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      White House denies some reporters access to Trump cabinet meeting – live

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      The White House on Wednesday reportedly denied reporters from Reuters, the AP, and other news organizations access to President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting in keeping with the administration’s new policy regarding media coverage.Reuters is reporting that the White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper.TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, along with correspondents from Axios, the Blaze, Bloomberg News and NPR were permitted to cover the event.This comes as on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has urged the Trump administration to strike down a key scientific finding that has served as the foundation for US climate change policy, The Washington Post reports.In a report submitted to the White House, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin recommended revising the agency’s 2009 determination that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.This report, established under the Clean Air Act, provides the legal basis for various climate regulations affecting motor vehicles, power plants, and other major pollution sources.Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, urged President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to adopt a firm approach toward China, pointing to concerns over Chinese startup DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence technology, Reuters reports.Warren called on nominee Jeffrey Kessler to strengthen AI chip regulations introduced by former President Joe Biden’s administration in January.“In light of DeepSeek, we must reinforce our controls on (China),” Warren wrote, calling for a series of other actions on Chinese tech efforts.Several Democratic senators made dramatic returns to Washington to vote against Republicans’ budget blueprint on Tuesday night.California Congressman Kevin Mullin, who had been absent while recovering from a blood clot and infection following knee surgery, went straight to the airport after being discharged from the hospital, while Colorado Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen returned to teh House floor with her newborn son, Sam, nestled in her arms.Their dramatic – and surprise – appearances were part of an effort by Democrats to block Republicans’ plan to advance major pieces of Donald Trump’s tax cut and immigration agenda.“I have a message for Donald Trump: nobody fights harder than a mom,” Petterson wrote on X. “Republican leadership may have denied my ability to vote by proxy but that didn’t stop us from voting against this disastrous budget that strips away health care and food for seniors, veterans, kids and families across Colorado — all to give tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk.”The bill ultimately passed in a 217-215 vote. Only one Democrat, Arizona congressman Raúl Grijalva, who has cancer, returned for the vote. But up until the moment the vote ended, Republicans were working to overcome unified Democratic opposition to the plan, which would likely result in steep cuts to social safety net programs, including Medicaid.“After three surgeries, a blood clot, an infection and being hospitalized for over a week, the moment I was discharged I immediately rushed to the airport so I could get on a plane to D.C. and vote NO on Republicans’ disastrous budget plan,” Mullin said in a statement after the vote. “They are trying to make the most devastating cuts to Medicaid the nation has ever seen – $880 billion – all so they can give more tax cuts to billionaires and corporations.”On board the flight, Mullin’s wife, Jessica Stanfill-Mullin, helped administer IV antibiotics to him.Here are some photos coming in from the wires showing demonstrators gathered on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, protesting cuts to USAid funding.Organized by ActUp’s Health Global Access Project, the protesters temporarily occupied the rotunda before Capitol Police arrested 21 of them.One of the big moments of today came from Donald Trump’s first officials cabinet meeting. Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term:

      Trump announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC to sign the rare earth minerals agreement. He praised Doge, claiming, without evidence, that it has saved billions.

      Elon Musk also delivered remarks and warned that without cost-cutting, the country could go “bankrupt” describing himself as “tech support”. He acknowledged mistakes made by Doge, such as when they accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but he said, they “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.

      Trump also mentioned that the Environmental Protection Agency might cut up to 65% of its employees and declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.

      Trump said that tariffs on Canada and Mexico will continue, and that a 25% tariff on the European Union was coming soon.

      Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
      Other news that happened today:

      UK prime minister Keir Starmer left for Washington today prior to his meeting with Donald Trump set for Thursday in what will be his biggest diplomatic test to date.

      US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said that the US will invest up to $1bn to combat the spread of bird flu, including increasing imports of eggs.

      President Donald Trump threatened to sue journalists and authors who use “anonymous” sources in their reporting.

      Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will not run for Minnesota’s newly open US Senate seat, according to his spokesperson.

      The US abstained from World Trade Organization condemnation of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

      California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he is launching his own podcast.

      The US supreme court heard oral arguments in a case that could radically transform workplace discrimination claims.

      New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him.

      A meeting between EU foreign policy chief and US secretary of state Marco Rubio was cancelled, with both sides citing scheduling conflicts.

      Trump urged Apple to end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

      The Trump administration issued a memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs of government employees, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.

      A US judge has briefly extended an order reinstating the head of a federal watchdog agency responsible for protecting whistleblowers who had challenged his firing by Trump.

      The Trump administration said that New York City must end its congestion pricing program by 21 March, according to Reuters.

