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Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency likely violated the Constitution when they effectively shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, a federal judge has ruled. President Trump is promising to appeal the decision.
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a limited ceasefire in Ukraine yesterday, where the Kremlin agreed to stop targeting Ukraine’s energy facilities for 30 days. However, hours after the announcement, Russia and Ukraine launched strikes targeting each other’s infrastructure.
Israeli airstrikes continue today in Gaza after Israel broke a nearly two-month ceasefire with Hamas yesterday. It was one of the deadliest days of the Gaza war, and more than 400 people were killed. Included in those numbers are five Hamas officials and women and children who were killed in their homes overnight.
Eggs are a pain for American pockets right now. However, relief might finally be on the way. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the national average wholesale price of eggs has been declining since late February. This is a positive sign that the price for eggs at the grocery stores may drop in a few weeks. The decline in the wholesale price is due to the absence of major bird flu outbreaks so far in March, which has allowed the egg supply to recover.
This essay was written by Leila Fadel, Up First and Morning Edition host.
Noor Abdalla fell in love on a volunteer trip to Lebanon years ago. She was boarding the bus to go teach Syrian refugees and she met Mahmoud Khalil.
“He was trying to help other people already,” she told me. “But I don’t think that’s what drew me to him.”
He was charismatic, calm and extroverted. In many ways he was the opposite to her, a self-described introvert who gets super anxious. And maybe that’s why she knew, she said, she would marry him one day.
“He’s genuinely the only person who knows how to calm me down,” she told me.
But on Saturday, March 8th, that sense of comfort was ripped from her. Eight months pregnant, she watched plainclothes immigration agents handcuff her husband in the lobby of their apartment building and whisk him away. Now, instead of spending her last weeks of pregnancy getting ready for the birth of their first child, she told me she’s fighting to get her husband back.
The Columbia graduate student and legal permanent resident is at a Louisiana detention center over his involvement in student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. The government wants to deport him despite his legal status and his case is at the center of a of a fierce debate over what kind of speech is protected under the First Amendment. Many free speech advocates say if Khalil is deported for his position on the Israel-Gaza war then he is being punished for protected political speech. The government has charged him with no crime and they say they don’t have to under a rarely used immigration provision.
“Exercising your First Amendment rights is not illegal. That’s always been the case,” Noor Abdalla told me. “The fact that you can kidnap someone basically from their home for going to a protest is terrifying.”
As this plays out in federal court, in protests and in national headlines Noor just wants her husband home in time for the baby’s birth. Listen to our interview or read it here.
Source: www.npr.org