WASHINGTON — Kuwait has released a group of American prisoners, including veterans and military contractors jailed for years on drug-related charges, in a move seen as a gesture of goodwill between two allies, a representative for the detainees told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The release follows a recent visit to the region by Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s top hostage envoy, and comes amid a continued U.S. government push to bring home American citizens jailed in foreign countries.
Six of the newly freed prisoners were accompanied on a flight from Kuwait to New York by Jonathan Franks, a private consultant who works on cases involving American hostages and detainees and who had been in the country to help secure their release.
“My clients and their families are grateful to the Kuwaiti government for this kind humanitarian gesture,” Franks said in a statement.
He said that his clients maintain their innocence and that additional Americans he represents also are expected to be released by Kuwait later.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The names of the released prisoners were not immediately made public.
Kuwait, a small, oil-rich nation that borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia and is near Iran, is considered a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio paid tribute to that relationship as recently as last month, when he said the U.S. “remains steadfast in its support for Kuwait’s sovereignty and the well-being of its people.”
The countries have had a close military partnership since America launched the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraqi troops after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the country, with some 13,500 American troops stationed in Kuwait at Camp Arifjan and Ali al-Salem Air Base.
But Kuwait has also detained many American military contractors on drug charges, in some cases, for years. Their families have alleged that their loved ones faced abuse while imprisoned in a country that bans alcohol and has strict laws regarding drugs.
The State Department warns travelers that drug charges in Kuwait can carry long prison sentences and the death penalty. Defense cooperation agreements between the U.S. and Kuwait likely include provisions that ensure U.S. troops are subject only to American laws, though that likely doesn’t include contractors.
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, his Republican administration has secured the release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel in a prisoner swap with Russia and has announced the release by Belarus of an imprisoned U.S. citizen.
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As the U.S. seeks to strengthen ties with resource-rich Central Asia, the European Union is also reaching out to the region. Having adopted a new strategy for Central Asia in 2019, the bloc appears to be making renewed efforts to implement it. EU Commissioner for External Relations Jozef Sikela has begun a tour of the region ahead of an EU-Central Asia summit in Uzbekistan in April.
Click here for the full story in Uzbek.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped a civil rights lawsuit it filed last year against the national nonprofit Southwest Key Programs alleging its employees had sexually abused unaccompanied minors who were housed in its shelters after entering the country illegally, according to a court filing.
Austin, Texas-based nonprofit Southwest Key contracts with the federal government to care for young migrants arriving in the U.S. without parents or legal guardians. It has operated 27 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California. It is the largest provider of shelter to unaccompanied minor children.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued in July 2024 in the Western District of Texas alleging a pattern of “severe or pervasive sexual harassment” going back to at least 2015 in the network of Southwest Key shelters.
The complaint includes alleged cases of “severe sexual abuse and rape, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures.”
The department decided to drop the lawsuit after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stopped the placement of unaccompanied migrant children in shelters operated by Southwest Key and initiated a review of its grants with the organization, the department said in a press release on Wednesday. The department said it has moved all children in Southwest Key shelters to other shelters.
“For too long, pernicious actors have exploited such children both before and after they enter the United States,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the release. “Today’s action is a significant step toward ending this appalling abuse of innocents.”
While Southwest Key did not immediately respond to a request for comment, it had previously sought to have the case dismissed and denied the allegations of sexual assault of children.
“Southwest Key takes pride in its record of providing safe shelter care, and it vehemently denies the allegations that there is any ‘pattern or practice’ of sexual abuse, harassment or misconduct at its facilities, or that it ‘failed to take reasonable, appropriate, and sufficient action to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse and harassment of the children entrusted to its care,’” it wrote in a court filing last year.
The plans to dismiss the case were first reported by Bloomberg. In that story, the news outlet reported that an attorney for Southwest Key had reached out to the Justice Department and asked it to dismiss the matter, saying the case could hinder the crackdown on illegal immigration by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The reversal by the Justice Department comes at a time when Attorney General Pam Bondi has made combatting illegal immigration take priority over other initiatives that were pursued during President Joe Biden’s administration.
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Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from the U.S. state of New Hampshire, will not seek reelection next year, a decision that will end the longtime senator’s historic political career and deals a significant blow to Democrats who were already facing a difficult path to reclaiming the Senate majority.
Shaheen was the first woman elected to serve as both governor and senator in the United States. She turned 78 in January.
A spokesperson confirmed her decision through email.
Even before Shaheen’s move, Democrats were facing a challenging political map in next year’s midterm elections — especially in the Senate, where Republicans now hold 53 Senate seats compared with the Democrats’ 47, including two independents who caucus with Democrats.
The party that controls the Senate majority also controls President Donald Trump’s most important political and judicial nominations — and his legislative agenda.
At least for now, Maine represents the Democrats’ best pickup opportunity in 2026. Senator Susan Collins, the sole Republican senator remaining in New England, is the only Republican serving in a state Trump lost who’s up for reelection.
But with a four-seat advantage in Congress’ upper chamber already, Republicans have legitimate pickup opportunities in Georgia, Michigan and now New Hampshire.
Shaheen has been a political force in New Hampshire for decades and climbed through the ranks of Senate leadership to serve as the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
She likely would have been easily reelected had she sought another term.
Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who served as ambassador to New Zealand in the first Trump administration, was considering a New Hampshire Senate bid even before Shaheen’s announcement. Brown challenged Shaheen unsuccessfully in 2014.
New Hampshire has narrowly favored Democrats in recent presidential elections, but the state has a long history of electing leaders from both parties. Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte was elected last fall, when Trump lost the state by less than 3 percentage points.
Shaheen became the first woman elected New Hampshire governor, in 1996. She served for three terms and was later elected to the Senate in 2008.
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Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — Foreign ministers from the G7 group of leading industrial nations are set to gather for several days of talks in Quebec, Canada, including meetings focused on support for Ukraine in its battle against a three-year Russian invasion.
The talks follow a decision by the United States to resume intelligence sharing and security assistance to Ukraine, after senior officials from the two countries met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
After nearly eight hours of talks, Ukraine announced Tuesday its readiness to accept a U.S. proposal for “an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire” in the war with Russia, pending Kremlin approval.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the 30-day ceasefire proposal, saying Wednesday on X that it is “an important and correct step towards a just peace for Ukraine.”
“We stand with Ukraine and the United States and welcome the proposals from Jeddah. Now it is up to Putin,” Scholz said.
The Kremlin had no immediate comment on a ceasefire proposal from the U.S. and Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said only that negotiations with U.S. officials could take place this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters late Tuesday that Ukraine has taken a concrete step toward ending the war.
“Now hopefully we’ll take this offer now to the Russians. And we hope that they’ll say yes. That they’ll say yes to peace. The ball’s now in their court,” he said.
National security adviser Mike Waltz, who joined Rubio in leading the U.S. side in Jeddah, said he would speak with his Russian counterpart “in the coming days.”
