Top U.S. & World Headlines — March 7, 2025

democracy depends on a free press please support our independent journalism at democracynow. org/g welcome to democracyow democracynow. org the Warren Peace Report i'm Amy Goodman president Trump announced Thursday he's exempting his 25% tariffs for Mexican and Canadian goods that come under the US Mexico Canada agreement a trade pack that he signed in his first term to replace NAFTA the exemptions in place until April 2nd for now and comes after Trump spoke with Mexican President Claudia Shanebal according to the White House some half of Mexican imports and 38% of Canadian imports are part of this trade deal trump's tariffs first went into effect Tuesday including an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods causing markets to tumble the State Department Thursday ordered an immediate pause on nearly all US funding for aid projects in South Africa the pause comes after Trump issued an executive order in February in retaliation for South Africa's land reform law which he claimed was racial discrimination against white South Africans the pause reportedly spares funding for PEPAR the US global HIV AIDS program in more news from the State Department the agency is preparing to shutter a dozen overseas consulates as well as many more diplomatic missions the move would include laying off many local workers crucial for US diplomatic relations in those countries a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from firing the head of the US African Development Foundation after Elon Musk's Doge operation brought in US marshals to gain access to the foundation's headquarters Thursday the judge's order came after the foundation's president sued Doge and State Department official Pete Morocco over their attempts to dismantle the agency which was established in 1980 to provide grants and loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs in Africa attorneys general from eight states have filed a lawsuit against the education department accusing the agency of unlawfully slashing more than $600 million in federal grants for teacher training programs that had already been appropriated by Congress the Trump administration froze the funds in February claiming they're used to promote what it called divisive ideologies like anti-racism on Thursday Senate Democrats including Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy slammed reports that Trump's preparing to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education so if the Department of Education closes it's going to hurt millions of families in this country it's just going to enable the theft of resources from regular families to pad the pockets of the billionaires but it is also likely to result in you waking up one day and finding out that your local elementary school that your kids go to is owned by a private equity firm on the other side of the country and is being run for profit a federal judge Thursday ruled Trump illegally fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board in January and ordered Gwyn Wilcox be reinstated judge Barl Howell wrote quote "A president who touts an image of himself as a king or a dictator perhaps as his vision of effective leadership fundamentally misapprehends the role under article two of the US Constitution," unquote in related news the nonprofit union focused watchdog Labor Lab is warning against Trump's pick to head the Office of Labor Management Standards elizabeth Messenger was previously the CEO of Americans for Fair Treatment an anti-UN advocacy group the USDA the US Department of Agriculture has been ordered to temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 workers recently fired by the Trump administration the order from the MSPB Merit Systems Protection Board requires the USDA to return the fired workers to their jobs for 45 days while it investigates whether they were unlawfully terminated the ruling came just days after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from firing MSPB board member Kathy Harris a Democratic appointee whose term doesn't expire until 2028 harris successfully argued that an MSPB member can only be removed by the president for quote inefficiency neglect of duty or malfeasance in office meanwhile the head of the Office of Special Counsel which handles whistleblower complaints has ended his legal fight against President Trump's attempts to fire him hampton Dinger cited his long odds at prevailing in an appeal to the conservative majority US Supreme Court after a federal appeals court allowed Trump to proceed with his termination axios is reporting Secretary of State Marco Rubio's deploying artificial intelligence to help identify and revoke visas for individuals the State Department believes support Hamas or other US designated terror groups the process involves scanning tens of thousands of social media accounts in particular to identify students who participate in anti-war and pro Palestine protests since October 7th 2023 abed Aayub head of the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee said quote "This should concern all Americans this is a First Amendment and freedom of speech issue and the administration will overplay its hand.

