship”.The cordial and positive tone between the leaders likely comes as a relief to Canadian officials, who prepared for numerous scenarios – including a dressing-down akin to the treatment of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Instead, the initial minutes of the meeting involved a shower of mutual praise between the leaders.After the Liberal party’s federal election victory last week, Trump congratulated Carney for one of the “greatest political comebacks of all time”, and described the prime minister’s visit “an honour” for the White House. Trump added he had great “respect” for Carney.Carney returned the compliments, calling Trump a “transformational president” with a strong focus on the economy, security and American workers.It marked a sharp departure from the frosty and strained relationship with Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau, whom Trump once described as “two-faced” – and who in turn described the US trade war as “dumb”.Given that much of US foreign policy appears to depend on whether Trump favours a world leader, that change in tone may bode well for Canada.5. Bad blood lingersTrump used part of the meeting to attack various political actors, including Trudeau and the former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who led the Canadian delegation in previous negotiations of the continental free-trade pact.“I didn’t like his predecessor,” Trump said to Carney, once again derisively calling Trudeau “governor”.He then singled out Freeland, saying: “She was terrible. Actually, she was a terrible person, and she really hurt that deal very badly because she tried to take advantage of the deal and she didn’t get away with it.”In late January, Freeland used Trump’s dislike of her as a key component of her failed bid for leadership of the Liberal party – a race she eventually lost to Carney. More

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      Trump says he ‘doesn’t rule out’ using military force to control Greenland

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      Donald Trump would not rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland, the world’s largest island and an autonomous territory within Denmark, a fellow Nato member with the US.Since taking office, the US president has repeatedly expressed the idea of US expansion into Greenland, triggering widespread condemnation and unease both on the island itself and in the global diplomatic community. Greenland is seen as strategically important both for defense and as a future source of mineral wealth.In an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday, Trump was asked whether he would rule out using force against the territory.“I don’t rule it out. I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything. No, not there. We need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security,” Trump said.The exchange came as part of wide-ranging interview following Trump’s first 100-days in office last week and he was also asked about the idea of using military force against Canada – an idea once unthinkable but now a subject of speculation amid Trump’s repeated assertion he would like to make Canada the US’s 51st state.“It’s highly unlikely. I don’t see it with Canada. I just don’t see it, I have to be honest with you,” Trump said.Trump said he had spoke with Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, and confirmed that the pair had not spoken about making his country part of the US.But he said they could discuss the topic when Carney visits Washington DC “this week or next week”. Carney, along with around 90% of Canadians, oppose the idea of folding Canada into the US. But Trump said he was open to a discussion.“I’ll always talk about that. You know why? We subsidize Canada to the tune of $200bn a year,” Trump said. “We don’t need their cars. In fact, we don’t want their cars. We don’t need their energy. We don’t even want their energy. We have more than they do. We don’t want their lumber. We have great lumber. All I have to do is free it up from the environmental lunatics.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump said that if “Canada was part of the US it wouldn’t cost us. It would be great … it would be a cherished state. And, if you look at our map, if you look at the geography – I’m a real estate guy at heart. When I look down at that without that artificial line that was drawn with a ruler many years ago – was just an artificial line, goes straight across. You don’t even realize.”“What a beautiful country it would be,” he added.A poll published last month found that 68% of Americans believe Trump is serious about the US trying to take over Greenland, and 53% think Trump is serious when he talks about the US trying to take control of Canada.But the survey, commissioned by ABC News found that respondents didn’t think either annexation would be a good idea. About 86% said they opposed the US trying to take control of Canada, and 76% opposed trying to take control of Greenland. More

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      Geography has given the US unrivaled security. Trump is destroying it | Gil Barndollar and Rajan Menon

