SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian-made dramas rarely last long in local cinemas. But, nearly two months after its release, “I’m Still Here,” a film about a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades, has drawn millions of moviegoers across the South American country.
The film's domestic box office success — with nearly 3 million tickets sold, it secured the fifth spot at the 2024 box office by mid December — is rooted in its exploration of a long-neglected national trauma, but it is particularly timely, especially as Brazil confronts a recent near-miss with democratic rupture.
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FILE - A demonstrator holds a sign that reads in Portuguese "Never commemorate. Remember in order to not repeat. Dictatorship never again," during a protest against Brazil's 1964 military coup, in Rio de Janeiro, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - With a mask hanging in the foreground, demonstrators perform as victims in a torture device called pau-de-arara, or parrot's perch, during a demonstration organized by the Rio de Paz NGO to remember the victims of Brazil's military dictatorship, on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
Writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the author of the book that served as the basis for the film "I'm Still Here," poses for a photo during an interview in Sao Paulo, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
FILE - Armed forces take part in a ceremony to commemorate the 1964 military coup that began the last Brazilian dictatorship, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
FILE - Unidentified men detain a student during a protest in Sao Paulo, Oct. 9, 1968. (AP Photo/Agencia Estado, File)
FILE - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, left, and Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto attend a ceremony honoring military athletes who participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the military's Admiral Adalberto Nunes Physical Education Center in Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
FILE - Police gather on the other side of a window that was shattered by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - Walter Salles, left, director of the film "I'm Still Here," and cast member Fernanda Torres pose for a portrait to promote the film, Nov. 13, 2024, in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
People wait to watch the film "I'm Still Here," at a movie theater in Sao Paulo, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
FILE - Demonstrators hold photos of people who were killed in Brazil's dictatorship, during the "Walk of Silence" march in memory of the victims, marking the anniversary of the country's 1964 coup, in Sao Paulo, April 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
Set in the 1970s and based on true events, “I’m Still Here” tells the story of the Paivas, an upper-class family in Rio de Janeiro shattered by the dictatorship. Rubens Paiva, a former leftist congressman, was taken into custody by the military in 1971 and was never seen again. The narrative centers on his wife, Eunice Paiva, and her lifelong pursuit of justice.
The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign language film and shortlisted for the Oscars in the same category.
“Comedies and other topics are more likely to become mega-successes, but this (the dictatorship) is a very taboo subject for us,” said Brazilian psychoanalyst and writer Vera Iaconelli, adding that she felt a “sense of urgency” after watching the movie last month, even though the dictatorship ended almost four decades ago.
As the movie was being shown across Brazil, the Federal Police unsealed a report detailing a 2022 plot by military officers to stage a coup to prevent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office, and to keep far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro in power. Bolsonaro and his allies have denied any involvement in participating or inciting a coup.
“Even if (director) Walter Salles wanted to plan the timing of the release this precisely, he wouldn’t have gotten it so right,” said Lucas Pedretti, a historian and sociologist whose works address memory and reparations after the military dictatorship.
“The film plays a very important role in telling us: ‘Look, this is what would happen if the coup that was planned by Bolsonaro and his military officers had succeeded.’”
Unlike countries like Argentina and Chile, which established truth commissions and prosecuted former dictators and their henchmen, Brazil's transition back to democracy was marked by a sweeping amnesty to military officials.
For years, said Pedretti, Brazil’s military promoted the notion that government silence was the best way to bury the past.
It was not until 2011 that Brazil’s then- President Dilma Rousseff — a former guerrilla who was tortured during the dictatorship — established a national truth commission to investigate its abuses.
The commission's 2014 report detailed harrowing accounts of torture and named perpetrators of human rights violations — none were ever imprisoned. But just as a reckoning of the dictatorship began, calls for a return to military rule emerged in street protests against corruption revelations.
It was then that Marcelo Rubens Paiva, one of Rubens' sons, decided to share his family's story in his 2015 book “I'm Still Here." The book introduced Eunice Paiva to a larger audience, chronicling her journey from a housewife to a relentless advocate for her disappeared husband, and how she raised five children by herself, while also pursuing a law degree.
In the years that followed, far-right, anti-establishment forces increasingly gained traction. Bolsonaro — who has long celebrated the coup and praised dictatorship-era torturers — would go on to ride that wave to a presidential victory in 2018.
Observing the surge of the far-right in Brazil, filmmaker Salles realized the country's memory of its dictatorship was very fragile. He said he saw a need for his country to confront its trauma in order to prevent history from repeating itself.
