Children could fact-check President Donald Trump, CNN’s Daniel Dale said after the commander-in-chief’s Michigan fib-packed rally Tuesday night commemorating his 100 days in office.

While speaking to supporters at the Macomb County Community College Sports Expo Center in Warren, near Detroit, Trump (again) repeatedly claimed he won three back-to-back elections in the state.

“We just had the biggest victory in Michigan,” Trump said. “We won it twice … We actually won it three times … But remember, I like the victories. I like the three victories, which we absolutely had.”

He absolutely didn’t.

Asked to comment on the president’s remarks, Dale, CNN’s chief fact-checker, responded: “I think there are actual schoolchildren who could fact-check some of this for us.”

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“President Trump did not win three victories,” he told CNN host Jake Tapper.

“He won in 2016 and 2024. He lost in 2020. He did not win Michigan three times. He, again, won in 2016 and 2024, lost in 2020 to Joe Biden by more than 150,000 votes,” Dale added.

“If anyone is surprised that he’s still lying about not only the election more than four years ago, but the election he won, as he did tonight, they haven’t been paying attention.”

Dale continued to call the president’s comments “nonsense,” adding: “No amount of fact-checking appears to have deterred him on the subject.”

Polifact listed a number of other Trump lies or baseless claims at the rally, including his assertion that his administration has cut “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.” Trump has slashed federal agencies, jobs and services, but he has presented no evidence proving any cuts in fraud and abuse.

He also boasted he “brought back Columbus Day” (it never went anywhere) and again falsely claimed gas is selling for $1.98 a gallon. Gas station tracker GasBuddy hasn’t found a single station in the nation selling gas for $1.98. The nationwide average last week was about $3.14 a gallon.

At one point during the rally, CNN contributor Scott Jennings was invited up on stage by the president and addressed the crowd.

“Michigan, we were flying in here today and I said look at these farms, I gotta get a farm in Michigan because when you own as many [liberals] as I do, you gotta put a place to put them all,” Jennings said from the podium before leaving the stage.

A poll from the outlet released days before the rally found voters have a deeply negative view of the president’s policies and gave him a mere 41 percent approval rating, the lowest for any newly elected president at the 100-day mark since Dwight Eisenhower.

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Tony Blair has warned Western policies to tackle global climate change are “failing”, demanding a radical reset to win over hearts and minds on the issue.

The major intervention by the former prime minister torpedoes current net zero policies and calls for the COP process to be torn down and replaced.

It is a shot across the bows of the current Labour government and energy secretary Ed Miliband’s plans to push headlong towards renewables.

Writing the foreword for his own think tank’s new paper, The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change, Sir Tony warned that there is a widening credibility gap with voters who are “being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal.”

The intervention could not come at a more sensitive time for Sir Keir Starmer’s government which is facing local elections in 48 hours, a first serious electoral test since the general election.

Sir Tony endorses the paper, authored by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI)’s director of climate and energy policy Lindy Fursman, which calls for the COP international series of conferences to be dismantled, while a “new coalition” must be built to tackle the climate crisis.

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It claims that COP is struggling to “deliver change at the speed required” and must evolve to match ambition with delivery.

In his foreword, Sir Tony argues that while climate activism has succeeded in raising awareness, today’s policy strategies have become disconnected from political, public, and economic reality, and the debate is “riven with irrationality”. The result is a widening credibility gap between climate policy and climate delivery.

“Activists have shifted the political centre of gravity on climate,” he said, but “the movement now needs a public mandate - attainable only through a shift from protest to pragmatic policy.”

Highlighting a cycle that pushes proposals but delivers little real progress on global emissions, he wrote that “political leaders by and large know that the debate has become irrational” but are “terrified of saying so, for fear of being accused of being ‘climate deniers.’”

Meanwhile, voters “feel they're being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal.”

Sir Tony pointed to global trends that undermine today’s climate approach: fossil fuel use is set to rise further up to 2030, airline travel is to double over the next 20 years, and by 2030, almost two-thirds of emissions will come from China, India, and Southeast Asia.