      Trump announced that his administration is reversing concessions given to Venezuela on an oil transaction agreement by former president Joe Biden.

      The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.

      The Senate confirmed Trump’s pick for US trade representative, Jamieson Greer.
      The US Securities and Exchange Commission has told unionized employees they will have to return to the office in mid-April, unless they have certain exemptions, per a memo seen by Reuters.In the memo, SEC Chief Operating Officer Ken Johnson told staff that they will be required to work on-site beginning 14 April 2025 and said that the return-to-work directive would “best position the SEC to fulfil the agency’s mission.”In response, the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 239, which represents SEC employees, said in an email to members seen by Reuters, that the SEC’s action “plainly violates” the union contract and called the order illegal.“Like you, the union only received notice of this order by the SEC management moments ago,” the email reportedly said. Reuters is reporting that the union’s 2023 collective bargaining agreement outlines telework options for approved employees and that the agreement lasts three years.This comes as similar efforts have occurred at the agency with non-unionized staff, and across the federal workforce, in response to a mandate by President Donald Trump that officials fire remote or hybrid work arrangements.A US judge has briefly extended an order reinstating the head of a federal watchdog agency responsible for protecting whistleblowers who had challenged his firing by Donald Trump.According to Reuters, US district judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington said Hampton Dellinger, the head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his post through at least Saturday.Jackson said the extension would give her time to draft a permanent ruling in the case.Last week, the US supreme court temporarily kept Dellinger on the job as the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Trump’s second presidency.The justices said in an unsigned order that Dellinger could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. And now, that has been extended to at least Saturday, per Reuters.The Trump administration says in a letter made public on Wednesday that New York City must end its congestion pricing program by 21 March, according to Reuters.Last week, the transportation department announced that it intends to rescind federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, that is designed to reduce traffic and raise money to upgrade ageing subway and bus systems.Two New York City transit agencies have filed suit to block the decision.The letter today comes as this week it was reported by the New York Times that New York’s congestion pricing plan raised $48.6m in tolls during its first month and that it has exceeded expectations and is on track to raise billions of dollars for the New York’s transit system.The revenue numbers were the latest sign that the tolling plan was working.President Donald Trump’s stated plan to slap a 25% tariff on exports from the European Union to the United States will result in a serious trade conflict, Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store said today to news agency NTB. Norway is not a member of the European Union but it closely integrated with the bloc on trade.A planned meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and US secretary of state Marco Rubio was reportedly abruptly cancelled on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.Both sides blamed scheduling challenges, the AP said, but European officials said they were caught off-guard.In other news today, Utah is poised to become the first state in the US to ban fluoride from its water systems with a bill now before its Republican governor, Spencer Cox. The bill outlaws the adding of fluoride to water “in or intended for public water systems”, and adds that it repeals any previous laws “including sections about providing fluoridated water upon resident request and under emergency circumstances”.Cox has not publicly indicated support or opposition to the bill. If he signs it, fluoride would be banned across Utah starting 7 May, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.Although the bill would remove fluoride from public taps, it would also allow pharmacists to prescribe fluoride supplements to individuals.The bill, HB81, was approved last Friday. “I’m pleased to announce that HB81 has passed both the House and senate and is headed to the governor for his signature,” wrote Stephanie Gricius, the Republican who sponsored it, on social media. “I’m so grateful to everyone who helped push this policy.”Read more about it here:The White House on Wednesday reportedly denied reporters from Reuters, the AP, and other news organizations access to President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting in keeping with the administration’s new policy regarding media coverage.Reuters is reporting that the White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper.TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, along with correspondents from Axios, the Blaze, Bloomberg News and NPR were permitted to cover the event.This comes as on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.Trump has announced that his administration is reversing concessions given to Venezuela on an oil transaction agreement by former president Joe Biden.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he ordered that the agreement, “dated November 26, 2022” be terminated “as of the March 1 option to renew”.Additionally, Trump said, that Venezuela’s “regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to.“I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden ‘Concession Agreement’ be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew” he added.The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that under the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order signed by Donald Trump last month undocumented immigrants must also provide their fingerprints, while parents must ensure children under 14 are registered. The department will provide “evidence” of their registration and those 18 and over must carry that document at all times.The announcement comes as Trump has sought to harshly crackdown on immigration and implement a mass deportation campaign. Since taking office, his administration has attempted to suspend a refugee resettlement program (a judge blocked the cancellation), moved to cut off legal aid for immigrant kids (although it later walked back that decision), sought to allow immigration raids in schools and churches (another judge blocked such efforts in some houses of worship) and has begun sending undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo.Under the program announced this week, undocumented immigrants 14 and older in the US for 30 days or more will be required to register and undergo fingerprinting. Parents and guardians must register children under 14, and once children reach that age they must reapply and be fingerprinted, DHS said on its website. Those who do not comply can face criminal penalties, including misdemeanor prosecution, and fines.More on this story here:The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made the announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing, framing the move as democratizing access to the president.“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.“Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”The announcement upends over 70 years of established protocol of journalists themselves – not government officials – determining the rotating reporters who travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.You can read more on this story here:Senate confirms Donald Trump’s pick for US trade representativeIn a 56-43 vote, Jamieson Greer was confirmed as the country’s top trade negotiator.Of those who voted in favor of Greer’s confirmation, five were Democrats: Senators John Fetterman, John Hickenlooper, Gary Peters, Elissa Slotkin and Sheldon Whitehouse.Greer is a former lawyer for the air force and served as the chief of staff for Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative during Trump’s first term. Greer will play a key role in Trump’s tariff plans.Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate finance committee, opposed Greer’s confirmation and said: “Mr Greer will be a rubber stamp for the Trump Tax, the kneejerk decision to slap tariffs on nearly everything Americans buy and make high prices even higher.”Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term.

