What happened

The House early Friday morning approved a 10-day extension of a controversial surveillance law after a rebellion by libertarian-leaning Republicans. President Donald Trump had urged Republicans to “UNIFY” and pass an 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without any changes. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called an overnight session to pass either that bill or a five-year extension with some changes to win over GOP holdouts. Some 20 Republicans joined all but four Democrats to vote both down, and the 10-day extension was passed by voice vote.

Who said what

Section 702 allows the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to surveil foreigners overseas — and any Americans they are communicating with — without a warrant. Debate over its reauthorization “has scrambled the usual polarized party lines,” The New York Times said. “Privacy and civil liberties-focused lawmakers in both parties have allied to press for greater limits, while centrists and national security hawks” want it renewed without changes.

What next?

Section 702 expires on Monday, and the Senate is “gaveling for a rare Friday session, as Congress races to keep the surveillance program running,” The Associated Press said.

What happened

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Thursday announced criminal charges against an ICE agent for allegedly pointing his gun at two people in another car in a road rage incident during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. She said a nationwide arrest warrant had been issued for the agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., on two felony counts of second-degree assault.

Who said what

Minnesota has “no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law,” Moriarty said at a news conference. This is a “rare instance” of local law enforcement charging a federal official for “on-duty actions,” The New York Times said. It’s also the “first criminal charge to be levied against a federal agent” from Operation Metro Surge, The Minnesota Star Tribune said. Moriarty said the charges were filed before more high-profile ongoing investigations, like the killing of Renée Good, because this case was straightforward, with ICE cooperation and ample evidence.

What next?

If convicted, Morgan “faces up to seven years in prison for each assault charge,” The Associated Press said.

What happened

A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect at midnight local time on Friday, though Hezbollah has not committed to the truce. President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on Thursday after a flurry of diplomatic wrangling. The pause in fighting, if it holds, would remove one of the sticking points in U.S. peace talks with Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer.

Who said what

The State Department said Israel, as a “gesture of goodwill,” had agreed to pause “offensive operations” against Lebanese targets while reserving the “right to take all necessary measures in self-defense.” Lebanon was expected to take “meaningful steps” to prevent Hezbollah from attacking Israel.

Trump’s ceasefire pressure put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “in an awkward position,” The New York Times said. His “goal to gut Hezbollah is far from fulfilled, and he was swiftly assailed by his allies and critics” for agreeing to the truce. Israel’s security cabinet “heard about Trump’s announcement several minutes into” an “urgent conference call” Netanyahu had convened “to discuss the ceasefire and vote on it,” Axios said.

Netanyahu said in a subsequent statement that Israeli forces would remain in a 6-mile-deep “security zone” spanning southern Lebanon, “and we are not leaving.” Hezbollah said “Israeli occupation of our land” gave them “the right to resist it,” and it will act “based on how developments unfold.”

What next?

The temporary truce “will bring immediate relief” to war-ravaged Lebanon, The Wall Street Journal said. But “without Hezbollah at the negotiating table,” peace is “on shaky ground.”

What happened

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered lawyer John Eastman, a key architect of President Donald Trump’s failed effort to overturn his 2020 election loss, to be stripped of his law license and “stricken from the roll of attorneys.” The ruling upheld a 2024 State Bar Court decision to disbar Eastman for concocting strategies to submit fake Trump electors and push Vice President Mike Pence to block Joe Biden’s victory in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Who said what

Eastman “remains one of the highest-profile figures in Trump’s orbit to face enduring consequences” for participating in his 2020 election schemes, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack, Politico said. Although he only lost his license to practice law in California, disbarment decisions are “typically adopted by authorities in other jurisdictions.” State bars “across the country have been trying to seek accountability” against Eastman and other lawyers involved in trying to subvert the election, The New York Times said. Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C., in 2024, and Jeffrey Clark’s D.C. 2025 disbarment is tied up in appeals.

What next?

Eastman’s legal team said they would appeal his disbarment to the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds.

What happened

A federal jury in New York on Wednesday found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary operated as an illegal monopoly, harming ticket buyers, artists and entertainment venues. The case was brought in 2024 by the Justice Department and 39 state attorneys general, but days into the seven-week trial, the DOJ announced a surprise settlement with Live Nation. More than 30 states rejected the deal as inadequate and continued their litigation.

Who said what

The verdict “will be an earthquake in the industry,” legal analyst Scott Grzenczyk told CNN. There’s a “big difference between people complaining about Goliath and getting a jury verdict that Goliath was a monopolist.” Gail Slater, the DOJ antitrust chief pushed out weeks before the settlement, congratulated the “mighty state AG coalition that stood behind this case” and “made antitrust history” in a post on X. Live Nation, which denied using its vast reach to smother competition, said it would appeal.

What next?

The ruling “won’t immediately bring relief for concertgoers who have long complained about high ticket prices,” The Associated Press said. But in the case’s remedies stage, the judge could hit Live Nation with “steep monetary penalties,” said Business Insider, or even a “court-ordered breakup of the company.”

What happened

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a fourth attempt by Democrats to limit President Donald Trump’s authority to wage war on Iran, in a mostly party-line 52-47 vote. The “repeated defeats underscore the durability of Republican backing” for Trump, The New York Times said. But “some GOP lawmakers suggested that their patience was wearing thin as the conflict drags on, its economic fallout reverberates among their constituents and the president’s bellicose statements intensify.”

Who said what

Republicans “say they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now,” The Associated Press said. But they “are anxious for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes,” notably a statutory deadline at the end of the month. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, if Congress doesn’t declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days, or grant a 30-day extension, U.S. forces must be withdrawn.

Trump originally predicted the Iran war would be over within four or five weeks, but with the 60-day deadline “rapidly approaching,” he’s sending “mixed signals,” The Washington Post said. Trump keeps insisting the war is almost over, but he just “imposed a naval blockade on Iran and sent thousands more troops to the Middle East.”

What next?

The House is expected to vote Wednesday “on its own resolution to block Trump from ordering more strikes on Iran,” the Post said. The outcome of the vote “is uncertain,” said the AP.

What happened

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office on Tuesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to erase the seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders found guilty of playing key roles in the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack to keep President Donald Trump in power. The Trump administration has “determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” Pirro’s office said. Trump pardoned most of the Jan. 6 rioters but commuted the lengthy prison sentences of the 12 covered by the new filing.

Who said what

The motion to expunge the convictions of ringleaders including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is the “latest effort by the Trump administration to erase the stain of Jan. 6,” Politico said. Asking the appeals court to “toss out the guilty verdicts” also lets the Justice Department avoid the “awkward situation of having to defend the convictions,” The New York Times said. That would “likely have required administration officials to assert that the far-right groups were acting on behalf” of Trump.

What next?

The request to vacate the last remaining Jan. 6 convictions is “likely to be granted because prosecutors have broad discretion to pursue or drop criminal charges,” The Washington Post said.

What happened

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Tuesday unveiled a bill to set up a bipartisan panel that could help remove a mentally or physically incapacitated president under the 25th Amendment. The legislation, which had 50 Democratic cosponsors, is a “matter of national security,” Raskin said in a statement. “Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows” as he “threatens to destroy entire civilizations” and “aggressively insults the pope,” among other erratic behavior.