These are “inconvenient facts” he says, that mean that “any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”

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While acknowledging COP’s role in scaling ambition, Sir Tony said that “the process will not deliver change at the speed required”:

“The great gathering of all the nations has its place - though probably not every year. But the reality is it is the decisions of the large countries, and the policy direction they give towards the technology and the financial flows, which can in truth solve the climate issue.”

He proposes a new model which must evolve to match ambition with delivery: “We now need a new process that scales global solutions. A new cooperative approach to technological Instead of eliminating emissions with green energy and electric cars, the papers urges governments to prioritise global investment in carbon capture - investing in solutions that capture emissions at source before they reach the atmosphere, together with breakthrough technologies like direct air capture that permanently remove carbon.

The TBI also wants them to harness the power of technology, including AI – decarbonising smarter and faster, technology can turbocharge the path to net zero, from smarter tech delivering lower bills, to better systems and faster progress.

It argues that AI applied to energy efficiency and the better use of the energy grid is potentially revolutionary in reducing energy demand.

There is also a call to invest in frontier energy solutions - including new generation nuclear and fusion technologies. The papers argue that small modular reactors offer hope but need integration into energy strategy. Scaling up means less pollution, more jobs and new abundant energy sources that don’t fuel the climate crisis.  

The TBI also wants Starmer’s government and others to scale up nature-based solutions – from planting forests to developing carbon-smart crops, we must harness the power of nature and science together. They argue that nature is one of our best allies in this fight, and we need to back it with smart science and innovation.

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More than 300 federal agents raided what the Drug Enforcement Administration called an “underground nightclub” in Colorado Springs early on Sunday morning, arresting at least 114 people.

The operation involved agents from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the IRS, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and even the U.S. Postal Service, along with local law enforcement, CBS News noted.

Firearms and drugs were also seized in the raid, which took place around 3:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to celebrate the raid, writing that it was conducted against “some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes, and Judges don’t want to send them back to where they came from.”

Deputy White House chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, claimed the “underground nightclub” was used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, he said on X. The raid was a joint operation between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

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“Part of busting up the underground nightclub in Colorado Springs included the arrest of 114 illegal aliens,” the DEA said on X. The agency added that federal agents “placed patrons (in the U.S. illegally) on buses for processing and likely eventual deportation.”

“Drugs and weapons have also been seized at this underground nightclub in Colorado Springs,” the agency said in a separate post.

Attorney General Pam Bondi also praised the raid, claiming that the “club” wasn’t only “frequented” by Tren de Aragua but also by members of the MS-13 gang. Bondi referred to them as “terrorists.”

“Cocaine, meth, and pink cocaine was seized. Two people were also arrested on existing warrants,” she added before praising Trump.

“As we approach his 100 days in office, @POTUS Trump’s directive to make America safe again is achieving results!” she wrote.

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Law enforcement officials claimed that more than 200 people were inside.

DEA shared footage on X showing agents in tactical gear smashing a window as dozens of people exit the building, with some initially attempting to leave the area before being told to get on the ground by agents with weapons drawn.

Many of them complied and raised their hands, the footage shows.

DEA officials also said active-duty U.S. military personnel were at the party, some taking part as patrons and others working as private security personnel.

“It’s obviously concerning to have active duty military involved,” DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen said.

Federal agents are working with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, he said.

“There's a lot of military bases here, so it's not necessarily surprising, but we're going to take that very seriously,” he added.

No one detained during the Colorado Springs raid has been publicly identified so far.

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The arrests follow weeklong raids in Florida with ICE officers working alongside local police to make nearly 800 arrests in what officials called a “first of its kind” operation and a “preview of what’s to come throughout the nation.”

Arrests were carried out Monday through Saturday for “Operation Tidal Wave,” ICE said in a statement. The agency called the operation a “massive, multi-agency, immigration enforcement crackdown.”

The Trump administration has deployed federal law enforcement agencies into communities throughout the United States to speed up removals as part of the president’s mass deportation agenda.

The agreement between ICE and local law enforcement relies on ICE's 287(g) authority, which allows the agency to delegate immigration-related arrests to local police. Roughly 200 Florida law enforcement agencies — including sheriff’s offices, city police departments, and college campus police departments — have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, the most out of any state.

On Truth Social, Trump suggested that his administration will continue to fight a legal battle over the use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deported alleged Tren de Aragua gang members. The justices said targeted immigrants must have the chance to challenge the accusations against them, in the districts where they are being detained, before they can be removed.

