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Bank of America ordered to pay $540 million in long-running lawsuit from the FDIC

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Bank of America to pay more than $540 million to resolve long-running litigation from a U.S. regulator that alleged the company underpaid mandatory assessments for deposit insurance.

The order, reached March 31 and published publicly on Monday, arrives over eight years after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued Bank of America in 2017.

“We are pleased the judge has ruled and have reserves reflecting the decision,” Bank of America said in a statement to The Associated Press. The FDIC declined to comment when reached Tuesday.

Back in 2017, the FDIC accused Bank of America of refusing to pay over $500 million in assessments — a figure it later expanded to $1.12 billion — alleging that the giant failed to honor a 2011 regulatory rule and “unjustly enriched itself” at the FDIC’s expense.

The Bank of America later filed a motion to dismiss in part, strongly denying it acted with an intent to evade such payments. It also argued that some of quarters the FDIC targeted for assessments fell outside the statue of limitations.

After a yearslong battle, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan in Washington, D.C. partially granted and denied motions for both Bank of America and the FDIC. She said that the nearly $540.3 million payment from Bank of America would cover its underpaid assessments spanning from the second quarter of 2013 through the end of 2014’s fiscal year, plus interest — but ruled that the FDIC waited too long to sue over earlier claims.

Formed in 1933 during the Great Depression, the FDIC is one of several banking system regulators today. The agency is best known for running the nation’s deposit insurance program, which insures Americans’ deposits up to $250,000 in case their bank fails.

Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the second-largest bank by assets in the U.S. On Tuesday, the company reported a first-quarter profit of $7.4 billion and $27.37 billion in revenue net of interest expense, topping Wall Street expectations.

Nasdaq holds off delisting Primis Financial until May decision

Nasdaq will wait for the results of a May hearing before -based bank holding company , the company said Monday.

Primis Bank announced last week that it had received notice from the exchange April 3 that the company was out of compliance with one of ‘s rules that requires listed companies to file all periodic reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on a timely basis. Primis acknowledged it had not yet filed its Form 10-K for the period ending Dec. 31, 2024.

On April 9, the company requested an appeal of Nasdaq’s decision, requesting a hearing before a panel and postponing delisting from the exchange on April 14, meaning that Primis’ stock could not be traded after April 11. However, Nasdaq agreed to give Primis an extension on being delisted, and the panel hearing is set May 15. Nasdaq will decide whether to delist Primis once the panel issues a final written decision, and in the meantime, the bank will continue to trade its common stock on the exchange.

The company says it plans to file the Form 10-K “as promptly as practicable” and expects to do so before the hearing. At that point, Primis says the company will be in compliance with the Nasdaq listing rules.

Headquartered in McLean, Primis Financial is the parent company of Primis Bank. As of Dec. 31, 2024, Primis had $3.7 billion in total assets, $2.9 billion in total loans held for investment and $3.2 billion in total deposits.

Integer to expand operations in Salem, adding 83 jobs

Gov. Glenn announced Tuesday that global medical contract developer and company Holdings is expanding its operations in , creating 83 jobs.

A news release from the governor says the company plans to make a “significant investment” over the next five years to expand its operations at 200 S. Yorkshire St., but did not specify the cost. Integer plans to lease an additional manufacturing facility to increase production of catheter components for its growing cardio and vascular business segment.

The company has operated for Salem in 30 years, where it manufactures components for medical devices like catheters, guidewires, stents and pacemakers.

“Integer’s decision to expand in Salem demonstrates Virginia’s ability to compete and win in the advanced manufacturing sector,” Youngkin said in a statement. “For three decades, Integer has found success in the commonwealth, and this significant investment further strengthens Virginia’s growing medical device manufacturing industry. The company’s showcases how Virginia’s world-class workforce and strong business environment enable manufacturers to thrive and grow.”

According to the release, the new 13,000-square-foot facility will allow Integer to expand production capacity while also creating space for additional investment and jobs at its existing Salem locations.

“For more than three decades, our team in Salem has provided incredible to help Integer become our customers’ partner of choice for delivering innovation that enhances the lives of patients around the world,” Integer President and CEO Joseph Dziedzic said in a statement. “Our planned investment in this new facility is a testament to the great work the local team is doing, which is creating increased customer demand in growing markets that are addressing unmet patient needs. We look forward to our continued growth in Virginia.”

Salem Mayor Renée Turk said in a statement that the investment would boost the local economic development. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Salem and the Regional Partnership to secure the project for Virginia, and Youngkin approved a $350,000 grant from the commonwealth’s opportunity fund to assist the city with the project. The governor also approved a performance-based grant of $500,000 from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant Program.

Integer did not immediately return requests for comment inquiring about the timeline of the expansion or the cost of the investment.

The company is headquartered in Plano, Texas, and reported revenues of $1.17 billion in 2024.

Roanoke jury finds ER doc wasn’t fired for whistleblowing

A jury decided Friday that a emergency room doctor was not fired for complaining that ‘s emphasis on short wait times at and its Cave Spring ER had a negative impact on patient safety.

Dr. Thomas Bolton sought $20 million in his against his former employer, Lake Spring Emergency Group, a Glen Allen staffing and management services company that provides physician staffing for LewisGale Medical Center in and the freestanding LewisGale Cave Spring ER in County.

The case is believed to be the first brought to trial under Virginia’s relatively new .

On Friday, the Roanoke County Circuit Court jury ruled that Bolton believed he was reporting a violation of federal or state law or regulations to a supervisor. However, jurors were not convinced that’s why Bolton lost his job.

In Bolton’s initial lawsuit, filed in 2023, LewisGale Medical Center, LewisGale Hospital and HCA Management Services were also listed as defendant, but Roanoke County Circuit Court Judge James R. Swanson dismissed parties other than Lake Spring Emergency Group from the suit. One of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chains, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare owns and operates about 2,400 hospitals and clinics, including the LewisGale facilities in the Roanoke area.

HCA Healthcare, Bolton’s attorneys and the attorneys representing Lake Spring Emergency Group did not respond to  requests for comment.

In Bolton’s 2023 complaint, he stated that doctors at the two LewisGale facilities receive alerts when management feels ER wait times are too long. Both facilities also have large digital signs that display the average length of time patients can anticipate waiting before being seen by emergency medical staff .

