The Latest: Education Department guts its civil rights office

The Education Department’s civil rights branch is losing nearly half its staff in the Trump administration’s layoffs, effectively gutting an office that already faced a backlog of thousands of complaints from students and families across the nation.

Among a total of more than 1,300 layoffs announced Tuesday were roughly 240 in the department’s Office for Civil Rights, according to a list obtained and verified by The Associated Press. Seven of the civil rights agency’s 12 regional offices were entirely laid off, including busy hubs in New York, Chicago and Dallas. Despite assurances that the department’s work will continue unaffected, huge numbers of cases appear to be in limbo.

Here's the latest:

US General Services Administration is working on a revised list of ‘non-core’ federal properties

The administration published a list March 4 but pulled it back following backlash. A spokesperson said the new list of federal properties that could be sold should be published “in the near future after we evaluate this initial input.”

“To be clear, just because an asset is on the list doesn’t mean it’s immediately for sale,” an email from the spokesperson said, adding that the sites will be evaluated for what’s “best for the needs of the federal government and taxpayer.”

Included in the first list was the historic site that houses the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. Freedom Riders sought to integrate bus terminal waiting rooms and restaurants throughout the South in the 1960s.

Members of Alabama’s congressional delegation raised concerns about the listing, saying it never should have happened.

Trump showers Irish prime minister with praise at White House reception

In a display of mutual flattery, Trump noted previous presidents of Irish descent, including “the late great” Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, while tracing the history of the U.S. through the work of Irish immigrants.

“We honor the bravery of countless Irish Americans who have kept our country safe, strong, prosperous and free,” Trump said.

In kind, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, wearing a green tie, noted that three of the signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence were Irish born.

“Since then, Irish Americans have been at the heart of shaping this great nation,” Martin says, crediting the U.S. with doing “much to inspire Irish independence.”

Martin praised Trump as a peacemaker, saying he “welcomes the unrelenting focus and energy you have brought to the search for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East since your first days in office.”

Martin ended his presentation by offering Trump a symbolic gift, a bowl of bright green shamrocks.

Alabama representative says Freedom Rides Museum building listing ‘never should have happened’

The Montgomery Bus Station, which houses the Freedom Rides Museum, had been listed along with hundreds of properties to be sold as part of reductions from DOGE. The list was taken down a day later.

“We should not have to continue to pressure this administration to protect civil rights history,” U.S. Rep. Shomari C. Figures said.

Freedom Riders sought to integrate bus terminal waiting rooms throughout the South in the 1960s. They encountered violence and resistance along the way.

Figures and Rep. Terri Sewell introduced legislation Wednesday to prevent the sale of all federally owned landmarks listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Our civil rights history is not for sale,” Sewell said in a statement.

Zuckerberg visits the White House

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was at the White House on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with his visit who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Facebook founder has embraced Trump in recent months, having attended his inauguration and cohosted an inaugural reception.

Weeks after Trump won the election, Zuckerberg flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to have dinner with him.

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Associated Press reporter Michelle Price contributed to this report.

Federal judge appears skeptical probationary firings were for performance

U.S. District Judge James Bredar repeatedly sounded skeptical at a Wednesday hearing that the Trump administration fired a mass of probationary federal workers because the employees couldn’t do their jobs. He said the terminations appeared to be part of a larger goal.

Nearly 20 states are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop any more firings of federal probationary employees and to reinstate those who have already been dismissed. They argue that the Trump administration blindsided them by ignoring laws set for large-scale layoffs, which could have devastating consequences for their state finances.

“This case isn’t about whether or not the government can terminate people. It’s about if they decide to terminate people how they must do it,” Bredar said. “Move fast and break things. Move fast, fine. Break things, if that involves breaking the law then that becomes problematic.”

▶ Read more about the hearing

House Democrats debate their comeback and criticize Musk at retreat

House Democrats gathered in Leesburg, Virginia, for an annual conference are debating how to respond to the second Trump term. Already a key target on the summit’s first day: Billionaire Elon Musk.

