Politics

The pair, Wyatt Clifford Fain and Payden David Guy Cosper, were captured on camera last April shoving the iconic red rock sandstone formations at Nevada’s Lake Mead National Park, home to 140 million-year-old sand dunes. Video of their act went viral and drew quick condemnation.

A jury found each guilty of one count of injury and depredation of government property after a two-day trial, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. They face a maximum penalty of one year in prison, a $100,000 fine, or both.

They are both set to be sentenced on July 8.

Melanie Krause, who had served as acting head since February, will step down over the new data-sharing document signed Monday by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agreement will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.

We delineated North Dakota’s disturbing relationship to Elbit—highlighting the atrocities that Elbit’s drones, particularly the Hermes 450, have been used to commit. One such atrocity was the well-documented attack on the World Central Kitchen in April 2024—widely considered to be a flagrant war crime under international law. However, Sen. Paulson denied the magnitude of Israel’s atrocities, dismissing our concerns and minimizing Israel’s responsibility with statements like: “That’s just war.” He also regurgitated Israeli propaganda, parroting the claim that Hamas uses “human shields” and put “babies in ovens” on October 7, 2023. We had to repeatedly rein in our conversation to get back to our main concern: Elbit Systems operations in North Dakota.

Our secondary concern was HB 1038, a bill to allocate $15 million in funding for the replacement of Chinese drones used by North Dakota state agencies and public institutions. Our worry is that, if passed, this bill could open up another avenue for North Dakota to deepen its relationship with Elbit Systems. We met with several other legislators over the course of the day. Some, like Sen. Randy Burckhard (R-5), were adamant that China “is out to get us,” while others, like Sen. Kathy Hogan (D-21) and Rep. Gretchen Dobervich (D-11), were far more sympathetic to our cause.

Although it surely was not intended, Trump’s tariff plan may have opened the door for the Democrats to push for and win Medicare for All(M4A), a longstanding goal for progressives. It does this in two ways. First Trump was able slip by this massive tax scheme with almost no attention from the media. Democrats should demand Trump treatment when they push M4A.

The second reason is that Trump’s tariffs show that it is politically acceptable to tax the middle-class. Trump’s tariff scheme is a tax increase for middle-income households of several thousand dollars annually. If that is politically acceptable, then surely much smaller tax increases that may be needed to cover M4A would surely be politically feasible.

Ksenia Karelina, also identified in the media as Ksenia Khavana, is “on a plane back home to the United States,” Rubio said in a post on X. She was arrested in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg in February 2024 and convicted of treason later that year on charges stemming from a donation of about $52 to a charity aiding Ukraine.

The WSJ said that the U.S. in exchange freed Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen, who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the U.S. for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics to Russia. There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian or U.S. authorities.

Petrov was extradited to the U.S. in August 2024 where he faced charges of export control violations, smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering. He was accused of involvement in a scheme to procure U.S.-sourced microelectronics subject to U.S. export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier of critical electronics components for manufacturers supplying weaponry and other equipment to the Russian military.

In her prepared remarks, which will be delivered at a Senate subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism hearing this afternoon, Wynn-Williams accused Meta of working "hand in glove" with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). That partnership allegedly included efforts to "construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics" as well as provide the CCP with "access to Meta user data—including that of Americans."

In an unsigned opinion on Monday evening, five of the court’s conservative justices – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh – indicated that they would “not reach” the plaintiffs’ arguments regarding the application of the AEA to them. Instead, the majority explained, because the relief that they are seeking “necessarily” suggests that their confinement in immigration custody and removal under the AEA is invalid, they must bring their claims as habeas corpus claims – that is, a challenge to the legality of their detention.

The only place that such claims can be brought, the majority continued, is the judicial district where a prisoner is being detained. Because the plaintiffs in this case are now in Texas, rather than in Washington, D.C., the majority concluded, their case cannot be brought in Washington.

By their nature elite universities are conservative—as in cautious—institutions, and I don’t think that equips them well to deal with a full frontal assault like this. Also, elite universities are tied to other elites, especially from the world of finance, who themselves are somewhere between the lines with Trump, and have some sympathy for the Trumpist attacks on diversity and inclusion as university values. So that’s part of what we’ve seen that’s frozen these institutions in their tracks—why they are reacting like deer in the headlights.

The US does not normally see high interest rates on its debt as its bonds are viewed as a safe investment, but on Wednesday rates spiked sharply to touch 4.5%.

The rise came after Trump pressed ahead with sweeping tariffs on goods being imported into the US, while Washington's trade war with China escalated further.

After the US implemented a 104% tariff on products from China at midnight on Wednesday, Beijing hit back with 84% levy on American products.

Stock markets have been falling sharply over the past few days in reaction to the escalating global trade war and fears of tariffs leading to higher prices.

The office’s closure strips Homeland Security of a key internal check and balance, analysts and former staff say, as the Trump administration morphs the agency into a mass-deportation machine. The civil rights team served as a deterrent to border patrol and immigration agents who didn’t want the hassle and paperwork of an investigation, staff said, and its closure signals that rights violations, including those against U.S. citizens, could go unchecked.

The office processed more than 3,000 complaints in fiscal year 2023 — on everything from disabled detainees being unable to access medical care to abuses of power at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and reports of rape at its detention centers. For instance, following reports that ICE had performed facial recognition searches on millions of Maryland drivers, a CRCL investigation led the agency to agree to new oversight; case details have been removed from the DHS website but are available in the internet archive. The office also reported to Congress that it had investigated and confirmed allegations that a child, a U.S. citizen traveling without her parents between Mexico and California, had been sexually abused by Customs and Border Protection agents during a strip search.

The Internal Revenue Service has reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to share the data of immigrants in the country illegally to assist with immigration enforcement, according to a new court filing.