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      The secret to American power and pre-eminence was best summed up more than a century ago.America, observed Jean Jules Jusserand, France’s ambassador to the United States during the first world war, “is blessed among the nations”. To the north and south were friendly and militarily weak neighbors; “on the east, fish, and the west, fish”. The United States was and is both a continental power and, in strategic terms, an island – with all the security those gifts of geography provide. No world power has ever been as fortunate. This unique physical security is the real American exceptionalism.Americans take this providential geography for granted: their country’s wars are always away games, and their neighbors are trading partners and weekend getaway destinations, not rivals or enemies. The ability of the United States to project power around the globe depends on technology and logistics, but it rests ultimately on the foundation of secure borders and friendly neighbors. But that may not be the case much longer. In threatening war with both Canada and Mexico, Donald Trump is obliterating America’s greatest strategic advantage.In normal times, one would be hard-pressed to find a pair of friendlier nations than the United States and Canada. Canadians and Americans share a common language (aside from the Québécois), sports leagues, $683bn in trade, and the world’s longest undefended border, more than 5,000 miles (8,000km) long. Americans and Canadians have fought side by side in both world wars, as well as in Korea and Afghanistan.Trump’s coveting of Canada is easy to mock and dismiss. Since returning to office in January, he has said repeatedly that he wants to make Canada the 51st state and taken to calling former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau “Governor Trudeau.” In what could be a satire of the post-9/11 ambitions of some American neoconservatives, Trump called the border with Canada “an artificial line” that “makes no sense”.But Canadians aren’t laughing. Living next door to a superpower that has fought multiple wars over the last 20 years and now practices a post-truth politics, they are angry and rattled.Liquor stores in Canada have pulled American-made alcohol from their shelves. The singing of the Star-Spangled Banner during hockey and basketball games has provoked boos from the stands. Airline travel from Canada to the United States has cratered, with ticket sales dropping 70%. Trudeau, not knowing he was on a hot mic, told his ministerial colleagues that Trump’s territorial avarice was “a real thing” and that they should not dismiss it as typical Trumpian bluster. Mark Carney, Trudeau’s successor, warned Canadians that the longtime partnership with the US, “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”.Earlier this year, Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative party’s candidate in Canada’s national elections, enjoyed a huge lead in the polls and seemed destined to become the next prime minister. But Canadians’ dislike of Trump apparently helped Carney, a political newcomer and the Liberal party’s candidate (despite Trump’s criticism of Poilievre in a Fox News interview, perhaps because Poilievre, reacting to his falling poll numbers, pivoted to criticizing the American president). Carney’s poll numbers surged, Poilievre’s plunged, and this week, Carney won the election – but he’s not about to preside over Canada’s annexation. By Carney’s account, in conversations, Trump has brought up his vision of Canada as the United States’ 51st state, something Carney has dismissed outright.Americans are apt to find the idea of a security threat from Canada ridiculous. Some of Trump’s antipathy to Canada rests on its paltry defense spending, less than 1.5% of GDP, making Canada one of Nato’s laggards. But Canadian capabilities are critical for the defense of the American homeland. Canadian long- and short-range radars provide the bulk of the North Warning System (NWS), which guards against airplanes and missiles entering North America via the North Pole. A Canadian withdrawal from the jointly run NWS would diminish the United States’ capacity for strategic defense and deterrence. While such a move by Canada would normally be unthinkable, if it fears invasion, as it has reason to do now, it may take steps that have hitherto been beyond the realm of possibility.If Trump’s actions against Canada boggle the mind, his stance toward Mexico is more explicable, albeit far more dangerous. Trump came down that golden escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 and announced his first presidential bid with a diatribe against Mexican immigrants. In the decade since, the Republican party has come to view Mexican drug cartels, if not the Mexican state itself, as a major threat to the United States, even as Mexico has displaced China to become the US’s largest trading partner.With Trump back in power, the reality is starting to match the rhetoric. Active-duty US troops are now on the southern border and Mexican drug cartels have been officially labeled as foreign terrorist groups, providing the legal pretext for the president to order US soldiers to enter Mexican territory and destroy them. US surveillance drones are monitoring fentanyl labs in Mexico – by mutual agreement – but the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has ruled out their being used to strike drug cartels, something US officials have reportedly discussed.Although Trump issued an executive order on the first day of his second term, declaring an emergency on the US-Mexican border, the active duty troops he has deployed there aren’t currently engaged in law enforcement, which US law prohibits, only providing logistical support to Customs and Border Protection. But were Trump to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act at some point, that could change and the military could begin apprehending and detaining Mexican migrants.Any unilateral US military intervention in Mexico would be reckless. With some of the US’s largest cities just a few hours from the border, the cartels would have ample opportunities for retaliation, which in turn would provoke American escalation. Civilian deaths caused by US military strikes could unleash major domestic strife in Mexico, a country of 130 million people, to the point of creating a tidal wave of refugees. US geography shielded it from most of the consequences of its disastrous post-9/11 wars in the greater Middle East. But US luck would finally run out if Trump tried to rerun a version of the “war on terror” across the southern border.With wars raging in Europe and the Middle East and Trump toying with unprecedented tariffs on many US partners and allies, the fallout from Trump’s “America first” policies seem to be primarily in Europe and Asia. But the most gratuitous and serious threats to American security and prosperity lie closer to home.Barely three months into his second term, Donald Trump has damaged, perhaps even irrevocably, relationships with his country’s two neighbors and largest trading partners. Few US presidents have committed greater strategic malpractice. None have done it with such speed. If the president wants to identify something he has achieved that none of his modern-day predecessors have, this feat would certainly qualify.