" unquote earlier this week Trump threatened to prosecute and deport foreign students who take part in such protests and cut funding for universities that allow them undeterred hundreds of students at Harvard and Colombia this week led protests against former Israeli Prime Minister Napali Bennett who had speaking engagements at the Ivy League schools the Pentagon's inspector general's halting efforts to identify and root out extremism in the US military saying the initiative does not align with Trump's policies the watchdog issued a directive last week abruptly ending ongoing reviews of how military branches are countering extremism as many rank members have been linked to far-right groups including the Oathkeepers and Proud Boys and the Ku Klux Clan the Council on American Islamic Relations has issued a travel advisory warning immigrants from majority Muslim nations not to leave the US over the next 30 days amidst reports Trump is poised to announce a new travel ban according to reports the ban could affect citizens of Iran Libya North Korea Somalia Sudan Syria Venezuela Cuba Yemen and Pakistan it could also include tens of thousands of Afghans who have been cleared for resettlement in the US and face life-threatening danger in their home country for assisting US forces during their 20-year occupation of Afghanistan trump's first term Muslim ban was repealed in 2021 meanwhile some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia's war and are living in the US under temporary protected status are bracing themselves after Trump said he's considered revoking TPS for them groups like the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America say they're making sure their community is prepared to return to uh we're talking about uh people whose entire towns have been leveled altogether where would be be sending them back to nothing we're preparing our community by making sure that um leaflets for know your immigrant rights are translated into proper languages for them that could be Ukrainian that also could be Russian language Crimean Tatar and other languages in related news European leaders agreed to increase military spending for Ukraine as they met in Brussels for an emergency summit following Trump's decision to suspend US military support for Kev some 20 nations have also said they're open to joining a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine president Trump directed members of his cabinet Thursday to take the lead in firing thousands of federal workers rather than waiting for directives from his billionaire advisor Elon Musk uh head of the Department of Government Efficiency or Doge and we want them to keep the good people and uh so we're going to be watching them and Elon and the group are going to be watching them and if they can cut it's better uh and if they don't cut then Elon will do the cutting trump's directive came after the Republican controlled Senate voted to repeal a rule that would subject digital payment apps to the same consumer protections as credit cards and bank accounts after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized the rule in November Elon Musk called for the agency to be deleted musk is seeking to turn his social media site X into a digital payments app meanwhile there's been another disaster involving Elon Musk's private space flight company on Thursday SpaceX launched its eighth test flight of its giant experimental rocket Starship several minutes into the flight the vehicle's second stage began tumbling out of control and re-entered the atmosphere above the Bahamas creating an artificial meteor shower that rain debris across the Caribbean the FAA halted flights into several Florida airports and multiple airliners were rerouted around the debris field the FAA allowed SpaceX to proceed with Thursday's launch even though the agency has an open mishap investigation into Starship's previous flight in January which also ended an explosion that littered debris over the islands of Turks and Caos the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered Tesla to pay fines of $49,650 for three serious safety violations after a factory worker was electrocuted to death victor Gomez senior died from electric shocks he received last August while inspecting electrical panels at the Tesla Gigafactory near Austin Texas in a wrongful death lawsuit Gomez's family alleges Tesla was negligent because the panel should have been switched off osha previously fined Tesla $7,000 for chemical hazard workplace safety violations at the Austin Gigafactory elon Musk owns about 13% of shares of Tesla where he served as CEO since 2008 the US Supreme Courts further eroded the power of the Environmental Protection Agency and state governments to safeguard water quality under the Clean Water Act in Tuesday's 5 to4 ruling the majority overturned measures limiting the discharge of waste water into harbors and coastal areas including limits on the release of raw sewage this comes less than two years after the Supreme Court gutted Clean Water Act protections for about half of all wetlands in the contiguous United States the Trump administration's halted an international air quality monitoring program that sampled pollution levels at more than 80 US embassies and consulates due to what the State Department called budget constraints the program's credited with identifying soaring levels of particulate pollution around the US embassy in Beijing in 2013 right before China launched its so-called war against pollution sudan's filed a case with the International Court of Justice accusing the United Arab Emirates of breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the rebel rapid support forces sudan said in Wednesday's filing the RSF and allied armed groups perpetrated quote genocide murder theft of property rape forcible displacement trespassing vandalism of public properties and violation of human rights targeting the Maselite people the UAE said it would seek an immediate dismissal of the case news from Syria at least 70 people were killed dozens more wounded in overnight clashes between Syrian forces and fighters loyal to the deposed leader Bashar al-Assad dozens of Syrian authorities were targeted in various ambush attacks by Assad loyalists in the Latakia and Tartus provinces which have long been strongholds for Assad's toppled government thousands of protesters across that region took to the streets demanding Syrian forces withdraw from the countryside in what was the first massive demonstration against the new government of Syria since Assad was ousted in December this comes to save the children's reporting more than 600 people including 180 children in Syria have been killed or injured over the last three months by landmines and explosive remnants of wars millions of families returned to their homes after 13 years the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has accused Israel of undertaking quote the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since the 1967 war philipe Lazerini added quote "The refugee camps of Janine Tokaram Nur Shamps have been nearly emptied. " Israel's display some 40,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since launching its so-called Operation Iron Wall in late January the 13-year-old narrator of a BBC produced documentary on Gaza has responded to BBC's decision to withdraw the acclaimed film Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from its streaming service after pressure from pro-Israeli groups this is Abdullah Alazoui speaking to Middle East Eye my message to the BBC is that I hoped that the documentary this documentary uh can see light and can be successful can spread the message of uh the suffering that children in Gaza witness abdul Alazeri says he and his family have received threats and the BBC has not intervened to help protect them and 60 years ago today civil rights leader John Lewis led hundreds of voting rights activists over the Edund Pettis Bridge marching from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights alabama state troopers beat them mercilessly it would be a turning point in the civil rights movement five months later President Lyndon B johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act into law today civil rights groups are calling on lawmakers to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act at a time when voting rights are facing unprecedented federal threats and those are some of the headlines this is Democracy Now democracynow. org the Warren Peace Report i'm Amy Goodman democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracynow.