US revokes policy restricting subpoenas of reporters’ phone records – as it happened

The FBI arrested Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly helping a man evade US immigration authorities as they sought to arrest him at her courthouse. In its criminal complaint, the FBI alleges that Dugan escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant, and his lawyer out of the courtroom through the jury door on 18 April as a way to help avert his arrest. Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, deemed the arrest a move by Trump to “undermine our judiciary”. The FBI director Kash Patel posted about the arrest on X and then quickly deleted it, for reasons that are as yet unknown. The Trump administration moved to restore the student visa registrations of potentially thousands of foreign students in the US whose legal status had recently been abruptly terminated. As Politico notes: “[T]he justice department announced the wholesale reversal in federal court after weeks of intense scrutiny by courts and dozens of restraining orders issued by judges who deemed the mass termination of students from a federal database – used by universities and the federal government to track foreign students in the US – as flagrantly illegal.” DoJ rescinds policy restricting subpoenaing journalists. In a memo, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi said the policy instated by her predecessor, Merrick Garland, would need to be revoked “in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks.” Donald Trump appeared to state that the US position on the future of Crimea was that it would “stay with Russia”, despite the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruling out such a recognition as a red line for his country in any potential peace deal. Trump made the comments in an interview with Time magazine in which he also claimed without evidence that the Chinese president Xi Jinping had called him - prompting another rebuke from the Chinese government that the US and China had not been in talks over trade – and said that he was open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president as the two countries began talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. In a post on Truth Social, Trump claims that Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” and that most of “the major points are agreed to”. The Trump administration is starting to remove exhibits from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and returning those pieces to the original owners. The removal of these artifacts comes after Trump issued an executive order that targeted the Smithsonian for promoting “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives”. George Santos, the disgraced former representative, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, bringing an end to an extraordinary controversy that began with a fraudulent congressional campaign. Santos lied extensively about his life story both before and after entering the US Congress, and was ultimately convicted of defrauding donors. He sobbed in court as he was sentenced in Long Island, New York. Read the story here. Joe Kasper, the chief of staff to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was central to a dramatic power struggle at the Pentagon, unexpectedly left his post. Despite Hegseth’s assurances just days ago that Kasper would merely transition to “a slightly different role” within the department, Kasper confirmed to Politico that he will instead return to government relations and consulting, maintaining only limited Pentagon ties as a special government employee. Read the story here. A federal judge has called for a hearing to determine whether a two-year-old US citizen was deported by the Trump administration to Honduras with her mother with “no meaningful process”, Politico is reporting and court documents show. The baby, identified as VML in court documents, was with her mother and sister when they were detained and queued for deportation during a regular check-in at the New Orleans Ice office on Tuesday. “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” the judge wrote. “But the Court doesn’t know that.” The judge who was looking to speak with the mother to verify this claim, called immigration officials but was notified the family had been released in Honduras. The hearing is set for 16 May “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process”, the judge wrote. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One earlier, the president was asked whether he had any message for the leaders of India and Pakistan, amid heightened tensions between the two countries, following the killing of 25 Indian tourists and one Nepalese national in Kashmir three days ago. Trump responded by mistakenly claiming that the conflict in Kashmir, which started after the partition of India in 1947, had been going on for centuries. He also misstated the death toll and when the attack took place. “They’ve had that fight for 1,000 years in Kashmir. Kashmir’s been going on for 1,000 years, probably longer than that,” Trump said. “And, it was a bad one yesterday, that was a bad one, over 30 people.” Asked in a follow-up question whether he was concerned that there is now increased tension on the border between the two nuclear-armed powers along the line of control, Trump replied: “Well, there have been tensions on that border for 1,500 years. So, you know. The same as it’s been.” Trump was born in June of 1946, making him just over a year older than the conflict in Kashmir. When the president travels to the United Kingdom, for a state visit, he will be hosted by King Charles, whose great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was the last British viceroy of India and oversaw the hasty partitioning of the subcontinent, during which more than a million people were killed and many millions more displaced. Both India and Pakistan claimed Kashmir after its status was not settled by the partition plan, and the region was divided between the two during fighting that began in 1947. Doge has ordered AmeriCorps to cut nearly $400m in grants, the Washington Post reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The grants would make up about 41% of the 2025 funding for the independent government agency, which assigns thousands of people to do community service across the US. The order to terminate the grants comes a week after the White House put the majority of the agency’s 650 staff members on paid administrative leave and two weeks after Doge officials visited the agency offices. Trump dismissed questions about the US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal chats from reporters aboard Air Force One. Reporters asked about new reports that suggest Hegseth had the unclassified commercial messaging service Signal installed on his work computer. “I don’t view Signal as important,” Trump said. “I think it’s fake news, really. I don’t view it as important.” The senator Ron Wyden, who had previously co-sponsored a bill that would protect journalists and their sources, said that the Trump administration’s decision to revoke policies that protect journalists from being subpoenaed is “laying the groundwork to lock up reporters who don’t rat out their sources who expose crimes by his administration”. Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said that every Democrat who didn’t prioritize the bill Wyden co-sponsored – called the Press act – “should be ashamed”. “Everyone predicted this would happen in a second Trump administration, yet politicians in a position to prevent it prioritized empty rhetoric over putting up a meaningful fight,” Stern said in a statement. “Because of them, a president who threatens journalists with prison rape for protecting their sources and says reporting critically on his administration should be illegal can and almost certainly will abuse the legal system to investigate and prosecute his critics and the journalists they talk to.” Trump claims that Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” and that most of “the major points are agreed to”. “Stop the bloodshed, NOW,” Trump posted on Truth Social after landing in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral. “We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!” Trump said that sanctuary cities should be closed down when asked for his reaction to a San Francisco judge blocking the federal government from denying federal funds to sanctuary cities. Trump made these comments to press aboard Air Force One. “We shouldn’t have sanctuary cities. We’ll see how that turns out,” Trump said. “Sanctuary cities are sanctuary for criminals. We should close them down. If we want a safe country, we have to get rid of sanctuary cities.” The Trump administration is starting to remove exhibits from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and returning those pieces to the original owners. The removal of these artifacts comes after Trump issued an executive order that targeted the Smithsonian for promoting “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives”. Among the artifacts being returned are a bible and George W Williams’s History of the Negro Race in America from 1619-1880, one of the first books on racism in the US. The books are being returned to Dr Amos Brown, a civil rights leader and pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, according to emails viewed by Black Press USA, the news site for the National Newspaper Publishers Association. An inspector general at the treasury department has asked IRS employees to turn over a wide range of documents including any requests for taxpayer data from Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, the president, the executive office of the president or the president’s office of management and budget, according to documents obtained by ProPublica. The investigation comes after several Democrats asked the inspector general to look into whether the Trump administration is violating taxpayer privacy following disclosure of a data-sharing agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS. “The risks created by these activities cannot be overstated … [IRS] data can be inaccurate because of identity theft, keypunch errors, obsolete address information, and a wide range of other reasons,” the request for investigation reads. “If DHS relies on the same data to deport millions of people without validating its accuracy, it is likely to end up making grave errors that impact American citizens and immigrants with valid legal status.” The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said the Department of Justice will be rescinding a policy instated by her predecessor, Merrick Garland, that limited when the agency could subpoena journalists for records and testimony, according to Axios. “I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland’s policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks,” Bondi wrote in a memo obtained by Axios. Previously, Garland instituted policies that limited government officials’ ability to seize materials and records – like email and phone records – from reporters except in extreme cases. Garland’s policies came after the revelation that the Trump administration, during his first term, had secretly sought and obtained records of at least four reporters including from CNN and the Washington Post. The Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin said Dugan’s arrest “is a gravely serious and drastic move” that threatens the country’s system of checks and balances: Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a Democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by. By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this President is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line. While details of this exact case remain minimal, this action fits into the deeply concerning pattern of this President’s lawless behavior and undermining courts and Congress’s checks on his power. The senator Elizabeth Warren has also weighed in, saying the arrest “rings serious alarm bells”: “First, Trump ignored the Supreme Court,” Warren posted on BlueSky. “Now, his FBI arrested a judge. This administration is threatening our country’s judicial system.” The senator Bernie Sanders said Dugan’s arrest has nothing to do with immigration and called on Republicans to stand up to Trump’s “growing authoritarianism”. “Trump’s latest attack on the judiciary and Judge Dugan is about one thing – unchecked power,” Sanders’ statement read. “He will attack and undermine any institution that stands in his way. Trump continues to demonstrate that he does not believe in the Constitution, the separation of powers, or the rule of law. He simply wants more and more power for himself.” The Milwaukee city council has called the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan “shocking and upsetting.” In a statement, the members of the council said Dugan should be “afforded the same respect and due process that she has diligently provided others throughout her career”. “Perhaps the most chilling part of Judge Dugan’s arrest is the continued aggression by which the current administration in Washington, DC has weaponized federal law enforcement, such as ICE, against immigrant communities,” the statement read. “As local elected officials, we are working daily to support our constituents who grow increasingly concerned and worried with each passing incident.” Newly revealed Department of Justice documents obtained by USA Today show that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued a directive to law enforcement officials to pursue and apprehend people they suspect are gang members, in some cases without a warrant. The documents provide a significant look at how the Trump administration is applying the Alien Enemies Act when it comes to detaining and deporting people they suspect are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The memo, issued on 14 March, gives law enforcement officials permission to “apprehend aliens” based upon a “reasonable belief” that they are a member of Tren de Aragua. “Given the dynamic nature of enforcement operations, officers in the field are authorized to apprehend aliens upon a reasonable belief that the alien meets all four requirements to be validated as an Alien Enemy,” the memo reads. “This authority includes entering an Alien Enemy’s residence to make an AEA apprehension where circumstances render it impracticable to first obtain a signed Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal.” The attorneys general of Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, California and 14 others states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its threats to take away federal funding from public schools unless they get rid of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The lawsuit, filed today, comes just a day after states were expected to get confirmation from every school in the country that all DEI programs had been eliminated. The California attorney general, Rob Bonta, said the US Department of Education was “unapologetically abandoning its mission to ensure equal access to education”. California receives $7.9bn in federal funding for services related to children and education. “Let me be clear: the federal Department of Education is not trying to ‘combat’ discrimination with this latest order,” said Bonta. “Instead it is using our nation’s foundational civil rights law as a pretext to coerce states into abandoning efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through lawful programs and policies. Once again, the President has exceeded his authority under the Constitution and violated the law.” The Trump administration’s battle with the judiciary over his aggressive