      Gil Barndollar is a non-resident fellow at the Defense Priorities Foundation. Rajan Menon is Spitzer professor emeritus of international relations at the Powell School, City College of New York, and a senior research scholar at the Saltzman Institute at Columbia University. More

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      Trump hails achievements of first 100 days despite polls revealing American disapproval on economy – as it happened

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      Trump is speaking now at a rally in Warren, Michigan and he has fulsome praise for what he calls “the most successful 100 days of any administration in the history of our country”.A raft of opinion polls released this week shows that a majority of Americans disagree, strongly, expressing deep disapproval of his performance as president, and particularly his handling of the economy, which has been severely damaged by his chaotic imposition of tariffs against nearly even nation, except Russia.A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released on Tuesday shows that 45% of those asked to grade Trump’s performance as president gave him an F, 7% a D, 8% a C, 17% a B, and 23% an A.Half of independents said Trump deserves an F, and only a slim majority of Republicans gave him an A.This brings our coverage of day 100 of Donald Trump’s second term to a close. We will be back in the morning, as the next of 1,000-plus days dawn, but in the meantime we leave you with this list of the day’s developments:

      At Donald Trump’s rally in Michigan, his supporters reacted to the screening of a long video, set to ominous music, showing the harsh treatment of men he had deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador without due process by chanting”: “USA! USA!”

      As Trump defended his broadly unpopular handling of the economy, he criticized Fed chair Jerome Powell, saying: “I have a Fed person who’s not really doing a good job, but I won’t say that.” The businessman president who used bankruptcy law to rescue his failed enterprises six times added: “I know much more about interest rates than he does”.

      Trump mistakenly attacked the Michigan representative John James, calling the Republican he had endorsed “a lunatic” for trying to impeach him. That was someone else.

      Trump supporters praised by the president at a rally included the former member of a violent cult who founded Blacks for Trump, and a retired autoworker who once told people to read David Duke’s “honest and fair” book about race.

      The US Department of Justice has begun the first criminal prosecutions of immigrants for entering a newly declared military buffer zone created along the border with Mexico, according to court filings.

      Trump called Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning to complain about a report that the company planned to display prices that show the impact of tariffs. Trump told reporters later that Bezos “was very nice, he was terrific” during their call, and “he solved the problem very quickly”.

      The Trump administration has reached one trade deal already but won’t tell us who with until that country’s prime minister and parliament approve the deal, the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said told CNBC.

      The United States proposed sending up to 500 Venezuelan immigrants with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador as the two governments sought to reach an agreement on the use of the nation’s notorious mega-prison, according to emails seen by CNN.

      Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Tuesday that offers temporary relief to automakers from the 25% tariffs he imposed in March in a previous proclamation. The measure gives automakers a break for two years to give them time to move auto production back to the United States.

      Doug Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, accused the Trump administration of turning “one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue”, after he and other Joe Biden appointees were removed from the board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

      Pete Hegseth has abruptly banished the Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program as part of his crusade against diversity and equity, dismissing it as a “woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative” despite it being a signature Donald Trump achievement from his first term.

