Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed that the United States will walk away from Russia-Ukraine peace talks if the countries do not accept President Donald Trump's offer to end their three-year war.
“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the US to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters during a trip to India. “We’ve engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy.”
Trump's "final offer" reportedly includes de jure recognition of Russian control over Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control over most of the territory it has gained since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Ukraine would get some land back and unhindered access to the Dnieper River, as well as aid to rebuild, "robust" security guarantees from Europe, and potential European Union membership, in exchange for abandoning its aspirations to join NATO.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin for another round of talks Friday as Trump teased his proposal in an interview with TIME magazine.
"Crimea will stay with Russia,” Trump said, adding Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky "understands that."
Trump also suggested NATO membership must be taken off the table to achieve lasting peace. Trump has long said NATO's eastward expansion played a significant role in sparking the current conflict.
“I don’t think they’ll ever be able to join NATO. I think that’s been—from day one, I think that’s been, that’s I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. If that weren’t brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn’t have started,” Trump said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has long refused to cede territory, including the Crimean Peninsula, which has been under Russian control for more than a decade.
Zelensky's unbending position has frustrated Trump, who has accused the Ukrainian leader of prolonging the war. Trump has repeatedly said Ukraine doesn't have major leverage.
“I just want to do it as fast as possible,” Trump said at the White House on Friday, adding a deal is "pretty close" to fruition.
While Trump is optimistic about a deal, his team clearly wants to keep the pressure on by letting everyone know that the U.S. could back out at any time.
Vance warned that Russia and Ukraine will both have to make territorial concessions to end the bloodshed.
Ashley Biden is facing an IRS complaint after she failed to disclose donations to her charity from wealthy benefactors, including Meghan Markle.
Women’s Wellness Spa(ce), Biden's nonprofit, underreported its income by six figures, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Ashley Biden, a social worker who wrote about childhood trauma in an infamous diary, started the nonprofit to help women with mental health struggles.
The conservative National Legal and Policy Center flagged a $500,000 discrepancy in the group's IRS filings.
Despite reporting an income of $170,296 in 2023, Biden's charity received $250,000 grants from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Archewell Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Biden's non-profit began in 2023, while her father was still president, which has raised concerns to some about influence peddling.
"Ashley Biden’s failure to disclose to the IRS receiving $500,000 in grants in 2023 raises the question of what other contributions is she hiding," Paul Kamenar, a lawyer with the National Legal and Policy Center told the Washington Free Beacon.
An accountant for the charity told the Free Beacon that the most of the $500,000 was not distributed until 2024. But according to Kamenar, Biden's group is required to report donations when they are pledged, not when they are actually received.
Ashley Biden settled a $5,000 tax bill last year that dated to 2015. She is not the only member of her family with tax woes: her half-brother, Hunter, was facing prison after he pled guilty to evading taxes on over $1.4 million that he received from his international business deals.
President Biden wiped the slate clean with a controversial blanket pardon.
Ashley, the only child of Biden and his second wife Jill, was one of the only family members who did not receive a pardon from President Biden before he stepped down, the Free Beacon noted.
While Ashley Biden has received comparatively little publicity compared to Hunter Biden, the infamous theft of her diary led to scrutiny of her unusual family life. In the book, Biden wrote about "showers with dad" and being "sexualized" at a young age.
Ashley Biden's non-profit bills itself as a "trauma-informed wellness center," but the group's online presence is marginal outside of an Instagram account that has not posted anything since February.
The charity claims to offer guided meditation and psychotherapeutic treatments like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which Ashley Biden used after her half-brother Beau died from brain cancer.
Michelle Obama made an appearance with her husband Barack at an Italian restaurant.
The outing comes after months of speculation that the couple was headed for divorce, as Michelle failed to show up at major events.
The former president and his wife were filmed waving to an adoring crowd of diners at Osteria Mozza, where main courses range in price from $34 to $175.
The restaurant is in Washington D.C.'s fashionable Georgetown neighborhood, just a short distance from Obama's mansion in Kalorama.