Bolton, who was hired by Lake Spring Emergency Group in 2018 to work at the LewisGale facilities in Salem and Cave Spring, repeatedly complained to management about the alerts and their impact on patient care. He also reported other concerns to management, including that patients who needed to be admitted to the hospital were being left in the emergency room and that there were slow responses for transporting critically ill patients in need of “emergent surgical intervention,” as well as inadequate numbers of medical staff.

Lake Spring Emergency Group denied the allegations in court documents.

In August 2021, management placed Bolton on a performance improvement plan. Bolton considered the PIP retaliatory, according to his complaint. Lake Spring Emergency Group, however, stated in court documents that the performance plan was implemented due to “among other things, clinical efficiency, timely communication and punctuality.”

In January 2023, Bolton complained to management that an 800-pound man had been at LewisGale Medical Center’s emergency room for 45 hours without any lab work being ordered. Bolton called an administrator at night to stress that the patient needed to be admitted to the hospital.

A month later, Bolton learned his physician agreement had been terminated and he would not be scheduled to work at either LewisGale facility beyond May 2, 2023.

Over the course of the four-day trial, numerous emails and texts were presented as evidence. Several of the emails are from employees of SCP Health, an Atlanta-based solutions company. Lake Spring Emergency Group shares a principal address with SCP Health in a Virginia State Corporation Commission filing.

In a May 2021 email presented in court, a SCP employee noted Bolton “consistently remains about 60 charts behind.” In a June 4, 2021, response, Bolton wrote that he took “complete ownership” of “charting delinquencies,” adding that his charts were “very thorough and detailed.”

In an Oct. 24, 2022, email, Bolton wrote to Puneet Chopra, regional medical officer for SCP Health, about concerns regarding patient care, writing, “I do not have trust in you, SCP and HCA administration that the concerns below won’t be disregarded due to chart delinquencies or other targeted issues and [I] do feel, have felt and I strongly believe that … in general none of the parties above ‘have my back.’”

The Latest: Trump considers a pause on his auto tariffs

The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has suggested he might temporarily exempt the auto industry from  he previously imposed on the sector, to give carmakers time to adjust their supply chains.

Here’s the latest:

Federal judge bars Trump administration from taking action against student from India

The University of Wisconsin-Madison student is slated to graduate in less than a month.

The order comes as the Trump administration is revoking the legal status of foreign students across the country with little notice.

The judge granted Krish Lal Isserdasani, 21, a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from revoking his student visa or detaining him.

U.S. District Judge William Conley wrote that Isserdasani “was given no warning, no opportunity to explain or defend himself, and no chance to correct any potential misunderstanding before his F-1 student visa record was terminated.”

The judge set a hearing for April 28, less than two weeks before Isserdasani is to graduate.

White House removes aging Kennedy magnolia tree from the Rose Garden due to safety concerns

The National Park Service, in a statement released by the White House, said the more than 60-year-old saucer magnolia was removed from the southwest corner of the garden last Saturday because its condition had steadily declined due to underlying soil issues and root disease.

Certified arborists had confirmed the tree had “entered a state of irreversible decline and needed to be removed for safety.”

The Kennedy magnolia was one of four planted in the corners of the Rose Garden during John F. Kennedy’s administration in March and April of 1962.

A new tree has taken its place.

Last week, a nearly 200-year-old magnolia tree at the south entrance to the White House that dated to Andrew Jackson’s presidency was removed for similar reasons.

NAACP sues Trump administration over efforts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion at schools

The challenges actions by the Department of Education threatening federal funding for schools that don’t end DEI programs, saying the department is prohibiting legal efforts to give equal opportunity to Black students.

“In direct conflict with its mission, the Office for Civil Rights has baselessly characterized vital efforts to advance racial equality to themselves be racially discriminatory, thus weaponizing the anti-discrimination laws against the very communities they are meant to protect,” said Michaele N. Turnage Young, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of NAACP.

Visa revocations for international students pile up, with hundreds of students fearing deportation

At least 600 students at more than 90 colleges and universities around the U.S. have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally.

Advocacy groups collecting reports from colleges say hundreds more students could be caught up in the crackdown.

The speed and scope of the visa and status terminations have alarmed students, schools and immigration lawyers, who say they’ve been flooded with calls from panicked students. Some students have begun to challenge the terminations in court, with one student in New Hampshire granted a temporary restraining order.

White House says ‘the ball is in ‘s court’ on resolving tariffs and trade issues

President Trump imposed new tariffs of as much as 145% on Chinese goods on the premise that the taxes will generate new revenues, help reduce the federal budget deficit and force China to make concessions in talks. So far, the Chinese government has shown no willingness to back down by placing 125% tariffs on U.S. goods.

“The ball is in China’s court,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Tuesday’s news briefing. “China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them. There’s no difference between China and any other country except they are much larger. And China wants what we have, what every country wants … the American consumer. Or to put it another way, they need our money.”

Trump thanks Omani leader for hosting first round of US and Iran talks

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the sultan of Oman spoke earlier Tuesday.

Trump thanked him for hosting last Saturday’s talks and stressed the need for Iran to end its nuclear program through negotiations.

Leavitt said the leaders also discussed U.S. military operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen and emphasized they’ll “pay a severe price” until attacks against ship traffic in the Red Sea are halted.

As Trump considers auto tariffs pause, parts exemptions could be key for US industry

President Trump hinted he might temporarily relieve the auto industry from “permanent” tariffs he previously imposed on the business. The president didn’t specify how long the potential pause would be or what it would entail, but the auto sector is awaiting how rules might change on 25% tariffs based on U.S. parts, if duties remain on assembled vehicles.

Experts have said short pauses aren’t likely to give carmakers enough of an opportunity to adjust their vast global supply chains, though parts exemptions would certainly bolster the industry amid Trump’s trade war whiplash.

Trump told reporters Monday that automakers “need a little bit of time because they’re going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I’m talking about things like that,” referring to relocating production from Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. The news drove global auto stocks up Tuesday.

Harvard’s challenge to Trump administration could test limits of government power

On one side is Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, with a brand so powerful that its name is synonymous with prestige. On the other side is the Trump administration, determined to go farther than any other White House to reshape American higher education.

Both sides are digging in for a clash that could test the limits of the government’s power and the independence that’s made U.S. universities a destination for scholars around the world.

On Monday, Harvard become the first university to openly defy the Trump administration as it demands sweeping changes to limit activism on campus. The university frames the government’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the university’s lawyers wrote Monday to the government. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

‘This is an all hands on deck moment,’ Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries says

His comments came ahead of former President Joe Biden’s planned speech Tuesday in Chicago about protecting .

