Senate Democrats say they will block GOP’s funding bill ahead of shutdown deadline. See a recap.

Associated Press

An hours-long outage Wednesday on StudentAid.gov, the federal website for student loans and financial aid, underscored the risks in rapidly gutting the Department of Education, as President Trump aims to dismantle the agency.

Hundreds of users reported FAFSA outages to Downdetector starting midday Wednesday, saying they were having trouble completing the form, which is required for financial aid at colleges nationwide. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, a group of people who handle colleges' financial aid awards, also received reports of users experiencing technical issues and having trouble completing the FAFSA.

“We’ve been trying to get more clarity on why it’s down,” said Allie Bidwell Arcese, a spokeswoman for NASFAA. The Education Department hadn’t shared any information on the outage, she said. “The maintenance and troubleshooting may be impacted by yesterday’s layoffs.”

Read the full story.

New York Times

Days after immigration officers arrested a prominent pro-Palestinian campus activist, administrators at Columbia University gathered students and faculty from the journalism school and issued a warning.

Students who were not American citizens should avoid publishing work on the Gaza Strip, Ukraine, and protests related to their former classmate’s arrest, urged Stuart Karle, a First Amendment lawyer and adjunct professor. With about two months to go before graduation, their academic accomplishments — or even their freedom — could be at risk if they attracted the ire of the Trump administration.

“If you have a social media page, make sure it is not filled with commentary on the Middle East,” he told the gathering in Pulitzer Hall. When a Palestinian student objected, the journalism school’s dean, Jelani Cobb, was more direct about the school’s inability to defend international students from federal prosecution.

“Nobody can protect you,” Cobb said. “These are dangerous times.”

Read the full story.

Associated Press

North Dakota lawmakers are on the verge of making their state the first to tell the US Supreme Court to overturn its decade-old ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Similar efforts — which would not have any direct sway with the nation’s top courts — have been introduced in a handful of states this year. North Dakota’s resolution passed the Republican-led House in February but still requires Senate approval, which is not assured.

“The original Supreme Court ruling in 2015 went totally against the Tenth Amendment, went totally against the North Dakota Constitution and North Dakota Century Code (state laws),” sponsor Republican Rep. Bill Tveit said. “Why did I introduce it? Every one of us in this building took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the state.”

Massachusetts-based MassResistance, which describes itself as an “international pro-family group” but has been labeled “anti-LGBTQ hate group” by the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD, is pushing the resolution across the country.

Massachusetts became the first state to recognize same-sex marriage, in 2004. Over the next 11 years, most states began to recognize it through laws, ballot measures or court decisions before the Supreme Court made it legal nationwide.

Read the full story.

New York Times

In a barrage of pronouncements Wednesday, the Trump administration said it would repeal dozens of the nation’s most significant environmental regulations, including limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, protections for wetlands, and the legal basis that allows it to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.

But beyond that, Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, reframed the purpose of the EPA In a 2-minute, 18-second video posted to X, Zeldin boasted about the changes and said his agency’s mission is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.”

Zeldin said the EPA would unwind more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. It would overturn limits on soot from smokestacks that have been linked to respiratory problems in humans and premature deaths as well as restrictions on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. It would get rid of the “good neighbor rule” that requires states to address their own pollution when it’s carried by winds into neighboring states. And it would eliminate enforcement efforts that prioritize the protection of poor and minority communities.

New York Times

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate detained by the Trump administration over the weekend, have not been able to hold a private conversation with their client since his arrest.

That revelation came during a hearing in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, as lawyers for Khalil and the government appeared in front of a judge, Jesse Furman, to discuss Khalil’s detention, which has raised concerns about free speech protections amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia campus, was arrested by federal immigration agents in New York on Saturday and is being held at a facility in Louisiana.

He has not been charged with any crime. But the Trump administration has accused him of siding with terrorists, and justified his detention by citing a little-used statute that grants the secretary of state the power to initiate deportation proceedings against anyone whose presence in the United States is “adversarial” to the country’s foreign policy and national security interests.

Read the full story.