Who said what

The 25th Amendment empowers the vice president, plus the Cabinet or “such other body as Congress” provides, to declare the president unfit for office. “This body should have been set up” when the amendment was ratified in 1967, Raskin said. A White House spokesperson called Raskin a “lightweight” and praised Trump’s “sharpness” and “unmatched energy.”

The Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate would each pick four of the panel’s 16 members — physicians, psychiatrists and former top Cabinet officials — and the panel would pick a 17th member as chair. If a medical examination found the president unfit, a majority of the panel could vote to suspend the president with the assent of the vice president.

What next?

The legislation “is a long shot,” Axios said, as “Republicans control Congress, and Trump could simply veto it.”

What happened

The U.S. on Tuesday hosted the first direct meeting between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. Israel, which is occupying southern Lebanon as it attacks Hezbollah, continued trading strikes with the Iran-backed militia during the meeting. Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,124 people in Lebanon in six weeks of war, including 168 children and 88 health workers, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Israel said 13 soldiers and at least two Israeli citizens have been killed.

Who said what

Tuesday’s two-hour Washington, D.C., meeting “concluded with encouraging words and talk of further meetings,” The New York Times said, but “no firm commitments and no change in Israel’s refusal to halt its punishing military campaign” in Lebanon. Israel’s U.S. ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, said he and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, had agreed “that the evil of Hezbollah must be eradicated.” Moawad said she had “underscored the need to preserve our territorial integrity and state sovereignty” and “called for a ceasefire.”

The Lebanese government’s “capacity to confront Hezbollah” is “limited,” the BBC said. Hezbollah said it won’t abide by any agreements from the bilateral talks. “What does Lebanon have to offer on a negotiating table?” a Lebanese government official said to The Washington Post. “Nothing.”

The Israel-Lebanon talks are “a process, not an event,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters. “Hezbollah and Israel have always helped each other to destabilize the government of Lebanon,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. “It’s time for Israel and Lebanon to be working together.”

What next?

The U.S. State Department said Israel and Lebanon “agreed to launch direct negotiations” at an unspecified “time and venue.”

What happened

President Donald Trump on Monday deleted from his social media account an apparently AI-generated image showing him dressed like Jesus and healing a man with orbs of light in his hands amid a panoply of religious and patriotic imagery. Following sharp condemnation, including from conservative Christian supporters, Trump told reporters he had posted the image but “thought it was me as a doctor,” and “only the fake news” would claim he was depicting himself as Jesus.

Who said what

The post’s removal was a “rare retreat” for Trump, who as a rule “does not apologize for doing and saying things that hurt or offend people,” The New York Times said. But the “image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure sparked outrage on the religious right,” angering a group that has “rallied behind Trump” through “two impeachments and three elections,” The Wall Street Journal said.

The image was “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” and Trump needed to “ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God,” Megan Basham, an evangelical Christian writer at The Daily Wire, said on X. Conservative Christian commentator Rod Dreher told the Journal that Trump is “radiating the spirit of Antichrist, no question.”

What next?

The “consternation over Trump’s social-media posts,” including his “pointed criticism of Pope Leo XIV,” could “turn into a political liability for Republicans,” the Journal said. Catholics “are America’s largest swing religious vote,” Axios said, “and Trump’s support among them was already sliding” before his posts.

What happened

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party secured a majority in Parliament on Monday after winning three special elections to fill vacant seats. The party last year fell short of the 172 seats needed for a majority in the House of Commons. But following five defections from opposition parties in the past five months and last night’s victories, the Liberals now hold 174 seats, allowing them to legislate without other parties and keeping Carney in office through at least 2029.

Who said what

Carney’s election win last year was “fueled by public anger over President Donald Trump’s annexation threats” and trade war, The Associated Press said. With his new majority, Carney will have “broader latitude with his legislative agenda, which is focused on reducing Canada’s dependency on the United States,” The New York Times said. “No modern majority government in Ottawa has ever been built” through defections before, Politico said, and while opposition parties keep “hammering Carney over high grocery prices” and a “nationwide housing shortage, ‘Carneymania’ continues to sweep the nation.”

What next?

Now that he has a majority, it’s “important for Carney to actually deliver,” McGill University politics professor Daniel Béland told The Wall Street Journal. The “first move of Carney’s majority government,” Politico said, will “be to announce relief for Canadian consumers facing skyrocketing gas and diesel prices” from Trump’s Iran war.

What happened

Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) separately said Monday they will resign from Congress as both face House investigations into alleged sexual misconduct and growing calls to quit or face expulsion. Swalwell ended his campaign for California governor over the weekend after an unidentified former aide accused him of sexual assault and three other women said he had sexually harassed them. Gonzales dropped his reelection bid in March after admitting to a coercive relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Who said what

The House Ethics Committee, which was already investigating Gonzales for violating rules prohibiting sexual relationships with subordinates, announced Monday it had opened an investigation into Swalwell. The Manhattan district attorney is also investigating the assault allegation, which Swalwell denied while apologizing for other past “mistakes in judgment.”

Ethics Committee investigations can take months, and House leaders had been “facing loud demands to hold votes to kick out Swalwell and Gonzales” after the House returned from recess Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal said. “Lawmakers had coalesced around the idea of an even trade — one Democrat for one Republican — to spread the ignominy across both parties and preserve the fragile balance of power” in the GOP-led House.

“Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong,” Swalwell said on X. “But it’s also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted,” so “I plan to resign my seat.” About an hour later, Gonzales announced that “when Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office.”

What next?

Neither lawmaker gave a time frame for his departure. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) said she would file a motion to expel Gonzales unless he resigned “effective immediately” by 2 p.m. Tuesday.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Sunday sharply criticized Pope Leo XIV, an increasingly vocal opponent of his Iran war. The first U.S.-born Catholic pontiff is “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” and “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump said on social media. “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he told reporters. “He’s a very liberal person.” Shortly afterward, Trump posted an AI-generated image “depicting himself as a Christ-like figure healing a sick person with American flags and eagles in the background,” CNN said.

Who said what

Trump’s “angry counterpunch to the soft-spoken Leo” starkly “illustrated how differently two of the world’s most powerful Americans handle conflict,” The New York Times said. Trump’s broadside came after the pope held a vigil for peace at the Vatican on Saturday and suggested that a “delusion of omnipotence” was fueling the war. “Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo said. “Enough of war!”

It’s “not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes,” The Associated Press said, but it’s “exceedingly rare” for them to openly criticize each other. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement he was “disheartened” at Trump’s “disparaging words about the Holy Father.”

What next?

Trump’s “extraordinary public criticism” of the pope could put him “at odds with some Catholics, tens of millions of whom live in the U.S.,” The Wall Street Journal said. Pope Leo leaves Monday for a four-country tour of Africa, Catholicism’s fastest-growing region.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz after peace talks with Iran in Pakistan failed to produce a breakthrough. The U.S. Navy will blockade “any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait,” he said on social media. But U.S. Central Command had a different interpretation of Trump’s order, saying it would block only vessels entering or departing “Iranian ports and coastal areas,” starting this week.

Who said what

A U.S. naval blockade would cut off a “key source of financing for Iran’s government and military operations,” CNN said. But a blockade could be a “blow to the rest of the world as well,” exacerbating the “war-driven global energy crisis” and raising U.S. gas prices, The Washington Post said.