On a call with reporters to preview the Social Security Day of Action, Jeffries accused Republicans of engaging in “cult-like behavior” as many support the Trump administration’s plans for the Social Security Administration, which include massive cuts to the agency’s workforce and in-person services.

Jeffries said the administration is “trying to jam down the throats of American people” a plan for Social Security that many Americans disagree with. “Congress has a responsibility to work for the American people.”

“Its my hope that we sound the alarm, and over the days and weeks to come, that a handful of House Republicans will break from the most extreme elements of their party, to both protect and strengthen Social Security.”

Federal judge puts temporary hold on removals sought by Trump under 18th century wartime

The law is known as the Alien Enemies Act.

District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney issued the emergency order Monday night after the American Civil Liberties Union requested it on behalf of two Venezuelan men being held in Denver who feared they would be falsely accused of belonging to the gang Tren de Aragua.

Trump has contended the gang is invading the United States, but his critics have said he’s using the gang as the pretext for an overhyped anti-migrant narrative.

Sweeney’s order temporarily bars removal of all noncitizens who are currently in custody in the District of Colorado and who may be subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act, which Trump invoked last month. The act has been used only three other times in American history, most recently to intern Japanese-American citizens during World War II.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that anyone being deported under the declaration deserved a hearing in federal court first.

Democratic groups like ActBlue and Indivisible prepare to be targeted by Trump

As Trump pushes the historical boundaries of executive power, some of the Democratic Party’s core political institutions are preparing for the possibility the federal government may soon launch criminal investigations against them.

The Democrats’ dominant national fundraising platform, ActBlue, and the party’s largest protest group, Indivisible, are working with their attorneys for just such a scenario, according to officials within both organizations. Trump’s top political allies have suggested both groups should face prosecution.

Other Democratic allies are planning for Trump-backed legal crackdowns as well. Wary of antagonizing the Republican president, most prefer to stay anonymous for now.

“Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,” said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates and is chaired by Marc Elias, the lawyer who has himself been a Trump target.

Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, aid official says

The warning Tuesday follows the cancellation of foreign aid contracts by President Trump’s administration, including to Afghanistan where more than half of the population needs humanitarian assistance to survive.

Action Against Hunger initially stopped all U.S.-funded activities in March after the money dried up suddenly. But it kept the most critical services going in northeastern Badakhshan province and the capital Kabul through its own budget, a measure that stopped this month.

Its therapeutic feeding unit in Kabul is empty and closing this week. There are no patients, and staff contracts are ending because of the U.S. funding cuts.

“If we don’t treat children with acute malnutrition there is a very high risk of (them) dying,” Action Against Hunger’s country director, Cobi Rietveld, told The Associated Press. “No child should die because of malnutrition. If we don’t fight hunger, people will die of hunger. If they don’t get medical care, there is a high risk of dying. They don’t get medical care, they die.”

Another US aircraft carrier in Mideast waters ahead of second round of Iran-US nuclear talks

That’s shown in satellite photos analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The operation of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group in the Arabian Sea comes as suspected U.S. airstrikes pounded parts of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels overnight into Tuesday. American officials repeatedly have linked the monthlong U.S. campaign against the Houthis under President Trump as a means to pressure Iran in the negotiations.

Questions remain over where the weekend talks between the countries will be held after officials initially identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for Iran to insist early Tuesday they would return to Oman. American officials so far haven’t said where the talks will be held, though Trump did call Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Tuesday while the ruler was on a trip to the Netherlands.

Judge grants Justice Department request to drop case against alleged East Coast MS-13 leader

The late March arrest of Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos in the suburbs outside Washington was celebrated by the Trump administration. But prosecutors moved to dismiss the gun case against him two weeks later, saying they planned to deport him instead.

Villatoro Santos’ lawyer, in an usual request, had urged the judge not to immediately dismiss the case, saying he feared his client would be deported to an El Salvador prison without a chance to challenge his removal.

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick said during a court hearing Tuesday that he would grant the government’s request to dismiss the case. But the ruling won’t go into effect until Friday to give the defense a chance to explore other avenues before he’s handed over to immigration authorities.

Johnson & Johnson expects $400 million in tariff-related costs, mostly related to China

The costs will be felt primarily within the company’s medical technology unit, which makes a range of medical devices and surgical products. The most substantial impact comes from tariffs against China and retaliatory tariffs from China, said Joseph Wolk, Johnson & Johnson’s chief financial officer, in a conference call with analysts following the company’s latest earnings results.

The company’s estimate also includes the impact from tariffs on aluminum and steel, along with tariffs against key U.S. trading partners Canada and Mexico. Johnson & Johnson said contractual agreements already in place limit its leverage on price increases that could potentially soften the impact.

The cost estimate doesn’t include possible tariffs on imports of pharmaceuticals. The Trump administration has launched an investigation into imports of pharmaceuticals, which is a step towards imposing tariffs.

Mexico officials seek to negotiate with Trump administration over taxes on tomatoes

Mexican officials said Tuesday they’re convinced they can negotiate with the Trump administration over a 21% duty on Mexican tomato exports the U.S. says it will impose in 90 days.

And they warned they could respond with taxes on chicken and pork imports.

“Mexico always has the possibility of applying sanctions in the case of the chicken or pork meat,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

The Trump administration has justified the tax with dumping allegations, claiming it was backing out of a 2019 agreement in order to protect domestic tomato growers from “unfair pricing.”

Mexico, a leading tomato producer, exports billions of dollars a year in tomatoes to the U.S. and the tax could deal a blow to Mexican agricultural producers.

The number of people entering the country illegally remained low for a second month

The numbers from March show only a slight decrease from February, according to federal data.

About 264 daily apprehensions were the average recorded along the southern border in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Border agents stopped 7,181 people attempting to cross illegally into the country last month compared to about 8,346 in February.

“U.S. Border Patrol’s apprehensions along the southwest border for the entire month of March 2025 were lower than the first two days of March 2024,” Pete Flores, Acting Commissioner of CBP, said in a statement shared Monday.

Compared to March of 2024, border apprehensions for that month were 95% higher, with 137,473 arrests.

Wall Street ticks higher in a rare quiet day following weeks of tariff turmoil

The S&P 500 was up 0.5% in Tuesday morning trading, though it’s been prone to huge swings not just day to day but also hour to hour. The day before, it went from a gain of 1.8% to a slight loss back to a gain as it struggled to keep up with shifts in Trump’s trade war, which economists warn could cause a global recession unless it’s scaled back.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 149 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the composite was 0.5% higher.

