https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/health/kennedy-bird-flu.html
The health secretary has suggested allowing the virus to spread, so as to identify birds that may be immune. Such an experiment would be disastrous, scientists say.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Trump deports hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members. Did he defy a court order?
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article302170974.html
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. is paying $6 million to harbor alleged Tren de Aragua members, around $20,000 per inmate.
Adelys Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, an advocacy group committed to supporting the Venezuelan community that works in alliance with the left-leaning Latino Victory Project, said there isn’t concrete evidence that that hundreds of Venezuelans in the United States are Tren de Aragua.
“It is unacceptable, inhumane, and extremely dangerous for an entire community to be labeled as potential members of Tren de Aragua under a law where any accusation made against a Venezuelan citizen cannot be challenged in any court,” Ferro said.
She said the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act could lead to deportations based on mere accusations, without evidence or due process.
Families of migrants who believe their relatives were deported by ICE say they weren't gang members
https://abcnews.go.com/US/families-migrants-relatives-deported-ice-gang-members/story?id=119892593
Sanchez said that her husband is being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration for being Venezuelan and having tattoos, after Trump on Saturday said he was invoking the 18th century Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
She provided ABC News with documents that show Tiapa does not have any criminal records in Venezuela.
Trump is nearing a sharp fork in the road to Ukraine peace
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/18/trump-putin-ukraine-peace-talks/
President Donald Trump appears far more eager for a peace deal in Ukraine than does Russian President Vladimir Putin. That’s the obvious takeaway from Tuesday’s two-hour call between the two leaders.
Trump comes across as an avid suitor in his brief, upbeat readout of the conversation, describing the talks as “very good and productive.” Putin is more guarded in the longer Kremlin version, friendly but unyielding on his basic demands. He agreed to a 30-day pause in “attacks on energy infrastructure facilities.” Ukraine had endorsed Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire on all fronts for that period.
5 takeaways from Trump-Putin call on Ukraine ceasefire
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5201481-trump-putin-phone-call-takeaways/
President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a highly anticipated phone call Tuesday, after Ukraine last week agreed to a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire in the war with Moscow.
Putin rejected that proposal Tuesday, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the call, but responded positively to Trump’s proposal of a more limited 30-day ceasefire on energy facilities on both sides of the conflict.
The Russian side said a “key condition” for any resolution to halt the war was the end of U.S. and European support for Ukraine.
Bondi on continued deportation flights despite judge’s order: ‘Absolutely’ Trump is above the Law
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration would “absolutely” continue to remove Venezuelan immigrants on deportation flights despite a ruling from a federal judge ordering them to pause their efforts.
“These are foreign terrorists, that the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Bondi said Monday on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday temporarily blocked President Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which would grant him the authority to detain and deport individuals of countries deemed foreign adversaries with little due process.
Bondi ripped Boasberg for attempting “to meddle” in foreign affairs.
“He can’t do it,” she told guest host Jeanine Pirro, adding that “what he’s done is an intrusion on the president’s authority.
“You know, this one federal judge again thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country, and he cannot,” the attorney general said.
Putin just called Trump’s bluff on Ukraine, with the Russian art of the ‘no’ deal
This is the painfully predictable lesson the Trump administration’s first real foray into wartime diplomacy with the Kremlin has dealt. They’ve been hopelessly bluffed.
They asked for a 30-day, frontline-wide ceasefire, without conditions. On Tuesday, they got – after a theatrical week-long wait and hundreds more lives lost – a relatively small prisoner swap, hockey matches, more talks, and – per the Kremlin readout – a month-long mutual pause on attacks against “energy infrastructure.”
It is important to emphasize that Trump’s long-heralded call with Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded almost nothing bar the predictable fact that the Kremlin head feels he can outmaneuver his counterpart effortlessly. The swap of 175 prisoners and return of 23 seriously wounded Ukrainians is a minor arrangement, and smacks of something already in the works, given the frequency of similar past swaps and the fact it is due to happen as quickly as Wednesday.
Putin Rejects the Trump Cease-Fire
President Trump and Vladimir Putin talked on the phone on Tuesday, and neither side is divulging many details of their chat. But strip away the diplomatic pieties and the main result is that Mr. Putin didn’t agree to Mr. Trump’s 30-day cease-fire, while Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky did. Have we figured out yet who’s the real obstacle to peace?
“Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,” the White House readout of the call said. Mr. Putin made minor concessions, including a breather from targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The White House also claimed progress on deconfliction in the Black Sea. The statement ended with overtures to “potential cooperation” in the Middle East and “an improved bilateral relationship.”