Barack Obama was previously spotted dining there by himself in January, fueling rumors of a marital rift. His dinner date with Michelle is the first time they have been seen together in months.
The speculation started brewing after Michelle Obama failed to appear at two major state events in January: Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Trump's second inauguration.
Barack Obama appeared to respond to public speculation by sharing a gushing birthday tribute to his wife just days before Trump was sworn in. The post included a photo of the Obamas holding hands awkwardly across a dining table.
Barack Obama also acknowledged recently on a podcast that their marriage needed some work after years spent in public life.
His wife broke her silence on a recent podcast appearance with actress Sophia Bush, in which Michelle Obama, an outspoken feminist, complained about society's assumptions.
"That's the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with disappointing people," she said.
"So much so that this year people were, you know, they couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing," she added.
"That this couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?"
Even as she denied rumors of marital trouble, the Former First Lady made clear that she is enjoying new freedom.
“Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of, ‘Who do I truly want to be every day?’ And that changes,” she said. “So, who do I want to have a lunch with? How long do I want to stay in a place? Do I want to travel? If a girlfriend calls and says, ‘Let’s go here,’ I can say ‘Yes! I can.’ And I’m trying to do that more and more.”
The Supreme Court shut down an effort by Democrats in Minnesota to restrict 18-to-20-year-olds from buying guns.
The court let stand an Eight Circuit ruling that vindicated the rights of young people to carry firearms under the Second Amendment. Minnesota's attorney general, Keith Ellison (D), had asked the court to uphold "modest" restrictions that make it a crime for people under 21 to carry in public.
The ruling is the latest in a cascade of Second Amendment victories to follow from the Supreme Court's decision in Bruen, which requires gun control regimes to be "consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The court later refined the Bruen test in United States v. Rahimi, clarifying that courts do not need to identify a "historic twin" to uphold modern gun restrictions, but instead should look at the "principles underlying historical restrictions on firearms."
Citing Rahimi, Minnesota urged the Supreme Court to reconsider an Eight Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that struck down Minnesota's age limits, but the Supreme Court left the lower court ruling alone. The Eight Circuit found that the age limits do not pass the Bruen test.
“The Second Amendment’s plain text does not have an age limit,” wrote Judge Duane Benton, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.
Moreover, the 26th Amendment unambiguously incorporated young people into the political community by granting them voting rights, the appeals court ruled.
Minnesota argued its "common sense" restrictions were necessary to address gun violence among young people. The state called its limits "modest" since young people can access firearms at any age with parental supervision, and by age 14 they may possess guns unsupervised on their property or for hunting.
Groups including the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Second Amendment Foundation, and Firearms Policy Coalition challenged Minnesota's restrictions.
"Politicians should carefully consider the legal ramifications of infringing on Second Amendment rights,” Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus (MGOC) Senior Vice President & Political Director Rob Doar said.
“The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and its allies will relentlessly pursue legal action against any unconstitutional measures introduced in Minnesota.”
The Supreme Court has been slow to intervene in gun disputes since ruling in Rahimi last year, when the court found that people with restraining orders for domestic violence can be temporarily disarmed.
The court's reluctance to revisit the gun debate has cut both ways. While it has resulted in a win for gun rights in Minnesota, the justices recently declined to upset New York's new gun licensing regime, which was adopted in response to Bruen.
A Democratic judge from New Mexico has resigned after an illegal alien with ties to a Venezuelan gang was arrested at the judge's home.
Christhian Ortega-Lopez, 23, is an alleged member of Tren De Aragua, which the Trump administration considers a terrorist organization. Ortega-Lopez was charged with illegal gun possession after an arrest February at the home of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy.
The judge announced his resignation in a letter dated March 3, which listed his last day as March 21, Albuquerque Journal reported.
“Working with each of you has been a very rewarding experience for which I will remain eternally grateful,” Cano wrote to his colleagues.