“I’m Still Here” isn’t the first Brazilian movie to explore the memory of the dictatorship, but it is the most popular. Unlike other films on the subject that tend to focus on dissidents and armed resistance, Salles chose to frame his as a family drama and how the disappearance of the family patriarch upended their day-to-day lives.
Its climax — spoiler alert! — arrives 25 years after Rubens’ disappearance, when Eunice finally receives his death certificate.
In December, a month after the film’s premiere, the Brazilian government allowed families of dictatorship-era victims to obtain reissued death certificates acknowledging state-sponsored killings.
"It is very symbolic that this is happening amid the international repercussion of ‘I’m Still Here’ ... so younger people can understand a bit of what that period was like,” Brazil's Human Rights Minister Macaé Evaristo said during the announcement, calling it an important step in the “healing process for Brazilian society.”
The healing process remains incomplete, as some forces — once again — seek to prevent those who allegedly sought to sabotage democracy from being held to account.
On Nov. 29, Bolsonaro urged Lula and the Supreme Court to grant amnesty for those involved in the 2022 alleged coup plot and, alongside his allies, pushed for legislation to pardon participants in the 2023 anti-democratic riot that aimed to oust Lula and marked an echo of the Capitol insurrection in the U.S.
“The coup is still here. It’s still in people’s minds, it’s still in the minds of the military,” said Paulo Sergio Almeida, a filmmaker and founder of Filme B, a company that tracks Brazil's national cinema. “We thought this was a thing of the past, but it’s not. The past is still present in Brazil.”
This time around, many Brazilians are calling for the prosecution of those responsible for the attempted coup, believing that justice is essential for national reconciliation and future progress.
On Dec. 14, police arrested Bolsonaro's 2022 running mate and former defense minister in connection with investigations into the alleged coup plot, becoming the first four-star general arrested by civilians since the end of the dictatorship in 1985.
“It's a sign that we are making progress as a constitutional democracy,” leftist Sen. Randolfe Rodrigues wrote on X that day. “Brazil still has a long way to go as a Republic, but today is a HISTORIC day on this journey.”
Brazilians have also embraced the “No amnesty!" rallying cry, which originated at street protests in the aftermath of the capital's 2023 riot and can still be heard.
Earlier this month, a Supreme Court justice cited “I’m Still Here” while arguing that the 1979 amnesty law shouldn’t apply to the crime of concealing bodies.
“The disappearance of Rubens Paiva, whose body was never found or buried, highlights the enduring pain of thousands of families,” Justice Flávio Dino said.
Striking a chord in Brazil was precisely Marcelo Rubens Paiva's intent when adapting his book into a film.
“The movie is sparking this debate, and it arrived at the right moment for people to recognize that living under a dictatorship is no longer acceptable,” he said.
On a recent evening in Sao Paulo, 46-year-old Juliana Patrícia and her 16-year-old daughter, Ana Júlia, left a movie theater in tears, touched by “I’m Still Here.”
“We saw all the suffering that Eunice endured, with Rubens being killed and taken from his family in such a brutal way,” Patrícia said. “It made us even more certain that democracy needs to be respected and that, as Brazilians, we must fight harder to ensure that this never happens in our country again.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE - A demonstrator holds a sign that reads in Portuguese "Never commemorate. Remember in order to not repeat. Dictatorship never again," during a protest against Brazil's 1964 military coup, in Rio de Janeiro, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - With a mask hanging in the foreground, demonstrators perform as victims in a torture device called pau-de-arara, or parrot's perch, during a demonstration organized by the Rio de Paz NGO to remember the victims of Brazil's military dictatorship, on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
Writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the author of the book that served as the basis for the film "I'm Still Here," poses for a photo during an interview in Sao Paulo, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
FILE - Armed forces take part in a ceremony to commemorate the 1964 military coup that began the last Brazilian dictatorship, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
FILE - Unidentified men detain a student during a protest in Sao Paulo, Oct. 9, 1968. (AP Photo/Agencia Estado, File)
FILE - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, left, and Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto attend a ceremony honoring military athletes who participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the military's Admiral Adalberto Nunes Physical Education Center in Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
FILE - Police gather on the other side of a window that was shattered by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - Walter Salles, left, director of the film "I'm Still Here," and cast member Fernanda Torres pose for a portrait to promote the film, Nov. 13, 2024, in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
People wait to watch the film "I'm Still Here," at a movie theater in Sao Paulo, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
FILE - Demonstrators hold photos of people who were killed in Brazil's dictatorship, during the "Walk of Silence" march in memory of the victims, marking the anniversary of the country's 1964 coup, in Sao Paulo, April 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. is holding direct talks with Iran about its nuclear program, warning that Tehran would be in “great danger” if the talks aren’t successful.
