ACTUAL NEWS: Thursday, March 6th 2025 Recap
"Today in History" and the Latest National and Global News
WEEKLY VIDEO RECAP LIVE
I am inviting you to join me for a live weekly recap to discuss the highlights of the week and answer any questions you might have.
The livestream will begin at 8 p.m. ET and will be available for replay right after. More details will be featured in tomorrow's newsletter.
But first, please help me pick the best day.
SATURDAY 8:00 PM ET
SUNDAY 8:00 PM ET
QUICK HITS
Oval Office: President Trump proclaimed March Women’s History Month in honor of “everything he has done for women.”
DJT: “Women, we love you”
Women at the Oval: “We love you too!”
It takes a reporter five different attempts to ask about Ukrainians on TPS (Temporary Protected Status) under the United 4 Ukraine program, which Trump is reportedly planning to abolish, before Trump finally understands that it has nothing to do with GPS. He ultimately responds by saying, “I’m thoroughly looking into that, but we wouldn't like to hurt Ukrainians.”
TODAY IN HISTORY
1820: U.S. President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to be admitted to the union as the 24th state (1821); the legislation marked the beginning of the sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War.
1834: Toronto, now the financial and commercial centre of Canada, was incorporated.
1836: The Alamo in Texas fell to Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna after a 13-day siege.
1853: Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata premiered at La Fenice opera house in Venice.
1857: U.S. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the Dred Scott decision, making slavery legal in all U.S. territories.
1869: At a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table.
1899: The German company Bayer trademarked the name Aspirin for its drug made from acetylsalicylic acid.
1924: The Egyptian government opened the mummy case of King Tutankhamen, ruler of Egypt in the 14th century BCE, whose burial chamber had been discovered in 1922 by renowned British archaeologist Howard Carter.
1957: Ghana became an independent nation, led by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.
1964: American boxer Cassius Clay took the name Muhammad Ali, which was given to him by his spiritual mentor, Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam.
1981: Journalist Walter Cronkite, who was known as “the most trusted man in America,” signed off as the longtime anchor of the CBS Evening News.
2016: American first lady and actress Nancy Reagan—who was first lady during the 1981–89 administration of her husband, President Ronald Reagan, and was noted as his most trusted adviser and the most zealous protector of his reputation—died in Los Angeles.
QUICK ACTUAL NEWS
NATIONAL
A new travel ban from President Donald Trump could prevent people from Afghanistan and Pakistan from entering the U.S. as early as next week, based on a government review of security and vetting risks in these countries, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The head of a federal watchdog agency was removed from his post on Wednesday after a federal appeals court cleared the way for President Trump to dismiss him. Hampton Dellinger, the former head of the Office of Special Counsel, confirmed his firing but declined to comment further, Reuters reported.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is working with House Republicans on a continuing resolution to fund the government until September.
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans urged Congress to codify spending cuts identified by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, after the Supreme Court declined to allow President Trump to withhold payments to foreign aid organizations.
Mike Johnson's chief of staff, Hayden Haynes, was arrested early on Wednesday after his car struck a parked vehicle at the Capitol following President Trump's address to Congress.
The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Trump's former criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, to serve as Deputy Attorney General, the No. 2 role at the Justice Department.
On Thursday, President Trump told his cabinet members that they, not Elon Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy at their respective agencies, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Trump administration plans to revoke the temporary legal status of approximately 240,000 Ukrainian refugees, potentially fast-tracking their deportation as early as April, Reuters reports.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 224-198-2 to censure Rep. Al Green for his conduct during President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.
Threats against U.S. judges are on the rise, and lawyers should do more to counter heated rhetoric, four federal judges said during a panel discussion on Thursday. Speaking at an American Bar Association meeting in Miami, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware of Las Vegas noted that threats against the judiciary have increased "exponentially."
On Thursday, the Republican-majority U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to tech giant Alphabet Inc., seeking internal communications between the company, third parties, and government officials during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
U.S. government employees fired in the Trump administration's purge of recently hired workers are filing class action-style complaints, arguing the mass firings are illegal and that tens of thousands of people should be reinstated.
On Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed her support for revisiting sentencing guidelines for white-collar crime, arguing that the current framework results in inconsistent punishments.
The fired head of a federal watchdog agency announced on Thursday that he would end his legal battle over President Trump’s decision to remove him from office, following a federal appeals court ruling that cleared the White House's action.
A Senate banking panel voted on Thursday to advance President Trump’s nomination of former regulator Jonathan McKernan to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency the White House has effectively sidelined since last month.
President Donald Trump signed an order on Thursday suspending security clearances for employees of Perkins Coie, citing the law firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
The U.S. State Department is planning to close a dozen consulates by this summer and is considering further closures, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officials. These closures will mainly affect missions in Western Europe, according to sources briefed on the memo.
The U.S. State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas for foreign students who are perceived as supporters of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior State Department officials.
