• Birthright citizenship case: The Supreme Court said it will hear arguments in May. President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the United States illegally has been halted nationwide by three district courts. The administration had sought to allow for the policy to take effect in parts of the country while court challenges played out. That’s expected to be the focus of the high court’s arguments. – The Associated Press
  • Related Monitor story: In January, we looked at how that executive order could upend 150 years of law.
• Google and Meta in court: Google was branded monopolistic by a federal judge for illegally exploiting some of its online marketing technology to boost profits. The Thursday ruling came after a separate ruling in August that Google’s namesake search engine has been illegally stifling competition. An antitrust trial involving Meta is also ongoing. CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified Wednesday that he did not buy Instagram and WhatsApp to take out competitors, as the Federal Trade Commission alleges. – AP
• Israel and Hamas dig in: Amid sputtering negotiations to end the 18-month war, Israel’s defense minister said Wednesday that the military would remain in “security zones” in neighboring Gaza, where it occupies about half the territory, as well as in Lebanon and Syria. In a shift from previous policy, Israel said its military would stay even after a permanent settlement. Meanwhile, a negotiator for Hamas insisted that the U.S.-designated terrorist group be allowed to retain weapons, calling it “a natural right of our people.” – Staff
• Trump-Harvard fight escalates: The Trump administration is threatening to revoke Harvard University’s ability to host international students who hold visas. The president has also called for withdrawing the school’s tax-exempt status, and said it was freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants, after the institution said it would defy demands to limit activism. More than 1,000 international students at U.S. campuses have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since mid-March, including over minor infractions such as traffic violations. – AP
• Endangered species protection targeted: The U.S. administration said it plans to eliminate habitat protections for threatened species. Environmentalists say the move would lead to the extinction of endangered species because of logging, mining, and other activities. The administration said in a proposed rule that habitat modification should not be considered “harm” – a key definition in the Endangered Species Act – because it is not the same as intentionally targeting a species. Drew Caputo, an attorney at Earthjustice, said the proposal “threatens a half-century of progress.” – AP
• AI-generated music grows: About 18% of songs uploaded to Deezer are generated by artificial intelligence, the French streaming platform said, underscoring AI’s growing use amid increasing concerns over copyright risk. Deezer, with nearly 10 million subscribers, said more than 20,000 AI-made tracks are uploaded on its platform daily, nearly twice the number from four months ago. The use of generative AI in creative industries has artists accusing AI firms of using copyrighted material without consent or compensation. – Reuters
  • Related Monitor story: As the influence of artificial intelligence grows, calls are rising for better public awareness of its impact on daily life and global dynamics.

Weeks after President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, Washington’s premier cultural venue, the shock to the district’s arts world has not subsided. He says the move was aimed at countering “woke” influences and “anti-American propaganda.” It’s just one of many examples of Mr. Trump’s increasingly aggressive posture to reshape American cultural and intellectual life. And while his conservative cultural agenda may seem minor compared with economic policy or immigration, its influence can be broad.

On Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni became the first European leader to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington since he introduced, and then paused, 20% tariffs on the European Union. Some of her European peers say her outreach, after months of trade-war rhetoric between the United States and the EU, threatens division – potentially undermining the bloc’s unity and yielding better terms for Italy alone.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. But in 2024, the United States saw the lowest number of opioid overdose deaths in a 12-month period since 2020. Many concurrent factors contributed to the drop. “This is a really important moment to pay attention to the trends. … Overall, there’s more attention to public health and public safety to work together to address the crisis,” says Howard Koh, professor of public health leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Once, America could have counted on its allies to help pressure China over its trade practices. But facing U.S. tariffs themselves, those friends now feel scorned and more open to Chinese overtures. For President Donald Trump’s tariffs to have maximum clout, Washington will want to make sure that China cannot cushion their effect by trading more with other countries.

Many Americans think of the Revolutionary War as a conflict solely between colonists and British soldiers. They may not know about a French diplomat’s clandestine efforts to aid the Americans in their fight. Comte Charles Gravier de Vergennes, foreign minister under King Louis XVI, played a pivotal role in helping the king overcome his reluctance to provide assistance to an insurrection against a monarchy.

Several years ago, says Alfredo Sosa, the Monitor’s director of photography, he found himself staring at his 30-year-old unused bicycle with a sense of nostalgia. And he thought: Wouldn’t it be great to hop on it again? To dust off its cobwebs and go back to his earlier days of carefree riding? Then he learned about L’Eroica, an annual cycling event that begins and ends in the Tuscan community of Gaiole in Chianti. As he puts it, “I knew where I could find people who would understand my drive.”

When a special exhibit opened in Paris at the Pompidou Center on March 19, the visitors line was particularly long. The City of Light, it seems, is eager for an illuminating peek into its recent past: as a creative haven for Black people from either side of the Atlantic after World War II.

The museum had put together a show called “Paris Noir.” It is a collection of more than 300 works by a diaspora of talent – 150 Africans, Afro-Caribbean islanders, and African Americans. These creators were drawn to the French capital in the second half of the 20th century – a time when the city’s vibrant culture of art, literature, and music was inextricably intertwined with intense political debate and a growing social consciousness.

Many of them were from countries recently emerged or still emerging from European colonization. Many were also descendants of enslaved people. In Paris, they found a mental liberation from social and racial stereotypes or political repression in their homelands. Spanning half a century of creativity – from sculpture to magazines to poetry – the works in the exhibit are a reflection of the times, of the explosion of civil rights victories in the United States and of hard-fought independence from the West Indies to West Africa and beyond.

Many of the works were not taken seriously at the time. The exhibit, which lasts until June 30, is an overdue recognition of the artists’ contribution to Paris. It is also a reminder of freedom’s role in liberating individual expression and art’s role in the struggle for that very freedom and for equality.

While the art on display is a face to the past, the show is also a step into the future, a future of visibility and recognition. Many countries now recognize the contributions of formerly marginalized people as integral to their national lore and history. The effect of such regard can be restorative, a way to move societies forward and to show the power of creativity in breaking mental barriers.