TVG Daily Brief 19 MAR 2025 (2025)

Stay informed and ahead of the curve with today’s top headlines, breaking stories, and the latest updates shaping our world. Get the BLUF (bottom line up front!) on defense, national security, economy, business development, technology, American manufacturing, school safety, 2A issues - and more. Prep for the whiplash and stay engaged. Know better - do better. Be the somebody!

DEFENSE

-Pentagon is cutting up to 60,000 civilian jobs. About a third of those took voluntary resignations: Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, but fewer than 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation plan are leaving in the coming months, a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday. To reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the Pentagon aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave. (AP)

· A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs left empty by the hiring freeze. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide personnel details, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure the cuts don’t hurt military readiness.

· The cuts are part of the broader effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency Service to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies. Acknowledging that “some” military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands.

· The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave. The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-by-case basis to ensure cuts don't affect critical national security jobs.

-US judge blocks Trump's transgender military ban: A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the U.S. military from enforcing President Donald Trump's executive order barring transgender people from military service while a lawsuit by 20 current and would-be service members challenging the measure goes forward. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington found Trump's January 27 order, one of a several issued by the Republican president targeting legal rights for transgender Americans, likely violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on sex discrimination. (AP, Reuters)

· "The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender service members have sacrificed — some risking their lives — to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them," Reyes said. Reyes was appointed by President Joe Biden, Trump's Democratic predecessor. Jennifer Levi, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, praised the court for acting "decisively and swiftly."

· "This ruling pulls no punches. The court methodically documented the concrete harms this ban inflicts on brave transgender service members who ask nothing more than to serve their country with honor," Levi said in a statement. Representatives of the White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

· Army Reserves 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott, one of 14 transgender active-duty servicemembers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he was holding his breath as he waited to find out if he would be separated from the military next week.

-As Trump molds military leadership, do politics outrank merit: When President Donald Trump last month fired six top U.S. military leaders, including a Black man and the United States’ only female four-star officer, he didn’t give a reason. But it appeared to mark the fulfillment of plans long outlined by Trump administration officials to replace what they called “woke” officers with those who, in the parlance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, prioritize the lethality of the armed forces. Among critics, however, the “Friday night massacre,” as Democrats called the firings, fueled concern that the president’s goal is not seeking out martial merit but rather finding officers who pass a loyalty test of sorts. (Christian Science Monitor)

· Mr. Trump likes telling a story about how his new pick for America’s top military leader, retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin’” Caine, told the president he “loved” him and would “kill for” him, and then donned a red MAGA hat when they first met in Iraq in 2018. Mr. Caine’s close colleagues dispute that story – wearing a cap with a political message while in uniform during a deployment is a violation of military codes.

· Hats aside, a military that’s obedient to its civilian commander-in-chief is a cornerstone of U.S. democracy. Even the president’s critics are quick to say that he has the right to choose his subordinates. Yet the mass dismissal of the armed services’ top echelons raises “troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military and to remove legal constraints on the President’s power,” five former secretaries of defense wrote in a letter to Congress last month. “Those currently serving may grow cautious of speaking truth to power, or they could erode good order and discipline by taking political actions in uniform.”

-Wittman calls on DOD to create 'sustainable demand' in munitions manufacturing: Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called on the Pentagon today to create a more "sustainable demand" when it comes to munitions manufacturing, as part of its weapons modernization push. Wittman, speaking at the annual McAleese & Associates defense conference in Arlington, VA, said the United States must rebuild its munitions and missile stockpile, and that due to sending munitions overseas, “we’re in a pretty precarious position with what we have to do with our stockpiles.” (Inside Defense)

· Various senior Army leaders have previously emphasized the need for the service to stockpile more resources. In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said stockpiling critical munitions would be one of his top priorities.

· Additionally, Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said in November that stockpiling resources is needed, but it isn’t possible without more flexibility in the budget. “I would say that there are certain critical things that we should be stockpiling. But right now, that’s not a funding line,” George said at the time.

· Wittman, speaking to reporters Tuesday, said something must be done to address diminishing stockpiles due to a certain weapon system being in demand for a finite period of time. “Those challenges can be this year, you have this demand signal. Next year, you have one very different. So, they want some flexibility in how they rebuild weapon stockpiles. I think we ought to give that flexibility,” he said.

-DOD 'finally on track' toward modernized energetics, but still behind, Wittman says: The Defense Department has taken steps toward upgrading its propellant and explosive materials after some congressional prodding, but it's still outmatched, according to Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA), vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee. “We have seen a significant ramp-up in the emphasis on range and lethality, because we’re getting outsticked by the Chinese,” Wittman told reporters at the annual defense conference hosted by McAleese and Associates. (Inside Defense)

· The challenge is not that the Pentagon hasn’t found an improved compound to shoot missiles farther and deal more damage -- in fact, it was the first to create one, Wittman said, referring to the material CL-20. “We invented modern energetics,” he said. “The problem is, we don’t use them in our own weapon systems.”

-Military officials say recruiting off to strong start in 2025, building on recent trends: The U.S. military is tracking strong early-year recruiting figures across the services, a signal it will meet or exceed 2024 performances, military officials told ABC News. The Army and Navy, the two largest services and the most ailing from recruiting challenges, both say they've recruited at promising rates in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, which began on Oct. 1. However, neither the Army nor the Navy could readily point out a reason, and the Navy said it is too early in the fiscal year to evaluate. (ABC News)

· “We’ve seen momentum unlike anything we’ve [had] in a decade,” said Gen. James Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff, at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, March 12 -- when he disclosed that five months into its recruiting year the Army had already signed up close to 73% of the year’s annual goal of 61,000 recruits.

· The upward recruiting trends for the military services began last summer and have continued at a high pace. Some service chiefs projected then that the numbers would quickly surpass this year’s annual recruiting goals and build up the pool of recruits needed to start off the new recruiting year in October.

· From 2023 to 2024, during the final year of the Biden administration, recruitment across the services jumped 12.5%, according to the Department of Defense.

· Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said increased recruitments after President Donald Trump’s election were a reflection of a new mindset the Pentagon would promote to service members—a “warrior ethos” that Hegseth has said would focus away from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives he said were a distraction from a focus on military lethality.

· “I think we’ve seen enthusiasm and excitement from young men and women who want to join the military actively because they are interested in being a part of the finest fighting force the world has to offer and not doing a lot of other things that serve oftentimes, too often, to divide or distract,” Hegseth said after becoming secretary.

· At his confirmation hearing to be secretary, Hegseth said the military’s strongest recruiting asset was the commander in chief himself. “There is no better recruiter in my mind for our military than President Donald Trump,” he told senators.

· One commanding general of recruitment, Air Force Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, told ABC News that “there is no one silver bullet” for recruiting, but he said the Air Force had “honed in on the right ingredients, and they’re all working.”

· Alex Wagner, a former senior Pentagon official in the Biden administration, said Hegseth’s conception of recruiting by promoting a warrior ethos amounted to “little more than a restatement, not even a rebranding, of existing efforts.” Hegseth’s approach brings “nothing new of any substance,” said Wagner, who, as Air Force assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, was a civilian leader in recruiting.

· “People want to come into the military for a number of reasons, but one of the key reasons is to be something bigger than yourself and to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he added. “I think we’ve long been building a warrior ethos.”

-STRATCOM Chief: Air Force Needs 145 B-21s and More New Strategic Systems: The Air Force should buy 145 stealth B-21 bombers to cope with the increased threats to U.S. security since that program came into being, Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, head of U.S. Strategic Command, said at the McAleese and Associates annual Defense Programs Conference. Cotton also said the Air Force should reassess the planned number of AGM-181 Long Range Stand-Off weapons and “pay attention” to the progress of the B-52J upgrade program. The Navy probably needs to up the number of ballistic missile subs it is planning for as well, he added. (Air & Space Forces Magazine)

· “I, as a customer, want to see increased rates” of B-21 production, Cotton said, noting that the program’s low production rate was set “when the geopolitical environment was a little bit different than what we face today.” While Cotton said the current plan of 100 B-21s should be the absolute minimum, he favors a figure of 145, which he said was the sense of Air Force Global Strike Command when he commanded that organization—his last assignment before taking the helm at STRATCOM.

-Pentagon denies F-35 'kill switch' rumors: The Pentagon today countered speculation that the U.S. government can remotely disable other nations' F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets, stating in a notice to reporters, "There is no kill switch." “The F-35 was conceived, developed and continues to be operated and sustained as a joint/coalition platform, built on strong partnerships with U.S. allies and partner nations across the globe,” the F-35 Joint Program Office said in an email. “The program operates under well-established agreements that ensure all F-35 operators have the necessary capabilities to sustain and operate their aircraft effectively.” (Inside Defense)

· JPO’s news release was apparently prompted by unsubstantiated rumors that gained steam across several social media channels in recent weeks, but this is the first time the Pentagon has directly acknowledged their existence. The JPO manages the entire lifecycle of the F-35, including development, sustainment and delivery to the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. and to international partners.

-'Replenishment' funds can plug yearlong CR holes, senior Army official says: Army pains from the yearlong continuing resolution may be assuaged by "replenishment funds" from Congress, a senior service official said today. The CR is going to impact the Army, but: “Will it be dramatic? In my opinion, no,” said Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich, deputy chief of staff G-8, at an annual defense conference hosted by McAleese and Associates. That’s because the Army has worked with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Congress to allocate tranches of replenishment money toward its “transforming in contact” initiatives, Gingrich said. (Inside Defense)

· “And we are starting to get that on contract now, so that we can actually bring that into the force either later this year and early into [fiscal year 20]26 depending on the timing,” he said. “Each one of those commodities is a little bit different.”

-Allvin: Air Force Needs ‘High-End Penetrating Capability’ in Future Combat: The Air Force needs a high-end aircraft that can operate in contested environments and work with new Collaborative Combat Aircraft semi-autonomous drones, the service’s top officer said March 18—requirements that still yet may be met by the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter. “Instead of going all high-end and then breaking the bank and not being able to sustain it, we need to have that balanced capability mix. But we do need to have high-end,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said at the McAleese and Associates annual Defense Programs Conference. (Air & Space Forces Magazine)

· Allvin’s comments come as the Pentagon has yet to decide how to proceed with the NGAD fighter, a costly program to develop a sixth-generation piloted aircraft that the Air Force had previously cast as a high priority before it was paused for review at the tail end of the Biden administration.

· “The family of systems does need high-end penetrating capability,” Allvin said. “With respect to the overall package and what gets put forward, I think this administration will be making that decision [on whether to proceed with a crewed NGAD fighter], and we’re going to move out on that. But you do need the ability to maintain air superiority and penetrate contested environments, and that’s what our Air Force does.”

-'More tooth, less tail': Air Force wants to ditch excess infrastructure to meet Trump administration objectives: At the top of the Air Force's list of solutions to ensure deterrence and protect the homeland -- concepts Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has laid out as central to building lethality and military readiness -- is acknowledging an "unkept secret" about the toll of caring for the service's excess infrastructure, Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today. (Inside Defense)

· After years of putting facility maintenance aside to deal with other modernization needs within a constrained budget, lawmakers in the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act called for the Air Force to invest about $13 billion more per year in infrastructure restoration and sustainment accounts.

· While that direction is based on a “good impression,” Allvin said during remarks at the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference, it is “unexecutable.” “We know that those challenges are there and I can’t remain silent about that,” he added. “If we want to get more out of our Air Force, we need more tooth and less tail.”

· His comments come after House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) sent letters to the leaders of every military service asking them to “identify infrastructure, programs or processes which are no longer relevant to [the] National Defense Strategy or are not producing the intended effects.”

-Air Force Sending Teams to Make Sure Bases Are Following Executive Orders: The Department of the Air Force will send small teams to “validate” compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. The groups will visit nine bases before the end of the month following direction from a Pentagon task force. Since the beginning of his second term in January, Trump has issued a series of executive orders aimed at eliminating initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; “gender ideology,” and Critical Race Theory. (Air & Space Forces Magazine)

· Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth established a “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” task force “to ensure compliance” with Trump’s orders, he wrote in a Jan. 29 memorandum. That task force has directed the military departments to confirm that they are implementing the orders.

· The Air Force is sending “validation teams” with fewer than 10 members to visit bases between March 17-28, a department spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. While there, they will review documents, analyze programs, conduct focus groups, audit classes, and interview personnel.

-China demonstrated ‘satellite dogfighting,’ Space Force general says: A top Space Force general said Tuesday that commercial systems have observed Chinese satellites rehearsing “dogfighting” maneuvers in low Earth orbit — the U.S. adversary’s latest show of tactical and technological advancement in space capabilities. (Defense News)

· “With our commercial assets, we have observed five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control,” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein said during the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington. “That’s what we call dogfighting in space. They are practicing tactics, techniques and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another.”

