The Latest: Judge says US must allow migrants the chance to challenge deportations to Libya in court

Judge orders more information on Trump administration deal with El Salvador

District Court Judge James E. Boasberg said he needed the information from the administration to determine whether the roughly 200 men, deported in March under an 18th century wartime law, were still effectively in the United States’ custody. If they are, Boasberg could order their return, as immigration lawyers have asked him to do.

Boasberg noted that Trump had boasted in an interview that he could get back one man wrongly imprisoned in El Salvador in a separate case by simply asking that country’s president, Nayib Bukele, to send him back.

The government’s lawyer, Abishek Kambli, said that and other public statements by administration officials about their relationship with El Salvador lacked “nuance.”

House Republicans are backing off some — but not all — Medicaid cuts

House Republicans appear to be backing off some, but not all, of the steep reductions to the Medicaid program as part of their big tax breaks bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is running into resistance from more centrist GOP lawmakers opposed to ending health care coverage for their constituents back home.

A new report out Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows millions of Americans would lose Medicaid coverage under the various proposals being circulated by Republicans as cost-savings measures.

House Republicans are scrounging to come up with as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts to health care, food stamps and other programs, to offset the revenue lost for some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

▶ Read more about Medicaid cuts

Trump says he’ll decide what to call the Persian Gulf while in the Middle East

Trump says he will make a decision about how the U.S. government will refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week.

The president told reporters Wednesday that he expects his hosts will ask him about the U.S. officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia.

He was asked about the possible name change after The Associated Press reported Tuesday that two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said Trump would announce the change while he was on the trip. The report generated outcry from Iranians, who said the Persian Gulf moniker is thousands of years old and an essential part of Iran’s history.

▶ Read more about what Trump said about the Gulf's name change

Pro-Trump network to provide Voice of America with content, Kari Lake says

The Trump administration has sought to dismantle government-run news outlets like the Voice of America, in part because it believes the services that provide news to other countries operate with a liberal bias.

Now, Kari Lake, Trump’s representative at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, says the conservative One America News Network has agreed to provide its news and video feeds free of charge.

Lake portrays it as a boon to taxpayers while critics say it ensures steady pro-Trump coverage.

Court cases on the future of Voice of America and similar services Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have left them in limbo.

▶ Read more about the announcement

FBI director says bureau needs more funding than what Trump administration budget proposal calls for

FBI Director Kash Patel is breaking with the Trump administration over a budget proposal that would dramatically slash funding for the bureau.

“We need more than what has been proposed,” he told lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday.

The 2026 budget proposal released Friday calls for a funding cut of more than $500 million for the FBI as part of what the White House said was a desire to “reform and streamline” the bureau and reduce “non-law enforcement missions that do not align” with Trump’s priorities.

Patel warned that such a cut would be harmful for the FBI as it reorients priorities to focus on violent crime.

▶ Read more about what the FBI director said about the proposal

US must allow migrants a chance to challenge in court any deportations to Libya, judge says

The order from U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts comes after attorneys said immigration authorities informed migrants of plans to deport them to Libya, a country with a history of human rights violations.

Murphy previously found that any migrants deported to countries other than their homelands must first be allowed to argue that it would jeopardize their safety. He said any “allegedly imminent” removals would “clearly violate this Court’s Order.”

▶ Read more about the judge's order

Trump taps wellness influencer close to RFK Jr. for US surgeon general

Trump is tapping Casey Means, a wellness influencer with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as his nominee for surgeon general after withdrawing his initial pick for the influential health post.

The president said in a social media post that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” — referring to the “Make America Healthy Again” slogan — and that she will work to eradicate chronic disease and improve the health and well-being of Americans.

Trump withdrew former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat for U.S. surgeon general, marking at least the second health-related pick from Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration.

▶ Read more about Trump's pick

Khalil attorney praises judge for seeking history of provision behind client’s deportation case

The judge overseeing Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation case has asked the government’s attorneys to produce a rundown of every time federal officials have deployed the obscure provision of immigration law behind Khalil’s possible removal from the U.S.