      Trump opened his meeting by announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC on Friday to sign an agreement regarding rare earth minerals.

      Trump spoke about the costs of eggs, and how his administration was working to “get the prices down”.

      During the meeting, Trump praised Doge and said, without evidence, that the initiative had cut billions and billions of dollars.

      Trump then asked Elon Musk to stand up and deliver some remarks about his work with Doge. In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support and claimed that if costs don’t get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”. Musk also described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.

      Musk acknowledged that Doge “won’t be perfect” and said that Doge accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.

      Musk said that Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers. “We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said. Trump also told the room that the federal employees who have not responded so far are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.

      Trump said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% or so of its employees.

      Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force. The US president then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

      Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, spoke about the new “gold card” plan and said that 200,000 of them could add up to $1tn.

      During the meeting, Trump heavily criticized former president Joe Biden, and criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the southern border.

      Trump once again said that he wanted Canada to become the 51st US state.

      Trump said that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon. “It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”

      Trump described Putin as a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”. He also said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.

      Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
      Trump says that the US has “gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run” before criticizing former president Joe Biden calling him the “worst president in the history of our country”. More

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      Fired USAid workers and HIV activists hold ‘die-in’ to protest Trump and Musk

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      Fired USAid employees and advocates for people with HIV staged a protest in a Capitol office building on Wednesday, warning that Donald Trump’s drive to dismantle the agency tasked with implementing Washington’s foreign aid agenda imperils the fight against the virus.Wearing white T-shirts that read “Aids funding cuts kill” and chanting “Congress has blood on its hands, unfreeze aid now”, around three dozen protesters lay down in the rotunda of the Cannon House office building, home to the offices of representatives from both parties. Capitol police said about 20 arrests were made of demonstrators who defied their orders to disperse.“What we are demanding of Congress is that they stop behaving like doormats in the face of this attack on humanitarian assistance that truly is highly effective and life-saving,” Asia Russell, executive director of Health Gap, a global advocacy group fighting against HIV, said prior to the protest.“It’s very hard to overstate what’s at stake regarding humanitarian assistance.”The protest came as USAid remained frozen by the Trump administration’s rapid moves to close the agency. Over the weekend, the agency announced that it was placing all but a small number of its employees worldwide, as well as nearly 2,000 staffers based in the United States, on paid leave. Those working in Washington DC have been invited to retrieve their belongings from its headquarters, which is set to be turned into office space for US Customs and Border Protection, one of the agencies implementing Trump’s hardline immigration policies.On Tuesday, a federal judge reportedly gave the government a two-day deadline to release billions of dollars in foreign aid funds that had been held back after Trump ordered USAid to stop work. If those funds are not restored, former USAid employees who attended the protest at the Capitol warned, the global fight against HIV will be set back.The United States has been a leader in the campaign against the virus that causes Aids through Pepfar, a program that provides medication to 20 million people worldwide and was established during Republican George W Bush’s presidency. But USAid’s abrupt closure has stopped payments to providers working with the program worldwide.“This is not controversial, and what is happening is not government efficiency, it’s government fraud, waste and abuse when it comes to what Doge is doing,” said the fired USAid contractor Van Credle, referring to Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, which spearheaded the dismantling of her agency as well as other deep cuts to federal services.The Republican majorities elected to both the Senate and House last November have thus far shown little interest in saving USAid and even supported its closure, despite the fact that foreign assistance has in the past enjoyed support on both sides of the aisle. Kelsey Crow, a contractor at the agency’s bureau of global health who lost her job, said the protest was meant to encourage lawmakers who previously supported USAid to step up.“So much of our work at USAid is mandated by Congress, and so for Congress to not be taking action, for Congress to be holding hearings that are pushing out lies and falsehoods about USAid to say that the waivers are back when we know that they’re actually not turned on and the money’s not actually flowing, it’s incredibly disappointing,” Crow said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionPeter Kerndt, a physician who spent five years with USAid coordinating the fight against tuberculosis in African and Asian countries, said it will be “impossible” to achieve a global goal of eliminating the virus by 2030 if the agency goes away.“For this administration, for Elon Musk to call USAid a criminal organization that should die and to gleefully celebrate that he spent the weekend putting USAid in the wood chipper instead of going to a party is such an insult to all of the workers, both here and in the country,” he said. “But most of all, the people that suffer are the people that we were there to help.”Andrew Roth contributed reporting More