Prosecutors shared details of Judge Cano's unusual relationship with Ortega-Lopez, who posed with the judge, a former cop, in photos shared on social media. Judge Cano even let Ortega-Lopez list Cano's address while fighting deportation.
Photos and videos obtained by New Mexico prosecutors also show Ortega-Lopez displaying Tren De Aragua tattoos and shooting firearms that he obtained from the judge's daughter, April Cano.
Additionally, according to Breitbart, Ortega-Lopez's cell phone "showed graphic images of multiple decapitated and mutilated bodies."
The Venezuelan national met the Cano family after he entered the United States illegally as part of the Biden-era alien influx in Eagle Pass, Texas. Ortega-Lopez was "paroled" into the U.S. due to overcrowding, after which he moved to El Paso, where he lived with five roommates.
While working construction jobs, he met Nancy Cano, who offered to let him live in a casita behind her house in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
In April 2024, Ortega-Lopez applied for relief from deportation, listing the Cano residence in his paperwork. Around this time, he met April Cano, who "possessed a large number of firearms” and “allowed him to hold and sometimes shoot various firearms," according to prosecutors.
On February 28, 2025, federal authorities executed a search warrant at the home of Joel and Nancy Cano, and Ortega-Lopez was arrested along with several roommates. He was charged with being an unlawful alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The judge's strangely hospitable relationship with Ortega-Lopez came up during a March detention hearing. U.S. Magistrate Judge Damian Martinez said, of Cano, "I don’t think he would just let anybody live in his property.”
As of now, Ortega-Lopez is in custody without bond. Prosecutors argue that Ortega-Lopez is a flight risk and a danger to the community because of his alleged gang ties.
Cano was first elected in 2010 as magistrate judge and ran unopposed in three bids for re-election.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had a meeting with President Donald Trump this week and it reportedly didn't go very well for her, thanks to an awkward mistake by her interpreter.
According to Politico, interpreter Valentina Maiolini-Rothbacher was ultimately cut off by the Italian prime minister after Trump had asked for a translation regarding a questioned PM Meloni had asked him.
The interpreter struggled with the response -- so bad that the prime minister stepped in and was forced to provide her own translation.
The embarrassed interpreter later told an Italian newspaper that the mistake was the "worst thing that can happen to an interpreter, a terrible setback."
The United States president had asked Maiolini-Rothbacher "for a translation of Meloni’s response to a question from an Italian journalist about his position on Ukraine and military spending," and the result was a disaster for the interpreter.
While struggling to provide a translation, she paused several times and was forced to look at her notes.
That's when Meloni jumped in to interpret her own response regarding NATO funding and defense.
"President Meloni was right to interrupt me, it was a very important meeting and every word carried great weight," Maiolini-Rothbacher said. "She wanted to be perfectly understood by Donald Trump."
‘Wait, I will do it’ - Meloni interrupts White House interpreter to translate for herself during Trump meeting pic.twitter.com/cGNyQMKMrL
— Viory Video (@vioryvideo) April 18, 2025
Politico noted:
Maiolini-Rothbacher said in the interview that although she had not been to the White House before, she is an experienced interpreter and has worked at high-level meetings including the G20. She has worked as an interpreter since 1991, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She has not spoken with Meloni since the meeting, she said, adding that she went straight to the airport from the White House after the session. According to Corriere della Sera, she is currently by the sea in the Santa Marinella area.
Users across social media reacted to the situation, with some praising the Italian PM for stepping in.
"Her translator wasn't at 100% today. It happens right? But, Meloni being the absolute boss she is didn't even bat an eye. She stepped in immediately & translated what she said herself for @realDonaldTrump. Queen Energy y'all!," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Meloni’s translator has almost destroyed everything she wanted to achieve in Washington. Her body language is easy to understand."
Many asked why the PM even needed a translator on hand given how she handled the situation so well.
President Donald Trump had plenty of legal issues leading up to his election, and while he managed to navigate most of those just fine, he faces a new challenge of judicial activism regarding his bold and decisive border policies.