immigration agenda took a major turn this morning when the FBI arrested Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly helping a man evade US immigration authorities as they sought to arrest him at her courthouse. In its criminal complaint, the FBI alleges that Dugan escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant, and his lawyer out of the courtroom through the jury door on 18 April as a way to help avert his arrest. According to sources speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, however, Ice arrived at the courtroom that morning, and upon them going to Dugan’s office, she directed the defendant and his lawyer to a side door in the courtroom, then down a private hallway and into a public area on the sixth floor. Agents later arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse. Dugan, who was charged with two federal felony counts of obstruction and concealing an individual, was released from custody after appearing briefly in federal court in Milwaukee and will appear again on 15 May. The arrest is the first publicly known instance of the Trump administration charging a local official for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement. Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, deemed the arrest a move by Trump to “undermine our judiciary”. The FBI director Kash Patel posted about the arrest on X and then quickly deleted it, for reasons that are as yet unknown. In other news: The Trump administration moved to restore the student visa registrations of potentially thousands of foreign students in the US whose legal status had recently been abruptly terminated. As Politico notes: “[T]he justice department announced the wholesale reversal in federal court after weeks of intense scrutiny by courts and dozens of restraining orders issued by judges who deemed the mass termination of students from a federal database – used by universities and the federal government to track foreign students in the US – as flagrantly illegal.” Donald Trump appeared to state that the US position on the future of Crimea was that it would “stay with Russia”, despite the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruling out such a recognition as a red line for his country in any potential peace deal. Trump made the comments in an interview with Time magazine in which he also claimed without evidence that the Chinese president Xi Jinping had called him - prompting another rebuke from the Chinese government that the US and China had not been in talks over trade – and said that he was open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president as the two countries began talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. George Santos, the disgraced former representative, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, bringing an end to an extraordinary controversy that began with a fraudulent congressional campaign. Santos lied extensively about his life story both before and after entering the US Congress, and was ultimately convicted of defrauding donors. He sobbed in court as he was sentenced in Long Island, New York. Read the story here. Joe Kasper, the chief of staff to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was central to a dramatic power struggle at the Pentagon, unexpectedly left his post. Despite Hegseth’s assurances just days ago that Kasper would merely transition to “a slightly different role” within the department, Kasper confirmed to Politico that he will instead return to government relations and consulting, maintaining only limited Pentagon ties as a special government employee. Read the story here. Axios interviewer Mike Allen noted that the most definitive photo of last year’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump was taken by an Associated Press (AP) photographer. Yet the White House has now curtailed the AP’s access to the president. “Do you worry about history being lost with these new restrictions?” he asked. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded: I don’t view them as restrictions. We view them as opening access to more outlets, more voices, more news journalists and outlets. We shouldn’t have a few outlets who have a monopoly over the briefing room or over that 13-person press pool that covers the president. Trump made more than 30,000 false and misleading statements during his first term in office, according to a Washington Post count, and many would argue he is on course to beat that total second time around. But Leavitt said of Trump: Look, he is hostile with the media. There’s no doubt about it. He calls them out, rightfully so, when he believes their stories are fake when they are fake. I also promised in my first briefing we would hold the media accountable when they get things wrong. But we also do recognise and respect that they are legacy media speaking to millions of Americans across the country and we want them to get it right, which is why we engage with them so frequently every single day. Fitting for a city of secrets, I am on the roof of the International Spy Museum in Washington for an event hosted by the Axios news website and featuring White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Interviewer Mike Allen kicked off by asking if her boss, Donald Trump, has lived up to his promise to be the most transparent and accessible president in US history. Unsurprisingly, Leavitt said yes. We have never seen this level of transparency and accessibility and the press who cover the White House beat every day - they will tell you maybe not on the record, but they’ll tell you off the record that we allow them in, we welcome them in our offices, we talk to them on a daily basis. Later, and no less predictably, Leavitt took a swipe at Trump’s predecessor. You had a previous president in Joe Biden who hid from the press, who didn’t do press engagement, hardly did sit-down interviews. I think this is back to what the American people want. President Trump has revolutionised the way a president communicates. Not only does he engage directly with reporters, but he speaks directly to the public. Truth Social: there’s probably been one since I’ve been sitting on this stage. He put statements out directly. He writes them himself. He dictates them to us as staff. And I think that level of transparency is quite refreshing and I think it’s a big reason he was re-elected again. Axios has the full FBI complaint against Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested for allegedly trying to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest, you can read it here. According to the complaint, when Dugan learned Ice agents were present at the courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz with an administrative warrant, she told them to speak to the chief judge first. Dugan meanwhile, allegedly took Flores-Ruiz out of the court room through a juror door, per witnesses cited by the FBI. Agents later arrested him outside the courthouse. Earlier we reported that the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, citing sources it did not identify, said Dugan steered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to a private hallway and into a public area but did not hide the pair in a jury deliberation room as she has been accused of doing. Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers released the following statement regarding the arrest of Milwaukee county judge Hannah Dugan: In this country, people who are suspected of criminal wrongdoing are innocent until their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt and they are found guilty by a jury of their peers—this is the fundamental demand of justice in America. Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump Administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor. I have deep respect for the rule of law, our nation’s judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favor, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime. I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law. Donald Trump said on Friday that Ukraine has not yet signed a deal on rare earth minerals and he hopes it will be signed immediately. The US president added that “work on the overall peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is going smoothly”. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not signed the final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States. It is at least three weeks late. Hopefully, it will be signed IMMEDIATELY. Work on the overall Peace Deal between Russia and Ukraine is going smoothly. The Ukrainian president has not yet commented on Trump’s stance in his Time magazine interview that “Crimea will stay with Russia” as part of a potential peace deal nor his claim that Zelenskyy was apparently on board. But as recently as yesterday Zelenskyy ruled out recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea as a red line for his country. Analysis: Pope’s funeral a diplomatic minefield as Trump sets fire to US alliances A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of Donald Trump flying to the Vatican this weekend and publicly feuding with international leaders in front of St Peter’s Basilica in the midst of the sombre rituals and rites that will mark the funeral of Pope Francis. The US leader’s first international trip of his second term comes at one of the most politically fractious and fraught moments in recent memory, as his “America first” project sets fire to US alliances and trade relationships around the world. Between international tariffs, the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, the Trump team’s open antipathy toward Europe and its hard line on immigration from Central and South America, the papal funeral could prove to be a minefield of international diplomacy. Assuming Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends – on Friday he said “military meetings” might preclude him from making the trip – the funeral will be the first time the Ukrainian leader has been in the same place as Trump since the US president and the vice-president, JD Vance, berated him in the White House in February. Trump cut short that meeting, saying Zelenskyy was “gambling with world war three” and being “very disrespectful”. He has now floated the prospect of the US recognising Russian control of Crimea and accused Zelenskyy of delaying a peace deal, testing the Ukrainian president’s patience and raising the danger of a new meltdown in bilateral relations. Then there are the EU leaders, members of a bloc that Trump has said was “formed to screw the United States”. At their head is the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Despite imposing (and then pausing) a 20% tariff on all goods from the EU, Trump and von der Leyen have not spoken directly or arranged an EU-US summit over the brewing trade war, meaning a meeting on the sidelines of the funeral could be well-timed. Von der Leyen had tacitly criticised the US in print, saying that Europe has “no bros and no oligarchs” and that “the west as we knew it no longer exists.” The US president has never been known for his tact. And as world leaders gather in the Vatican this weekend and millions tune in to follow the funeral, it is Washington that will be sending the elephant in the room. Joe Kasper, the controversial chief of staff to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was central to a dramatic power struggle at the Pentagon, has left his post, in an unexpected departure. Despite Hegseth’s assurances just days ago in a TV appearance on the Fox & Friends show that Kasper would merely transition to “a slightly different role” within the department, Kasper confirmed to Politico in a Thursday interview he will instead return to government relations and consulting, maintaining only limited Pentagon ties as a special government employee. A senior defense official at the Pentagon confirmed the dramatic title change to the Guardian on Friday, saying Kasper would be “handling special projects at the Department of Defense”. “Secretary Hegseth is thankful for [Kasper’s] continued leadership and work to advance the America First agenda,” the official said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump’s protectionist policy push. The quick exit comes after Kasper was implicated as the orchestrator of a power grab that led to the dismissal of three senior Pentagon officials – Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll – allegedly as part of a leak investigation. The administration’s first hundred days created a troubled tenure for Kasper, with anonymous sources claiming he was frequently late to meetings, failed to follow through on critical tasks, and displayed inappropriate behavior, including berating officials and making crude comments allegedly about his bowel movements during high-level meetings. “He lacked the focus and organizational skills needed to get things done,” one anonymous insider told Politico. Here is the full story on the FBI’s arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan from my colleagues Marina Dunbar and Maya Yang. The White House wants to defund a bipartisan board that advises the president and Congress on social security policy, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the Trump administration moves to cut costs and eliminate independent voices in government. The White House’s office of management and budget has notified staff at the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) that it plans to cut the board’s annual budget from around $3m to zero, according to the sources. Congress established the SSAB in the 1990s as an independent federal agency to provide objective analysis on how to improve social security, the popular program that annually pays out $1.4tn in benefits to 73 million Americans. While it does not have decision-making power, the board’s research has helped shape how the SSA runs itself and facilitated legislation. Bob Joondeph, the board’s chair, told Reuters he had yet to be formally notified of the funding decision. “Its strength is its bipartisanship. It’s one of the few places you can go in government and get something that a bunch of people from different parties can reach consensus on,” Joondeph said. “The fact that it would be eliminated, to me is symbolic of sort of the larger trends in Washington.” Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s so called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has targeted the Social Security Administration for significant cuts, triggering complaints about longer wait times from union officials and advocacy groups. The agency has announced plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs, roughly 12% of its workforce. The SSA and the OMB did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The Trump administration said on Friday that it is restoring the student visa registrations of potentially thousands of foreign students in the United States whose legal status had recently been abruptly terminated, Reuters reports. The decision was announced during a court hearing before a federal judge in Boston who was hearing a challenge by one of the many international students nationally suing over the administration’s actions. Those students’ status had been revoked as a result of their records being terminated from a database of the approximately 1.1 million foreign student visa holders, putting them at risk of deportation. Since Trump took office on 20 January, records for more than 4,700 students have been removed from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice)-maintained database known as Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (Sevis), according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The database monitors compliance with visa