On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will visit the White House. All these discussions are part of the efforts to advance the peace process.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not participate in the U.S.-Ukraine talks, but he said during his nightly address Tuesday that the ceasefire plan was a “positive proposal.”
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NEW DELHI — Encouraged by the enthusiastic reception to its DeepSeek artificial intelligence platform in January, China’s leaders are going all out to encourage AI companies to harness the power of this technology to compete with the United States and other countries in business and military spheres.
China considers AI an important tool to handle U.S. restrictions on Chinese business, particularly after DeepSeek shook up Wall Street, resulting in a loss of $589 billion for Nvidia stockholders in late January.
“The government in China works directly with the private sector and universities in the advancement and deployment of AI technology and are reducing their dependence on imports of high-technology products,” said Lourdes Casanova, director of Cornell University’s Emerging Markets Institute.
The past few weeks have seen China rolling out several new AI models, including Manus, which experts say can rival the latest model of ChatGPT. Industry experts were more than surprised to find that DeepSeek was equally efficient as ChatGPT, though it used older generation Nvidia chips. The U.S. has banned the supply of advanced chips.
“China and the U.S. have pulled way out front in the AI race. China used to be one to two years behind the U.S. Now, it is likely two to three months,” Jeffrey Towson, owner of Beijing-based TechMoat Consulting, told VOA.
“Alibaba’s Qwen is now a clear leader internationally in LLMs [large language models]. Chinese Kling AI and Minimax are arguably the global leaders in video generation,” Towson said.
Government involvement
In 2017, China released an AI development program to make the country a world leader by 2030. The government’s Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan said that AI would be adopted across different sectors and drive economic transformation.
“China has the most elaborate AI strategy compared to any other country,” Rogier Creemers, assistant professor in Modern Chinese Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told VOA.
China has established a National Computing Power Grid — somewhat like electricity grids — making it possible for Chinese AI companies to invest less in their own computing power. In the U.S., each company must fend for itself, Creemers said.
Competition
ChatGPT’s updated GPT4 large language model has gotten the attention of several top-ranking CEOs of Chinese tech companies. Baidu chief Robin Li recently said his firm was under “huge pressure and a sense of crisis” after seeing the updated ChatGPT. Baidu, which has launched Ernie Bot, said “the gap [between China] and leading international levels [in the field] has widened.”
“AI plus robotics is likely where China will take a commanding lead over the U.S., just like in EVs,” Towson said. “Chinese companies like Unitree are already pulling ahead. Watch for China to surprise everyone in personalized robots, industrial robots and speciality robots,” he said.
Communist Party control
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently convened a meeting with heads of private companies, including tech firms, calling on them to “show your talent” in overcoming challenges such as an economic slowdown and U.S. restrictions on Chinese business.
“There are discussions that the growth of large language models — the technology behind chatbots like DeepSeek and ChatGPT — may be hindered by media censorship, because the models will have less diverse data to work with,” said Creemers.
On the other hand, the government’s control ensures industrial policy coordination, which is helpful in the growth of AI in China.
China is focusing more on specialized software for health and other industries, which can largely tolerate political censorship. Chinese AI models are improving diagnostic accuracy in diverse areas from detecting rib fractures to cancer.
US ban on advanced chips
“It will take some time, but it would not be a surprise if China is also soon capable of building advanced chips for AI,” Cornell’s Casanova said.
Companies such as Huawei have shown that they can design and manufacture advanced chips successfully, thereby overcoming restrictions imposed by the U.S., she said.
Towson said China is 100% dedicated to building an independent semiconductor supply chain.
“It is advancing faster than anyone thought possible. But the frontier is always advancing, and it’s unclear how this will play out over time,” he said.
“But you can do a lot with software,” Creemers said. “China can work with more chips with less computing power or with fewer sophisticated chips.”
The risk for China is not limited to chips, because the Trump administration could impose restrictions on the Chinese AI model. It could also react to China’s restriction on the use of ChatGPT, because it can violate its censorship rules.
AI and the military
China’s air force is using AI-powered biometric tests to screen potential pilots as part of a rigorous hiring process, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
“AI now plays a crucial role in interpreting candidates’ biological signals, revealing underlying health risks that might not be immediately apparent to human evaluators,” CCTV said. “This data-driven approach allows the air force to predict long-term risks, ultimately ensuring that only the most suitable candidates are chosen.”
Chinese researchers have also revealed that the Chinese army has been using Meta’s publicly available Llama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications.
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WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to block the ability of Congress to quickly challenge tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump that have rattled financial markets.
The 216-214 vote, largely along party lines, delays lawmakers’ ability for the rest of the year to force a vote that could revoke Trump’s tariffs and immigration actions.
Trump has made a blitz of tariff announcements since taking office, upending relations with key trading partners, including Mexico and China. This week he has ramped up a trade war with Canada, sending markets reeling and prompting business leaders to warn of weakening consumer demand.
Trump has said the tariffs will correct unbalanced trade relations, bring jobs back to the country and stop the flow of illegal narcotics from abroad.
Tuesday’s vote effectively derails an effort to challenge Trump’s Canada and Mexico tariffs, sponsored by Democratic Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington, which had been due to take place later this month.
“Every House Republican who voted for this measure is voting to give Trump expanded powers to raise taxes on American households through tariffs with full knowledge of how he is using those powers, and every Republican will own the economic consequences of that vote,” DelBene and a fellow Democrat, Representative Don Beyer from Virginia, said in a statement.
Rule changes governing the House voting processes in the majority’s favor are a common affair on Capitol Hill.
“This is an appropriate balance of powers and we trust this White House to do the right thing, and I think that was the right vote and it was reflected in the vote count,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said when asked by Reuters why he was comfortable giving more trade power to the executive branch.
The provision was tucked into a procedural vote related to the Republicans’ six-month stopgap funding bill.
DelBene had sought to force a vote under the National Emergencies Act, which gives the president special powers in an emergency and was cited by Trump in his tariff actions. That law also allows for representatives to force a vote in the House within 15 days to revoke the president’s emergency authority. The Senate would have to also pass the resolution for it to take effect.
But Tuesday’s vote tweaks how the House will count calendar days for the remainder of 2025, effectively blocking a vote of this kind this year.
The voting change is the latest example of the legislative branch offloading its constitutional trade authority to the executive branch.
“The international emergency economic powers have not been used before to impose tariffs, and many members want to have a chance to weigh in,” said Greta Peisch, former general counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative. “Without a fast-track voting process, they are unlikely to have an opportunity to do so.”
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Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to more than 250 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that is airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas’ total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized.
New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case in Eddy County.
Oklahoma’s state health department reported two probable cases of measles Tuesday, saying they are associated with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
A school-age child died of measles in Texas last month, and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult last week.
Measles cases have been reported in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases — and there have been three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates.
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from killed virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
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Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — U.S. and Ukrainian officials began talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia with the Ukrainian side expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia.

