Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

The AP [4/6/2025 5:35 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports the U.S. government’s decision to arrest a Maryland man and send him to a notorious prison in El Salvador appears to be "wholly lawless," a federal judge wrote Sunday in a legal opinion explaining why she had ordered the Trump administration to bring him back to the United States. There is little to no evidence to support a "vague, uncorroborated" allegation that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote. And in any case, she said, an immigration judge had expressly barred the U.S. in 2019 from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he faced likely persecution by local gangs. "As defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador — let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere," Xinis wrote. She said it was "eye-popping" that the government had argued that it could not be forced to bring Abrego Garcia back because he is no longer in U.S. custody. "They do indeed cling to the stunning proposition that they can forcibly remove any person — migrant and U.S. citizen alike —to prisons outside the United States, and then baldly assert they have no way to effectuate return because they are no longer the ‘custodian,’ and the Court thus lacks jurisdiction," Xinis wrote. "As a practical matter, the facts say otherwise.” The Justice Department has asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to pause Xinis’ ruling. The White House has described Abrego Garcia’s deportation as an "administrative error" but has also cast him an MS-13 gang member. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia said there is no evidence he was in MS-13. In her order Sunday, Xinis referenced earlier comments from now-suspended Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni in which Reuveni said: "We concede he should not have been removed to El Salvador" and that he responded "I don’t know" when asked why Abrego Garcia was being held. The Washington Post [4/6/2025 4:05 PM, Maria Sacchetti, 31735K] reports that in her just-released decision, she cited records and official statements that show the United States has the power to bring him back but has chosen not to exercise it. “This is not about Defendants’ inability to return Abrego García, but their lack of desire,” the judge wrote. The judge’s forceful comments come as the Trump administration is attempting to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, while facing allegations and lawsuits that it is trampling immigrants’ rights and endangering them. Since President Donald Trump returned to office, officials have pursued international college students for demonstrating, threatened to deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and other immigrants, and reopened family detention. The Hill [4/6/2025 3:20 PM, Ian Swanson, 18752K] reports U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in a 22-page decision ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secretary Kristi Noem to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States. Neither the United States nor El Salvador have told anyone why he was returned to the very country to which he cannot return, or why he is detained at CECOT,” Xinis wrote, referring to the El Salvador prison now holding Abrego Garcia. ABC News [4/6/2025 6:16 PM, Armando Garcia, 34586K] reports Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have maintained that he is neither a member of nor has any affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang. They also argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.” In Sunday’s filing, Xinis wrote that the government has not produced any evidence to suggest they cannot secure Abrego Garcia’s return and said that the court retains jurisdiction in the case because Abrego Garcia challenges his removal to El Salvador, "not the fact of confinement.” "They do indeed cling to the stunning proposition that they can forcibly remove any person – migrant and U.S. citizen alike – to prisons outside the United States, and then baldly assert they have no way to effectuate return because they are no longer the ‘custodian,’ and the Court thus lacks jurisdiction," Xinis wrote. "As a practical matter, the facts say otherwise," Xinis added.

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ABC 2 Baltimore [4/6/2025 4:53 PM, Ryan Dickstein, 513K] reports a federal judge’s deadline to return an alleged undocumented gang member from a prison in his native country of El Salvador, continues to loom over the Trump Administration. Kilmar Armando Abrego-Garcia was arrested in Baltimore on March 12 due to his suspected association with the violent MS-13 gang. He was ultimately deported March 15 to a high security Salvadoran prison. Abrego-Garcia’s wife, a U.S. citizen whom he shares a child with, reportedly saw a photograph in the news of her husband entering the El Salvadoran prison, setting off a lawsuit. Court documents show an immigration judge ordered Abrego-Garcia’s removal from the U.S. back in 2019. He denied being in a gang, and claimed his life would be in danger if he were returned to El Salvador. The federal government pushed back on those fears, writing in court documents Abrego-Garcia’s reasoning had to do with his mother’s well known "pupusa business."

Breitbart [4/7/2025 12:38 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers are arguing that a federal judge cannot order the Trump administration to facilitate the return of an alleged MS-13 gang member, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Lawyers for the DOJ have requested that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "immediately pause" an order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, according to CBS News. As Breitbart News reported, Xinis, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien from El Salvador, be returned to the United States "no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7, 2025.” Per CBS News, the DOJ lawyers argued that "a judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable.” In response to the DOJ asking the court to pause Xinis’s order, Garcia’s lawyer "urged the court to deny the government’s request": Abrego Garcia’s lawyers in response on Sunday urged the court to deny the government’s request, arguing lawyers for the Justice Department failed to demonstrate their argument would likely succeed on the merits. They also argued the government’s claim that the order to return Abrego Garcia "is neither possible nor proper" is "wrong on both counts.”

New York Times [4/7/2025 3:18 AM, Glenn Thrush, 330K] reports a senior Justice Department immigration lawyer was put on indefinite leave Saturday after questioning the Trump administration’s decision to deport a Maryland man to El Salvador — one day after representing the government in court. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche suspended Erez Reuveni, the acting deputy director of the department’s immigration litigation division, for failing to “follow a directive from your superiors,” according to a letter sent to Mr. Reuveni and obtained by New York Times. Mr. Reuveni — who was praised as a “top-notched” prosecutor by his superiors in an email announcing his promotion two weeks ago — is the latest career official to be suspended, demoted, transferred or fired for refusing to comply with a directive from President Trump’s appointees to take actions they deem improper or unethical. “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a statement sent to The Times on Saturday. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.” Under questioning by a federal judge on Friday, Mr. Reuveni conceded that the deportation last month of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who had a court order allowing him to stay in the United States, should never have taken place. Mr. Reuveni also said he had been frustrated when the case landed on his desk. Mr. Reuveni, a respected 15-year veteran of the immigration division, asked the judge for 24 hours to persuade his “client,” the Trump administration, to begin the process of retrieving and repatriating Mr. Abrego Garcia. Less than 24 hours later, Mr. Blanche, President Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, accused Mr. Reuveni of “engaging in conduct prejudicial to your client.” Mr. Blanche suspended Mr. Reuveni with pay, cut off access to his work email and blocked him from performing any duties related to his job.

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NPR [4/6/2025 5:07 PM, Asma Khalid, 2296K] Audio HERE reports that, just hours after his inauguration in January, President Trump began to fulfill his campaign promise to expand the number and scope of deportations of immigrants who come to the United States illegally. At the center of one case is a man from Maryland. His name is Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. He was deported last month to a prison in El Salvador in what a federal judge now says was a grievous error because an immigration judge had already ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador because he might face torture in his home country. But the Trump administration insists he should stay there. With us now to talk about the Trump administration’s immigration policy is Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.

CBS News [4/6/2025 7:00 PM, Staff, 51661K] reports three weeks ago, 238 Venezuelan migrants were flown from Texas to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. That country’s president offered to take them and the Trump administration used a law not invoked since World War II to send them -- claiming they are all terrorists and violent gang members. The government has released very little information about the men. But through internal government documents, we have obtained a list of their identities and found that an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges. Among them: a makeup artist, a soccer player and a food delivery driver, being held in a place so harsh that El Salvador’s justice minister once said the only way out is in a coffin. The shackled men were forced to lower their heads and bodies as they were unloaded from buses and taken to El Salvador’s mega prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. Andry Hernandez Romero was among them. Lindsay Toczylowski: Andry is a 31-year-old Venezuelan. He’s a makeup artist. He is a gay man. He loves to do theatre. He was part of a theatre troupe in his hometown. Lindsay Toczylowski, Andry’s attorney, says he does not have a criminal record in the United States or Venezuela. She says he left his home country last year because he was targeted for being gay and for his political views. At least 22% of the men on the list have criminal records here in the United States or abroad. The vast majority are for non-violent offenses like theft, shoplifting and trespassing. About a dozen are accused of murder, rape, assault and kidnapping. For 3% of those deported, it is unclear whether a criminal record exists. But we could not find criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans - 179 men- now sitting in prison. In response to our findings, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said many of those without criminal records, quote "are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters, and more. They just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.” We asked a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman what evidence the government has – besides tattoos and social media posts – linking people like Andry and Jerce to Tren de Aragua. She cited "state secrets" and "ongoing litigation" as the reasons "DHS cannot comment on these individual allegations.”

FOX News [4/6/2025 12:24 PM, Taylor Penley, 46189K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled down on the Trump administration’s decision to deport alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to an El Salvadoran megaprison last month — insisting in a "Fox News Sunday" interview that ICE members have testified that the former Maryland resident is a member of the criminal gang, despite arguments to the contrary. "His lawyers have argued he should be here because he was studying to be an electrician… let me give you a comparison," she said. The Trump official steered into a discussion about violent gang members apprehended in Florida recently. One, she said, was charged with stabbing an individual over a hundred times as a part of their gang initiation. Another was arrested in Fort Lauderdale and a third, who fled to Minnesota, was apprehended by law enforcement in conjunction with the FBI and border patrol, she added. "Then the other… was a drywall hanger in The Villages in Florida. So, the argument that, because these people are living among us, these illegal aliens from El Salvador, means they’re not part of a gang… that’s how they’re hiding. That’s how they’re succeeding…". "We have to rely on what ICE says," she continued. "We have to rely on what Homeland Security says. They’re our clients, and I firmly believe in the work they are doing, and we’re going to make America safe again. That was President Trump’s directive to all of us.” Host Shannon Bream followed up with questioning about Abrego Garcia’s alleged criminal activity, noting that he had never been charged or convicted of any violent crimes. She asked, upon his return, if he could face such charges. "The best thing to do is to get these people out of our country, and when that first plane left and landed in El Salvador, there were 261 reasons why Americans were safer. We have to look out for the safety of our country, first and foremost, and that is Donald Trump’s directive, and we’re gonna continue to do that," she replied.

The Hill [4/6/2025 12:31 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 6866K] reports Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), a former prosecutor, said Attorney General Pam Bondi is "undermining" the "fundamental professional ethic" at the Justice Department that says the department’s prosecutors are meant to "do justice.” In an interview on NewsNation’s "The Hill Sunday," anchor Chris Stirewalt asked the California Democrat about reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is "getting rid of prosecutors that don’t want to take the hard line on immigration" that is embraced by Bondi and the Trump administration. Liccardo first blasted the administration for deporting people accused of being gang members without granting them due process, saying, "It’s not just my idea. It’s actually in the Constitution, and it’s a pretty good idea.” He then expressed concern about the effect Bondi’s moves will have down the line. "As a prosecutor, unlike other lawyers, you have this opportunity, not simply to serve a client and be loyal to that client, but actually to do justice. That’s why so many prosecutors love what they do," he said. "What we’re seeing from Bondi in this administration, not unlike what we’re seeing in a lot of aspects of this administration, is undermining that fundamental professional ethic that federal prosecutors are there to do justice," Liccardo continued. "They’re there to tell the court the truth at all times. That means you turn over exculpatory evidence. It means you dismiss cases if you don’t have the evidence to prosecute.” "And what we’re seeing is completely undermining that, I think, for another generation. That’s going to be very detrimental to our country," he added.