“If we don’t win this battle at the Supreme Court, our Country, as we know it, is FINISHED! It will be a Crime ridden MESS,” Trump wrote.

Trump also commented on the arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, who was accused of obstructing justice after allegedly directing an immigrant out of her courtroom to avoid federal agents, who arrested the man moments later.

"What happened was terrible,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “That that could happen with a judge is so ashamed ... Look, we have to bring our country back from all these criminals that Biden allowed to come in. These are world-class criminals and people that are insane, people from jails, murderers, drug addicts, drug dealers.”

The president appeared to suggest that he views judges and the legal system as obstacles to his deportation agenda.

“And you know, we have a country. We have to be proud of our country. We can't let these people stay, and the courts are allowing them to stay,” he added. “We're just not going to allow it so, hopefully, the Supreme Court will come to the rescue of our country.”

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A federal judge has said that a two-year-old U.S. citizen appears to have been deported to Honduras with her mother with “no meaningful process” as her father was pushing for the courts to allow her to stay in the country.

District Judge Terry Doughty, who was appointed by Donald Trump said the two-year-old child was released in Honduras on Friday along with her mother and sister, who were born in the country.

Hours after the deportation, Doughty issued an order stressing it is “illegal and unconstitutional” to deport U.S. citizens.

“The government contends that this is all OK because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” he wrote. “But the court doesn’t know that.”

The child, identified in court filings as V.M.L., had been detained along with her mother by immigration officials earlier this week.

On Friday, the judge scheduled a hearing for May 16. He said it was “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”

The child’s redacted birth certificate was filed in court and revealed that she was born in New Orleans in 2023. She had been with her mother and sister at an immigration check-in at the city’s office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, where they were detained and lined up for deportation.

In court, Trump administration officials said the mother told them she wanted to bring the child with her to Honduras. The filing included a handwritten note in Spanish that officials claimed was written by the mother, confirming her wish. The judge, however, said he had wanted to verify that.

“The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” sDoughty said. “But the Court doesn’t know that.”

Teresa Reyes-Flores of Southeast Dignity not Detention Coalition said in a statement that “ICE’s actions show a blatant violation of due process and basic human rights.”

Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project called ICE’s actions “horrifying and baffling.”

“We should be gravely concerned that ICE has been given tacit approval to both detain and deport U.S. citizen children despite the availability and willingness of U.S.-based caregivers who, only because of ICE’s own actions, cannot find or contact them,” she added.

On Thursday, attorneys for the family filed an emergency petition in the Western District of Louisiana. They’re seeking the release of the child from ICE custody and a declaration that her detention had been conducted outside the bounds of the law.

The emergency petition was filed under Trish Mack, with the attorneys indicating that the child’s father had asked Mack to act as the custodian and take her home from ICE custody.

Lawyers for the guardian told the court that V.M.L.’s father has been attempting to contact the child’s mother, but ICE officials blocked him from having a substantive phone call. He claimed that ICE officials only allowed them to speak for about one minute on Tuesday, when the mother was in custody, and that they were unable to make a decision about their child.

Alanah Odoms, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said in a statement that “the government has used deceptive tactics to deny people their rights.”

“These outrageous actions must be condemned. We as a nation are better than this,” she added.

“ICE’s actions today go far past the typical inhumanity of their detention operations in Louisiana,” said Fatima Khan of the Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants. “They ignored their own protocols on legal access and protecting children’s rights to enact an expedient deportation they know to be unlawful.”

Since V.M.L. is a U.S. citizen, she will likely be able to return to the United States. Doughty said he attempted to get the mother on the phone on Friday to find out if it was accurate that she wanted to bring the child with her to Honduras. The judge noted that he was “independently aware” that the plane he thought was flying the family south was “above the Gulf of America,” adopting Trump’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico.

Doughty wrote that attorneys from the Trump administration said on Friday afternoon that it wouldn’t be possible to get the mother on the phone “because she (and presumably V.M.L) had just been released in Honduras.”

It was at that point that Doughty scheduled the hearing for next month.