The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa.  

Zelenskyy said on X ahead of the talks that Ukraine hopes for “practical outcomes.” 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz led the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.

He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make.

“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah.

“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.”

Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day.

Mineral deal?

Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials.

More than four dozen minerals, including several types of rare earths, nickel and lithium, are considered critical to the U.S. economy and national defense. Ukraine has large deposits of uranium, lithium and titanium.

But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks.

“There’s still more details to work out, and at this point, we’re probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time,” he told reporters.

“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. … It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added.

Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine.

He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine.

This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Theft of truck loads of green coffee beans is surging in the United States, the world’s largest importer of the commodity, as prices for the beans increased to all-time highs in the last year, according to transportation companies.

The issue was discussed by market participants over the weekend in Houston, where the U.S. National Coffee Association held its annual conference.

The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of the beverage. Since coffee is only produced in warmer geographies, it has to import nearly 100% of what it uses and transport millions of bags from ports to roasting plants, mostly via trucks.

“There were dozens of thefts in the last year, something that would happen only rarely in the past,” said Todd Costley, logistic sales coordinator for Hartley Transportation, a freight broker in Pembroke, New Hampshire.

Theft of coffee has been reported in producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, usually in farms where the beans are temporarily stored after the harvest. Those sites are more vulnerable because they are isolated.

Armed men took 500 bags of coffee worth around $230,000 from a farm in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state in January, according to the local police.

In the U.S., the thefts have been done by organized gangs who disguise as transportation companies.

Costley said those fake companies are in the market trying to get small contracts from importers by offering better prices or immediate availability of trucks.

“Importers should be careful about who they hire,” he said. “Once they get the coffee, they disappear.”

Each truck load has about 19,958 kg of green beans, which at current market value is worth around $180,000.

Some market participants believe the gangs then try to sell the beans to smaller roasters, which are feeling the pain from sky-high prices.

Some importers have started attaching tracking devices to the coffee bags, in an effort to protect their shipments.
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NEW YORK — A public memorial service bursting with choral music and the Berklee College of Music’s Nebulous String Quartet, with Stevie Wonder and the Rev. Al Sharpton also on the bill, celebrated the life and legacy of Grammy-winning singer and pianist Roberta Flack. 

Flack’s songs “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” made her a global star in the 1970s and beyond. She died last month at age 88. 

Wonder was among the artists scheduled to perform during the service at a historic Harlem church, while Sharpton was to deliver the eulogy, according to the memorial program. 

Flack was an influential performer with an intimate vocal and musical style that ranged easily between soul, jazz and gospel. 

Her “Celebration of Life” memorial was livestreamed at www.RobertaFlack.com and on YouTube. 

Here are some highlights: 

For the memory of a singing legend, an historic location 

Flack’s memorial was open to the public at The Abyssinian Baptist Church. Founded in 1808, it is one of the oldest Black Baptist churches in the U.S. 

The church was decorated for the ceremony with stunning white and yellow bouquets and filled quickly beforehand. At the center, a screen showed a young Flack at the piano and played highlights of her career. 

It was a fitting location: Flack grew up with church gospel and her mother played organ at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. As a teen, she began accompanying the church choir on piano. 

The program featured a powerful quote from Flack. 

“Remember: Always walk in the light,” it read. “If you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the Light.” 

A celebration of a life in music … with music 

“Many of us are here today because she has touched not just our hearts, but she also touched our souls,” said the Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson, the senior church pastor who led the service. 

Choir performances including a rousing rendition of “Amazing Grace” came in between a video recollection of Flack’s life and scripture readings. 

“That’s what we call church, y’all,” Johnson said at the close of one choral performance. 

Organ and piano riffs played off and on in the background. 

