A federal judge on Wednesday said he has found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg warned he could refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not “purge” its contempt. Boasberg said the administration could do so by returning to U.S. custody those who were sent to the El Salvador prison in violation of his order so that they “might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability.”
Here's the latest:
ACLU sues Defense Department school system over banning race- and gender-related books
The American Civil Liberties Union asserts that the removal of race- and gender-related books and curricula violated students’ First Amendment protections against government censorship.
The suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in northeast Virginia says the Department of Defense Education Activity nixed educational materials in line with an executive order issued by Trump in January.
Trump’s order forbids the school system from “promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating ... un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories” connected to race and gender.
Books ranging from Harper Lee’s “ To Kill a Mockingbird ” and Khaled Hosseini’s “ The Kite Runner ” to “ Hillbilly Elegy ” by Vice President JD Vance have since been stripped from some schools’ library shelves, according to the ACLU.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit against the Defense Department’s school system
AmeriCorps members who respond to disasters and help nonprofits let go in DOGE cuts
Young volunteers who respond to natural disasters and help with community projects across the U.S. have been discharged as a result of the Trump administration ’s campaign to shrink government workforce and services.
AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps informed volunteers Tuesday they would exit the program early “due to programmatic circumstances beyond your control,” according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.
More than 2,000 people, ages 18 to 26, serve for nearly a year, according to the program’s website, and get assigned to projects with nonprofits and community organizations or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The volunteers are especially visible after natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Helene last year. The organization said on social media last month that teams have served 8 million service hours on nearly 3,400 disaster projects since 1999.
▶ Read more about DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps
Rep. Elise Stefanik is considering a New York gubernatorial run
That’s according to a person close to her who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Stefanik, R-N.Y., is a member of House Republican leadership and onetime nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
New York’s current governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, was elected in 2022.
Stefanik, a close ally and fierce defender of the president, had been nominated to represent the U.S. at the United Nations. But her nomination was pulled last month amid concerns about leaving a Republican House seat vacant when the party has such a narrow majority in the chamber.
— Seung Min Kim
US imposes sanctions on Chinese refinery accused of buying Iranian oil
The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on a Chinese refinery accused of purchasing more than $1 billion worth of Iranian oil, saying the proceeds help finance both Tehran’s government and Iran’s support for militant groups.
The sanctioned Chinese refinery received dozens of shipments of crude oil from Iran, the Trump administration said Wednesday. Some of the petroleum came from a front company for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, U.S. authorities said.
Several companies and vessels involved in the shipments also were added to the sanctions list.
The penalties follow earlier efforts by the Trump administration to disrupt the flow of Iranian oil.
Some Head Start centers close in Washington state over funding concerns
A handful of preschools in Washington state have stopped providing Head Start services, saying the federal government hasn’t sent their funding.
Inspire Development Centers in Sunnyside, Washington, closed Wednesday with no plans to reopen until they receive federal money, a statement Tuesday said.
The closure affects more than 300 low-income preschoolers and more than 100 babies and toddlers. More than 50 staff members will be laid off this week, Inspire said.
Head Start, a federal child development program for the nation’s neediest kids, runs through private and public schools, which receive federal money to operate. Inspire said it typically receives annualnotice of its funding amount in February, with a finalized award by May 1. But this year, the centers haven’t heard from the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the Office of Head Start.
Judge finds probable cause to hold Trump administration in contempt for violating deportation order
It regards his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said he the administration must try to “purge” itself of a contempt finding or he’ll launch hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution.
“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” the judge wrote.
The move by Judge Boasberg marks an escalation in a battle between the judicial and executives branches of government over a president’s powers to carry out key White House priorities. The Republican president has called for Boasberg’s impeachment while the Justice Department has accused the judge of overstepping his authority.
▶ Read more about the deportation flights case
Chinese leader Xi Jinping: China will stand with Southeast Asian countries in face of economic shocks
Xi’s remarks were made at a dinner with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim while Xi was on a state visit as part of his Southeast Asia tour.
“In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical ... confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism,” Xi said.
Xi is visiting Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia this week, days after Trump’s tariff announcements disrupted the global economy, and he’s used the trip to promote Beijing as a source of stability in the region. Although the trip was likely planned before the tariffs uncertainty, it was a chance for Beijing to shore up its own relationships in the region and look for ways to mitigate the 145% tariffs Trump has kept on China, even as he paused tariffs for other countries.
▶ Read more about Chinese leader Xi Jinping
EPA can’t end grants from $20 billion Biden-era fund for climate-friendly projects, judge says
The federal judge says some nonprofits awarded billions for a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects cannot have their contracts scrapped and must have access to some of the frozen money.
The ruling is a defeat for Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, which argues the program is rife with financial mismanagement.
The order late Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan “gives us a chance to breathe after the EPA unlawfully — and without due process — terminated our awards and blocked access to funds that were appropriated by Congress and legally obligated,” said Climate United CEO Beth Bafford.
The lawsuit by Climate United Fund and other groups contends that the EPA, Administrator Lee Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money, illegally blocked the funds awarded last year and had jeopardized the organizations’ operations.