The arrangement, formalized Monday in a memorandum of understanding, allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to request taxpayer information from the IRS for individuals under criminal investigation or who have deportation orders, including names and addresses.

“DHS can legally request return information relating to individuals under criminal investigation, and the IRS must provide it,” Andrew J. Weisberg, a tax division attorney with the Department of Justice, wrote Monday in opposition to a lawsuit by advocacy organizations seeking to block the sharing of tax information with immigration authorities.

Local public health agencies also suspect that additional cases are occurring but those who are infected are not seeking testing or medical care, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “It’s very likely that the outbreak is larger than it is right now,” Osterholm says, “but how much larger we just don’t know.”

Complicating matters, in late March the Trump administration abruptly terminated funding to support local testing for measles and other infectious diseases and for staff to track outbreaks and give vaccinations.

In addition, jobs at the CDC, which provides expertise for state and local health departments facing such crises, have been cut as part of a massive restructuring plan for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The agency has deployed teams to Texas to assist with the outbreak. But more broadly, those job losses are an “unrecognized, catastrophic tsunami that’s going to sweep through public health,” Osterholm says. State and local governments have made minimal investments in public health, ceding responsibility to the CDC. “The reliance on federal support has left us highly vulnerable” to measles and other contagious diseases and to future pandemics, he says.

“In a sense, we’re going to be supporting public schools and charter schools through the payment of our taxes,” Klemin said.

The overall fiscal impact of the bill is unclear. If students from traditional public K-12 schools switch to charter schools, the state would spend less to educate those students in per pupil payments. However, if private school or homeschool students begin attending public charter schools, the cost to the state would increase.

Senate Bill 2241 was approved by the Senate in February on a 40-7 vote.

The bill will now travel back to the Senate to concur with the House’s amended bill. If approved, it will go to the governor’s desk for his signature.

The Supreme Court has granted a request by the Trump administration to temporarily block a lower court order requiring that a deported Salvadorian man be returned to the US.

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to pause a ruling that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be brought back from El Salvador by midnight on Monday.

The government has said Mr Garcia was deported on 15 March due to an "administrative error", although they also allege he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer denies.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted $10 million in state settlement money last year to the charity arm of a welfare initiative led by his wife.

The unusual injection of cash was part of an undisclosed settlement agreement involving Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. The money went to the Hope Florida Foundation, a nonprofit that was established by the state to help realize Casey DeSantis’ vision to reshape welfare.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration's firing of 16,000 probationary federal employees to go forward, at least for now.

In an unsigned opinion and without addressing the question of whether the terminations themselves were lawful, the court said the nonprofits that brought the case did not have legal standing to sue over federal employees' firings.

The vote was 7 to 2. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have kept the firings paused while the case plays out in the lower courts, according to the order.

The federal agency now headed by former television host Mehmet Oz announced Monday that it is substantially boosting payments to privately run Medicare Advantage plans, a boon for an industry notorious for overcharging taxpayers and denying patients necessary care.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it is jacking up payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by more than 5% for 2026—an increase of over $25 billion. That's more than double the increase proposed by the Biden administration.

The government has said Mr Garcia was deported on 15 March due to an "administrative error", although they also maintain he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his family denies.

In their emergency appeal to America's highest court, the administration argued the Maryland judge lacked authority to issue the order and that US officials cannot compel El Salvador to return Mr Garcia.

An appeals court has paved the way for a likely showdown in the US supreme court over presidential power after reinstating two federal agency heads fired from their posts in Donald Trump’s all-out assault on the government bureaucracy.

The Washington DC court of appeals ordered that Cathy Harris and Gwynne Wilcox be restored to the positions with the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) respectively. The ruling overturned a previous verdict by a three-judge panel which had ruled that their dismissals – which had been earlier overturned under legal challenge – were indeed legal.

The U.S. Justice Department abruptly shut down its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, signaling a major shift in how the federal government will handle crypto-related crimes going forward, according to a memo sent Monday night by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

In it, Blanche outlines a decentralized approach in which U.S. attorney’s offices will now take the lead on digital asset cases, focusing primarily on crimes involving terrorism.

Going forward, the document said efforts would now focus on “prosecuting individuals who victimize digital asset investors, or those who use digital assets in furtherance of criminal offenses such as terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, hacking, and cartel and gang financing.”

The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a judge's decision to block the removal of men alleged to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador without any legal process under the Alien Enemies Act.

The ruling, in which the justices were divided 5-4 in part, means the Trump administration can try to resume deportations under the rarely used wartime law, so long as detainees are given due process.

The detainees must be given time to challenge their detentions via a habeas corpus claim and be able to challenge whether the act is being lawfully applied.

A lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing tens of millions of Americans’ private, sensitive information to Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) can continue, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York partially rejected the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed Feb. 11 on behalf of two labor unions and individual current and former government workers across the country. This decision is a victory: The court agreed that the claims that OPM illegally disclosed highly personal records of millions of people to DOGE agents can move forward with the goal of stopping that ongoing disclosure and requiring that any shared information be returned.

Cote ruled current and former federal employees "may pursue their request for injunctive relief under the APA [Administrative Procedure Act]. ... The defendants’ Kafkaesque argument to the contrary would deprive the plaintiffs of any recourse under the law."

To pressure broadcasters, Carr is invoking the rarely enforced news distortion policy that was developed starting in the late 1960s and says the FCC should consider revoking broadcast licenses.

Although CBS appears to have a strong defense, Carr can make life difficult for broadcasters simply by opening investigations. As experts have previously told Ars, the FCC can use its rules to harass licensees and hold up applications related to business deals. Carr said in November that the news distortion complaint over the 60 Minutes interview would factor into the FCC's review of CBS owner Paramount's transfer of TV broadcast station licenses to Skydance.