Trump administration live updates: Trump pauses $175m in funding to UPenn over transgender swimmer

Russia launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine's energy grid mere hours after Vladimir Putin agreed with Donald Trump to halt such strikes – although the US president has claimed efforts to get a ceasefire are "very much on track".

Chris Stevenson, The Independent’s international editor, reports.

John Bowden writes:

The aftereffects of Senate Democrats’ decision to help Republicans pass legislation to avert a government shutdown without securing any concessions are still being felt. Having won nothing — including assurances that congressionally approved legislation would not be touched by DOGE cuts — voters are furious with the Senate minority leader.

His allies are doing absolutely nothing to throw him a lifeline.

Read on...

Amy Gleason, the government worker the Trump administration has said is actually in charge of Elon Musk’s signature Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program, has a second role at a separate agency, according to court documents.

Since February, Gleason has been detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services, and on March 4 she signed a document formally accepting a role as “expert / consultant” at the agency, which oversees marquee government efforts like Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Josh Marcus reports.

Right-wing commentator Tudor Dixon has said she is considering running for office in Michigan in 2026 but has yet to decide whether to opt for the battleground state’s open Senate seat or governor’s office.

Dixon, 47, was previously the Republican nominee for governor of the Great Lakes State in 2022 but lost to Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer.

Joe Sommerlad reports.

The White House on Wednesday said America’s intelligence community would continue to share information with the Ukrainian government to bolster Kyiv’s defensive efforts and provide Ukraine with more Patriot missile defense systems from European stocks.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a daily press briefing that Trump had “fully briefed” Zelensky on his 90-minute conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin and relayed the “key issues” discussed during the Tuesday morning conversation, the second call between the two leaders since Trump returned to the presidency in January.

Andrew Feinberg reports from the White House.

On Monday, a Minnesota State Senator made headlines as he introduced a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness.

Hours later, he was arrested.

Katie Hawkinson has the story.

The image of Donald Trump as an anti-war president is crumbling in real time.

Whether winning votes or merely demotivating support for his opponent, Kamala Harris, Trump fed on American frustrations in both parties to — once again — win election victory with a promise of ending or withdrawing American support for bloody and costly conflicts around the world.

John Bowden looks at how that is panning out.

Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly mulling cuts to a public health program that accounts for nearly all federal spending on HIV prevention efforts, reaching thousands of people a year.

With no other programs to replace them, cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV Prevention Division could jeopardize progress in addressing the nation’s HIV epidemic and potentially cost lives, according to public health experts and LGBT+ advocacy groups.

More than $1 billion was appropriated for HIV prevention efforts this year, and the agency spent roughly $1.3 billion on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections within the previous fiscal year. About three-quarters of that spending supports state and local health departments and nonprofit groups working to prevent HIV in their communities.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reportedly agreed to a tentative, limited ceasefire following a discussion with President Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press. There have been no final decisions made by either leader as to specific dates or details.

The limited deal comes on the heels of Putin refusing Trump's efforts to secure a 30-day ceasefire.

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that further talks will take place in Saudi Arabia this weekend to determine what targets will be protected under the potential ceasefire.

The White House described the ceasefire as protecting "energy and infrastructure," which different from information released by the Kremlin saying that "energy infrastructure" would be the subject of the ceasefire. The Kremlin's version is significantly more narrow than the White House's, and will no doubt be a subject of discussion at the upcoming talks.