· A service spokesperson later elaborated on Guetlein’s comments, saying the operation occurred in 2024 and involved three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites and two other Chinese experimental spacecraft, the Shijian-605 A and B. The Shijian-6 systems are believed to have a signals intelligence mission.

-Marine rotational force returns to Australia for regional ops, training: U.S. Marines have arrived in northern Australia for six months of training and operating as an air-ground task force across the country and in the Philippines, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. The 2,500-strong Marine Rotational Force-Darwin is the 14th contingent to deploy to Australia’s Northern Territory since the rotation began in 2012, according to a Monday statement from force spokesman Capt. Johnny Fischer. (Stars and Stripes)

· “The Marines and Sailors of this year’s rotation look forward to training with our Australian counterparts and regional partners, building upon decades of shared tradition and operational experience,” Col. Jason Armas, the force’s commander, said in the statement. “The shared experiences during this deployment will strengthen our collective ability to address challenges and promote stability across the Indo-Pacific.”

-US, Philippines to conduct large-scale battle simulation during Balikatan drills: A multinational force, including U.S. Marines, is preparing for a “full battle test” involving 16,000 troops during this year’s Balikatan exercise in the Philippines, a Marine Corps spokesman said. Balikatan — a Tagalog word meaning “shoulder to shoulder” — is scheduled to run from April 21 to May 9, Marine 2nd Lt. Ben Gillman, a spokesman for the exercise, told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. Ten thousand U.S. troops will participate in the drills, now in their 40th year, alongside 6,000 service members from the Philippines, Australia and Japan, he said. (Stars and Stripes)

-Trump admin considers giving up NATO command that has been exclusively American since Eisenhower: For nearly 75 years, it has been a distinctly American responsibility to have a four-star U.S. general oversee all NATO military operations in Europe — a command that began with then-World War II hero and future president Dwight D. Eisenhower. But the Trump administration, according to two defense officials familiar with the planning and a Pentagon briefing reviewed by NBC News, is considering changing that. (NBC News)

· The Pentagon is undertaking a significant restructuring of the U.S. military’s combatant commands and headquarters. And one of the plans under consideration, the two defense officials said, would involve the U.S. giving up the role of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe — known within military parlance as the SACEUR. The general now in this role, who also serves as the head of U.S. European Command, has been the primary commander overseeing support to Ukraine in its war against Russia. It is not clear how long such a reorganization could take, and it could by modified by the time it is complete. Congress could also weigh in, using the power of the purse should members oppose any aspect of the initiative.

· Giving up SACEUR would, if nothing else, be a major symbolic shift in the balance of power in NATO, the alliance that has defined European security and peace since World War II.

· “For the United States to give up the role of supreme allied commander of NATO would be seen in Europe as a significant signal of walking away from the alliance,” retired Adm. James Stavridis, who served as SACEUR and head of European Command from 2009 to 2013, said in an email.

· “It would be a political mistake of epic proportion, and once we give it up, they are not going to give it back,” he wrote. “We would lose an enormous amount of influence within NATO, and this would be seen, correctly, as probably the first step toward leaving the Alliance altogether.”

-Ukraine aid not discussed in Trump-Putin call, US president tells Fox News: U.S. President Donald Trump said aid to Ukraine was not discussed in his call on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin although the Kremlin said the Russian leader had called for an end to military assistance for Kyiv. Trump made the comments in an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" show. "We didn't talk about aid, we didn't talk about aid at all," Trump said. "We talked about a lot things but aid was never discussed." (Reuters)

· Putin agreed on Tuesday to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal. Ukraine said it would support the scaled-back agreement. The Kremlin said after the Trump-Putin call that Putin also emphasized that any resolution of the conflict would require an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.

-The White House said talks on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea as well as a more complete ceasefire and a permanent peace deal would begin immediately, following a lengthy call between Trump and Putin on Tuesday. It was unclear whether Ukraine would be involved in those talks, which Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday. (Reuters)

· “Up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus around these two aspects - the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing - and today we got to that place, and I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there,” Witkoff told Fox News “Hannity” program.

· Trump told Fox News aid to Ukraine did not come up in the conversation. In a social media post after the call, Trump said he and Putin had agreed to work quickly toward a ceasefire and eventually a permanent peace agreement. "Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end," he wrote, using an alternate spelling for the Ukrainian leader.

-Trump's Call With Putin Signals Long Road Ahead to Russia-Ukraine Deal: President Trump insisted Russia would be the easier partner on the path to peace with Ukraine. But his Tuesday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin only underscored the Kremlin is so far the bigger obstacle. The question now facing Trump is whether to apply real pressure on Putin to make concessions or try to wring more compromises out of Kyiv than he already has. In his call with Trump, Putin agreed to halt attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for a month and to further negotiations toward a permanent cease-fire. But it was far less than Trump aimed for, and certainly less than the monthlong unconditional pause Kyiv accepted earlier. (WSJ)

· Now Trump has the dilemma of either trusting Putin to make peace, or pressuring the Kremlin to make a deal, which could derail his larger goal of rebuilding Washington’s ties with Moscow. Either way, Trump has lashed the fate of his early presidency to Putin, testing whether the American’s desire for a deal could overcome the Russian leader’s goal of subjugating Ukraine.

· “Trump genuinely wants to stop the slaughter, he finds it incomprehensible,” said Fiona Hill, a former White House adviser on Russia during Trump’s first term. “But what he’s not realizing is that for Putin, this is the price he’s willing to pay, no matter how colossal it may seem from the outside.” Putin’s goal, she said, “is to dominate Ukraine and reassert Russia’s position in Europe writ large.”

· Trump revealed to the Washington Examiner shortly after the two-hour call that he’d held previously unreported conversations with Putin over the past month, all of which he described as positive. A full cease-fire was still in play, he said. “I think we’ll end up making a deal. It’s a good start.”

-Europe and Canada are eyeing alternatives to American-made fighter jets. Here's why: Questions are mounting in Canada and in Europe over whether big-ticket purchases of high-end U.S. weaponry, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, are still a wise strategic choice for Western countries worried about their investment in U.S. defense technology. In less than two months, U.S. President Donald Trump has upended decades of foreign policy. He has left NATO members questioning whether Washington will honor the trans-Atlantic alliance's commitment to defend each other, if other European countries are attacked by Russia. He's also made repeat overtures to Moscow and suspended most U.S. foreign aid. (AP)

· That could impact foreign sales of the Lockheed Martin-produced F-35 and other advanced U.S. jets like the F-16. As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, it’s become clear that Eastern European NATO members still have vast stores of Soviet-era weapons in their stockpiles that weren’t interoperable with Western weaponry.

· A long-term plan to get all of NATO on similar platforms — by replacing old Soviet-era jets with Western ones, particularly the F-16 and in some cases, the F-35 — has gained momentum. Some of the NATO countries are now rethinking tying their defense to U.S.-made systems and potentially considering European jets.

-US strikes Houthi strongholds in Yemen where leaders are hiding, Yemeni sources say: The U.S. launched airstrikes on multiple targets across Yemen overnight, including Saada province, which Yemeni sources say is a long-time hideout for Houthi leaders, and the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Houthi media reported on Wednesday. Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported more than 10 strikes on various locations, including the Al-Safra district in Saada. The district, which houses weapons storage and training sites, is considered one of the group's most important and heavily fortified military strongholds, according to Yemeni sources. (Reuters)

-Limited weapons and a regional crisis could dog the US in fight with Houthis: Pentagon officials promise a resurging fight with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen won’t turn into an endless war. But it’s already getting more complicated. The Trump administration is pledging to go after Houthi fighters until they end their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. And yet its days-old bombing campaign is running up against America’s political and industrial limits, including limited precision weapons stockpiles, a broader regional crisis and a terror group unlikely to back down — even in a fight against a military superpower. (Politico)

· The Houthis already have survived dozens of air and missile strikes by the Biden administration. And while the White House insists this will change under Trump’s leadership, U.S. officials also must contend with worsening tensions in the Middle East, including the potential for renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Israel carried out its biggest assault on the territory Tuesday since a January ceasefire, although Hamas has yet to retaliate.

VETERANS

-Thousands of veterans could lose their jobs in massive Pentagon layoffs: Veterans will be among what could be as many as 60,000 employees cut from the Defense Department’s civilian workforce, a senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday. The cuts, which could include tens of thousands of veterans, come as the Pentagon looks to chop between 5 and 8% of its civilian workforce for “more mission-critical functions,” said the official, who spoke on the condition their name not be used under rules established by the Pentagon. (Task & Purpose)

· As of fiscal year 2021, the Defense Department employed more than 330,000 veterans, which made up 45.8% of the department’s civilian employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM’s, most recent report on veterans employed by the federal government. “There will be some veterans impacted by the workforce reductions,” said the senior defense official, who did not specify exactly how many veterans could leave the Defense Department.

· While praising veterans who work for the Defense Department as civilian employees, the official said the department has to use taxpayers’ money wisely and ensure it is focused on its mission. “Even within the military, there are times where you see the individuals will leave service when their services are no longer directly in the nation’s interest, and the same thing is true on the civilian side,” the senior defense official said. “And some of those people will be veterans that served in uniform previously. We’re certainly, again, looking at case by case as we plan workforce reductions. There are so many critical skills and experiences that veterans have to offer, and that’s part of the analysis when we consider who is contributing to the core mission functions and who should be retained.”

· Veterans comprised 40.6% of all new employees hired by the Defense Department between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, the OPM report says. Of all the new employees hired during that timeframe, 26.9% were disabled veterans.

· More than 878,000 civilian employees were working for the Defense Department in fiscal year 2023, according to the Pentagon’s most recent demographics report, which was released in December. That report did not specify how many veterans worked for the Defense Department as civilian employees.

· If the Pentagon reduced its civilian workforce by a full 8%, it would amount to cutting 70,261 employees. If the department cut veterans at the same rate as civilians, 32,180 veterans could be out of a job.

· The senior defense official declined to estimate how many veterans might be cut.

-VA Secretary Doug Collins in Asheville addresses federal job cuts, protestors: With a major reduction in force looming across the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Secretary Doug Collins said during his March 18 visit to Asheville that those layoffs would not lead to cuts to health care services and benefits for veterans. The VA has already terminated 2,400 “non mission critical” probationary employees and has plans to lay off 80,000 more staff members as part of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce the size of the federal government. The effort, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has already resulted in a hiring freeze, buyout offers being sent to more than 2 million federal employees, and the firing of probationary workers, including several in Western North Carolina at agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service and the National Centers for Environmental Information. (Asheville Citizen Times)

· At the Charles George Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville, 14 probationary employees have been terminated, according to Morgan Ackley, a department spokesperson. In 2023, the medical center employed more than 2,500 people. Some of the employees impacted by the February cuts were supply technicians, who the VA described in 2022 as “playing a vital role in the care of our veterans, ensuring providers have the equipment they need for patient appointments.” Ackley said the department is currently reviewing those terminations for possible reinstatement.

· During his Asheville visit, Collins said the cuts have already saved the VA “hundreds of millions of dollars,” and those savings are being redirected toward patient care. According to the VA, the personnel cuts were projected to save $181 million nationwide. Collins said the impending layoffs will only make the system more efficient. He also said the VA isn’t planning to terminate doctors and nurses, and that the cuts won’t threaten the care and benefits veterans have come to expect from the VA, referencing about three dozen protestors who were outside the VA along Tunnel Road in East Asheville, voicing their opposition to the planned cuts.

· Diana Eubanks, an Air Force veteran who retired from the VA’s Community Living Center in 2024, was one of those protesting during Collins’ visit, holding signs that read, “I AM NOT A PAID PROTESTOR” and “Veterans deserve fully funded and fully staffed VA.” Eubanks, 66, told the Citizen Times that she worried that the looming terminations will threaten the quality of care veterans receive.

· Jay Carey, 54, an Army veteran, was also outside the Asheville VA March 18. He showed up hoping to speak with Collins and share his concerns about cuts to care for transgender veterans. On March 17, the department announced that it would no longer provide gender-affirming care to new patients. “What’s next? Is it going to be Black vets, Latino vets?” he said. "Are disabled vets not going to be able to get care here anymore? I mean, it’s the end of the VA. They’re trying to destroy our VA.”

-Colorado veterans cut under Trump feel ‘like trash,’ Hickenlooper told: Ryan Bevard worked at a hospital within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for eight years before he got a position he had been vying for as a social work associate. Because he changed positions within the department, Bevard was again considered a probationary employee despite his eight years of service. He was one month away from progressing from that probationary status when he was laid off in February. “I fought for my position to try and help other veterans,” he said. (Colorado Newsline)

· U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, listened to Bevard and about two dozen other veterans talk about how the Trump administration’s funding cuts and layoffs have affected their ability to access health care and other benefits at the Aurora Mental Health Center Tuesday. “These veterans put their life on the line,” Hickenlooper said. “In many cases they suffered debilitating consequences to their physical health, to their mental health, things that are never going to be back 100% the way they were.”