The provision authorizes the Secretary of State to deport those whose presence in the country is found to carry the potential of “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Baher Azmy, an attorney for Khalil, praised the federal judge for seeking the information on the Immigration and Nationality Act, “since to our knowledge it has barely ever been used in the past 50 years until now when it is being rolled out indiscriminately to target constitutionally protected speech under the fatuous claim of foreign policy interests.”

Legal scholars say the rarely invoked provision requires extensive judicial review and is intended for unusual circumstances in which a noncitizen’s presence in the U.S. could set off diplomatic turmoil.

Judge in Khalil’s deportation case assigns history report to government attorneys

The obscure provision of immigration law at the heart of Trump’s crackdown on student activists is now the subject of an unusual assignment handed down by a federal judge to the government’s attorneys: produce a history report, due tomorrow.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said the government should “list each instance, other than this one” in which federal officials used a provision of the law authorizing the Secretary of State to deport those whose presence in the country is found to carry the potential of “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Farbiarz is considering whether to free Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist at Columbia University who became the first person to face deportation under the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law.

The government’s report is due Thursday morning, the judge wrote in the Wednesday order. The Department of Homeland Security and Department of State did not respond to emails seeking comment.

EPA targets Energy Star program focused on appliance efficiency

An Environmental Protection Agency plan to eliminate its Energy Star offices would end a decades-old program that gave consumers a choice to buy environmentally friendly refrigerators, dishwashers and other electronics, consumer and environmental groups said.

EPA launched Energy Star in 1992 with the goal of tackling environmental protection and economic growth. It boosts the market for energy-efficient products and benefits companies that design appliances that earn the label.

The changes, outlined in agency documents reviewed by The Associated Press, are part of a broad reorganization at EPA that would eliminate or reorganize significant parts of the office focused on air pollution.

▶ Read more about EPA's plan

Fed chair says Trump’s public calls for rate cuts not influencing policy

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said pressure by Trump to cut benchmark interest rates will have no impact on the central bank’s policy choices.

“It doesn’t affect either our job or the way we do it,” Trump said at a Wednesday press conference.

Trump has said inflation is falling and the Fed should cut its short-term rates in response, maintaining that he could fire Powell but that he has no plans to do so.

The Fed judges inflation to still be elevated and that Trump’s tariffs create a risk of both higher prices and higher unemployment.

Frank Bisignano is sworn as the 18th Social Security commissioner

Bisignano has served as chair of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm since 2020.

His arrival at the Social Security Administration comes after a series of changes have been made to the agency in the past four months, including mass federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs, office closures and a planned cut to nationwide Social Security phone services, which were eventually walked back.

“President Trump has been clear about Social Security. We will protect it,” Bisignano said. “We will make the Social Security Administration a premier organization.”

Trump says the US hasn’t decided whether to allow Iran to continue a civilian nuclear enrichment

Trump says he hasn’t decided yet whether to allow Iran to maintain a nuclear enrichment program even if it commits not to purify Uranium to weapons-grade, as his administration engages with talks with Tehran meant to end its advancing weapons program.

“We haven’t made that decision yet,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We will, but we haven’t made that decision yet.”

Earlier Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said Iran can have civil nuclear power, “We don’t mind that,” but then said that no regime in the world has civil nuclear power and enrichment without a nuclear weapon and cannot have the kind of enrichment program that allows them to get to a nuclear weapon.

Trump says he expects to be asked during Mideast trip for US to call Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf

“They’re going to ask me about that when I get there and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said when asked if he planned to make an announcement that the U.S. will officially refer to the waterways as the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia during his visit to the Middle East next week.

The AP reported on Tuesday, citing two U.S. officials familiar with the matter, that Trump would announce the U.S. he was making the move. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he expected to receive a briefing on the matter and would then make a decision.

Trump says Gaza development is coming in next day or so

Ahead of his first trip to the Middle East since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump says there’s “a lot of talk” going on about Gaza and that his administration will soon have more to say about a new proposal — that may include a new push for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the release of hostages and an influx of aid to Palestinians.

“You’ll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

‘We take their word for it.’

Trump finished his remarks in the Oval Office by saying he expects the Houthis in Yemen to uphold their commitment to stop firing on cargo vessels in the Red Sea.

“Hopefully that’s over with, and they’ll leave those ships alone,” he said. “We take their word for it.”

The president had previously announced an end to the U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen.