GLOBAL
Mexican and Canadian officials are becoming increasingly frustrated by tariff negotiations with the Trump administration. The lack of clarity over exactly what the U.S. wants has made any resolution seem impossible, sources from both countries told Reuters.
Trump: "After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement."
NEW: In a reversal, Trump delays tariffs for both Canada and Mexico. President Trump has engaged in "intense brinkmanship" with the North American economy this week, first imposing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico before gradually rolling some of them back.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed as "garbage" accusations that Washington had taken a pro-Russia stance, saying President Trump is working toward a peaceful resolution to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
At the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Kellogg remarked on the impact of U.S. military aid and intelligence cuts to Ukraine: "It's like hitting a mule in the face with a two-by-four, you know. You’ve got their attention."
Trump is reportedly considering changing the U.S. role in NATO, particularly abandoning the mandatory defense of allies in the event of an attack, according to NBC News.
The Ukrainian military stopped receiving data for the HIMARS system even before Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump, The Washington Post reports. Soldiers said at least one unit had not received coordinates for strikes beyond 60 km from the contact line in the past month.
Giorgia Meloni proposes extending NATO’s Article 5 to Ukraine without granting it full NATO membership. She describes it as “a guarantee of stable, lasting, and effective security.”
During the summit in Brussels, leaders from 26 out of 27 EU countries approved the final communiqué of the extraordinary European Council meeting in support of Ukraine. The only leader who did not endorse the conclusions was Hungary’s Prime Minister.
Japan is reportedly exploring the possibility of funding aid programs in Ukraine, with plans to take over certain projects that were previously handled by USAID.
Ukraine may receive 40,000 Starlink-like terminals from France’s Eutelsat, according to Bloomberg. This would be enough to replace all of Ukraine’s Starlinks. Interestingly, Eutelsat's shares have already soared by 500% on the news.
Zelenskyy and Macron discussed a meeting in Paris on March 11 at the level of military representatives from states willing to increase efforts to ensure reliable security in the context of ending the war. “Real and lasting peace is possible through cooperation between Ukraine, all of Europe, and the U.S.,” they stated.
U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Thursday that he is in discussions with Ukraine on a peace agreement framework to end the hostilities with Russia, with a meeting scheduled next week in Saudi Arabia.
Four senior members of President Trump’s entourage have reportedly held discussions with some of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's top political opponents, according to Politico. These talks included Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and senior members of Former President Petro Poroshenko's party.
Trump's plan to create internal turmoil in Ukraine to remove Zelenskyy has reportedly failed, as both opposition leaders whom Trump's team spoke to refused to call for early elections during the war. Note: holding elections during wartime is prohibited by the Ukrainian constitution.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff also stated that direct U.S. discussions with Hamas militants have taken place in recent days, with the message being that the U.S. wants to bring hostages home.
Spy agencies worldwide may limit information-sharing with the U.S. due to its reconciliatory approach toward Russia, NBC News reports. Intelligence agencies from American allies, including the Five Eyes (U.S., UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada), Israel, and Saudi Arabia, are concerned that the U.S. may reveal sensitive information to Moscow. Discussions on how to limit this potential risk are ongoing.
Japanese electronics giant Sony and beverage maker Suntory are stockpiling inventory in the U.S. while their peers shift production or supply chains to fend off the growing threat of U.S. tariffs on their export-reliant economies.
On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich met to discuss strengthening economic ties between the two countries. They agreed to enhance collaboration in areas such as economic policy, technology, and financial regulation to bolster both U.S. global leadership and Israel’s role as a key economic partner.
The U.S. plans to impose fees on imports arriving on Chinese-made ships and offer tax credits to revitalize domestic shipbuilding and reduce China’s dominance over the $150 billion global ocean shipping industry, according to a White House document obtained by Reuters.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Thursday that high tariffs imposed by the Trump administration would make investments in the U.S. difficult. Ishiba stated that Japanese companies need to generate the funds for U.S. investments, so “high tariffs would make it difficult to invest in the U.S.,” he told parliament.
COVERS OF THE WEEK
POSTS OF THE DAY
NEWS CLIPS - NO COMMENTARY
Kallas: EU is ready to create “coalition of the willing”
Zelenskyy arriving at the security meeting in Brussels today
Finland: we Finns know Russia
Napoleon and Hitler are “Macron's predecessors”: Russia’s Foreign Minister
Gov DeSantis mocking Canadian visitors to Florida
Canada’s FM Joly on the trade war with the United States
Lawrence: Canada's Trudeau humiliates 'cowardly' Trump who backs down on tariffs. Again.
Trudeau tears up during announcement in Ottawa | ‘We got you, even on the last few days of gov’t’
INTERESTING READ
TODAY'S PHOTO
Brussels, Belgium
That's all from me for now. Thank you for reading.
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
ONEST Network is an independent media company that relies solely on your support. We value independence, enabling us to report ACTUAL NEWS while keeping your data secure. Your donation would be greatly appreciated to help us continue our operations.
Another fantastic issue, Olga! A strong mix of information and media, so it doesn't get boring.