Washington Post [4/6/2025 7:00 AM, Dan Diamond and Hannah Natanson, 31735K] reports somewhere on a grocery shelf, or in a restaurant, or on a food-factory floor in America, lurk bacteria that haven’t been detected yet. Perhaps E. coli, which is linked with food poisoning, or more of the cronobacter that led to infant illnesses, sparked a nationwide shortage of infant formula in 2022 and led to major reforms at the Food and Drug Administration. The task of finding those bacteria rests on FDA inspectors, whose jobs have been mostly preserved amid the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal government. But the people who help support those inspections haven’t fared so well. More than 150 people in the FDA’s Office of Inspections and Investigations — the staff responsible for purchasing supplies, managing trips and coordinating other administrative functions — were laid off last week, according to multiple federal officials. So were staff dedicated to food-safety policies and regulations, including an entire office that partnered with foreign countries to handle food-related disease outbreaks. Meanwhile, the FDA’s top food safety official — a position created after the infant formula crisis — resigned in February, citing “indiscriminate” staffing cuts to his office. The cuts tee up “the next infant formula crisis waiting to happen,” said one current FDA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal. The FDA, which last week laid off its entire media affairs team, did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, did not respond to a request for comment. A White House spokesman said that FDA and other health agencies underperformed during the covid-19 pandemic and that recent staffing changes were intended to make the agencies more “nimble and strategic.”

FOX News [4/6/2025 12:00 PM, Julia Bonavita, 46189K] reports two people are behind bars after the latest arrests of suspected thieves from Mexico allegedly nabbing millions of dollars of Nike sneakers in elaborate railroad heists in the Mojave Desert. On March 27, the Hualapai Nation Police Department in Arizona pulled over the driver of a maroon Chevy Tahoe "suspected to be involved in train robberies in the area," according to a statement from the agency. As officers conducted the traffic stop, eight people jumped out of the car and fled. Police said they located stolen Nike shoes nearby, and the driver of the vehicle, a man from Mexico, was arrested. During the investigation, police pulled over a woman driving a white Toyota 4Runner for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. Upon approaching that vehicle, officers "observed evidence of criminal activity" also linked to the train robberies, according to police. The woman was ordered out of the vehicle by officers, and, despite initially complying, she reentered the vehicle and sped away, police said. As she attempted to evade authorities, she allegedly struck a patrol officer, who was not injured. The woman dodged police for approximately 80 miles before losing control of her vehicle in a construction zone and smashing into a guardrail near the Arizona-California border, police said. She was ejected from the vehicle and transported to a hospital with minor injuries. Both suspects were in the U.S. illegally and have been booked into the Mohave County Adult Detention Center. The heist comes as authorities have seen a rise in railroad heists targeting Nike shoes between California and Arizona over the past two years.

CBS News [4/6/2025 7:00 PM, Will Croxton, 51661K] reports that, three weeks ago, photojournalist Philip Holsinger stood on a tarmac in El Salvador waiting for three planes to arrive, cameras slung across his body. He was told the planes were carrying Venezuelan migrants from the United States who would become inmates at the Terrorism Confinement Center, a notorious prison in El Salvador also known as CECOT. As the Venezuelans emerged from the door to make their way down the gangplank, their faces dropped. "They’re greeted by this scene, a sea of black-clad, masked police in riot gear," Holsinger told 60 Minutes Overtime. "I’ve looked through my lens at many types of faces, laughing, crying, terrified, angry… they had no idea what was coming." A 60 Minutes report this week found that a majority of the Venezuelans who arrived in El Salvador that day have no apparent criminal record. In response to these findings, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman told 60 Minutes that many of those without criminal records "are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters, and more. They just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S." Holsinger has spent over a year in El Salvador, documenting the government’s controversial crackdown on violent gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18. In March 2022, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele declared a "state of emergency" to address gang violence in the country. Then, a "state of exception" was approved by the Salvadoran legislature that suspended certain constitutional freedoms, allowing law enforcement to arrest and prosecute tens of thousands of people with alleged, or even suspected, gang ties. It’s been renewed every month since. The Salvadoran government claims over 85,000 arrests have been made under the state of exception. The country, once known as the "murder capital of the world," closed 2024 with a record low of 114 homicides, according to their government statistics. Human rights groups have heavily criticized the government’s approach to gang violence, saying arrests are often made with little evidence, and without a fair and speedy trial. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [4/6/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 31735K] reports White House officials seem to think President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda supersedes taxpayers’ right to privacy. It does not. Immigration officials want the IRS to dig through taxpayer data to help find 7 million people they say are living in the country illegally. The IRS should tell them to go get a court order. Former acting IRS commissioner Doug O’Donnell in February rejected a request from the Department of Homeland Security for the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of 700,000 people suspected of living in the country illegally, calling the request unlawful. O’Donnell’s successor, Melanie Krause, has been in talks with immigration authorities about how the data might be shared. Any deal that loosens the confidentiality framework Congress rightly established in the 1970s is an affront to all of our privacy rights. Senior officials inside the IRS do not have carte blanche to open files. Even prosecutors must get a court order to access information for criminal cases. Immigration violations — which are usually civil offenses, not criminal — should not be held to a new, lower standard.

Washington Examiner [4/6/2025 8:00 AM, Barry Angeline and Dan McCabe, 2296K] reports "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others," George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm. The legal tide is turning against reverse discrimination. In Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, the Supreme Court is reviewing whether Marlean Ames, a straight white woman, was unfairly denied a promotion in favor of a gay colleague. The case challenges the higher burden of proof long imposed on majority-group plaintiffs — one the high court now seems likely to overturn, possibly leveling the playing field in discrimination claims. In Shannon Phillips v. Starbucks, a jury awarded $25.6 million to a white regional manager, finding that race played a key role in her termination. Meanwhile, a February memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi warned federal agencies to eliminate race-based practices, signaling a broader rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates. Together, these developments reinforce a growing consensus: Identity-based discrimination, regardless of the target, is wrong. The Federal Emergency Management Agency not only prioritized hiring based on DEI categories but took it a step further — actively discriminating against qualified people who were not part of a protected class. My team experienced this firsthand while working as contractors for FEMA in Puerto Rico.

FOX News [4/7/2025 5:00 AM, Staff, 46189K] reports Elon Musk, Antonio Gracias and the DOGE team recently exposed how rampant immigration fraud and government corruption became under the Biden administration. Specifically, they showed how aliens "getting" asylum can receive work authorization and, with it, an automatic Social Security number, which enables them to obtain driver’s licenses, commit voter fraud and receive other benefits. This already sounds alarming. But the truth is even worse. Under current U.S. regulations, asylum applicants can apply for a work authorization document with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) five months after their asylum application is filed (rather than five months after it’s granted). There’s no filing fee for asylum applications – meaning there is literally no cost involved in applying. This creates a huge incentive for inadmissible aliens to file fraudulent asylum applications to gain U.S. work authorization. And while adjudicating the asylum application can take DHS or the Justice Department years to complete, the DHS prioritizes granting employment authorization applications, averaging mere months to complete such applications. In other words, individuals can fraudulently apply for asylum and then receive work authorization shortly after, safe in the knowledge that their asylum application may not be decided for years. Asylum was created to protect the persecuted. But this system means it’s more prone to be exploited by inadmissible aliens as a way to get work authorizations, Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and other government benefits. As a result, the system is being flooded. Under the Biden administration, so many employment documents were issued to immigration parolees (without congressional authorization), asylum applicants and other temporary aliens that DHS could not keep up with renewing the authorizations. To "solve" the problem, Biden’s DHS finalized a rule in December 2024 to permanently increase the automatic extension period for expiring employment authorization from six months to 18 months. That is, DHS chose to automatically extend work authorization without ever considering whether the aliens should continue to have it. According to one chart (shown by DOGE’s Gracias at a recent Wisconsin town hall), 270,000 new aliens were issued Social Security numbers in FY2021. That number rose to 590,000 in FY22, 964,000 in FY23, and approximately 2.1 million in FY24.

FOX News Sunday [4/6/2025 12:54 PM, Staff] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi on the judicial system’s handling of executive power cases, controversy surrounding alleged MS-13 Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s deportation, the Luigi Mangione case and chatter about President Trump seeking a third term.

NBC’s Meet the Press [4/6/2025 12:54 PM, Staff] reports Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins to the show to comment on the market reaction to President Trump’s announcement on his tariffs. The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Bessent is asked if the disruption was always part of the plan. "Markets are organic. They’re animals. I mean, you never know what the reaction is going to be. One thing that I can tell you, as the Treasury secretary, what I’ve been very impressed with is the market infrastructure, that we had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So, the American people – they can be very – take great comfort in that. And in terms of the market reaction, look, we get these short-term market reactions from time to time. The market consistently, the - underestimates Donald Trump. I remember that in 2016 the night President Trump won, the market crashed. The market crashed, and it turned out he was going to be the most pro-business president – the – in over a century, maybe in the history of the country, and we went on to very high after inflation returns for the next four years." Bessent comments. It is pointed out that the recent market crash was the biggest two-day crash since the pandemic. President Trump said Saturday urging people to "hang tough" followed by "it won’t be easy". The question that is on everyone’s mind is, how difficult is it going to be? And how long are Americans going to have to "hang tough?" Secretary Bessent states, "This is an adjustment process. What we saw with President Reagan, when he brought down the - the great inflation and we got past the Carter malaise that there - there was some choppiness at - at that time, but he held the course, and, you know, we’re going to hold the course. And this has been years in the building, years in the making, you know, this unsustainable system - our trading partners have taken advantage of us. We can see that through the large surpluses. We can see this through the large budget deficits. This is a national security problem, which we saw during Covid. We saw during Covid that optimal supply chains are not resilient. And what I could say is the only good outcome from Covid is it was a beta test for what would happen if our supply chains got broken, and President Trump has given - has decided that we cannot be at risk like that, for our crucial medicines, for semiconductors — the -- for shipping, and we are going to move forward so the American people can know that they are going to have a more secure future."

NBC’s Meet the Press [4/6/2025 12:54 PM, Staff] reports last January Bessent wrote that, "Tariffs are inflationary." The Fed chair said the same thing on Friday that tariffs announced this week caused higher inflation. Has Bessent expressed any concerns to President Trump directly that his tariff policy could be inflationary? "Tariffs are a one-time price adjustment." So there- there’s a big difference between insipid, endemic inflation within the system and consistent price level increases and a one-time adjustment. But the other thing that we’re doing is we are raising wages for working Americans. We’re bringing down regulation. So, you know, there are estimates that regulations have caused the average household about $8,000. That when we get this tax bill through, then we will make the tax levels permanent. And - and again, the drop in the energy prices, the drop in interest costs, now, I - I think real after-tax wages are going to go up for Americans. And that’s what’s important." Bessent comments. One of the big questions and points of confusion is are these tariffs permanent? Or are they a negotiating tactic? Some administration officials have said they’re permanent. President Trump himself has said he’s open to negotiating. Bessent says " I think that’s gonna be a decision for President Trump, but I can tell you that, as only he can do at this moment, he’s created maximum leverage for himself, and more than 50 countries have approached – they have approached the administration about lowering their non-territory barriers, lowering their tariffs, stopping currency manipulation, and Kristen, you know, they’ve been bad actors for a long time, and it’s - it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks."