Perhaps more importantly, the U.S. bond  was also showing more signs of calm after its sudden and sharp moves last week raised worries that investors worldwide may no longer see U.S. government bonds as a no-brainer go-to when times are scary.

Trump’s Tuesday schedule

This afternoon, at 12:30 p.m., Trump and Vance will have lunch together at the White House. Later, at 2:30 p.m., Trump will sign executive orders. At 3:30 p.m., he’ll participate in a Commander-in-Chief Trophy Presentation to the Navy Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will also be holding a press briefing at the White House at 1 p.m.

Ranchers hope Trump’s tariffs boost demand for cattle but some fear market uncertainty

Rancher Brett Kenzy hopes President Trump’s tariffs will make imported beef expensive enough that Americans will turn to cattle raised at home for all their hamburgers and steaks.

That might raise prices enough to give Kenzy and others the incentive they need to expand their herds for the first time in decades. But doing that would take at least two years, and it’s not clear if Trump’s tariffs on most of the world besides China are high enough to make that worth the investment.

“If we can just fix a few key things, I think that we can reinvigorate rural America,” said the South Dakota rancher. “Just get these imports under control, get them to a level that we can understand and plan on, and then let us fill the void. And I think that the American rancher can do that.”

Trump has enjoyed overwhelming support in rural parts of the country in his three campaigns for president. Still, the uncertainty created by the trade war he instigated has given some ranchers pause as they’ve watched cattle prices drop after the tariffs were announced.

DOGE associate is made acting head of foreign assistance at State Department, US official says

The move by the Trump administration expands the power of adviser Elon Musk’s government-cutting team over the State Department.

A senior U.S. official confirmed the new job for Jeremy Lewin, an associate of the Department of Government Efficiency earlier appointed to help finish dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on a personnel matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Lewin’s appointment gives Musk’s team, which has worked with the Republican administration to make deep cuts to government programs and services, one of its highest formal roles in the federal government.

South Africa’s new US envoy called Trump racist, homophobic and narcissistic in a 2020 speech

Mcebisi Jonas, a former deputy minister, was appointed Monday by President Cyril Ramaphosa as his representative to Washington, tasked with rebuilding South Africa’s deteriorating relationship with the U.S. under Trump.

The Trump administration expelled the South African ambassador last month.

Trump has singled out South Africa, issuing an executive order in February suspending all U.S. funding to the country over what he claimed are its anti-white and anti-American policies.

The new South African envoy’s speech criticizing Trump and his first term was delivered Nov. 8, 2020, five days after the election where Joe Biden defeated Trump. His comments have been circulated in the media.

“Right now, the U.S. is undergoing a watershed moment, with Biden the certain winner in the presidential race against the racist, homophobic Donald Trump,” Jonas said. “How we got to a situation where a narcissistic right-winger took charge of the world’s greatest economic and military powerhouse is something that we need to ponder over. It is something that all democracies need to ponder over.”

Joe Biden to speak about Social Security on return to the national political spotlight

The 82-year-old Democrat has been following the playbook for former presidents by laying low and ceding the political spotlight to his successor.

But Biden is set to reenter the fray this evening with a speech in Chicago to the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled. He’s expected to elevate liberal concerns that Trump’s agenda is a threat to the health of the Social Security program that millions of retirees depend on.

After taking office in January, Trump almost immediately began slashing the government workforce, including thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration.

A Trump adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, who’s overseeing the government downsizing, has also called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”

Trump administration freezes $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard over campus activism

The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.

The hold on Harvard’s funding marks the seventh time Trump’s administration has taken the step at one of the nation’s most elite colleges, in an attempt to force compliance with Trump’s political agenda. Six of the seven schools are in the Ivy League.

In a letter to Harvard Friday, Trump’s administration had called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognizing some student clubs.

The federal government said almost $9 billion in grants and contracts in total were at risk if Harvard did not comply.

On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the government’s demands.

US Army to control land on Mexico border as part of base, migrants could be detained, officials say

A long sliver of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border that Trump is turning over to the would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, which could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants, U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

The transfer of that border zone to military control — and making it part of an Army installation — is an attempt by the Trump administration to get around a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement on American soil.

But if the troops are providing security for land that is part of an Army base, they can perform that function. However, at least one presidential powers expert said the move is likely to be challenged in the courts.

The officials said the issue is still under review in the Pentagon.

Trump says he wants to imprison US citizens in El Salvador. That’s likely illegal

Trump on Monday reiterated that he’d like to send U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes to prison in El Salvador, telling that country’s president, Nayib Bukele, that he’d “have to build five more places” to hold the potential new arrivals.

Trump’s administration has already deported immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT, known for its harsh conditions. The president has also said his administration is trying to find “legal” ways to ship U.S. citizens there, too.

Trump insisted these would just be “violent people,” implying they would be those already convicted of crimes in the United States, though he’s also floated it as a punishment for those who attack Tesla dealerships to protest his administration and its patron, billionaire Elon Musk. But it would likely be a violation of the U.S. Constitution for his administration to send any native-born citizen forcibly into an overseas prison. Indeed, it would likely even violate a provision of a law Trump himself signed during his first term.

Trump considers pausing his auto tariffs as the world economy endures whiplash

Trump on Monday suggested that he might temporarily exempt the auto industry from tariffs he previously imposed on the sector, to give carmakers time to adjust their supply chains.

“I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies with it,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. The Republican president said automakers needed time to relocate production from Canada, Mexico and other places, “And they need a little bit of time because they’re going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I’m talking about things like that.”

Trump’s statement hinted at yet another round of reversals on tariffs as Trump’s onslaught of import taxes has panicked financial markets and raised deep concerns from Wall Street economists about a possible recession.

When Trump announced the 25% auto tariffs on March 27, he described them as “permanent.” His hard lines on trade have become increasingly blurred as he has sought to limit the possible economic and political blowback from his policies.

Notes: Eds: UPDATES: Updates Media.

Wall Street ticks higher in a rare quiet day following weeks of tariff turmoil

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Tuesday in a rare quiet day for financial markets, for now at least.