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      Canada’s American coach Marsch ‘ashamed’ of Trump’s 51st state comments

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      Canada head coach Jesse Marsch took direct aim at Donald Trump and the current state of discourse in the US in comments to media on Wednesday.“If I have one message to our president, it’s lay off the ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state,” said Marsch, who grew up in Wisconsin and enjoyed a 13-year career in Major League Soccer before moving into coaching. “As an American, I’m ashamed of the arrogance and disregard that we’ve shown one of our historically oldest, strongest and most loyal allies.”Marsch was addressing the media in Los Angeles, where he appeared with other representatives of the four nations participating in the Concacaf Nations League finals, set to be hosted at SoFi Stadium at the end of next month. Canada will play Mexico in one semi-final on 20 March with the US and Panama playing each other on the same day, raising the possibility that the two nations will play each other in either the Nations League final or third place game on 23 March.Trump has repeatedly antagonized Canada in comments and through official policy proposals like tariffs during his second term. On multiple occasions he has said that Canada could become “the 51st state” of the United States and has proposed tariffs that experts predict would kick off a trade war between the countries.Trump’s comments have already resonated in the sports world. The US national anthem was booed repeatedly at NHL and NBA games in Canada, while the countries’ meeting at the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off became an overtly political spectacle. In the final of that tournament, the Canadian national anthem singer changed the song’s lyrics in a direct rebuke to Trump, before Canada set off wild celebrations with a victory.Marsch, the former Leeds United, RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg and New York Red Bulls head coach, said on Wednesday that international tournaments like the Nations League “mean something different now” given the current political climate, and said he finds the 51st state discourse to be “unsettling and frankly insulting.”“Canada is a strong, independent nation that’s deeply rooted in decency, and it’s a place that values high ethics and respect, unlike the polarized, disrespectful and often now, hate-fueled climate that’s in the US,” Marsch said. “It’s one of the things that I’ve enjoyed the most about our team, is that they exemplify this as human beings and as a team … So for me right now I couldn’t be prouder to be the Canadian national team coach. I found a place that embodies, for me, the ideals and morals of what not just football and a team is, but what life is, and that’s integrity, respect and the belief that good people can do great things together.”Canada, who appeared in their first men’s World Cup in 36 years in 2022, hired Marsch in 2024 and have continued to thrive. The team progressed to the third place game at the 2024 Copa América, and defeated the US 2-1 in a September friendly later that year. A win against Mexico at the Nations League finals would stretch the team’s unbeaten run to six games since the Copa América.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“One thing’s for sure, when I look forward to a month from now … I know this will fuel our team, the mentality we have, the will we have to play for our country, the desire we have to go after this tournament in every way and show on and off the pitch exactly what Canadian character is,” Marsch said.US men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino was not present at the event, replaced instead by former USMNT defender and current US Soccer President of Sporting Oguchi Onyewu. Asked to respond to Marsch’s comments, Onyewu said: “We’re all here to promote the Concacaf Nations League, and all of my comments are to promote the Concacaf Nations League, SoFi Stadium, and the strong competition that we have on this panel right now.” More

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      Outcry as White House starts dictating which journalists can access Trump