CBS News [4/6/2025 7:00 PM, Cecilia Vega, Aliza Chasan and Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51661K] Video: HERE reports Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist who came to the United States last year in search of asylum, is one of 238 Venezuelan migrants who were flown from the U.S. to a maximum security prison in El Salvador three weeks ago. President Trump, who campaigned on eradicating the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, brokered a deal with El Salvador’s president that allows the U.S. to send deportees to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act, a law not invoked since World War II, to send many of the Venezuelans there, claiming they were all terrorists and violent gang members. Lawyers and family members of the Venezuelan migrants told 60 Minutes they’ve had no contact with the men since they arrived in El Salvador. "Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One day he was there, and the next day we’re supposed to have court, and he wasn’t brought to court," Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero’s lawyer, said. Hernandez Romero left his home country last May because he was targeted for being gay and for his political views, his attorney says. He made the long trek north through the Darien Gap, a 60-mile roadless stretch of dense forest between Colombia and Panama, to Mexico, where he eventually got an appointment to seek asylum in the United States. At a legal border crossing near San Diego, he was taken into custody while his case was processed. Toczylowski said he had a strong asylum case. Hernandez Romero had what is known as a credible fear interview, the first step in the process of seeking asylum in the U.S. "And the government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim," Toczylowski said. But last month, Hernandez Romero did not appear for a court hearing in the U.S. Instead, he and others were taken in shackles to El Salvador. Toczylowski did not know where he was. Photos taken by Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger show Hernandez Romero at CECOT. Holsinger said he heard a young man say, "I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist." The young man cried for his mother as he was slapped and had his head shaved, Holsinger said. "It’s horrifying to see someone who we’ve met and know as a sweet, funny artist, in the most horrible conditions I could imagine," Toczylowski said. A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on social media that its intelligence assessments "go well beyond just gang affiliate tattoos." She said Hernandez Romero’s "own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua." 60 Minutes reviewed posts on Hernandez Romero’s social media going back a decade. Posts include photos of Hernandez Romero with makeup brushes and a bejeweled crown. Toczylowski said she thinks it’s unlikely that the U.S. government knows something she doesn’t know about her client. "But if it was possible that they had some information, they should follow the Constitution, present that information, give us the ability to reply to it," she said. In response to 60 Minutes’ findings, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said many of those without criminal records "are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters, and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.”

The Hill [4/6/2025 4:27 PM, Tara Suter, 12829K] reports Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested in March by immigration authorities, spoke out about his "abduction" in a Friday opinion piece. Khalil, a former lead negotiator for Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian encampment, said in his Columbia Daily Spectator opinion piece that the school "laid the groundwork for my abduction" and pushed for the school’s students to "not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression.” The Trump administration has accused Khalil, who was recently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of being "pro-Hamas" and taking part in "pro-terrorist," antisemitic activity, with the administration attempting to revoke the activist’s green card over the allegations. Khalil’s opinion piece came as the Trump administration has further cracked down on international students, seeking to detain and deport those who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week that more than 300 student visas have been revoked. The Hill has reached out to Columbia, the White House, the New York City Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment.

Breitbart [4/6/2025 11:10 AM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports the White House announced the indictment of a Honduran national illegally present in the United States for allegations that he stole more than 40 firearms from a Tennessee gun store. Police found the guns in the man’s car — with price tags still attached, the White House said. "Under President Trump, criminals like this are being hunted down and taken off our streets," the White House post on X states. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee stated that a police officer in La Vergne, Tennessee, stopped a vehicle on a routine traffic stop for an expired registration. The officers found a backpack containing five handguns allegedly stolen from the Golden Eagle Pawn during a burglary. Prosecutors stated that officers identified the driver as 20-year-old Manuel De Jesus Guirola-Amaya. An investigation revealed that the man was a Honduran national without legal status in the United States. On December 5, 2024, a gang of four people crashed a vehicle into the pawn shop and entered the building. They allegedly targeted four firearms displayed and stole more than 40 guns before driving off in one of the vehicles. In addition to the backpack, the officer found two additional pistols that were allegedly stolen from the store. Price tags were reportedly still attached to the pistols. U.S. ATF agents later executed a search warrant at a home tied to the suspected gun thief. Investigators used information from the man’s cell phone, including photos of additional stolen weapons, to obtain the location of the home. "This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime," Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Mark McGuire’s office wrote.

AP [4/6/2025 4:12 PM, Valerie Gonzalez, 48304K] reports Leonardo Baez and Nora Avila-Guel’s bakery in the Texas community of Los Fresnos is a daily stop for many residents to share gossip over coffee and pick up cakes and pastries for birthdays, office parties or themselves. When Homeland Security Investigations agents showed up at Abby’s Bakery in February and arrested the owners and eight employees, residents of Los Fresnos were shocked. But the bakery’s owners, Baez and Avila-Guel, a Mexican couple who are legal U.S. permanent residents, could lose everything after being accused of concealing and harboring immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally. It’s a rare case in which business owners face criminal charges rather than just a fine. "I was surprised because I know that they’re not taking advantage of the people," Esteban Rodriguez, 43, said after pulling into the bakery’s parking lot to discover it was closed. "It was more like helping out people. They didn’t have nowhere to go, instead of them being on the streets.” The reaction in the town of 8,500 residents may show the limits of support for President Trump’s immigration crackdown in a majority-Latino region dotted with fields of cotton, sugarcane and red grapefruit where Republicans made gains in last year’s election. Cameron County voted for a GOP president for the first time since 2004. For neighboring Starr County, it was the first time since 1896. Los Fresnos, which is 90% Latino and counts the school district as its largest employer, is about a half-hour drive from the Mexican border. Hundreds of school bus drivers, painters, retirees and parishioners from the nearby Catholic church come into Abby’s Bakery each day. Customers with silver trays and tongs select pastries from glass-door cabinets. Six of Abby’s eight employees were in the U.S. on visitor visas, but none had work permits when Homeland Security Investigations agents came to the business Feb. 12. The owners acknowledged they knew that, according to a federal complaint. Employees lived in a room with six beds and shared two bathrooms in the same building as the bakery, according to an agent’s affidavit. As green card holders, the couple could be deported if they are convicted. They have five children who are U.S. citizens.

AP [4/6/2025 12:35 PM, Cara Anna, 48304K] reports the United States once cheered the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation. Now the Trump administration has abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying the country’s government has failed to accept the return of its citizens "in a timely manner.” The decision means South Sudanese could be returned to a nation again on the brink of civil war or unable to seek the U.S. as a haven. There was no immediate response from South Sudan’s government, which has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver some of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country of over 11 million people heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance. Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose people had been granted temporary protected status by the U.S. because of insecurity at home. That status expires on May 3. The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013. The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in one of his pleas for lasting peace. Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the U.S. and other international backers. Notably, South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power. Late last month, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and his allies in the government and the military were detained following a major escalation: A militia from Machar’s ethnic group had seized an army garrison upcountry. The government responded with airstrikes. Dozens of people were killed. A United Nations helicopter was attacked. The Trump administration’s announcement Saturday evening revoking visas for all South Sudanese with immediate effect is in sharp contrast to Washington’s past warm embrace as its rebel leaders — including Kiir and Machar — fought for independence. Educational and other opportunities for South Sudanese have been available in the U.S. for years. On Saturday, hours after the State Department announcement, a freshman from South Sudan was in Duke’s starting lineup at the men’s NCAA basketball tournament Final Four. Duke spokesman Frank Tramble told The Associated Press the university was aware of the announcement and was "working expeditiously to understand any implications for Duke students.” It was not immediately clear how many South Sudanese hold U.S. visas or how American authorities will follow up.

Telemundo [4/6/2025 1:06 PM, Staff, 2454K] the Department of Homeland Security claims that it accidentally sent a message to some Ukrainian refugees telling them that they should leave the United States immediately because their legal immigration status had been revoked. "A message was mistakenly sent to some Ukrainians under the U4U program. The U4U parole program has not been canceled," the Trump Administration confirmed to our sister network NBC News. The message, an email received this week by some refugees protected under a policy known as United for Ukraine, or U4U, gave them seven days to leave the country under the threat that if they did not: “the federal government will find you.” “If you do not leave the United States immediately, you will be subject to possible law enforcement action resulting in your removal from the country,” said the email sent Thursday, Reuters reported. "Again, DHS is canceling your permission to stay. Do not attempt to remain in the United States."

Axios [4/6/2025 5:59 PM, Kate Murphy, 13163K] reports the Trump Administration revoked F-1 visas for five UC San Diego students "without warning," the university announced Friday. he State Department has pulled hundreds of foreign student visas as the Trump administration pushes a sweeping immigration crackdown that’s targeting college campuses. Dozens of international student visas were canceled last week across California campuses, including UCSD, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine and Stanford, the LA Times reports. The administration appears to be going after pro-Palestinian activists but the "federal government has not explained the reasons behind these terminations," UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in the campus notice. The affected students have been notified, but not identified, and the school is working to support them.

NBC News [4/6/2025 2:10 PM, Doha Madani and Lindsay Good, 44742K] reports Stanford University is the latest California school to report that the visas of several students and alumni have been revoked as part of a sweeping crackdown by the Trump administration. Stanford confirmed in a statement Sunday that the visas of four students and two recent graduates had been revoked. "The University learned of the revocations during a routine check of the [Student and Exchange Visitor Information System] database," it said. "Stanford notified the students of the revocations and made external legal assistance available to them.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that the State Department has revoked 300 or more students’ visas, seeming to target foreign-born students who participate in political activism. Several high-profile pro-Palestinian scholars have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The visas of more than three dozen students and alumni of California universities have been nullified in the last week. Schools did not provide details, citing privacy concerns. The University of California, the state’s largest public university system, said it was aware of changes to the statuses of international students across multiple campuses. "This is a fluid situation, and we continue to monitor and assess its implications for the UC community and the people affected," the University of California administration said. "We are committed to doing what we can to support all members of our community as they exercise their rights under the law.” The University of California administration referred NBC News to individual schools to ascertain how many students were affected at each campus. The student visas of six people who attended the University of California, Berkeley, campus were also revoked. The school said in a statement Saturday that two undergraduate students, two graduate students and two alumni were affected. The two UC Berkeley alumni were in the United States under the STEM Optional Practical Training Extension program, which allowed for 24-month extensions for foreign students to work in related fields. The visas of five additional students were revoked at the University of California, San Diego. At the University of California, Davis, the visas of seven students and five recent graduates were voided.

Sacramento Bee [4/6/2025 2:25 PM, Rosalio Ahumada, 150K] reports the federal government has terminated entry visas for 12 international students and recent graduates at UC Davis, which prevents them from staying in the United States and continuing their studies, Chancellor Gary S. May said Saturday. The UC Davis students were part of a nationwide crackdown on foreign students carried out over the weekend by the Trump Administration, The Associated Press reported. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified the international students that their visas were terminated and ordered them to leave the country immediately. May said seven UC Davis students and five recent UC Davis graduates have had their F-1 visas terminated. "This number may change," May said in a statement posted online. "Federal agents have not entered our campus, and they have not placed any member of our community in custody.” He said campus officials learned about the terminated visas through the UC Davis Services for International Students and Scholars unit. He said he federal government has not explained the reasons behind these terminations. The Associated Press reported that some of the international students with now canceled visas have been targeted over pro-Palestinian activism or criminal infractions — or even traffic violations, while others have been left wondering why their visas were terminated. It’s unclear whether the UC Davis students with revoked visas attended any pro-Palestinian protests. President Donald Trump in January issued an executive order for federal agents to deport international students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Newsweek reported that Trump reportedly told donors during his 2024 presidential campaign that he would crush pro-Palestinian protests and revoke visas for international students who attended them if he won back the White House. Late last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. State Department has revoked at least 300 visas, mostly over pro-Palestinian protests, in a federal crackdown on the activism of foreign-born residents, UPI reported. Rubio later clarified to reporters that the visas revoked are mostly student visas but some were visitor visas, too. The LA Times reported that the Trump Administration canceled dozens of international student visas at California campuses, including UC Davis, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and Stanford. When asked if the visa cancellations had to do with students who protested or other matters, U.S. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the LA Times in an email "we’d have to look on a case by case basis.” The University of California president’s office confirmed in a statement on Friday that international students at several UC campuses had their visas terminated.

