A heated Senate GOP primary in Ohio will be a referendum on Donald Trump. New research suggests an intermittent fasting diet could be risky. And Princess Kate is spotted out and about after weeks of online speculation about her health.
Here’s what to know today.
The Senate race that’s also a referendum on Trump
Donald Trump greets Ohio Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno.Scott Olson / Getty Images
Bernie Moreno and Matt Dolan are leading the pack in today’s Ohio Senate Republican primary, and while Gov. Mike DeWine says the race is only about who will represent the state, it is widely seen as a referendum on former President Donald Trump.
Moreno, a wealthy businessman, heads into today’s race with support from Trump and his allies, who warn a vote for Dolan is a vote against the MAGA movement. The days leading up to the race have been full of attacks as Trump, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio barnstormed the state to campaign for Moreno.
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Dolan, whose family owns the Major League Baseball franchise in Cleveland, enjoys the support of DeWine and has painted himself as a champion of Trump policies but with a much milder personality than the former president.
The primary sets up a face-off in November against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown that many see as a toss-up.
Reporters Henry J. Gomez and Emma Barnett recap the campaigns’ road to the primary. Read the full story here.
More 2024 elections coverage:
Other elections today in Ohio and Illinois will set the stage for pivotal House battleground races this fall. Here are four dynamics to watch.
Supreme Court keeps blocking Texas immigration law
The Supreme Court extended a temporary block on a new Texas immigration law indefinitely, giving justices more time to determine the next steps to take. The Biden administration is challenging the law known as SB4, which would allow police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border from Mexico and impose criminal penalties. The law was originally due to go into effect this month, but Justice Samuel Alito has now stepped in three times to ensure a lower court ruling remains on hold.
On Monday, the Supreme Court also rejected a bid by former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to avoid reporting to prison (which he’s expected to do today) to serve a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena.
Justices also rejected an appeal by “Cowboys for Trump” co-founder Cody Griffin, who lost his job as a county commissioner in New Mexico over his role in the Jan. 6 riot. Griffin’s case concerned the same constitutional provision that Trump successfully argued in a separate case could not be used to throw him off the ballot in Colorado.
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In Haiti, stranded Americans evacuated and power stations attacked
At least 13 people were evacuated from Haiti over the weekend as security concerns mount and the shutdown of the country’s primary airport leave foreigners stranded, Rep. Cory Mills of Florida confirmed yesterday. Among them was Miriam Cinotti, a missionary who had been in Haiti for 14 years. She said she spent the past three weeks stranded in a remote village and described the challenges of coordinating her own evacuation.
In Port-au-Prince, armed groups broke into four electrical substations and left them “completely dysfunctional” by taking electrical installations, batteries, computer and office equipment and important documents, the country’s power company said. Now, several areas in and around the city are without power, including the entrance to the U.S. embassy.
Research suggests perils of intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting, a diet that involves alternating between fasting and eating, might not be as good for heart health as previously thought, according to a new analysis. Research presented this week at the American Heart Association’s scientific sessions found that people who restricted food consumption to less than eight hours per day had a 91% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease over a period of eight years, relative to people who ate across 12 to 16 hours.
It’s too early to make specific recommendations about intermittent fasting based on this research alone, a co-author said, which hasn’t been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal. Also, some experts said they found the analysis too narrow.
New video released as search for Riley Strain continues
Chris and Michelle Whiteid
Nashville police have released a new video showing Riley Strain on the night he disappeared, revealing new information about his movements as the search for the 22-year-old continues. The video shows Strain walking briskly past an officer on the night of March 8. The officer asks Strain how he’s doing, to which Strain replies, “I’m good, how are you?”
Meanwhile, Strain’s stepfather, Chris Whiteid, said yesterday that Strain had gone to two more bars on the same night before he was kicked out of a third. Whiteid also heard Strain and his mother FaceTiming that night and said Strain didn’t sound like he’d been drinking a lot.
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Strain had been visiting Nashville with friends from his college fraternity and went missing after he was kicked out of a bar in the city’s downtown. His bank card was found last weekend, and police say no evidence of foul play has surfaced. Read the full story here.
Politics in Brief
Government funding: Congressional leaders struck a deal on funding for the Department of Homeland Security — the last big sticking point among negotiators— paving the way for lawmakers to avert a government shutdown this weekend, two sources familiar with the talks said.
Israel-Hamas war: President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, where more than a million people have taken refuge.