· Hickenlooper said the notion that the VA is riddled with “waste, fraud and abuse” — which is what Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is tasked with targeting — angers him. He called the “draconian cuts” to the VA “egregious,” and said he doesn’t think his Republican colleagues in the congressional majority have heard how cuts and layoffs have affected veterans. He said he has good relationships with about 20 to 25 Republican senators, and the sooner they hear stories like those shared with him in Aurora, the sooner VA funding will be restored.

· “I don’t think they’ll be happy with what they’re going to hear,” Hickenlooper said. “They believe in the military, they believe that people that have served our country in defense deserve to be cared for. I think almost all of them do.”

· Veterans losing their jobs without cause will further worsen the increasing suicide rates among veterans, Hickenlooper said. He said he supports shrinking the government, but “random firings without cause” is “not how to do it.” “Everyone who’s still working is filled with doubt and anxiety, so they’re not doing a good job,” Hickenlooper said. “You’re not making government more efficient, you’re making them less efficient.”

· Amy Demenge, women veterans state coordinator for the Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs, said about 47,000 women veterans call Colorado home. She said the biggest fear among women veterans is that they will lose access to health care.

· Because of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash anything related to DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — an optional health training program offered to women transitioning out of active duty has been removed from the Department of Defense’s training, Demenge said. She offered to go to all of the bases in Colorado and talk to women about their health in light of the training being stopped, and two of them denied her offer “because that is DEI,” she said.

· “I explained to them, but women still have to have gynecological exams. We still have to have mammograms,” she said. “Those are things that women need whether you’re a veteran or not, and I was told that cannot be discussed.”

-Plan to shrink Veterans Affairs workforce prompts hope, dread in Georgia: There is a lot at stake for Georgia. The state is home to more than 600,000 veterans, dozens of VA health care facilities and numerous military installations, including Fort Benning near Columbus and Fort Stewart near Savannah. There is also a lot of room for improvement in Georgia, where VA hospitals have struggled to consistently provide good care. The federal agency has also drawn scrutiny for the deaths of patients. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

· The VA hospitals in Atlanta and Augusta are among the lowest performing in the nation, according to ratings published by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As of Feb. 19, both had overall ratings of two out of five stars, which are based in part on patient care, safety and mortality. Most of the more than 100 other VA hospitals that received ratings during the same time frame got higher scores. In 2019, two veterans killed themselves outside VA hospitals in Atlanta and Dublin over the same weekend. Five months later, a veteran died after being repeatedly attacked by fire ants at a VA long-term care facility in Atlanta.

· John Phillips of Canton, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who works as a civilian aide to U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, said the proposed VA job cuts could help if they reduce the agency’s bureaucracy and improve its accountability. “Is there fat in the VA that needs to be cut out? Yes. Are there efficiencies that need to be gained inside the organization? Absolutely,” said Phillips, co-founder and vice president of Vetlanta, a club that supports veterans and their families. “Everything ought to be on the table.”

· Jim Lindenmayer, who leads the American Legion Post 45’s Cherokee County Homeless Veteran Program, holds similar views. For years, the retired U.S. Army captain has pushed for the VA to improve its leadership, customer service and transparency. “Maybe it’s time to shake it up,” said Lindenmayer, a West Point graduate who helps fellow veterans file medical claims. “They need to figure out what it is that they do well and say, ‘This is what we are going to focus on and the rest we are going to put to the outside.’”

· Union leaders who represent VA employees in Georgia say massively shrinking the workforce could make things worse. They point to an Aug. 7 VA Office of Inspector General report that says 82% of VA facilities had “severe shortages” of nurses last year. They also say the VA’s workload has grown since veterans have filed more than 2 million benefits claims through the PACT Act, a 2022 federal law that expands VA health care for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

· Collins underscored this month the reductions would be done without “making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.” But in recent weeks the VA has fired workers who helped transport patients within hospitals and others who helped those in crisis find housing and other aid, said officials with National Nurses United and the American Federation of Government Employees.

· “What I see on the day to day on my shift is not enough people to respond to patient needs,” said Teshara Felder-Livingston, a registered nurse at the Atlanta VA and a union steward with National Nurses United. “Patients are having to soil themselves because there is no one to come and help them to the bathroom. That is really hurtful to their mental health.”

-Minnesota Democrats say Trump is betraying veterans with cuts to VA: Minnesota Democrats blasted the Trump administration’s plans to fire upwards of 80,000 Veterans Affairs employees as part of its war on the size of the federal workforce, saying the cuts will rob veterans of the benefits they’ve earned through their service. “Unelected billionaire Elon Musk has made it abundantly clear that he has no interest in making targeted cuts to increase efficiency, to stop waste, fraud and abuse in any meaningful way,” U.S. Rep. Angie Craig said at a news conference with veterans and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith in West St. Paul on Tuesday. “They’ve closed their eyes and taken a sledgehammer to the federal workforce,” Craig said. (Minnesota Reformer)

· Jacob Romans, a registered nurse at the Minneapolis VA and union leader, said since the PACT Act passed in 2022, 740,000 veterans signed up for care through the VA, a 33% increase. “It is not sustainable,” Romans said, citing increasing volume while cuts erode 15-20% of the workforce. “We have already been experiencing extreme staff shortages at the Minneapolis VA, where we are being mandated to work 16-hour shifts.”

· Romans said the fired Minneapolis VA workers deemed “non-essential” included veterans and those conducting research on PTSD, kidney disease and alcohol use disorder. “If we are to resist this attack on veterans and their health care, we must recognize the problem. An unelected billionaire bought his way into our government and is destroying the very idea of American values,” Romans said.

-Maryland veterans express concern over federal workforce cuts during roundtable discussion: At a roundtable discussion hosted by Senator Van Hollen in Baltimore County Tuesday, veterans said they were disproportionately impacted by the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. According to Van Hollen, the federal government employs more than 700,000 veterans, including 40,000 in Maryland - with a significant amount being disabled veterans. In Maryland, many veterans said they were shocked after losing their jobs, while others who were still employed said they were uncertain about their job security. (CBS Baltimore)

· Van Hollen said Tuesday that many terminated employees were told they were being fired for "poor performance", despite having excellent service records and strong performance evaluations. "In firing these veterans who were federal employees, they got notices claiming that they were fired for, quote, poor performance, when in fact, so many have gotten recent reviews and evaluations with glowing performance reports. So this was just a big lie."

· Critics say that firing thousands of VA employees will have devastating impacts on veterans, potentially leading to longer wait times for medical care, slower processing of disability claims, and reduced access to the Veterans Crisis Line. "They are talking about 80,000 people being laid off by the Department of Veterans Affairs. These are people all over the country who help process benefits. They work in veterans' hospitals. So that would be a huge hit to the services that we provide to veterans as a country," Van Hollen said.

· Vincent Camacho, a recently terminated veteran, says he was recently terminated after serving 24 years in the military. "How can my country now say, as I was told in my termination letter, 'The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest'?" Camacho said. Camacho added that he received an email saying he was reinstated to his position, but "placed on administrative leave pending further guidance."

· Some veteran support organizations say they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of veterans seeking help. "When you have groups that are meant to bolster the efforts of the VA getting to a point where they're just taking on so many constituents that they're now strained, it has an incredibly adverse impact on the veteran community," Patrick Taylor, from the Baltimore County Executive's Office noted.

· With many veterans suddenly unemployed, Maryland's Department of Veteran and Military Families (DVMF) is stepping in to provide job fairs, employment support, and resource guides. We've been preparing resource guides and finding more information for veterans. We're going out to outreach every day. We have two job fairs tomorrow," Denise Nooe, the Deputy Director of the DVMF's Communications and Outreach & Advocacy Program said.

· Beyond government assistance, lawmakers are also pushing to expand support for veteran-owned businesses. Van Hollen pointed to past initiatives aimed at helping veterans transition into entrepreneurship, like the launch of the Veterans Institute for Procurement.

-Iowa Veterans Home will not be impacted by federal VA cuts: The Iowa Veterans Home (IVH) is not going to be impacted by proposed cuts to the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) workforce. An internal VA memo was revealed at the beginning of March. The goal is to reduce the size of the workforce to less than 400,000 by cutting more than 80,000 jobs. Called an agency-wide reorganization, VA officials are asked to work with the newly-formed United States Department of Government Efficiency, better known by its acronym DOGE, starting in August. (The Times-Republican)

· After the reduction goal was revealed, Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs Commandant Todd Jacobus attended a National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs conference alongside 200 other directors. The event included an hour and a half long session with VA Secretary Doug Collins discussing the plans.

· According to Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs Communications Specialist Karl Lettow, Collins’ goal is exclusive to the federal VA. “While we partner in our mission to serve veterans, Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA) is a separate state of Iowa agency serving our vets on behalf of the people of Iowa,” Lettow said.

· If a reduction in workforce decision is made, he said it will not impact IVH, IDVA, operations at the Iowa Veterans Benefits Bureau or the Iowa Veterans Cemetery. “With that said, change is hard,” Lettow said. “We understand the concerns of our vets and empathize with anyone whose job is affected. If that happens, we’re here to help. We have many open positions at IVH, or we can connect them with veteran job placement services through Home Base Iowa or IowaWORKS for Vets.”

-Gov. Kay Ivey takes control of State Board of Veterans Affairs: Gov. Kay Ivey Tuesday signed a law restructuring the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs and reducing its powers. The bill was amended as it moved through the Legislature, initially reducing the size of the to nine, only to bring it back up to 17 members. “We will use this new structure to focus on what matters most — serving those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms — our veterans and their families,” Ivey said in a statement after signing the bill. (Alabama Reflector)

· Under SB 67, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, the board will retain its current size of 17 members, but the governor will appoint the commissioner. The bill would also specify the appointing authorities for vacancies on the board. The bill also removes the board’s ability to enact policies and rules on veterans’ issues, reducing them to an advisory role in the governor’s office.

-Insulting, exhausting, traumatic: the death benefits battle between the VA and families of vets who die by suicide: During his deployment in Vietnam, James Goulding served as a sergeant in a Marine Corps battalion known as The Walking Dead, which suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the entire war. Forty years to the day after leaving Vietnam, Goulding himself became another victim of the war when he took his own life, according to his wife, Linda. “It started on this day,” he wrote in his suicide note. “I’ll end it on this day.” (CNN)

· To Linda Goulding it was an obvious reference to her husband’s time in Vietnam and the years of post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by his combat experiences while there. But convincing the Department of Veterans Affairs of that would be another matter. Because her husband never sought professional help for his mental health problems and was never officially diagnosed with PTSD, the VA denied Linda’s claim to receive dependent death benefits – a tax-free monthly payment worth thousands of dollars a year.

· Goulding battled the VA for nearly a decade before a judge ultimately ruled in her favor. “You shouldn’t have to fight for it,” she told CNN of the benefits her husband earned. “He fought for you.” Goulding’s experience was hardly an isolated case.

· A CNN investigation found that even as the VA has invested hundreds of millions of dollars addressing the veteran suicide crisis, agency officials have denied crucial benefits to hundreds of families of veterans who killed themselves after being discharged from active duty.

· Strict VA rules require families applying for benefits to submit medical documentation showing their loved ones’ death stemmed from their time in the military. But as the agency itself has acknowledged, many troubled vets never seek professional help for their mental health problems, making that proof all but impossible for some families to obtain after a suicide.

· CNN found that even some families that could show their vet had been diagnosed by doctors inexplicably had their claims denied. In one case, VA officials denied a mother-of-four’s claim for benefits after her Iraq War veteran husband killed himself by blaming his suicide not on his combat-related PTSD, but on marital problems. Another widow was denied after her husband, a 20-year veteran, killed himself at the VA medical center where he was receiving mental health care.

· Many families, like the Gouldings, fought for years to get the benefits they believed they were owed. Some waged legal fights that spanned decades. On average, families spent five and a half years appealing their denials. More than 230 families spent more years fighting for death benefits than their veteran served in the military.

· Since 2001, more veterans have died by suicide than have been killed in combat, according to one study. The VA’s 2024 suicide prevention report found that, on average, 18 veterans across the United States take their own lives every day. The VA has made suicide prevention its top clinical priority and asked for more than half a billion dollars to address the problem in its 2025 budget. The agency, however, does not track how often it denies claims filed by families of veterans who take their own lives.