Washington Examiner [4/6/2025 7:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli , and Christian Datoc 2296K] reports the federal agency on the frontlines of President Donald Trump’s tariffs war faces the enormous task of policing imports for tax evasion and applying the new tariff rates without holding up international trade. Since Trump’s “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs were announced, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it had “successfully implemented” tariffs in the past and stood “ready to do so again. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) certainly has a huge task on its hands; but is uniquely positioned to implement and enforce the President’s tariffs using all our enforcement and revenue collection authorities," CBP said Friday in response to the new slew of tariffs. "We have fulfilled the demand and remain committed to facilitating legitimate trade while upholding a robust enforcement posture.” Trump’s sweeping list of new reciprocal tariffs on 86 countries will become effective at 12:01 a.m. on April 9, in addition to a separate baseline 10% tariff on nearly all countries on April 5. It’s up to CBP to collect billions in duties on the new rates and ensure companies don’t try to skirt the rules. Stephen A. Teller, a Seattle-based False Claims Act and whistleblower attorney, said he does not believe CBP is prepared for the uptick in fraud that could come as companies try to avoid paying higher taxes. "The incentive for cheating is going to go up substantially, especially in the near term. … There’s probably going to be more of that kind of fraud," said Teller, noting he’s helped the U.S. government recover $80 million in lost tariffs over the past decade. "It seems to me that they’re going to miss more fraud over the next little while until more resources are pointed in that direction.” The CBP source did say that the agency was requesting a slight increase of about $22 million for the ACE trade system for this fiscal year "to keep pace with ongoing enhancements related to EOs and Presidential Proclamations" which would be part of a bigger request of roughly $183 million in new funds. The source suggested that Trump’s yet-to-be-launched government body for collecting tariff revenue, the External Revenue Service, could be nested under CBP or the Department of Homeland Security. The White House has yet to definitively say when the ERS will be launched, or begin collecting revenue, despite Trump’s executive order calling for its formation earlier this year.

Calhoun Journal [4/6/2025 12:42 PM, Lee Evancho] reports Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a coalition of 25 state attorneys general in urging the Trump Administration to close what they describe as a loophole in an import program that may be exploited by adversaries and drug traffickers to bring fentanyl and other illegal substances into the United States. In a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Pete Flores, the coalition calls for increased oversight of an import pilot program known as Entry Type 86. The program, which allows small packages to enter the U.S. with limited customs screening, has grown rapidly in recent years—from 153 million packages in 2015 to more than 1.2 billion in 2024. The attorneys general argue that the exponential rise in these shipments merits closer examination due to the potential risks posed by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid significantly more potent than heroin and morphine. According to the letter, even a trace amount—two milligrams—can be lethal. In addition to public health concerns, the letter cites potential abuses of the Entry Type 86 program by shippers who may be using it to bypass regulations and avoid paying import duties. The coalition warned that this could create vulnerabilities in the nation’s supply chain and increase the risk of illegal trade and security threats.

FOX News [4/6/2025 10:42 PM, Staff, 46189K] reports FOX News Digital spoke with Jon Brewton, the founder and CEO of Data2 and a U.S. Air Force veteran, about immigration at the northern border. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [4/6/2025 9:25 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2296K] reports the White House shared a video of recent deportations on social media Saturday with the 1969 song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" as the soundtrack. Immigrants lining up per the direction of U.S. Border Patrol agents were recorded in a video montage. Their faces were hidden by filming from behind and below the neck. This clip was captioned with the lyrics of the song, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.” The Department of Homeland Security has not released data on deportations since President Donald Trump took office. There are reports that the number could be as high as 100,000 so far. Earlier this month, DHS unveiled an app that would allow immigrants to notify the department they intended to self-deport.

Detroit Free Press [4/6/2025 6:27 PM, Liam Rappleye, 4124K] reports four University of Michigan students have had their visas revoked by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — and at least one has left the country at the recommendation of school officials — amid a nationwide crackdown on international college students in the United States. The visa revocation occurred Friday and follows a recent decision from federal officials to strip some international students across the country of their legal residence and subsequent orders from the Department of Homeland Security for these students to leave the country. One student at U-M, whose location and identity is being protected by university officials, fled the country after their visa was revoked, according to emails obtained by the Detroit Free Press. On Saturday night, Jonathan Massey, the dean at U-M’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, sent an email to his colleagues regarding the student’s departure. "Yesterday, as a result of government action, a Taubman College M.Arch student left the country in consultation with the U-M International Center recommendation," Massey wrote. Massey did not offer many details about the student or the departure but indicated that Taubman College is "committed to ensuring this affected student will complete their degree.” Kay Jarvis, the director of public affairs at U-M said in an emailed statement to the Free Press that four students had their visas revoked by DHS. "Administrators have contacted these students to advise them of potential consequences of this action," Jarvis said. Officials at U-M did not clarify Sunday if the architecture student who left the country was the only student to leave following the decision from DHS to revoke their visas.

DailySignal [4/6/2025 10:00 AM, Virginia Allen, 495K] reports dorder rancher John Ladd says President Donald Trump is "doing everything right.” Ladd’s Arizona ranch shares 10.5 miles with the border of Mexico, and during the four years of the Biden administration, about 50 illegal aliens crossed through Ladd’s property daily, and sometimes that number rose to as many as 200, he told The Daily Signal. "As soon as Trump got elected, it started slowing down," Ladd said, adding that as of the beginning of March, Border Patrol told him they are "catching three a day, with no getaways" on his ranch. Ladd attributes the dramatic decline of illegal border crossings through his ranch to Trump’s reimposing the "Remain in Mexico" policy and the "consequences" illegal aliens now face when they are caught illegally crossing the border. Illegal aliens who have criminal records "don’t want to take a chance" of being caught and risk being deported or imprisoned, he said. The Trump administration has made 113,000 arrests and carried out more than 100,000 deportations since Jan. 20, including sending hundreds of criminal illegal aliens to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. Ladd’s family started ranching along Arizona’s border with Mexico in 1896. Since the 1980s, Ladd said, illegal aliens have been crossing through his land every day, but "the only time that hadn’t been the case was the four years" of Trump’s first term, from January 2017 to January 2021. The Daily Signal visited Ladd’s ranch in 2021, about six months into the Biden administration. Despite a border wall running the distance of his shared border with Mexico, Ladd told The Daily Signal, the illegal immigration through his land created safety concerns. "When you go out in the morning, you check what’s in your truck," he said in 2021. "Is somebody laying in my truck? Or under the truck? Or in my wife’s car? Are they out here? Every time you open the door, you kind of look, and [I’ve] been doing it for 30 years.” The dead bodies of more than a dozen illegal aliens have been found on the Ladds’ ranch over the years. The illegal aliens crossing through Ladd’s ranch in Cochise County, just east of Tucson, want to go undetected by Border Patrol, the rancher explained. "They’re all military-age male," Ladd said on a phone call with The Daily Signal in early April. "We didn’t have asylum-seekers or family or women.”

New York Post [4/6/2025 11:47 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 5490K] reports a Chinese woman detained by border patrol officers for overstaying her visa died by suicide at the US Border Patrol station in Arizona after officers reportedly failed to perform required welfare checks on her, US Representative Pramila Jayapal alleged. The woman, a 52-year-old Chinese national, was picked up in California after authorities determined she overstayed her B1/B2 visitor visa, Jayapal said in a statement last week. She was sent to the Yuma station in Arizona and was detained there until her sudden death on March 29. The patrol officials allegedly neglected to follow internal policies about publicly acknowledging deaths when they occur in their custody and only published a public notice after the Tucson Sentinel reported on the woman’s death on Friday. A border patrol spokesperson told the Tucson Sentinel that when the woman was found “unresponsive in a cell,” they did provide her with medical assistance and had emergency medical services transport her to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. “All in-custody deaths are tragic, taken seriously, and are thoroughly investigated by CBP,” the spokesperson said. Jayapal, a Democrat representative from Washington and a ranking member of the House subcommittee that oversees immigration, said that early reports indicate that the border patrol agents involved didn’t perform the necessary welfare checks in the days leading up to the woman’s death. “As the CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigates this death, they must provide answers on why these welfare checks were not conducted and falsely recorded, and why this woman was able to die by suicide without any guard intervention,” Jayapal said in a statement. Jayapal added that the shift in the United States’ failure to “treat all detained people with dignity and fairness” raises concerns about the conditions at the facilities where immigrants are being held. The Post has reached out to US Border Patrol for comment.

Reported similarly:
United Press International [4/6/2025 11:14 PM, Mark Moran, 150K]

AP [4/6/2025 11:15 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports two U.S. border inspectors in Southern California have been charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes to allow people to enter the country through the nation’s busiest port of entry without showing documents, prosecutors said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez were assigned to immigration inspection booths at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. They were charged after investigators found phone evidence showing they had exchanged messages with human traffickers in Mexico and discovered unexplained cash deposits into their bank accounts, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday. Surveillance video showed at least one instance in which a vehicle with a driver and a passenger stopped at a checkpoint but only the driver was documented as having entered the country, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the officers waved dozens of vehicles carrying people without documents. They said both men were paid thousands for each vehicle they waved through. "Any Customs and Border Protection agent who aids or turns a blind eye to smugglers bringing undocumented immigrants into the U.S. is betraying their oath and endangering our national security," Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Haden told the newspaper in a statement. There have been five U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the San Diego area to face similar corruption charges in the last two years.

AP [4/7/2025 3:11 AM, Kim Tong-Hyung, 48304K] reports the United States has blocked imports of sea salt products from a major South Korean salt farm accused of using slave labor, becoming the first trade partner to take punitive action against a decadeslong problem on salt farms in remote islands off South Korea’s southwest coast. U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold release order against the Taepyung salt farm, saying information “reasonably indicates” the use of forced labor at the company in the island county of Sinan, where most of South Korea’s sea salt products are made. Under the order issued last Wednesday, Customs personnel at all U.S. ports of entry are required to hold sea salt products sourced from the farm. Taepyung is South Korea’s largest salt farm, producing about 16,000 tons of salt annually, which accounts for approximately 6% of the country’s total output, according to government data, and is a major supplier to South Korean food companies. The farm, located on Jeungdo island in Sinan and leasing most of its salt fields to tenants, has been repeatedly accused of using forced labor, including in 2014 and 2021. South Korean officials stated that this was the first time a foreign government had suspended imports from a South Korean company due to concerns over forced labor.