“She just sang the song. She let you hear the lyrics. She let you understand the beauty. But I also want you to understand that this woman was also a pure genius,” Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a friend of Flack, told the near-capacity crowd. 

Actor Phylicia Rashad remembered first seeing Flack perform when she was a student at Howard University — to an audience that grew rapt by her quiet, steady voice. 

Flack lived comfortably with her genius and without having to proclaim it to people, Rashad said. 

“She wore that like a loose fitting garment and lived her life attending to that which she cared for most: music, love and humanity,” Rashad said. 

What are some of Flack’s best-known songs? 

Flack leaves behind a rich repertoire of music that avoids categorization. Her debut, “First Take,” wove soul, jazz, flamenco, gospel and folk into one revelatory package, prescient in its form and measured in its approach. 

She will likely be remembered for her classics. Those include “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” her dreamy cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written by English folk artist Ewan MacColl for his wife Peggy Seeger. It marked the beginning of Flack’s mainstream success when it was used in a love scene between Clint Eastwood and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.” 

But most will think of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” when Flack’s name comes up in conversation. She first heard Lori Lieberman’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song” while on a plane and immediately fell in love with it. While on tour with Quincy Jones, she covered the song, and the audience fell in love with it, too, as they’d continue to for decades.
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All three major U.S. stock indexes dropped sharply in Monday morning trading, with investors worried about the uncertainty of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on key trading partners and then his refusal to rule out the possibility of a U.S. recession in the coming months.  

The key Dow Jones average of 30 blue chip stocks dropped more than 1%, with the broader S&P 500 index falling 2 percentage points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq barometer off more than 3 percentage points.  

The S&P 500 finished Friday with a 3.1% weekly drop, its biggest such decline in six months, and the index is down 7.4% from its all-time high set on Feb. 19. 

Trump imposed new 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports to the U.S. last week and then days later paused the duties until April 2, leaving it uncertain what might happen then. 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News over the weekend, “There’s going to be no recession in America,” but Trump hedged. 

“I hate to predict things like that,” the U.S. leader told Fox News. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He then added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time.” 

On Monday, the sell-off of big-tech stocks continued. The stock of electric carmaker Tesla, whose chief executive is billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump adviser, slid more than 8%.  

Other key technology stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta Platforms all dropped by more than 2%. 

The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism from consumers, whose purchases account for 70% of the country’s economic output. A widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the U.S. economy may already be shrinking. 

Analyst David Mericle at the Goldman Sachs investment company cut his 2025 year-over-year estimate for U.S. economic growth from 2.2% to 1.7%, largely because Trump’s tariffs look like they will be bigger than he was previously forecasting. He said he sees a one-in-five chance of a recession over the next year.
…

Bedford, Massachusetts — A military court-martial convened on Monday for Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who was sentenced in federal court to 15 years in prison for leaking highly classified military documents after the most consequential national security breach in years.

Teixeira pleaded guilty last year to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. He faces additional military charges of disobeying orders and obstructing justice in the court-martial, held at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

Military prosecutors said the court-martial is appropriate given that obeying orders is the “absolute core” of the military. Teixeira’s lawyers argued that further action would amount to prosecuting him twice for the same offense.

The leaks exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a U.S. adversary’s plans to harm U.S. forces serving overseas.

Before he was sentenced in November in U.S. District Court in Boston, Teixeira showed little emotion as he stood in court and apologized for his actions. The 22-year-old previously admitted he illegally collected some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and shared them with other users on the social media platform Discord.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm that I brought and caused,” Teixeira said. “I understand all the responsibility and consequences fall upon my shoulders alone and accept whatever that will bring.”

Afterward, Teixeira hugged one of his attorneys, looked toward his family and smiled before being led from court. His family left without commenting to reporters, but his mother and others submitted letters to the court seeking leniency.

“I know Jack deeply regrets his actions and is ready to accept his punishment for his part in this situation,” his mother, Dawn Dufault, wrote. “While I understand the severity of his charges and the importance of ensuring justice, I implore you, Your Honor, to consider Jack’s true nature and his unique challenges, as I have observed over the years.”

The security breach raised alarm over the country’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced the Biden administration to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout. The leaks also embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to safeguard classified information and disciplined members found to have intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira’s suspicious behavior.

Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. He worked as a cyber transport systems specialist, which is essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks. He remains in the Air National Guard in an unpaid status, an Air Force official said.

Teixeira’s lawyers described him as an autistic, isolated individual who spent most of his time online, especially with his Discord community, and never meant to harm the United States. “His intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” they wrote. “He needed someone to share the experience with.”

Prosecutors countered that Teixeira did not suffer from any intellectual disability and that his post-arrest diagnosis of “mild, high-functioning” autism was of “questionable relevance.”

Authorities said he first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings.

Prosecutors also said he tried to cover his tracks before his arrest. Authorities found a smashed tablet, laptop and an Xbox gaming console in a dumpster at his house.
…

Police in Washington are investigating the shooting of a man Sunday by U.S. Secret Service personnel near the White House.

A Secret Service spokesperson said a day before the shooting, police had shared information about “a suicidal individual” who may have been traveling to Washington from the state of Indiana.

Secret Service personnel spotted the person’s car near the White House and someone matching the person’s description walking in the area.

The spokesperson said the person brandished a firearm as officers approached, and that Secret Service personnel fired shots during “an armed confrontation.”

Authorities have not identified the person who was taken to a local hospital after being shot.

No Secret Service personnel were injured, the agency said.

President Donald Trump was in Florida at the time of the shooting.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters

 
…

A single-engine airplane carrying five people crashed and burst into flames Saturday in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport in suburban Pennsylvania, and everyone on board survived, officials and witnesses said.

The fiery crash happened around 3 p.m. just south of Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township, police Chief Duane Fisher told reporters at an evening briefing. All five victims were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Nobody on the ground was hurt, the chief said.