The comments came during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. Netanyahu assured Trump that his government would move to erase the trade deficit with the United States.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to pause a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Despite admitting the error, the administration says Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody and they cannot get him back.
Here's the latest:
Shortly before he was forced to resign, the nation’s top vaccine regulator says he refused to grant Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team unrestricted access to a tightly held vaccine safety database, fearing that the information might be manipulated or even deleted.
Former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks discussed his efforts to “make nice” with Kennedy and address his longstanding concerns about vaccine safety, including by developing a “vaccine transparency action plan.”
Marks agreed to give Kennedy’s associates the ability to read thousands of reports of potential vaccine-related issues sent to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. But he would not allow them to directly edit the data.
“Why wouldn’t we? Because frankly we don’t trust (them),” he said, using a profanity. “They’d write over it or erase the whole database.”
▶ Read more about Marks’ resignation from the FDA
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also says he’s assembling a task force to focus on the issue. He told The Associated Press of his plans after a news conference in Salt Lake City.
Also on Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is reviewing “new scientific information” on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.
Utah last month became the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, pushing past opposition from dentists and national health organizations who warned the move would lead to medical problems that disproportionately affect low-income communities. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation barring cities and communities from deciding whether to add the cavity-preventing mineral to their water systems.
Liz Oyer testified at a congressional hearing one month after she said she was abruptly fired after refusing a request to recommend that the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson, a friend of Trump’s, be restored.
Oyer accused Trump’s Justice Department leadership of valuing “political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of justice” and “treating public servants with a lack of basic decency and humanity.”
The Justice Department had attempted to use executive privilege to prevent Oyer from testifying about the circumstances of her departure. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has denied Oyer’s account.
A Justice Department spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on her testimony Monday.
The American Foreign Service Association, which represents U.S. diplomats, and the American Academy of Diplomacy said last week’s appointment of Lew Olowski to temporarily run the State Department’s personnel office is an affront to the long-held standard that the post be occupied by either a current senior or retired career diplomat.
Olowski joined the foreign service in 2021.
State Department officials said last week that Olowski’s appointment, while untraditional, was not a harbinger of mass layoffs. They said he would only be in the job for a short time until a permanent successor can be nominated and confirmed by the Senate.
Trump and Netanyahu have wrapped up comments to the media ahead of their Oval Office meeting.
The two leaders spoke and took questions from reporters on topics including Iran, tariffs and the war between Israel and Hamas for about 50 minutes Monday.
They earlier scrapped their plan for a joint news conference to be held after their meeting.
The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. on Monday responded to Trump’s freshest tariff threat by repeating its long-stated stance, in a clear sign that Beijing is unlikely to back down.
“We have stressed more than once that pressuring or threatening China is not a right way to engage with us,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson. “China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
The embassy called attention to Beijing’s latest position statement, in which the Chinese government not only condemns the tariffs imposed by the U.S. but also calls upon all countries to “practice true multilateralism, jointly oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism, and defend the U.N.-centered international system and the WTO-centered multilateral trading system.”
Netanyahu proclaimed at the White House that Israel would work to eliminate the trade deficit with the U.S. and do so quickly.
But that might not be enough for Trump to change his mind on the 17% tariffs the U.S. imposed on Israel last week.
“Maybe not,” Trump said when asked whether he would reduce the tariffs on Israeli goods. Referring to the billions in aid that the U.S. offers every year, Trump added: “Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot.”
Trump made the threat in an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at which he also announced that direct talks between Iran and the United States would begin this weekend.
“I think Iran is going to be in great danger” if the talks collapse, Trump said. “And I hate to say it.”
Trump did not disclose the venue for the meetings to begin on Saturday or say who from his administration would participate.
“We’re dealing with them directly and maybe a deal is going to be made,” Trump said. He added that “doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious.”
Trump said the talks would happen “at almost the highest level.”
Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Monday to pause a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The Justice Department argued in an emergency appeal to the justices that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.
The administration has conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs.
But he is no longer in U.S. custody and the government has no way to get him back, the administration argued.
The French and Mideast leaders spoke to Trump on Monday about ways to urgently secure a ceasefire in Gaza, stressing the need to resume access for aid supplies, according to the French president’s office.
The three leaders — France’s Emmanuel Macron, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and King Abdullah II of Jordan — decided to keep in close contact with Trump, Macron’s office said.