The problem for Trump is that “Americans have a much lower threshold of pain than the Iranians,” Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King's College London, said to The Associated Press. The Iranians “can sustain this for far longer than the world economy” and “the Americans,” and Trump doesn’t have “any tool in the toolbox in terms of the military lever” he can use “to get his way.”

What next?

The face-to-face peace talks, led on the U.S. side by Vice President JD Vance, “were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals” since 1979, the AP said. Iran said it was open to continuing the talks, and “neither indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22.”

What happened

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat Sunday night after his far-right populist Fidesz party lost decisively to Péter Magyar and his center-right, pro-Europe Tisza party. Turnout was a post-Communist high of nearly 80%. As of Monday, Magyar’s alliance is on track to win 138 of the 199 seats in Parliament, exceeding the two-thirds supermajority needed to “change the constitution and unravel key pillars” of the “illiberal democracy” Orbán built over his 16 years in power, Politico said.

Who said what

“The election result is painful for us, but clear,” Orbán told supporters at Fidesz’s campaign offices. “We have liberated Hungary,” Magyar told cheering crowds gathered on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. “Hungarians said yes to Europe today, they said yes to a free Hungary.” European leaders, long frustrated by Orbán, rushed to congratulate Magyar.

Orbán was a “lodestar for MAGA culture warriors and right-wing populists in Europe,” The New York Times said. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin both supported Orbán’s candidacy and offered financial backing if he won. But Trump’s “several personal endorsements,” backed by a visit from Vice President JD Vance, could “do nothing to swing a contest that was shaped by growing public frustration over Hungary’s ailing economy, and the corruption and cronyism associated with Orbán,” Politico said.

What next?

Magyar called on Fidesz loyalists in key state positions, including the president, to step down or face expulsion by his parliamentary supermajority. “We will never again be a country of no consequences,” he said, vowing to set up an “office for the restoration of national wealth” to investigate and recover looted state assets and prosecute corruption.

What happened

Two once-harmonious groups of chimpanzees in Uganda’s Kibale National Park suddenly became estranged and have spent the past eight years engaged in a bloody conflict, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. This first-ever observation of animal “civil war” indicates that “group identities can shift and escalate into lethal hostility in one of our closest living relatives” without the “cultural markers often thought necessary for human warfare,” the researchers wrote.

Who said what

Researchers are “still trying to figure out what set off the conflict” in 2015 between the rival chimpanzee factions in the park’s Ngogo area, The New York Times said. But by 2018, “the hostilities began in earnest,” The Wall Street Journal said. The smaller Western cluster “launched coordinated lethal attacks” against their Central cluster rivals, killing at least 28 males, including infants.

One theory is that the schism came after “several male chimps who had bridged cliques within the larger group died from disease, weakening social ties,” said the Journal. It’s also possible “the apes were victims of their own success,” seeing “increased competition for food and mates” even though “resources were abundant.”

What next?

Further study of the Ngogo chimpanzees “may shed light on the roots of warfare in our own species,” the Times said, though the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts have “cast doubt on whether the research will continue.”

What happened

First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denounced “unfounded and baseless lies” connecting her with “the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein,” calling unspecified reports and online images “mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.” Addressing reporters at the White House, she also called on Congress to hold a “public hearing specifically centered around the survivors,” allowing those who wish to have their sworn testimony “permanently entered into the congressional record.”

Who said what

The first lady’s “seemingly out-of-the-blue” remarks caught “the White House — and indeed, all of Washington’s political world — by surprise,” The Associated Press said. It was “not clear why she chose to speak out now,” The New York Times said, but her comments are “sure to supercharge” a “scandal” her husband “has been struggling to make go away since last summer.”

The Epstein controversy had been “fading from public discourse amid the war with Iran,” CNN said, and some White House officials were “stunned by the timing of the remarks, which sparked rumors that the first lady was trying to get out ahead of something.” Sources close to Trump insisted she was just “increasingly frustrated by the online chatter.”

What next?

Congressional Democrats and some Republicans welcomed the call to let Epstein’s survivors speak. “We encourage” GOP leaders to “respond to the first lady’s request and schedule a public hearing immediately,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on social media.

What happened

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday threw out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s revised effort to restrict press access at the Pentagon, saying the Defense Department “cannot simply reinstate an unlawful policy under the guise of taking ‘new’ action.” Suppression of “political speech is the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy,” U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman wrote in his opinion, siding with The New York Times for the second time in a month in its challenge to Hegseth’s restrictions on reporters’ access to Pentagon sources and information.

Who said what

Almost all reporters in the Pentagon press corps walked out in October after Hegseth tied their credentials to an agreement to “publish only information preapproved by Department of Defense channels,” Politico said. Friedman found that unconstitutional in a March 20 ruling, and on Thursday he “voided the key parts of the revised policy,” including banning all unescorted movement through the Pentagon and evicting reporters from their longtime Correspondents’ Corridor offices to an “annex that has yet to be opened.”

“The curtailment of First Amendment rights is dangerous at any time, and even more so in a time of war,” Friedman said. Hegseth is trying to “dictate the information received by the American people” and “control the message” they “hear and see,” he added. “The Constitution demands better. The American public demands better, too.”

What next?

Frieman ordered the Pentagon to “fully restore Times reporters’ access,” The Washington Post said, and to “file a sworn declaration from a department official by April 16 detailing compliance.” A Pentagon spokesperson said the department will appeal the ruling.

What happened

Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect long suspected of the so-called Gilgo Beach killings between 1993 and 2010, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to strangling seven women and dismembering some of them. He also confessed to murdering an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, in 1996. Heuermann initially pleaded not guilty following his 2023 arrest. The remains of several of the women were found near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010 and 2011.

Who said what

Wednesday’s guilty pleas “bring finality to a case that bedeviled investigators, tormented victims’ families and tantalized a true-crime obsessed public for years,” The Associated Press said. The investigation was long “delayed by dysfunction, disarray and corruption,” The New York Times said. It finally ended with Wednesday’s “extraordinary proceeding,” where Heuermann “maintained a normal demeanor, as if having a morning chat,” while confessing to serial murders. He “walked among us play-acting as a normal suburban dad” while “obsessively targeting innocent women for death,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a post-hearing press conference.

What next?

Heuermann will be sentenced in June to life in prison with no possibility of parole. As part of his plea deal, he also agreed to be interviewed by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Units profilers, potentially helping “investigators hunt down others with similarly violent minds,” the Times said.

What happened

The Justice Department on Wednesday told the House Oversight Committee that ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi will not honor its bipartisan subpoena to sit for a deposition on her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, citing her firing last week. The notification “set off frustration” among lawmakers “clamoring for answers” about why she had not, “in their view, fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” USA Today said.

Who said what

Bondi “cannot escape accountability,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said on social media. The subpoena “was for Bondi by name, not by title.” If Bondi “defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges,” Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement. “The survivors deserve justice.”

Mace and four other Republicans “joined Democrats to force the subpoena” over the objection of committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), and lawmakers were “concerned” Bondi “would try to avoid the deposition” even before President Donald Trump fired her, The New York Times said. Comer last month promised to honor the subpoena, but according to sources, he and Bondi “had been quietly working together to avoid the deposition.”

What next?

The committee will contact Bondi’s “personal counsel” about “scheduling her deposition,” a spokesperson said.