      Donald Trump surprised Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, by inviting her to speak during his address at Selfridge air national guard base on Tuesday afternoon.
      One notable feature of Tuesday’s Trump rally in Michigan is that it featured cameos from supporters of the president who have been fixtures of his campaign rallies for nearly a decade.Early in the speech, as he pointed to familiar faces, Trump recognized the Front Row Joes, a group of diehard supporters akin to groupies who have traveled the country to attend dozens of his rallies. He also shouted out Blake Marnell, a supporter who wears a “brick suit” in homage to Trump’s border wall and witnessed the assassination attempt last year in Butler, Pennsylvania.“There’s my friend, Blacks for Trump. I like that guy. He follows me”, the president said pointing into the crowd. “We love you, your whoile group has been so supportice over the years, I want to thank you”.“Everyone thinks I pay you a fortune”, Trump added. “I don’t even know who the hell he is, I just like him”.As I reported in 2020, the “Blacks for Trump” founder is Maurice Symonette, a.k.a. Michael the Black Man, a former member of a violent cult who posts anti-Semitic screeds and racist conspiracy theories online, and yet has been a featured member of the audience at Trump campaign events since 2016.Symonette was known as Maurice Woodside until 1992, when the black supremacist cult leader he followed, Yahweh ben Yahweh, was jailed for leading a conspiracy to murder 14 white people in initiation rites. Woodside was among the Miami-based Nation of Yahweh cult members charged in two of the murders, but he was acquitted. After the trial, he changed his last name to Symonette, which was his father’s surname, before eventually reinventing himself as Michael the Black Man.On his website, Symonette makes a variety of bizarre claims, including that Omar and other prominent Black Democrats, artists and athletes — including former President Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Spike Lee, Colin Kaepernick, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. — are “DECEVING [sic] FAKE BLACK PEOPLE WHO ARE REALLY INDIANS!” In a sermon now deleted from YouTube, he claimed that the Senate is controlled by a secret underground of “Cherokee Mormons.”Later in the speech, Trump called to the stage another supporter who has been a figure at rallies since 2016: Brian Pannebecker, a retired auto worker who told the crowd, “We have the greatest President, probably not just in our lifetimes, but in the history of this country!”Pannebecker’s brief cameo was clipped and shared on social media by an official White House account, despite the fact that it was first reported a decade ago that he had written a glowing review of David Duke’s book, “My Awakening”, in which he called the former Klansman’s work “honest and fair”. After reading the book, Pannebecker wrote in his online review, people “will be able to discuss the issue of race without the fear of being labeled a racist because you will have the facts and the truth on your side”.A federal judge in New Jersey ruled on Tuesday that Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia graduate and Palestine solidarity activist who was detained on 8 March in his apartment building in New York and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in Louisiana, can move forward with his lawsuit claiming the government is unlawfully detaining him for his political views.“This Court has habeas jurisdiction over this case” Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote. “And as set out in this Opinion, that jurisdiction is intact. It has not been removed.”“As I am now caring for our barely week-old son, it is even more urgent that we continue to speak out for Mahmoud’s freedom, and for the freedom of all people being unjustly targeted for advocating against Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife said in a statement. “I am relieved at the court’s finding that my husband can move forward with his case in federal court. This is an important step towards securing Mahmoud’s freedom. But there is still more work to be done. I will continue to strongly advocate for my husband, so he can come home to our family, and feel the pure joy all parents know of holding your first-born child in your arms.”“The court has affirmed that the federal government does not have the unreviewable authority to trample on our fundamental freedoms,” Noor Zafar of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said in a statment emailed to reporters. “This is a huge step forward for Mahmoud and for the other students and scholars that the Trump administration has unlawfully detained in retaliation for their political speech, and a rebuke of attempts by the executive to use immigration laws to weaken First Amendment protections for political gain.”The US Department of Justice has begun the first criminal prosecutions of migrants for entering a newly declared military buffer zone created along the border with Mexico, according to court filings, Reuters reports.At least 28 migrants were charged were charged in federal court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday for crossing into the 170-mile-long, 60-foot-wide militarized buffer zone patrolled by active-duty US troops.Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, visited the area last week and said it was the start of a plan to extend the buffer zone along the border.“The reason we are here today, at almost the 100-day mark of President Trump’s administration is because you’re standing on a National Defense Area, this may as well be a military base” Hegseth said in a defense department social media video posted online. “Any illegal attempting to enter that zone is entering a military base.”“As New Mexicans, we have deep concerns about the enhanced militarization of our borderlands communities” the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico in a statement last week. “The expansion of military detention powers in the ‘New Mexico National Defense Area’ – also known as the ‘border buffer zone’ – represents a dangerous erosion of the constitutional principle that the military should not be policing civilians.”The idea of militarizing the border has long been a dream of far-right politicians, like the failed Arizona senate candidate Blake Masters, who devoted a campaign ad to the idea in 2022.Trump has left the stage, and his supporters are filing out of the venue, which we are told by the pool reporter there has a capacity of 4,000, but was only about half or three-fifths full.One bizarre moment early in the speech that we would have heard a lot more about had the speaker been Joe Biden was when Trump tore into Representative John James, telling the crowd the Michigan Republican he had endorsed and campaigned with was “a lunatic”.