The phone call took place ahead of Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Macron is in Egypt and will visit security forces and aid workers Tuesday. Earlier Monday he urged the lifting of Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The lawsuit filed Monday aims to stop the government from freezing federal money in the wake of a dispute over transgender athletes in sports.
Trump and Maine, which is controlled by Democrats, are in the midst of a weekslong dispute about the Title IX anti-discrimination law and the participation of transgender students in high school sports.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said earlier this month that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was pausing some funds for Maine educational programs because of what she described as Maine’s failure to comply with the law.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey filed a complaint in federal court on Monday that described the pause as “illegally withholding grant funds that go to keeping children fed.”
Despite hopes that he’ll back off his trade policies, the president said he’s not going to pause plans for tariffs.
“We’re not looking at that,” he said in the Oval Office. However, he also said foreign leaders were looking to cut new trade deals with the U.S.
“We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate with us,” he said.
Trump said there was no contradiction between implementing tariffs and holding talks.“They can both be true,” he said.
Trump made the comments to reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said the talks with Tehran would start Saturday but insisted Tehran can’t get nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu vowed to eliminate the trade deficit with the United States after Israel was hit by 17% tariffs by Trump last week.
As he met with Trump in the Oval Office, the prime minister said Israel will work to eliminate the trade deficit “very quickly” and added that Israel will also work to eliminate trade barriers with the U.S.
“Israel can serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same,” Netanyahu said. He added: “I’m a free trade champion, and free trade has to be fair trade.”
Netanyahu said he and Trump discussed ongoing efforts to get hostages released from Gaza and said they are working on another deal to release hostages “that we hope will succeed.”
The Israeli leader said that they’re committed to getting all of the hostages released and eliminating Hamas from Gaza.
He said he also spoke to Trump about the U.S. president’s plan to move displaced Palestinians from Gaza while it’s redeveloped, which Netanyahu called a “bold” vision.
Johnson said House Republicans are intent on giving President Trump more time to change the country’s trade imbalances with other nations.
Johnson was asked about giving Congress a chance to weigh in on the recent tariffs increases Trump has announced. The Senate, for example, passed a resolution last week that would thwart Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada.
But Johnson said the country had a $1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods last year, and Americans understand Trump is trying to address that.
“We are going to give him the space necessary to do it,” Johnson said.
The White House released a statement to congressional offices saying the bill, which is being spearheaded by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would “severely constrain” the president’s ability to use tariffs “to respond to national emergencies and foreign threats.”
The statement was a setback for a bipartisan bill that was already unlikely to advance quickly, but Republican support for the legislation also showed that GOP lawmakers are uneasy with Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Seven Republican senators are cosponsoring the bill.
The confusion — which was amplified on social media and by some traditional media outlets — lasted less than a half hour but reflected a jittery mood on Wall Street as stocks plunged over worries that Trump’s tariffs could torpedo the global economy.
The origin of the false report was unclear but it appeared to be a misinterpretation of comments made by Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, during a Fox News interview Monday morning. Asked whether Trump would consider a 90-day tariff pause suggested by a prominent hedge fund manager, Hassett said “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide.”
Nearly two hours later, multiple user accounts on social media platform X posted identical messages claiming Hassett said Trump is considering a pause for all countries except China.
The White House initially appeared as confused as everyone else. But after 20 minutes, a government account rejected the report as “fake news.”
▶ Read more about how the bogus report affected the markets
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in a 25 minute call with Trump on Monday raised concerns that the tariffs by the U.S. could weaken investment capacity among Japanese companies.
“The recent tariff measures by the United States are extremely regrettable,” Ishiba told reporters following the call. “I told the president that Japan has been the world’s largest investor in the U.S. for five consecutive years, and I also strongly expressed concern that the U.S. tariffs will reduce the investment capacity of Japanese companies.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says it’s ending a half-century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision follows the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding for refugee resettlement.
The break will inevitably result in fewer services than what Catholic agencies were able to offer in the past to the needy, the bishops said.
“As a national effort, we simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the USCCB. “We will work to identify alternative means of support for the people the federal government has already admitted to these programs. We ask your prayers for the many staff and refugees impacted.”
The decision means the bishops won’t be renewing existing agreements with the federal government, the bishops said. The announcement didn’t say how long current agreements were scheduled to last.
▶ Read more about the U.S. bishops’ partnership with the government
Beijing has issued several strongly-worded rebukes to Trump’s tariffs, including one entirely in the words of late-President Ronald Reagan.