Reuters [4/7/2025 3:20 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports South Korea said on Monday it will work to lift a U.S. ban on salt imports from the country’s largest sea salt farm, disputing findings by the U.S. customs agency that forced labour appeared to be involved in salt production. U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued, last week an order to detain products from Taepyung Salt Farm "based on information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labour", it said in a statement. South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Monday that the U.S. measure took place years after an activist organisation petitioned for the order in 2022. Since violations such as workers being paid inadequately at the salt farm in the southwest of the Korean peninsula came to light by 2021, the ministry has already enforced improvement measures and the products being exported to the United States are not produced by forced labour, the ministry said. The ministry was surveying the workforce of salt farms every year, expanding support for automation to reduce the need for labour as well as other measures, it said in a statement. South Korean ministries will pursue measures necessary to lift the U.S. order, and continue to promote the human rights of salt farm workers, it said. Taepyung Salt Farm said in a statement that past labour issues were related to a former tenant in 2021, who had been forcibly removed from the farm in 2023. As of 2025 it had signed consignment contracts with 25 tenants, who were producing salt in compliance with relevant labour laws, it said. The operations produce about 15,000 tonnes of salt a year, an official said.

NPR [4/6/2025 2:06 PM, Joe Hernandez, 29983K] reports severe storms continued to pound parts of the South and Midwest on Sunday, as a punishing and slow-moving storm system unleashed life-threatening flash floods and powerful tornadoes from Mississippi to Kentucky. On Sunday, areas that had been battered by high winds and washed out by heavy rains since midweek saw additional inclement weather from the relentless storm system that’s caused road closures, widespread power outages and some voluntary evacuations. At least 18 people in multiple states have died from weather-related causes since Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned residents Sunday morning that the state was in for another day or more of bad weather. "Please, everybody be careful," he said. "We’ve tragically lost two individuals, two Kentuckians, two children of God already, and we don’t want to lose any more.” One of those fatalities was 9-year-old Gabriel Andrews, who was swept away by floodwaters as he walked to his school bus stop in Frankfort Friday morning, WLKY reported. The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed that 10 people had died in storms in that state. One of the fatalities was a Carroll County Electric Department lineman who died while working, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Half of the deaths in Tennessee occurred in McNairy County. The McNairy County Emergency Management Agency said in a social media post that an EF3 tornado in the southwestern Tennessee county on Thursday damaged 332 buildings, destroying 108 of them. According to the National Weather Service, parts of Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee had received more than a foot of rain, while areas of Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri saw more than 10 inches. Breitbart [4/6/2025 3:55 PM, Staff, 2923K] reports flood warnings remain in effect, particularly in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, according to forecasters. Tennessee has been the hardest hit, with 10 deaths recorded in the western part of the state. Kentucky and Missouri each report two deaths, while Arkansas, Indiana, and Mississippi each count one, with tolls that could still rise. In Jeffersontown, Kentucky, buildings were left destroyed by a reported tornado, an AFP correspondent saw. Photos shared on social and local media showed widespread damage from the storm across several states, with homes torn apart, toppled trees, downed power lines and overturned cars. The National Weather Service said Sunday that "there is still some threat for heavy rainfall and flash flooding for portions of the Southeast and the Gulf Coast region going through this evening and overnight.” "Flooding has reached record levels in many communities," Kentucky’s Governor Andy Beshear wrote on social media Saturday, urging residents in the state to "avoid travel, and never drive through water.” Almost 140,000 customers were without power in five affected states Sunday, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.

The AP [4/7/2025 1:40 AM, Jon Cherry, Kimberlee Kruesi and Anthony Izaguirre, 48304K] reports days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest. Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio. “As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital built around the swollen Kentucky River. “The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.” Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to crest above 49 feet Monday to a record-setting level, said Frankfort Mayor Layne Wilkerson. The city’s flood wall system is designed to withstand 51 feet of water. For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come. “This flooding is an act of God,” said Kevin Gordon, a front desk clerk at the Ashbrook Hotel in downtown Frankfort. The hotel was offering discounted stays to affected locals. The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm. USA Today [4/6/2025 5:59 PM, Susan Miller, Phaedra Trethan, and Terry Collins, 75858K] reports that forecasters warned that cities remain in peril into the coming week as river levels rise dangerously from Arkansas to Ohio, even as skies brighten. Some rivers in Kentucky were expected to exceed their flood stages by upward of 15 feet as waterways started to crest Sunday, according to estimates from the National Weather Service in Louisville. Tornado warnings were issued Sunday in Alabama and Mississippi, and flash flood warnings were posted in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, according to Accuweather. "A life-threatening, catastrophic and potentially historic flash flood event continues across the Lower Ohio Valley into the Mid-South," the National Weather Service said Sunday, warning that "very large hail, damaging winds and strong tornadoes" were possible.

CNN [4/6/2025 9:30 PM, Karina Tsui, Gene Norman and Susannah Cullinane, 22131K] reports rising river levels in Kentucky are prompting evacuations and warnings to move to safer ground, with water rescues under way in flooded areas. The National Weather Service earlier this week warned of the possibility of “generational” flooding, stemming from a stagnation in the current weather pattern that’s caused a string of storms to repeatedly hit the same areas in the Central and Southern US. A line of violent storms has swept from Texas to Ohio, leaving at least 19 dead across seven states since Wednesday. On Saturday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency, citing potentially record rainfall in areas unaccustomed to flooding. “We need everyone statewide to take this seriously,” Beshear said. Residents in low-lying areas of Frankfort, Kentucky, are being warned to prepare for potential flooding as the Kentucky River is predicted to crest at a historic high on Monday – just shy of the level flood walls are built to protect against. There were 87 reports of severe weather, including four tornado reports, 78 wind reports, and five hail reports as relentless rain and tornadic storms pummeled parts of the South and Midwest Saturday. Among those killed in the violent storms was a 5-year-old boy found in a storm-battered home in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to emergency officials. Local police discovered the child after responding to a medical call at the home on Saturday.

New York Times [4/7/2025 3:18 AM, Jamie McGee, Kevin Williams, Rick Rojas and Nazaneen Ghaffar, 330K] reports Hopkinsville, Ky., was first inundated by rain, a deluge that came with lightning that streaked the sky. Then, there was another invasion, as the water spilled over the banks of a nearby river, swamping homes and vehicles as well as the city’s downtown. On Sunday morning, the city of 31,000 hummed as pumps were fired up to draw out the water that had seeped into buildings. One of them belonged to Tony Kirves, who owns a photography studio. His building’s basement had flooded, and the water nearly reached entrances protected by sandbags. “It had all receded,” Mr. Kirves said. “Then last night, it came up again.” The past few days have been restless, he said, his concern rising and falling with the floodwaters. He was exhausted. It was a weariness that was shared across a vast swath of the country, from Texas to Ohio, that had been battered for days by a huge storm system. A reprieve from the rain was finally coming for much of that area, as the storm started to shift to the east. Yet even as the deluge subsided, other uncertainties began to emerge, particularly the perils posed by engorged rivers gushing over their banks. “Rivers have not yet crested, so we still have a day — if not more — of rising waters,” Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said on Sunday, renewing his warning yet again for residents to stay vigilant. At least 18 deaths have been attributed to the storm system since Wednesday, including those of a 5-year-old boy in Arkansas, a 9-year-old boy in Kentucky and a 16-year-old volunteer firefighter in Missouri. So far, the heaviest rains of the weekend have fallen in Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky, where rising water and flooding have prompted water rescues, road closures and evacuation orders. Some areas received more than 15 inches of rain over the past four days.

The Connecticut Mirror [4/6/2025 5:00 AM, Jan Ellen Spiegel, 232K] reports if the value of having a meteorologist on staff at Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services hadn’t been clear before, it certainly became clear last October. Well, sort of clear, given the conditions that meteorologist, Josh Cingranelli, was dealing with. Hundreds of wildfires, fueled in part by severe drought, tinder dry vegetation and high winds — all likely exacerbated by climate change — broke out around the state. They put Cingranelli literally on the frontlines helping state officials and fire crews figure out where to go and what to do. “I actually served as the incident meteorologist for the Hawthorne drive fire,” he said referring to the largest blaze — 127 acres in Berlin — that lasted for several weeks and claimed the life of one firefighter. As fires spread around the state, NWS data and predictions — especially for wind shifts — helped the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Forestry Division position the fire crews it oversees. “We were changing strategy tactics based upon those spot forecasts. That’s really essential to us being successful on the ground, knowing what’s going to happen on an hourly basis and when a front is coming through,” said State Forester Chris Martin. “Without that, we would be making much less informed decisions.” How much longer a collaboration like that may exist is now an open question given the cutbacks, firings and funding decreases the Trump administration has ordered throughout the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA — the NWS’s parent division that itself is within the Commerce Department. But it is just the first of a one-two punch that could greatly diminish the ability of Connecticut, and all other states, to prepare for and respond to climate and weather changes, emergencies and disasters and then clean up from the ones that do occur. Punch number two comes from the Trump assault on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. Funding, personnel, mission and perhaps the entire agency appear to be in jeopardy. While visiting flood-ravaged western North Carolina in January — Trump said he was considering getting rid of FEMA. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, reportedly said in a recent cabinet meeting that it would be eliminated, even as emergency management directors from all over the country were meeting nearby. Beginning with a January executive order by President Donald Trump to set up a council to review FEMA, the agency was hit with multiple actions and edicts from the administration. Those included plans to drastically cut staff and a freeze on many FEMA grant programs used widely by states, including Connecticut, to prevent impacts from climate, weather and other disasters. A more recent announcement from DHS classified its many grant programs based on their adherence to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI and immigrant dictates — targeting so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. A spokesman provided a statement attributed to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin that blamed the Biden administration for what she called “illegal aliens” in the country. The statement said in part: “Secretary Noem has directed FEMA to implement additional controls to ensure that all grant money going out is consistent with law and does not go to fraud, waste or abuse, as in the past.”

The Center Square [4/6/2025 11:51 AM, Alan Wooten, 473K] reports four Democrats from North Carolina want answers from the Homeland Security secretary about President Donald Trump’s consideration to eliminate FEMA. U.S. Reps. Deborah Ross, Alma Adams, Valerie Foushee and Don Davis asked Secretary Kristi Noem how her agency will fulfill core functions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They also ask if consultation has been made with emergency management, first responders or state and local officials. And, in the letter dated Thursday, they ask for specific alternatives for large-scale disasters crossing state and local jurisdictions. EMA regularly gets hit hard by critics following natural disasters, such as Hurricane Helene’s estimated $60 billion destruction in the North Carolina mountains that killed 236 across seven states and the estimated $250 billion destruction by California wildfires that killed 30. “By undermining the federal government’s disaster response capabilities,” the members of Congress write in conclusion, “the decision to eliminate FEMA could ultimately cost American lives. Again, given the grave implications of your proposal, we respectfully request your immediate attention to these questions.”

