US updates: Trump calls media 'corrupt' and 'illegal'

We're closing this set of live updates as most people in the United States try to get some sleep.

Thank you for reading. 

The Trump administration is considering issuing sweeping travel restrictions for dozens of countries as part of a new ban, Reuters news agency reported, citing an internal memo and sources familiar with the matter. 

The memo lists 41 countries divided into three groups — those with full visa suspensions, those with partial suspensions and a third group that would be considered for partial visa suspensions if their governments do not address issues "within 60 days."

The first group has 10 countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea. The second group has five nations, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan. The partial suspension would affect tourist visas, student visas and immigrant visas.

The third group has 26 countries including Pakistan, Belarus and Turkmenistan. 

One of the sources Reuters spoke with warned that there could be changes in the list and it was yet to be approved by the administration.

An appeals court on Friday lifted a block on executive orders seeking to end government support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The ruling from a three-judge appeals court panel allows President Donald Trump's orders to be enforced while a lawsuit challenging them is heard.

On the first day of his second term in office, Trump signed an order telling federal agencies to end all "equity-related" grants or contracts. A later order required federal contractors to certify that they do not promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

Two of the judges on the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that Trump's anti-DEI push could raise legal concerns but added that the lower court's sweeping block went too far.

"My vote should not be understood as agreement with the orders' attack on efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion," Judge Pamela Harris wrote. Two of the panel's members were appointed by President Barack Obama, while the third was appointed by Trump.

The lower US District Court judge, Adam Abelson, had found the orders likely violated free-speech rights and were unconstitutionally vague since they don't have a specific definition of DEI. He issued an injunction against the orders pending the outcome of the suit in his court. That injunction, however, has now been overturned.

Lawmakers in the US Senate passed a six-month funding bill hours before a midnight shutdown deadline. President Donald Trump still needs to sign the measure into law.

The bill passed in the Republican-controlled Senate by a vote of 54-46.

Democrats dropped plans to block a Trump-backed bill passed earlier this week by the House of Representatives, which cleared its path for approval in the Senate. 
 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the South African ambassador to the United States "is no longer welcome."

Rubio, in a post on X, accused Ebrahim Rasool of being a "race-baiting politician" who "hates America" and the US president.

The post goes on to declare Rasool "persona non grata."

No additional reasoning for the decision was provided and the State Department did not immediately have any additional details.

While lower-ranking diplomatic staff members are targeted with persona non grata status, it is rare for the United States to expel an ambassador.

Trump has signed an executive order cutting aid to the South African government. In the order, Trump said South Africa's Afrikaners, descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers, were being targeted by a law that allows the government to expropriate private land.

South Africa has denied its new law is tied to race and says Trump's claims about the law have been full of misinformation and distortions.

In a speech to the Department of Justice, Trump said US media outlets are "political arms of the Democrat party. And in my opinion, they're really corrupt and they're illegal. What they do is illegal."

He did not provide any examples of any wrongdoing.

He went on to single out CNN and MSNBC, claiming without evidence that they "literally write 97.6% bad about me." He also said: "It has to stop. It has to be illegal."

He claimed the media is "influencing judges and it's really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don't believe it's legal. And they do it in total coordination with each other."

Trump has repeatedly attacked the media for reporting he views as biased against him. He has also called journalists "enemies of the people."

Trump's address to the Department of Justice was meant to drum up support for his law-and-order agenda. But his speech became a victory lap for his dismissal of two federal investigations into him.

"We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose, very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct of which was levels never seen anything like it," Trump said in the speech that veered into topics ranging from illegal immigration and crime to the price of eggs and the media.

Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, stated that his country would not be taken by its southern neighbor.

"We will never, ever, in any way, shape or form, be part of the United States," Carney said Friday at his inauguration in Ottawa.

Carney takes over for Justin Trudeau, who stepped down in January after almost a decade in power.

This week saw major escalations between Canada and the United States as provincial leaders in Canada sought to levy their own tariffs.

Trump has offered to trade tariffs for annexation, saying, "The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty-First State. This would make all tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear."

Trump's statements and the trade tariffs have sparked a backlash against US goods in Canada and elsewhere in the world. 

The US Agency for Global Media, wich oversees public broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, will cut its partnership with leading news agencies such as the Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We should not be paying outside news companies to tell us what the news is," said Kari Lake, special advisor to the agency.

"We should be producing news ourselves. And if that's not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why."

According to Lake, the cuts will save the government $53 million (€48.7 million).

The move comes as the Trump administration continues to spar with the media. In January, the White House banned the Associated Press from its reporting pool after the agency refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America."

AP has since filed suit.

Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, has sounded the alarm on Trump's trade war with Europe.

"It's a big wake-up call for Europe. Maybe this is a European moment, yet again," she told the BBC.

She also expressed concerns for global consumers should the situation escalate further.

"If we were to go to a real trade war, where trade would be dampened significantly, that would have severe consequences... for growth around the world and for prices around the world, but particularly in the United States."

The US had announced 25% tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports, which the EU countered with tariffs of their own starting on April 1st.

Trump then threatened to counter those tariffs himself with a 200% tax on wine and other alcohol from Europe.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on his administration's aggressive rhetoric towards students in the United States.

"In the days to come, you should expect more visas will be revoked as we identify people that we should have never allowed in," he told reporters.

The statement comes after the sudden arrest and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia University. 

Khalil was a known pro-Palestinian activist who was taken from his home last Saturday and set to be deported. On Monday, his lawyers temporarily blocked the deportation, challenging the legality of his arrest.

Khalil was not in the United States on a student visa. He is a permanent resident and holds a Green Card.

Earlier today, federal agents raided two more Columbia students just hours after Donald Trump demanded changes to the university's curriculum. No arrests were made. 

President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to revoke federal funding from Columbia University unless it gives up control of its international studies department and makes significant policy changes.

In a letter sent from the Department of Education, General Services Administration and Department of Health and Human Services, federal officials said the university must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under "academic receivership for a minimum of five years."

Columbia must also ban masks on campus that are meant to conceal the wearer's identity or intimidate others, adopt a new definition of antisemitism, and abolish its current process for administering discipline to students.

"We expect your immediate compliance with these critical next steps," officials wrote.

Last week, the government said it was canceling $400 million (€367 million) in federal grants and contracts to the school.

The university has a 30-day period in which it can try to address the government’s concerns.

The Trump administration is exerting growing pressure on the university, which was the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests at dozens of US college campuses last spring.

At the same time, the Department of Education said it was investigating 45 universities, citing complaints that the schools engaged with a program that set eligibility based on race.

"Today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes," US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement.

The United States has requested that Denmark and other European countries send it eggs, according to the Nordic country's egg association.

This request comes as egg prices in the US continue to rise.

The Reuters news agency has seen the letter from the US Department of Agriculture in Europe seeking information on their ability and willingness to export eggs to the American market.

"We're still waiting to get more guidance from Washington on [the] next steps, but do you have an estimate of the number of eggs that could be supplied to the United States (assuming they meet all the import requirements)," a follow-up letter to the Danish egg association in early March said.

During the election Donald Trump promissed to bring costs down. Instead, but the price has increased by 59% on a year-on-year basis since he came to power.

The Danish Egg Association said they would look into it but that there is no surplus of eggs in Europe.

The request comes as Trump said he wants to control of Greenland, which is part of Denmark.

President Donald Trump says there is a "very good chance" the war between Russia and Ukraine could end.

Trump described a discussion his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin as "very good and productive."

On the domestic front, Trump is due to speak at the US Justice Department as his administration moves to shake up the nation's law enforcement system quickly. 

Later, he will travel to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.