Yet it’s clear the Kremlin is demanding major concessions even for a short-term cease-fire, much less for a broader peace deal. The Russian readout repeated its demand for a “complete cessation of foreign military aid” and intelligence sharing for Ukraine. Mr. Putin also wants Ukraine cut out of the talks and deal only with the President—oh, and sanctions relief.
In Ukraine and Gaza, Trump finds out that ending wars is tougher than it looks
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/19/politics/trump-peacemaker-ukraine-russia-gaza-israel/index.html
President Donald Trump is finding out that campaign trail bravura over peace deals can’t yield quick wins as wars rage.
As Trump made the tiniest of steps forward Tuesday on his peace plan for Ukraine, another ceasefire, for which he claimed personal credit, shattered. Israel launched a new onslaught on Hamas in Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians.
The US president’s call with a largely intransigent Russian President Vladimir Putin as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to full-scale war highlighted two leaders whose own political priorities will likely supersede his own.
Such is the unpromising geopolitical atmosphere standing in the way of Trump’s dream of a legacy as a global peacemaker, which he’d predicted would be fulfilled as soon as he returned to the Oval Office.
Readouts of his chat with Putin only reinforced the fears of Ukraine’s government and its European allies that Trump sees the war as a sideshow to his wider quest of a rapprochement with Moscow. This leads him to see the conflict through a Russian lens. And it explains why he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky until he signed up for Trump’s 30-day ceasefire plan, but had only praise for Putin when he refused to buy in on Tuesday.
Trump's Approval Rating Plunges With America's Most Accurate Pollster
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-poll-tracker-march-18-2046375
President Donald Trump's approval rating has taken a significant hit, according to America's most accurate pollster.
According to a poll conducted by AtlasIntel between March 7 and 12 among 2,550 respondents, Trump's approval rating currently stands at 47 percent, while 52 percent disapprove of his job performance. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.
This is down from previous polls conducted by AtlasIntel in January and February, which found that 50 percent approved Trump's job performance, while 50 percent disapproved.
AtlasIntel was the most accurate polling company of the 2024 election, according to veteran pollster Nate Silver.
Atlas Intel's latest poll shows a decline in Trump's approval rating, a trend also reflected by Newsweek's poll tracker.
Newsweek's average of the 10 most recent polls found that Trump's approval rating is 47 percent, while his disapproval rating is 50 percent, giving him a net approval rating of -3 points.
Health Systems' New AI Dilemma: Bet Now, or Wait for Better?
https://www.newsweek.com/health-systems-artificial-intelligence-ai-integration-2046465
In the health care industry, generative AI is growing savvier by the day. But despite the tech's rapid advancement—or because of it—some health care organizations are still deploying with caution.
Hundreds of health systems and clinics across the United States have started infusing AI into their workflows, though many of them are taking it slow, executive leaders told Newsweek in recent conversations. For example, they might pilot a generative AI tool in one department or focus group, then gather feedback and make tweaks before rolling it out to an entire specialty or provider group.
Tensions are building as tech companies urge health systems to keep pace with AI's rapid evolution—while health systems continue to pull back on the reins. As health care organizations evaluate their options, many are pondering a few key questions: Is it better to act now or wait for the next best thing? Is "good enough" AI truly good enough for now? Which is riskier: going all in or holding back?
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
The judge who tried to stop the deportation planes is not happy with the Trump administration
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/17/judge-boasberg-trump-deportation-hearing-00234945
James Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, was clearly galled by the government’s actions and legal arguments in the case, particularly its assertion that an order he issued Saturday to turn around any planes carrying such deportees had no force once they were outside U.S. territorial waters.
At the heart of the issue is Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 statute intended to bolster the president’s ability to deport foreign nationals from countries with which the United States is at war. Trump issued a proclamation labeling Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization, as sufficiently linked to the Venezuelan government to trigger those wartime powers.
Boasberg on Saturday ordered the administration to refrain from removing anyone from the country under Trump’s claimed authority after five Venezuelans who feared deportation under the Alien Enemies Act filed suit. Those five men apparently remain in the country, in U.S. custody. But planes carrying about 250 other Venezuelan nationals — many of whom the Trump administration accused of being members of Tren de Aragua — departed from the U.S. shortly before Boasberg issued his order. They landed Saturday night in El Salvador, which had agreed to take the prisoners for a fee.
At moments during the 45-minute hearing, the normally unflappable judge raised his voice, rejecting the Justice Department’s contention that the government had an exceptionally urgent need to move the planes.
Boasberg implied that the government had intentionally hurried the planes off the ground on Saturday afternoon because the government knew he had scheduled a hearing at 5 p.m. Saturday. “Any plane that you put into the air in or around that time, you knew that I was having a hearing at 5,” the judge said with evident frustration.
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