What happened

The two-week ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump and Iranian officials earlier this week faltered Wednesday as the U.S., Iran and Israel argued over whether it covered the Israel-Hezbollah fight in Lebanon. Iran also accused the U.S. of violating several tenets of the agreement, and closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanon that killed at least 254 people and wounded 1,100 more.

Who said what

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator of the ceasefire, said it applied to “everywhere, including Lebanon.” Israel said Lebanon was not included, and President Donald Trump agreed Wednesday. U.S. allies, including the leaders of France, Australia and Spain, said Lebanon needed to be covered by the ceasefire.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Lebanon was included, and the “ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose — ceasefire or continued war via Israel.” Vice President JD Vance called the dispute a “legitimate misunderstanding.” Iran likely “thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” he told reporters, adding that Israel nonetheless “actually offered to be — frankly, to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon.”

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “faced swift criticism from political opponents on the left and right” over the U.S.-Iran deal, Politico said. “The ceasefire stopped the Israeli military campaign much sooner than Israel wanted,” and while Netanyahu had “no choice but to go along,” he can claim ongoing Lebanon strikes “as a victory with the Israeli public.”

What next?

Despite Wednesday’s “dueling threats to resume attacks if the ceasefire fell apart,” The New York Times said, Trump “seemed determined to plow ahead” with diplomacy, saying Vance would lead a delegation to Islamabad for peace talks starting Saturday.

What happened

Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living veteran, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with two counts of “war crime — murder” and three counts of abetting such crimes, according to documents presented in court on Wednesday. The charges relate to the killings of five unarmed civilians while he was the patrol commander of an elite Special Air Service Regiment in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012.

Who said what

Roberts-Smith is “only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime,” said The Associated Press. He has “consistently denied all wrongdoing,” said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. But his “public image was shattered in 2018,” when several newspapers published articles accusing him of killing Afghan civilians, The New York Times said. He sued for defamation and lost. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in a statement that the five Afghans at the center of the charges were unarmed, “under the control” of the Australian military and “not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder.”

What next?

Roberts-Smith’s trial could become the “most consequential military prosecution” in Australian history, said the Times. The maximum penalty for each charge is life in prison.

What happened

Republican Clay Fuller on Tuesday night won the special election to fill former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R) seat in Georgia’s heavily Republican 14th Congressional District. But he beat Democrat Shawn Harris by only about 12 percentage points, far short of President Donald Trump’s 37-point margin in 2024. That 25-point shift was the “largest leftward swing in a special election since the start of 2025,” The New York Times said. In Wisconsin, Democratic-backed Judge Chris Taylor won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and Democrat Alicia Halvensleben narrowly won the mayoral race in Waukesha, a GOP-leaning Milwaukee suburb.

Who said what

Republicans were relieved to bolster their narrow House majority in Georgia’s “deep red” 14th District, The Associated Press said, while Democrats were hopeful this latest in their string of better-than-expected electoral results “will create momentum toward November’s midterm elections.” Democrats “notched their best Trump-era overperformance” even after “national Republicans made the remarkable decision to actually spend money on the race,” said CNN.

What next?

Taylor’s victory over Republican-backed Judge Maria Lazar means “liberals will have a 5-2 edge on the swing state’s highest court, putting the majority out of reach for conservatives until at least 2030,” NBC News said.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening said he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, subject to a “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” The announcement defused his threat from earlier in the day that “a whole civilization will die tonight” absent a deal.

Iran said it would abide by the ceasefire, proposed by Pakistan, but maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz. Israel also agreed to stop attacking Iran, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday morning the “ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” contradicting an earlier statement from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Who said what

Iranian state TV said Trump had accepted Iran’s terms in a “humiliating retreat.” Trump told APF that the ceasefire was “100%” a “total and complete victory” for the U.S. His “apocalyptic threat” of civilizational erasure “certainly helped him find” the “offramp he had been seeking for weeks,” said The New York Times. But his “down-to-the-wire tactical victory” resolved “none of the fundamental issues that led to the war.”

The ceasefire’s terms were “clouded in uncertainty,” The Associated Press said. Trump said on social media that Iran’s 10-point plan was “a workable basis on which to negotiate.” But that plan appears to cross several of Trump’s red lines. Notably, Iran and Oman “plan to charge transit fees for vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” CNN said, something that wasn’t in place before the war. Iran’s caveat that “safe passage” through the strait was contingent on “coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces” and “technical limitations” means Iran will keep the “power to speed up passage, or slow it down,” The Wall Street Journal said. The U.S. will be “helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted. “Big money will be made,” and “Iran can start the reconstruction process.”

What next?

The “ceasefire appeared shaky in its early hours,” Politico said, with Iran firing missiles at Gulf Arab countries and Israel continuing to strike Iran. The U.S. and Iran “are expected to hold peace talks on Friday in Islamabad,” Axios said.

What happened

Minneapolis officials on Monday released footage from a city-owned security camera that seemingly contradicted the federal government’s initial account of an ICE agent’s nonfatal shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. The Justice Department dropped its felony charges against Sosa-Celis and his roommate Alfredo Aljorna in mid-February. But the “federal government had access to that video within hours of the shooting,” said The New York Times, which first obtained the footage, raising “questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart.”

Who said what

The Department of Homeland Security’s initial statement said Sosa-Celis and Aljorna beat the ICE agent “with a shovel or broom” for about three minutes before the officer “fired a defensive shot to save his life.” But the video initially shows Sosa-Celis tossing the shovel aside as the encounter begins. The video then appears to show the agent tackling Aljorna outside their home, scuffling with him for 12 seconds, then firing through the front door after the migrants escape inside, wounding Sosa-Celis in the thigh.

When U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen moved to drop all charges, DHS said that “sworn testimony” from two officers appeared to contain “untruthful statements.” Federal prosecutors had “felt urgency to file charges” and didn’t watch the video until “almost three weeks” after charging Sosa-Celis and Aljorna, the Times said, citing a Justice Department official. Both spent weeks in jail and their girlfriends were sent to a detention center in Texas.

What next?

ICE said Monday that federal prosecutors are “actively investigating” the “false statements” made by the agents, who “may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution.”

What happened

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the dismissal of Steve Bannon’s 2022 contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena from the House’s Jan. 6 committee. After President Donald Trump returned to office, the Justice Department had asked the courts to dismiss the conviction of his longtime ally and former adviser “in the interests of justice.” Monday’s two-sentence ruling vacated a D.C. appellate court ruling upholding Bannon’s conviction and sent the case back to a lower court, with the expectation it will be tossed.

Who said what

Dismissing the case “would effectively wipe out” the conviction, The New York Times said, but it would “have little practical effect” since Bannon already served his four-month sentence. Trump’s Justice Department has “sought to undo a number of criminal cases” involving his allies, The Washington Post said. But it’s unlikely the Supreme Court acted “out of particular sympathy or ideological alignment” with Bannon, Stanford criminal law professor Robert Weisberg told the Post. “It’s simply saying as a kind of supervisory matter: let’s clean the court of cases the prosecution doesn’t want to pursue.”

What next?

Trump previously pardoned Bannon for criminal charges tied to defrauding donors to a charity, but Bannon “pleaded guilty in a New York state court” to similar charges, under a “deal that allowed him to avoid jail time,” The Associated Press said. “That conviction is unaffected by the Supreme Court action.”

