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

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5200237-pam-bondi-deportation-flights-venezuela-court-order/?tbref=hp

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

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/18/europe/analysis-putin-trump-phone-call-ukraine-intl-latam/index.html

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

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-phone-call-russia-ukraine-cease-fire-fb684085?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

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?

Chief Justice Roberts hits back at Trump calling for a judge's impeachment

Ari Melber breaks down legal showdown over Trump's deportation flights

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.

So much for loyalty: Red states ‘devastated’ by Trump cuts, tariffs

Trump Calls for Judge in Deportations Case to Be Impeached, Drawing Rare Rebuke From Roberts

 https://time.com/7269156/trump-judge-boasberg-impeach/

President Trump on Tuesday escalated his campaign to discredit judges who get in his way, calling on Congress to impeach the judge at the center of a legal fight over the deportation of hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador. Trump’s brazen assault on the judicial branch drew an unusual rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Posting on his website TruthSocial, Trump called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered Trump to halt his use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants suspected of belonging to transnational criminal gangs. Despite the judge’s order, administration officials let the deportations continue in apparent defiance of the court, and flights carrying 261 people removed from the U.S. landed over the weekend in El Salvador, where the Salvadorian government says they have been imprisoned.

Chief Justice Roberts Criticizes Trump’s Call to Impeach Judges

 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/chief-justice-roberts-criticizes-trumps-call-to-impeach-judges-e3b2be89?mod=hp_lead_pos2

President Trump called for impeaching a federal judge who issued a temporary order against an administration deportation plan, drawing a rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts for violating American legal practice dating from the founding.

Roberts issues rare public pushback after Trump calls for judge’s impeachment

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5200768-john-roberts-trump-judge-impeachment/

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement Tuesday pushing back after President Trump called to impeach a federal judge that ruled against his administration in a high-profile deportation case. 

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said.

The chief justice’s statement came hours after Trump called for impeaching U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama who blocked Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants the administration has labeled as gang members.

The plaintiffs have questioned whether Trump officials complied with the judge’s Saturday order to turn any planes around, sparking a remarkable battle between the administration and the judiciary.