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12:45 PM ET, April 18, 2025

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 Top Items: 
Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
Abrego Garcia's deportation case exposes a rift among Democrats over how to take on Trump  —  As some Democrats vocally push for the release of the man the administration says was mistakenly deported, others have sought to steer clear and focus on high prices and economic issues.
Discussion: Politico, USA Today and Axios
RELATED:
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Should Democrats focus on immigration or the economy?  —  It is possible for parties to walk and chew gum at the same time … I have seen political analysts suggest or imply a few times now that Democrats should not be trying to fight Republicans on immigration in general …
Discussion: Townhall
Ailia Zehra / Alternet.org:
‘You caved’: El Salvador president ripped for posting photos from US Senator's meeting  —  Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) received applause Thursday after he succeeded in meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador who has become the face …
Robert Jimison / New York Times:
Trump Administration Live Updates: Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador
Adam Thompson / CBS News:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia meets with Maryland senator in El Salvador, weeks after mistaken deportation
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:   April 17, 2025  —  Today, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) posted a picture of himself …
Robert Jimison / New York Times:
Chris Van Hollen Meets With Abrego Garcia in El Salvador
Nnamdi Egwuonwu / NBC News:
Sen. Chris Van Hollen meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador
Bill Scher / Washington Monthly:
The Abduction of Kilmar Abrego Garcia Is Not About Politics
Discussion: The Nation, BBC and CNN
Roger Cohen / New York Times:
Rubio Says Trump to ‘Move On’ From Ukraine Peace Talks if No Progress Soon  —  “If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said as he departed meetings in Paris.  —  The United States will abandon efforts to end the war in Ukraine …
RELATED:
Reuters:
US will abandon Ukraine peace push if no progress ‘within a matter of days,’ Rubio says  —  U.S. President Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday.
Graham Smith / NPR:
The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights  —  The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department's annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions …
Annie Lowrey / The Atlantic:
Trump Is Flirting With Economic Disaster  —  By threatening the independence of the Federal Reserve, the president risks undermining many of his key goals.  —  According to President Donald Trump, the banker he picked to lead the Federal Reserve is “WRONG.”  His reports are a “complete ‘mess!’”
RELATED:
Michael Glassner / Washington Times:
Don't fall for the tariff panic; Trump has already crushed inflation
Discussion: The Hill and Fortune
Bloomberg:
Trump Studying Whether Removing Powell Is Option, Hassett Says
Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Reuters
David Brooks / New York Times:
What's Happening Is Not Normal.  America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.  —  In the beginning there was agony.  Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must.  —  But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization …
Scott Bauer / Associated Press:
Wisconsin governor can lock in 400-year school funding increase using a veto, court says  —  The Democratic governor of Wisconsin's creative use of his uniquely powerful veto can lock in a school funding increase for 400 years, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Discussion: New York Times and WTOP News
Andrew Solender / Axios:
House Democrats fume at David Hogg's plan to oust lawmakers  —  Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg's plan to spend $20 million to primary older Democratic incumbents in Congress has sparked intense anger from some lawmakers.  —  Why it matters: House Democrats told Axios that …
RELATED:
William Kristol / The Bulwark:   No, Gavin: Trump Disappearing People Isn't a ‘Distraction’
Hadriana Lowenkron / Bloomberg:
Trump Releases Files on 1968 Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy  —  President Donald Trump's administration on Friday released more than 10,000 pages of files related to the 1968 assassination of former Senator Robert F. Kennedy, following through on an executive order aimed at declassifying documents …
RELATED:
Joe Walsh / CBS News:
RFK assassination files being released by Trump administration
Discussion: RedState and Daily Mail
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Chart of the week: Trump is losing voters on the economy  —  Inflation got Donald Trump elected in 2024.  Now, his ratings on economic issues are at their lowest point ever, even worse than during COVID-19  —  The numbers on the economy are basically unanimous and relatively straightforward …
Reuters:
New Trump policy to speed deportations cannot be implemented, US judge rules  —  A U.S. judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from implementing a new policy allowing it to rapidly deport hundreds if not thousands of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance …
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
THE ORIGIN  —  1.  —  The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.  —  2.  —  Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans.  This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events.  —  3.
RELATED:
Emma Colton / Fox News:
Biden's vax-focused COVID-19 website obliterated by White House, replaced with ‘true origins’ virus guide
Discussion: The Post Millennial and RedState
Washington Post:
Travel to the U.S. from almost everywhere is falling under Trump  —  Charts show the scale of a steep drop in visitors from key countries and regions after President Donald Trump returned to office.  —  Overseas travel to the United States has declined sharply since President Donald Trump returned to office.
Bloomberg:
Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups  —  White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, setting up a possible Earth Day strike against organizations seen as standing in the way of President Donald Trump's push …
RELATED:
New York Times:
With Harvard Threat, Trump Tries to Bend the I.R.S. to His Will
Rachel Frazin / The Hill:
Trump administration eyes elimination of program that helps low-income people heat and cool their homes  —  The Trump administration is considering support for the end of a program that helps low-income people heat and cool their homes.  —  A draft budget request document reviewed …
Tania Luviano-Hurwitz / KNSD-TV:
DHS tells US citizen and immigration advocate to leave the country … Aldo Martinez received an email April 11 from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), telling him to leave the country or he would be removed.  It read: … “I was born in National City, California,” Martinez said.
Discussion: WPR and Washington Examiner
Bernard Condon / Associated Press:
Strange sell-off in the dollar raises the specter of investors losing trust in the US under Trump  —  Among the threats tariffs pose to the U.S. economy, none may be as strange as the sell-off in the dollar.  Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors.
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Trump's United States of Emergency  —  In his first 100 days, President Trump has declared more national emergencies — more creatively and more aggressively — than any president in modern American history.  —  Why it matters: Powers originally crafted to give the president flexibility …
Discussion: Al Jazeera
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
SCOTUS Can Let the President Break the Law; They Can't Change It … We are now cranking up another edition of the “will he or won't he” Trump song and dance, this time about firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.  Trump manages to add an additional pungency to these dramas by trying to fire the guy who is actually his own Fed Chair.
New York Times:
The Trump Administration Is Disappearing People Like the Soviet Union  —  The courts can only do so much to protect us.  Will more people be doomed to the fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia?  —  Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return …
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure  —  America has seen ruinous periods, but never when the president was the one knowingly causing the ruin.  —  By any reasonable measure, President Donald Trump's first 100 days will be judged an epic failure.  —  He has been a legislative failure.
Discussion: Scripps News
Alec MacGillis / ProPublica:
Trump's War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More  —  More children ages 1 to 4 die of drowning than any other cause of death.  Nearly a quarter of adults received mental health treatment in 2023, an increase of 3.4 million from the prior year.
New York Times:
Under Trump, National Security Guardrails Vanish  —  America's adversaries have more room to operate, at least in the disinformation space, cybersecurity experts say.  —  This month, a network of pro-Russian websites began a campaign aimed at undermining confidence in the U.S. defense industry, according to disinformation analysts.
Discussion: Euromaidan Press
Jem Bartholomew / The Guardian:
'I don't want to give money to this America': tourists' fears of US travel under Trump  —  With US visits down 11.6% in March compared with last year, people share their views and experiences on the US border  —  Last year, while Joe Biden was US president, Jenny and her husband booked a trip to Boston for June 2025.
John McCormack / The Dispatch:
Get Out by Good Friday, Feds Say to Afghan Christians  —  The Department of Homeland Security has revoked immigration status of some Afghans who fled to the U.S.  —  The first time a young Christian from Afghanistan heard music at a church service where he understood at least some of the language …
Discussion: WTOP News and Al Jazeera
Washington Post:
DOGE begins to freeze health-care payments for extra review  —  DOGE is putting new curbs on billions of dollars in federal grants, requiring officials to manually review and approve payments that were previously routine.  —  The U.S. DOGE Service is putting new curbs on billions of dollars …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Yair Rosenberg / The Atlantic:
The Lies About Josh Shapiro Have Consequences
Alex Isenstadt / Axios:
Scoop: Trump revamps “Schedule F,” making it easier to cut federal workers
Michael Plant / The Guardian:
Trump is creating a selfish, miserable world. Here's what we can do
Myra Adams / The Hill:
MAGA ‘Mean Girls’ are Trump's loyal foot soldiers
Discussion: New Jersey Online and Raw Story
Brian Beutler / Off Message:
Don't Let Soft Donald Trump Redefine Masculinity And The Meaning Of Work
Discussion: Persuasion and Talking Points Memo
Joyce Vance / Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance:
Does It Matter If He's a Criminal?
Discussion: Raw Story and The Daily Beast
 Earlier Items: 
Public Notice:
The Declaration of Independence's warning for Trump
Jon Gambrell / Associated Press:
US strikes on a Yemeni oil port kill 74 people, Houthis say, in deadliest attack of Trump campaign
Abdallah Fayyad / Vox:
Trump is punishing immigrants for following the rules
Politico:
Rubio's firing of Marocco ignites a MAGA world meltdown
Discussion: Alternet.org
Molly White / Citation Needed:
Trump's newest grift: Building a cryptocurrency empire while destroying its regulators
Suzanne Gamboa / NBC News:
U.S.-born American citizen under ICE hold in Florida after driving from Georgia
 

 
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Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI is negotiating with Microsoft to enable a future IPO; Microsoft offers to cut its equity stake for continued access to OpenAI tech beyond 2030

Charles Daly / Bloomberg:
Klarna, which said in 2024 that AI was doing the work of 700 customer service agents, starts hiring remote workers after the AI approach led to “lower quality”

Tyler Cowen / Conversations with Tyler:
Q&A with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark on the parts of the economy AGI will affect last, why he's relatively bearish on AI-fueled economic growth, and more

 
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