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A woman lights a cigarette placed in a placard depicting Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, during a demonstration, after the Hungarian parliament passed a law that bans LGBTQ+ communities from holding the annual Pride march and allows a broader constraint on freedom of assembly, in Budapest, Hungary, on March 25, 2025.
Hungary’s capital will proceed with Saturday’s Pride parade celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, despite the rightwing national government’s recent ban on the event. The culture war between the city and “illiberal” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reflects wider urban/rural splits in Hungary. The European Union has urged Orbán to lift the ban and is probing the legality of Hungarian police using facial recognition to identify attendees. Many countries have expressed support for the parade, but the Trump administration, sharing Orbán’s misgivings about LGBTQ+ culture, is not among them.
Rwanda and DRC to sign Trump-brokered peace deal
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo will sign a peace deal in Washington today, hoping to end a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions. The war in a nutshell: Rwanda has backed rebel groups that have seized large swaths of territory in the mineral-rich DRC. The Trump administration, which wants a Nobel peace prize for its efforts, brokered the agreement in part to gain access to DRC critical minerals, but critics say the economic terms are still vague.
US Supreme Court hands Trump a win versus the judiciary
The US top court on Friday limited federal judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions against executive orders, but did not rule directly on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order to limit birthright citizenship. The 6-3 decision, which halts Trump’s citizenship order for 30 days while other legal challenges play out, was split along ideological lines – the liberal minority dissented. The ruling could affect the roughly 255,000 children born annually in the United States to parents who are neither citizens nor permanent residents, per a Penn State estimate. But it also expands executive power vis-a-vis the courts more broadly. For more on this, watch Ian Bremmer’s recent interview with Yale Law School senior fellow Emily Bazelon.
Listen: President Trump has never been shy about his revolutionary ambitions. In his second term, he’s moved aggressively to consolidate power within the executive branch—signing more than 150 executive orders in just over 150 days, sidelining Congress, and pressuring the institutions that were designed to check his authority. His supporters call it common sense. Critics call it dangerous. Either way, it’s a fundamental shift in American governance—one that’s unlike anything happening in any other major democracy.
While Congress has largely collapsed into partisan submission, and the DOJ and other power ministries face political purges, one institution still stands: the courts. In this episode, Ian Bremmer speaks with New York Times Magazine staff writer and Yale Law School’s Emily Bazelon about how the judiciary is holding up under pressure, what rulings to watch, and whether the rule of law can survive the Trump revolution.
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A demonstrator looks up at her sign during a rally demanding the Supreme Court uphold the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants citizenship to all individuals born within the country’s borders, in Washington, D.C., USA, on May 15, 2025.
14: The Supreme Court is reviewing arguments on the Trump administration’s plan to end birthright citizenship. A lower court blocked it, citing the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship for “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” The White House isn’t challenging the lower courts’ reasoning, but is arguing that the district judges lacked authority to issue nationwide injunctions in the first place.
3: Guyanese soldiers have come under attack three times in 24 hours in Essequibo, an oil-rich border region that both Guyana and neighboring Venezuela claim. Guyana has administered the region for decades, but Venezuela says it intends to have Essequibo included in its gubernatorial elections scheduled for May 25 as a means to fully incorporate the region.
114: At least 114 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday, including 56 in Khan Younis. Israel said it was targeting Hamas fighters. The strikes come as Hamas and Israel hold indirect talks on a potential ceasefire and hostage deal.
10.6 million: What do Garfield, Crookshanks, and Puss and Boots have in common? They’re orange and, until now, no one has known why. A group of scientists — with the help of 10.6 million yen ($72,800) in crowdfunding from cat lovers — found that ginger cats lack part of their genetic code, causing cells to produce lighter colors in their fur, eyes, and skin (especially in males). Orange you glad I didn’t say meow?
Several groups led by DACA recipients gathered at La Placita Olvera in Los Angeles, California, on November 11, 2024, for a rally and march in response to policies President-elect Trump has promised to enforce against immigrants who have entered the country.
In his first hours back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order denying citizenship to children born to unauthorized immigrants in the US. Eighteen state attorneys general, along with San Francisco and Washington, DC, immediately sued to block the order.
The lawsuit, led by New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts, argues that Trump can’t unilaterally rewrite the Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship to every baby born in the US. They point to the Supreme Court’s Wong Kim Ark decision, which set the precedent of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents’ legal status in 1873.
Trump argues that revoking birthright citizenship is critical to curbing illegal migration to the US. He is supported by a minority of legal scholars who say that Wong Kim Ark decision misinterpreted the Constitution. They argue that because unauthorized migrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of US law – in the sense that they can’t vote and are excluded from certain rights afforded to Americans – that the 14th Amendment does not apply to them or their children.
Will Trump succeed? Trump can’t rewrite the 14th Amendment or 100 years of legal precedent with an executive order, but he could with the help of sympathetic judges. Lower courts are likely to side with the states, but if Trump appeals, it is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court, where the Conservative majority has not shied away from overturning legal precedent in recent terms.
A ship passes through the Panama Canal's Culebra Cut, heading northbound for the Caribbean, Dec 30. The Canal, built and operated by the United States, will transfer to Panamanian control at a noon ceremony on December 31.
The President-elect is also making waves for saying that the United States must"retake" control of the Panama Canal. At a rally in Arizona on Sunday, Trump claimed that the canal's 1999 handover to Panama under the terms of an agreement signed by President Jimmy Carter was a "terrible mistake" and argued that the US must act to stop being“ripped off” by Panama and thwart the influence of China in the region.
The Panama Canal, built and managed by the US for decades, handles 2.5% of global ocean traffic, facilitating US imports from Asia and exports of key commodities including LNG.
At the same rally, Trump addressed chatter about Elon Muskusurping the US presidency. Last week, Musk had unsuccessfully attempted to sway Republican members of Congress to oppose US President Joe Biden’s latest spending bill, prompting fears of a government shutdown and accusations that Musk was acting like the President instead of an unelected advisor.
On Sunday, Trump joked that the South African native “is not going to be president. That I can tell you. I’m safe. You know why? He can’t be. He wasn’t born in this country.”