The S&P 500 was up 0.3% in afternoon , though it’s been prone to huge swings not just day to day but also hour to hour. The day before, it went from a gain of 1.8% to a slight loss back to a gain as it struggled to keep up with shifts in President Donald Trump’s trade war, which economists warn could cause a global recession unless it’s scaled back.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 71 points, or less than 0.2%, as of 11:57 a.m. Eastern time, and the composite was 0.3% higher.

Perhaps more importantly, the U.S. bond  was also showing more signs of calm after its sudden and sharp moves last week raised worries that investors worldwide may no longer see U.S. government bonds as a no-brainer go-to when times are scary.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.33% from 4.38% late Monday. It had pulled back to there from 4.48% at the end of last week after surging from just 4.01% a week earlier. Yields have historically dropped, not risen, when investors have been scared during past downturns.

The value of the U.S. dollar also steadied after its fall last week raised more worries that Trump’s trade war was degrading its status as another safe-haven investment, like U.S. Treasury bonds. The dollar’s value ticked higher against the euro and Swiss franc but slipped against the British pound.

On Wall Street, Bank of America climbed 4% after the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Most big U.S. banks have been reporting strong results for the start of the year, boosted by their trading desks taking advantage of all the huge swings caused by Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff announcements. Citigroup also topped analysts’ expectations, and its stock rose 2.3%.

Palantir Technologies climbed 4.6% for a second day of gains after NATO said it would use the company’s artificial-intelligence capabilities in its allied command operations.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Albertson’s, which fell 7.5% despite reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind Safeway, Vons and other grocery stores gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming year that was short of analysts’.

DaVita fell 2.1% for a second straight drop after it said a ransomware attack is affecting some of its operations. The company said it’s still investigating the attack, which it learned about Saturday, and that it can’t yet know the “full scope, nature, and potential ultimate impact.”

The world’s two largest economies have been announcing ever-increasing on each other’s goods, along with other countermeasures to worsen their trade war. Trump has said he wants to bring jobs back to the United States, and he also wants to trim how much more his country exports to other countries than it imports.

‘s leadership, meanwhile, has been trying to present itself as a source of “stability and certainty” as it visits countries across Southeast Asia this week.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX returned 1.4%, and the FTSE 100 in London added 1.4%.

Automakers helped drive indexes higher in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.8% and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9%.

Chinese stocks wobbled, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 0.2% after fluctuating much of the day. Stocks in Shanghai added 0.1%.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Dewberry selects new CHRO

Dewberry — an , and firm in — announced Monday it has promoted Stacey McKavish to .

In the role, McKavish will oversee all HR functions of the organization and a team of nearly 30 benefits, compensation, human resources, recruiting and training specialists.

“Stacey is a charismatic leader and provides the thoughtful and timely support we have grown to expect from our human resources team,” CEO Donald E. Stone Jr. said in a statement. “I look forward to her ongoing contributions to the organization and am excited to welcome her into our executive leadership ranks.”

McKavish joined the firm in 2012 and has been a regional recruiter and HR manager. The company said that McKavish has focused on proactive and strategic outreach efforts to support the firm’s growth and that she works closely with Dewberry’s leadership team on retention, employee development and performance management programs.

In the past four years, McKavish has served as co-leader for the firm’s strategy to advance inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility initiatives. She’s also led strategic efforts to improve Dewberry’s pipeline and selection process, according to a news release.

McKavish has a bachelor’s degree in health services administration from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

Dewberry, which was established in 1956, reported $683.12 million in revenue in 2024. It has more than 60 locations nationwide and more than 2,500 employees.

Amentum wins $247.6M DOD contract

Amentum Services has landed a $247.6 million contract to help the U.S. to counter threats from a systems, the -based announced Monday.

The contract was awarded from the DOD’s Air Combat Command’s Acquisition Management and Integration Center’s Counternarcotics and Global Threats division. As part of the contract, will provide solutions to support the DOD’s counter-transnational organized crime, counter-drug and counter-terrorism missions.

The company said it will leverage its personnel, AI and machine learning-enabled tools and advanced analytical techniques to help the DOD and partner agencies combat illegal financial networks that support transnational criminal and terrorist organizations. Amentum’s top priority will be disrupting the illicit supply chain for synthetic opioids and associated money laundering.

“Our team’s expertise and innovative solutions will play a pivotal role in identifying and disrupting the unlawful financial networks of America’s adversaries, ultimately enhancing the safety and security of our nation and its allies,” Mark Walter, president of Amentum & Technology Group, said in a statement.

The contract, which spans 96 months and has an additional 4-month transition period, is part of the Counternarcotics and Global Threats Multi-Award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Operations and Logistics Pool.

Amentum has more than 53,000 employees in approximately 80 countries across all seven continents. The company was founded as a spinout of AECOM’s Management Services Group in 2020 and moved its headquarters from Germantown, Maryland, to Chantilly in 2023.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand in historic antitrust trial

WASHINGTON (AP) — A historic antitrust trial began Monday for Platforms Inc. in a case that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.

The trial is bringing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg into federal court in Washington to testify.

In opening statements, attorney Daniel Matheson said Meta has used a monopoly to generate enormous profits as consumer satisfaction has dropped. He said Meta was “erecting a moat” to protect its interests by buying the two startups because the company feared they were a threat to Meta’s dominance.

Zuckerberg and other Meta witnesses will testify during the trial.

“We’re going to give them their chance to tell their side of the story,” Matheson said.

Mark Hansen, an attorney for Meta, said the was making a “grab bag” of arguments that were wrong. He said Meta has plenty of competition and has made improvements to the startups it acquired.

“This , in summary, is misguided,” Hansen said, adding: “anyway you look at it, consumers have been the big winners.”

The trial will be the first big test of ‘s Federal Trade Commission’s ability to challenge Big Tech. The lawsuit was filed against Meta — then called — in 2020, during Trump’s first term. It claims the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media .

Meta, the FTC argues, has maintained a monopoly by pursuing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy, “expressed in 2008: ‘It is better to buy than compete.’ True to that maxim, Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive threats.”

Facebook also enacted policies designed to make it difficult for smaller rivals to enter the market and “neutralize perceived competitive threats,” the FTC says in its complaint, just as the world shifted its attention to mobile devices from desktop computers.

“Unable to maintain its monopoly by fairly competing, the company’s executives addressed the existential threat by buying up new innovators that were succeeding where Facebook failed,” the FTC says.

Facebook bought Instagram — then a scrappy photo-sharing app with no ads and a small cult following — in 2012. The $1 billion cash and purchase price was eye-popping at the time, though the deal’s value fell to $750 million after Facebook’s stock price dipped following its initial public offering in May 2012.