By the Associated Press

The Montgomery Bus Station, which houses the Freedom Rides Museum, had been listed along with hundreds of properties to be sold as part of reductions from DOGE. The list was taken down a day later.

“We should not have to continue to pressure this administration to protect civil rights history,” US Representative Shomari C. Figures said.

Freedom Riders sought to integrate bus terminal waiting rooms throughout the South in the 1960s. They encountered violence and resistance along the way.

Figures and Representative Terri Sewell introduced legislation Wednesday to prevent the sale of all federally owned landmarks listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Our civil rights history is not for sale,” Sewell said in a statement.

By the Associated Press

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was at the White House on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with his visit who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Facebook founder has embraced Trump in recent months, having attended his inauguration and cohosted an inaugural reception.

Weeks after Trump won the election, Zuckerberg flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to have dinner with him.

By the Associated Press

US District Judge James Bredar repeatedly sounded skeptical at a Wednesday hearing that the Trump administration fired a mass of probationary federal workers because the employees couldn’t do their jobs. He said the terminations appeared to be part of a larger goal.

Nearly 20 states are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop any more firings of federal probationary employees and to reinstate those who have already been dismissed. They argue that the Trump administration blindsided them by ignoring laws set for large-scale layoffs, which could have devastating consequences for their state finances.

“This case isn’t about whether or not the government can terminate people. It’s about if they decide to terminate people how they must do it,” Bredar said. “Move fast and break things. Move fast, fine. Break things, if that involves breaking the law then that becomes problematic.”

By the Associated Press

House Democrats gathered in Leesburg, Virginia, for an annual conference are debating how to respond to the second Trump term. Already a key target on the summit’s first day: Billionaire Elon Musk.

“The good news for Democrats is that House Republicans and Donald Trump are making our messaging work easier for us,” Representative Lauren Underwood, of Illinois, said. “The chaos that Elon Musk has unleashed in our communities by laying off public servants who provided critical services is deeply unpopular.

Representative Debbie Dingell, of Michigan, denounced a “meat grinder” approach to government cuts led by Musk, while Rep. Maxwell Frost, of Florida, said Trump was “incompetent.”

Representative Lori Trahan, of Massachusetts, said Democrats would have been open “to modernizing our systems, rooting out fraud, waste and abuse” but criticized the DOGE process.

“That should be done in full view of the American people,” she said. “It should be debated.”

By the Associated Press

The vice chiefs of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force said if they don’t get additional funding, they at least need the flexibility to shift money to ensure their priorities are covered.

“Ultimately, the Army can afford a large, ready or modern force, but with the current budget, it cannot afford all three,” Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the Army, told the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee on Wednesday. “Either we provide soldiers the capabilities needed to win or accept greater risks in other areas.”

He warned that the Army will pay for those risks down the road “in real-world battlefield consequences.”

By the Associated Press

Johnson says they “are both very happy with the outcome of the vote” in the House to fund the government past Friday’s deadline and are “watching very closely what happens in the Senate.”

“I hope they keep the government open,” he said after an annual Irish luncheon at the Capitol.

He warns that Democrats are “going to regret” not joining Republicans to pass the bill and that if Senate Democrats block the bill, “it’s going to be a Schumer shutdown,” referring to the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “I don’t think he wants that.”

By the Associated Press

“They can no longer deny climate change is happening, so instead they’re pretending it’s not a threat, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that it is, perhaps, the greatest threat that we face today,” University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann said.

The United States is the second largest carbon polluter in the world, after China, and the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases.

“The Trump administration’s ignorance is trumped only by its malice toward the planet,” said Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives.”

By the Associated Press

Zeldin said EPA will rewrite a rule restricting air pollution from fossil-fuel fired power plants and a separate measure restricting emissions from cars and trucks that Zeldin and Trump incorrectly label an electric vehicle “mandate.’'

President Biden made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency, pledging that half of the new cars and trucks sold in the US would be zero-emission by 2030.

Zeldin’s EPA also is undoing restrictions on mercury and other air toxins, federal protections for wetlands and a three-decade effort to improve conditions in areas heavily burdened by industrial pollution.