Brian Pipkin was driving nearby when he noticed the small plane climbing before it suddenly veered to the left.

“And then it went down nose first,” he told The Associated Press. “There was an immediate fireball.”

Pipkin called 911 and then drove to the crash site, where he recorded video of black smoke billowing from the plane’s mangled wreckage and multiple cars engulfed in flames in a parking lot at Brethren Village. He said the plane narrowly missed hitting a three-story building at the sprawling retirement community about 120 km west of Philadelphia.

A fire truck from the airport arrived within minutes, and more first responders followed quickly.

“It was so smoky and it was so hot,” Pipkin said. “They were really struggling to get the fire out.” A dozen parked cars were damaged, Fisher said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there were five people aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza.

Air traffic control audio captured the pilot reporting that the aircraft “has an open door, we need to return for a landing.” An air traffic controller is heard clearing the plane to land, before saying, “Pull up!” Moments later, someone can be heard saying the aircraft was “down just behind the terminal in the parking lot street area.”

The FAA said it will investigate.

The crash comes about a month after seven people were killed when an air ambulance burst into flames after crashing onto a busy Philadelphia street.
…

Panama City — After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama on Saturday released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have 30 days to leave the Central American nation.

It thrust many like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, into a legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward.

“We are refugees. We do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives,” Omagh told the Associated Press in an interview. “I can’t go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances … It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?”

Authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after that many like Omagh don’t know what they will do.

Omagh climbed off a bus in Panama City alongside 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations after spending weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, which has said it wants to work with the Trump administration “to send a signal of deterrence” to people hoping to migrate.

Human rights groups and lawyers advocating for the migrants were waiting at the bus terminal, and scrambled to find the released migrants shelter and other resources.

Dozens of other people remained in the camp.

Among those getting off buses were migrants fleeing violence and repression in Pakistan and Iran, and 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov, who fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and who said he was detained at the U.S. border but not allowed to make an asylum claim.

“Once I get off the bus, I’ll be sleeping on the ground tonight,” Gaponov said.

Others turned their eyes north once again, saying that even though they had already been deported, they had no other option than to continue after crossing the world to reach the U.S.

The deportees, largely from Asian countries, were part of a deal stuck between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica as the U.S. government attempts to speed up deportations. The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two Central American countries as a stopover while authorities organize a way to send them back to their countries of origin.

Critics described it as a way for the U.S. to export its deportation process.

The agreement fueled human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees detained in a hotel in Panama City held up notes to their windows pleading for help and saying they were scared to return to their own countries.

Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution.

Those that refused to return home were later sent to a remote camp near Panama’s border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access legal council and were not told where they were going next.

Lawyers and human rights defenders warned that Panama and Costa Rica were turning into “black holes” for deportees, and said their release was a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees amid mounting human rights criticism.

Upon being released Saturday night, human rights lawyers identified at least three people who required medical attention. One has been vomiting for over a week, another deportee had diabetes and hadn’t had access to insulin in the camp and another person had HIV and also didn’t have access to medicine in detention.

Those who were released, like Omagh, said they could not return home.

As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban — which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country — would mean he would be killed. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.

Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the U.S., which he was denied.

“My hope was freedom. Just freedom,” he said. “They didn’t give me the chance. I asked many times to speak to an asylum officer and they told me ‘No, no, no, no, no.’”

Still, he said that leaving the camp was a relief. Omagh and other migrants who spoke to the AP detailed scarce food, sweltering heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities.

In one case, Omagh and others said, a Chinese man went on a weeklong hunger strike. In another, a small riot broke out because guards refused to give a migrant their phone. The riot, they said, was suppressed by armed guards.

Panamanian authorities denied accusations about camp conditions, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and canceled a planned press visit last week.

While international aid organizations said they would organize travel to a third country for people who didn’t want to return home, Panamanian authorities said the people released had already refused help.

Omagh said he was told in the camp he could be sent to a third country if it gives people from Afghanistan visas. He said that would be incredibly difficult because few nations open their doors to people with an Afghan passport.

He said he asked authorities in the camp multiple times if he could seek asylum in Panama, and said he was told that “we do not accept asylum.”

“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the U.S.,” said Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the AP last month.

That was the case for some, like one Chinese woman who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from Panamanian authorities.

Upon getting off the bus, the first thing she wanted to do was find a Coca-Cola. Then, she’d find a way back to the U.S.

“I still want to continue to go to the United States and fulfill my American dream,” she said.
…

SELMA, Ala. — Charles Mauldin was near the front of a line of voting rights marchers walking in pairs across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. 

The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to vote, as well as the killing days earlier of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a minister and voting rights organizer who was shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion. 

At the apex of the span over the Alabama River, they saw what awaited them: a line of state troopers, deputies and men on horseback. After they approached, law enforcement gave a warning to disperse and then unleashed violence. 

“Within about a minute or a half, they took their billy clubs, holding it on both ends, began to push us back, to back us in, and then they began to beat men, women and children, and tear gas men, women and children, and cattle prod men, women and children viciously,” said Mauldin, who was 17 at the time. 

Selma on Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of the clash that became known as Bloody Sunday. The attack shocked the nation and galvanized support for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965. The annual commemoration paid homage to those who fought to secure voting rights for Black Americans and brought calls to recommit to the fight for equality. 

For foot soldiers of the movement, the celebration comes amid concerns about new voting restrictions and the Trump administration’s effort to remake federal agencies they said helped make America a democracy for all. 

“This country was not a democracy for Black folks until that happened,” Mauldin said of voting rights. “And we’re still constantly fighting to make that a more concrete reality for ourselves.” 

Speaking at the pulpit of the city’s historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, the site of the first mass meeting of the voting rights movement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said what happened in Selma changed the nation. But he said the 60th anniversary comes at a time when there is “trouble all around” and some “want to whitewash our history.” But he said like the marchers of Bloody Sunday, they must keep going. 