Trump cases: New York state Judge Juan Merchan denied Donald Trump’s bid to keep his former lawyer Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels from testifying in the former president’s criminal trial related to a 2016 hush money payment. Also, Trump’s lawyers said in a new court filing that he has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him and his co-defendants. And in Georgia, lawyers for Trump and seven of his co-defendants in the election interference case are seeking a review of the decision not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Biden impeachment inquiry: Devon Archer, a key witness in the Republican impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and a former business associate of Hunter Biden, declined an invitation to appear this week at a public hearing.
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Social Security and Medicare: Donald Trump hasn’t said how he would address looming shortfalls over two major retirement programs. So what are his plans for Social Security and Medicare? An NBC News examination found his views have zigzagged over the years.
2024 election: Deep-pocketed centrist group No Labels is still working to find its dream third-party presidential ticket for 2024, but it has been spurned by at least a dozen prominent figures, including Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and former Rep. Liz Cheney.
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Staff Pick: In the room with a victorious Putin
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP – Getty Images
Putin’s election win was anything but surprising – but our team’s account of their experience in the room with the victorious president and across a celebratory Moscow reveals some unusual details, including a woman who says she repurposed a diamond Chanel brooch into a symbol of support for the war in Ukraine.
— Annie Hill, platforms editor
In Case You Missed It
Princess Kate was reportedly seen shopping over the weekend following weeks of rampant speculation online about her health.
This year’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award gala was canceled after objections from the late justice’s family over this year’s winners, which include Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch.
James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, said in jailhouse phone calls that he wanted to destroy the prosecutor in case against him.
Medication abortions rose in the year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a new study, accounting for about 63% of abortions in 2023.
Chicago has begun evicting some migrants from its shelters.
The father of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was killed while jogging, said in an exclusive interview that he fears her death is being exploited as a “political wedge.”
Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
Flat irons don’t just smooth your hair. You can also use them to create curls, which minimizes your need for extra hair tools, especially if you’re traveling. Here are the 14 best flat irons.
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Many Democratic lawmakers continued to express deep frustration at Senator Chuck Schumer on Sunday for having broken with most of his party to allow a Republican spending bill to pass, as the Democratic base increasingly demands stauncher resistance to President Trump’s far-reaching agenda.
Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, joined nine other Democrats in allowing the bill to come to a vote, which averted a government shutdown. It was an abrupt reversal from Wednesday, when he said he would oppose the bill.
Explaining his sudden shift in position, Mr. Schumer argued that a shutdown would empower Mr. Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “A shutdown would shut down all government agencies, and it would solely be up to Trump and DOGE and Musk what to open again, because they could determine what was essential,” he told The New York Times in an interview. “So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown.”
But to critics within his own party, he had squandered the leverage provided by the standoff to negotiate a bipartisan spending bill that would reclaim some of Congress’s power.
“He is absolutely wrong,” Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, told CNN on Sunday. “The idea that Chuck Schumer is the only one that’s got a brain in the room and the only one that can think through all of the pros and cons is absolutely ridiculous.”
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The stream of criticism that Mr. Schumer has faced since his vote comes as the Democratic Party is divided on how best to oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda while facing dismal polling numbers. An NBC poll released on Sunday showed that just 27 percent of voters had positive views of the party, while a majority of its base expressed disappointment at the Democrats’ fractured response.
Ms. Crockett has called on her Senate colleagues to consider ousting Mr. Schumer as minority leader, suggesting that “a younger, fresher leadership” is what “many Americans may be looking for.”
Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, told MSNBC that the House minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “got blindsided” by Mr. Schumer. House Democrats — all but one opposed the bill — had voted against giving Mr. Trump “a blank check,” Mr. Clyburn said. On Friday, Mr. Jeffries dodged repeated questions on whether he still supported Mr. Schumer as the leader of Senate Democrats.
Another House Democrat, Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan, was a little more understanding, saying that Mr. Schumer had “sent out mixed signals.” But she stressed that even the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor union representing federal workers, whose members would be furloughed during a government shutdown, opposed the stopgap bill.
“People are scared, and they want us to do something,” Ms. Dingell said on CBS. “They want to see Democrats fighting back.”
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Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, did not denounce Mr. Schumer but pleaded for a change in tactics and for a more steadfast resistance against the Trump administration.
“The way the president is acting using law enforcement to target dissidents, harassing TV stations and radio stations that criticize him, endorsing political violence, puts our democracy at immediate risk,” Mr. Murphy said on NBC. Over the past few weeks, Mr. Trump has revoked security clearances of lawyers who argued against him, dismantled congressionally funded news agencies and pardoned those convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mr. Murphy added, “If you are a Democrat in the Senate or in the House you have to start acting with urgency.”