“This isn’t about abandoning environmental protection — it’s about achieving it through innovation and not strangulation,” Zeldin wrote. “By reconsidering rules that throttled oil and gas production and unfairly targeted coal-fired power plants, we are ensuring that American energy remains clean, affordable and reliable.”

By the Associated Press

Fourteen immigrant families were being held in a South Texas detention facility as of Monday, according to RAICES, a legal nonprofit providing services to migrant families at the Karnes Detention Center. They’re from nations including Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Brazil.

Faisal Al-Juburi, RAICES’ chief external affairs officer, said the nonprofit noticed the shift in detention population last week after adult detainees were moved out.

Detaining family members together was largely halted, but not abolished, during the Biden administration, which briefly considered restarting it in 2023.

By the Associated Press

Pentagon shipments of weapons to Ukraine have restarted, but officials acknowledged on Wednesday that Kyiv no longer has any of the longer-range Army Tactical Missile System weapons.

That’s according to a US official and a Ukrainian lawmaker in the defense committee. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to provide military weapons details.

The American official said the US provided fewer than 40 of those missiles overall and that Ukraine ran out of them in late January. Senior US defense and military leaders had told Ukraine there would only be a limited number of the ATACMs delivered and that the US and NATO allies considered air defense systems to be far more valuable.

By the Associated Press

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an appearance on Fox News Channel that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart.

Leavitt also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will be headed to Moscow for talks with Russian officials. The Trump administration wants Russia to sign off on the US proposed ceasefire agreement to pause fighting with Ukraine for 30 days.

She did not say with whom Witkoff will be meeting.

A person familiar with the matter said Witkoff is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin later his week. The person was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

By the Associated Press

The president made the comment during the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon, also attended by Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, on Capitol Hill.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson toasted the relationship between the two countries and the Irish dance group “Riverdance” — which is performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. — made a surprise appearance to round out the event.

Martin called Trump “a great friend of Ireland” and said he hopes to welcome him back to the country soon.

Trump noted he missed the luncheon in 2020, the last year of his first term, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re going to do this at least three more times,” Trump said of the remaining years in his term, to laughter in the room. “When I say ‘at least’ they go crazy.”

By the Associated Press

In what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a series of actions Wednesday to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles.

“We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,’' EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in an essay in The Wall Street Journal.

READ MORE

By the Associated Press

It’s another volatile day for financial markets as Trump escalates his trade war and blames Biden for losses.

“I think a lot of the stock market going down was because of the really bad four years that we had, when you look at inflation and all of the other problems, I mean wars and inflation and so many others problems,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “Financially, we’ll be stronger than ever before. I think the markets are gonna soar when they see what’s happening.”

The day before, he dismissed fears of a recession, and told reporters that his results “are going to be 20 times greater. Remember, Trump is always right.”

By the Associated Press

A research organization that advocates for abortion rights is calling on state governments to stop requiring providers to submit reports on every terminated pregnancy.

Data can be collected voluntarily and in the aggregate instead, says the Guttmacher Institute, which noted that Trump has appointed abortion opponents to key federal jobs.

“It would be a mistake for anyone to assume now that the information a state could collect about abortion would not be used to harm people,” said Kelly Baden, Guttmacher’s vice president for public policy.

By the Associated Press

The Biden administration’s complaint alleged a litany of sex abuse and other offenses between 2015 and 2023 as Southwest Key Programs, which operates migrant shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, amassed nearly $3 billion in contracts from the Department of Health and Human Services.

That lawsuit was dismissed on Wednesday after the federal government announced they would no longer use its services. Children who were still in Southwest Key shelters were moved to other housing, and the company said it was furloughing about 5,000 employees.

By the Associated Press

The commission asked a federal judge for more time to prepare, citing staffing and budgetary challenges. The FTC filed the suit in 2023 and the trial is scheduled for September.

“Our resource constraints are severe and really unique to this moment,” Jonathan Cohen, an FTC attorney, told Judge John Chun during a status hearing at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. “We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on the case team.”

