# Trump administration briefing: Mahmoud Khalil’s detention, ‘Trumpcession’ fears and gutting USAid

The Trump administration’s decision to have immigration authorities arrest pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for alleged support of Hamas is an attack on free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union warned on Monday.

“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” said Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

> “This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” said Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
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> “The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the US and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: the first amendment protects everyone in the US. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate.”
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> *Read the full story *

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## Outrage after Palestinian student activist detained

Free speech organizations and advocates are expressing outrage after a prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, was arrested and detained over the weekend. Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident with a green card, was taken into custody by federal immigration authorities, who reportedly said that they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card.



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## Arrest of Palestinian activist first of 'many to come', Trump says

 said on Monday that the arrest of a prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, is the “first arrest of many to come”.



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## US stocks register heavy falls as White House tries to talk up Trump tariffs

The US  continued to drop on Monday as the White House denied that ’s trade policies were causing lasting chaos within the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 2.7%, the Dow Jones dropped 2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 4% as investors sold shares in the so-called “magnificent seven” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. Tesla’s shares had their worst day since September 2020, falling 15%.



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## Risk of ‘Trumpcession’ rising, economists say, as global markets fall

The risk that the US economy will enter recession this year is rising, according to economists, as Donald Trump’s chaotic approach to tariffs continued to hit markets.



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## Trump tariffs policy ‘misguided’ and US economy ‘very wobbly’, ex-adviser says

’s focus on  as an economic weapon is “misguided”, and the US economy is “very wobbly”, a former adviser and longtime supporter of the president said.



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## Ontario sets 25% surcharge on US energy exports

The Canadian province of Ontario is imposing a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the states of New York, Michigan and Minnesota in protest against Donald Trump’s tariffs, Premier Doug Ford said on Monday.



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## Canada’s designated PM Mark Carney meets Trudeau as Trump threat looms

's incoming prime minister, Mark Carney, has met with  as the pair discuss a transfer of power after the former central banker’s  at the Liberal party’s leadership race.

The meeting on Monday sets the stage for an imminent federal election and gives  a fresh leader to square off against the US president, with the two countries locked in a bitter trade war provoked by .



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## US rebrands immigration app to CBP Home with ‘self-deport’ function

On day one of his presidency, , issued a directive abruptly ending the government’s use of CBP One – an online application that had served as the primary means for people at the southern border to apply for asylum in the US. On Monday, the administration announced it has reimagined the app as a platform for “self-deportation”.



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## 83% of USAid programs terminated after purge

The Trump administration has finished a six-week purge of programs of the US Agency for International Development, cutting 83% of its programs, according to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.



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## Top Washington Post columnist quits after piece critical of Bezos is scrapped

Washington Post associate editor and top political columnist Ruth Marcus is reportedly  after the decision by the CEO, Will Lewis, to kill her opinion column critical of the billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’s latest changes to the paper.



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## What else happened today:

- **There is “no military solution” to the conflict in Ukraine,  ahead of high-stakes meetings on Tuesday.**
- **JD Vance’s first cousin has ** to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
- **A man pardoned by Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 insurrection who also was convicted of plotting to kill federal agents investigating him is still legally liable for the plot, .**
- **The US secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has directed the Food and Drug Administration to revise safety rules to .** The move would increase transparency for consumers as well as the FDA’s oversight of food ingredients considered to be safe, Kennedy said on Monday.
- **** “friends” to respect their allies in a post on X that mentioned nobody by name but came a day after an extraordinary social media spat between top officials in the US and Poland over Starlink satellites.
- **A  by Ice agents** despite being an American citizen says he is reconsidering his support for Trump.
- **Wall Street  as traders grew concerns over the possibility that Trump’s trade war will send the US economy into a recession.**
- **A top state department official** ** of insulting his boss, Marco Rubio**, in social media posts, among many other questionable statements.
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