What happened

The four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II on Monday traveled farther into space than any humans before, photographing never-before-viewed stretches of the far side of the moon. The group also watched a solar eclipse and an Earthrise before beginning their voyage home. The lunar flyby marked humanity’s first trip back to the moon since the Apollo era ended in 1972.

Who said what

The Artemis II crew — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — broke Apollo 13’s record of 248,655 miles from Earth, then set a new record of 252,756 miles Monday night. “We, most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived,” Hansen said to Mission Control in Houston.

The seven-hour “lunar fly-around” was “by far the highlight” of the Artemis II mission, “yielding rich science” along with awe-inspiring “celestial sightseeing,” The Associated Press said. When the moon eclipsed their view of the sun, planets including “Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn nodded at them from the black void,” and “the landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14 also were visible, poignant reminders of NASA’s first age of exploration.”

During the solar eclipse, the astronauts “found it difficult to describe the sight when the moon was illuminated just from Earthshine — light reflected from our planet,” The New York Times said. “It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now,” Hansen said. “We just went sci-fi,” Glover said. “It is the strangest-looking thing that you can see so much on the surface.”

What next?

The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to reenter the Earth’s gravitational pull later this week before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego’s coast on Friday.

What happened

Pepsi on Sunday withdrew its sponsorship of a London music festival after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was “deeply concerning” that the headliner was Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, given his history of antisemitic and pro-Nazi comments. Pepsi, listed as the lead sponsor of July’s Wireless Festival, did not give a reason for its withdrawal.

Who said what

“Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears,” Starmer told British newspaper The Sun in an article published on Sunday. “Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.” Ye “has been seeking to return to public view in ways that do not create controversy” since apologizing for his antisemitic statements in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad in January, The New York Times said. Starmer’s comments “suggested that the prime minister did not believe Ye’s latest apology was sincere.”

Ye was also blocked from entering Australia last year “after releasing a song titled ‘Heil Hitler,’ glorifying the Nazi leader,” and he has not yet applied to enter the U.K., the BBC said. Leaders from across Britain’s political spectrum joined Starmer in distancing themselves from the rapper, but “three songs from his latest album” are “in the U.K.’s top 100 singles chart.”

What next?

It is “not clear what Pepsi’s decision will mean for the festival,” which still lists other major sponsors, the Times said. But “pressure was mounting” for Ye to be “pulled from his headline role,” The Associated Press said.

What happened

The U.S. military over the weekend rescued two airmen whose F-15E was shot down over Iran last week. U.S. forces quickly rescued the pilot deep in hostile territory, but the second crew member was not exfiltrated until early Sunday following a “sprawling, high-risk rescue mission” involving about 100 Special Operations commandoes, the CIA and dozens of military aircraft, The Wall Street Journal said, citing President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials.

Who said what

The F-15E crew member, a weapons system officer, was injured when he ejected from the jet, but was able to climb about 7,000 feet and wedge himself into a crevice to evade the Iranian forces searching for him, officials said. The “almost cinematic mission” also “faced major obstacles,” The Associated Press said. Iran said it shot down at least two MH-6 helicopters during the rescue, and the U.S. bombed two of its own MC-130Js to protect sensitive technology after the $100 million stealth transport planes got stuck on a makeshift runway in remote Iran.

What next?

The rescue mission gave both Iran and the U.S. “a new narrative as the war enters its sixth week,” the Journal said. Tehran “portrayed the downing of the jet as proof that the U.S. could be bloodied” and did not have full “air superiority,” while Trump called the operation an “Easter miracle” in “triumphant interviews and posts” as he “seeks to mobilize flagging public support for the war.”

What happened

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday celebrated his first Easter as pontiff by urging leaders “who have the power to unleash wars” to instead “choose peace!” President Donald Trump invoked God in obscenity-laced social media posts threatening to bomb all of Iran’s power plants and bridges unless it agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz by Monday evening. Indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets constitutes a war crime.

Who said what

“Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!” Trump posted over the weekend. “Open the F--kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH!” the president wrote, adding: “Praise be to Allah.” Trump’s post was “notable” for both its “vulgar language” and “somewhat desperate-sounding tone,” said The New York Times. It “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”

The Vatican has become “alarmed” at the Trump administration’s “invocations of God” to “defend” the Iran war, The Washington Post said. Pope Leo has generally been “careful in his language,” leaving “more overt criticism” to U.S. bishops and “other senior proxies,” but he has “grown blunter in pushing back against suggestions that divine providence supports the use of force or violence.” In his traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing, Leo prayed that “those who have weapons lay them down” and choose a peace not “imposed by force” or the “desire to dominate others,” but through “dialogue.”

Some critics were more direct. Trump “is not a Christian,” former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a former Trump ally, said on social media over a screenshot of his Easter post. “Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.”

What next?

Before Trump, no “other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes,” the Times said, and his “language and actions could have far-reaching consequences” for the U.S., Iran and the world. A “defiant Iran” responded to Trump’s threats by striking “infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries” and threatening to “restrict another heavily used waterway,” The Associated Press said.

What happened

Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin on Thursday said his agency has added microplastics and pharmaceuticals to a draft list of contaminants in drinking water, describing it as a “historic step” for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a MAHA champion, joined Zeldin at Thursday’s briefing to announce a $144 million initiative to study and measure microplastics in drinking water.

Who said what

“This is a direct response to the concern of millions of Americans, who have long demanded answers about what they and their families are drinking every day,” said Zeldin at the briefing. The EPA is required to update the Contaminant Candidate List every five years under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to the list “gives local regulators a tool to evaluate risks in their water supply,” NPR said, but it “doesn’t actually guarantee” research or contaminant limits. In fact, the EPA “rarely moves pollutants off the list” and into regulatory action, The Associated Press said. “I think it’s fair to call this theater,” Katherine O’Brien, an attorney with nonprofit Earthjustice, told NPR, especially as “these very same agencies” are doing “real harm” by “undermining actual legal protections” against toxic chemicals in drinking water and food. “This is an important first step,” Gannon University plastic pollution researcher Sherri Mason told NPR, “and I think we should recognize that.”

What next?

The draft Contaminant Candidate List will be open for public comment for 60 days and is expected to be finalized by mid-November.

What happened

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday forced out Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George. A Pentagon spokesperson gave no reason, saying only that George “will be retiring” as the Army’s top uniformed officer, “effective immediately.” Hegseth also reportedly fired Gen. David Hodne, head of the Army’s new Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green, chief of the Army Chaplain Corps.

Who said what

With George’s dismissal, Hegseth has “removed most of the leaders of the military services,” The Wall Street Journal said. He has “moved quickly” to reshape the Pentagon, Reuters said, but “firing a general during wartime is nearly without precedent.”

“Senior Army officers reacted with anger and frustration” to George’s abrupt removal, The New York Times said. His tensions with Hegseth were “not rooted in substantive differences” over Army policy, but instead reflected Hegseth’s “long-running grievances with the Army,” his “troubled relationship” with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and a clash over Hegseth’s “highly unusual” decision to block the promotion of four Army officers, two of whom are Black and two women. George had forged a tight partnership with Driscoll, whom Hegseth “has perceived as a threat” due to his close White House ties, CNN said. “Hegseth can’t fire Driscoll,” an administration official told The Washington Post. “So he’s going to make his life hell.”

What next?