Trump said “we hit them very hard” and “they took tremendous punishment.”

Trump on India-Pakistan conflict: ‘So terrible’

The president called the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan ‘so terrible’ and urged both sides to stop the violence.

“It’s so terrible,” Trump said. “My position is, I get along with both. I know both very well and I want to see them work it out.”

He added: “If I can do anything to help, I will be there.”

Federal Reserve leaves key rate unchanged as it sees risk of higher prices and higher unemployment

The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday, brushing off Trump's demands to lower borrowing costs, and said that the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen.

The Fed kept its rate at 4.3% for the third straight meeting, after cutting it three times in a row at the end of last year. Many economists and Wall Street investors still expect the Fed will reduce rates two or three times this year, but the sweeping tariffs imposed by Trump have injected a tremendous amount of uncertainty into the U.S. economy and the Fed’s policies.

It is unusual for the Fed to say that the risk of both higher prices and more unemployment have increased. But economists say that is the threat created by Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Trump said it was ‘disappointing’ to learn of senator’s objection to top DC prosecutor

The president said he didn’t know about the objections of North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis despite the senator saying publicly a day earlier that he had informed the White House that he would not support Ed Martin to lead the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington.

Tillis also told Trump directly, according to an aide for the senator.

Trump called Martin “ very talented” but said votes on the nominee are “really up to the senators.”

“They have to follow their heart, and they have to follow their mind,” he said.

Trump says he won’t reduce tariffs on China in order to have negotiations

Trump said “no” when asked if he would reduce his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods as a condition for negotiations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet with their Chinese counterparts this weekend in Switzerland.

China has made the de-escalation of the tariffs a requirement for trade negotiations, which the meetings are supposed to help establish.

Trump’s comments suggest the world’s two largest economies could be at an impasse.

Trump looking at exempting baby products from tariffs

Sales associate Charlotte Santoli unpacks strollers and other inventory ordered by customers ahead of tariff-driven price increases at the Union Market location in Washington, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Trump says he’s looking at exempting baby-related products from his tariffs, but he said he doesn’t want to complicate his import taxes.

“I don’t know,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I’ll think about it.”

While Trump said he would look at the matter, he said he wanted to keep his import taxes “very simple” and exemptions could make an already complex process even more indecipherable. He said that “nobody knows” the policy if there are “so many exemptions.”

Trump says it’s a ‘disservice’ that US doesn’t celebrate victory in World War II

Trump opened a swearing-in ceremony for his new U.S. ambassador to China by noting that World War II allies are spending the week celebrating the war’s end with parades and other festivities but that America “has never joined in with a proper celebration of our own.”

“We don’t celebrate it, and I think that’s a great disservice,” the Republican president said from the Oval Office.

Trump issued a proclamation Wednesday designating Thursday as a day to celebrate victory in World War II.

He didn’t elaborate on what he expects people to do to observe the 80th anniversary of the end of that conflict.

Perdue sworn in as China envoy

The president held a ceremony to swear in David Perdue, his recently confirmed pick for U.S. ambassador to China.

“Our new ambassador brings to this position a lifetime of experience at the highest levels of business and politics,” Trump said. “Say hello to President Xi when you’re over there, please."

Perdue was confirmed on a 67-29 vote last month. He was one of Trump’s most stalwart supporters in the Senate, starting with his 2016 presidential campaign.

“I am glad to be your man in China,” Perdue said.

Final 2024 election fight ends in North Carolina Supreme Court race

Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin conceded his 734-vote loss for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, two days after a federal judge ruled that potentially thousands of disputed ballots challenged by Griffin must remain in the count.

That ended Griffin’s more than six-month challenge to the vote count in the November election. Even with his loss, Republicans retain a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court race was the last undecided race in the country. The Associated Press called more than 4,800 winners in the 2024 general election.

▶Read about the race

Why the tariff picture may seem more confusing

The more Trump talks about his efforts to reach deals with America's trading partners, the more confusing the tariff picture gets. His team seems good with that, saying Trump is using "strategic uncertainty" to his advantage.

Trump says the U.S. doesn’t have to sign any deals, but he also says the U.S. could sign 25 of them right now. He says he’s looking for fair deals on all sides, but also that he doesn’t care about other countries’ markets. He says his team can sit down to negotiate the terms of a deal, and that he might just impose a set of tariffs on his own.