terms and records foreign students’ addresses, progress toward graduation and other information. To remain in the database, student visa holders have to obey conditions like limits on employment and avoiding illegal activity. Shortly before Friday hearing in Boston University student Carrie Zheng’s case, US district judge F Deniss Saylor said he had received an email from a lawyer from the government alerting him to a change in position by Ice. According to that email, Ice was now “developing a policy that will provide a framework for Sevis record terminations”. Until that policy is issued, the Sevis records for Zheng and similarly situated plaintiffs will remain active or will be restored, the email said. Reuters reports that according to the US justice department’s criminal complaint, judge Hannah Dugan became “visibly angry” and commented that the situation was “absurd” when she discovered that immigration officials were there to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz. Dugan ordered the immigration officials to go and speak with the chief judge and then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through a door which led to a non-public area of the courthouse, the complaint said. Carl Ashley, chief judge of the Milwaukee court, declined to comment. But the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, citing sources it did not identify, said Dugan steered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to a private hallway and into a public area but did not hide the pair in a jury deliberation room as some have accused her of doing. The Associated Press reports that following her arrest this morning, judge Hannah Dugan appeared briefly in federal court in Milwaukee later this morning before being released from custody. Her next court appearance is 15 May. “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing. He declined to comment to an Associated Press reporter following her court appearance. Dugan is accused of escorting a man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, and his lawyer out of the courtroom through the jury door on 18 April as a way to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court. The affidavit quotes the courtroom deputy as having heard Dugan say words to the effect of “Wait, come with me” before ushering them into a non-public area of the courthouse. The action was unusual, the affidavit says, because “only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defense attorneys and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door.” Court documents detailing the case against Dugan were not immediately available, and the justice department didn’t immediately have a comment for the Associated Press on Friday. A person answering the phone on Friday at Dugan’s office said he could not comment, and the Associated Press left an email and a voicemail on Friday morning seeking comment from Milwaukee county courts chief judge Carl Ashley. George Santos, the disgraced former representative, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Friday, bringing an end to an extraordinary controversy that began with a fraudulent congressional campaign. Santos, 36, was sentenced early Friday morning in New York. He did not respond to shouted questions as he entered the courthouse in suburban Long Island. Shortly before being elected to the US House of Representatives in New York’s third congressional district, Santos was first accused of deceiving voters by the North Shore Leader, a local newspaper in Long Island, who accused Santos of fabricating much of his resumé. Santos later admitted that he lied to campaign donors and stole the identities of nearly a dozen people to fund his congressional campaign. His sentencing was not without controversy. Before his Friday court appearance, Santos referred to himself as a “scapegoat” on social media, in reference to prosecutors accusing him of organizing the fraudulent conspiracy. Santos also alleged that the justice department was a “cabal of pedophiles”, in posts made to X. Prosecutors highlighted Santos’s comments in a filing after Santos’s defense team requested a two-year prison sentence. The former congressman later defended his remarks, saying he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but that a seven-year prison sentence was too harsh. “Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” Santos wrote. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.” During Trump’s first presidency, the justice department indicted a local Massachusetts judge on charges of obstructing federal immigration authorities, alleging that she helped a man who was living in the US illegally sneak out a back door of a courthouse to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent. The prosecution of a sitting judge sparked outrage from many in the legal community, who slammed the case as politically motivated. The case against Newton district judge Shelley Joseph was dropped in 2022 under the Biden administration after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench. The arrest of a judge is a remarkable escalation in the White House’s battle with the judiciary over Trump’s aggressive agenda to remove undocumented migrants from the US. In a statement provided to NBC News, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said: The days of actively aiding and abetting illegal aliens invading our country are over. The Trump administration will never waver on putting Americans and America First with a no-nonsense approach to immigration enforcement. In this administration, anyone who commits crimes exposes themselves to criminal liability. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested earlier today by federal authorities, is being charged with two federal felony counts of obstruction and concealing an individual. Citing two federal sources, the outlet reports that Dugan, 65, was scheduled to appear before US magistrate judge Stephen Dries at 10.30am local time on Friday on the second floor of the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee. Brady McCarron, spokesman for US Marshals Service in Washington DC, confirmed Dugan was arrested at about 8am at the Milwaukee county courthouse and is in federal custody. Here is the X post that Kash Patel swiftly deleted, via NPR’s Tom Dreisbach, announcing that the FBI arrested Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly trying to obstruct an immigration operation arrest last week. The arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan is the first publicly known instance of the Trump administration charging a local official for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement. Emil Bove, now the justice department’s principal associate deputy attorney general, issued a memo in January calling on prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against local government officials who obstructed the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts. And in February, Trump signed an executive order directing agency heads to ensure federal funding wasn’t facilitating illegal immigration or “sanctuary policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation”. Bove stated in the three-page memo: “Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands or requests.” Here’s the extract: The Supremacy Clause and other authorities require state and local actors to comply with the Executive Branch’s immigration enforcement initiatives. Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration- related commands and requests pursuant to, for example, the President’s extensive Article Il authority with respect to foreign affairs and national security, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Alien Enemies Act. The U.S. Attomey’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution, including for obstructing federal functions in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and violations of other statutes, such as 8 U.S.C. §§ 1324, 1373. Declination decisions with respect 10 resistance, obstruction, or other non-compliance with lawful immigration-related commands and requests from federal authorities shall be disclosed as Urgent Reports pursuant to Justice Manual § 1-13.130. A US Marshal Service spokesperson has confirmed that Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan was arrested on Friday morning at the courthouse where she works. The confirmation from the Marshal Service comes shortly after FBI director Kash Patel said in a since deleted X post that federal officials arrested Dugan for allegedly trying to obstruct an immigration operation arrest. The FBI has arrested a Wisconsin judge for allegedly trying to obstruct an immigration operation arrest, FBI director Kash Patel said in a since deleted post on X. On Friday morning, Patel wrote – then quickly deleted: “Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction – after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week. We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject – an illegal alien – to evade arrest. Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public. We will have more to share soon. Excellent work @FBIMilwaukee.” Officials have yet to identify the defendant but according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the defendant appears to be Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant facing three misdemeanor battery counts. The outlet reports that Flores-Ruiz was in Dugan’s courtroom on 18 April for a scheduling hearing. According to sources speaking to the outlet, Ice arrived at the courtroom that morning and upon going to Dugan’s office, she directed the defendant and his lawyer to a side door in the courtroom, then down a private hallway and into a public area on the 6th floor. Congress is unlikely to support any invasion of Greenland, Denmark’s semi-autonomous territory, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said. Speaking to reporters in Copenhagen during a visit by several Congress members, Jeffries said: “I don’t believe that there is real bipartisan support in the Congress to aggressively move on Greenland … You’ll have to ask our Republican colleagues, but I haven’t seen serious Republican members of Congress weigh in support of the notion that we should somehow invade Greenland.” He added that the congressional delegation did not discuss increasing US military presence with Danish officials, Reuters reports. Jeffries’s comments come a month after the US vice-president, JD Vance, visited Greenland during which he criticized Denmark for not being a good ally. A New York beekeeper who has been in the US for decades has been accused of concealing a leadership role in the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s, prosecutors have said in documents. The man told federal agents: “I know I’m finished” when he was arrested on Thursday on charges that he hid his past when he applied for for a green card and US citizenship, according to the prosecution in the case. Faustin Nsabumukunzi, 65, was charged with covering up from US authorities his role as a local leader in Rwanda when the genocide began in 1994. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis were killed during the three-month-long genocide. The indictment of the Bridgehampton man was unsealed in Central Islip on Long Island, the suburban district to the east of New York City. The Associated Press has some useful background for today’s expected sentencing of indicted fabulist George Santos, who was elected in 2022, flipping a wealthy district representing parts of Queens and Long Island for the GOP. Soon after his election, it was revealed that the political unknown had fabricated much of his life story, painting himself as a successful business owner who worked at prestigious Wall Street firms and held a valuable real estate portfolio. In reality, Santos was struggling financially and even faced eviction. The revelations led to congressional and criminal inquiries into how he had funded his campaign. As his sentencing approached, Santos wrote on X: I learned that no matter left, right or, center we are all humans and for the most part Americans (LOL) and we have one super power that I cherish and that is compassion. To the trolls… well you guys are an impactful part of how people shape themselves, and y’all made me much stronger and made my skin thicker! He also made one final plug for his Cameo account, where he records personalized video messages for $100. “Think ahead and of any celebration or event coming up later this year. Book them today,” Santos wrote, ending the post with a series of heart emojis. Away from foreign policy for a moment, the disgraced former US representative George Santos, who lied about his life story and defrauded donors, faces sentencing in federal court today. The New York Republican, who served in Congress for barely a year before being ousted in 2023 by his House colleagues, pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He admitted to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of nearly a dozen people, including his family members, to fund his winning campaign. As part of a plea deal, Santos has agreed to pay roughly $580,000 in penalties in addition to prison time. In a text message on Thursday, the 36-year-old told the Associated Press he was “ready to face the music” in court on Friday. I’m doing as well as any human being would be doing given the circumstances. I will be in court tomorrow, ready to face the music. Prosecutors are seeking seven years in federal prison for Santos, arguing in recent court filings that he “remains unrepentant” and has not shown genuine remorse. They cite recent comments Santos has made on social media in which he casts himself as a victim of prosecutorial overreach. In a letter to the court this week, Santos stressed that he remains “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but objects to the sentence being sought, which he said is overly harsh. Santos’s lawyers have called for a two-year prison stint, which is the mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated identity theft. They argue such a penalty is comparable to sentences handed to former US representative Jesse Jackson Jr and other political figures convicted of similar financial crimes. As mentioned earlier, negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program will return on Saturday to the secluded sultanate of Oman, where the Associated Press reports experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal. The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on Iran closing in on half a century of enmity. Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. Neither Iran nor the US have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to Muscat, the Omani capital. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend’s talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations. Donald Trump claimed again on Friday that he had spoken with Chinese president Xi Jinping but did not say when, adding that he would give details “at the appropriate time”. Reuters reported Trump’s comments as he spoke to reporters before departing the White House to travel to Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday. Here is an extract from the Time interview in which Trump once again blames Ukraine for the outbreak of the war, which Russia started when it launched its full-scale invasion, citing its Nato aspirations. [Trump] may more likely be remembered for having broken with decades of foreign policy embraced by Republican and Democratic Presidents, alienating NATO allies, and siding with Russia in its war with Ukraine. In his interview with TIME, Trump blamed Kyiv for initiating the war. ‘I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO,’ the President says. The negotiated peace he is pursuing would hand Vladimir Putin some 20% of Ukrainian territory. ‘Crimea will stay with Russia,’ Trump says. China on Friday once again denied Donald Trump’s assertion that his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal. “China and the U.S. are NOT having any consultation or negotiation on #tariffs. The U.S. should stop creating confusion,” according to a foreign ministry statement posted on X. In the 22 April Time magazine interview, which was published today, Trump repeated his claim that his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal and that Chinese president Xi Jinping has called him. Beijing has repeatedly disputed the US characterization of talks. The US president did not say when Xi called or what the two leaders discussed, telling Time: He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf. Yesterday, Trump told reporters at the White House, declining to say to whom he was referring: “It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China.” Earlier, China had denied multiple assertions from the White House that the two countries were engaged in active negotiations over tariffs. Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China and the US had “not conducted consultations or negotiations on tariffs, let alone reached an agreement”. He added that reports to the contrary were “false”. Away from the Time interview for a moment, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports that British and Irish academics are cancelling trips to conferences in the US because of immigration risks, according to a professor in Dublin. Scott Lucas, professor of international politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin, said has personally heard of several counterparts at a British university who had their phones taken during an immigration procedure. He said: That university is now advising their staff to either delete all social media apps before entering the US or to take a burner phone. “There was nothing specific that came back from these colleagues in terms of what they were looking for, it’s almost a sense of if you fit a certain profile visiting the US now, and unfortunately academics fit a certain profile, you could be stopped if you are a foreign national,” he told the Irish Examiner newspaper. Luke O’Neill, a biochemistry professor at Trinity College Dublin, told Irish radio station Newstalk how he was quizzed on a trip to Harvard. “I thought I wasn’t going to get through at one point actually. It was a good 15 minutes of asking me where I was going ... they asked ‘what’s your occupation?’ and I said ‘I’m an immunologist’ and the guy said, ‘oh are you into vaccines’, I was a bit paranoid. “Then when he found out I was going to Harvard, he [asked] ‘what are you doing in Harvard?’.” When he eventually reached Harvard and told them what happened, his US colleagues said: “Oh yeah, they’re quizzing academics going through.” “Something has changed there, it’s a bit unnerving,” O’Neill added. Here’s Trump’s full comment from the Time interview in which he has asserted what appears to now be the US position on the future of Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014, and even appeared to suggest Zelenskyy was somehow on board – despite the Ukrainian president’s firm and clear stance on this issue. Crimea will stay with Russia. And [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along. We’ve not yet had reaction from the Ukrainian president to the Time interview, but just yesterday he reiterated that accepting recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea was a red line for his country. Donald Trump has said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president as the two countries began talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. Following a meeting last week to outline a framework for a potential nuclear deal, which a US official described as yielding “very good progress”, Trump told Time magazine, in a 22 April interview published on Friday: I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran. As my colleague Patrick Wintour reported yesterday, Iran has insisted it must be allowed to have its own uranium enrichment capacity for its civil nuclear programme, rejecting a US demand that Tehran must rely exclusively on imported nuclear fuel. If Washington sticks to the position taken by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, in the third round of talks in Oman on Saturday, the two sides will have hit their first major negotiating hurdle. Asked in the Time interview whether he was open to meeting supreme leader Ali Khamenei or president Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: Sure. Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, has warned of military action against Iran unless a new deal is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons. When asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack. Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday at what Trump has said is a key moment in diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine. Witkoff has emerged as Washington’s key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war, and has already held three long meetings with the Kremlin leader. Video published by the Kremlin showed Witkoff and Putin shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries before sitting down on opposite sides of a white oval table. Putin was accompanied by his foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Russian news outlet Izvestia earlier published photographs showing Witkoff strolling in central Moscow with Dmitriev, who has played a prominent role in contacts with the Trump administration. Former president and first lady Joe and Jill Biden also planned to attend the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said. Biden, a lifelong Catholic who had met the pope several times, awarded Pope Francis the presidential medal of freedom in January before leaving the White House. Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy plan to arrive in Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Saturday. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would meet separately. The Vatican said 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns. Donald Trump has said in an interview with Time magazine that Crimea “will stay with Russia” as part of peace negotiations with Ukraine. Trump accused Zelenskyy on Wednesday of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimea peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014. Zelenskyy has repeated many times during the war that recognizing occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country. Donald Trump has said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president as the two countries began talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. Following a meeting last week to outline a framework for a potential nuclear deal, which a US official described as yielding “very good progress”, the US president told Time magazine, in a 22 April interview published on Friday: “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran.” Asked whether he was open to meeting supreme leader Ali Khamenei or president Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.” Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the west says is necessary for a civilian energy programme. Donald Trump said he was open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or the country’s president, when he was asked by Time magazine in an interview on 22 April whether he would meet with either as the countries began nuclear talks. Apple is reportedly planning to switch assembly of all iPhones for the US market to India as the company seeks to reduce its reliance on a Chinese manufacturing base amid Donald Trump’s trade war. The $3tn (£2.3tn) technology company aims to make the shift as soon as next year, the Financial Times reported. Apple has been swept up in Trump’s aggressive tariff policies, with the iPhone maker at one point among the biggest stock market casualties because of the prospect of its Chinese-made products being hit with a hefty import tax when they reach the US. However, the blow was softened by a White House decision to exclude smartphones from the heaviest Chinese tariffs, although Apple is still exposed to a 20% levy on all Chinese goods as part of the US president’s response to China’s role in producing Fentanyl. The complex manufacturing process behind iPhones involves more than 1,000 components sourced from all over the world – albeit they are largely put together in China. Apple is secretive about details of its production processes but analysts estimate that about 90% of its iPhones are assembled in the country. According to the FT, Apple plans to source from India the more than 60m iPhones sold in the US annually by the end of 2026 – a commitment that would require more than doubling iPhone assembly in India. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, had an unsecured internet connection installed in his office to evade the Pentagon’s security filters and use Signal on a personal device, two sources told the Associated Press (AP). Defense department computers are connected to the internet through two separate networks: one for classified information and another for unclassified information. The revelation that Hegseth was using another line means it is possible that sensitive information may have been at risk of hacking or surveillance. It is the latest in a series of developments concerning Hegseth and security protocols, starting with the explosive news that he and other top security officers were using Signal to discuss strikes on Yemen, which came to light after a journalist was accidentally added to the group. You can read more from today’s First Things newsletter here: US president Donald Trump said his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal and that Chinese president Xi Jinping has called him, according to a Time magazine interview published on Friday as Beijing continues to dispute US characterization of talks. Social security, the sacred cow of the US welfare system dating back to Franklin Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal, faces significant threat as it reels under the stress of Elon Musk’s aggressive incursions, its former head has said. Martin O’Malley, former commissioner of the social security administration (SSA) under Joe Biden, said such a breakdown could result in disruption to benefit payments on which more than 70 million Americans depend, sending shock waves across the economic and social landscape and posing a political challenge to Donald Trump, who has repeatedly vowed that social security will be left untouched in his radical remake of US government. The warnings come amid a welter of reports of website outages, regional office closures and recipients being wrongly declared dead following the activities of Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency”, also known as Doge, which has been missioned to make drastic cutbacks and root out supposed waste, fraud and abuse. About 7,000 of the SSA’s 57,000-strong workforce have been culled in recent weeks as Musk, the tech billionaire and world’s richest person, has sought to live up to his vow to slash non-essential federal workers. More job cuts are feared to be on the way. Insiders and unions warn that the cuts already made threaten to render the system inoperable. “I truly believe there’s going to be some interruption of benefits for some period of time, and I believe that will probably happen in the very near future,” the Long Island Press quoted O’Malley as telling a town hall meeting this week hosted by two Democratic representatives from New York, Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi. “I’ve never hoped I was wrong so much.” The Swiss president says Switzerland is among 15 countries with which the United States plans to conduct “privileged” negotiations to help reach a deal after sweeping US tariffs on dozens of countries that have shaken global markets, reports the Associated Press (AP). Karin Keller-Sutter, in an interview with broadcaster SRF published Friday, said she was “satisfied” with talks in Washington this week that included an International Monetary Fund conference and her one-on-one meeting with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent. Keller-Sutter also serves as Switzerland’s finance minister. “The United States has defined a group of 15 countries with which it wants to find … a quick solution in this tariff question. Switzerland is part of this group of these 15 countries,” she told reporters separately late on Thursday in Washington, according to the AP. It was not immediately clear which 14 other countries were included, but she told SRF that “the US envisages conducting – I would say somewhat privileged – negotiations and finding solutions” with that group. Before the Trump administration paused some of its most stringent tariff plans, products imported from Switzerland had been set to face tariffs of 31% – more than the 20% tariffs on goods from the European Union. Switzerland is not a member of the 27-country bloc. The AP reports that, according to figures published by the Swiss embassy in Washington, the US has been Switzerland’s most important goods export market worldwide since 2021, while Switzerland is the fourth most important export market for US services. The bilateral trade volume in goods and services between Switzerland and the US reached $185.9bn in 2023, the embassy says on its website. Keller-Sutter said a memorandum of understanding was to be drawn up after which negotiations can begin. A document would also lay out the most important topics, and “we have also been assigned a specific contact person. This is not easy in the US administration,” she was quoted as saying. “The U.S. authorities have clearly expressed their desire to find a solution with Switzerland,” Keller-Sutter told SRF. She said no timetable had been set, but the two sides agreed to move forward quickly “because uncertainty is poison for the economy.” Trump’s sweeping “liberation day” tariffs on 2 April set off turmoil in world stock markets. A week later, Trump spoke by phone with Keller-Sutter in a conversation that her office said focused on tariffs. She emphasised the “important role of Swiss companies and investments” in the US. Hours later, Trump announced the U-turn that paused the steep new tariffs on about 60 countries for 90 days, fanning speculation – which was not confirmed – in some Swiss media that her chat with Trump might have played a role in the change of course. On Thursday, Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis, during a trip to Beijing, said the US tariffs have thrust the affected countries into “a sort of coalition” to try to reach a deal with the US. Meanwhile, on Monday, Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche announced plans to invest $50bn in the US over the next five years – an unspecified amount of which has already been under way, reports the AP. The US justice department says it did not fire a former pardon attorney, Liz Oyer, after she refused to recommend reinstating Mel Gibson’s gun rights. But in the latest episode of Politics America Weekly Oyer tells Jonathan Freedland a different story, one she believes points to a wider crackdown by the Trump administration on the rule of law in the US. You can listen to the podcast here: A US push to approve deep-sea mining in domestic and international waters “violates international law”, China warned on Friday, after a White House order to ramp up permits, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The US authorisation … violates international