Hegseth was expected to replace George with Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the recently installed Army vice chief of staff and Hegseth’s former top military aide.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Thursday fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying in a social media post she would be leaving the Justice Department for an unidentified “much needed and important new job in the private sector.” Trump said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former criminal defense lawyer, would serve as acting attorney general.

Who said what

Bondi’s ouster ends a “tumultuous 14-month tenure” that was largely “defined by her unyielding willingness to respond to Trump’s demands and desire to reshape the Justice Department in his image,” The Washington Post said. She “oversaw the hollowing out” of the department by “firing scores of experienced prosecutors deemed insufficiently loyal to the president.” Bondi also “set out to do Trump’s bidding” by “opening investigations into his political foes,” The Associated Press said.

But Trump became increasingly “incensed that she had not successfully prosecuted a number of his political enemies,” The Wall Street Journal said, and “frustrated she didn’t do more to contain fallout” from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking files. “People are going to say it’s Epstein,” a Trump confidante told Axios. But “this was all about his enemies list, and Pam wasn’t getting the indictments.” Trump had “many good reasons” to fire Bondi, Jeffrey Toobin said in an op-ed for The New York Times. “Her failure to serve his need for revenge against his enemies” is the “single bad one.”

What next?

Bondi is expected to leave in 45 days, Axios said. EPA chief Lee Zeldin and Blanche are widely reported to be in the running to replace her. Bondi “did almost everything Donald Trump asked” and “it wasn’t enough,” Politico said, so whoever succeeds her faces a “crucial” question: “How far will you go to avoid Bondi’s fate?”

What happened

The four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center shortly before sunset Wednesday, aiming to become the first humans to reach the moon in 54 years. The near-perfect launch sent NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen into Earth orbit, where Glover manually maneuvered their Orion crew capsule around the detached second stage of the SLS rocket, the first task on their historic 10-day journey into deep space.

Who said what

“We are going for all humanity,” Hansen, poised to be the first non-American in deep space, said before liftoff. “We have a beautiful moonrise,” Wiseman said five minutes into the flight, “and we’re headed right at it.”

Human spaceflight “may almost seem familiar and humdrum these days,” The Washington Post said. But Artemis II is a “crucial first chapter” in a “risky, expensive, technically challenging” and ambitious effort to “eventually return people to the lunar surface, build a base there and use it as a stepping stone to push deeper into the solar system.” All these plans “hinge on Artemis II going well,” The Associated Press said. The “biggest goal for the astronauts on this mission is to not die,” New York Times science reporter Kenneth Chang said on “The Daily” podcast.

What next?

Today, Orion “will fire its engines to push it on a path toward the moon,” which it will reach Monday, the Times said. After traveling 4,144 miles further from Earth than any humans before them and observing “portions of the far side that have never been seen by human eyes before,” the astronauts are scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.

What happened

Donald Trump yesterday became the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court, sitting in the audience for an hour as Solicitor General John Sauer defended Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. Justices across the board appeared skeptical of his efforts to unilaterally reinterpret the 14th Amendment and decades of federal law, and Trump left shortly after the ACLU’s Cecillia Wang began defending the citizenship rights of children born in the U.S.

Who said what

If a “president known for shattering norms and grabbing public attention intended to make the day about himself,” The Washington Post said, he wound up being “a silent observer, along with several hundred others” including Attorney General Pam Bondi and actor Robert De Niro. And “if, as some legal experts said, Trump was trying to intimidate the justices, the tactic is unlikely to work,” The Associated Press said.

The justices, “even among the conservative supermajority, seemed inclined to strike down his policy,” Quinta Jurecic said at The Atlantic. But “the fact that this case got as far as it did — and that the justices had to consider it seriously enough to spend their time rebuking it — is itself a scandal.”

What next?

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the case, Trump v. Barbara, by early summer.

What happened

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced Wednesday they had reached a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security “on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process.” The tentative agreement resurrected a bipartisan Senate bill to end the seven-week DHS shutdown by funding all agencies except those carrying out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Who said what

Johnson and Trump “had angrily rejected” Thune’s two-prong strategy last week, The New York Times said. But Trump “signaled a retreat was coming when he posted a demand” that Republicans send him a GOP-only bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol by June 1.

“Johnson and House conservatives” got a “sweetener” in the deal, CNN said: the “public promise for a second Trump megabill.” Using reconciliation to fund ICE could get Republicans to “unify behind new legislation,” The Washington Post said, “but it won’t be simple,” and the process is full of political pitfalls.

What next?

GOP leaders hope to push through the first bill “without any debate or formal vote” as early as this morning, the Times said. “Hard-right Republicans irate about the deal signaled they might not allow it to move quickly.” 

What happened

NASA on Wednesday morning appeared on track to launch its Artemis II mission in the evening, sending four astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972’s Apollo 17. There’s “an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions,” NASA said, and no apparent problems with the SLS rocket and Orion capsule set to take astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen around the moon and back.

Who said what

A “successful mission” would be a “crucial step” for NASA as it “seeks to return to the moon’s surface” and “validate technology” needed to travel “even further,” The Washington Post said. The “dwindling survivors of NASA’s greatest generation” are “thrilled that NASA is finally going back,” The Associated Press said. And the “power brokers in Washington” insist it’s a “vital national imperative” to beat China to the moon, The New York Times said. But “people on the street” tell pollsters they want NASA to “monitor” Earth-bound asteroids and “key parts of the Earth’s climate system,” while sending humans back to the moon ranks only above sending them to Mars.

What next?

“If all goes as planned,” AP said, the 10-day mission will take the four astronauts farther from Earth than anyone has ever gone, followed by a “six-hour flyby” of “never-before-seen regions of the lunar far side.”

What happened

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Tuesday ordered President Donald Trump to stop construction on his massive White House ballroom “unless and until Congress blesses this project.” The U.S. president “is the steward of the White House,” wrote Leon, a George W. Bush appointee. “He is not, however, the owner!”

Who said what

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued Trump in December, is likely to succeed in its challenge because “no statute comes close to giving the president the authority he claims” to radically transform the White House, Leon said in his order. Trump demolished the East Wing last October to build the ballroom.

Leon’s decision, “punctuated by 19 exclamation points,” is the “first meaningful setback to the president’s increasingly audacious efforts to redesign the White House and Washington,” The New York Times said. The $400 million, 89,000-square-foot ballroom is a “passion project” for Trump, Politico said. He “fumed at the ruling,” The Associated Press said, calling Leon “totally wrong” about the need for congressional approval.

What next?

Leon paused his decision for 14 days so the White House could appeal, but warned that “any above-ground construction” in that period “is at risk of being taken down depending on the outcome of this case.”

What happened

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a 2019 Colorado law barring licensed therapists from using “any practice or treatment” to change a child’s “gender expressions” or sexual orientation. The 8-1 ruling, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, found that the “conversion therapy” ban, as applied to talk therapy, was a “presumptively unconstitutional” and “egregious assault” on First Amendment free speech protections.

Who said what

Every justice but Ketanji Brown Jackson rejected Colorado’s position that its never-enforced law “was not regulating free speech but outlawing substandard medical care — something courts have long allowed,” The Washington Post said. The law “censors speech based on viewpoint,” Gorsuch wrote, and tries to “enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech.”

Jackson warned in her dissent that the ruling could be “catastrophic” for the ability of states to “regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.” Because the court’s “majority plays with fire in this case,” she said, reading from the bench, “I fear that the people of this country will get burned.”