▶Read more about how the trade talks may play out

Trump administration rescinds layoff notices to CDC program for 9/11 responders

The Trump administration has rescinded layoff notices to about 15 workers in a federal program that cares for 9/11 responders and survivors.

The layoff notices went out last week, setting an end to the World Trade Center Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The program provides medical monitoring and treatment of 9/11-related health conditions for about 133,000 people, and was one of the few parts of the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that has not been eliminated in recent staffing or budget cuts.

The workers got notices Tuesday that their employment will continue.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the reversal. When asked for the reason, he said there are issues with human resources records.

-By Mike Stobbe

Trump endorses Rep. Mike Lawler — just not for the office the congressman has been eyeing

Trump said he’s backing the Republican for reelection in his New York swing district, writing on Truth Social that “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

But Lawler isn't up for reelection until next year and has been teasing a potential run for governor for months. Meanwhile, Rep. Elise Stefanik, passed over for ambassador to the United Nations, is considering campaigning for governor and has been encouraged to run by major New York donors, state Republican officials and White House officials, AP has reported.

Lawler is “grateful for the President’s support,” his spokesperson said in a statement, but added: “As Congressman Lawler has said repeatedly, he will make a decision on running for Governor in June.”

Trump designates Thursday as a day for US to celebrate victory in World War II

Trump has complained on social media that the U.S. doesn’t celebrate its military victories like the rest of the world. He said he’d create a “Victory Day” for World War I and World War II, then backtracked and said he’d declare national holidays instead.

Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday declaring Thursday as a "day in celebration of Victory Day for World War II."

Cities from London to Moscow will be awash with parades, flyovers and memorials this week as the world marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day — the day Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces. World War II ended May 8, 1945.

Trump said the victory wouldn’t have been possible without the U.S.

Millions of people would lose Medicaid under Republicans’ changes, nonpartisan budget office says

Their plans could reduce the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, but states would be left to pick up costs, too. Medicaid is a joint program run by states and the federal government.

Republicans are considering a menu of options including reducing the federal share, which is as much as 90% in some cases — and capping federal spending on each Medicaid enrollee’s health care.

Those two changes could result in more than 5 million people becoming uninsured, the Congressional Budget Office announced Wednesday morning.

Treasury secretary is testifying for a second day on Capitol Hill

Scott Bessent is now before the House Financial Services Committee to discuss international financial systems.

He’s also been asked about the looming X-Date when the U.S. could default on its debt, China’s economic influence, Russia sanctions and his participation in a Signal chat group with other Trump administration officials.

As for cryptocurrency in the U.S., Bessent said, “we believe the United States should be the premier destination for digital assets … so that U.S. best practices are best used around the world.”

A digital assets project called World Liberty Financial that Trump launched while campaigning has taken in billions of dollars from investors around the world.

RFK Jr. announces researchers will get access to data from autistic Medicare, Medicaid enrollees

The nation’s health department is launching a research project that will examine claims data and electronic medical records of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees who have been diagnosed with autism.

The program will involve a data sharing agreement between the National Institutes of Health, the government’s health research arm, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has access to claims data from nearly 150 million Americans across the country.

“We’re using this partnership to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.

The agreement will be “fully compliant with privacy and security laws,” the department said in its statement.

Turkish Tufts University student detained by ICE can be sent to Vermont, appeals court rules

The 2nd Circuit Court appellate panel ruled in favor of Rumeysa Ozturk, whose lawyers sought her return to New England for hearings to determine whether her detention violates her constitutional free speech and due process rights.

The 30-year-old doctoral student has been detained in Louisiana for six weeks following an op-ed she cowrote last year criticizing the university’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said without providing evidence that Ozturk had engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

The Justice Department argued that an immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction. The court ordered Ozturk’s transfer to ICE custody in Vermont no later than May 14.

US special envoy to informally brief UN Security Council members on aid to Gaza

Steve Witkoff is in New York to provide the unofficial briefing, according to a U.S. and a U.N. diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private diplomatic meetings.

For more than two months, Israel has blocked any food, water, shelter or medication from being trucked into the Palestinian territory, where the U.N. says the vast majority of the population is reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. Israel alleges that Hamas was diverting supplies.