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      The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made the announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing, framing the move as democratizing access to the president.“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.“Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”The announcement upended more than 70 years of protocol of journalists – not government officials – determining which rotating reporters travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” Leavitt said. She added that while legacy outlets would still be included, the administration would be “offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility” – notably podcasters and rightwing media.As the media reeled from the attack on the press pool, the three main wire services that routinely report on the US presidency released a joint statement protesting Donald Trump’s decision to bar the Associated Press from official events.Reuters and Bloomberg News joined AP in decrying Trump’s move to restrict AP’s access to the president. The top editors of each of the wires said the unprecedented action had threatened the principle of open reporting and would harm the spread of reliable information to individuals, communities, businesses and global financial markets.“It is essential in a democracy for the public to have access to news about their government from an independent, free press,” the three editors said.The standoff between Trump and AP began on 14 February when the White House announced it was indefinitely barring AP reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One. Officials said the step had been taken to punish AP for refusing to amend its style guide to change the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, as Trump had dictated.AP immediately sued over the restriction, but on Monday a federal judge declined to restore the wire service’s access to presidential events in the short term. Another hearing in the case, which is ongoing, is scheduled for next month.The White House wasted no time implementing the new policy over the composition of the press pool, ejecting a HuffPost reporter from Wednesday’s press pool rotation and removing Reuters from its traditional spot – just one day after the announcement. Also on Wednesday morning, Trump mused on legal action against journalists and publishers in a Truth Social post.“At some point I am going to sue some of these dishonest authors and book publishers, or even media in general, to find out whether or not these ‘anonymous sources’ even exist,” Trump posted, adding: “maybe we will create some NICE NEW LAW!!!”The announcement triggered immediate alarm among journalists who argue that the role of the WHCA is to make sure Americans who use any of the major mediums – including radio, television, print, wires and photography – are able to get the same access to Trump’s world.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“This move does not give the power back to the people – it gives power to the White House,” posted Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News senior White House correspondent and WHCA board member. “The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time White House press corps.”Heinrich added: “WHCA has determined pools for decades because only representatives FROM our outlets can determine resources all those outlets have – such as staffing – in order to get the President’s message out to the largest possible audience, no matter the day or hour.”In a separate missive on X, Heinrich also pointed out the press corps “from across a broad spectrum of tv, radio, print, stills, wires and new media” cover the White House full-time.“This is a short-sighted decision, and it will feel a lot different when a future Democratic administration kicks out conservative-leaning outlets and other critical voices,” she wrote.The WHCA president, Eugene Daniels, said the move “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States” and “suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president”. He noted the White House did not consult with the WHCA before making the announcement.Later on Wednesday, the White House denied reporters from Reuters and other news organizations access to Trump’s first cabinet meeting in keeping with the administration’s new policy regarding media coverage.The White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper. More

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      White House gives federal agency heads deadline to produce plan for layoffs

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      US government agency heads have been given a 13 March deadline to produce a plan for drastically slashing the federal workforce as Donald Trump reinforced warnings that workers who failed to account for what they do could be fired.A White House memo issued on Wednesday directed bosses to provide details of their workforce reduction plans in the most specific instruction yet to managers to cut stuff who are deemed unnecessary or inefficient.“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” reads the seven-page, acronym-laden document, jointly written by Russ Vought, the newly installed director of the White House’s office of management and budget, and Charles Ezell, acting director of the office of personnel management (OPM).“Tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.”As a remedy, it adds specific guidance to an executive order issued by Trump this month mandating large-scale “reductions in force” across government department and agencies.It calls for the elimination of “agency components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or regulation who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations”.“Agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated while driving the highest-quality, most efficient delivery of their statutorily-required functions,” the memo states.View image in fullscreen“Each agency will submit a Phase 1 ARRPs [agency reductions in force and reorganization plans] … for review and approval no later than March 13, 2025.”The dryly bureaucratic language was hardened by Trump at his first cabinet meeting in the White House on Wednesday, during which he said he spoke with the Environmental Protection Agency secretary, Lee Zeldin, about cutting “65 or so per cent” from the agency.Trump’s ally Elon Musk, head of the self-styled “department of government efficiency” unit that is spearheading the search for spending cuts, said he would send a second email asking federal workers to detail what they achieved at work.More than 1 million members of the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce have not replied to Musk’s initial demand that they describe their previous week’s work in five bullet points. Several of Trump’s cabinet members – including the FBI director, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard, director of the office of national intelligence – instructed staff not to answer because of the risks of revealing classified information.“Those million people that haven’t responded, they are on the bubble,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t say that we’re thrilled about it. Maybe they don’t exist. Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist. [But] a lot of those people who have not responded …it’s possible those people will be fired.” More

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      Trump threatens fines and prison time for undocumented immigrants who don’t join registry