One of those issues deals with U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who attempted to halt the Trump administration's deportation flights last month, specifically the flights bringing violent and dangerous illegal migrants to El Salvador for imprisonment.
According to The Hill, after Boasberg called for contempt proceedings against the president and his administration, a divided appeals court shot down that notion this week, scoring a win for Trump and his lawyers.
Judge Boasberg is one of several federal judges, all of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents, who have attempted to interfere with Trump's executive powers to manage the southern border crisis as he sees fit.
The federal appeals court released its decision this week, essentially saying the Trump administration has a right to the appeals process before legal actions can be taken.
The Hill reported:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit indicated its order is intended to provide “sufficient opportunity” for the court to consider the government’s appeal and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”
Judge Boasberg, last week, had found grounds for contempt, slamming the Trump administration's refusal to turn the deportation flights around "a willful disregard" of the federal court's order.
Not surprisingly, the federal appeals court in charge of the decision split down party lines. The Hill noted:
The three-judge D.C. Circuit panel split 2-1. The two Trump appointees, Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, ruled for the administration. Judge Cornelia Pillard, an appointee of former President Obama, dissented.
Judge Pillard wrote, "In the absence of an appealable order or any clear and indisputable right to relief that would support mandamus, there is no ground for an administrative stay."
Judge Boasberg has been on Trump's radar -- and not a good one -- ever since he intervened in the president's decision to utilize the rare and nearly-forgotten Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport certain illegal aliens.
Users across social media weighed in on the ongoing situation, with some calling for Boasberg's impeachment as a result of his seeming activism.
Appeals judges have BLOCKED Judge Boasberg's effort to hold President Trump in contempt of court for not "undeporting" MS-13 gang members.
Now, Congress should impeach this partisan dummy and investigate his bank account. pic.twitter.com/BWMbWuEOk4
— George (@BehizyTweets) April 18, 2025
"This man belongs as far away from the bench as possible. There is no room for activists in the judiciary," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "He should not serve as a judge."
The American people strongly approve of President Trump's handling of immigration, despite the efforts of his opponents to generate outrage over his deportation agenda.
According to CNBC's All-America Economic Survey, Trump has +12 approval with regard to the southern border and +7 on deporting illegal aliens. On the other hand, the poll found Trump's approval sagging on the economy.
“It is the lowest economic approval in any CNBC poll while President Trump has been in office, and his first net negative showing on the economy,” CNBC’s senior economics reporter Steve Liesman said.
Frustration with the consequences of President Biden's open border helped propel Trump back to the White House last fall. Since returning to power, Trump has quickly secured the border, with crossings plummeting 94%.
Meanwhile, Trump's sweeping deportation agenda has faced a concerted pushback from liberal judges, elected Democrats, and the leftist media -- but Trump is winning in the court of public opinion.
At the same time, 49% of Americans believe the economy will get worse, while 37% see a brighter future ahead, CNBC found.
Overall, Trump is 12 points underwater on the economy, with 43% approving versus 55% disapproving. His overall approval stands at 44%, with 51% disapproving.
The data suggests that Trump's immigration crackdown -- and Democrats' foolish response -- could buoy his approval rating as anxiety builds over his historic tariffs.
Trump's opponents have rallied to defend illegal aliens like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran and alleged MS-13 member widely portrayed as a benign "Maryland man" in the media. The case has been dominating headlines after a difficult news cycle for Trump centered on his "Liberation Day" tariffs.
A Democrat lawmaker from Maryland even traveled to Garcia's native El Salvador to fight for his release from an infamous prison.
“I just landed in San Salvador a little while ago, and I look forward to meeting with the team at the U.S. embassy to discuss the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) wrote on X. “I also hope to meet with Salvadoran officials and with Kilmar himself. He was illegally abducted and needs to come home.”
The Trump administration shared damning evidence this week implicating Garcia in domestic abuse and substantiating his alleged MS-13 ties.