When Chun asked if this was in reference to recent cuts in the federal government, Cohen said it was, adding that some employees who resigned could not be replaced due to the federal hiring freeze.

By the Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance says the administration believes it is in a “very good place” as it pushes the Kremlin to sign off on a US-backed proposal to pause the fighting with Ukraine for 30 days.

He says U.S. officials will have conversations with their Russian counterparts by phone and in person in the coming days.

Trump says he has received some good feedback to the proposal. He has offered no details.

“I’ve gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing. This is a very serious situation,” Trump said. “This is a situation that could lead to World War III.”

“We’ve gotten half of it as a ceasefire,” Trump added. “And if we can get Russia to stop then we have a full ceasefire. And I think it’ll never go back to war.”

By the Associated Press

“And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump said during an extended exchange with reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Micheál Martin, the Taosich of Ireland. “And if we do, I think that would be 80% of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath” ended.

The president again made veiled threats of hitting Russia with new sanctions.

“We can, but I hope it’s not going to be necessary,” Trump added.

By the Associated Press

Sitting in the Oval Office with Martin, Trump repeated his assertion that the European Union was created to take advantage of the United States.

Asked if that included EU member Ireland, Trump said, “Of course they are.” He added that the EU is doing what they need to do for the bloc of countries, but said it “creates ill will.”

Their next stop was the Capitol for an early St. Patrick’s Day lunch.

By the Associated Press

A federal judge is weighing a request by Catholic Charities of Fort Worth to force the Trump administration to resume payments under its contract to provide aid to refugees.

The charity says the money owed is growing by the day since the US Department of Health and Human Services paused payments in January.

An attorney for HHS said the pause is temporary, meant to ensure the money is being spent properly.

But Catholic Charities attorney Edward Waters said the funding freeze appears part of an effort to “grind this program to a halt.”

By the Associated Press

“There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport,” conservative commentator Ann Coulter wrote on X, “but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?”

By the Associated Press

Trump boasted in his joint address to Congress last week that he has “brought free speech back to America.”

First Amendment advocates say they’ve never seen this freedom so under attack.

Trump’s Republican administration has threatened to investigate Democratic members of Congress for criticizing conservatives, pulled federal grants that include language it opposes, sanctioned law firms that represent Trump’s political opponents and detained a student protest organizer, which Trump called “the first arrest of many to come.”

“Your right to say something depends on what the administration thinks of it, which is no free speech at all,” said Will Creeley, legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan First Amendment group.

By the Associated Press

Trump told a joint session of Congress last week that the US would get Greenland “one way or the other.”

The surprise winners in Greenland’s parliamentary elections are pushing back, saying the results show Greenlanders alone will decide their future.

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future,” Demokraatit leader Jens-Friederik Nielsen told Sky News.

The strategically important territory holds reserves of rare earth minerals and is home to a US air base straddling North Atlantic air and sea routes.

By the Associated Press

Iranian state television showed Emirati official Anwar Gargash meeting with Abbas Araghchi. Garachi was identified by Iran as carrying a letter from Trump seeking to jumpstart talks over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Trump said its intended recipient is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has said he’s not interested in talks with a “bullying government.”

But Iran continues to struggle with economic woes, and Trump has imposed even more sanctions over its nuclear program. That pressure, coupled with internal turmoil and direct attacks by Israel, has put the theocracy in one of its most-precarious positions yet.

By the Associated Press

US inflation slowed last month for the first time since September and a measure of underlying inflation fell to a four-year low, even as widespread tariffs threaten to send prices higher.

A reporter asked the president for his thoughts on the inflation numbers as he greeted Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin, who is visiting the White House.

By the Associated Press

The Anti-Defamation League welcomed the detention of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident who led pro-Palestinian campus protests that accused Israel’s military of “genocide” in Gaza and pushed the university to end investments in Israel.

“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism,” the ADL said. “We also hope that this action serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere.”

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said the the Trump administration “is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy: from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking diversity, equity, & inclusion. ... this makes Jews — & so many others — less safe.”

