• Judge orders deportee’s return: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return a Salvadoran man to the U.S. by the end of Monday after his deportation to El Salvador, which the U.S. called an “administrative error.” The government claims Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his counsel denies. The Maryland resident had previously received protection from deportation under U.S. law. The judge said Sunday that his detention in a notorious Salvadoran prison “appears wholly lawless,” and that “this is not about Defendants’ inability to return Abrego Garcia, but their lack of desire.” – Staff
• China hits back: China responded to the 34% tariffs imposed by the United States on imports from China by announcing Friday that it will impose its own 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10. U.S. stocks fell sharply on the news, and stock futures dropped on Sunday. Administration officials said yesterday that many countries have reached out about negotiations. – The Associated Press
  • Related Monitor story: Ahead of this retaliatory move, we looked at why trade wars are hard to win.
• A rosy (rearview) report: U.S. employers added a surprising 228,000 jobs in March. Hiring numbers, released Friday, were up from 117,000 in February and nearly double what economists expected. But many economists worry about damage from the sweeping import taxes announced April 2. – AP
  • Related Monitor story: In times of uncertainty, people and businesses often slow their spending. That can have effects even beyond the direct effects of higher prices from tariffs.
• Idaho Medical Freedom Act: Idaho’s GOP-led state legislature passed a law on Friday preventing businesses, schools, and venues from making any form of medical intervention a condition of entry, service, or employment. The law expands a previous state ban on COVID vaccine requirements. It protects the right of individuals to make their own decisions about medical treatment without force of public health mandates. A late amendment enabled schools and business owners to turn away people who have apparent symptoms of contagious conditions. – Staff
• Pushback in Haiti: Unchecked gang violence in Haiti has driven people into the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to demand better protection by the country’s transitional presidential council. More than 4,200 people were reported killed between July and February, according to the U.N. Haitians have come out in the past – against foreign interference and to protest failed state systems. Fritz Alphonse Jean, the council’s leader, promised to take new measures on gangs. – Staff
• U.S. storms: At least 16 people have been killed in a wide swath of storms, flooding, and tornadoes in the U.S. South and Midwest. Officials are bracing for more severe weather in the coming days. More than 90 million people are at risk across an area stretching from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the forecasting company AccuWeather. – AP
• A hockey record falls: Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th goal for the Washington Capitals on Sunday in a National Hockey League game against the New York Islanders. That gave the Russian winger one more goal than Wayne Gretzky scored before retiring in 1999 and setting a record many considered unbreakable. – AP

Months after a failed martial law attempt rattled South Korea, a top court unanimously decided last week to remove the president. New elections are expected by June. Polarization remains an issue. But the united court verdict and its acceptance by South Korea’s two major political parties stirred hope that the young democracy can turn the page on the martial law fiasco – a jarring reminder for many of the country’s dark legacy of military dictatorship as recently as the 1980s.

The world has seen spikes in protectionism, and it has seen commitments to globalization. It has never seen a moment quite like this one. After nearly a century of ever-freer trade, an era has ended with U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on U.S. imports. Other nations can now retaliate, prepare to do so, or mull over other responses. What clues do the vagaries of trade policy in the past offer us by way of lessons for today?

For months, Democrats have watched aghast as President Donald Trump has unleashed his head-spinning brand of disruption. On Saturday, disaffected citizens took to the streets. Across the country, voters worried about the future of their democracy sent their loudest message of opposition yet. The rallies, organized by Democrat-aligned nonprofits, attracted crowds estimated in the tens or hundreds of thousands in larger cities. For some, the protests were cathartic, a show of force and solidarity. Our writers gathered some perspectives. 

Cyberattacks increasingly threaten the public and private sectors alike – including vital infrastructure. The Trump administration is considering tougher action against nations that sponsor hacking. But in trying to chart a course on cybersecurity policy, the U.S. is sometimes sending mixed messages. With the growing focus on cybersecurity, we took a look at some of the issues government officials are looking to address.

Some formerly captive animals have never had their paws touch grass. Setting that right is the main job of The Wild Animal Sanctuary, where more than 450 animals brought to Colorado’s eastern plains are getting a new opportunity to roam. Spanning more than 1,200 acres, the sanctuary is a site for the caring rehabilitation of exotic and endangered animals. That takes time. Progress, when it comes, appears in behavior. We took a photographic survey.

A former prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, once said that his country “happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people.” Thanks in no small part to his efforts, the second half of that statement is significantly less true today than at any time in modern Indian history.

A study released earlier this year comes to the extraordinary conclusion that India, the world’s most populous nation, has virtually eliminated extreme poverty, with rates below 1%. In 1977, the rate was 63%. The World Bank sets the line for extreme poverty at $2.15 a day.

The reasons for the dramatic decline are manifold. But the most important changes have empowered individuals by giving them more freedom to shape and seize their own opportunities.

The foundation for the turnaround was the financial reform Mr. Singh led as finance minister in 1991. Since independence in 1947, India had labored under a centralized, socialist economy that required excessive licensing to undertake any economic activity. Entrepreneurship and global thinking were effectively squelched. One economist called the policy a “brew of stale ideology, vested interests, and fear of the unknown.”

Mr. Singh’s bold deregulations became a turning point in Indian history. “If you have a rigidly controlled economy, cut off from the rest of the world by infinite protection, nobody has any incentive to increase productivity and to bring new ideas,” he said.

His reforms “got government off the backs of the people of India, particularly off the backs of India’s entrepreneurs,” he added.

Wrote the Hindustan Times, “It is unlikely even the extreme poverty eradication would have happened had post-reform growth not generated the revenue to launch welfare programs.”

Those poverty-reduction programs, too, have leaned into Indians’ ability to solve their own problems. What is sometimes called “self-help groups” of 10 to 20 women are ubiquitous nationwide. They tackle everything from domestic violence to local hunger. The National Rural Livelihoods Mission supercharged them, leveraging these local ties to attack the sources of poverty.

Much work remains. India’s privileged castes hold a disproportionate share of its wealth. Women are underemployed compared with those in neighboring Bangladesh or Nepal. And India is “home to more billionaires than any other country bar China and the United States, but it has the lowest Human Development Index of all G20 countries,” noted scholars Avinash Chennuri and Kearrin Sims from Australia’s James Cook University in the East Asia Forum.

But the past 30 years have also made the path forward plain. As the freedoms of everyday Indians have risen, so too has their nation.