Reuters [4/6/2025 1:08PM, Kanishka Singh, 41523K] reports Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on Sunday that two people died and over 500 roads were closed in the state due to deadly storms and floods, which have also killed over a dozen people in the past week in other states of the U.S. South and Midwest. "Kentucky, there is record flooding across our state, with over 500 road closures. Rivers have not yet crested, so we still have a day — if not more — of rising waters. We’ve already lost two of our people," Beshear said on social media platform X. One of the dead in Kentucky was a 9-year-old boy walking to his school bus stop on Friday morning when he was overtaken by flooding, police in the city of Frankfort said. Beshear added on Sunday that many homes were evacuated and water supply was limited in the state capital Frankfort, where he said state offices will be closed on Monday. A deadly spring storm spawned tornadoes and drenching thunderstorms in a swath of the U.S. stretching from Texas to Ohio in the past week. Tennessee had 10 deaths in this period, according to the local health department. In addition to the two deaths announced by the Kentucky governor, there were also two deaths in Missouri and one each in Arkansas, Indiana and Mississippi, according to local media.

AP [4/6/2025 12:32 PM, Staff, 48304K] Video: HERE reports the storm system resulted in at least 16 deaths by early Sunday, with overnight tornado and flash flood warnings setting up more severe weather that forecasters say could cause rising waterways for days to come. Drone footage showed the severe extent of the flooding in the Kentucky towns of New Haven and Dawson Springs.

New York Post [4/7/2025 1:08 AM, Caitlin McCormack, 54903K] reports authorities in Florida arrested a man who allegedly shared posts on social media threatening to kill President Donald Trump. Glen DeCicco was charged with making written threats to kill, the Jupiter Police Department wrote in a press release. He was arrested without incident, police said. DeCicco’s arrest was the culmination of an investigation by police and the U.S. Secret Service, which probed his comments made on social media targeting Trump. On his Facebook, DeCicco shared one post captioned "ass-ass-inate!". He largely posted general criticisms of Trump’s tariffs, along with March Madness support for the University of Connecticut sprinkled throughout. "The investigation began after JPD was alerted to a concerning Facebook post. Detectives reviewed DeCicco’s social media activity and confirmed that he had made a written threat directed at the President," the JPD wrote.

San Diego Union-Tribune [4/6/2025 9:03 PM, Alexandra Medoza and Alex Riggins, 170K] reports on March 30, maritime law enforcement officials patrolling the ocean southwest of San Diego spotted and approached a suspicious vessel whose occupants were waving white flags to signal distress. The boat had suffered an engine failure and was taking on water, officials said. On board they found 18 people, including 17 Mexican nationals, two of them minors. The group was rescued in a coordinated effort involving the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Navy, and were turned over to the Border Patrol for repatriation. The passengers were among hundreds of migrants apprehended at sea in recent months, a scenario that federal authorities expect to become more common as the Trump administration tightens land borders across the Southwest. Such patrols have been conducted off the waters of San Diego for years, with frequent migrant boat landings. But now President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is spreading to ocean routes, where Coast Guard and border officers have beefed up patrols — even joined by a San Diego-based U.S. Navy destroyer. "We’re involved in pursuits and see smuggling ventures happening quite frequently, multiple times during the week," said Coast Guard Senior Chief Peter Nelson, officer in charge of the station in San Diego. The Southern California Coast Guard recorded nine maritime smuggling incidents just in the last week of March, involving 60 people, according to data shared by the agency on the social media platform X. Another nine cases were reported in the previous week, involving 33 people. "We do anticipate that as we continue to lock down the border here and secure it, we will most likely see a greater increase on the maritime," Acting Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Stalnaker of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector said last month at a news conference in San Ysidro. He lauded ongoing collaboration with U.S. troops, who have bolstered border barriers with miles of concertina wire.

News Nation [4/6/2025 8:17 AM, Staff, 7K] reports U.S. Coast Guard is working to prevent illegal immigration into the country by sea. While illegal border crossings are down along the southern border, we are told that the number of crossings happening here in the Pacific Ocean, near San Diego and Mexico have actually remained steady. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DVIDS [4/6/2025 9:03 PM, Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, 777K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard played a notable role in the U.S.-Palau Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) held March 27 and 28 at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters, Camp H.M. Smith. Hosted by Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the biannual meeting welcomed the Republic of Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. and underscored the enduring partnership between the United States and Palau under the Compact of Free Association. Under the compact agreement, the U.S. Coast Guard’s distinct maritime law enforcement authorities and expertise enable tailored support for Palau’s maritime security and safety needs, complementing the Department of Defense’s broader role in regional defense. The JCM, chaired by Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Huffman, commander of Joint Task Force-Micronesia, provided a platform to review shared security priorities and outline future collaboration. A key highlight was a comprehensive presentation by U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Wallin, who detailed U.S. Coast Guard efforts in Palau since September 2024. The presentation focused on three core pillars—maritime security, safety, and prosperity—showcasing continuing initiatives such as maritime bilateral operations, maritime law enforcement support, and contingency planning.

Stars and Stripes [4/6/2025 11:06 AM, Staff, 803K] reports the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii on Friday after a three-month deployment patrolling the South Pacific in support of Oceania Maritime Security Initiative 2025. “I am proud of what our crew accomplished and the strong partnership with our Coast Guard shipmates,” said Capt. Bryan E. Geisert, Shiloh’s commanding officer. According to a service news release, Shiloh partnered with an embarked law enforcement detachment from the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Team to conduct several boarding and intelligence-gathering operations in the South Pacific. Shiloh enforced provisions of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention and bilateral law enforcement agreements it has with specific countries in the region. “It is a critical and unique opportunity to assist in ensuring marine resources are protected through the enforcement of international laws to enhance regional stability,” Geisert said.

KUAM News [4/6/2025 9:01 PM, Staff] reports just days before “406 Day,” which promotes the life-saving impact of emergency beacons, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Henry rescued two mariners adrift near Namoluk Atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia. On March 29, 2025, an aircrew from Caroline Islands Air spotted the mariners in an 18-foot skiff. The Oliver Henry responded, rescued the pair, and returned them safely to Namoluk, coordinating with local officials. This rescue underscores the need for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons, or EPIRBS, technology that can dramatically reduce search time in vast ocean regions. Coast Guard officials urge mariners to register and carry EPIRBS or personal locator beacons, noting they can mean the difference between life and tragedy. 406 Day is observed on April 6 to raise awareness about these critical devices.

Stars and Stripes [4/7/2025 3:21 AM, Seth Robson, 803K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard often relies on sharp eyes and quick response times to rescue mariners in the vast Pacific Ocean. But the service continues to promote one high-tech tool that could make those rescues faster: satellite locator beacons. A pair of mariners adrift in an 18-foot skiff near Namoluk Atoll in Micronesia were spotted by a commercial aircraft and rescued March 29 by the Coast Guard, Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, spokeswoman for Coast Guard Forces Micronesia Sector Guam, said by email Saturday. “Bringing mariners back to their families never gets old,” Lt. Ray Cerrato, commander of the responding cutter, said in a Coast Guard news release that day. “It’s a feeling that stays with you.” Pacific mariners can enhance their safety when they’re out on the water by carrying locator beacons, Muir added. The Coast Guard frequently credits the devices for speeding rescues. Those rescues show how locator beacons “shrink the Pacific’s vast search grid into a precise target, slashing response times and boosting survival odds,” Muir said. “In the United States, Rescue Coordination Centers are run by the U.S. Air Force for any land-based distress and by the U.S. Coast Guard for any maritime distress,” NOAA’s website states.

New York Times [4/7/2025 3:18 AM, David E. Sanger and Nick Corasaniti, 330K] reports that, when President Trump abruptly fired the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of moves that have torn away at the country’s cyberdefenses just as they are confronting the most sophisticated and sustained attacks in the nation’s history. The commander, General Timothy D. Haugh, had sat atop the enormous infrastructure of American cyberdefenses until his removal, apparently under pressure from the far-right Trump loyalist Laura Loomer. He had been among the American officials most deeply involved in pushing back on Russia, dating to his work countering Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election. His dismissal came after weeks in which the Trump administration swept away nearly all of the government’s election-related cyberdefenses beyond the secure N.S.A. command centers at Fort Meade, Md. At the same time, the administration has shrunk much of the nation’s complex early-warning system for cyberattacks, a web through which tech firms work with the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies to protect the power grid, pipelines and telecommunications networks. Cybersecurity experts, election officials and lawmakers — mostly Democrats but a few Republicans — have begun to raise alarms that the United States is knocking down a system that, while still full of holes, has taken a decade to build. It has pushed out some of its most experienced cyberdefenders and fired younger talent brought in to design defenses against a wave of ransomware, Chinese intrusions and vulnerabilities created by artificial intelligence. “At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyberthreats — as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored — how does firing him make Americans any safer?” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday night after General Haugh’s ouster.

USA Today [4/6/2025 2:44 PM, Zachary Schermele, 75858K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi said Sunday she has received death threats for instructing the federal government to pursue the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year. Bondi ordered her agency last week to push for capital punishment in Mangione’s federal case. Authorities arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania last December, days after Thompson was fatally shot in New York City. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state murder and terrorism charges. At the federal level, he has also been charged with murder and stalking. His lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has said those allegations were brought by a "lawless Justice Department" that is being guided by a "political" decision to pursue the death penalty. On "Fox News Sunday," Bondi defended the administration’s approach to the Mangione case. She also condemned people who have sympathized with Mangione. Axios [4/7/2025 12:14 AM, Rebecca Falconer, 13163K] reports "I feel like these young people have lost their way," Bondi said on Fox News Sunday in addressing a question from anchor Shannon Bream about some young people’s support for Mangione, whose arrest triggered massive debate about the U.S. health care system. "I was receiving death threats for seeking the death penalty on someone who was charged with an execution of a CEO." Bondi said President Trump’s directive was "very clear" on seeking the death penalty. "We’re going to continue to do the right thing. We’re not going to be deterred by political motives," She added. "I’ve seen a protester walking down the street here ‘Free Luigi.’ ... this guy’s charged with a violent crime, and we’re going to seek the death penalty whenever possible." Mangione has pleaded not guilty to murder and terrorism charges in New York. He’s also facing federal charges of murder and stalking, but has yet to enter a plea.

CBS News [4/6/2025 1:17 PM, Jennifer Jacobs, 51661K] reports Trump national security spokesman Brian Hughes was the intended recipient of the Signal group chat invitation when Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeff Goldberg was added instead due to a cellphone snafu a few months ago, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz’s phone asked him last fall to save an unknown phone number – which had been messaged to him from Hughes, one of his closest advisers – as a new number for Hughes, sources said. On March 24, Goldberg reported that he was added to a private group chat that appeared to include senior Trump officials coordinating ahead of airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Trump officials later confirmed its authenticity. Administration IT team members looked into the incident, and President Trump and other top White House officials were briefed on the investigation’s findings last week. The internal review found no previous phone communications between Waltz and Goldberg — or Hughes and Goldberg — until an email from Goldberg was sent to the Trump campaign in October. Goldberg had written to the campaign asking for comment on a story related to Mr. Trump and the military. Campaign officials wanted to loop in Trump surrogates such as Waltz, a military veteran. After discussions with campaign aide Steven Cheung and others, Hughes copied and pasted the email from Goldberg, with Goldberg’s email address and cellphone number, and messaged it to Waltz, two of the sources said. Waltz’s cellphone captured the phone number in the message and asked to save it as a new number for "Brian Hughes.” Waltz correctly called and messaged the real-life Hughes many times after that — his phone apparently didn’t conflate Goldberg’s number and Hughes’ until after Waltz was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabi in March. When Waltz tried to add Hughes to the Signal chat, it invited the wrong Hughes number from his phone rolodex. Signal, knowing the number belonged to Goldberg, apparently identified him as "JG." But no one in the Trump national security team chat noticed, several sources said.

