President Trump suffered a setback at the Supreme Court Wednesday when justices issued a 5-4 ruling rejecting a request by the Trump administration to keep frozen $2 billion in foreign aid. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in the majority. The case was brought by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and other groups who are seeking to unfreeze foreign aid that had already been appropriated by Congress.

In its one-paragraph ruling, the court instructed federal district Judge Amir Ali to “clarify what obligations the government must fulfill” in order to comply with a temporary restraining order the judge issued on February 13. Judge Ali has faced numerous threats over the past month after he ordered the Trump administration to restore the $2 billion in funding. In late February, Trump adviser Elon Musk called for his firing, writing, “When judges egregiously undermine the democratic will of the people, they must be fired.” Several users on the Musk-owned social media platform X have also posted death threats to Ali. We’ll have more on this ruling after headlines.

President Trump is expected to issue an executive order as early as today to start dismantling the Education Department. Although it would take an act of Congress to fully dissolve the agency, a draft presidential memo orders Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps permitted by law.” Those steps are likely to include cuts to the workforce and education programs.

This comes as the country’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, and the ACLU are suing the Education Department for threatening to withhold federal funding to schools that engage in DEI efforts — that’s diversity, equity and inclusion. The ACLU called the Trump administration’s move “a blatant attack on free speech and academic freedom, aiming to deprive students of a full and honest education.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving to slash some 80,000 jobs. The VA’s labor force grew under the Biden administration, largely to help implement the PACT Act, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting National Institutes of Health research funding, siding with 22 Democratic attorneys general, medical associations and universities that argued the administration failed to follow correct procedures and that the cuts would make crucial scientific research “nonviable.” In related news, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week his department would no longer allow public comments in its rulemaking process, ending a 50-year policy to involve public opinion in HHS decisions.

In related news, the staff of the U.S. African Development Foundation blocked DOGE workers, including Trump ally Peter Marocco, deputy acting head of USAID, from entering its offices Wednesday. The DOGE workers eventually left but threatened to return today — with U.S. marshals.

The Trump administration announced a one-month exemption on auto tariffs for Mexico and Canada after speaking to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and pleas from the “Big 3” U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Twenty-five percent tariffs on all other goods remain in effect. Canada and China have imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, while Mexico said it would announce their own countermeasures on Sunday. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico could seek new trading partners in light of Trump’s trade war.

President Claudia Sheinbaum: “If needed, we’ll look for other commercial partners, anything to protect Mexico and Mexicans within the framework of sovereignty and dignity.”

The U.S. has suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine, in the latest blow to Ukraine’s effort to counter Russia’s invasion, after Trump froze military funding to Kyiv following his White House confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced a series of resolutions condemning Russia and calling for it to withdraw from Ukraine.

President Zelensky is in Brussels today, where he thanked European leaders for their “strong support.” EU members are gathering for a summit as they scramble to rally support for Kyiv amid the fallout with the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, French President Emanuel Macron said in a televised address Europe can no longer rely on the U.S. to be “at our side” and that it is considering extending its “nuclear umbrella” to European allies.

President Emmanuel Macron: “Answering to the historic call of the future German chancellor, I decided to open the strategic debate on the protection through our nuclear dissuasion of our allies in the European continent. … If a country can invade with impunity its neighbor in Europe, then no one can any longer be sure of anything.”

The Kremlin blasted Macron’s speech as “extremely confrontational.”

European countries say they are planning for a possible influx of Ukrainian refugees after the U.S. halted its funding to Kyiv. More than 4 million Ukrainians were under temporary asylum protections in European countries as of December last year.

Inside Ukraine, a Russian missile attack killed four people and injured dozens of others late Wednesday at a hotel in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, which is President Zelensky’s hometown. Late Tuesday, a Russian drone attack killed at least one person and cut off power, water and heating in the Black Sea port of Odesa. This Odesa resident says the fighting is now at its most intense since the start of the war.

Ella: “In the beginning of the war, more drones were being shot down. It has been scary, but we felt like we were protected. Now they were falling on our heads like flies! They exploded around the house. Our house was completely blown out. One of the drones hit the house directly.”

Leaders of the Arab League have agreed to Egypt’s $53 billion, five-year proposal to rebuild the Gaza Strip without permanently displacing its more than 2 million residents, as President Trump has proposed. The reconstruction plan seeks to first clear rubble from Gaza’s main highway while building temporary housing for 1.2 million people left homeless by Israel’s U.S.-backed assault. Later phases would see at least 400,000 permanent homes built; water, sanitation, power and telecommunications restored; and the reconstruction of Gaza’s seaport and international airport.