“Some guy that I never heard of, John James. Is he a congressman? This guy? He said, he said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to start the impeachment of Donald Trump”, Trump told the crowd. Many of his supporters in the room, and watching at home, were probably aware that the president, who celebrates his 79th birthday in six weeks, had confused James with Representative Shri Thanedar, the Michigan Democrat who did, in fact, introduce articles of impeachment against Trump on Monday.Trump has just finished speaking and departed to the strains of the Village People anthem YMCA. He spoke for about 90 minutes in what was a fairly typical rally speech and even told the crowd early on, “I miss you guys. I miss the campaign”.If there has been one constant theme throughout his time in office, it has been that he clearly loves the adulation of the crowd that comes from making campaign speeches far more than the work of governing.Trump just made the entirely false claim that, “for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction”.“For the first time ever, in, I think, ever, that they’re saying the country is headed in the right direction”, Trump added. “Has never happened before”.It is not clear why the president thinks this is true, or indeed if he does, but it is very clearly not true.In the latest nationwide poll, conducted from April 17-21 for the Associated Press by National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the overwhelming majority of Americans said that the country is headed in the wrong direction (62% vs 37%).The latest Gallup poll, from earlier in April showed that just 34% were satisfied with the way things were going in the US, and 64% were dissatisfied. While those numbers were markedly better than last summer, when satisfaction was as low as 18% and dissatisfaction reached 80%, the majority still clearly says the country is headed in the wrong direction.It is also not true to say that American have never previously said the country was going in the right direction. Gallup found that 50% of the public said that things were going n the right direction at this point in George W. Bush’s first term in 2001. There was even more optimism in 1999, during the presidency of Bill Clinton, when the right direction number reached 70%.Defending his handling of the economy, which has been severely damaged by his trade war and the prospect of rising inflation, Trump just told his supporters in Michigan: “Inflation is basically down, and interest rates came down despite the fact that I have a Fed person who’s not really doing a good job, but I won’t say that. I want to be very nice. I want to be very nice and respectful to the Fed. You’re not supposed to criticize the Fed; you’re supposed to let him do his own thing, but I know much more about interest rates than he does, believe me.”At his rally in Michigan, Donald Trump’s supporters reacted to the screening of a long video, set to ominous music, showing the harsh treatment of men he had deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador without due process by chanting “USA! USA”!”The video, first posted on Elon Musk’s social media platform X by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in March, shows 238 men accused of being members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, being taken from planes and confined in the Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot.The images of the abusive treatment clearly delighted Trump, and his supporters. The fact that the men were not given an opportunity to contest the accusation that they are members of either Tren de Aragua or the Salvadoran gang MS-13, seemed not to trouble Trump.Instead, he accused Democrats of “racing to the defense of some of the most violent savages on the face of the Earth”.“They’re racing to the courts to help them”, Trump claimed, ignoring the fact that his own administration has admitted in court that at least one of the man deported, Kilmar Ábrego García, was sent there by mistake, in violation of an order issued during hjis previous term in office. The families of other men seen in the video have pointed to multiple errors in the interpretation of their tattoos as proof that they are gang members.Trump is speaking now at a rally in Warren, Michigan and he has fulsome praise for what he calls “the most successful 100 days of any administration in the history of our country”.A raft of opinion polls released this week shows that a majority of Americans disagree, strongly, expressing deep disapproval of his performance as president, and particularly his handling of the economy, which has been severely damaged by his chaotic imposition of tariffs against nearly even nation, except Russia.A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released on Tuesday shows that 45% of those asked to grade Trump’s performance as president gave him an F, 7% a D, 8% a C, 17% a B, and 23% an A.Half of independents said Trump deserves an F, and only a slim majority of Republicans gave him an A.“Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, spoke with the President of the United States, Donald J Trump”, a statement from the Canadian prime minister’s office said.“President Trump congratulated Prime Minister Carney on his recent election. The leaders agreed on the importance of Canada and the United States working together – as independent, sovereign nations – for their mutual betterment. To that end, the leaders agreed to meet in person in the near future.”Carney’s center-left Liberal party won Monday’s general election thanks to a wave of resentment about Trump’s threats to annex Canada and the imposition of tariffs on Canadian imports.“As I’ve been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country”, Carney said in his victory speech late Monday. As the crowd jeered and shouted “Never!” Carney agreed. “These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never, never, ever happen”.As Canadian went to the polls on Monday, Trump posted what seemed like an endorsement of Carney’s rival, the Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre, suggesting that the pro-Trump politician would help bring about Canada’s absorption into the United States. When the votes were counted, however, Poilievre, who had a commanding lead in the polls before Trump started talking about annexing the country, had not only failed to lead the Conservatives to power, he had even lost his own seat.Despite Carney’s office claiming on Tuesday that he and Trump had agreed to work together “as independent, sovereign nations”, White House officials insisted that Trump is still serious about his stated desire to make Canada the 51st US state.