“These deplorable actions demonstrate ICE's increasing willingness to violate all protections for immigrants as well as those of their children,” Homero López, Jr. of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy, said in a statement. “These types of disappearances are reminiscent of the darkest eras in our country's history and put everyone, regardless of immigration status, at risk.”

Mich Gonzalez of Sanctuary of the South added that “A government agency that sequesters and deports vulnerable mothers with their US citizen children without due process must be defunded, not rewarded with an additional 45 billion dollars to continue at taxpayers’ expense.”

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Virginia Giuffre, an outspoken survivor of abuse by notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has died by suicide, NBC News is reporting.

Giuffre was one of the first people to call for criminal charges against Epstein.

She recounted how she was groomed by Ghislaine Maxwell to be sexually abused by Epstein. Giuffre has also accused Epstein of trafficking her to Prince Andrew when she was 17, which the prince has denied.

She was 41 when she died in Neergabby, Australia.

"It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia," Giuffre’s family told NBC News. "She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking."

Virginia was a “fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors," the family’s statement continued. “In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight."

Eerily, Giuffre said late last month that she had only days to live after she was involved in a collision.

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Giuffre’s brother Danny Wilson said his sister “pushed so hard to snuff the evil out” of the world.

"Her biggest push was, 'If I don’t do this, nobody’s going to do it,'" he told NBC News of his sister’s battle for justice. "She was in real physical pain — suffered from renal failure. But I think that the mental pain was worse."

Fellow survivors of Epstein’s abuse credit Giuffre with helping give them the courage to speak out, NBC noted. Giuffre also provided key information to law enforcement that helped prosecutors ultimately convict Maxwell in 2021.

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Epstein faced federal sex trafficking charges, but died after his arrest behind bars of suicide in 2019 in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. While Prince Andrew denied Giuffre’s claims, he settled with her out of court in 2022.

Late last month, Giuffre posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed on Instagram, saying that doctors told her she had “four days to live” due to kidney failure following a car wreck. She was discharged from the hospital six days later.

“This year has been the worst start to a new year. I won’t bore anyone with the details but I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can,” she wrote.

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“I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time, but you know what they say about wishes,” she added. “S*** in one hand and wish in the other & I guarantee it’s still going to be s*** at the end of the day.”

A spokesperson for Giuffre said the Instagram post was ultimately a mistake.

“On March 24, in rural Western Australia, a school bus hit the car in which she was riding,” the spokesperson said. “Virginia was banged up and bruised and returned home. Virginia’s condition worsened and she was admitted to the hospital.”

“Concerning her Instagram post, Virginia thought that she had posted on her private Facebook page,” the spokesperson added.

Giuffre had three children with husband Richard Giuffre. The couple reportedly split this year, according to the BBC.

Giuffre was supposed to appear in court on April 9 after being charged with violating a family violence restraining order that had been obtained by her husband, People reported. She allegedly violated the order by calling her husband on Feburary 2.

Her court appearance, however, was postponed at the request of her attorney, and a judge granted her an extension until June to enter a plea.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

If you’re based in the U.S., and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can salso peak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

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President Donald Trump has signed an executive memorandum ordering the Justice Department to investigate a major Democratic fundraising group.

Trump reportedly has his sights on the Democrats’ dominant national fundraising platform, ActBlue, as the organization has been standing by for the White House to take possible action against it.

Trump’s memorandum directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make 'straw' or 'dummy' contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take appropriate action to enforce the law.”

Donors have given more than $400 million to Democratic candidates through ActBlue over the first three months of the year, according to the Associated Press.

The memorandum names ActBlue as an online fundraising platform that is used "to improperly influence American elections."

An ActBlue spokesperson branded the move by the White House as a "brazen attack on democracy in America."

"Today’s escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and needs to be seen for what it is: Donald Trump’s latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition,” the group stated.

“This Administration continues to weaponize the instruments of federal power in an unprecedented assault on our democracy," the statement read, calling the administration's claims against it "baseless."

ActBlue says it plans to challenge the executive order in court.

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Earlier on Thursday, ActBlue said it “strictly abides” by all federal and state laws.

“We will always stand steadfast in defending the rights of all Americans to participate in our democracy and ActBlue will continue its mission undeterred and uninterrupted, providing a safe, secure fundraising platform for the millions of grassroots donors who rely on us,” the group said in a statement.