Instagram was the first company Facebook bought and kept running as a separate app. Up until then, Facebook was known for smaller “acqui-hires” — a type of popular Silicon Valley deal in which a company purchases a startup as a way to hire its talented workers, then shuts the acquired company down. Two years later, it did it again with the messaging app WhatsApp, which it purchased for $22 billion.

WhatsApp and Instagram helped Facebook move its business from desktop computers to mobile devices, and to remain popular with younger generations as rivals like Snapchat (which it also tried, but failed, to buy) and TikTok emerged. However, the FTC has a narrow definition of Meta’s competitive market, excluding companies like TikTok, YouTube and Apple’s messaging service from being considered rivals to Instagram and WhatsApp.

“The FTC already has the difficult task, whether it’s looking at 10 years ago or five years ago or today, of trying to define what is the market we’re talking about in a sufficiently narrow way that it can show Meta has a ton of power in that market,” said Paul Swanson, an antitrust attorney for the firm Holland & Hart. “And I do think that challenge has gotten harder as the years have gone by and we see more and more potential competitors in social media spaces.”

Meta, meanwhile, says the FTC’s lawsuit “defies reality.”

“The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others. More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final. Regulators should be supporting American innovation, rather than seeking to break up a great American company and further advantaging on critical issues like AI,” the company said in a statement.

In a filing last week, Meta also stressed that the FTC “must prove that Meta has monopoly power in its claimed relevant market now, not at some time in the past.” This, experts say, could also prove challenging since more competitors have emerged in the social media space in the years since the company bought WhatsApp and Instagram.

Meta’s fate will be decided by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who late last year denied Meta’s request for a summary judgment and ruled that the case must go to trial.

Boasberg “seems to be skeptical” of the FTC’s narrow market definition in his rulings to date, Swanson said. He added that the judge also said it is a “fact question,” which means he is open to hearing what the FTC and its experts have to say to define that narrow market.

While the FTC may face an uphill battle in proving its case, the stakes are high for Meta, whose advertising business could be cut in half if it’s forced to spin off Instagram.

Meta isn’t the only technology company in the sights of federal antitrust regulators, Google and Amazon face their own cases. The remedy phase of Google’s case is scheduled to begin on April 21. A federal judge declared the search giant an illegal monopoly last August.

“A big theme here is we are applying 19th-century laws to 21st-century markets. And I think it’s an open question whether the judge-made developments to antitrust law can keep up with markets as they are changing — these fluid and dynamic tech markets in particular,” Swanson said. “And this will be a case that speaks directly to that.”

The Latest: El Salvador’s president says he won’t release Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the US

President Donald Trump ‘s top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they had no basis for the small Central American nation to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month.

Trump administration officials emphasized Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said he does not “have the power to return him to the United States.”

The Supreme Court has called for the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

Here’s the latest:

Justice Department charges man with arson at New Mexico Tesla dealership and GOP headquarters

That’s according to court records unsealed Monday.

A criminal complaint charges Jamison R. Wagner, 40, with federal arson charges in connection with the vandalism in February at a Tesla showroom in Bernalillo, New Mexico, where authorities found two Tesla Model Y vehicles ablaze as well as spray-painted graffiti messages including “Die Elon” and “Die Tesla Nazi.”

Elon Musk is the billionaire CEO of Tesla and close ally of President Trump who’s helped engineer a massive downsizing of the federal government and purge of employees.

The arrest is part of a federal crackdown on what Attorney General Pam Bondi has described as a wave of domestic terrorism against property carrying the logo of Musk’s electric-car company.

DC mayor says budgets cuts would be needed without action by Congress

The mayor of the nation’s capital says the city is raising its stalled budget as much as possible under authority granted by federal , but it would still need to cut more than $410 million this fiscal year without action from Congress.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that she’d sent a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committee to notify them.

The move comes days after the House adjourned for a two-week recess without acting on a $1.1 billion hole in the city’s budget, despite directives from President Trump to address the issue.

“We believed that the fix would happen, and we wouldn’t be running around planning for cuts,” Bowser said Monday at a news conference.

She said the city is raising the budget 6%, as much as possible under federal statute, but the situation remains frustrating, with no options “off the table.”

Senior officials with Bowser’s office said the law changing the budget requires council approval, but not congressional. They added that the remaining cuts would likely affect all city services, including public safety.

Meta faces historic antitrust trial that could force it to break off Instagram and WhatsApp

A historic antitrust trial is underway Monday for Meta Platforms Inc. in a case that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.

In opening statements, attorney Daniel Matheson said Meta has used a monopoly to generate enormous profits as consumer satisfaction has dropped. He said Meta was “erecting a moat” to protect its interests by buying the two startups because the company feared they were a threat to Meta’s dominance. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta witnesses will testify during the trial.

The trial will be the first big test of President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission’s ability to challenge Big Tech. The was filed against Meta — then called Facebook — in 2020, during Trump’s first term. It claims the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media .

Despite a court order, the White House bars the AP from Oval Office event

Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.

Last week’s federal court decision forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico was to take effect Monday. The administration is appealing the decision and arguing with the news outlet over whether it needs to change anything until those appeals are exhausted.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit set a Thursday hearing on Trump’s request that any changes be delayed while case is reviewed. The AP is fighting for more access as soon as possible.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he’ll travel to El Salvador if Abrego Garcia isn’t released by midweek

The Democratic senator from Maryland wrote to El Salvadoran diplomats to “urgently request” meeting with the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, to discuss the potential return of a former Maryland resident, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to the Central American nation by the Trump administration.

A federal judge ruled Garcia should be returned to the U.S., a decision that was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court last week.

“If Kilmar is not home by midweek — I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release,” Van Hollen wrote in a letter address to El Salvador’s ambassador to Washington.

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during a Monday Oval Office meeting that he did not intend to return Kilmar to the U.S.

Trump wants Congress to end daylight saving time

President Trump on Friday urged Congress to “push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day” in his latest dig at the semiannual changing of clocks.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media network, said it would be “Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”

The Republican president’s position calling for more daylight would push the schedule forward, keeping the country on daylight saving time. His post came a day after a Senate panel heard testimony examining whether to set one time all year instead of shifting.

There’s been growing interest in states to standardize daylight saving time in recent years.

Emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges

Advocates involved in the abortion debate are warning about the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions.