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked during a briefing for rightwing influencers if Trump was “truthing or trolling” when he says that he wants to annex Canada, and Greenland. “Trump truthing, all the way”, she replied. “And the Canadians would benefit greatly, let me tell you that”.Donald Trump surprised Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, by inviting her to speak during his address at Selfridge air national guard base on Tuesday afternoon.Trump, who came to Macomb county, Michigan, for an evening rally to celebrate what he calls the historic accomplishments of the first 100 days of his second term, despite widespread disapproval of his actions by a majority of Americans in a series of polls, announced a new fighter jet mission for the base outside Detroit, easing fears that the installation would be closed.For decades, Trump said, the base has “stood as a crucial pillar of North American air defense”.“In recent years, many in Michigan have feared for the future of the base. They’ve been calling everybody, but the only one that mattered is Trump,” he said. “Today I have come in person to lay to rest any doubt about Selfridge’s future.”Whitmer’s political standing was damaged earlier this month when she was photographed hiding her face from photographers in the Oval Office after Trump invited her to be present as he signed executive orders, two of which demanded investigations of critics who had served in his first administration.On Tuesday, she was careful to begin her impromptu remarks by saying that she had not expected to speak, and then praised the decision as a boon for the local economy, but did not praise Trump, as Republicans he invited to make remarks did.Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Tuesday that offers temporary relief to automakers from the 25% tariffs he imposed in March in a previous proclamation.The White House confirmed to Fox Business earlier that the new measure would give automakers a break for two years to give them time to move auto production back to the United States.The proclamation outlines a series of technical changes to the tariff regime, “to modify the system imposed in Proclamation 10908 by reducing duties assessed on automobile parts accounting for 15 percent of the value of an automobile assembled in the United States for 1 year and equivalent to 10 percent of that value for an additional year”.As we reported earlier, the changes will allow carmakers with US factories to reduce the amount they pay in import taxes on foreign parts, using a formula tied to how many cars they sell and the price.Doug Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, accused the Trump administration of turning “one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue”, after he and other Joe Biden appointees were removed from the board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.Emhoff, who is Jewish and spoke passionately against the rising tide of antisemitism during his time as the second gentleman, said he was informed on Tuesday that he had been removed from the museum’s council.“Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous – and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve,” he said.“No divisive political decision will ever shake my commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education or to combatting hate and antisemitism. I will continue to speak out, to educate, and to fight hate in all its forms – because silence is never an option.”The New York Times reported that the Trump administration also fired Ron Klain, Biden’s first chief of staff; Susan Rice, national security adviser to Barack Obama, and Biden’s top domestic policy adviser; and Tom Perez, the former labor secretary who was a senior adviser to the former president.Trump defeated Harris, then the US vice-president, in November. Emhoff’s law firm recently struck a deal with the Trump administration to avert an executive order targeting its practice, a decision Emhoff is reported to have voiced his disagreement with.Pete Hegseth has abruptly banished the Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program as part of his crusade against diversity and equity, dismissing it as a “woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative” despite it being a signature Donald Trump achievement from his first term.In a post on X, the US defense secretary wrote: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the [Department of Defense]. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops – distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.”Hegseth added that the program was “pushed by feminists and left-wing activists”, claiming: “Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”But the decision is raising some eyebrows, as the initiative was established during Trump’s first administration when he signed the Women, Peace and Security Act in 2017, making the US the first country in the world to codify standalone legislation on the matter.The Trump campaign even courted female voters by citing the initiative as one of its top accomplishments for women on its website.Attempting to square this circle, Hegseth later claimed the Biden administration had “distorted & weaponized” the original program. “Biden ruined EVERYTHING, including ‘Women, Peace & Security,’” he insisted.The Senate has confirmed billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens to be ambassador to the UK, backing Donald Trump’s nominee by 59 to 39.Stephens is chair, president and CEO of Stephens Inc, a privately owned financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a longtime contributor to Republican candidates, including Trump, having donated millions of dollars to support Trump’s campaigns and 2025 inauguration fund.Asked about negotiations with Congress over tax legislation, Trump said: “The Republicans are with us. I think we’ve got the big beautiful deal that’s moving along, and I think we’re going to have it taken care of.” He added:
      A very important element that we’re working on now, more important than anything with the border in good shape, is the fact that we want to get, and very importantly, the big beautiful new deal. If we get that done, that’s the biggest thing … And I think we’re going to get it done. We have great Republican support. If the Democrats blocked it, you’d have a 60% tax increase. I don’t think that’s going to happen. We have great support from Republicans. …
      The next period of time, I think, my biggest focus will be on Congress, the deal that we’re working on. That would be the biggest bill in the history of our country in terms of tax cuts and regulation cuts, and other things. More