-VMI researchers examine risk factors for veteran suicide: Psychologists at Virginia Military Institute are analyzing data collected through a survey to help prevent veteran suicides, after a bipartisan effort to gather more information on the issue recently failed in the General Assembly. VMI psychology professors Maj. Michael LaRocca and Col. Glenn Sullivan received a $150,000 state grant in 2023 to investigate less-examined potential factors of veteran suicide, like access to mental health services. LaRocca explained to VPM News how the concept of leadership also could be important to prevention. (WCVE)

· Michael LaRocca: Essentially, the study is looking to examine potential risk and protective factors of veteran suicide. We've been aware of the more highly researched areas of predictors of suicide among veterans — things like substance use, poor social support, for example, or firearm access. What we're trying to do is go a step further and look at some other factors that Dr. Glenn Sullivan and I think we are in a good position to look at. We put together a survey that looked at some broad factors, including the quality of leadership that the veterans had when they were in the service.

· Michael LaRocca: And one thing that I found — among the 240 veterans that I have data on — is that [the perception of] transformational leadership does positively associate with the veterans’ current level of psychological capital. In other words, what people's strengths are, like psychological strengths. The way we looked at psychological capital here is kind of a composite of hope, optimism, confidence and resilience. What I found on this preliminary look is that positive ratings of leaders seemed to have helped veterans have a positive view of themselves.

GLOBAL

-Israeli Public Support for War in Gaza Wanes as Fighting Restarts: Israel returned to fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, but without clear public backing amid a wave of political turmoil that has caused trust in the government to plummet. It is a very different environment than when Israel first launched its battle against Hamas 17 months ago, after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks left around 1,200 dead and some 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israelis at the time set aside bitter internal political disputes that had filled the streets with protesters and fell in behind the war effort. (WSJ)

· Then, the public was united in wanting to see Hamas punished and neutralized. Now, with the group already battered, many Israelis, even some on the right, are more concerned with freeing the hostages still alive in Gaza and feel only a negotiated settlement to the war can bring them back.

· The shift in opinion was prompted by the images of two dozen Israeli hostages released over the past two months, often in poor shape, with injuries or obvious malnutrition that shocked Israelis and heightened concerns about the fate of the remaining 59 hostages, as many as 24 of whom Israel thinks might still be alive.

· In addition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reviving old disputes by taking another run at legislation that would give him more control over the country's judicial system, a move that sparked a year of mass demonstrations leading up to the war. He also is seeking to preserve the fast-growing ultraorthodox population's exemption from military service. And, he has further purged the security establishment of those who favored a cease-fire and is maneuvering to fire Ronen Bar, the head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security service, arguing that he has lost his trust.

-Families of hostages in Gaza are terrified they won't return after Israel resumes fighting: When a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began two months ago, Herut Nimrodi knew it would take time before her son was released from captivity in Gaza. The 20-year-old soldier was meant to be part of the second phase of the deal winding down the war. But with Israel's surprise bombardment of Gaza, she fears he might not come home at all. “I really wanted to believe that there is still a chance to reach a second stage without renewing this war. But it feels like my building of hope has collapsed, and I have no idea what to do next,” Nimrodi said Tuesday. Nearly 60 families have relatives still held in Gaza. About two dozen hostages are believed to be alive. (AP)

-Netanyahu coalition jeopardised over ultra-Orthodox exemption from army: One of Israel's most divisive domestic issues has reared itself again to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after a group in the ruling coalition said it would bring the government down unless it exempts ultra-Orthodox Jews from army service. Some members of United Torah Judaism, one of two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties in the coalition, said in a letter that they would vote against the budget if the government did not pass a new law formalising exemptions for religious students. "If this matter is once again sidelined or delayed for any reason, we will not be able to continue as partners in the coalition," said the March 6 letter signed by Housing Minister and party chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf and two others. (Reuters)

· The government must pass the budget by the end of the month or call snap elections. United Torah Judaism holds seven seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. It is too early to predict the consequences. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, is a proven master at smoothing over disagreements in his coalitions. An ultra-nationalist group that quit the government over the ceasefire in Gaza in January announced on Tuesday it was returning.

-Israel warns more to come as airstrikes kill over 400 in Gaza after two months of truce: Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said, shattering nearly two months of relative calm since a ceasefire began, as Israel warned the onslaught was "just the beginning." Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas accused each other of breaching the truce. It had broadly held since January and offered respite from war for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble. (Reuters)

· Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension. Netanyahu called on Gazans to get out of harm’s way and move to safer areas, blaming every civilian casualty on Hamas.

· “From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing force. And from now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said, speaking from the Kirya army base in Tel Aviv. “Hamas has already felt the blow of our arm in the last 24 hours. And I want to assure you: This is just the beginning.”

· Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that fresh Israeli strikes that have killed hundreds of Palestinians were not a "one-day attack" and that the military operation in Gaza would continue in the coming days. Saar, who was speaking at a meeting with the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in Jerusalem, said the United States had been given advance warning of the Israeli strikes and that it supported them.

-Israeli jets target ex-Syrian army outposts in Homs, security sources say: Israeli jets targeted former Syrian army outposts in the central Homs province, two security sources said on Tuesday. The jets bombed army fortifications in the villages of Shinshar and Shamsin south of Homs city in central Syria, the sources said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Tuesday's strikes, but it previously reported similar attacks, which it said targeted military headquarters and sites containing weapons and equipment. (Reuters)

-In Lebanon, Israeli strikes point to a precarious ceasefire: As Israel resumes heavy strikes in the Gaza Strip, escalating Israeli attacks in south Lebanon have killed five Hezbollah members in the last few days, according to security sources in Lebanon, underlining the fragility of a U.S.-backed ceasefire. The Israeli military has reported striking five Hezbollah members in three separate incidents in south Lebanon since March 15. In one of the incidents on Sunday, the Israeli military said it struck two Hezbollah militants "who served as observation operatives and directed terrorist activities". Security sources in Lebanon said five Hezbollah members were killed. (Reuters)

-Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says: Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the State of Israel, in breach of international law, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday. The report, based on research between November 1, 2023, and October 31, 2024, said there had been a "significant" expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and cited reports by Israeli non-governmental organisations of tens of thousands of planned housing units in new or existing settlements. (Reuters)

· The findings will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council this month and come amid growing fears of annexation among Palestinians, as U.S. policy shifts under President Donald Trump and new settler outposts are put down in areas of the West Bank seen as part of a future Palestinian state.

· “The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” U.N. High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the report, urging the international community to take meaningful action. “Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers,” he said.

-Yemen's Houthis vow to expand their targets in Israel until Gaza war ends: Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they would expand their range of targets in Israel in the next hours and days unless the "aggression" on Gaza stops. The Iran-aligned group's military spokesperson Yahya Sarea also confirmed that they had targeted an air base in Israel with a ballistic missile. Earlier, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory. Sirens had sounded in several areas of Israel. (Reuters)

· The Houthi group has repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what it has described as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The firing of the missile came after Israel resumed airstrikes against targets in Gaza that killed more than 400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, in an onslaught that ended weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled.

· Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea, without providing evidence, said that the group successfully targeted the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and other U.S. warships with missiles and drones, thwarting the U.S. assault.

-Pro-Kurdish party says Turkey vague on peace steps after PKK pledge: Turkey's pro-Kurdish party said that President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling alliance had offered no clear steps during closed-door talks on Monday meant to advance a peace process after Kurdish militants pledged to disarm. In an interview late on Monday, Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, the DEM Party's deputy parliamentary group chair, said government officials outlined their stance in broad terms but remained vague on addressing the party's democratic demands. (Reuters)

-Police arrest Istanbul mayor, a key Erdogan rival, over alleged corruption and terror links: Turkish police have arrested Istanbul’s mayor — a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — as part of an investigation into alleged corruption and terror links. The state-run Anadolu Agency said prosecutors issued warrants for some 100 other people. Authorities closed several roads around Istanbul and banned demonstrations in the city for four days in an apparent effort to prevent protests following the arrest. The arrest followed a search of Ekrem Imamoglu’s home, a day after a university invalidated his diploma, effectively disqualifying the popular opposition figure from running in the next presidential race. Having a university degree is a requisite for running in elections under Turkish law. (AP)

-Iran celebrates ancient fire festival ahead of Persian New Year as tensions with US loom: Iran has marked its annual fire festival. The festival is known as “Chaharshanbe Souri” in Farsi. It comes a week before Nowruz, which is the Persian New Year, and which falls next Wednesday. To celebrate, people light bonfires, set off fireworks and send wish lanterns floating off into the night sky. Others jump over and around fires, chanting “My yellow is yours, your red is mine,” invoking the replacement of ills with warmth and energy. Photographer Vahid Salemi, who has worked for The Associated Press since 1999, shot images of the event to show what life is like in his hometown. (AP)

-Pakistani leader calls for unity to combat militants after a surge in attacks: Pakistan's prime minister called Tuesday on the country's political leadership to unite in its resolve to combat militants with “the full force of the state” following a surge in deadly violence. Separatists in Balochistan last week hijacked a train and killed 26 hostages before security forces shot dead all 33 attackers in one of the worst bloodshed in recent months that drew nationwide condemnation. (AP)

-Zelensky to Helsinki Wednesday to discuss 'steps to end' war: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Helsinki on Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a phone call about a potential ceasefire. Zelensky will meet Finnish President Alexander Stubb for talks, to be followed by discussions with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the speaker of parliament Jussi Halla-aho. "The formal talks held at the Presidential Palace will focus on Finland's support for Ukraine and steps to end Russia's war of aggression," the Finnish presidency said in a statement on Tuesday. (AFP)

-Zelensky warns against slowing aid, says will speak to Trump: President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Wednesday against heeding a Kremlin call to halt military aid for his country and announced he would speak with US President Donald Trump later within hours. "I do not believe that we should make any concessions in terms of assistance for Ukraine but rather there should be an increase in assistance for Ukraine," Zelensky said at a press conference with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb. Zelensky said an increase in aid would "signal that Ukraine is ready for any surprises from the Russians". (AFP)

· "Today I will have contacts with President Trump and we will discuss the next steps," Zelensky said. Zelensky said Washington should take a lead role in overseeing any agreement leading to a halt in Russian and Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure. "The United States should be the main controlling entity," Zelensky said. "If the Russians don't hit our targets, we will definitely not hit their targets." And the Ukrainian leader said he hoped that the United States would continue to exert pressure on Russia to agree to a complete ceasefire.

-North Korean troops key to Russian advances in Kursk, says Ukraine: A fresh supply of North Korean troops, command of the air and a crushing superiority in numbers helped Russia last week retake the town of Sudzha, Ukraine's last stronghold in western Russia, according to interviews with Ukrainian soldiers and officials familiar with the battles of the last few weeks. Russia’s heavy use of North Korean troops and equipment to retake nearly all of the Kursk region after seven months of Ukrainian control demonstrated the Kremlin’s desire to reclaim the land at any cost and prevent Kyiv from forcing a territorial exchange as part of future negotiations. Russia occupies around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. (WP)

· By Monday, Ukrainian troops had almost entirely withdrawn from Kursk, said a soldier familiar with drone operations in the region — who like the others interviewed for this story wasn’t authorized to speak publicly — describing the parts of Kursk still under Ukrainian control as “a tiny patch, practically nothing. Just some border zones.”

· “Without North Korean troops, Russia cannot even hold onto its own territories with its own army,” said Ruslan Mykula, the co-founder of Deep State. “These were massive waves of reinforcements, much larger than our group. And the harsh reality is, we simply didn’t have enough ammunition and drones to eliminate them all.”

· Though a combination of factors ultimately hastened Ukraine’s retreat’ including the loss of supply routes and control of the airspace, the reappearance of North Korean troops — who had withdrawn from the battlefield in January to regroup amid heavy losses — had a “painful effect,” said a lawmaker connected to the Ukrainian military and Korean affairs.

· “We are talking about well-trained and well-motivated soldiers in one particular place,” said the lawmaker, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. "I cannot say that the Kursk current situation happened because of North Koreans, but the effect of their participation is quite substantial."

-Zelenskiy calls for blocking Moscow's attempts to drag out war after Putin-Trump call: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full ceasefire on Tuesday, and urged the world to block any attempts by Moscow to drag out its war against Ukraine. Zelenskiy, who had agreed to the 30-day ceasefire, said after a call on Tuesday between Putin and Trump that he would support the limited ceasefire proposal put forward by Putin. "Our side (would) support this," Zelenskiy told reporters during a quickly-organised online briefing, when asked about the idea of a moratorium on energy strikes. (Reuters)

· But after Moscow launched more than 40 drones on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure a few hours later, Zelenskiy called on the world to stop Putin. "Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire," Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram. "It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war."

-Putin agrees to 30-day halt on energy facility strikes but no full Ukraine ceasefire: Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that President Donald Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal. Ukraine said it would support the scaled-back agreement, which would require both countries to hold off firing on each other’s energy infrastructure for about a month. Experts said Putin avoided making significant concessions in what could be a play for time as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)

· Putin ordered the Russian military to stop attacks against energy sites after speaking with Trump, the Kremlin said. But he raised concerns that a temporary ceasefire might allow Ukraine to rearm and mobilize more soldiers, and doubled down on his demand that any resolution required an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement.