“The good news for Democrats is that House Republicans and Donald Trump are making our messaging work easier for us,” Rep. Lauren Underwood, of Illinois, said. “The chaos that Elon Musk has unleashed in our communities by laying off public servants who provided critical services is deeply unpopular.

Rep. Lori Trahan, of Massachusetts, said Democrats would have been open “to modernizing our systems, rooting out fraud, waste and abuse” but criticized the DOGE process.

“That should be done in full view of the American people,” she said. “It should be debated.”

Military leaders warn of risks to forces’ readiness in temporary budget

The vice chiefs of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force said if they don’t get additional funding, they at least need the flexibility to shift money to ensure their priorities are covered.

“Ultimately, the Army can afford a large, ready or modern force, but with the current budget, it cannot afford all three,” Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the Army, told the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee on Wednesday. “Either we provide soldiers the capabilities needed to win or accept greater risks in other areas.”

He warned that the Army will pay for those risks down the road “in real-world battlefield consequences.”

Speaker Mike Johnson says he and Trump hope the Senate will vote to keep the government open

Johnson says they “are both very happy with the outcome of the vote” in the House to fund the government past Friday’s deadline and are “watching very closely what happens in the Senate.”

“I hope they keep the government open,” he said after an annual Irish luncheon at the Capitol.

He warns that Democrats are “going to regret” not joining Republicans to pass the bill and that if Senate Democrats block the bill, “it’s going to be a Schumer shutdown,” referring to the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “I don’t think he wants that.”

Scientists see EPA’s regulatory rollbacks as latest form of ‘Republican climate denial’

“They can no longer deny climate change is happening, so instead they’re pretending it’s not a threat, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that it is, perhaps, the greatest threat that we face today,” University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann said.

The United States is the second largest carbon polluter in the world, after China, and the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases.

“The Trump administration’s ignorance is trumped only by its malice toward the planet,” said Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives.”

EPA chief says removing clean-air rules will ensure ‘American energy remains clean’

Zeldin said EPA will rewrite a rule restricting air pollution from fossil-fuel fired power plants and a separate measure restricting emissions from cars and trucks that Zeldin and Trump incorrectly label an electric vehicle “mandate.’′

Former President Joe Biden made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency, pledging that half of the new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. would be zero-emission by 2030.

Zeldin’s EPA also is undoing restrictions on mercury and other air toxins, federal protections for wetlands and a three-decade effort to improve conditions in areas heavily burdened by industrial pollution.

“This isn’t about abandoning environmental protection — it’s about achieving it through innovation and not strangulation,” Zeldin wrote. “By reconsidering rules that throttled oil and gas production and unfairly targeted coal-fired power plants, we are ensuring that American energy remains clean, affordable and reliable.”

Trump administration resumes detention of migrant families after Biden-era pause

Fourteen immigrant families were being held in a South Texas detention facility as of Monday, according to RAICES, a legal nonprofit providing services to migrant families at the Karnes Detention Center. They’re from nations including Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Brazil.

Faisal Al-Juburi, RAICES’ chief external affairs officer, said the nonprofit noticed the shift in detention population last week after adult detainees were moved out.

Detaining family members together was largely halted, but not abolished, during the Biden administration, which briefly considered restarting it in 2023.

Ukraine has run out of longer-range ATACMS missiles

Pentagon shipments of weapons to Ukraine have restarted, but officials acknowledged on Wednesday that Kyiv no longer has any of the longer-range Army Tactical Missile System weapons.

That’s according to a U.S. official and a Ukrainian lawmaker in the defense committee. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to provide military weapons details.

The American official said the U.S. provided fewer than 40 of those missiles overall and that Ukraine ran out of them in late January. Senior U.S. defense and military leaders had told Ukraine there would only be a limited number of the ATACMs delivered and that the U.S. and NATO allies considered air defense systems to be far more valuable.