ActBlue has faced accusations and criticism from Republicans and prominent MAGA figures over how it verifies donations. Elon Musk last month blamed ActBlue without evidence for orchestrating and funding the Tesla protests that have ignited across the U.S. He named ActBlue “funders,” including liberal philanthropist George Soros and billionaire foe Reid Hoffman.

“Something stinks about ActBlue,” Musk also said in a post on X in March as other GOP lawmakers piled on.

Charlie Kirk, a key Trump ally who founded the conservative group Turning Point USA, called for the FBI to investigate ActBlue.

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“I think the FBI’s going to do something on ActBlue soon,” Kirk said at a political event last month in Wisconsin.

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa also asked the Treasury to investigate allegations that the group processed payments to “terror-linked organizations,” the Associated Press reported.

Separately, fellow Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona sent a letter to the FBI last month claiming that ActBlue is being used to “to skirt the integrity of federal campaign finance laws” by allowing foreign nationals to contribute to campaigns, among other allegations of criminal wrongdoing, the agency reported.

ActBlue’s spokesperson Megan Hughes dismissed the claims. “ActBlue has always dealt with attacks and baseless claims from the Right that are designed to undermine the power of the small-dollar donors who rely on our platform,” Hughes said in a statement at the time.

Last year Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, a Republican who oversees the House Administration Committee, wrote to ActBlue in October demanding it hand over documents about how it verifies donors in light of ‘potential vulnerabilities that foreign actors may exploit to illegally participate in the U.S. political process.’”

ActBlue complied and Steil later acknowledged the company had “implemented updated policies to ‘automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries and have the highest level of risk as determined,’” Politico noted.

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering pulling the national recommendation that children receive the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a new report.

If Kennedy moves to end the recommendation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would remove the vaccine from the recommended childhood vaccine schedule. The action would mark Kennedy’s most significant yet to change the country’s vaccination practices.

Kennedy is a staunch anti-vaccine activist who has previously spread false claims about vaccines.

The Food and Drug Administration has determined Covid-19 vaccines to be safe for children, and ongoing monitoring shows this continues to be the case, according to the CDC.

Eliminating the vaccine from the childhood vaccine schedule wouldn’t mean kids can’t get it, but it would influence Covid-19 vaccination procedures and use across the U.S. It would also mean that more children would likely become infected with the potentially deadly disease and present a contagion risk to other children and adults.

Pediatricians use the CDC schedule to determine when to give children the vaccines, and insurance companies use it to determine which vaccines to cover.

Two anonymous officials familiar with the discussions told Politico the policy is still under discussion and could change. Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon similarly told Politico that “no final decision has been made.”

Consideration of the change comes after Kennedy appeared on Fox News Tuesday night, when he once again spread the false claim that the Covid-19 vaccine causes an increased death rate among children.

“The recommendation for children was always dubious, and it was dubious because kids had almost no risk for Covid-19,” Kennedy told Fox News’ Jesse Watters. “Some kids, some certain kids that had very profound morbidities, may have a slight risk. Most kids don't.”

He added: “So why are we giving this to tens of millions of kids when the vaccine itself does have profound risk?”

Kennedy has also vowed to investigate the entire childhood vaccine schedule in February. This came even after he promised a Senator he wouldn’t touch the vaccine schedule during his confirmation process.

“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy said in his inaugural address to the Department of Health and Human Services.

His organization, Children’s Health Defense, has advocated against vaccinations and spread the baseless claim that vaccines cause autism. In his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy also falsely claimed that Anthony Fauci colluded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to exaggerate the extent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Covid killed more than 7 million people worldwide, including more than one million in the U.S.

Spreading vaccine misinformation resulted in Meta deactivating Kennedy’s Instagram account in 2021. He’s now dictating vaccine protocol across the nation.

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In January, a delivery worker in Michigan had picked up an order from McDonald’s and was on his way to its destination when he made a wrong turn on a bridge into Canada.

When Ricardo Prada Vásquez tried to re-enter the country from the Ambassador Bridge, the 32-year-old Venezuelan immigrant was detained by immigration authorities. On March 15, the same day dozens of alleged gang members were summarily removed from the country and sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison, Prada told a friend in Chicago he was detained in Texas, expecting to board a plane to Venezuela.