Prominent House Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, had pressed their Senate colleagues to block the bill. But more than a handful of Democratic senators joined Mr. Schumer in helping Republicans bring the bill to a vote: Dick Durbin of Illinois, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, as well as two who have announced plans to retire, Gary Peters of Michigan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted yes.
Some Democrats, including Representatives Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Haley Stevens of Michigan, refrained from openly criticizing Mr. Schumer’s shift. They said Democratic infighting after the bill’s passage would only emphasize the divisions within the party. They warned that it would also draw voters’ attention away from Trump trade policies that have dampened the stock market and imbued uncertainty into the broader economy — developments that Democrats said could play to their advantage.
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Ashley Etienne, a former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN that Democrats should not save Mr. Trump and Republicans from themselves. “Get out of the way,” she said. “Donald Trump said he was better for the economy. Let him prove it.”
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to hold a call about the Russia-Ukraine war in the coming week, a US official said, as Washington seeks to broker a ceasefire deal.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday told CNN he had a “positive” meeting with Putin and that the Russian and Ukrainian parties “are today a lot closer” in negotiations.
“I expect that there’ll be a call with both presidents this week and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” he said.
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The comments come after the US and its G7 partners on Friday warned Moscow that they could expand sanctions and use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, as Trump seeks to win over Putin to his ceasefire proposal. The joint statement followed a week in which Kyiv signed up to the 30-day truce but Moscow signalled reluctance to do so immediately.
Witkoff told CNN he had witnessed improvements in ceasefire negotiations. The sides were previously “miles apart,” he said.
Following talks in Saudi Arabia led by US national security adviser Mike Waltz and US secretary of state Marco Rubio as well as Witkoff’s “equally positive” meeting with Putin, “we’ve narrowed the differences between them and now we’re sitting at the table,” he added.
The White House and Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The envoy told CBS that negotiations were complex, involving multiple angles and a large swath of territory, including a “main area of confrontation” in the Kursk region, a nuclear reactor supplying electricity to Ukraine and access to ports.
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“There’s so many elements to the implementation of a ceasefire here,” Witkoff said, adding that it “involves how to get people to not be fighting with each other over a 2,000 kilometre border”.
He also seemed to dismiss a statement made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who argued that Russia “does not seem to be sincerely seeking peace”.
Witkoff declined to comment on Macron’s remarks, but added: “I think it’s unfortunate when people make those sort of assessments, and they don’t have, necessarily, first-hand knowledge . . . I saw a constructive effort over a long period of time to discuss the specifics of what’s going on in the field”.
Asked when he thinks there will be a deal, Witkoff cited Trump, who has said it would take weeks.
Voice of America staff were locked out of their offices on Saturday—unable to complete planned reporting—after President Donald Trump signed an executive order gutting the government-run news agency that the White House has referred to as “radical propaganda.”
VOA was founded in 1942 in part to counter Nazi propaganda.
The move impacts all full-time staffers at the VOA and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martíore, and is poised to have a devastating effect on practically all operations under the United States Agency for Global Media—the parent entity of VOA and the department targeted by Trump’s Friday evening order.
According to the agency, which is fully funded by federal dollars, broadcasters and their sister networks reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, “often in some of the world’s most restrictive media environments.”
“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” VOA director Michael Abramowitz wrote in a LinkedIn post. He shared that his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants had been put on administrative leave, including himself. “Even if the agency survives in some form, the actions being taken today by the Administration will severely damage Voice of America’s ability to foster a world that is safe and free and in doing so is failing to protect U.S. interests,” he said.
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A statement released by the White House following the executive order details news coverage by VOA as justification for the defunding, including an article defining white privilege after the murder of George Floyd, a story about whether Russia perpetuated allegations against Hunter Biden to benefit Trump, and a segment on LGBT migrants.
“It’s a relic of the past,” Ric Grenell, Trump’s special envoy for special missions, wrote on X in February. “We don’t need government-paid media outlets.” Trump’s billionaire donor and Department of Government Efficiency advisor Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform: “Yes, shut them down … Nobody listens to them anymore.”
The order, entitled “Continuing the Reduction Of The Federal Bureaucracy,” called for multiple other departments to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Minority Business Development Agency.
In December, Trump announced that Republican Kari Lake, a former news anchor who ran twice for office in Arizona on a MAGA platform and lost both times, was his pick to serve as director of Voice of America—though that didn’t happen. A couple of months later, Trump named her a senior adviser to the USAGM.
On Saturday morning, Lake took to X, shared a link to the executive order, and told employees to check their emails—where they would find news of being terminated.
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