▶ Read more about the EPA grants
Iranian state TV says 2nd round of Iran-US nuclear talks will be in Rome
That comes after earlier confusion over where the negotiations would be held.
The talks will be mediated by Oman, as they were last weekend in the sultanate’s capital of Muscat, the state TV report said.
On Monday, multiple officials said they would be held in Rome. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said early Tuesday they’d be held in Oman.
The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
▶ Read more about nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran
White House is starting new media policy that restricts wire services’ access to the president
The Associated Press says the new White House media policy violates a court order by giving the administration sole discretion over who gets to question Trump, and the news agency asked a federal judge Wednesday to enforce that order.
The swift move was in response to a policy issued late Tuesday by the White House, which suffered a courtroom loss last week over The Associated Press’ ability to cover Trump. The plans, the latest attempt by the new administration to control coverage of its activities, sharply curtail the access of three news agencies that serve billions of readers around the world.
The AP filed Wednesday’s motion with U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, asking for relief “given defendant’s refusal to obey” his order last week. McFadden said the White House had violated the AP’s free speech by banning it from certain presidential events because Trump disagreed with the outlet’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
▶ Read more about news media access at the White House
Maine Gov. Janet Mills says state will fight lawsuit over transgender students in sports
The Trump administration said Wednesday it’s suing Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.
Mills, a Democrat, said the lawsuit is really about the federal government imposing its will on Maine and that other states should be concerned.
“Today is the latest, expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law,” Mills said in a statement. “This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law.”
RFK Jr.’s mixed message about the measles outbreaks draws criticism from health officials
As measles outbreaks popped up across the U.S. this winter, pediatricians waited for the nation’s public health agency to send a routine, but important, letter that outlines how they could help stop the spread of the illness.
It wasn’t until last week — after the number of cases grew to more than 700, and a second young child in Texas had died from a measles infection — that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally issued its correspondence.
The delay of that letter may seem minor. But it’s one in a string of missteps that more than a dozen doctors, nurses and public health officials interviewed by The Associated Press identified in the Trump administration’s response to the outbreak.
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to contain an epidemic in a tight-knit, religious community in West Texas have run counter to established public health strategies deployed to end past epidemics.
▶ Read more about the response to the measles outbreak
Members of Congress travel to El Salvador in split trips highlighting prison there
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen arrived in the Central American nation Wednesday morning as part of a trip meant to assess the condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to a person familiar with his trip who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
In a video posted to social media prior to his flight, Van Hollen, a Democrat, said the trip was meant to highlight the importance of “due process” and “the rule of law” for all Americans.
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran prison, a move administration officials have said was erroneous.
Rep. Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, posted Tuesday evening that he’d visited the prison.
“I leave now even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland,” Moore wrote on social media.
— Mary Clare Jalonick and Matt Brown
___
An earlier version of this item incorrectly said Rep. Riley Moore is from Virginia instead of West Virginia.
Anti-DEI conservative strategist urges Trump to escalate his Ivy League battle
A prominent opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion programs is imploring President Trump to cut all federal money and strip nonprofit status at Harvard and other Ivy League schools that defy federal orders.
Conservative strategist Christopher Rufo said the government should respond to Harvard’s defiance with the same tools used to force desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement.
“Trump needs to follow through on his threat to defund one of the Ivy League universities,” Rufo said on social media Tuesday. “Cut the funding and watch the university implode.”
Harvard on Monday became the first school to openly defy sweeping orders from the Trump administration, prompting the government to freeze more than $2 billion in grants and contracts.
Rufo said Harvard has discriminated against white and Asian American students, citing events including graduation celebrations specific to certain ethnic groups, along with a 2021 theater performance exclusively “for Black-identifying audience members.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi says Kilmar Abrego Garcia ‘is not coming back to our country’
She was asked at an unrelated news conference about the case of the El Salvador man living in Maryland who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison. The Supreme Court has said the administration must “facilitate” his release.
Bondi said the U.S. government would fly him back on a plane if El Salvador President Nayib Bukele wanted to return him.
“President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story,” Bondi said. Even if he were to return to the U.S., the government would deport him again, Bondi said.
“He would have come back, had one extra step of paperwork and gone back again. But he’s from El Salvador, he’s in El Salvador and that’s where the president plans on keeping him,” Bondi said.
The Trump administration has alleged he’s a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime and has denied the allegations.
Vance, his wife and kids are traveling to Italy and India later this week, his office says
Vice President JD Vance says the trip will take place April 18-24.
In Rome, Vance will meet with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who’s scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday. He’ll also meet with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
His India stops include New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, which is known for the Taj Mahal, and include meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Vance and his family will also visit cultural sites.
The vice president converted to Catholicism. His wife, Usha Vance, is the first Indian American person to become second lady. They have three young children.
WTO says the volume of trade in goods worldwide is likely to decrease by 0.2% this year
And the World Trade Organization says that’s due to Trump’s shifting tariff policies and a standoff with China, but it would take a more severe hit if the U.S. president carries through on his toughest “reciprocal” tariffs.
The decline in trade will be particularly steep in North America even without the stiffest tariffs, the global trade forum said Wednesday, with exports there this year expected to fall by 12.6% and imports by 9.6%.
The WTO based its report on the tariff situation as of Monday. Initially, 2025 and 2026 were expected to have continued expansion of world trade, but Trump’s trade war forced WTO economists to substantially downgrade their forecast, the forum said.
▶ Read more about the WTO’s trade forecast
Trump’s schedule for Wednesday
This morning, at 11:30 a.m., Trump will receive an intelligence briefing. Later this evening, at 6:30 p.m., he will attend an Easter prayer service and dinner.
US shoppers increased their buying last month
It’s fueled by a spending spree on big ticket items from gadgets to cars before Trump’s expansive new tariffs started kicking in.
Retail sales rose 1.4% in March, after rising 0.2% in February, according to the Commerce Department. Retail sales fell 1.2% in January, hurt in part by cold weather that kept more Americans indoors, denting sales at car dealers and most other stores.
Excluding sales at auto dealers, sales only rose 0.5%.
Sales at auto dealers rose 5.3%, while electronics retailers had a 0.8% increase. Sporting goods retailers enjoyed a 2.4% gain.
But analysts expect sales will start falling off as the slew of tariffs increase costs for companies and many retailers are forced to raise prices, hurting shopper demand.
▶ Read more about U.S. retail sales
Trump administration sues Maine over participation of transgender athletes in girls sports
The administration announced the lawsuit Wednesday against Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.
The lawsuit follows weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that’s led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told the president: “We’ll see you in court.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the legal action at a news conference in Washington alongside former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has emerged as a public face of the opposition to transgender athletes.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit over transgender athletes
Rubio and Witkoff will travel to Paris for talks on the war in Ukraine
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Paris this week for talks with European allies on U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The State Department said Wednesday that Rubio and Witkoff would be in the French capital Thursday for the meetings, details of which weren’t immediately available.
The pair will have “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed.”
Rubio will also “discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announces lawsuit over Trump tariffs
Newsom is challenging Trump’s authority to impose a 10% tariff on all imports.
The state, which will file the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, will ask the court to immediately block the tariffs.
Newsom said the tariffs “are wreaking chaos” on Californians and threatening jobs in the state, which has the largest economy in the nation.
“We’re standing up for American families who can’t afford to let the chaos continue,” he said.
The Democratic governor previously asked countries to exempt California exports from retaliatory tariffs.
Trump says Japanese officials coming to White House to negotiate over tariffs and other issues
Trump said in a morning post on his social media platform that he’ll attend the Wednesday meeting alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!” the president wrote.
Trump’s announcement last week of a 90-day pause on the latest series of duties put Japan’s 24% across-the-board rate on hold, but a 10% baseline tariff and a 25% tariff on cars, auto parts, steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. remain in place.
Japan’s chief trade negotiator, Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa, was traveling to Washington for the talks.
Harvard’s challenge to Trump administration could test limits of government power
On Monday, Harvard became the first university to openly defy the Trump administration as it demands sweeping changes to limit activism on campus. The university frames the government’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.
Both sides are digging in for a clash that could test the limits of the government’s power and the independence that has made U.S. universities a destination for scholars around the world.
But no university is better positioned to put up a fight than Harvard, whose $53 billion endowment is the largest in the nation. But like other major universities, Harvard also depends on the federal funding that fuels its scientific and medical research. It’s unclear how long Harvard could continue without the frozen money.
For the Trump administration, Harvard presents the first major hurdle in its attempt to force change at universities that Republicans say have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.
▶ Read more about the clash between Harvard and the Trump administration
Trump says he wants to give money and airplane tickets to immigrants who ‘self-deport’
Trump said he wants to give money and an airplane ticket to any immigrant who is in the country illegally who chooses to “self-deport,” and work to get those who are “good” back in the U.S., a break from his usual hardline immigration rhetoric.
Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to carry out mass deportations, said in a taped interview with Fox Noticias that aired Tuesday that his administration is focused right now on getting “murderers” out of the country. But for others in the U.S. illegally, he said, he’s going to implement “a self-deportation program.”
Trump offered few details about the plan, including timing, but said the U.S. would provide immigrants airfare and a stipend.
“We’re going to give them a stipend. We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re going to work with them — if they’re good — if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can,” Trump said.
▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on “self-deportation”
US judge presses Trump administration on its refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia
A federal judge said Tuesday that she will order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland issued her order after Trump officials continually refused to retrieve Abrego Garcia. She said they defied a “clear” Supreme Court order.
She also downplayed Monday’s comments by White House officials and El Salvador’s president that they were unable to bring back Abrego Garcia, describing their statements as “two very misguided ships passing in the night.”
“The Supreme Court has spoken,” Xinis said, adding that what was said in the Oval Office on Monday “is not before the court.”
In her written order published Tuesday evening, Xinis called for the testimony of four Trump administration officials who work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
▶ Read more about Judge Xinis’s comments
The Associated Press