But he was not on a leaked list of 238 names of immigrants sent to El Salvador. He wasn’t identified in the photos of men filmed inside the jail getting their heads shaved in shackles. Attorneys and family members have no idea where he is.

Then, on April 22, only after his story was reported in The New York Times, Donald Trump’s administration said he was deported to El Salvador.

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“We now have confirmation that he is one of many Venezuelans who are being held, at U.S. taxpayer expense, in horrific conditions in a foreign country and with no contact to the outside world,” Azadeh Erfani, National Immigrant Justice Center director of policy, said in a statement to The Independent.

“The Trump administration bears full responsibility for Mr. Prada Vázquez’s wellbeing,” she said. “Mr. Prada Vásquez’s story is only the latest sign that we are living in an environment of mounting authoritarianism, under an administration that is trampling basic principles of fairness and humanity. Now that we know Mr. Prada Vásquez’s location, we call on the Trump administration to confirm his wellbeing and return him to the United States to ensure he has access to proper due process.”

The case is raising alarms from immigration attorneys and advocates who fear he is not the only one to seemingly disappear, or that more people have been removed from the country than previously reported.

“It’s like he's fallen off the face of the planet or dropped into some black hole,” according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“Everyone deserves equal treatment under the law and a fair day in court, no matter one's immigration status,” Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, told The Independent.

“Without a fair process, the greater the risk for wrongful deportations or for someone to simply disappear within the system, as we're already seeing,” Gupta added. “The lack of accountability and transparency for these deportations is scary because it sets a precedent for unchecked abuses of power across our government, which is something that should concern every American."

A leak of names on the initial Alien Enemies Act flights includes 238 people — but not Prada. At least 27 other alleged gang members were deported to El Salvador in recent weeks. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele says there are 252 Venezuelans from the United States in his custody. It is unclear whether others are missing.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not disclose his destination. The Independent has requested additional information from ICE about Prada’s whereabouts.

“This is textbook enforced disappearance,” according to Adam Isacson with the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy group.

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Cornell Law School immigration law scholar Stephen Yale-Loehr said the case “shocks the conscience.”

“I have not heard of a disappearance like this in my 40-plus years of practicing and teaching immigration law,” he told The New York Times.

“How many Ricardos are lost within our broken system?” asked the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

A legal battle over Trump’s authority to invoke a centuries-old wartime law to summarily deport immigrants from the United States is in the hands of the Supreme Court. Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union are asking whether the president can use that authority at all “outside of wartime” to target a criminal organization.

But it’s unclear whether Prada’s family and attorneys have any legal recourse, as there is no record of his detention.

According to The New York Times, Prada reached the United States on November 29, 2024 after waiting to obtain an appointment through CBP One, an app created under Joe Biden’s administration to provide a legal pathway for immigrants to make appointments for their asylum claims before reaching the southern border.

He was allowed to stay in the United States while his case was considered.

Prada then moved to Chicago before moving to Detroit.

While Prada’s entry was approved through CBP One app, he did not have permission to re-enter the country if he left. Following his arrest in January after trying to return to the United States after accidentally crossing into Canada, Prada was ordered deported on February 27, according to The Times. He was transferred to an ICE facility in Ohio and then to the El Valle Detention Facility in Texas.

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His case appeared to end there. The administration has not presented any record of his removal. His family and friends say they have not heard from him.

On April 22, in a social media post attacking The New York Times and recounting Prada’s time in custody, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Prada is “in El Salvador.”

“On March 15, Prada was removed to El Salvador,” she wrote.

In his proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act for only the fourth time in U.S. history, Trump stated that “all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of [Tren de Aragua], are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”

But the administration has admitted in court filings that “many” of the people sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador did not have criminal records, and attorneys and family members say their clients and relatives — some of whom were in the country with legal permission and have upcoming court hearings on their asylum claims — have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.

Prada’s family and friends deny his involvement in any gangs, they told The Times.

On April 7, a divided Supreme Court agreed to lift Judge James Boasberg’s order that temporarily blocked the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport people from the country. But the justices stressed that immigrants marked for removal are “entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal” in front of a judge within the district where they are detained.