The White House has confirmed reports that it’s engaging in direct negotiations with Hamas for the first time, aimed at securing the release of 21-year-old Israeli hostage Edan Alexander and the bodies of four others. A proposal approved by Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff calls on Hamas to release half its remaining hostages in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a more lasting truce. The proposal makes no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners — a key demand of Palestinian negotiators. On Wednesday, President Trump issued what he called a “last warning” to Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages, adding, “To the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”

Here in New York, police officers in riot gear arrested nine people at Barnard College Wednesday after student protesters occupied the school’s main library to demand administrators divest from the Israeli economy and grant amnesty to three students expelled for joining pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The students declared Barnard’s Milstein Center the “Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Liberated Zone.” The arrests came after Barnard reported a bomb threat at the library; protesters said the threat was “manufactured” by Barnard administrators and pointed out that police brought zip-tied students back inside the library even as the bomb threat remained active. No other buildings were evacuated.

In South Carolina, death row prisoner Brad Keith Sigmon is scheduled to be killed by firing squad Friday in the state’s first-ever use of that execution method, and the first firing squad execution in the U.S. in 15 years. Sigmon’s lawyer has called for clemency for his client, who he says suffers from mental illness, brain damage and the effects of drug abuse. Sigmon’s lawyer says he chose execution by firing squad due to fears over lethal injection, which is “shrouded in secrecy.”

The Justice Department has filed a motion to dismiss a Biden-era lawsuit that sought to compel Idaho’s federally funded hospitals to provide abortions in medical emergencies. The case could have implications nationwide, as pregnant people with serious complications could be denied emergency care even if it’s expected to kill them. Idaho is one of 12 states that have imposed abortion bans since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022; another four states have banned abortions after six weeks of gestation.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic mayors from Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York appeared before a House panel Wednesday amid Trump’s threats to withhold funding for so-called sanctuary cities that impede his crackdown on immigrants. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu forcefully rebutted Republican lies that immigrants make cities less safe.

Mayor Michelle Wu: “You could pass bipartisan legislation, and that would be comprehensive immigration law. The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is actually what is undermining safety in our communities. If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms, stop cutting Medicaid, stop cutting cancer research, stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our city safe.”

Michelle Wu arrived to the congressional hearing with her newborn daughter in tow.
The New York Immigration Coalition blasted the hearing as a “sham” which was held as an “opportunity for extremist MAGA Republicans to spew hate and distortions about immigration.”

Texas Democratic Congressmember Sylvester Turner has died at the age of 70. His cause of death has not yet been revealed, but he was working just hours before his death, appearing at Trump’s Capitol Hill speech Tuesday night. Turner was previously a Texas state legislator and mayor of Houston. He was sworn in as a U.S. representative in January.

Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has pardoned a white police officer just days after a judge sentenced him to three years in prison for fatally shooting an unarmed Black man accused of shoplifting two pairs of sunglasses from a shopping mall outside of Washington, D.C. Officer Wesley Shifflett was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison after a jury found him guilty of “reckless handling of a firearm” for chasing 37-year-old Timothy Johnson into a dark, wooded area and firing two bullets at him. Prosecutor Steve Descano condemned Youngkin’s pardon, writing, “Glenn Youngkin has spent the last four years honing his Trump impersonation … This is an insult to all Virginians who value an untainted justice system.”

Elon Musk has joined calls for President Trump to pardon ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020. A Trump pardon would end Chauvin’s 20-year sentence on federal convictions for violating Floyd’s civil rights, but Trump does not have the power to commute Chauvin’s 22.5-year sentence on state murder charges.

Faith leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., yesterday to mark the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday and to condemn the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s attacks on the poor. They shared the findings of a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, the Economic Policy Institute and Repairers of the Breach, detailing how Trump and the Republican Party are taking more services and money away from working people, while cutting taxes for the wealthiest. This is Rev. Dr. William Barber.

Bishop William Barber II: “If an unelected technocrat can delete the financial commitments of a government established for the people and by the people, and we don’t say anything, we betray our moral commitments to liberty.”

Congratulations to Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddos and his colleagues at Al Jazeera for winning the RTS Television Journalism Award last night for their “Fault Lines” documentary “The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza.” Director Kavitha Chekuru dedicated the award to journalists in Gaza. The film was executive produced by Laila Al-Arian. Click here to see our interview with Sharif and Kavitha about the film.