What next?

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, but “strongly hinted that the ban would fail” the “more stringent standard of review” Gorsuch laid out in his opinion, SCOTUSBlog said. In other words, CNN said, the “death sentence for the law” will “ultimately be carried about in another court.” About two dozen other states also “ban the discredited practice,” The Associated Press said, and Tuesday’s ruling is “expected to eventually make” those laws “unenforceable” as well.

What happened

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday signed legislation renaming Palm Beach International Airport as President Donald J. Trump International Airport. Florida Republicans — who recently named the road leading to the airport President Donald J. Trump Blvd. — said they were honoring the first president to claim Florida as his residence.

Who said what

DeSantis “signed the law in private, with little fanfare — an unusual move for the governor,” The New York Times said. But other Florida Republicans “were quick to celebrate” the “massive — and costly — rebranding,” Politico said. Florida Democrats pointed to the estimated $5 million cost to rename the airport, saying Florida taxpayer money was “being misused to celebrate the man who caused gas prices to rise to over $4 a gallon.”

The Palm Beach airport is the “latest in a series of buildings, institutions, government programs, warships and money” affixed with Trump’s name, Reuters said. The Trump Organization filed a trademark application in February for “President Donald J. Trump International Airport,” but later said it wouldn’t claim any money from the rebrand.

What next?

The airport name change goes into effect July 1, subject to administrative changes from the Federal Aviation Administration.

What happened

Israel’s parliament on Monday gave final approval to legislation that makes death by hanging the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis. The Knesset approved the bill 62-48 amid condemnation from human rights groups, Palestinians and several European governments.

Who said what

“From today, every terrorist will know, and the whole world will know, that whoever takes a life, the State of Israel will take their life,” far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, the driving force behind the bill, told lawmakers. Capital punishment was already legal in Israel, but only two people have been executed in 78 years, most recently Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

“In theory, Jewish Israelis could also be executed under the law,” the BBC said, but the law’s language precludes that in practice. “The intent is clearly for the law to apply to Palestinians and not to Jewish terrorism at all,” Yoav Sapir, the former head of Israel’s public defender’s office, told The New York Times.

What next?

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has already asked the Supreme Court to annul the law. The court will likely strike it down over its discriminatory provisions, Sapir told the Times.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Monday claimed “great progress” in his administration’s “serious discussions” with Iran’s “NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME.” But if a deal is “not shortly reached,” he added in a social media post, and “if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating” all its power plants, oil wells and “possibly all desalination plants!”

Who said what

“Deliberate attacks on desalinization plants” would “be a major escalation that could constitute a war crime under international law,” Politico said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the Trump administration “will always act within the confines of the law,” but Trump “is going to move forward unabated” to achieve his objectives in the war.

The “biggest danger” for the region “may not be what Trump could do to Iran, but how Tehran could retaliate,” The Associated Press said. Iran isn’t as reliant on desalination as its Gulf Arab neighbors, who “depend on it” to “sustain their current populations.” After Trump’s post, Iran “attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai,” Reuters said, and Kuwait said Iran hit a key power and water desalination plant.

What next?

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tehran wasn’t negotiating directly with the U.S. but had received a 15-point proposal filled with “excessive, unrealistic and irrational” demands. Trump claims a “new government is in charge in Iran,” The New York Times said, but the killing of its previous leaders makes it “more difficult” for the “fractured” leadership that remains to “negotiate with American envoys or make significant concessions.”

What happened

The U.S. is allowing a sanctioned Russian “shadow fleet” tanker to deliver oil to Cuba, President Donald Trump said Sunday, effectively breaking his de facto blockade. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with that, whether it’s Russia or not,” he told reporters on Air Force One.

Who said what

Trump’s administration has gone after Cuba “more aggressively than any U.S. government in recent history,” The Associated Press said. The oil blockade was “an effort to force regime change,” but it has had “devastating effects” on civilians, “leaving many desperate.” The delivery of the roughly 730,000 barrels of oil on the Anatoly Kolodkin tanker will “reduce pressure” on Havana as it faces “a looming economic collapse,” The New York Times said. It was “unclear why the White House” is allowing the tanker to reach the island, but the decision “avoids a potential thorny confrontation with Russia just off the coast of Florida.”

Trump’s Cabinet was “limited in what it could legally do to stop the tanker,” The Washington Post said. “Seizing or boarding a Russian vessel while simultaneously managing an active military conflict in Iran” would also “pour fuel on already volatile energy markets,” Brett Erickson with Obsidian Risk Advisors told the Post.

What next?

The Anatoly Kolodkin was expected to dock in Cuba by Monday morning. Erickson told Reuters that the “two and a half weeks of oil” on the Kolodkin “can be extended to about a month in total.” The 730,000 barrels “buys them time” in Havana, University of Texas oil expert Jorge Piñón told the Times. “But this is not a magic wand.”

What happened

White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that TSA agents may receive overdue paychecks this week, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to redirect other Department of Homeland Security funds to pay airport security workers. House Republicans the same day rejected a bipartisan Senate bill to fund DHS except for the agencies responsible for Trump’s mass deportation push, then approved their own stopgap funding bill and adjourned for a two-week Easter-Passover break. Some airports remained clogged by hourslong security lines over the weekend.

Who said what

The Senate “appeared to have finally figured out” how to fund DHS, The Associated Press said, only for the deal to collapse “spectacularly” in an acrimonious split with House Republicans. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the compromise worked out by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) a “joke,” then pushed through legislation that would fund all of DHS for eight weeks. House Democrats said they would have backed the Senate compromise if Johnson had allowed a vote. “This shutdown should have ended,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told CNN over the weekend.

Homan told CBS’s “Face the Nation” he “hopes” Trump will force lawmakers to return early from their break to pass a DHS funding bill. It’s “good news” the “struggling” TSA officers will be paid, he told CNN. But “it’s ridiculous” that they are “sitting there right now, working very hard, not being paid by members of Congress out on vacation getting paid.”

What next?

Homan said the ICE agents deployed to aid TSA workers will stay on “as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations.” In the DHS funding fight, it’s “not clear what the Senate will do next,” the AP said, but “nothing ahead is likely to be easy.”

What happened

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday began his first Holy Week as pope by criticizing leaders who invoke Jesus to “justify war.” Christians throughout the Middle East are “suffering the consequences of an atrocious conflict,” including not being able to “live fully the rites of these holy days,” he said at a Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican. Hours earlier, Israeli police had blocked the top Catholic leader in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, drawing widespread criticism from Western leaders and diplomats.

Who said what

“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace,” the pope told tens of thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” Pope Leo is “known for choosing his words carefully,” Reuters said, and while he did “not specifically name any world leaders,” he has been “ramping up criticism of the Iran war.”

“Leaders on all sides of the Iran war have used religion to justify their actions,” but “especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” The Associated Press said. The secretary’s “proselytizing Christian campaign” in the U.S. military has alarmed military, legal and religious experts, The Washington Post said, and the “war with Muslim-majority Iran has only made Hegseth’s approach more stark.” Last week at the Pentagon, Hegseth invoked the “mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ” in a prayer to inflict “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

What next?