Following that ruling, lawsuits challenging immigrants’ deportations under the Alien Enemies Act have been filed in several states. Several judges have since blocked the administration from summarily deporting them without a hearing.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court further blocked the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport another group of Venezuelans detained in Texas.

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The Trump administration’s ongoing tariff battle with China has observers worried that a new Cold War-style power conflict could break out.

“What we’re seeing now is the biggest trade war in history,” Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, told The Wall Street Journal. “The risk of the trade war expanding to other domains is quite high.”

The U.S. and China have long had a complicated relationship — encompassing being major trading partners, as well as geopolitical and economic rivals — but a new paradigm began with the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” agenda of worldwide tariffs.

While the Republican president has since paused many of the reciprocal tariffs he initially committed to, China still faces a 145 percent tariff rate, a measure that inspired Beijing to hit the U.S. with a 125 percent levy.

Trump has been publicly upbeat about the prospects of reaching a trade agreement of some kind with China, though the administration hasn’t publicly outlined the progress on making such an arrangement.

“Oh we’re going to make a deal," Trump said last week. "I think we are going to make a very good deal with China."

The president may be optimistic, but most other signs point to a hardening position on both sides.

China has vowed to “fight to the end” against the tariffs, while the Trump administration has imposed export controls on U.S.-made high-tech computer chips going to China.

Beijing said this week it would "take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner" against nations that reach trade agreements with the U.S. that would hurt Chinese interests.

"The United States has abused tariffs on all trading partners under the banner of so-called 'equivalence', while also forcing all parties to start so-called 'reciprocal tariffs' negotiations with them,” said China's Commerce Ministry.

Meanwhile, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly have not received any direct messages or offers from their Chinese counterparts to make a deal, according to the Journal.

Outside of the trade issues, tensions have been ratcheting up between the U.S. and China for some time now, including alleged tit-for-tat cyber attacks between the two nations in recent months, and China conducting large-scale military drills around the U.S.-aligned island of Taiwan.

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A former aide to Jill Biden has warned the former first lady and former President Joe Biden to stay out of politics for the sake of the Democratic Party.

Michael LaRosa, who served as Jill Biden’s communications director, was critical of the former president’s decision to return to the public eye after he made a speech tearing into the Trump administration last week.

“If they had advisers who had their hand on the pulse of the Democratic Party or national politics, they would have understood the intense level of anger or indifference to them that remains inside our party and isn’t going away anytime soon,” LaRosa said in a recent interview withThe Hill.

“I love both Bidens dearly, but staff loyalty means there is a responsibility to provide them with an honest situational awareness, especially when it comes to their public image, no matter how hurtful it is to hear,” LaRosa added.

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Joe Biden made his first public address Tuesday since he left the White House in January.

LaRosa said the timing of Biden’s return was “a lovely gift for the White House,” as President Donald Trump was on the “defense” after heavy scrutiny over his escalating trade war.

“Biden’s reemergence, while it changed very little in the news cycle, provided a detour for the president to distract his cadre of supporters with Biden taunts and blame, giving Fox News nearly 48 hours of fresh new programming, taking editorial aim at the former president instead of the current one,” LaRosa told the outlet.

Biden’s popularity when he left office was low and the former president has not fared better in the most recent polling. His net favorability rating among Americans is -19 points compared to -6 for Trump, according to YouGov.

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“It’s a heartbreaking and tragic ending to their time in public life, but it’s also the truth, and they should index the political realities into their decision making,” LaRosa said.

In a speech to the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled’s national conference last Tuesday, Biden warned about preserving Social Security from Republican attacks.

“They want to wreck it, so they can rob it,” he said. Biden also criticized Republicans for trying to cut not just Social Security, but Medicaid.

His address follows Democrats’ attempts to recover from their brutal election loss, where Republicans not only regained the White House but also control of the Senate.

YouGov’s polling suggested that former president Barack Obama was the most popular well-known politician in the U.S., with a net favorability rating of +22. Other popular figures included independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (+12) and Republican former housing secretary Ben Carson (+6). The least popular in the poll were former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (-45), former vice president Dick Cheney (-32), Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (-31) and former New York governor and New York City mayor hopeful Andrew Cuomo (-30).

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