Mainstream anti-abortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions, but abortion abolitionists believe abortion should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law.

So far this year, bills introduced in at least 12 states — Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — would allow prosecutors to charge those who have abortions with homicide. In some of those states, women could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law.

“With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the anti-abortion movement as a whole, including this part of it,” said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. “Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion abolitionists one step closer to what they want — banning abortion nationwide.”

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine has been sworn in as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

That’s nearly two months after President Trump fired his predecessor.

A formal White House ceremony is expected this week.

Caine, a decorated F-16 fighter pilot and well-respected officer, took over the role Saturday and was at the Pentagon over the weekend after Trump signed the necessary documents to allow him to fill the job.

He’ll serve the remainder of the four-year term of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who was fired by Trump as part of a broader purge of military officers believed to endorse diversity and equity programs.

El Salvador’s leader shares an inside look at meeting with Trump

Before the press entered the Oval Office, Trump and Bukele chatted in a video posted on social media by the leader of El Salvador.

The U.S. president said he wanted to send “homegrowns” to be incarcerated in El Salvador, and he suggested “you’ve got to build five more places,” suggesting Bukele doesn’t have enough prison capacity for all of the U.S. citizens Trump would like to send there.

Trump also praised Bukele for his team’s slickly produced video of migrants arriving in El Salvador after being deported by the U.S.

“That’s what people want to see. Respect. They want to see respect,” Trump said.

He added, “you’ve got a good team. Can I use them?”

Bukele said “it’s like a movie, but it’s real.”

Former President Biden to make first public speech since leaving White House on Tuesday in Chicago

Biden will address the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled.

The former president has kept a very low profile since leaving office Jan. 20 — despite Trump scoffing repeatedly at his predecessor’s mental competency.

Organizers of the conference say participants are “committed to safeguarding and strengthening for the generations to come.”

Trump has pledged to shield Social Security from possible cuts, even as Democrats say it, and other federal entitlements like Medicare, could face funding trims to help offset tax reductions the administration supports.

Trump says he plans to provide temporary exemptions to automakers on his tariffs

And the president said he’s talked with Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company could be hurt if the tariffs become permanent.

“They need a little bit of time,” Trump said of the automakers that would have to upend their supply chains to reduce their exposure to Trump’s import taxes.

Trump also said he had talked to Cook and “helped” him by exempting electronics from some of his China tariffs.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody but the end result is we’re going to get to the position of greatness for our country,” said Trump.

The U.S. president also theorized that China and Vietnam were meeting “to figure out: how do we screw the United States of America?”

Seizing on the March consumer price index, Trump says he’s fixed inflation

“We already solved inflation,” Trump told reporters gathered Monday in the Oval Office.

The U.S. president was touting the 2.4% annual inflation rate seen in the monthly consumer price report released last Thursday. Many economists are hesitant to claim a single report makes up a broader trend. Many economists and consumers worry Trump’s tariffs will cause prices to go up in ways that hurt the economy.

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An earlier version of this item incorrectly said the report came out Monday instead of last Thursday.

Trump suggests Iran is ‘tapping us along’

The president expressed some impatience at the pace of nuclear negotiations with Iran.

“I think they’re tapping us along,” he said.

The next meeting is scheduled for this coming weekend.

“These are radicalized people. And they cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

Trump is again praising his own health after undergoing an annual physical

He says the results indict “you’ve got me for a little longer.”

The president spent hours Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He said after it that testing went well.

A medical report on the physical was released Sunday. But Trump brought up the test again a day later, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that he did well on a cognitive exam performed as part of it.

“I like taking them because they’re not too tough for me to take,” Trump said of cognitive tests. He said his health was good enough that he should be around for years or at the very least “a little longer.”

Bondi: US would provide plane if El Salvador returns Abrego Garcia, which Bukele called ‘preposterous’

Trump referred questions about Abrego Garcia to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said he was illegally in the U.S. and that have ruled that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Bondi said.

She called the issue “international matters” and “foreign affairs” and said the U.S. would facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return of El Salvador wanted to send him back by providing an airplane.

Bukele was asked if he plans to return Abrego Garcia and he asked how he could return him and said it was “preposterous.” He called Abrego Garcia “a terrorist” and that he had no power to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

In a complaint, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have disputed the government’s claims that he was in a gang.

Trump: Man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania governor’s mansion is ‘probably just a whack job’

The president was asked about Cody Balmer, who police say broke into the mansion, set a fire that caused significant damage and forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building during the Jewish holiday of Passover. He said, “The attacker was not a fan of Trump.”

Trump’s comments came in the Oval Office as he met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

Trump added, “The attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody” and also noted, “A thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.”

Trump declines to criticize Russia for the recent strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy

Trump criticized former President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but not Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“If Biden were competent and if Zelenskyy were competent . . . that war should’ve never been allowed to happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Referring to Putin, Trump said “I’m not saying anybody’s an angel.”

Trump has previously described the strike on Sumy as a “mistake.” On Monday, he said the mistake was allowing the war to start in the first place.

“Biden could’ve stopped it and Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it and Putin should’ve never started it,” he said. “Everybody’s to blame.”

Trump and Bukele discuss transgender athletes, which Bukele calls ‘violence’

Trump and Bukele quickly got into a discussion about transgender athletes in the White House, with the U.S. president asking his counterpart from El Salvador, “Do you allow men to play in women’s sports?”

“That’s violence,” Bukele responded.

Trump said there are people in the U.S. who “fight to the death” to allow transgender athletes to play and Bukele said, “We’re big on protecting women.”

Though Trump frequently speaks about transgender athletes, he said, “I don’t like talking about it because I want to save it for just before the next election.”

Trump meets with Salvadoran president in the Oval Office

Trump is meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, telling the visiting head of state “you are helping us out” by holding migrants deported from the United States in a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Trump said his administration’s hardline policies have restored order along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said of the changes, “We’re proud of them. Now we just need to get the criminals and murders and rapists”out of “our country.”

Bukele arrives at the White House

Trump greeted Bukele at the White House on Monday and ignored shouted questions from reporters about Abrego Garcia.

The president shook Bukele’s hand and directed the leader of El Salvador towards waiting reporters to pose for pictures and Trump pumped his fist.

They then went inside together.

Trump’s schedule for Monday

This morning, the president is meeting with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. After the meeting, they will have lunch together. This afternoon, at 3 p.m., Trump will meet with The Ohio State University football team, the 2025 College National Football champions.