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      The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that under the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order signed by Donald Trump last month undocumented immigrants must also provide their fingerprints, while parents must ensure children under 14 are registered. The department will provide “evidence” of their registration and those 18 and over must carry that document at all times.The announcement comes as the US president has sought to harshly crackdown on immigration and implement a mass deportation campaign. Since taking office, his administration has attempted to suspend a refugee resettlement program (a judge blocked the cancellation), moved to cut off legal aid for immigrant kids (although it later walked back that decision), sought to allow immigration raids in schools and churches (another judge blocked such efforts in some houses of worship) and has begun sending undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo.Under the program announced this week, undocumented immigrants 14 and older in the US for 30 days or more will be required to register and undergo fingerprinting. Parents and guardians must register children under 14, and once children reach that age they must reapply and be fingerprinted, DHS said on its website. Those who do not comply can face criminal penalties, including misdemeanor prosecution, and fines.According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the registry, undocumented immigrants will also be required to provide their home addresses and that failing to register could result in fines of up to $5,000 and six months in prison.The law has long been on the books, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said in an interview on Fox News, but she will start enforcing it as the Trump administration seeks to use “every single tool at [its] disposal” to implement the president’s promised immigration crackdown. By registering, undocumented immigrants can avoid criminal charges and the federal government will “help them” return to their home country, allowing them to eventually return to the US, she said.“If they don’t register, they are breaking the federal law, which has always been in place,” Noem said. “We’re just going to start enforcing it to make sure these aliens go back home and when they want to be an American they can go and visit us again.“We’re going to use this tool to make sure we’re following our law to provide people an opportunity to go home and come back and be a part of our country’s future in the right way,” she continued.According to the National Immigration Law Center, the Alien Registration Act of 1940 is the only time the federal government implemented a “comprehensive campaign to require all noncitizens to register”. The immigration advocacy group warned that the registry would be used to help find targets for deportation.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Any attempt by the Trump administration to create a registration process for noncitizens previously unable to register would be used to identify and target people for detention and deportation,” the center said.Associated Press contributed to reporting More

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      ‘Against everything this country stands for’: ex-NFL player Chris Kluwe takes his local anti-Maga protest national