By the Associated Press

The Sweden-based group is suspected of orchestrating an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm in January 2024 on behalf of Iran, and of trafficking drugs and carrying out attacks on Israelis and Jews in Europe.

“Iran’s brazen use of transnational criminal organizations and narcotics traffickers underscores the regime’s attempts to achieve its aims through any means, with no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said.

“Treasury, alongside our US government and international partners, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to further Iran’s thuggish and destabilizing agenda,” Bessent said.

By the Associated Press

Governor Tony Evers said he expects Democratic state attorneys general to sue over the Education Department cuts. A former teacher, school administrator and state superintendent, he joined two other former teachers, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, on a conference call.

Walz said Minnesota will prioritize schools, but states can’t possibly replace the federal education funding being cut. He said “this is undermining our economic well being for the future,” as well as “the moral authority that every child truly matters.”

Meyer said he and other governors spoke Tuesday with Education Secretary Linda McMahon, but are getting mixed messages: “I’m not sure they know what they’re doing,” he said.

By the Associated Press

Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self introduced the first openly transgender lawmaker in Congress as “Mr. McBride.”

Rep. Sarah McBride responded by referring to Self as “Madam Chair,” and tried to move on to her remarks.

But the subcommittee’s top Democrat, Rep. William Keating, called Self “out of order,” asking, “Have you no decency?”

Keating insisted that Self “introduce a duly elected representative the right way.”

Self adjourned the meeting instead.

Republican lawmakers have targeted McBride and refused to acknowledge trans people’s identity after Trump signed executive orders declaring only two sexes.

“No matter how I’m treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress,” McBride later posted. “I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place.”

By the Associated Press

Antonio Guterres was responding to a question on the threat of a trade war following tariffs imposed by Trump and retaliatory tariffs on American products, including by Canada, China and the European Union.

Guterres said we all live in a global economy where everything is interlinked.

“And obviously one of the great advantages of having a situation of free trade is to create conditions for all countries to benefit,” he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

“When we enter into a trade war, I believe all will lose,” Guterres said.

By the Associated Press

China’s state broadcaster CGTN says the Chinese officials warned the US retail giant that its demand for lower prices to absorb the impact from tariffs could disrupt the supply chain and hurt both sides.

CTGN indicated in its blog post that Beijing would like to see American and Chinese businesses working together to cope with the challenges caused by the tariffs.

By the Associated Press

Dominic LeBlanc says “our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted.”

LeBlanc said Canada’s reciprocal tariffs will kick in at midnight and cover such products as tools, computers and servers, display monitors, water heaters, sport equipment, and cast-iron products.

“The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talk of annexing our country through economic coercion,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said. “Yesterday he called our a border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric.”

By the Associated Press

Antonio Guterres hopes Russia agrees and a ceasefire “will materialize.”

“And we hope that it will pave the way for peace — a just peace” he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Guterres stressed in response to questions from reporters that a just peace must be based on the U.N. Charter, which requires every country to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all other countries, international law and U.N. General Assembly resolutions, which have demanded the withdrawal of all Russian troops.

By the Associated Press

Canada will announce retaliatory tariffs that add up to $21 billion in US dollars.

That’s according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak before the announcement.

The European Union also announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on US industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25 percent.

Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the US.

By the Associated Press

US inflation slowed last month for the first time since September and a measure of underlying inflation fell to a four-year low, even as additional tariffs on steel and aluminum that kicked in Wednesday threaten to send prices higher.

The consumer price index increased 2.8 percent in February from a year ago, Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed. Sticky inflation could create problems for Trump, who promised while campaigning to “knock the hell out of inflation.”

Grocery prices were unchanged overall last month from January, but the cost of eggs jumped 10.4 percent and are nearly 60 percent more expensive than a year ago.

READ MORE

By the Associated Press

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the US had “seriously violated WTO rules” after President Donald Trump officially increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%.

Mao defended China’s retaliatory duties on US agricultural products, saying that “cooperation will bring about mutual benefit and win-win results, but the abuse of pressure certainly will be met with resolute countermeasures from China.”