-Russia, Ukraine trade accusations of infrastructure attacks after Putin-Trump call: Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of launching air attacks that sparked fires and damaged infrastructure just hours after their leaders agreed to a limited ceasefire to halt attacks on energy infrastructure. Putin agreed to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire sought by U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call with the Russian leader on Tuesday. (Reuters)

· Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had agreed to the U.S. proposed 30-day ceasefire before the Putin-Trump call and later supported the more limited ceasefire on energy targets. But after Russia launched its air attacks early on Wednesday, Zelenskiy urged the world to block any attempts by Moscow to drag out the war.

· "Russia is attacking civilian infrastructure and people - right now," Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said overnight on Telegram. Regional authorities in Sumy in northeast Ukraine said that Russia's drone attacks damaged two hospitals there, causing no injuries but forcing the evacuation of patients and hospital staff.

· Ukrainian military said on Wednesday its air defence units shot down 72 of 145 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks. It added that 56 drones were lost, in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them. "The Russian attack affected Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions," the military said on Telegram.

· Russia's defence ministry said that its units destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones overnight, 35 of them over the border Kursk region. The ministry reports only how many drones were destroyed not how many were launched by Ukraine. Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said early on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a small fire at an oil depot located near the village of Kavkazskaya.

-Trump-Putin call shows Russia doesn't want to make 'concessions': EU top diplomat: The EU's top diplomat said Wednesday Vladimir Putin's call with US President Donald Trump showed Russia wasn't interested in making "concessions" on Ukraine, and insisted Kremlin demands to stop arming Kyiv can't be accepted. "If you read the two readouts from the call, so it is clear that Russia does not really want to make any kind of concessions," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. Kallas said that demand from the the Kremlin "can't be accepted". "What Russia wants is that Ukraine will let all the guards down," she said. "If they achieve that no military aid to Ukraine, then they are free to continue, because the Ukrainians can't defend themselves. So I mean, clearly this can't work." (AFP)

-Scholz, Macron vow to continue military support to Ukraine: The German and French leaders vowed on Tuesday to keep providing military aid to Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a "complete cessation" of Western military support. "We both agree that Ukraine can count on us, that Ukraine can count on Europe and that we will not let (Kyiv) down," said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He spoke alongside visiting French President Emmanuel Macron, who said: "We will continue to support the Ukrainian army in its war of resistance against Russian aggression." (AFP)

-Germany says 'Putin playing a game' after new Ukraine strikes: Germany accused President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday of "playing a game" after Kyiv reported Russian strikes on Ukranian civilian infrastructure hours after Moscow agreed to temporarily pause attacks on energy facilities. "We've seen that attacks on civilian infrastructure have not eased at all in the first night after this supposedly ground-breaking, great phone call" between Putin and US President Donald Trump, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in a TV interview. "Putin is playing a game." "The American president has a responsibility for one of the great nations of the world. And I am very sure that there will come a time when he will have to react," Pistorius added. (AFP)

· Pistorius said Putin's commitment to stop attacks on energy targets was "basically nothing" because such infrastructure in Ukraine was already the "best protected". The minister also described as "unacceptable" the Kremlin's insistence that a "key condition" for peace would be a total halt of Western military and intelligence support to Ukraine's embattled military. "This is very transparent," Pistorius said, adding that Putin aimed to prevent Kyiv's backers from "further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire".

-Russia preparing for confrontation with Europe, EU's von der Leyen says: Russia is preparing itself for a confrontation with European democracies as the United States shifts its focus towards the Indo-Pacific region, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday. "(Russia) has massively expanded its military-industrial production capacity... This investment fuels its war of aggression in Ukraine while preparing it for future confrontation with European democracies," she said, speaking at the Royal Danish Military Academy in Copenhagen. (Reuters)

-EU must rearm by 2030, EU's von der Leyen says: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that Europe must rearm by 2030. "By 2030, Europe must have a strong European defence posture," she said in a speech at the Royal Danish Military Academy in Copenhagen. "Readiness 2030 means to have re-armed and developed the capabilities to have credible deterrence,” von der Leyen said, adding: "Readiness 2030 means to have a defence industrial base that is a strategic advantage. But to be '2030 ready', we need to move now". (Reuters)

-EU's von der Leyen to Greenland, Denmark: EU will always stand for sovereignty: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Greenland and Denmark in a speech on Tuesday that the EU would always support sovereignty and territorial integrity, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's designs on the Arctic island. "To all the people of Greenland – and of Denmark as a whole – I want to be clear that Europe will always stand for sovereignty and territorial integrity", she said speaking at the Royal Danish Military Academy in Copenhagen. Trump has repeatedly said that Washington plans to take control of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Authorities in both Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said the territory is not for sale. (Reuters)

-German parliament approves Merz's spending surge as allies cheer: Germany's parliament approved plans for a massive spending surge on Tuesday, throwing off decades of fiscal conservatism in hopes of reviving economic growth and scaling up military spending for a new era of European collective defence. The approval in the Bundestag hands conservative leader Friedrich Merz a huge boost, giving the chancellor-in-waiting a windfall of hundreds of billions of euros to ramp up investment after two years of contraction in Europe's largest economy. (Reuters)

-Macron speeds up Rafale warplane orders as France invests in nuclear deterrence: President Emmanuel Macron said France would order additional Rafale warplanes in the coming years and invest nearly 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) into one of its air bases to equip its squadrons with the latest nuclear missile technology. Macron, who has initiated a doubling of the French defence budget over the course of his two mandates, has recently set an even higher target, saying the country should increase defence spending to 3-3.5% of economic output from the current 2%. He has also offered to extend the protection of France's nuclear weapons, the so-called nuclear umbrella, to other European countries. (Reuters)

· "We haven't waited for 2022 or the turning point we're seeing right now to discover that the world we live in is ever more dangerous, ever more uncertain and that it implies to innovate, to bulk up, and to become more autonomous," he said. "I will announce in the coming weeks new investments to go further than what was done over the past seven years," he told soldiers at one of the country's historical air bases in Luxeuil, eastern France.

· Macron said he had decided to turn the base, famed in military circles as the home of American volunteer pilots during World War One, into one of its most advanced bases in its nuclear deterrence programme. The base will host the latest Rafale S5 fighter jets, which will carry France's next-generation ASN4G hypersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which are intended to be operational from 2035 onwards, French officials said.

-Italy's Meloni cautions EU on US trade war, won't send troops to Ukraine: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni cautioned European partners on Tuesday against escalating a trade dispute with the United States through retaliatory tariffs and urged Western allies to continue their longstanding cooperation. Meloni, who is close to U.S. President Donald Trump, said established ties between Europe and the United States had to be preserved and distanced herself from any suggestion that EU nations needed to establish an independent security umbrella. "It is a simple fact of reality that it is not possible to envision a lasting security guarantee by dividing Europe and the United States," she told parliament ahead of a summit of EU leaders later this week. (Reuters)

-Estonia to up defence spending to at least 5.0% of GDP from 2026: Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on Tuesday his NATO country would next year raise defence spending to "at least" five percent of GDP, citing the threat from neighbouring Russia. Estonia and fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia -- all bordering Russia -- fear they could be next in Moscow's crosshairs were it to win its war against Ukraine. "Russia has not changed its goals and imperialistic ambitions. This is a real threat to both Europe and NATO," Michal said on X. Announcing Estonia's government decision to increase defence spending to "at least five percent of our GDP from next year", Michal said: "Our aim is clear -- to make any aggression against us unfeasible." (AFP)

-UN chief praises new talks on reviving the peace process for divided Cyprus: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he will appoint an envoy to help shepherd a divided Cyprus toward long-lasting peace, as he hailed a “constructive atmosphere” in talks with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders. The U.N. chief spoke after an informal meeting in Geneva with Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar that aimed to breathe new life into a peace process on hiatus for nearly eight years. (AP)

-Britain Says Budget Needs Welfare Cuts In the Billions: Britain's center-left government outlined plans on Tuesday to curb rising welfare costs as it attempts to juggle a difficult set of competing objectives: saving public money, incentivizing work and protecting the most vulnerable. The announcement follows weeks of tense internal debate within the governing Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, about how to cut Britain's spending on welfare, which has risen sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic. ''The status quo is unacceptable but it is not inevitable,'' Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, said in Parliament, promising ''decisive action'' to get those who can work into employment, protect those who cannot, and save five billion pounds (about $6.5 billion) by 2030. (NYT)

-Europol warns of AI-driven crime threats: Organised crime gangs are turning to AI-powered scams and payment systems to target victims, allowing them to rapidly and more cheaply scale up operations globally and making them harder to detect, Europol warned on Tuesday. The technology means they can craft messages in multiple languages and create highly realistic dupes to impersonate individuals and blackmail targets in global cyberfraud operations, the law enforcement agency of the EU said in its European Serious Organised Crime Threat Assessment report. (Reuters)

-Oracle to provide cloud computing, AI services to Singapore military: Oracle said on Wednesday it would provide Singapore's defense technology arm with "isolated" cloud computing and AI services, in the company's first such deal in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian governments are frequent targets of cyber espionage campaigns and are facing escalating supply chain attacks, according to security researchers. Under the deal, the U.S firm will provide Singapore's armed forces and defense ministry with an "air-gapped" isolated cloud computing infrastructure - meaning that it will be cut off from the internet and connected instead to classified networks via encrypted devices. (Reuters)

-Taiwan's annual war games to simulate 2027 China attack: Taiwanese troops will simulate possible scenarios for a Chinese invasion in 2027 during the island's annual war games, the defence ministry said Wednesday, as Beijing maintains military pressure on Taipei. Officials in the United States -- Taipei's main backer and biggest arms supplier -- have previously cited 2027 as a possible timeline for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Taiwan's "Han Kuang" exercises, which the ministry said would be held from July 9-18, are conducted every year across Taiwan to simulate defending the island against Chinese attacks. (AFP)

· In a report submitted to parliament on Wednesday, the ministry said this year's scenarios would be based on China's "grey-zone" intrusions and "possible actions of the Chinese Communist military's invasion of Taiwan in 2027". "Commanders at all operational and tactical levels will plan scenarios and situations from a practical perspective based on the possible actions of the enemy," the report said. The aim was to "verify the ability of troops at all levels to execute plans, thereby building a military force that can respond quickly and maintain 'high combat readiness'," the report said.

-China's Xi Is Angered by Panama Port Deal That Trump Touted as a Win: Chinese leader Xi Jinping is angry about a Hong Kong company's plan to sell Panama Canal ports to a U.S.-led group, in part because the company didn't seek Beijing's approval in advance, people familiar with the matter said. The Xi leadership had originally planned to use the Panama port issue as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Trump administration, according to people close to Beijing's decision-making, only to see the rug pulled out from under it. Xi's unhappiness suggests he, too, sees the canal that way and doesn't like to be painted as the loser. His government republished a commentary last week describing the deal as a betrayal of the Chinese people. (WSJ)

-Indonesia's rights groups urge parliament not to pass military law: Rights groups in Indonesia on Wednesday urged parliament to reject contentious revisions of military laws, saying they would take the archipelago back to an era of military domination and create legal uncertainty. Indonesia's parliament is set to pass the law on Thursday in a plenary council after the house committee overseeing military approved the changes, which will allow armed forces personnel to hold more civilian posts. Rights groups and student organisations called for protests outside the parliament on Thursday. Rights group Legal Aid Institute said the revision would pull Indonesia back 30 years to an era where the late strongman Suharto used the military to dominate civilian affairs and crush dissent in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. (Reuters)

-Thailand delegation headed to China to inspect returned Uyghurs: Cabinet ministers from Thailand will head to China's Xinjiang region on Tuesday to inspect Uyghurs deported last month, an official said, ahead of a three-day visit in which Bangkok says only five of the 40 sent back will be made available. Thailand sent back the 40 Uyghurs in a secretive pre-dawn deportation on February 27, defying calls from United Nations human rights experts who said they were at risk of torture, ill-treatment and "irreparable harm" if returned. The move drew a sharp rebuke from western countries, including the United States, which last week hit unnamed Thai officials with visa sanctions over the deportation. The European parliament also condemned Thailand, calling on the European Union to use free trade negotiations as leverage to prevent a repeat. (Reuters)

-Scam hubs on Thai-Myanmar border still have up to 100,000 people, Thai police says: Despite a weeks-long multinational crackdown, scam centres along the Thai-Myanmar border are still operating with up to 100,000 people working there, the top police general leading Thailand's operations against the fraud compounds told Reuters. Thailand is fronting a regional effort to dismantle scam centres along its borders, which are part of a Southeast Asian network of illegal facilities that generate billions of dollars every year, often using people trafficked there by criminal gangs, according to the United Nations. (Reuters)