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      The Guardian view on Canada’s Liberal election: Carney’s triumph is a rebuff to Trump | Editorial

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      Canada’s astounding election comeback by the Liberals will hearten many outside its borders as well as within. The governing party’s Lazarus moment was sparked by a man who was not on the ballot – though he took the chance to reiterate that the country should become the 51st US state, implying that voters could then elect him.By then it was already clear that Donald Trump’s threats had backfired. Monday’s result was a clear repudiation of his agenda. For two years, the Conservatives’ Pierre Poilievre looked like a dead cert as the next prime minister, assailing Justin Trudeau’s government on issues including the cost of living, housing and immigration. His party built a 25-point lead. But within four months, Mr Trudeau’s resignation, his warning that Mr Trump’s “51st state” remarks were no joke, and the imposition of swingeing US tariffs, transformed the contest. Mr Poilievre lost his seat. The Liberals are embarking on a fourth term, though this time perhaps as a minority, under Mr Trudeau’s replacement Mark Carney.Mr Trump made Canada’s political and economic sovereignty the central issue. Mr Carney, a member of Mr Trump’s despised global liberal elite, pitched himself as the man for a crisis: an experienced technocrat from outside politics who guided Canada’s central bank through the great recession, and the UK’s through Brexit.Both Mr Poilievre and Mr Trump said that the Conservative leader was not Maga material. But he certainly appeared Maga-adjacent, moving further right and building an energetic base by embracing culture wars and attacking “wokeism”, pledging “jail not bail” and promising to cut international aid and defund the national broadcaster.His defeat was effected primarily by other parties’ supporters resolving to unite around the Liberals. The leftwing New Democrats lost around two-thirds of their seats, including that of their leader Jagmeet Singh, who has resigned – though they have retained enough to ensure a progressive majority in parliament. The Bloc Québécois saw a smaller fall, as Mr Trump’s aggression overshadowed separatist aspirations. But Conservative support actually rose. For the first time in almost a century, Canada’s two main parties each got over 40% of the vote.Mr Carney has plenty to celebrate, but limited room for manoeuvre over difficult terrain: “President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us,” he warned in his victory speech. He knows that Mr Trump takes advantage of perceived weakness. But the US president also nurses grievances. Mr Carney has promised to work more closely with allies in Europe and Asia. His diplomatic experience and international contact book will help.The external economic threat and internal cost of living crisis are inseparable. This campaign, thanks to Mr Trump, put the nation centre stage. But as prime minister, Mr Carney will also need to address society, and tackle the kind of underlying problems that have led to the triumph of Mr Trump and like-minded politicians elsewhere. He has promised to double housebuilding and create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs, and wants to eliminate internal trade barriers. Opponents may well retort that Liberals have had three terms to realise their vision.Other politicians should be cautious about drawing lessons from this very particular contest. Canada faces a unique threat from the US, though it has economic leverage as well as vulnerability. This is, nonetheless, a welcome rebuff to American bellicosity and rejection of rightwing populism.