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” the Republican president said in a video clip dated 1987, as posted on the X social media site Monday by the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. The embassy wrote that the decades-old speech “finds new relevance in 2025.”
“The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trader barriers, and less and less competition,” Reagan said in the speech, in which he warned of the worst from tariff wars: markets should collapse, businesses shut down, and millions of people lose jobs.
Trump greeted the Israeli prime minister with the firm handshake as he arrived for talks.
Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters about the tumbling global markets and whether he would lift tariffs on Israel.
Family and friends of the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress gathered in Salt Lake City on Monday to honor her life. Love died of brain cancer at age 49.
Hundreds of mourners attended the service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion at the University of Utah.
Love’s sister Cyndi Brito shared childhood memories, including how Love used to rehearse all day and night for starring roles in her school plays.
“Sis, we will always, always look up to you,” Brito said. “Keep being the best.”
The former lawmaker had undergone treatment for an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma. She died at her home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, weeks after her daughter announced she was no longer responding to treatment.
Love, born Ludmya Bourdeau, represented Utah on Capitol Hill from 2015 to 2019.
The White House did not offer any immediate explanation for why the news conference was canceled, but Trump and Netanyahu were expected to make comments to reporters at the start of their scheduled Oval Office meeting.
President Trump threatened to raise the tariffs if Beijing doesn’t withdraw its retaliatory tariffs.
“At this point, it is extremely unlikely for China to back down,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, adding any leadership summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping “doesn’t appear likely in the near future.”
“China is increasingly convinced that the tariff is not negotiable because Trump’s eventual goal is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.,” Sun said.
Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at another Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called Trump’s threat Monday “a blunt ultimatum to Beijing that sharply raises the takes in the U.S.-China tariff war.” He said Beijing’s rigid system and fear of looking weak prevent Xi from opening back channels with the Trump administration that could offer relief.
A member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team has terminated some of the last remaining life-saving programs for refugees and others in the Middle East, two U.S. and U.N. officials tell The Associated Press.
The AP viewed some of the new contract termination notices, sent late last week by Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE associate now overseeing the dismantling of USAID. A USAID official and an official with the U.N. spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak.
The move severs U.S. funding for some key projects by the World Food Program, the world’s largest provider of food aid. Another notice viewed by the AP terminated funding for sending Afghan women overseas for education. An administrator for the program, which is a project of Texas A & M University, said the women would now face return to Afghanistan, where their lives may be in danger from the Taliban. That administrator also spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn’t authorized to speak.
— Ellen Knickmeyer and Sam Magdy
The Monday visit was to congratulate the baseball team for winning the World Series last season.
Trump singled out several Los Angeles Dodgers for their achievements last season, praising Ohtani for becoming baseball’s first 50/50 player, Japanese pitcher Yoshi Yamamoto and NL Championship Series MVP Tommy Edman.
Trump praised Betts for his play — and took a dig at the Boston Red Sox for trading him to the Dodgers — and they shook hands at the ceremony.
Trump also boasted that egg prices have dropped “73%” on his watch and he refused to introduce some senators at the ceremony, because “I just don’t particularly like them, so I won’t introduce (them).”
Trump campaigned last year in opposition of the deal, saying a Japanese company’s acquisition of the company would hurt American manufacturing. But shortly after becoming president, Trump said he’d reached an agreement for Nippon Steel to instead invest in U.S. Steel without providing details.
The directive signed Monday by Trump would give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, 45 days to review the proposed purchase.
It raises fresh concerns that Trump’s drive to rebalance the global economy could lead to a trade war.
The threat, which Trump delivered Monday on social media, came after China said it would retaliate against U.S. tariffs announced last week.
“If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!”
Trump has remained defiant as the stock market continued plunging and fears of a recession grew.
▶ Read more about Trump’s tariffs
The Trump administration has notified the World Food Program and other partners that it’s terminated some of the last remaining lifesaving humanitarian programs across the Middle East, a U.S. and U.N. official told The Associated Press.
An official with USAID says about 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week, including to the World Food Program.
An official with the United Nations says WFP received termination letters for Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
The USAID official says U.S. funding for key programs in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe also were affected, including those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war.
▶ Read more about the canceled USAID contracts
— Ellen Knickmeyer and Sam Magdy
The Justice Department argued in an emergency appeal to the justices that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.
Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody and the government has no way to get him back, the administration argued.
Xinis gave the administration until just before midnight Tuesday to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, denied the administration’s request for a stay.