-Bangladesh security officials arrest commander of Rohingya armed group: Security officials in Bangladesh arrested the leader of a Rohingya insurgent group on charges of illegal entry, sabotage and terrorist activities in the South Asian nation, where there are more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar. Police said that a team of the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, known as the commander-in-chief of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in a raid Tuesday in Narayanganj district near the capital, Dhaka. (AP)

-India asks US to list Sikh group as terrorist organisation, Indian source says: India has asked the U.S. to list a Sikh separatist group as a terrorist organisation, an Indian government source said on Tuesday, more than a year after the U.S. said it had foiled a plot with Indian links to kill a leader of the group in the U.S. Washington went public about the plot in November 2023 and later charged a former Indian spy service officer with directing the plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canada citizen and the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), in an episode that tested growing India-U.S. friendship. (Reuters)

-Canada's Carney vows to expand presence in mineral-rich Arctic: Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday said Canada would boost its military and security presence in the Arctic, a frozen and mineral-rich expanse that is of increasing interest to U.S. President Donald Trump. Carney, who was appointed last week and is expected to call an election within days, said Canada would work with Australia to build an early warning radar system that Ottawa first announced in 2022. Canada will also spend C$420 million to allow the military to have a greater, sustained and year-round presence in the Arctic, and will expand its training and deployment. "We must invest in Canada's north to defend our sovereignty," Carney told reporters in Iqaluit, capital of the giant Nunavut Arctic territory. (Reuters)

-Troops on the streets of Lima as Peru's government calls state of emergency to tackle crime wave: Commuters and residents in Lima were facing new security measures on Tuesday after Peru ’s government declared a state of emergency in the capital to combat growing crime rates that have prompted some lawmakers to seek the removal of the interior minister. National police director Victor Sanabria announced there would be an increase in patrols at train stations and bus stations where tens of thousands of commuters gather each morning. Peru’s military on Monday announced it would deploy 1,000 soldiers in Lima to patrol key areas such as train stations, and support local police. (AP)

-Somali militants target presidential convoy in bomb attack, president safe: Al Shabaab militants targeted Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in a bomb attack on his motorcade as it was traveling through the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, the Islamist group said. Two senior government and military officials told Reuters that Mohamud was safe following the attack, and presidential adviser Zakariye Hussein wrote in a post on X that he was "good and well on his way to the front lines." Soldiers and local residents who witnessed the attack confirmed that the president's convoy had been hit. A Reuters journalist at the scene saw the bodies of four people killed in the assault near the presidential palace. (Reuters)

-Congo and Rwanda presidents call for east Congo ceasefire during Qatar sit-down: Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame called for a ceasefire in eastern Congo on Tuesday during their first meeting since M23 rebels stepped up an offensive there in January. A joint statement issued along with Qatar, whose emir mediated the sit-down in Doha, said the ceasefire should be "immediate and unconditional". (Reuters)

-South Sudan party partially withdraws from peace process: A major party in South Sudan's coalition government said on Tuesday it had suspended its role in a key element of a 2018 peace deal as relations between its leader Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir deteriorate amid clashes and arrests. The agreement ended a five-year war between forces loyal to Kiir and his rival Machar, who now serves as First Vice President leading the SPLM-IO party. But the two men have a fractious relationship, which has worsened in recent weeks following clashes in the country's east. (Reuters)

-Mali announces withdrawal from alliance of French-speaking countries: Mali has withdrawn from a global alliance of French-speaking countries, days after two of its neighbors took the same step. In a letter seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Mali's foreign ministry addressed its French counterpart, saying: “The government has decided to withdraw Mali from the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie," while accusing it of “selective application of sanctions” and “contempt for Mali’s sovereignty.” On Monday, the alliance's spokeswoman, Oria Vande Weghe, said Burkina Faso and Niger had also decided to remove their countries from the organization. (AP)

-France and Algeria feud over expulsion policy as tensions flare between the two countries: A dispute over the fate of 60 Algerians that France hopes to deport has deepened a rupture between the countries that has approached a historic low over the past year. Algeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday rejected a French list of Algerians “with a dangerous profile” set for deportation. It said the list from France's Interior Ministry bypassed traditional diplomatic channels for such expulsions and denied the Algerians their rightful trials. (AP)

-Nigeria probes NGOs after US Republican's terror financing claim: Nigeria's House of Representatives is probing the finances of several NGOs after an American congressman made widely panned claims that the main US development agency financed terrorism in the West African nation. In a letter dated March 10 sent to NGOs and seen by AFP, the lower chamber of the Nigerian parliament said it had set up a committee to "investigate the allegations against United States Agency for International Development (USAID)". Congressman Scott Perry claimed in February that USAID channelled funds to terror groups in several countries, including Boko Haram in Nigeria. The claims were widely considered baseless by experts and come amid a conservative-led push against international aid on political grounds that has seen USAID largely dismantled. (AFP)

BORDER

-Judge demands flight details as Trump administration defends deportations: A U.S. judge on Tuesday demanded more details from the Trump administration on two deportation flights that took off this weekend despite his order temporarily banning the removal of people from the United States under an 18th-century law. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., on Saturday imposed a two-week halt to deportations under President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to declare that the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua was conducting irregular warfare against the United States. (Reuters)

-DOJ Says Venezuelan Deportations Did Not Defy Judge: US government lawyers said the weekend deportation of two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members didn’t violate a judge’s written order barring use of a controversial law. But they said in a court filing Tuesday that a third planeload of migrants wasn’t affected by an order that US District Judge James Boasberg issued on March 15 at 7:25 pm. While that flight left after his directive, none on board were affected “solely” by a proclamation by President Donald Trump authorizing use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1789. (Bloomberg)

-Laura Ingraham presses Trump on whether he’d defy a court order: Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed President Trump on Tuesday about whether he would defy a court order he disagreed with amid a clash between his administration and a federal judge over flights deporting Venezuelan migrants. Ingraham noted that the Trump administration’s decision to carry out the deportation flights despite a judge’s order directing the flights be turned around has sparked concerns from critics that the president would defy court orders he didn’t like. (The Hill)

· “Well I think that, number one, nobody’s been through more courts than I have. I think nobody knows the courts better than I have … and what they’ve done to me — I’ve had the worst judges. I’ve had crooked judges,” Trump said. “But going forward would you defy a court order? We all know that,” Ingraham interjected. “I never did defy a court order,” Trump said. “And you wouldn’t in the future?” Ingraham asked. “No, you can’t do that,” Trump said. “However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to look at what do you do when you have a rogue judge.”

· Trump earlier Tuesday called for the impeachment of U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who over the weekend ordered flights carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador to be turned around. The administration has said the flights were already out of U.S. territory at the time, while also suggesting Boasberg did not have the authority to intervene in the matter.

-Roberts rejects Trump's call for impeaching judge who ruled against his deportation plans: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is rejecting calls for impeaching federal judges after President Donald Trump demanded the removal of a judge who ruled against his deportation plans. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a rare statement. The flashpoint for the latest controversy was deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, which is being paid by the U.S. to imprison them. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg had issued an order blocking the deportation flights. (AP)

-Impeachment articles hit judge who ordered Trump to stop Tren de Aragua deportation flights: A House GOP lawmaker has filed impeachment articles against the federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop deportation flights being conducted under the Alien Enemies Act. "For the past several weeks, we've seen several rogue activist judges try to impede the president from exercising, not only the mandate voters gave him, but his democratic and constitutional authority to keep the American people safe," Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. "This is another example of a rogue judge overstepping his…authority." (Fox News)

· Gill's resolution, first obtained by Fox News Digital, accused U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg of abusing his power in levying an emergency pause on the Trump administration's plans to deport illegal immigrants under a wartime authority first issued in 1798, which President Donald Trump recently invoked to get members of the criminal Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua out of the U.S.

· "Chief Judge Boasberg required President Trump to turn around planes midair that had aliens associated with Tren De Aragua, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," the resolution said. "This conduct jeopardizes the safety of the nation, represents an abuse of judicial power, and is detrimental to the orderly functioning of the judiciary. Using the powers of his office, Chief Judge Boasberg has attempted to seize power from the Executive Branch and interfere with the will of the American people."-

-US warns of more sanctions on Venezuela if it doesn't accept repatriated citizens: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday threatened to impose additional sanctions on Venezuela if the country doesn't accept its citizens who are repatriated from the United States. "Unless the Maduro regime accepts a consistent flow of deportation flights, without further excuses or delays, the U.S. will impose new, severe, and escalating sanctions," Rubio said in a post on X. (Reuters)

-Democrats Warn Against Deporting Haitians to ‘Unsafe’ War Zone: Democratic lawmakers are demanding the US extend deportation protection for more than 500,000 Haitians, warning that without it they would be sent to a war zone the government itself “has explicitly deemed unsafe.” In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, more than 80 members of the House and Senate argue that it’s in the national interest to re-extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living in the US beyond Aug. 3. (Bloomberg)

· “Haitian TPS holders contribute billions of dollars annually to the US economy and hold critical roles in healthcare, construction, and childcare — sectors already facing severe labor shortages,” the lawmakers wrote. “Terminating their status would destabilize local economies, particularly in Florida, New York, and Massachusetts.”

-Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be: About a week after President Donald Trump took office, Jonathan Guerrero was sitting at the Philadelphia car wash where he works when immigration agents burst in. The agents didn’t say why they were there and didn’t show their badges, Guerrero recalled. So the 21-year-old didn’t get a chance to explain that although his parents were from Mexico, he had been born right there in Philadelphia. “They looked at me and made me put my hands up without letting me explain that I’m from here,” Guerrero said. An agent pointed his gun at Guerrero and handcuffed him. Then they brought in other car wash workers, including Guerrero’s father, who is undocumented. When agents began checking IDs, they finally noticed that Guerrero was a citizen and quickly let him go. (ProPublica)

· Less than two months into the new Trump administration, there has been a small but steady beat of reported cases like Guerrero’s. In Utah, agents pulled over and detained a 20-year-old American after he honked at them. In New Mexico, a member of the Mescalero Apache nation more than two hours from the border was questioned by agents who demanded to see their passport. Earlier this month, a Trump voter in Virginia was pulled over and handcuffed by gun-wielding immigration agents.

· In Texas, a 10-year-old citizen recovering from brain cancer was detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint and eventually deported to Mexico with her undocumented parents and other citizen siblings in February. The family said it was rushing her to an emergency checkup in Houston when Border Patrol agents ignored a hospital letter that the family had used to go through checkpoints before. An agency spokesperson said the family’s account was inaccurate but declined to provide specifics.

· It’s unclear exactly how many citizens have faced the Trump administration’s dragnet so far. And while previous administrations have mistakenly held Americans too, there’s no firm count of those incidents either.

· The government does not release figures on citizens who have been held by immigration authorities. Neither Border Patrol nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which handles interior immigration enforcement, would provide numbers to ProPublica on how many Americans have been mistakenly detained.

· Experts and advocates say that what is clear to them is that Trump’s aggressive immigration policies — such as arrest quotas for enforcement agents — make it likely that more citizens will get caught up in immigration sweeps.

· “It’s really everyone — not just noncitizens or undocumented people — who are in danger of having their liberty violated in this kind of mass deportation machinery,” said Cody Wofsy, the deputy director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

-'Very dangerous': Japanese Americans warn of Trump's use of Alien Enemies Act: For as far back as he can remember, Russell Endo heard from relatives about his grandfather's arrest in 1942, when an FBI agent took him from his home in Southern California under suspicion that he was aiding the enemy nation of Japan. Heigoro Endo, a Japanese national, had lived in the United States for four decades, working as a fisherman and raising three children. An FBI case file that his grandson dug up years later mentions his connection to a local language school, which was viewed as a potential source of propaganda for the Japanese government. (WP)

· Heigoro was held for several weeks at the Tuna Canyon Detention Station north of Los Angeles under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and then appeared, without legal counsel, at a Justice Department hearing. Authorities paroled him after testimony that the FBI had misrepresented evidence, said Russell Endo, whose research of government records of 500 wartime arrests under the law showed no evidence that the accused individuals were acting disloyally or aiding enemy nations.

· “If you read the case files, they are completely innocent,” said Endo, 80, a retired professor of Asian American studies. “The problem with the law is that there is no oversight of what the government does and those who were picked up had no recourse. People were just swept up.”

· In recent days, the story and the lessons Endo drew from it have gained new salience, after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to arrest and deport Venezuelans, who were accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members, without a court hearing. Trump claims the gang is working in tandem with the Venezuelan government to “invade” the United States, though border crossings are at their lowest level in decades, and experts say the group has not firmly established itself in the country.

