Donald Trump delivered the longest presidential address in modern history to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, laying out his vision for the next four years while defending his efforts to dismantle large portions of the federal government. For an hour and 40 minutes, Trump repeatedly lied and exaggerated about his accomplishments and his opponents’ failures, deploying racist and dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and his critics. Trump heaped praise on billionaire Elon Musk and his efforts to slash entire government agencies.

President Donald Trump: “And to that end, I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.”

Trump also repeated threats the U.S. will be “reclaiming” the Panama Canal from China, after the Wall Street giant BlackRock said it would lead a consortium to purchase two Panama Canal ports from a Hong Kong-based conglomerate. The Panama Canal Authority is run entirely by the Panamanian government, not China, as Trump has falsely claimed. After headlines, we’ll air extended portions of Trump’s speech and get responses.

Several Democrats boycotted Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress. Others wore pink outfits as a symbol of protest or held signs with messages including “Save Medicaid” and “Musk steals.” The most dramatic protest came near the start of Trump’s speech, when Texas Democratic Congressmember Al Green rose to speak, shaking his walking cane at Trump. 

Speaker Mike Johnson: “Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum, and the chair is prepared to direct the sergeant-at-arms to restore order to the joint session.”

Republican House leaders later called for Congressmember Green to be censured. He spoke to reporters after his ejection from the House chamber.

Reporter: “Is the only punishment that you were kicked out, sir? Or is there something else?”

Rep. Al Green: “I don’t know. Whatever the punishment is, I’m not fighting the punishment. This is about the people who are being punished by virtue of losing their healthcare. This is the richest country in the world, and we have people who don’t have good healthcare. We’ve got to do better. And now we’re about to cut Medicaid, which is for poor people.”

During his address to Congress, President Trump revealed he’d been sent a conciliatory message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying he is ready to come to the negotiating table and sign a deal to provide the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and other resources. This comes just days after Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky in the Oval Office and after Trump ordered the suspension of all U.S. military aid to Ukraine. On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed over $850 billion in new military spending, declaring, “We are in an era of rearmament.”

The Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development are likely to cause enormous human suffering, leading to increased death and disability, accelerated disease spread, political instability and heightened threats to U.S. national security. That’s according to an internal USAID memo obtained by The New York Times which looked at the impact Trump’s freeze will have on lifesaving humanitarian assistance if it’s made permanent. The memo projects 1 million children will lose treatment for severe acute malnutrition each year, 200,000 children will become paralyzed with polio annually, up to 18 million more people will become infected with malaria, with up to 166,000 additional deaths each year, and much more. The memo was written by USAID’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health Nicholas Enrich. Over the weekend, Enrich was placed on administrative leave.

Health officials in New York and New Jersey have identified several new cases of measles, coming amid an outbreak of the highly contagious viral disease in Texas, with 159 cases, 22 hospitalizations and one child death recorded since January. Fears of a wider epidemic have grown, after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially downplayed the outbreak, then promoted alternative treatments — rather than vaccination — to combat measles. In an interview that aired on Fox News Tuesday, Kennedy did not mention vaccines once, but said his agency was sending doses of steroids, antibiotics and supplements to combat the measles outbreak.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Budesonide, which is a steroid. It’s a 30-year-old steroid. And clarithromycin and also cod liver oil, which has high — high concentrations of vitamin A and vitamin D.”

A federal judge has extended a temporary injunction blocking Trump’s executive order attempting to shut down nationwide access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 19. The judge’s order means federal funding for hospitals and clinics that provide the care will remain in place. ACLU attorney Joshua Block welcomed the decision, writing, “As Judge Hurson has said himself, it is hard to fathom a form of discrimination more nefarious than that which pretends the group of people being targeted doesn’t even exist.”