Some top tech leaders have embraced Trump. That’s created a political divide in Silicon Valley

Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.

The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in the opening days of Trump’s first presidential term, when he joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its chief executive officer joined them.

Last weekend was Lyons’ second, also against Trump, but it had a different feel.

The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who wouldn’t give his full name for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles, which have gone from a symbol of Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several joined Trump at his inauguration.

To Lyons, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon Valley over the past quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.

“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy utopia to a money first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.

US funding cuts have halted or threatened aid programs in Syria

That includes health and nutrition services for displaced people and child protection for children in notorious camps housing the families of alleged Islamic State members.

While funding cut from the World Food Program in Syria was restored, other cuts remain, including nearly $12 million from Save the Children and nearly $2 million from World Vision.

World Vision Syria Response Director Emmanuel Isch said the organization has largely halted a health and nutrition program serving 30,000 to 40,000 internally displaced people, many of whom “have limited access to basic services.”

Save the Children Country Director Bujar Hoxha said it has reprogrammed funding to continue case management for unaccompanied minors in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps and programs for malnourished children in different parts of Syria.

“But that is for very limited timeline,” he said, noting that within a few weeks “we have to either find a way to continue funding, or we have to close it down.”

Trump says ‘I just got here’ despite pledge to end Ukraine war before taking office

President Trump issued a statement on social media over the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying he had “NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS WAR.”

Despite his repeated promise as a candidate that he’d have the Russia-Ukraine war settled within 24 hours — even before taking office — he said Monday: “I just got here.”

“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump said.

Trump last month said he’d been “a little bit sarcastic” when he had past pledged he’d resolve the war.

Top White House aide says Abrego Garcia’s fate is up to El Salvador

Ahead of Trump’s meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, a top White House aide signaled the U.S. president wouldn’t be asking his counterpart to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

“It’s up to El Salvador and to the government and the people of El Salvador what the fate of their own citizens is,” Stephen Miller, a deputy chief of staff, told reporters at the White House on Monday morning. “We can’t extradite citizens of foreign countries to our country over the objection of those countries.”

Senator seeks meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele over Abrego Garcia’s return

Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he plans to travel to El Salvador this week if Abrego Garcia, a constituent, isn’t returned by that time.

“Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia never should have been abducted and illegally deported, and the courts have made clear: the Administration must bring him home, now,” the Maryland Democrat said in a statement.

He said that since the Trump administration “appears to be ignoring these court mandates,” more action is needed.

Wall Street joins a global rally after Trump exempts some electronics from tariffs

Stocks are rallying worldwide after President Trump relaxed some of his tariffs, for now at least.

The S&P 500 was 1.7% higher in early Monday. It’s coming off a chaotic week where it careened through historic swings as markets struggled to catch up with Trump’s moves on tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 434 points, or 1.1%, and the composite was up 2.5%. Apple, Nvidia and other big technology companies led the way on Wall Street after Trump said he was exempting smartphones, computers and some other electronics from some of his stiff tariffs.

A key ally in Trump’s migrant crackdown is coming for a visit

President Trump is hosting Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House on Monday as the small Central American nation becomes a critical lynchpin of the U.S. administration’s mass deportation operation.

Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s notorious maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. It’s also holding a Maryland man who the administration admits was wrongly deported but has not been returned to the U.S., despite court orders to do so.

That has made Bukele, who remains extremely popular in El Salvador due in part to the crackdown on the country’s powerful street gangs, a vital ally for the Trump administration, which has offered little evidence for its claims that the Venezuelan immigrants were in fact gang members, nor has it released names of those deported.

White House responds to China on rare earths

Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to President Trump, said China’s decision to stop exports of some rare earth minerals was “concerning.”

Rare earths are critical ingredients for technology and electronic manufacturing.

“The rare earth limits are being studied very carefully, and they’re concerning, and we’re thinking about all the options right now,” Hassett told reporters outside the White House.

He spoke to Fox Business earlier in the morning, where he said the administration was “100% not” expecting a recession as Trump disrupts global trade with his tariff plans.

Trump says CBS and ’60 Minutes’ should ‘pay a big price’ for going after him

Trump bitterly attacked “60 Minutes” shortly after the CBS news magazine broadcast stories on Ukraine and Greenland on Sunday, saying the network was out of control and should “pay a big price” for going after him.

“Almost every week, 60 Minutes … mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. He called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to impose maximum fines and punishment “for their unlawful and illegal behavior.”

The network had no immediate comment.

Trump has an ongoing $20 billion lawsuit against “60 Minutes” for how it edited an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last fall. The president claims it was edited in a way to make Harris look good, something the newscast denies. But there are ongoing reports that Trump’s lawyers and CBS’ parent company are involved in settlement talks.

Trump is ‘fully fit’ to serve as commander in chief, his doctor says after recent physical

Trump’s doctor says the oldest man elected president is “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief as the White House released results Sunday of Trump’s recent physical exam. The 78-year-old Trump is 20 pounds lighter since his checkup as president in 2020 showed him bordering on obesity.

His physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, cited an “active lifestyle” that ”continues to contribute significantly” to the Republican president’s well-being. Trump turns 79 on June 14.

In a three-page summary of the comprehensive exam from Friday, the doctor said Trump is “fully fit to execute the duties of Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”

Asked about the exam on Sunday and how he stays healthy, Trump said, “Because I enjoy what I’m doing and I like the results.

“I think we’re making America great again and it makes me feel good. It probably keeps me happy,” he told reporters accompanying him on a flight back to Washington from Florida.

Trump’s commerce secretary says new electronics tariff exemptions are temporary, chip tariffs coming

Tariff exemptions announced Friday on electronics like smartphones and laptops are only a temporary reprieve until the Trump administration develops a new tariff approach specific to the semiconductor industry, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday.

White House officials, including Trump himself, spent Sunday downplaying the significance of exemptions that lessen but won’t eliminate the effect of U.S. tariffs on imports of popular consumer devices and their key components.

Trump added to the confusion hours later, declaring on social media that there was no “exception” at all because the goods are “just moving to a different” bucket and will still face a 20% tariff as part of his administration’s move to punish China for its role in fentanyl trafficking.

China’s commerce ministry in a Sunday statement welcomed the change as a small step even as it called for the U.S. to completely cancel the rest of its tariffs.

 

Notes: Eds: CORRECTS: Corrects an item on inflation to show the report came out last Thursday instead of Monday. UPDATES: Updates Media.