Trump and his allies have seized on Democrats' knee-jerk response to the case to highlight their open border agenda and its deadly consequences, inviting the mother of Maryland woman Rachel Morin, who was murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador, to speak at the White House.
As she continues to face rumors of divorce, Michelle Obama's own brother, Craig Robinson, is sharing his past doubts about Barack Obama.
In an episode of their new podcast IMO, Robinson recalled his first impression of the future president, and it wasn't good.
"And I've told this story many times about when you first started dating Barack. So Mich starts to date Barack, and we don't know who this guy is, we're just like, 'Barack? Who's got a name like Barack?' And I'm thinking it's gonna last a month like most of your relationships," Robinson said.
"That’s not true. I’ve had many a long-term boyfriend,” Obama replied.
The Obamas met at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. They married in 1992 and had two daughters. Michelle Obama has admitted to feeling conflicted about putting her personal ambitions on hold to raise a family.
"Something had to give and it was my aspirations and dreams. I made that concession, not because he said, 'You have to quit your job.' It felt like, 'I can't do all of this. So I have to tone down my aspirations. I have to dial it back," she confessed in her 2020 documentary Becoming.
The former First Lady has also been open about using marriage counseling to work through rough patches.
Her husband recently acknowledged that their marriage was in a "deficit" after years spent in public life.
Rumors of divorce began swirling in January after Michelle skipped two high-profile events, Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Trump's inauguration.
After weeks of dodging the speculation, Michelle Obama dismissed the chatter in a podcast appearance with actress Sophia Bush.
“And that’s the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people,” she said.
“So much so that people, they couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
In the same interview, Obama said she felt liberated to put herself first and "make some big girl decisions."
"Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of, ‘Who do I truly want to be every day?’ And that changes," she said.
"So, who do I want to have a lunch with? How long do I want to stay in a place? Do I want to travel? If a girlfriend calls and says, ‘Let’s go here,’ I can say, ‘Yes, I can.’ And I’m trying to do that more and more."
The White House is ending the privileged press access that left-leaning news wires like the Associated Press have traditionally received.
The AP, Reuters, and Bloomberg will no longer get a guaranteed slot in the daily press pool that covers White House business, the New York Post reported. The wire services now have to compete with print publications for access on a rotating basis.
The press pool travels with the president and covers events where space is limited, such the Oval Office and Air Force One. Trump is known to engage with pool reporters in long, discursive Q&A sessions.
The makeup of the press pool has traditionally been dictated by the White House Correspondents' Association, which represents journalists, but the Trump administration has been taking that over, with press Secretary Karoline Leavitt deciding which organizations get pool access each day.
Wire services like the AP and Reuters provide syndicated news copy to news outlets around the globe. Their widely disseminated coverage often comes with a liberal spin.
For example, the AP has described the illegal immigrant at the center of a current international controversy, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as a "Maryland man" despite the fact that he entered the United States illegally from his native El Salvador.
The AP, Reuters, and Bloomberg have traditionally had guaranteed access to White House events, but the Trump administration is changing that. In lieu of a reserved space for the three wire services, the White House is adding a second slot for print journalists, and the wire services will be treated like other print media.
The move is an apparent workaround to a court ruling that ordered the White House to unblock the AP, which has been barred from the pool since February for refusing to change its style guide to reflect Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
US District Judge Trevor McFadden's ruling that the AP "cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services” gave the White House some flexibility.
The administration's moves have been condemned by legacy media as an attack on press freedom, but the White House has said the shakeup will make the White House more accessible to a wider variety of sources.
“The makeup of the pool is far more reflective of the media habits of the American people in 2025,” a senior White House official told The New York Post.
“The White House press policy continues to be grounded in fairness for all outlets that wish to cover the White House.”
The White House Correspondents' Association cried foul, saying the latest changes are meant to "retaliate against news organizations for coverage the White House doesn’t like.”
The AP said, "The administration’s actions continue to disregard the fundamental American freedom to speak without government control or retaliation. This is a grave disservice to the American people.”