· Endo and other Japanese American community leaders say they fear Trump’s actions could lead to abuses similar to those that took place during one of the darkest chapters of the nation’s history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s use of the law, in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese military's bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, led to the arrest of 31,000 Japanese, German and Italian nationals in the United States and Latin America. Many were later found to have been improperly arrested, jailed and, in some cases, repatriated.

-Trump, DOGE Privacy Risks Spur State Action on Immigration Data: Democratic state lawmakers want to keep their residents’ data out of the hands of the Trump Administration through legislation that would restrict sharing immigration status and other sensitive information with the federal government. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans and fears of data access by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are driving bills in states such as Maryland. The state Senate passed March 17 a measure (S.B. 977) that would prevent sharing state data for immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant. (Bloomberg)

· The bill joins broader efforts by Democrats to limit the collection and disclosure of data that proponents argue Trump could use to advance his executive actions on curbing immigration, abortion access, and gender-affirming care. Some Republican legislators and police officials argue the immigration data measures could hamper the work of law enforcement and provoke the federal government to pull funding from their states.

· Dozens of civil rights and privacy groups are pushing 15 states with Democratic legislative and gubernatorial control to more broadly protect their residents’ data privacy. Big Tech companies “have rapidly aligned themselves with the Trump administration,” the groups wrote in a February letter to states.

-El Paso leads nation in migrant encounters: Fewer than 8,400 individuals crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico last February, but 1 in 4 did so along a stretch of the border running from Hudspeth County, Texas, to the New Mexico-Arizona state line. U.S. Customs and Border Report data released this week shows Border Patrol agents apprehended 2,110 migrants in the El Paso Sector in 28 days in February. That’s an average of 75 a day. That compares to the 4,871 apprehended in the sector last January, which were far fewer than the 6,397 encounters in San Diego, which led the nation in apprehensions that month. San Diego reported only 1,650 encounters during February. (Border Report)

-Two convicted in smuggling death of 53 migrants in Texas in 2022: A federal jury in San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday convicted two Mexican men for their roles in the smuggling death of 53 migrants packed into a truck during sweltering heat in June 2022, the Justice Department said. Another suspect in the case has been extradited from Guatemala to face trial. (Reuters)

-Advocates Push Trump Administration to Help Afghan Allies in Face of Potential Travel Ban: Lawmakers and veterans supporting Afghans who worked for the U.S. during the country's longest war want aid to be restored to bring these individuals and their families to the U.S., especially with a ban potentially in the works on travel to America from certain countries. New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Democrat, wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urging him to accelerate the immigration process for Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders. (Military.com)

· More than 5,700 SIV holders and applicants are currently in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Albania, where they have been in limbo while the Trump administration attempts to cut funding for foreign aid programs and cracks down on immigration.

· According to Shaheen, the Afghan refugees lack access to routine medical care, necessities and services as a result of the funding freeze instituted in January. President Donald Trump and senior adviser and billionaire Elon Musk -- through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency -- have set about dismantling agencies, firing tens of thousands of federal workers, and dramatically slashing foreign aid around the world since the president's inauguration on Jan. 20.

· "The United States government brought them [the visa program] as part of our promise to get them to safety. But they are now stranded," Shaheen wrote. "I respectfully urge you to continue the long-standing support for these individuals and take the necessary steps to lift the restrictions preventing Afghan SIV applicants and holders from traveling to the United States."

-Afghan refugees in US struggle as faith-based aid is disrupted: The rent is due, but Rahmani has no money to pay it. The Afghan father of two worked for a U.S.-backed organization in Kabul, which put him at risk of Taliban retribution. Now he is among thousands of newly arrived refugees who lost financial assistance when the Trump administration cut off funding for the federal refugee program in January. His family’s monthly rent and utilities total nearly $1,850, an unfathomable amount compared to what he once paid in Kabul. He has spent weeks looking for work, walking along the suburban highway across from his family’s apartment, inquiring at small markets and big box stores. So far, there are no job leads. (AP)

· He moved here in November with the federal refugee program, a vetted form of legal migration to the U.S. for those fleeing persecution. To fast-track self-sufficiency, it provides refugees with wraparound services for three months — help with housing, food and job placement — while other federal grants support their first five years.

· Instead, Rahmani’s relocation services were largely halted after only two months, when the Trump administration upended the refugee program. He otherwise would have qualified for extended rental assistance for up to six months. Still jobless and unable to make ends meet, his anxiety mounts by the day.

· Rahmani is a client of Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a local faith-based resettlement agency also in disarray. The organization is waiting on $3.7 million in federal reimbursements for work it has already provided.

· LSSNCA has struggled to make payroll, and its support services have fallen like dominoes after it was forced to lay off 75 people and furlough seven others. Nearly a third of its staff is now gone, with its case management team hit the hardest, leaving many refugees without a steady presence as they navigate their new lives.

· Two-thirds of its clients are Afghan allies, who were offered visas and protection in the United States after the Taliban returned to power. These Afghans worked alongside U.S. troops or, like Rahmani, were employed by U.S.-backed organizations.

· Covering the rental assistance promised to new refugees is LSSNCA’s most pressing concern. By early March, at least 42 households under its care had received eviction notices, putting nearly 170 people in Virginia and Maryland on the edge of homelessness, with more — like Rahmani’s family — at risk. The staff has been negotiating with landlords and fundraising to stave off evictions.

· “It is like a daily conversation about how much money came in today,” said Kristyn Peck, CEO of LSSNCA. “OK, who’s most at risk of eviction out of all these people? ... Whose rent can we pay first? And they’re just kind of impossible choices.”

-US warship not on mission against Mexico, its president says: The United States told Mexico in advance about a warship deployment to reinforce border security, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday, adding that the destroyer was not on a mission against her country. The US military announced on Saturday that it was sending the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer, to the Gulf of Mexico to help protect US "territorial integrity" and security. The Mexican government was informed before the vessel departed, Sheinbaum told a news conference. "It's not against Mexico," she said. "They're monitoring international waters in case of drugs or any other situation," she added. (AFP)

-Deportations Lift Profile Of El Salvador's Leader: Shortly after the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador this weekend, the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, posted a three-minute video on social media. It featured shackled men being marched off a plane over a dramatic electronic soundtrack and into prison, where they were shaved bald. Mr. Bukele also taunted the U.S. judge who unsuccessfully ordered the flights turned around, posting on X, ''Oopsie ... Too late,'' with a laughing emoji. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared the video, as did Elon Musk. Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Bukele online, saying, ''We will not forget!'' (NYT)

· El Salvador's role in the Trump administration's deportation strategy signals a new level of power and global visibility for Mr. Bukele, who became president at 37 in 2019 and was re-elected by a landslide last year. He has become Latin America's most popular leader for his takedown of gangs, even as he has suspended key civil liberties and has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of secretly negotiating with the same gangs. He is now positioning himself as a crucial regional ally to Mr. Trump.

GUNS

-Democrats ask Trump to remove Patel as acting ATF director: A group of Democrats are calling on President Trump to remove FBI Director Kash Patel as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Fourteen Democratic members of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, chaired by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), expressed “grave concerns” over Patel’s leadership position at the agency in a letter to Trump dated March 3 and shared on social media by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday. (The Hill)

· “As you are aware, ATF is the lead law enforcement agency responsible for addressing the gun violence epidemic in our country. At a time when gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States, it is unconscionable that someone without experience fighting crime, responding to mass shootings or confronting domestic terrorism has been named as ATF’s Acting Director,” the Democrats wrote.

-Alabama lawmakers approve a ban on devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into machine guns: Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday approved a ban on Glock switches and other conversion devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into machine guns, after a deadly year that included multiple mass shootings. (AP)

· A bipartisan coalition pushed the Alabama legislation after several multiple mass shootings last year, including the shooting deaths of four people outside a Birmingham nightclub in September. The devices are already banned under federal law, but there’s currently no state law that bans them.

· The Alabama Senate voted 24-2 to accept the House of Representatives changes to the bill. The measure now goes to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who is expected to sign it after calling for its passage in her State of the State address.

-Border officers stop weapons heading into Mexico from South Texas: U.S. Customs and Border Protection at two South Texas ports of entry reported the seizure of large loads of weapons and ammunition that were headed into Mexico. On Monday, CBP officers at the Del Rio International Bridge say they confiscated 16 weapons including three 5.56mm AR-style rifles, 26 magazines and 182 rounds of ammunition hidden within a passenger van. The van had been sent for secondary inspection as it was headed into Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. (Border Report)

· “Our frontline CBP officers take CBP’s border security mission seriously, and this large outbound weapons seizure reflects our firm commitment and resolve to uphold that mission,” Del Rio Port Director Liliana Flores said in a statement. “Large weapons seizures like these, coupled with ongoing coordination between state and federal law enforcement partners exemplify our continued efforts to help keep our border communities safe and secure, on both sides of the river.”

AMERICAN MANUFACTURING

-US manufacturing output rebounds in February under Trump administration: Production at U.S. factories increased more than anticipated in February, according to the Federal Reserve, with the Trump administration crediting the president for turning it all around. In a new report released Tuesday, the Federal Reserve noted the following: (TNND)

· Industrial production (IP) increased 0.7 percent in February after moving up 0.3 percent in January

· Manufacturing output rose 0.9 percent, boosted by a jump of 8.5 percent in the index for motor vehicles and parts

· The output of manufacturing excluding motor vehicles and parts increased 0.4 percent.

· The index for mining gained 2.8 percent, and the index for utilities decreased 2.5 percent.

· At 104.2 percent of its 2017 average, total IP in February was 1.4 percent above its year-earlier level.

· Capacity utilization stepped up to 78.2 percent, a rate that is 1.4 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2024) average

-Earlier this month, a jobs report showed American manufacturing is on the rebound, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt praising President Donald Trump for his hard work. “In one month under President Trump, the American economy is soaring back to greatness after the economic calamity left by Joe Biden," Leavitt said in a recent online statement. The manufacturing industry is already rebounding, as there were 9,000 new auto jobs created -- the most auto jobs added in 15 months! Under President Trump, the private sector is leading the way -- 93% of the job gains in February were in the private sector. This is great news for American workers and families. The Trump Administration will continue to work hard to implement pro-growth policies and push Congress to enact the Trump Economic Agenda," she added. (TNND)

· In her statement, Leavitt said the U.S. gained 10,000 manufacturing jobs during Trump’s first full month in office alone. She described it as “a swift turnaround after losing an average of 9,000 manufacturing jobs per month, or 111,000 total, in the final year of the Biden Administration.”

· She also said the rebound in manufacturing jobs was led by the automobile sector, which gained 8,900 new jobs in February—after losing 27,300 auto jobs in Biden’s final year. She said that is an indication that firms “are reshoring production and positively responding to President Trump’s trade policies.”

· The manufacturing turnaround, she said in the release, has been confirmed by S&P Global’s own U.S. manufacturing survey, which surged last month to its highest level since June 2022, and the Manufacturing ISM Report On Business, which returned to expansion territory after 26 consecutive months of contraction. “America is back under President Trump — and he’s just getting started,” Leavitt said.

-Trump Hosts Top UAE Official to Discuss Investments, Chips: US President Donald Trump hosted a senior UAE official for dinner Tuesday at the White House, as the Gulf nation pushes to ease access to US technology by investing in the country. Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother of the nation’s president, planned to talk with Trump about increasing Emirati investment in the US, technology and energy, according to people familiar with the meeting who requested anonymity before the discussion because it was not publicly announced. (Bloomberg)

· Trump said their conversations included Middle East security, as well as advancing economic and technological ties. The UAE is pushing to buy cutting-edge chips from companies including Nvidia Corp. as part of a bid to become a regional powerhouse for artificial intelligence. While Abu Dhabi has poured massive amounts of capital into data centers used to train AI models, its ambitions have been limited by restrictions on exports of advanced chips put into place in 2023 under former President Joe Biden.

· People familiar with Sheikh Tahnoon’s plans ahead of his travel said he would seek easier access to chips and highlight the UAE’s plans for tech infrastructure built on American soil. That includes funding from Abu Dhabi-based MGX for a $100 billion AI infrastructure venture that Trump unveiled during his first week in office.

-Taiwan's president hails Arizona chips project in meeting with visiting governor: Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te said that a Taiwanese semiconductor company's massive investment in Arizona is the “best model” for the island's effort to build computer chips supply lines that don't rely on Chinese producers, in remarks to the state’s visiting Governor Katie Hobbs. Taiwan’s leading chipmaker TSMC has committed $100 billion to build three chip foundries, an R&D center and two packaging facilities in Arizona, on top of a previous pledge to build $65 billion in three chip foundries in the state, one of which has begun operations. Lai and TSMC say that the latest mega-investment stemmed from customer demand and not pressure from the administration of President Donald Trump. (AP)

ECONOMY

-Fed Set to Hold Rates, Update US Jobs, Inflation Forecast: The Federal Reserve will likely hold interest rates steady when they meet today, buying time to assess how President Donald Trump’s policies impact an economy facing both lingering inflationary pressures and mounting growth concerns. (Bloomberg)

· Fresh tariffs from the administration, paired with retaliatory action from US trade partners, have dented consumer sentiment and fanned Americans’ expectations for future inflation. With some levies getting postponed after being announced, it’s unclear how the trade war will shape the economy.