By the Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance welcomed Micheál Martin to Washington with a breakfast reception, the first of several events during the Irish leader’s visit to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Next up is an Oval Office meeting with President Trump, a lunch on Capitol Hill and another White House event Wednesday afternoon.

Vance reminisced about a recent trip to Ireland and joked that his wife, Usha, could finally wear her green pants: “She’s had these in the closet for years.”

Martin thanked the United States for being “a steadfast friend” and praised Trump for working to end the war in Ukraine, saying “We are ready to play our part.”

By the Associated Press

Rubio wouldn’t say as he spoke with reporters en route to talks with US allies in Canada.

“We don’t think it’s constructive to stand here today and say what we’re going to do if Russia says no,” Rubio said, adding he wants to avoid statements about Russia that “are abrasive in any way.”

The Trump administration cut off military and intelligence support to Ukraine for a week to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s agreement to talks. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance also angrily confronted Zelensky in a televised White House meeting.

Rubio did note that Biden administration sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin over his 2022 invasion of Ukraine remain in place.

By the Associated Press

The secretary of state says that if a green card holder supports Hamas, riles up anti-Jewish activities and shuts down college campuses, “we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that.”

“This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,” Rubio said.

Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident born in Syria who was a graduate student at Columbia until December, was detained Saturday and flown to an immigration jail in Louisiana.

Student leaders say their broad anti-war movement also includes Jewish students and groups and is not antisemitic.

By the Associated Press

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US is pursuing multiple points of contact to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate an end to his war against Ukraine.

“The ball is truly in their court,” Rubio said after mediation in Saudi Arabia saw Ukraine agree to start immediate talks with Russia on ending their three-year war.

Rubio spoke to reporters en route to Group of Seven talks with US allies in Canada.

Rubio expressed hopes that Russia will stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days as a first step, saying “It’s hard to start a process when people are shooting at each other and people are dying.”

By the Associated Press

Officials have suggested other agencies could take over the Education Department’s major responsibilities once it’s dismantled.

But the question remains about what could happen with a more lofty part of its mission — promoting equal access for students in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal.

Without the department, advocates worry the federal government would not look out in the same way for poor students, those still learning English, disabled students and racial and ethnic minorities.

The equity goal of the Education Department, which was founded in 1980, emerged partly from the anti-poverty and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Trump has said he wants to return all control of schools to states.

By the Associated Press

“GRANDSTANDER!” President Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, at 1:23 a.m.

The Kentucky congressman was the only House Republican to vote against legislation to prevent a government shutdown.

The president previously suggested Massie would face a primary challenge, although he’s been able to maintain support in his home state despite antagonizing leaders in Washington.

Massie said the funding legislation didn’t do enough to address the federal deficit. Trump and other Republicans have said that will be addressed in other measures this year.

By the Associated Press

The Education Department plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees, a prelude to President Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency.

The Trump administration had already been whittling the agency’s staff, through buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees. After Tuesday’s layoffs, the department’s staff will sit at roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said.

The layoffs are part of a dramatic downsizing directed by Trump as he moves to reduce the footprint of the federal government. Thousands of jobs are expected to be cut across the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration and other agencies.

Department officials said it would continue to deliver on its key functions such as the distribution of federal aid to schools, student loan management and oversight of Pell Grants.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said when she got to the department, she wanted to reduce bloat to be able to send more money to local education authorities.

By the Associated Press

President Trump officially increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25% on Wednesday, promising that the taxes would help create US factory jobs at a time when his seesawing tariff threats are jolting the stock market and raising fears of an economic slowdown.

Trump removed all exemptions from his 2018 tariffs on the metals, in addition to increasing the tariffs on aluminum from 10%. His moves, based off a February directive, are part of a broader effort to disrupt and transform global commerce.

Trump told CEOs in the Business Roundtable on Tuesday that the tariffs were causing companies to invest in US factories. The 8% drop in the S&P 500 stock index over the past month on fears of deteriorating growth appears unlikely to dissuade him, as Trump argued that higher tariff rates would be more effective at bringing back factories.