“At this moment, faced with trouble on every side, we’ve got to press on,” Jeffries said to the crowd that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, multiple members of Congress and others gathered for the commemoration. 

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama said they are gathering in Selma for the 60th anniversary “at a time when the vote is in peril.” 

Sewell noted the number of voting restrictions introduced since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively abolished a key part of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to pre-clear new voting laws with the Justice Department. 

Sewell this week reintroduced legislation to restore the requirement. The proposal has repeatedly stalled in Congress. The legislation is named for John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman who was at the lead of the Bloody Sunday march. 

The annual celebration will conclude with a ceremony and march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the time, the Bloody Sunday marchers walked in pairs across the Selma bridge. Mauldin was in the third pair of the line led by Lewis and Hosea Williams. 

“We had steeled our nerves to a point where we were so determined that we were willing to confront. It was past being courageous. We were determined, and we were indignant,” Mauldin recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. 

Mauldin, who took a blow to the head, said he believes law enforcement officers were trying to incite a riot as they attacked marchers. 

Kirk Carrington was just 13 on Bloody Sunday. As the violence erupted, a white man on a horse wielding a stick chased him all the way back to the public housing projects where his family lived. 

Carrington said he started marching after witnessing his father get belittled by his white employers when his father returned from service in World War II. Standing in Tabernacle Baptist Church where he was trained in non-violent protest tactics 60 years earlier, he was brought to tears thinking about what the people of his city achieved. 

“When we started marching, we did not know the impact we would have in America. We knew after we got older and got grown that the impact it not only had in Selma, but the impact it had in the entire world,” Carrington said. 

Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson, who grew up in Selma, remembers a time when she was expected to lower her gaze if she passed a white person on the street to avoid making eye contact. 

Dawson and Mauldin said they are concerned about the potential dismantling of the Department of Education and other changes to federal agencies. Trump has pushed to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government. 

Support from the federal government “is how Black Americans have been able to get justice, to get some semblance of equality, because left to states’ rights, it is going to be the white majority that’s going to rule,” Dawson said. 

“That that’s a tragedy of 60 years later: what we are looking at now is a return to the 1950s,” Dawson said. 
…

Washington — U..S Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday condemned the “radical Islamist terrorists” behind “massacres” of minorities in Syria and demanded that the interim administration hold those responsible to account.

“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” Rubio said in a statement.

“The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families,” he said.

“Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”

The violence against minorities erupted after gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, attacked the new security forces.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later reported that security forces and allied groups killed at least 745 Alawite civilians in Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the lightning offensive that toppled Assad, called for national coexistence after the killings.

The United States under former president Joe Biden engaged with Sharaa after he came to power but said that any greater normalization would depend on meeting conditions including the protection of minorities.

Donald Trump, then president-elect, said at the time that the United States had little interest in Syria and should stay out, and he has previously spoken of removing U.S. troops in the country to fight the Islamic State movement.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has said little about Syria but has severely slashed assistance to groups assisting civilians in the war-ravaged country.

The United States did not join Britain on Thursday in announcing an easing of Assad-era sanctions on Syria.
…

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration rescinded a waiver on Saturday that had allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity, as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, a State Department spokesperson said.

The decision to let Iraq’s waiver lapse upon its expiration “ensures we do not allow Iran any degree of economic or financial relief,” the spokesperson said, adding that Trump’s campaign on Iran aims “to end its nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program and stop it from supporting terrorist groups.”

Trump restored “maximum pressure” on Iran in one of his first acts after returning to office in January. In his first term, he pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, a multinational agreement to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The U.S. government has said it wants to isolate Iran from the global economy and eliminate its oil export revenues in order to slow Tehran’s development of a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and says its program is peaceful.

For Iraq, the end of the waiver “presents temporary operational challenges,” said Farhad Alaaeldin, foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

“The government is actively working on alternatives to sustain electricity supply and mitigate any potential disruptions,” Alaaeldin told Reuters. “Strengthening energy security remains a national priority, and efforts to enhance domestic production, improve grid efficiency and invest in new technologies will continue at full pace.”

Washington has imposed a range of sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program and support for terrorist organizations, effectively banning countries that do business with Iran from doing business with the U.S.

“President Trump has been clear that the Iranian Regime must cease its ambitions for a nuclear weapon or face Maximum Pressure,” said national security spokesperson James Hewitt. “We hope the regime will put the interests of its people and the region ahead of its destabilizing policies.”

Pressure on Baghdad

Trump initially granted waivers to several buyers to meet consumer energy needs when he reimposed sanctions on Iran’s energy exports in 2018, citing its nuclear program and what the U.S. calls its meddling in the Middle East.

His administration and that of Joe Biden repeatedly renewed Iraq’s waiver while urging Baghdad to reduce its dependence on Iranian electricity. The State Department spokesperson reiterated that call on Saturday.

“We urge the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said. “Iran is an unreliable energy supplier.”

The U.S. has used the waiver review in part to increase pressure on Baghdad to allow Kurdish crude oil exports via Turkey, sources have told Reuters. The aim is to boost supply to the global market and keep prices in check, giving the U.S. more room to pursue efforts to choke off Iranian oil exports.

Iraq’s negotiations with the semiautonomous Kurdish region over the oil export resumption have been fraught so far.

“Iraq’s energy transition provides opportunities for U.S. companies, which are world-leading experts in increasing the productivity of power plants, improving electricity grids, and developing electricity interconnections with reliable partners,” the State Department spokesperson said.

The spokesperson played down the impact of Iranian electricity imports on Iraq’s power grid, saying, “In 2023, electricity imports from Iran were only 4% of electricity consumption in Iraq.” 
…

NEW YORK — Fast-moving brush fires burned through a large swath of land on New York’s Long Island on Saturday fanned by high winds, spewing gray smoke and prompting the evacuation of a military base and the closure of a major highway. 