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      Last week the former NFL player Chris Kluwe was arrested at a city council meeting in his home town of Huntington Beach, California, for approaching councilmembers after making an impassioned speech likening the Maga movement to nazism. This came after the council approved a plaque commemorating the city library’s 50th anniversary. Writ largest on the plaque are the words “Magical Alluring Galvanizing Adventurous” – an acrostic of Maga.Kluwe ranked among the NFL’s top punters while playing for the Minnesota Vikings in the early 2000s. During his career he was as well known for calling out NFL immorality and championing civil rights causes like same-sex marriage and racial justice as he was for pinning the opposition against their own goalline with his booming right leg.Retirement hasn’t dampened the 43-year-old’s impassioned rhetoric. “Maga stands for resegregation and racism,” he said in his council address. “Maga stands for censorship and book bans. … Maga is a profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, Maga is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat but that is what it is.”After dropping the mic to cheers from the gallery, Kluwe stepped forward from his public podium toward the city council dais and gave himself up as police swarmed to arrest him. He was eventually charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting an assembly.“I had seen at previous city council meetings that this city does not listen to its community,” Kluwe said in a phone interview two days after his arrest, with characteristic wryness. “They want attention so that they can get more power. But they don’t want to do the actual work of making the community better.”He assumed that his booking would be fairly straightforward, but the police held him for two and a half hours, “because they were waiting for something to charge me with”, he says. “Now I have a court date in April, so we’ll see what happens. There’s a possibility the ACLU might get involved. Some people have been telling me they’re looking to challenge this because they think it might not be legal.”View image in fullscreenKnown as “the surfing capital of the world”, Huntington Beach is 40 miles down the coast from Los Angeles in Orange county – California’s historically conservative heartland. Kluwe, who grew up in nearby Seal Beach and has called Huntington Beach home for the past 15 years, has seen the town’s political attitude shift with the tides. “Skinheads and ‘surf Nazis’ were a known part of Huntington Beach,” he says. “But the government wasn’t necessarily like that. They were conservative. But it was small-c, don’t want to pay taxes or build new houses conservatism. But then [in the past decade] you saw the community start shifting more leftwards. When I moved back here, this was a cool beach community, a good place to live.”But in the last few years, the community has been jerked back to the right as Maga Republicans have overtaken city politics. The former city attorney, Michael Gates, stepped down from that position this year to join Donald Trump’s justice department. Maga candidates swept last November’s elections to lock out all seven of Huntington Beach’s city council seats. After their victory they posed for pictures inside city hall wearing “Make Huntington Beach Great Again” red caps and dubbed themselves the “Maga-nificent 7”.“A lot of people thought that Maga would help them, and they trusted the city council to look out for their best interests. They didn’t realize that this council is only here to make themselves famous and try to move upwards in the political echelon,” Kluwe says.One of the new Maga cohort is Gracey Van Der Mark, the former mayor who won a city council seat in November. As mayor, she spearheaded a slew of initiatives including prohibitive voter ID laws, resisting California’s Covid mandates and eliminating references to hate crimes in the city’s declaration on human dignity. To regulate the city library, she pushed a resolution for a “parental advisory board” to pre-screen library books, and even considered privatizing the library’s operations. Both proposals were met with considerable backlash from the city’s liberal, independent and anti-Trump Republican residents. The library plaque includes an unattributed quote – “Through hope and change, our nation has built back better to the golden era of Making America Great Again” – which mashes up slogans from Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Trump’s presidential campaigns. But the overall tone of the tribute makes clear whose vision of America is most prized.“The library’s name is in the smallest font on the plaque,” Kluwe says. “So, to me, it’s like, what are you really celebrating?”Kluwe was bound to figure in the Huntington Beach resistance. During the 2011 NFL lockout, he called Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and other star members of his players union “greedy douchebags” for reportedly seeking individual carveouts from the league at the expense of a collectively bargained agreement. Two years later, Kluwe joined up with the Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo to file a supreme court amicus brief expressing their support of the challenge to California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. When the Vikings cut Kluwe in spring 2013, he wrote a Deadspin article attributing his release to his support of same-sex marriage and called his positions coach, whom he accused of repeatedly using homophobic language, a bigot. (After a months-long internal investigation, the Vikings settled with Kluwe by making a sizable donation to LGBTQ+-focused organizations.)After retiring from football, he advocated for NFL players’ right to protest during the social justice movement and vocally supported Colin Kaepernick. All the while, Kluwe made a smooth transition into a career as a memoirist and sci-fi author.But he says he’s finding the current administration stranger than fiction, particularly when he saw the photoshopped magazine cover of Trump wearing a crown that was posted on the White House’s official Instagram account. “I cannot think of anything more profoundly un-American than a picture of an American president with a crown,” he says. “That goes against everything this country stands for.”Kluwe hopes his protest will inspire other concerned citizens across the country to take a stand and motivate Democratic lawmakers in particular to fight harder. “Right now, the Democratic party is contributing nothing to trying to defend our nation,” says Kluwe, who had been on the phone with party operatives before clicking over to talk to me. I asked whether he was interested in running for office himself, but he said he was more interested in the power of civil disobedience.He hopes his stand against the Huntington Beach city council will be a reminder to the rest of the world of the many Americans who didn’t vote for Trump. “These countries have been our friends and allies for decades. It’s up to us to show the world that the 25% of people who cast their votes for him do not represent the American people, nor do they represent the American dream, which is one of inclusion, diversity and respect, both home and abroad. We may not always achieve it, but I think it is an ideal worth striving towards.” More

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      A soccer ball, a T-shirt: teachers scramble to say goodbye to students fleeing under Trump