By the Associated Press

The British government called the Trump administration’s tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports “disappointing,” but said that it won’t impose retaliatory measures.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, however, did not rule out future tariffs on US imports and said he would “continue to engage closely and productively with the US to press the case for UK business interests.”

Britain is not part of the European Union, which Wednesday announced import taxes on American goods, ranging from steel and aluminum to bourbon, peanut butter and jeans in response to Trump’s move.

Center-left UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has worked to build strong ties with Trump, in hope of avoiding the tariffs levied on many other US trading partners.

By the Associated Press

The European Union on Wednesday announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on US industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%.

The world’s biggest trading bloc was expecting the US tariffs and prepared in advance, but the measures still place great strain on already tense transatlantic relations. Only last month, Washington warned Europe that it would have to take care of its own security in the future.

The EU measures will cover goods from the United States worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion), and not just steel and aluminum products, but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods.

The EU duties aim for pressure points in the US while minimizing additional damage to Europe. The tariffs — taxes on imports — primarily target Republican-held states.

By the Associated Press

The British government on Wednesday called the Trump administration’s tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports “disappointing,” but said that it won’t impose retaliatory measures.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, however, did not rule out future tariffs on US imports and said he would “continue to engage closely and productively with the US to press the case for UK business interests.”

READ MORE

By the Associated Press

A Manhattan federal court hearing is scheduled Wednesday in a suit challenging the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student that the Trump Administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests at the school.

Immigration enforcement agents arrested Khalil, a permanent US resident, in New York on Saturday and he has been moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.

US District Judge Jesse Furman has ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers the legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who are seeking to have Khalil brought back to New York and released under supervision. They argue the government is unlawfully retaliating against him for his speech.

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By the Associated Press

The European Union on Wednesday announced retaliatory trade action after the Trump administration officially increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25 percent, with duties on industrial and agricultural products that will go into effect April 1.

The world’s biggest trading bloc was expecting the US tariffs and prepared in advance, but the measures still place great strain on already tense transatlantic relations. Only last month, Washington warned Europe that it would have to take care of its own security in the future.

The EU measures will cover goods from the United States worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion), and not just steel and aluminum products, but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods.

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By the Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Voters in a Minnesota House district at the center of post-election drama over chamber control decisively chose Democrat David Gottfried on Tuesday, tying the House and ending a short-lived Republican majority. The Democratic victory will force the two parties to work together on a budget for the next two years.

Gottfried got about 70 percent of the vote to defeat Republican Paul Wikstrom, who also ran for the seat in November.

The special election in the heavily Democratic district in the northern St. Paul suburbs of Roseville and Shoreview was scheduled after a state court ruled that Democratic winner Curtis Johnson failed to meet residency requirements. That disrupted an expected 67-67 tie in the House and led to the collapse of a power-sharing agreement when Republicans tried to capitalize on their unexpected majority, prompting a three-week Democratic boycott of the chamber.

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By the Associated Press

The Trump administration is halting a $1 billion program that helps preserve affordable housing, threatening projects that keep tens of thousands of units livable for low-income Americans, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The action is part of a slew of cuts and funding freezes at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, largely at the direction of President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, that have rattled the affordable-housing industry.

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By the Associated Press

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday that U.S. tariffs on Australian steel and aluminum were unjustified, but his government would not retaliate with its own tariffs.

US President Trump said last month he was considering a tariff exemption for Australia, a free trade treaty partner that has traded with the United States at a deficit for decades.

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By the Associated Press

President Trump officially increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25 percent on Wednesday, promising that the taxes would help create US factory jobs at a time when his seesawing tariff threats are jolting the stock market and raising fears of an economic slowdown.

Trump removed all exemptions from his 2018 tariffs on the metals, in addition to increasing the tariffs on aluminum from 10 percent. His moves, based off a February directive, are part of a broader effort to disrupt and transform global commerce. The US president has separate tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, with plans to also tax imports from the European Union, Brazil, and South Korea by charging “reciprocal” rates starting on April 2.

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