FOX News [4/6/2025 12:03 PM, Alec Schemmel, 46189K] reports GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman told Fox News Digital that the recent Signal leak debacle was "obviously" a mistake, but he expressed confidence in the Trump administration’s national security officials and said he trusts the president to determine whether any consequences should be handed down. "Yes, obviously, we don’t want those things to happen," Stutzman. R-Ind., told Fox News from inside the Capitol. "We all know that President Trump is America First. He supports our military, he supports security – I mean, he is the law and order president, so he’s going to make sure that he takes care of this… he’s going to be the one to make this decision and I support whatever decision he makes.” Stutzman’s comments came amid a reported attempt by Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to introduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security advisor Michael Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, each of whom were involved in the Signal chat leak. Trump confirmed Thursday aboard Air Force One that multiple employees within the National Security Council were fired, but did add that it was not many. So far, no consequences have been handed down to Hegseth, Waltz or Ratcliffe, three of the highest-ranking officials who allegedly participated in the leaked Signal chat. Republicans have said there was no classified material shared or discussed in the leaked Signal chat, but Democrats have insisted the manner in which sensitive information was handled was still "reckless," potentially illegal and constituted the need for repercussions.

AP [4/6/2025 11:22 PM, Adriana Gomez Licon and Fatima Hussein, 48304K] reports President Donald Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S., digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that have sent financial markets reeling, raised fears of a recession and upended the global trading system. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” His comments came as global financial markets appeared on track to continue sharp declines once trading resumes Monday, and after Trump’s aides sought to soothe market concerns by saying more than 50 nations had reached out about launching negotiations to lift the tariffs. “I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world,” Trump said. “They’re dying to make a deal. And I said, we’re not going to have deficits with your country. We’re not going to do that, because to me a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or at worst, going to be breaking even.” The higher rates are set to be collected beginning Wednesday, ushering in a new era of economic uncertainty with no clear end in sight. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said unfair trade practices are not “the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.” The United States, he said, must see “what the countries offer and whether it’s believable.” Trump, who spent the weekend in Florida playing golf, posted online that “WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy.” His Cabinet members and economic advisers were out in force Sunday defending the tariffs and downplaying the consequences for the global economy. “There doesn’t have to be a recession. Who knows how the market is going to react in a day, in a week?” Bessent said. “What we are looking at is building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity.”

Bloomberg [4/6/2025 8:39 PM, Shawn Donnan, Josh Wingrove, and Annmarie Hordern, 16228K] reports President Donald Trump and his economic team dismissed investors’ fears of inflation and recession, offering no apologies for the market turmoil sparked by sweeping global tariffs and defiantly insisting a boom is on the horizon. Trump, speaking Sunday on Air Force One, struck a determined tone and repeatedly defended the tariff barrage unveiled last week. He also drew something of a line in the sand, saying he wouldn’t strike deals to cut the highest tariffs unless they’d eliminate the US trade deficit with that country. “We’re going to become a wealthy nation again — wealthy like never before,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “We have all the advantages. Forget markets for a second — we have all the advantages.” “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said as US equity futures slumped and the yen surged in a sign of deepening turmoil from the tariffs. Trump’s remarks underscored those of his top economic officials, who fanned out across the airwaves Sunday to argue the virtues of Trump’s plan, leaving no hint of second thought within the administration. On the heels of huge global stock market falls, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and others dug in and declared that Trump would persist in his tariffs agenda, whatever markets may do. “The tariffs are coming,” Lutnick said on CBS’s Face the Nation, adding that Trump “announced it and he wasn’t kidding.”

The Hill [4/6/2025 5:01 PM, Ian Swanson, 12829K] reports Trump administration officials fanned out across the media talk shows on Sunday to defend tariffs imposed by the president on just about every country on Earth. The reciprocal tariffs were long promised by President Trump, who feels the U.S. has been ripped off by trading practices of friends and foes that have run trade deficits with the United States. But the size and scope of the tariffs caught many by surprise, and led to a dramatic sell-off on Wall Street that saw trillions in wealth wiped out as stock markets fell precipitously on Thursday and Friday. It has also provoked consternation among some segments of the right that have criticized the president’s actions, illustrating a split among conservatives over the wisdom of provoking a major trade war. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett in a Sunday interview on ABC’s "This Week" insisted the massive tariffs won’t have a "big effect on the consumer in the U.S.," while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during an appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press" described the tariffs as a "one-time price adjustment.” Both suggested the tariffs will not lead to inflation, even though some companies have already indicated they will raise prices to help pay for the cost of the tariffs.

New York Times [4/6/2025 12:07 PM, Tony Romm, 153395K] reports President Trump’s top aides raced to defend his expansive global tariffs on Sunday, downplaying the prospect that his new taxes on imports could cause a significant spike in prices or tip the U.S. economy into a painful recession. As Mr. Trump departed Mar-a-Lago for another day of golfing at his club in Jupiter, Fla., his leading economic advisers dismissed the turmoil they have unleashed in financial markets around the world, insisting that the president’s trade war would ultimately improve the nation’s economic fortunes.But they also sent another round of mixed signals over the extent to which Mr. Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating tool, even as many of his aides touted anew on Sunday that they had heard from foreign nations seeking to strike a deal. “The tariffs are coming. Of course they are,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Mr. Trump’s 10 percent base-line tariff on nearly every trading partner went into effect on Saturday morning. Another round of tariffs that aim to punish countries that run trade deficits with the United States will snap into place on Wednesday morning. Kevin Hassett, the head of the White House National Economic Council, said that he did not expect to “see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S.,” even as he acknowledged in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that prices “might go up some” as a result of the tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the steep declines in global markets last week as short-term, while emphasizing the need for an economic “adjustment process” in the United States. He added on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there “doesn’t have to be a recession,” as the administration works toward “building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity.” “We’re going to hold the course,” he said.

CBS News [4/6/2025 1:24 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51661K] Video: HERE reports commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will take effect later this week, suggesting they aren’t open to negotiation after the announcement sent shockwaves through the investment world and sparked recession fears. "The tariffs are coming. He announced that, and he wasn’t kidding," Lutnick said of Mr. Trump on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” Last week, the president announced 10% tariffs on imports from all countries, along with increasing levies on dozens of countries that charge higher taxes on American exports, which are set to go into effect this week. Meanwhile, financial markets saw their worst week since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Mr. Trump urged Americans to "hang tough.” Lutnick defended the president’s newly announced tariffs on Sunday, arguing that the policies will help protect American factories and "reset the power of the United States of America.” "This is a national security issue," Lutnick said, pointing to shortcomings in American manufacturing of things like medicines, ships and semiconductors, while adding that "we’ve got to start to protect ourselves.” The tariffs come after Mr. Trump previously delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico amid negotiations with the countries over immigration policies. But Lutnick said that "there is no postponing" the new round of tariffs, saying "the president has made it crystal, crystal clear — this is the policy.” Lutnick acknowledged that "it is going to be a big change." But he argued that "the rest of the world has been ripping us off for all these many years," saying the president is "not going to take it anymore.”

The Hill [4/6/2025 1:21 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday defended President Trump’s tariffs even against uninhabited islands, saying they are intended to guard against loopholes. In an interview on CBS News’s "Face the Nation," moderator Margaret Brennan asked why uninhabited territories, like the Heard and McDonald Islands, were included on the list that Trump displayed in the Rose Garden, noting they "don’t export to the United States and are quite literally inhabited by penguins.” "Why do they face a 10 percent tariff? Did you use AI to generate this?" Brennan added. "No. No," Lutnick said. "Look, the idea is that there are no countries left off.” "What happens is, if you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us," he continued. He pointed to China’s response to Trump’s tariffs in 2018 as an example, saying, "They just built through other countries, through America.” "The president knows that. He’s tired of it, and he’s going to fix that," Lutnick said. "So basically he said, ‘Look, I can’t let any part of the world be a place where China or other countries can ship through them,’ so he ended those loopholes, these ridiculous loopholes.’".

NewsMax [4/6/2025 11:11 AM, Staff, 4998K] reports U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday said President Donald Trump’s tariffs would remain in place "for days and weeks," and that some islands inhabited by penguins were included on the list so that countries could not use them as a loophole. "What happens is, if you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America, go through those countries to us," he told CBS News’ "Face the Nation" program. "There’s no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks," Lutnick added.

Daily Wire [4/6/2025 3:12 PM, Daniel Chaitin, 4672K] reports foreign nations are lining up to strike a deal with the United States, top administration officials said on Sunday, after President Donald Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs last week. During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett revealed that he had received an update from the United States Trade Representative suggesting that Trump’s strategy to tackle trade imbalances with 10% baseline levies and rates up to 50% is already showing results. “I got a report from the USTR last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation. But they’re doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff,” Hassett said. “And so, I don’t think that you’re going to see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S. because I do think that the reason why we have a persistent, long-run trade deficit is these people have very inelastic supply. They’ve been dumping goods into the country in order to create jobs, say, in China.” On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cited the same number after noting that the decision to maintain the tariffs indefinitely rests with Trump. “I can tell you that as only he can do at this moment, he has created maximum leverage for himself,” Bessent said. “And more than 50 countries have approached the administration about lowering their non-tariff trade barriers, lowering their tariffs, stopping currency manipulation.”

The Hill [4/6/2025 10:22 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins repeatedly on Sunday sidestepped questions about whether President Trump’s tariffs are "here to stay," as the president has suggested, or whether the United States is open to negotiating with other countries. In an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union," Rollins defended Trump’s tariff strategy broadly when CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked how long she expects "this tariff chaos is going to be going on? Thirty days? Sixty days? Ninety days?". Rollins said Trump’s tariffs marked the beginning of a "new American order, the new American economic plan," which has only generated two days of economic data. "So I think we’ll see in short order a really positive outcome from this. We already have 50, five- zero, 50 countries that have come to the table over the last few days, over the last weeks, that are willing and desperate to talk to us. We are the economic engine of the world, and it’s finally time that someone, President Trump, stood up for America," she responded.

New York Times [4/7/2025 12:01 AM, Luke Broadwater, 330K] reports that, before President Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas out of the blue and asked for a lesson in what was essentially a foreign tongue: the language of Democrats. “I speak Republican and you speak Democratic, and I need the intermediary,” said Mr. Netanyahu, who was about to become prime minister of Israel, according to Mr. Pinkas. He added: “Netanyahu always thought of himself as some pedigree neocon that belongs in the right wing of the Republican Party.” Mr. Netanyahu, who will meet with President Trump at the White House on Monday, is once again conversing with his preferred party, and the difference has been stark. Where former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had sought to put some restrictions on Mr. Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza, the Trump administration has made no such demand. Where Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s attempted overhaul of Israel’s courts, Mr. Trump has made attacks of his own against American judges. “They are unshackled,” said Natan Sachs, the director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution. “A lot of concerns that the previous White House kept making about humanitarian aid, about limiting civilian casualties, these concerns are just not voiced anymore.” Looming over the meeting this week is a point of tension: Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which did not spare Israel. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said the two men plan to discuss the tariff issue, the war in Gaza, Israel-Turkey relations, Iran and the International Criminal Court. “I can tell you that I am the first international leader, the first foreign leader, who will meet with President Trump on the issue, which is so important to the Israeli economy,” Mr. Netanyahu said of the tariffs. “There is a long line of leaders who want this regarding their economies. I think that it reflects the special personal link, as well as the special ties between the U.S. and Israel.” All recent American administrations have allied themselves, to varying degrees, with Israel, although Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu had a long and complicated history. Mr. Biden referred to the Israeli leader as a “close, personal friend of over 33 years,” and Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Biden as an “Irish American Zionist.”