The Trump administration is preparing to slash the Internal Revenue Service’s 90,000-person workforce in half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and buyouts. That’s on top of the roughly 7,000 IRS workers already laid off since Trump took office, most of them probationary workers fired as part of Elon Musk’s mass purge of federal workers who lack civil service protections. Last month, seven former IRS commissioners, spanning both Democratic and Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan, wrote a joint New York Times op-ed condemning Trump’s cuts to the IRS. They write the cuts will “shift the burden of funding the government from people who shirk their taxes to the honest people who pay them, and it will impede efforts by the I.R.S. to modernize customer service and simplify the tax filing process for everyone.”

President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from U.S. universities if they allow protests to take place on college campuses. In a post to his Truth Social site, Trump also repeated plans to deport or jail immigrant students, whom he described as “agitators,” if they participate in campus protests. Trump added that U.S. students would be “permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.” Trump’s threats came after federal agencies, including the Justice Department, announced they would be investigating Columbia University over accusations of antisemitism on its campus, referring to the wave of peaceful, student-led actions in support of Palestinian rights. In related news, a third student has been expelled from New York’s Barnard College for participating in a Palestinian rights protest on campus.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has responded to President Trump’s 25% tariffs on Mexican goods, promising to announce retaliatory tariffs at a weekend event. Mexico’s delayed response appears aimed at deescalating Trump’s trade war; however, President Sheinbaum responded forcefully after the White House published what it called a “fact sheet” claiming her government has granted cartels safe havens to produce narcotics and to traffic them into the United States.

President Claudia Sheinbaum: “On the night of March 3rd, last night, the White House published an offensive, defamatory and unsubstantiated statement about the government of Mexico that we categorically deny and condemn.”

The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to block a historic $10 billion lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against seven major U.S. gun manufacturers and a gun wholesaler for aiding and abetting the unlawful smuggling of hundreds of thousands of guns annually into Mexico, fueling violence by drug cartels. During oral arguments Tuesday, both liberal and conservative justices appeared to agree with U.S. gun makers that said Mexico’s suit violates a 2005 statute, the Protecting Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields the firearms industry from most legal liability in U.S. courts. Catherine Stetson is a lawyer representing the Mexican government.

Catherine Stetson: “Mexico’s complaint pleads that petitioners aided and abetted violations of specific federal gun laws and that those violations proximately caused Mexico’s harm. That satisfies PLACA’s predicate exception. First, the complaint details that petitioners deliberately supply the illegal Mexican market by selling guns through the small number of dealers that they know sell a large number of crime guns and who repeatedly sell in bulk to the cartel traffickers.”

In Sudan, at least 221 children, some as young as 1 year old, have been subjected to rape by armed forces since the beginning of 2024. That’s according to a dire new report by UNICEF, which gives the first comprehensive look at mass sexual violence being used as a weapon of war against children while Sudan’s conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces nears two years. One witness testimony read, “After nine at night, someone opens the door, carrying a whip, selects one of the girls, and takes her to another room. I could hear the little girl crying and screaming. They were raping her.”

In Serbia, the opening session of parliament Tuesday came to a halt after opposition lawmakers threw smoke grenades and tear gas inside, in solidarity with students who’ve led mass anti-government protests for the past four months. Opposition lawmakers say parliament has no authority to pass new legislation before it confirms a transitional government following the January resignation of Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević. Their protest erupted about an hour into session with opposition lawmakers holding up a banner that read “Serbia has risen so the regime would fall!” as pink, white and black smoke filled the parliament chamber. Hundreds of others rallied outside.

Nina Lukic: “The only chance for this country is an expert transitional government that would create conditions for fair elections, free elections and comb through the ballot lists, which are catastrophic, and prepare for free elections in about six to nine months. That is the only way. Otherwise, protests should simply be held everywhere, because this has really gone beyond all limits.”

At least three Serbian lawmakers were reportedly injured. Protests against government corruption and inefficiency started in response to the collapse of a roof at a train station in November in the northern city of Novi Sad, which killed 15 people.