• Deportation error: The U.S. administration admitted to mistakenly deporting a Maryland man with protected legal status to El Salvador. It is arguing against bringing him back, claiming he has gang ties. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was arrested last month and sent to detention in his home country despite an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that he not be deported there. – The Associated Press
  • Related Monitor story: We looked at the legal fight over a president’s claims of sweeping power to deport migrants.
• Layoffs begin at HHS: The Trump administration says the layoffs of up to 10,000 people at U.S. Health and Human Services are expected to save $1.8 billion annually. That’s a small fraction of the department’s $1.7 trillion budget, most of which is spent on Medicare and Medicaid health insurance coverage. The dismissals include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff, and senior leaders.
  • ​Related Monitor story: The administration has called for reforms in publicly funded research, but many researchers say funding cuts are putting a national strength at risk.
• U.S. to seek death penalty: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that she has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. – AP
  • Related Monitor story: Public response to Mr. Thompson’s killing suggested that some Americans saw the violence as justified. But a coordinated response, helped by a citizen-led arrest, highlighted shared values.
• Earthquake relief: Friday’s earthquake near Mandalay, Myanmar, a city of 1.5 million, has killed more than 2,800 people. Many others are missing. Conditions and conflict have hindered relief efforts. A State Department spokesperson Monday announced U.S. intent to provide up to $2 million in relief. A former official of the U.S. Agency for International Development told Reuters that a three-member assessment team had been delayed over visa issues with Myanmar’s rulers. Assistance has come from many nations, including China, Malaysia, Russia, India, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, and from relief agencies. – Staff
• Senator holds the floor: Democratic Sen. Cory Booker broke the record for the longest floor speech in recorded Senate history when he bested Sen. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Mr. Booker’s speech was meant to highlight what he called a “looming constitutional crisis.” He also invoked the late Congressman John Lewis, who organized during the Civil Rights movement. – AP

The Trump administration's fast-paced start, instigating major change across all aspects of the federal government, left ​Democrats looking flat-footed. But on Tuesday, when voters had their first big chance to weigh in since Donald Trump returned to the White House, they rejected a Trump-endorsed candidate to fill a key seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The outcome could have significant implications for deciding how congressional districts get drawn in a key swing state. Democrats also outperformed, though they didn't win, in two special congressional elections in Florida. 

President Donald Trump is expected to take to the Rose Garden Wednesday to announce an array of tariffs that he hopes will boost self-sufficiency and create jobs. Higher prices and inflation could create headwinds at first. But he also has leverage. Should he use it to negotiate down tariffs all around, it could boost growth in the United States and world economy. If he keeps tariffs in place to try to protect U.S. industry, growth is likely to slow around the globe, including in the U.S.

Worldwide, bitcoin mining uses as much electricity as Poland. Now, one company is offering an idea to cut cryptocurrency’s carbon footprint while also making renewable energy more easily accessible in Africa. A geothermal power plant in Hell’s Gate National Park, Kenya, tells the story of how more cryptocurrency mining companies are setting up next to renewable energy sources, sponging up excess energy that can be difficult to stockpile or transport.

Growing up as a Palestinian Israeli in east Jerusalem, Tareq Abu Hamed always believed in the power of science to bring people together to solve problems. A chemical engineer by training, Dr. Abu Hamed now heads up the Israel-based Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. The organization is working with partners in Gaza to leverage science to help rebuild, even as Gaza endures still-escalating military action by Israel.

Socially responsible tourism can take many forms. The cultural exchange amid a trip to Egypt’s rural Besaw Island, some 500 miles south of Cairo, offered a window into another way of living for our reporter and 34 others from Canada, the United States, and Australia.

In our progress roundup, we see how upending conventional approaches brings results for the environment: In Grenoble, France, buildings on a seven-acre site were carefully deconstructed instead of bulldozed. And in Argentina, a law requiring training on climate change for public officials is meant to inspire informed decision-making.

The people of Myanmar rank second in giving money to others, according to the 2024 World Giving Index. That generosity is now being reflected back by many nations in their responses to a massive earthquake on March 28 – Myanmar’s biggest in more than a century.

About a third of the country’s 55 million people have been directly or indirectly affected, which has led the ruling junta to make a rare call for international help despite an ongoing civil war.

While the size of the assistance is impressive, what also stands out is how much countries are showcasing their giving. Some point to how quickly they dispatched emergency teams. Others compare the amount of money given or the range of relief items sent. Big powers tout the number of naval ships sailing to the Southeast Asian nation.

To be clear, the aid itself is paramount. “The most important task of the Vietnamese rescue force is to focus on searching for and rescuing survivors,” Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence said on Monday.

Call it boasting or benevolence, however, the response to the tragedy illustrates the era of “disaster diplomacy,” or the use of foreign aid for influence in a geopolitical competition.

Even if the motive is self-interested, it is a welcome alternative to war. The benign effect is similar to that of the Olympics, Eurovision, the World Cup, or the Oscars.

Yet aid in a crisis does more than inflate national egos or deflect from war. Generosity, even if done for appearance only, can beget generosity. People who have received kindness are more likely to be kind, studies show, revealing a latent love for others that reflects a permanence in human loving-kindness.

More than half of Americans who reported making charitable donations (54%) said they have received “extraordinary generosity,” compared with only 36% of nongivers, according to a 2021 survey by the Christian research group Barna. “Giving is good because giving is elemental to God’s very nature,” Barna researchers concluded.

Humanitarian responses to crises are indeed more competitive among nations. The United States, for example, responded to 40 natural disasters in some 17 Indo-Pacific countries between 1991 and 2024. China intervened in 16 disasters in 13 Asian countries between 2002 and 2019. Myanmar is now the latest battleground for such contests in giving.

Much of this aid may seem transactional. Yet a helping hand is still a helping hand. Not only are the people in Myanmar deserving of aid, but also they already know that the seismic power of giving can inspire giving.