Officials said three of the four fires were fully contained while the other one, in Westhampton, was 50% contained. Two commercial buildings were partially burned, but officials said homes were not in the line of fire. One firefighter was flown to a hospital to be treated for burns to the face. 

“Our biggest problem is the wind,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said. “It is driving this fire.” 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and said state agencies were responding to the fires around the Pine Barrens, a wooded area that is home to commuter towns east of New York City. 

“This is still out of control at this moment,” Hochul told Long Island TV station News 12. 

“We’re seeing people having to be evacuated from the Westhampton area,” she said, adding that more evacuations may be needed. 

Hochul said homes, a chemical factory and an Amazon warehouse were at risk. 

Videos posted to social media showed flames shooting into the air and columns of black smoke rising above roads. 

Air National Guard helicopters dropped water on the flames. 

The Town of Southampton issued a warning in the afternoon against starting recreational fires due to the wildfire risk. That came around the time that the videos began appearing. 

In a statement, Hochul said the National Guard was providing support by helicopter and working with local law enforcement. 

“Public safety is my top priority, and I’m committed to doing everything possible to keep Long Islanders safe,” she said. 

In her comments to News 12, Hochul declined to estimate the extent of the flames, saying only that they were growing rapidly. 

Rough satellite data indicated that fire and smoke stretched roughly 3 kilometers (2.5 miles) along Sunrise Highway, according to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System. 

Police closed a section of the highway, which is a thoroughfare to the East End of Long Island. 

The fires raged near the Francis S. Gabreski Airport, from which the National Guard launched at least one helicopter. One of the commercial buildings that partially burned was near the airport. 

Personnel at the base evacuated as a precautionary measure starting around 1:45 p.m., spokesman Cheran Cambell said in a statement. 
…

WASHINGTON — House Republicans unveiled a spending bill Saturday that would keep federal agencies funded through Sept. 30, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats over the contours of government spending.

The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming non-defense programs below 2024 budget year levels. That approach is likely to be a nonstarter for most Democrats who have long insisted that defense and non-defense spending move in the same direction.

Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, is teeing up the bill for a vote on Tuesday despite the lack of buy-in from Democrats, essentially daring them to vote against it and risk a shutdown. He also is betting that Republicans can muscle the legislation through the House largely by themselves.

Normally, when it comes to keeping the government fully open for business, Republicans have had to work with Democrats to craft a bipartisan measure that both sides can support. That’s because Republicans almost always lack the votes to pass spending bills on their own.

Crucially, the strategy has the backing of President Donald Trump, who has shown an ability so far in his term to hold Republicans in line.

Trump praised the bill, writing on X that Republicans have to “remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right.”

“Great things are coming for America, and I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s ‘financial house’ in order,” he said.

House Republicans’ leadership staff outlined the contours of the measure, saying it would allow for about $892.5 billion in defense spending and about $708 billion in non-defense spending. The defense spending is slightly above the prior year’s level, but the non-defense spending, the aides said, was about $13 billion below last year.

The measure also will not include funding requested by individual lawmakers for thousands of community projects around the country, often referred to as earmarks.

The bill does not cover the majority of government spending, including programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Funding for those two programs are on auto pilot and are not regularly reviewed by Congress.

The top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro and Washington Senator Patty Murray, both issued statements blasting the legislation.

“I strongly oppose this full-year continuing resolution,” DeLauro said.

Murray said the legislation would “give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending — and more power to pick winners and losers, which threatens families in blue and red states alike.”

Maine Senator Susan Collins, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the focus must be on preventing a shutdown because closures have negative consequences all across government.

“They require certain essential government employees, such as Border Patrol agents, members of our military and Coast Guard, TSA screeners, and air traffic controllers, to report to work with no certainty on when they will receive their next paycheck,” Collins said. “We cannot allow that to occur.”

Trump’s request for unity appears to be having an effect. Some conservatives who almost never vote for continuing resolutions expressed much openness to one last week.

Representative Ralph Norman said he has never voted for a continuing resolution — what lawmakers often call a CR — but he is on board with Johnson’s effort. He said he has confidence in Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, a team led by Elon Musk, to make a difference on the nation’s debt.

“I don’t like CRs,” Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with Democrats? No.”

“I freeze spending for six months to go identify more cuts? Somebody tell me how that’s not a win in Washington,” added Republican Representative Chip Roy, another lawmaker who has frequently voted against spending bills but supports the six-month continuing resolution.

Republicans are also hoping that resolving this year’s spending will allow them to devote their full attention to extending the individual tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term and raising the nation’s debt limit to avoid a catastrophic federal default.

Democratic leaders are warning that the decision to move ahead without consulting them increases the prospects for a shutdown. One of their biggest concerns is the flexibility the legislation would give the Trump administration on spending.

The Democratic leadership in both chambers has stressed that Republicans have the majority and are responsible for funding the government. But leaders also have been wary of saying how Democrats would vote on a continuing resolution.

“We have to wait to see what their plan is,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “We’ve always believed the only solution is a bipartisan solution, no matter what.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier this week that the Democratic caucus would meet and discuss the legislation at the “appropriate moment.” But he struck a more forceful tone Friday.

Jeffries said Democrats are ready to negotiate a “meaningful, bipartisan spending agreement that puts working people first.” But he said the “partisan continuing resolution” threatens to cut funding for key programs, such as veterans benefits and nutritional assistance for low-income families.

“That is not acceptable,” Jeffries said.

Trump has been meeting with House Republicans in an effort to win their votes on the legislation. Republicans have a 218-214 majority in the House, so if all lawmakers vote, they can afford only one defection if Democrats unite in opposition. The math gets even harder in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats would have to vote for the legislation to overcome a filibuster. And that’s assuming all 53 Republicans vote for it.
…

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he rejects a U.S. push for talks between the two countries because they would be aimed at imposing restrictions on Iranian missile range and its influence in the region.