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      A soccer ball covered in signatures from classmates. A handwritten letter telling a child of their worth. A T-shirt bearing a school emblem meant to remind a newcomer how much they were loved in a place they once called home.These are among the items teachers have given their multilingual learners – students who learn in more than one language – whose families fled their school districts rather than risk being detained by immigration agents.“One of my students told me last week that their family had decided to go back to Brazil because they were afraid of deportation,” said Philadelphia teacher Joanna Schwartz. “It was his last day here. I scrounged up a T-shirt with our school’s logo on it and a permanent marker and my student had all of his friends and teachers sign it.”She said she taught the fifth-grader for three years.“It’s nothing big, but it was a treasure to him to have the physical signatures of his dearest friends and teachers to take with him,” she said.Some immigrant students wrestling with the fear of deportation leave school with no warning. Other times, they give their teachers just a few hours’ notice to process the loss of a relationship that might have lasted for years.Such scenes are unfolding throughout the country as the Trump administration ratchets up immigration arrests and removals and opens schools to enforcement actions, striking terror in the hearts of undocumented people and their advocates.Faced with the fallout, teachers who have spent their entire careers advocating for immigrant students – fighting battles even within their own districts to ensure students have a robust education – are left fumbling for the right words to say or gift to give a child under extreme stress.Schwartz, who teaches multilingual learners in Philadelphia, uses her prior training as a therapist to help kids through these toughest of moments.She said she often gives children who are leaving “transitional objects”, something tangible to help them feel connected to their friends in the United States.View image in fullscreenSchwartz wrote her departing student a letter in which she “reminded him of his many strengths and told him how much he will be missed”, she said. She added drawings, stickers and her email address.Areli Rodriguez was devastated when, last winter, during her first year of teaching in Texas, one of her most promising and devoted young students left for another state. The boy’s family had been growing wary of the anti-immigrant policies of the governor, Greg Abbott, and headed to Oklahoma, where they hoped they’d be safer.“He was my first student who left for this reason,” Rodriguez said of the fifth-grader who had arrived in the United States from Mexico less than a year earlier. “It just broke my heart.”The family didn’t know Oklahoma would propose some of the harshest immigration restrictions in the nation, including a plan, just this week rejected by the governor, to require parents to report their own immigration status when enrolling their kids in school.Rodriguez is not sure where the child is today. As a parting gift, she gave him a soccer ball signed by all of his classmates.Moments before he left, the boy, who had been chosen as student of the week when he departed, led the class in a call-and-response chant by Rita F Pierson that the class had previously learned:I am somebody.I was somebody when I came.I’ll be a better somebody when I leave.I am powerful, and I am strong.… I have things to do, people to impress and places to go.The boy left his teacher one of his favorite toys, a Rubik’s Cube.In a diary entry, he wrote to Rodriguez and another beloved teacher: “To say goodbye to all of you, Ms Rodriguez and Ms [S], I want to tell you that you are my favorite teachers, and I’m sorry for any trouble I may have caused. Maybe I wasn’t the best student, but I am proud of myself for learning so much.”“I think about him all the time,” Rodriguez said, adding that he embodies what she loves most about multilingual learners. “For him, school was a gift, an opportunity, a privilege. He just worked so hard … His parents were so supportive – they looked at education as something they wanted to seize.”The Department of Homeland Security is urging undocumented people to leave the country immediately. This isn’t entirely new: Joe Biden deported some 4 million people in a single term, double that of Trump’s first four years in office. But many of those he turned away had been newly arrived at the border. Unlike Trump, Biden shied away from raids.Trump has also signed an executive order aimed at ending federal benefits for undocumented people. It’s unclear how this might affect education: schools receive federal money, particularly to help support children from low-income households, but they also cannot turn away students based on their immigration status, according to the 1982 supreme court decision Plyler v Doe.That landmark ruling, however, is under attack by conservative forces, most recently in Tennessee, where lawmakers this month introduced a bill saying schools can deny enrollment to undocumented students. The sponsors say it’s their intention to challenge Plyler.‘We hugged long and hard’Educators are also preparing more practical gifts meant to help children resume their educations elsewhere.Genoveva Winkler, the regional migrant education program coordinator in Idaho’s Nampa school district, said she’s given more than 100 immigrant families, who may have to suddenly return to their home countries, copies of their students’ transcripts in English and Spanish, along with textbooks supplied by the Mexican consulate to improve their Spanish.Indianapolis teacher Amy Halsall said four children from the same family, ranging in ages from 7 to 12, left her school system right after inauguration day, headed back to Mexico.View image in fullscreen“They didn’t specifically say that it was immigration related, but I would guess it was,” Halsall said. “This is a family that we have had in our school since their sixth-grader was in first grade. The kids were really upset that they had to leave.”The youngest and the eldest had told Halsall they wanted to be ESL (English as a second language) teachers when they grew up, she said. The two middle children hoped to become mechanics and one day open their own shop. Halsall gave them a notebook full of letters written by fellow students and pictures of their classmates.“We hugged long and hard. I told them if they ever came back to Indianapolis that they should call us or visit,” she said. “I told them if I was ever in Mexico, I would call them. I tried hard to keep things positive, but it was hard for all of us. Everyone had tears in their eyes.”The anxiety continues, Halsall said. Just last week, another child, age 8, told her he worried that “la migra” – ICE agents – would take his mother away while he was out.“I told him that he was safe at school and if he got home and no one was there to call me,” she said.Another teacher, in Virginia, said she has had two students leave school so far this academic year. One hailed from Guatemala and the other from Mexico. Both were in their mid-teens and had impeccable attendance, she said.Their teacher did not have a chance to say goodbye in either case. Their departure, she said, left her feeling “completely empty”.“I’ve loved watching them integrate in our school and seeing how they realized they can have this pathway [to further their education] if they choose,” she said. “Watching that choice ripped away by fear is devastating.”

      This story was produced by the 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in the US More