Reuters [4/6/2025 5:49 PM, Ali Sawafta, 41523K] reports a Palestinian teenager with U.S. citizenship was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it shot a "terrorist" who endangered civilians by hurling rocks. The incident is the latest in a surge of violence and near-daily confrontations in the volatile West Bank, where settler violence and clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians have kept it on edge. The mayor of Turmus Ayya, Adeeb Lafi, told Reuters earlier in the day that Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler at the entrance to Turmus Ayya and that the Israeli army pronounced him dead after detaining him. However, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the incident as an "extra-judicial killing" by Israeli forces during a raid in the town, saying it was the result of Israel’s "continued impunity". "During a counterterrorism activity in the area of Turmus Aya, IDF soldiers identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving," the Israeli army said in a statement. "The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists.” Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids on Bedouin villages and encampments, has intensified since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

Breitbart [4/6/2025 8:09 PM, Staff, 2923K] reports Israel staged a strike in south Lebanon on Sunday that it said had targeted Hezbollah, and authorities said killed two people, as a US envoy visited for talks on the militant group and economic reforms. The strike came more than four months into a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after US deputy special envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, discussed disarming the Iran-backed with senior figures, according to a Lebanese official. The Lebanese health ministry said two people were killed in an "Israeli enemy" strike on the town of Zibqin in the south of the country near the border. The Israeli military said it targeted two Hezbollah operatives in the area who were "attempting to rebuild Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites". The Lebanese army said the strike hit "a bulldozer and an excavator", and that "there was no military equipment at the site".

Bloomberg [4/6/2025 12:33 PM, Shruti Srivastava, 16228K] reports India’s government indicated it won’t take retaliatory action against the US for imposing reciprocal tariffs, focusing its efforts instead on negotiating a bilateral trade deal with the Trump administration to bring down duties. New Delhi is seeking dialog and not confrontation with the US, an Indian government official told reporters in a background briefing on Saturday, asking not to be identified in line with official rules. India has first-mover advantage over its rivals in the region since the government has already started talks on a trade deal with the Trump administration, the official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump in Washington in February, where the two leaders agreed to boost trade and negotiate a bilateral agreement by the fall of this year. Despite those talks, and a series of concessions already made by Modi’s government to reduce trade barriers, Trump last week announced a 26% tariff on US imports from India, among the highest rates for a major economy. India’s restraint from immediate retaliation contrasts with its neighbor China, which on Friday announced it would impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods imported from the US. In Southeast Asia, countries like Vietnam and Cambodia are also seeking to accommodate Trump rather than retaliate. New Delhi plans to work toward a balanced and equitable trade agreement with the US, the Indian official told reporters Saturday. All options are up for negotiation, and both goods and services will be discussed, the official said. The government is also in touch with exporters to assess the likely impact of the tariffs and the support it can offer businesses, the person said.

Reuters [4/6/2025 8:15 AM, Shivangi Acharya and Aftab Ahmed, 41523K] reports India does not plan to retaliate against U.S. President Donald Trump’s 26% tariff on imports from the Asian nation, an Indian government official said, citing ongoing talks for a deal between the countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has looked into a clause of Trump’s tariff order that offers a possible reprieve for trading partners who "take significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements," said the official, who declined to be named as the details of the talks are confidential. New Delhi sees an advantage in being one of the first nations to have started talks over a trade deal with Washington, and is better placed than Asian peers like China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which have been hit by higher U.S. tariffs, a second government official said, also declining to be named. In the days after Trump’s tariff announcement that has shaken global markets to their core, India joined nations like Taiwan and Indonesia in ruling out counter tariffs, even as the European Commission prepares to hit U.S. products with extra duties following China’s retaliation. India and the U.S. agreed in February to clinch an early trade deal by autumn 2025 to resolve their standoff on tariffs. Reuters reported last month that New Delhi is open to cutting tariffs on U.S. imports worth $23 billion. Modi’s administration has taken a number of steps to win over Trump, including lowering tariffs on high-end bikes and bourbon, and dropping a tax on digital services that affected U.S. tech giants. Trump’s tariffs could slow India’s economic growth by 20-40 basis points in the ongoing financial year and may cripple India’s diamond industry, which ships more than a third of its exports to the U.S., putting at risk thousands of jobs.

FOX News [4/6/2025 1:12 PM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE reports fourth generation farmer Andrew Leimgruber discusses the ramifications of China’s purchasing of U.S. farmland on ‘Fox & Friends Weekend.’

Bloomberg [4/7/2025 4:46 AM, Jacob Gu, 16228K] reports China warned against panic in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff hikes, saying it has plenty of policy room to defend the economy but without ruling out negotiations with the US. “The sky won’t fall even though the US abuse of tariffs will cause some impact on us,” the official People’s Daily said in a front-page editorial on Monday. “We must turn pressure into motivation.” China is honing a domestic message of resilience after retaliating against Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements last week by imposing levies on US goods. With no compromise in sight, the unsigned article in the Communist Party’s mouthpiece publication laid out plans to counter the economic fallout by supporting domestic demand with stimulus measures such as lower interest rates. The dimming prospect of a deal between the world’s two biggest economies has prompted a selloff in financial markets and raised speculation among investors that China may resort to aggressively devaluing the yuan against the dollar.

FOX News [4/6/2025 8:50 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K] reports President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is not willing to make a deal with China unless the trade deficit of over $1 trillion is resolved first. While speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said with some countries there is a trade deficit of over a billion dollars, but with China, it is over $1 trillion. "We have a $1 trillion trade deficit with China. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose to China, and unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal," he said. "I’m willing to make a deal with China, but they have to solve this surplus. We have a tremendous deficit problem with China… I want that solved." Trump also said because of the tariffs, the U.S. has $7 trillion of committed investments when it comes to building automotive manufacturing plants, chip companies and other types of businesses, "at levels that we’ve never seen before." But in terms of trade deficits, Trump said he has spoken with a lot of leaders in Europe and Asia, who are "dying" to make a deal, but as long as there are deficits, he is not going to do that. "A deficit is a loss," he said. "We’re going to have surpluses, or we’re, at worst, going to be breaking even. But China would be the worst in the group because the deficit is so big, and it’s not sustainable. "I was elected on this," Trump added. Trump spoke to reporters for about 16 minutes, and during that time reporters asked him numerous questions about the tariffs. The president anticipates that by next year, the tariffs will bring in an additional $1 trillion. He also said companies will begin relocating to the U.S. in places like North Carolina, Detroit and Illinois. "What’s going to happen to the market? I can’t tell you. But I can tell you our country has gotten a lot stronger, and eventually it’ll be a country like no other," Trump said. "It’ll be the most dominant country, economically, in the world, which is what it should be."

Reported similarly:
New York Times [4/7/2025 3:18 AM, Tony Romm and Ana Swanson, 330K]

Washington Examiner [4/6/2025 10:05 PM, Zach LaChance, 2296K] reports President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday night that the United States was "pretty close" to a TikTok divestment deal until China dodged on a sale of the platform because of the tariffs Trump announced against the country on his "Liberation Day" rollout. The Washington Examiner previously reported that a deal was finalized between American investors and TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, that would allow the social media platform to continue operating within the U.S. After the White House slapped a 34% tariff on China, however, the country flipped its position and ByteDance said it could not agree to a sale. Trump confirmed that reporting in comments to the media aboard Air Force One. "We had a deal pretty much for TikTok — not a deal but pretty close — and then China changed the deal because of tariffs," the president said. He also touted the power of tariffs by saying that if he gave China a "little cut" in the tax the TikTok deal would have been approved in "15 minutes.” "If I gave a little cut in tariffs, they’d approve that deal in 15 minutes, which shows you the power of tariffs, right?" Trump said. After the deal failed to come to fruition, Trump announced that the deadline for TikTok to find a U.S. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [4/6/2025 1:19 PM, Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen, 16228K] reports Vietnam offered to remove all tariffs on US imports after President Donald Trump announced a 46% levy on the Southeast Asian nation, according to an April 5 letter from Vietnam’s communist party. The offer was made by party chief To Lam to Trump in a letter seen by Bloomberg. Lam requested that the US not apply any additional tariffs or fees on Vietnamese goods and asked to postpone the implementation of the tariff announced by Trump last week by at least 45 days after April 9. Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Trump, suggested Sunday that Vietnam’s initiative didn’t go far enough. “If you simply lowered our tariffs and they lowered our tariffs to zero, we’d still run about $120 billion trade deficit with Vietnam,” he said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “And the problem is all of the non-tariff cheating that they do.” That includes export subsidies and allegedly serving as a tariff-evading platform for Chinese exports, Navarro said. Lam’s letter confirms comments made by Trump on Friday on his Truth Social network, following a call between the two leaders. Vietnam, which has increasingly become a key manufacturing and export alternative to China, was slapped with one of the highest tariff rates worldwide last Wednesday. The New York Times [4/6/2025 1:27PM, Tung Ngo and Sui-Lee Wee, 153395K] reports Mr. Lam’s proposal to President Trump was laid out in a letter dated Saturday, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. In the letter, Mr. Lam called on Mr. Trump to appoint a U.S. representative to lead negotiations with Ho Duc Phoc, a Vietnamese deputy prime minister, “with the goal of reaching an agreement as soon as possible.” Mr. Lam had been one of the first world leaders to reach out to Mr. Trump after the tariffs were announced. In a phone call, he offered to reduce tariffs on U.S. imports to zero, and urged Mr. Trump to do the same, according to the Vietnamese government. Vietnam has said its tariffs on U.S. goods is an average of 9.4 percent. Mr. Trump later described the call as “very productive.”

Bloomberg [4/7/2025 4:15 AM, Neil Jerome Morales, 16228K] reports the Philippines is considering reducing tariffs on US products in response to President Donald Trump’s sweeping levies including a 17% tariff on Manila’s goods, its trade chief said. “We are really going to do that,” Trade Secretary Cristina Roque told reporters on Monday, when asked whether the government plans to cut tariffs on imports from the US. She said government economic officials will soon meet to discuss which products will be covered. The Philippines is also looking at joining a potential collective response on the US tariffs by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations of which it is a member, Roque said. This is the first time Manila signaled its intention to seek a compromise with the Trump administration days after he announced the higher tariffs that have roiled markets and fanned fears of a global recession. Roque on April 4 said the Philippines is planning to capitalize on the tariffs that are lower than its Asian neighbors and aims to ship more semiconductors, coconut and mango products to the US. Finance Secretary Ralph Recto last week said the Philippines could expand its share of the US market for garment exports, with major competitors like China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, and India facing higher levies. Roque reiterated on Monday that she’s signified her intention to meet with her US counterpart and is waiting for a schedule.

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