· Economists will also be watching to see whether Federal Reserve officials announce plans to pause or slow its balance-sheet unwind today, an action they’ve said they may link to lawmakers’ raising of the debt limit.

· Without congressional action on the debt limit, more cash could infuse the markets and mask signals of the right time to stop quantitative tightening. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the department can’t provide an estimate of when the US will hit the debt ceiling, but it will provide an update in May.

· The guidance is crucial for market participants who are wary of the risk that bank reserves become too scarce. Such a scenario stands to roil US funding markets and increases the threat of boosting borrowing costs.

-US housing starts rebound strongly in February: U.S. single-family homebuilding rebounded sharply in February, but rising construction costs from tariffs and labor shortages threaten the recovery. Single-family housing starts, which account for the bulk of homebuilding, surged 11.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.108 million units last month, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Data for January was revised to show homebuilding declining to a rate of 995,000 units instead of the previously reported pace of 993,000 units. (Reuters)

-E.U. Devises Strategy to End 'Capital Flight' To Wall Street: America's once highflying stock markets are stumbling, and their counterparts in Europe are faring much better. Shares in European companies have comfortably outperformed the S&P 500 in recent months, as President Trump's trade war has prompted investors to revisit their assumptions. Officials in Brussels say that the rally could be even bigger. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is set to introduce a proposal on Wednesday to tap trillions of euros parked in Europeans' savings accounts as part of a strategy to incentivize investors to back Europe Inc. (NYT)

· The draft plan has a second objective: encourage consolidation among European asset managers, a sector long overshadowed by Wall Street. It is part of a larger vision to shake up the region's byzantine capital markets, a long discussed effort that has taken on new urgency since Mr. Trump won re-election.

-Can Europe’s New Military Spending Help Its Economies: From Brussels to Berlin, leaders across Europe are getting ready to spend hundreds of billions to rebuild their armies. The spending, they say, is necessary to prepare Europe for the dangers of a world where the United States no longer guarantees its security. But many of them are also hoping that the surge of money will have another important effect: revitalizing the continent’s slumping industrial sector and opening a new front for economic growth. That connection between defense investment and competitiveness is one of the topics European leaders are likely to discuss when they meet in Brussels on Thursday, after the European Commission publishes a long-awaited paper on the future of European defense on Wednesday. (NYT)

GOVERNMENT NEWS OF NOTE

-Trump administration reinstating almost 25,000 fired workers after court order: President Donald Trump's administration in court filings has for the first time acknowledged it fired nearly 25,000 recently hired workers, and said federal agencies were working to bring all of them back after a judge ruled their terminations were likely illegal. The filings made in Baltimore, Maryland, federal court late Monday included statements from officials at 18 agencies, all of whom said the reinstated probationary workers were being placed on administrative leave at least temporarily. (Reuters)

-More than 24,000 probationary federal workers ordered back to work — but then placed on paid leave: More than 24,000 probationary employees fired from federal jobs in a massive workforce reduction are being notified by email this week that their jobs were reinstated after a pair of federal court rulings ordered them back to work. The Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Labor Department, Environmental Protection Agency and several other federal agencies said in a filing Monday night in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland that the terminations of probationary employees are being rescinded, in compliance with recent court rulings. (Stars and Stripes)

· However, most of the fired workers are being reinstated — on paper — and then placed on paid administrative leave, according to court documents, as President Donald Trump’s administration appeals the court rulings in Maryland and California.

-DHS Slashes Personnel Leading Fight Against Domestic Extremism: The Trump administration’s purge of US government workers has gutted a Department of Homeland Security unit created to combat online radicalization and credited with helping disrupt more than 1,000 violent plots in the past few years, according to current and former officials. (Bloomberg)

· Roughly 20% of probationary employees were dismissed or resigned from the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships in recent weeks, according to two current officials and one former employee who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter. The CP3 is the primary federal unit focused on proactively stopping extremist violence around the country.

· Many of the recently departed workers helped state and local authorities through $79 million in federal grants aimed at keeping online threats from turning into real world attacks. Their work supported programs to study the impact of online misinformation and radicalization, educate police departments on how to prevent politically motivated violence and train school administrators to work with students at risk of being influenced to make racially motivated threats.

· The immediate effect of the change, current officials said, will be to cut support to state efforts to create anti-domestic terrorism strategies. Those plans, which CP3 helps craft, typically provide guidance for law enforcement efforts to assess threats from homegrown violent extremist organizations, such as white supremacist groups or anti-government militias. Twelve states have lost their liaisons with CP3 as a result of the dismissals, according to the officials.

-Trump fires both Democratic commissioners at FTC: President Donald Trump fired two Democratic commissioners at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, in another major test of the independence of regulatory agencies. A White House official confirmed the firings of Democratic Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter after they were first reported by Reuters, but had no additional comment. (Reuters)

-US judge finds Musk's USAID cuts likely unconstitutional, blocks him from making more cuts: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from taking any more steps to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, saying their efforts to close the foreign aid agency likely violated the U.S. Constitution. In a preliminary ruling, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland ordered President Donald Trump's adviser Musk and the agency he spearheads to restore access to USAID's computer systems for its direct and contract employees, including thousands who were placed on leave. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by current and former USAID employees, one of several currently pending over the rapid dismantling. (Reuters)

-Trump administration weighing future of CDC's HIV prevention division: The U.S. health department said on Tuesday it is reviewing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV prevention division for overlap with other agencies but no final decision had been made about its future. The Department of Health and Human Services made the statement after the WSJ and NBC, citing unnamed sources, reported the division could be dismantled. (Reuters)

-US threatens to withhold transit funds over New York subway crime: U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday threatened to withhold federal transit funds from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority over crime and safety on the New York City subway system and other issues. The MTA is the state agency that operates the city's subway and buses, as well as commuter rail lines that serve nearby suburbs. (Reuters)

-Trump releases JFK assassination documents: U.S. President Donald Trump released material related to the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday, seeking to honor his campaign promise to provide more transparency about the shock event in Texas. An initial tranche of electronic copies of papers flooded into the National Archives website in the evening with a total of more than 80,000 expected to be published after Justice Department lawyers spent hours scouring them. The digital documents, including PDFs of previously classified memos, offers a window into the climate of fear at the time surrounding U.S. relations with the Soviet Union shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 nearly led to a nuclear war. (Reuters)

· The release is nonetheless likely to intrigue people who have long been fascinated with a dramatic period in history, with the assassination and with Kennedy himself. Many of the documents reflected the work by investigators to learn more about assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's time in the Soviet Union and track his movements in the months leading up to Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. An initial review of the papers did not show deviations from the central narrative.

-NASA astronauts 'Butch and Suni' return to Earth after drawn-out mission in space: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth in a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday with a soft splashdown off Florida's coast, nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was to be a week-long stay on the International Space Station. Their return caps a protracted space mission that was fraught with uncertainty and technical troubles and turned a rare instance of NASA's contingency planning - and the latest failures of Starliner - into a global spectacle. (Reuters)

-US, allies pledge collective action on hostage-taking: Representatives from the United States and six allied nations pledged to work together to counter global hostage-taking and detentions considered unjust, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday after talks in Montana. "We are united in our demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages," the statement said. U.S. special envoy Adam Boehler led the talks on Monday and Tuesday in Big Sky, Montana, with counterparts from Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel and the United Kingdom. (Reuters)

· They discussed sharing information about detainees and other collaborative efforts to free their citizens held around the world. “We will spare no effort, in accordance with international law, to bring home hostages and unjustly or arbitrarily detained individuals and to deter such future acts,” the statement said, without providing specifics.

· Boehler, who was involved in efforts that led to the freedom of American school teacher Marc Fogel from Russia last month, said in a statement that the gathering was centered on “how to support individual freedom and stop the hostage takers who try to take it away.”

· The group vowed to work collectively to “identify and deploy every diplomatic, economic, and strategic tool at our disposal to bring these individuals home while deterring future such acts,” a U.S. State Department official said.

· A report last August by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation said at least 43 U.S. nationals were being held hostage or wrongfully detained in 16 countries across the world. In addition to these people, U.S. officials are working to gain the release of many others considered unjustly detained around the world, including in China, Russia, Venezuela, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

· The State Department official said President Donald Trump has made it a priority to bring Americans home. “Anyone engaging in these practices is on notice that the United States is prioritizing getting our people back. At the same time, we are pursuing collective measures with our partners that can be brought to bear,” the official said.

-Trump administration halts program to track abducted Ukrainian children, lawmakers say: Democratic U.S. lawmakers will call on President Donald Trump's administration to restore a program that helps track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, and to use sanctions to punish those responsible for the rights violation. As it slashes a wide range of U.S. government programs and most foreign aid, the Republican president's administration has ended a government-funded initiative led by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) that tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine, the lawmakers said. (Reuters)

OTHER DOMESTIC NEWS OF NOTE

-Violent attacks on Tesla dealerships spike as Musk takes prominent role in Trump White House: Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric-car company are cropping up from coast to coast and even overseas. Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and even privately owned cars have been targeted. Not all of the incidents have been definitively linked to politics, but there has been a clear uptick since President Donald Trump took office and empowered Musk to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency that is slashing government spending. Experts on domestic extremism say Tesla is a predictable target for left-wing anarchist violence, even if it’s impossible to know yet if the spate of violence is a passing fad or the beginning of a worrisome trend. (AP)

-Musk's Starlink Expands Service Across the White House Complex: Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, is now accessible across the White House campus. It is the latest installation of the Wi-Fi network across the government since Mr. Musk joined the Trump administration as an unpaid adviser. It was not immediately clear when the White House complex was fitted with Starlink after President Trump took office for a second term. Starlink terminals, rectangular panels that receive internet signals beamed from SpaceX satellites in low-Earth orbit, can be placed on physical structures. But instead of being physically placed at the White House, the Starlink system is now said to be routed through a White House data center, with existing fiber cables, miles from the complex. (NYT)

· White House officials said the installation was an effort to increase internet availability at the complex. They said that some areas of the property could not get cell service and that the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was overtaxed. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the effort was “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex.”

· But the circumstances are different from any previous situation to resolve internet services. Mr. Musk, who is now an unpaid adviser working as a “special government employee” at the White House, controls Starlink and other companies that have regulatory matters before or contracts with the federal government. Questions about his business interests conflicting with his status as a presidential adviser and major Trump donor have persisted for weeks.

-CBS' '60 Minutes' is unflinching in its White House coverage in the shadow of Trump's $20B lawsuit: As CBS corporate leaders ponder settling President Donald Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against the network's “60 Minutes,” America's storied newsmagazine has produced some fast and hard-hitting stories critical of the new administration in every episode since Trump was inaugurated. The latest was Sunday, when CBS News helped pay for a performance featuring non-white middle and high school musicians who had won a contest and with it, the right to play with the U.S. Marine Corps Band. The original concert, however, was canceled because of Trump’s executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. (AP)

· Correspondent Scott Pelley narrated six of the show’s seven stories since Trump’s inauguration, including Sunday’s. He examined the administration’s policies toward Ukraine and tariffs, looked at changes in the Justice Department and reported on firings of government watchdogs. Shortly after his piece on the dismantling of USAID, Elon Musk suggested “long prison sentences” for those working on the show.

· All came at a time when television’s most popular and influential news broadcast was being watched to see how it would respond to a unique pressure. “This may be a lawsuit that is designed to intimidate, but they are clearly making a statement that they will not be intimidated,” said Tom Bettag, a longtime television news producer who worked under Mike Wallace and Morley Safer at the CBS show.

· Pelley, meanwhile, has quickly become a polarizing figure. “Another week, another ‘60 Minutes’ story trying to discredit Trump policies,” Brent Baker, editor of the conservative media watchdog NewsBusters, wrote on X on Sunday night.

-Southwest Air in Talks to Resolve US Lawsuit Over Chronic Delays: Southwest is in talks with the US government about a “potential resolution” to a lawsuit filed in January over “unlawful chronic flight delays.” The lawsuit, filed in the waning days of the Biden administration, alleged the company violated rules requiring carriers to set and meet realistic flight schedules, disrupting passengers’ travel plans. The Biden administration took an aggressive posture against airlines over consumer-related issues, with carriers often arguing the government was overstepping. The government extended the deadline for the carrier to respond to the complaint by 60 days to May 30, according to a Tuesday court filing by Justice Department lawyers. (Bloomberg)

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