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      US war plans leak shows Five Eyes allies must ‘look out for ourselves’, says Mark Carney

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      Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has said the inadvertent leak of classified military plans by senior US officials means that allied nations must increasingly “look out for ourselves” as trust frays with a once-close ally.Speaking a day after it was revealed that a journalist was accidentally included in a group chat discussing airstrikes against Yemeni rebels, Carney said the intelligence blunder was a “serious, serious issue and all lessons must be taken”. He said it would be critical to see “how people react to those mistakes and how they tighten them up”.Canada is one of the members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, alongside Australia, New Zealand and the UK and the leak of classified information is likely to put further strain on the group as it weighs how seriously the current American administration takes the handling of top secret information.The revelations came as Canada grapples with a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the United States, its largest trading partner and closest military ally.“My responsibility is to plan for the worst, is to think about the most difficult evolution of the new threat environment, what it means for Canada and how do we best protect Canada,” Carney said during a campaign stop on Tuesday. The prime minister called a snap election on Sunday.“Part of that response is to be more and more Canadian in our defence capabilities, more and more Canadian in our decisions … We have to look out for ourselves.”Asked about the incident on Tuesday, the UK’s armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, told the Commons Defence Committee that no British service personnel had been put at risk as a result.He added: “All UK service personnel are covered by our normal approach to operational security, and the committee will understand that I won’t go into the details of how we keep our involvement in any support for military operations in the Red Sea or anywhere else [secure].“But we’ve got high confidence that the measures that we have got with our allies, including the United States, remain intact.”A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke at length at a briefing about the contribution the UK makes to joint military operations with the Americans. However, the spokesperson refused to directly criticise the two figures who were most critical of Europe’s record on defence, JD Vance, the vice-president, and Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary. The spokesperson also insisted that the UK remains happy to share intelligence with the US despite the leak.The government of New Zealand declined to comment on the matter. When asked by the Guardian if the security breach had raised concerns about the sharing of sensitive intel with Trump’s administration, the offices for New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, and the minister for defence, Judith Collins, said the situation was “a matter for the US administration”.Behind closed doors, senior government officials would likely be discussing the risks of sharing intelligence with the US, amid what could be viewed as a lowering of protocol standards, but the breach would not be a dealbreaker, said Andrew Little, whose ministerial roles covered security, intelligence and defence under New Zealand’s last Labour government.“Our relationship transcends individual administrations and individual political leaders. There will be things that – like everybody – members of this government, will be looking askance at. But I think it’s about managing the relationship in the long run,” Little said.So far, New Zealand has been managing its US relationship responsibly, Little said, but it was now “a relationship that requires constant vigilance”.Robert Patman, a professor at the University of Otago in Dunedin who specialises in international relations, called the security breach “extraordinary” and “cavalier”. “It does confirm what many of us felt, that Mr Trump has picked people according to loyalty, rather than competence, and this was almost a perfect storm waiting to happen,” Patman said.But the wider issue for New Zealand and other Five Eyes countries was knowing how to respond to the Trump administration’s “radical departure” from the rules-based order, which included making territorial claims against liberal democracies and siding with Russian president Vladimir Putin over negotiations in Ukraine.“We should be friendly towards the Trump administration where our interests converge, but this administration is doing things which are fundamentally a challenge to [New Zealand’s] national interests.”In Australia, the department of foreign affairs and trade said: “This incident is a matter for the United States. Australia and the United States engage regularly on implementation of mutually recognised standards for the protection of classified material.”Ben Doherty contributed additional reporting More