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement that Israel’s “manifestly unreasonable” and “fundamentally flawed decision” to block Pizzaballa from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre marked the “first time in centuries” that Catholic prelates were prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday at the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried before his Easter resurrection. Israeli authorities said all religious buildings in Jerusalem’s Old City, home to some of the most sacred Christian, Muslim and Jewish sites, have been closed amid Iranian missile threats, and Pizzaballa was turned back for his own safety.

But “as criticism poured in from close allies, top Israeli leaders went into damage-control mode,” The Times of Israel said. Sunday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the police to give Pizzaballa “full and immediate access” so he can “hold services as he wishes” during Christianity’s holiest week.

What happened

A federal judge in California on Thursday temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” a designation that effectively blacklisted the AI company from U.S. government contracts. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said the “broad punitive measures” imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth likely violated Anthropic’s due process and free speech rights.

Who said what

The ruling was a “clear victory” for Anthropic in its “bitter power struggle with the Defense Department over the use of its Claude system by the military,” The Washington Post said. During negotiations for a $200 million contract, Anthropic wanted to keep safeguards against using its AI on autonomous weapons and surveilling Americans, and the Pentagon rejected any limits imposed by a private contractor. When the dispute became public, Hegseth blacklisted Anthropic using an “obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage,” Reuters said.

“Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government,” Lin wrote in her 43-page ruling. If the Pentagon had real national security concerns, it “could just stop using Claude.”

What next?

Lin paused her ruling for seven days to give the Pentagon a chance to appeal. The outcome of the case and a similar challenge pending in Washington, D.C., have broad “implications for AI use in war,” The New York Times said. While the Trump administration has said it would “transition away” from Anthropic’s AI, the Post said, Claude is “deeply embedded in the military’s systems” and the Pentagon “has been continuing to use it in support of its bombing campaign in Iran.”

What happened

The International Olympic Committee on Thursday announced that transgender women athletes will be barred from competing in women’s events starting with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The announcement ends “months of speculation” over how the governing body would address one of the “most contentious issues facing global sports,” The New York Times said. It was the IOC’s “most consequential” decision since Kirsty Coventry took over as the organization’s first woman president last June.

Who said what

“Eligibility for any female category event” at any IOC event is “now limited to biological females,” the IOC said in a statement. Any athlete who wants to compete in a women’s category must take a mandatory one-time gene test to determine if they have a Y chromosome. “We know that this topic is sensitive,” Coventry said. But the “science” conducted by the IOC’s “medical experts” shows that “biological males” have inherent physical advantages, and “at the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat.”

Critics warned that the new policy “extends beyond transgender athletes and could subject all women competitors to invasive scrutiny,” Advocate said. The “potential” for “increased ‘gender policing’ of all female athletes” is “unwelcome,” said Outsports. The French Olympic Committee said the genetic tests “raise major ethical and scientific concerns” and also “practical difficulties,” since French “bioethics laws and the civil code” prohibit their use.

What next?

The IOC’s policy is “widely expected to be adopted by international sports federations and become a universal rule for competitors in female elite sports,” Reuters said. But it also “can — and likely will — be challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” The Associated Press said. Any challenge would examine the “science underpinning IOC research which was not published” on Thursday.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would sign an executive order directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents” in order to “quickly stop” the “Chaos at the Airports.” After Trump’s announcement on social media, the Senate passed a bill early Friday morning to fund the TSA and all other DHS agencies except those responsible for immigration enforcement. Pressure had been building for action as air travelers continually face long lines at some airports amid TSA callouts and resignations.

Who said what

Trump did not say how he would pay the 50,000 TSA agents on the verge of missing their second full paycheck since DHS funding expired Feb. 14. But CNN, citing two people familiar with the plans, said the president would use “funding from the sweeping legislation he signed last year known as the ’One Big, Beautiful Bill.’”

Trump “appeared eager to claim credit” for steering some of his DHS “slush fund” to the TSA, The New York Times said, but “no executive order, emergency or otherwise, would be required to access those funds,” and “it was not clear why he had waited more than five weeks” to pay the agents. “My question is, if he can do it, why didn’t he do it before?” Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said to CNN.

Republicans had “lobbied Trump” in recent days to “take executive action to pay TSA agents,” The Wall Street Journal said, citing a senior administration official. But the president was “initially opposed to the idea, believing Democrats were getting the blame for chaos at airports.” Democrats had repeatedly pushed to fund just the TSA as negotiations over ICE policies continued. The bill passed Friday by unanimous consent would fund all DHS agencies except ICE and Border Patrol, and did not include any of the reforms sought by Democrats.

What next?

The DHS bill “next goes to the House,” which is “expected to consider it” Friday before Congress leaves for a two-week Easter break, The Associated Press said. Republicans are “now expected to try to pass the immigration-enforcement funding through a process called budget reconciliation,” the Journal said. But “any reconciliation bill,” Axios said, “faces a perilous path in both chambers,” especially if it includes “$200 billion for the Pentagon tied to Iran.”

What happened

Stephen Colbert announced Wednesday that he is co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” movie after CBS’s “The Late Show” ends in May. The new film, tentatively titled “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past,” is set about 14 years after the end of “The Return of the King” and features Frodo Baggins’ hobbit friends, Colbert said in a video with director Peter Jackson. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are producing the movie, and Colbert will co-write it with his son, Peter McGee, and LOTR franchise veteran Philippa Boyens.

Who said what

For Colbert, adapting the next “Lord of the Rings” movie is “arguably his dream project,” Deadline said. “Along with being a pillar of late-night TV,” Colbert is one of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s “most dedicated and vocal fans,” The New York Times said. He has “spoken often about how the books guide his worldview” and is known to sprinkle “‘Lord of the Rings’ analysis into guest interviews.”

“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” Colbert told Jackson. “I found myself reading over and over” six early chapters of “The Fellowship of the Ring” and wanted to “make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?” After discussing the idea with his son, Colbert shared the idea with Jackson two years ago, he said, and the project took off.

What next?

The final “Late Show” episode is set to air May 21, and “Shadow of the Past” will be released sometime after Andy Serkis’ “The Hunt for Gollum” hits theaters late next year.

What happened

The Justice Department has agreed to pay Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, about $1.2 million to settle Flynn’s claims he was wrongfully prosecuted for his role in the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, according to court papers filed Wednesday, which didn’t disclose the settlement amount, and news organizations. The Justice Department and Flynn both “hailed the agreement in separate statements, hinting at the cooperative nature of the settlement,” The New York Times said.

Who said what

The settlement is the “latest turn in the long-running legal saga involving Flynn,” The Associated Press said. He twice pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s U.S. ambassador on Trump’s behalf, but then tried to withdraw his plea. Trump ended that case by pardoning Flynn in November 2020, after losing his reelection bid, and Flynn filed a $50 million malicious prosecution claim in 2023. A federal judge dismissed that suit in 2024, but Trump’s Justice Department revived it and entered settlement talks last summer.

The payout will “likely fuel questions as to whether Flynn received a favorable outcome due to his continued vocal support for President Trump,” ABC News said. It was an “extraordinary example,” the Times said, of how the Trump Justice Department “has sought to use the legal system to punish the president’s enemies and reward his allies and supporters” while trying to “erase the effect of some of the prominent criminal cases” against him and them.

What next?

Trump has demanded that the Justice Department pay him $230 million for the two prosecutions he faced before winning re-election in 2024. His administration has “also taken steps to undo criminal convictions the government had secured against Stephen K. Bannon and Peter Navarro,” The Washington Post said.