The Trump administration deported more than 250 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador, ignoring a federal judge who had temporarily forbidden it from using an 18th-century law to do so. The White House said “a single judge in a single city” had “no lawful basis” to block the flight. The administration’s defiance marks a significant challenge to America’s system of checks and balances.
Ukrainian forces are reported to have been all but pushed out of Kursk. They had captured large swathes of the Russian territory in a surprise attack last summer, but a months-long counterattack has now forced a retreat. Ukrainian soldiers continue to defend a small position on the Russian side of the border. President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied reports that they are surrounded.
Retail sales in China grew by 4% in the first two months of 2025, compared with the same period last year. However, there was more depressing news on the country’s flagging housing sector. The price of new homes fell by 0.1% in February, and 4.8% year on year.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said that he would hold a vote among his cabinet this week to dismiss Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency. Mr Netanyahu has been feuding with the country’s security service, as both seek to blame the other for the Hamas attack on October 7th 2023. The prime minister has accused Mr Bar of running a “campaign of blackmail threats” against him.
Media-advocacy groups denounced Mr Trump’s decision to cut off funding for Voice of America, a government-sponsored news organisation. VoA was set up as a radio station during the second world war to counter Nazi propaganda in Europe and has since broadcast across the world in support of America’s foreign policy. Mr Trump said that the federal government should not pay for such “radical propaganda”.
North Macedonian police made 15 arrests in connection with a fire that killed at least 59 people in a nightclub on Sunday. North Macedonia’s interior minister said those detained were suspected of corruption and bribery, and that the venue lacked a licence. Around 1,500 people were attending a concert at the club in Kocani, about 100km east of the capital, Skopje.
The Vatican released a photo of Pope Francis participating in a Mass at a chapel in the hospital where he is receiving treatment—the first image of him in over a month. The 88-year-old pontiff was hospitalised in February for chronic bronchitis that escalated into double pneumonia. This week the doctors treating him confirmed that he was no longer in a critical condition.
Figure of the day: 13m, the number of pints of Guinness stout consumed globally on St Patrick’s Day. Read the full story.
Donald Trump’s return to the presidency has brought exceptional changes to American politics—with consequences for the rest of the world, too. Read The US in brief, a daily update of the domestic political stories that matter. Sign up here to receive it as a newsletter, each weekday, in your inbox.