▶ Read more about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation
Wilmer Escaray left Venezuela in 2007 and enrolled at Miami Dade College, opening his first restaurant six years later.
Today, he has a dozen businesses that hire Venezuelan migrants like he once was, workers who are now terrified by what could be the end of their legal shield from deportation.
Since the start of February, the Trump administration has ended two federal programs that together allowed more 700,000 Venezuelans to live and work legally in the U.S. along with hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.
In the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, people dread what could face them if lawsuits that aim to stop the government fail. It’s all anyone discusses in “Little Venezuela” or “Doralzuela,” a city of 80,000 people surrounded by Miami sprawl, freeways and the Florida Everglades.
▶ Read more about fears in Miami’s ‘Little Venezuela’
The Monday meeting will make Netanyahu the first foreign leader to visit Trump since he unleashed tariffs on countries around the world.
Whether Netanyahu’s visit succeeds in bringing down or eliminating Israel’s tariffs remains to be seen, but how it plays out could set the stage for how other world leaders try to address the new tariffs.
Netanyahu’s office has put the focus of his hastily organized Washington visit on the tariffs, while stressing that the two leaders will discuss major geopolitical issues including the war in Gaza, tensions with Iran, Israel-Turkey ties and the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli leader last year. Trump in February signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.
▶ Read more about Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu
The stock market briefly spiked on a report that Kevin Hassett, a top White House economic adviser, said the president was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs.
The supposed remark from Hassett circulated on social media, but no one could pinpoint where it came from even as the market flashed from red to green.
Hassett had spoken to Fox News earlier in the morning, when he was asked about a potential pause. However, he was noncommittal.
“I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” he said.
▶ Read more updates on the financial markets
Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins’ on Friday received a 10-year sobriety medallion in the Roosevelt Room at a ceremony with friends and family.
Vance described Aikins’ past drug addiction in his bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The cases are likely headed to a Supreme Court showdown on the president’s power over independent agencies.
A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the ruling in the lawsuits separately brought by Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris and National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox.
The ruling reverses, at least for now, a judgement from a three-judge panel from the same appellate court.
▶ Read more about Trump and the board members
The dispute over tariffs has caused some fracturing within Trump’s political coalition.
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said the president was “launching a global economic war against the whole world at once” and urged him to “call a time out.”
“We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News on Monday morning that Ackman should “ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”
Hassett said critics were exaggerating the impact of trade disputes and talk of an “economic nuclear winter” was “completely irresponsible rhetoric.”
The president showed no interest in changing course despite turmoil in global markets.
He said other countries had been “taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA” on international trade.
“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country,” he wrote on Truth Social. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump criticized China for increasing its own tariffs and “not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.”
On a day when stock markets around the world dropped precipitously, Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl led a celebration of the president whose global tariffs sparked the sell-off.
With no mention of the Wall Street roller coaster and global economic uncertainty, Wahl declared his state GOP’s “Trump Victory Dinner” — and the broader national moment — a triumph. And for anyone who rejects Trump, his agenda and the “America First” army that backs it all, Wahl had an offer: “The Alabama Republican Party will buy them a plane ticket to any country in the world they want to go to.”
Wahl’s audience — an assembly of lobbyists and donors, state lawmakers, local party officials and grassroots activists — laughed, applauded and sometimes roared throughout last week’s gala in downtown Birmingham.
Yet beyond the cheerleading, there were signs of a more cautious optimism and some worried whispers over Trump’s sweeping tariffs, the particulars of his deportation policy and the aggressive slashing by his Department of Government Efficiency.
▶ Read more about Trump’s support in Alabama
This morning, at 11 a.m., World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, will visit the White House and meet the president. Later, at 1 p.m., Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House and meet with Trump. At 2 p.m., Netanyahu and Trump will participate in a Bilateral Meeting in the Oval Office. At 2:30 p.m., they will hold a joint news conference.
Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
His comments came as global financial markets appeared on track to continue sharp declines once trading resumes Monday, and after Trump’s aides sought to soothe market concerns by saying more than 50 nations had reached out about launching negotiations to lift the tariffs.
The higher rates are set to be collected beginning Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said unfair trade practices are not “the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.” The United States, he said, must see “what the countries offer and whether it’s believable.”
▶ Read more about the global impact of Trump’s tariffs
Pedestrian are reflected on a brokerage house's window as an electronic board displays shares trading index, in Beijing, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shipping containers are stored at Bensenville intermodal terminal in Franklin Park, Ill., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
President Donald Trump arrives at the White House on Marine One, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