Speaking to a group of officials on Saturday, Khamenei did not identify the United States by name but said a “bullying government” was being persistent in its push for talks.

“Their talks are not aimed at solving problems, it is for … let’s talk to impose what we want on the other party that is sitting on the opposite side of the table,” he said.

Khamenei’s remarks came a day after President Donald Trump acknowledged sending a letter to Khamenei seeking a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear program and replace the nuclear deal he withdrew America from during his first term in office.

Khamenei said U.S. demands would be military and related to the regional influence of Iran.

“They will be about defense capabilities, about international capabilities of the country,” he said. They will urge Iran “not to do things, not to meet some certain people, not to go to a certain place, not to produce some items, your missile range should not be more than a certain distance. Is it possible for anybody to accept these?”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said such talks would not address solving problems between Iran and the West. Although Khamenei did not name any person or country, he said the push for talks creates pressure on Iran in public opinion.

“It is not negotiation. It is commanding and imposition,” he said.

Trump, in comments to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, did not mention the letter directly. But he made a veiled reference to possible military action, saying, “We have a situation with Iran that, something’s going to happen very soon. Very, very soon.”

Trump’s overture comes as Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels — something done only by atomic-armed nations.

Tehran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb as tensions are high with the U.S. over its sanctions and with Israel as a shaky ceasefire holds in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Iran’s accelerated production of near-weapons-grade uranium puts more pressure on Trump. He has repeatedly said he’s open to negotiations with the Islamic Republic while also increasingly targeting Iran’s oil sales with sanctions as part of his reimposed “maximum pressure” policy.

Late in August, Khamenei in a speech opened the door to possible talks with the U.S., saying there is “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” However, more recently the supreme leader tempered that, saying that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable,” after Trump floated the possibility of nuclear talks with Tehran.
…

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was appointing Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

In February, weeks after taking office, Trump fired the center’s president, replaced the board of trustees and named himself chairman of the organization.

The moves represented a takeover by Trump of a cultural institution that is known for its signature Kennedy Center Honors performances and is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.

“This completes our selection,” Trump said on social media after announcing the appointments of Ingraham and Bartiromo. Trump said last month special U.S. envoy Richard Grenell will serve as the interim executive director of the center.

Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump, a Republican, has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.

During his first term in office, Trump declined to attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors, considered the top award for achievement in the arts. In December, at the last show attended by former President Joe Biden, the center’s leaders made clear Trump was welcome to come in the future.

Earlier this week, the hit musical Hamilton canceled its run at the center after Trump’s takeover. 
…

WASHINGTON — Calls to revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status have grown louder in recent months.

In a memo released on the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump asked his Cabinet members to “assess legislative proposals regarding PNTR.” Three days later, Republican Representative John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Democratic lawmaker Tom Suozzi introduced the first bipartisan bill that would revoke China’s PNTR status.

China has held PNTR status since 2000, when Congress first passed legislation on the matter. Prior to that, Beijing’s trade status was reviewed annually.

VOA recently sat down with Republican Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, who also proposed legislation, along with Republican lawmaker Chris Smith, to revoke China’s PNTR status. He said China is stealing American technology, setting up police stations in various cities across the U.S. and engaging in unfair trade practices. “One of the most important things we can do is to revoke China’s PNTR and have it renewed on an annual basis,” he said.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: The relationship between the U.S. and China has gone through dramatic changes since China entered the WTO in 2001. How do you describe the current state of U.S.-China relations? How did we get here?

U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany: I think the goodwill of the American people has been abused. When you look at the theft of intellectual property — I just mentioned the police stations, something that is anathema to American society — I believe this goes back to when most favored nation status was given to Communist China and that’s why I’ve introduced legislation with Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey to revoke that permanent status and have it be renewed annually. I believe we will get much greater accountability by the Communist Chinese government. I think this is one of the most important things that we can do. We have the largest consumer base, and that has led to prosperity for China over the last few decades. I believe they should respect that, and they have not. One way in which we can deal with this is to have an annual renewal for most favored nation status.

VOA: You represent Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. How have the actions taken by China affected people in your district, especially on the trade front?

Tiffany: I’ll give you one example. We grow almost all the ginseng in my district, in northern Wisconsin, and the Communist Chinese have used this as a weapon in trade negotiations. Because Wisconsin is such an important state, in terms of elections, they’ve tried to turn the ginseng growers against Republicans, against President Trump, by saying we’re not going to take your ginseng anymore. Because China took a lot of America’s ginseng — it’s the best that is produced in the world — they’ve used trade, specifically in regard to ginseng, as a political weapon and that should not be the case. I’m hoping that the Communist Chinese will relent on this now and allow ginseng to be imported into their country once again in the same volumes that they did a decade ago.

VOA: Do you support imposing tariffs on Chinese goods coming to the U.S., and what are the other urgent steps that the U.S. should be taking to deal with China’s unfair trade practices?

Tiffany: I do agree with tariffs, and I like the president’s idea of having reciprocal tariffs. If you’re going to tariff 25% on a particular product, then we’re going to tariff 25% on a particular product. We would prefer to just see free trade, but it has to be fair trade.

I think there’s a couple other things that we watch very closely here in America. We see the abuse of the Uyghur people in Western China. That is unacceptable in a free society. We do not want companies importing goods that are using slave labor. We haven’t had a full accounting of what happened in the Wuhan lab with the coronavirus … it appears almost certain that it came from that lab and caused incredible damage to not just America, but countries around the world. We need a full accounting in regard to those things and China needs to provide that.

VOA: Where do you see U.S.-China relations heading in the next decade?

Tiffany: If we continue with the policies of President Trump, I think we have the potential to have good relations. You know, maybe [Chinese President] Xi Jinping chooses not to give up communism, and that’s how he wants to rule his country, and that would be very unfortunate. But I think we’d end up with better relations when we have a strong America.
…