The U.S. is supporting a proposal for a new independent foundation to facilitate aid deliveries within the confines set by Israel, but it would not be an Israeli project, according to a person involved in the planning, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a plan not yet made public.

It’s unclear if Witkoff will be discussing this foundation in his briefing. The Security Council, with the exception of the U.S., has criticized Israel’s blockade.

— By Farnoush Amiri and Matthew Lee

Wisconsin Republican will miss House votes, cancels town hall due to ‘credible threat’

Rep. Derrick Van Orden canceled a planned tele-town hall on Wednesday and will be missing votes in the House due to a “credible threat made against his wife, children, and grandchildren,” his office said.

The threat was delivered in a letter to his Washington office and has been reported to the authorities, his office said, blaming “increasingly radical and violent rhetoric fueled by far-left Democrats who encourage hatred rather than healthy discourse.”

The second-term, swing-district representative called on both Democrats and Republicans to “fully condemn it when they see it.”

Federal judge orders release of pandemic aid money for schools

Trump's Education Department has frozen the last of the U.S. relief money meant to help schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vast majority of the $189 billion in aid approved by Congress has been spent, but some districts received extensions on deadlines to spend the money, and some were using it for things like after-school tutoring.

On March 28, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to schools saying she had moved the deadline up to that day. Several states and the District of Columbia sued in response, leading to the court order.

Vance talks free speech, Ukraine at security conference

The vice president spoke Wednesday at a meeting held in Washington by the Munich Security Conference, which also hosted a February summit in Germany where Vance ruffled feathers by declaring that free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.

Vance said Wednesday that his comments were not meant to imply “Europe bad, America good,” but that both Europe and the U.S. under Biden had gotten “a bit off track” when it comes to protecting free speech.

He said the administration’s next goals for brokering an end to the Russia-Ukraine war is to get both sides to start directly negotiating a long-term settlement.

GOP legislators push restrictions on citizen initiatives

Lawmakers in about a dozen states have advanced roughly 40 measures this year that would make it harder for citizen initiatives to get on ballots. Many already have been signed into law. The measures limit who can circulate petitions, add content requirements and in some cases raise thresholds needed for voter approval.

Republican lawmakers are making these moves in states where voters have been able to decide on initiatives proposed by progressive groups.

"This is not a bill to restrict. It is a bill to protect — to make sure that our constitutional system is one of integrity, and that it's free of fraud," said state Sen. Jennifer Bradley of Florida, where the new initiative requirements already have been challenged in court.

But Dane Waters, chair of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California, sees direct democracy on the retreat in many states. Lawmakers often perceive the initiative process as “an assault on their power and authority, and they want to limit it,” Waters said.

Ahead of Trump’s visit, Disney announces a new theme park in the UAE

The theme park — Disney’s 7th — will be built on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, the company said Wednesday.

Trump has promised a series of business deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates during his trip to the region next week.

Disney posted solid quarterly profits and revenue from its theme parks and streaming service on Wednesday, boosting its annual profit expectations. But it's not immune from Trump's trade war, including his threat of a 100% tariff on films made outside the U.S., and Trump's Federal Communications Commission said it's scrutinizing the company's diversity practices.

China says it agreed to US request for talks but remains opposed to tariffs

Upcoming trade talks between the U.S. and China have been initiated by Washington, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday in Beijing.

“China’s position of firmly opposing the arbitrary imposition of tariffs by the U.S. has not changed,” said spokesperson Lin Jian. And while Beijing is open to dialogue, he repeated that any talks “must be based on equality, respect and mutual benefit.”

“Any form of pressure or coercion against China will not work,” Lin said. “China will firmly safeguard its legitimate interests and uphold international fairness and justice.”

Trump plans to announce that the US will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, officials say

The president plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the U.S. will now refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Arab nations have pushed for a change to the geographic name of the body of water off the southern coast of Iran, while Iran has maintained its historic ties to the Gulf. The U.S. military for years has unilaterally referred to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf in statements and images it releases.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf of Arabia” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps.

The White House and National Security Council did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

-By Matthew Lee

▶ Read more about Trump's expected announcement

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP