Good morning.
President Donald Trump has said that “nothing will stop” him, speaking at a rally in Michigan to celebrate his 100th day in office where an aide alluded to him running again in 2028 – even though US presidents are constitutionally barred from serving a third term.
In a meandering speech at the campaign-style rally, Trump attacked “communist radical left judges” who had tried to thwart his plans, criticized theformer the president Joe Biden, and boasted of ending diversity, equity and inclusion “bullshit”.
The event – at a half-full sports and expo center in Warren, near Detroit – also showed the crowd a video of Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Trump also defended his heavy tariffs against car manufacturers, despite the White House announcing just hours before that it was weakening them.
What was said about a third term? Margo Martin, a White House aide, joined Trump on stage and asked: “Trump 2028, anybody?” to roars from the crowd.
US and UK launch joint strikes on Houthis in Yemen
US and UK forces carried out a joint military operation in Yemen on Tuesday, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, which said the attack was against a Houthi military target that manufactured drones used to attack shipping.
The British defence secretary, John Healey, said the operation was launched in response to “a persistent threat from the Houthis to freedom of navigation”.
It is the first time the UK has participated in the intense American campaign against the Iran-backed group, which has targeted merchant shipping and western warships, causing a severe decline in trade flows in the region.
When did the US campaign begin? It began to strike Houthi targets on 15 March, and the US military’s central command says it has hit 800 targets and killed hundreds of Houthi fighters.
Trump border pick accused of ‘cover-up’ over death of man beaten by US agents
Donald Trump’s pick to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Rodney Scott, has been accused by a former top official of organizing a “cover-up” over the death of a man detained while trying to enter the US from Mexico, according to a letter seen by the Guardian.
The Senate finance committee will consider Scott’s nomination on Wednesday. But ahead of the hearing, James Wong, a former deputy assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of internal affairs, wrote to the committee raising “concern” about how the former US border patrol chief dealt with the investigation into the 2010 death of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas in San Diego.
Hernández-Rojas died after he was beaten and stunned by CBP agents who were preparing to deport him.
What happened to the investigation? Wong says Scott’s role meant he oversaw the critical incident team, which used a subpoena to obtain Hernández-Rojas’s medical records “likely in an effort to spin information for their own PR”. Wong says the use of a subpoena for this was “blatantly unlawful”.
In other news …
Russia holds an estimated 16,000 civilians in arbitrary detention at 180 separate facilities. A Guardian investigation shows that beatings, electrocution and starvation took place in one notorious prison.
Swedish police have apprehended a suspect after three people were killed in a shooting in Uppsala on Tuesday.
The British car manufacturer Aston Martin is limiting exports to the US over Trump’s tariffs, after the president hit all car imports with a 25% levy on 3 April.
Stat of the day: One-fifth of US states have active measles outbreaks
One in five US states have active measles outbreaks, defined by having three or more cases of the previously eradicated disease. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s confirmed the measles cases count is 884 – triple the number of cases in all of 2024. Texas is the center of the outbreak, with 663 cases at the latest count.
Don’t miss this: The white Afrikaners lining up to accept Trump’s offer of asylum
Kyle, a divorced father of three, attributes his survival of a violent farm robbery in South Africa to divine intervention. He is one of thousands of white South Africans hoping to take up Trump’s offer of refugee status, to escape crime and what they claim is anti-white discrimination. The Guardian’s Southern Africa correspondent Rachel Savage speaks to them about why they want to leave – and to experts who explain the context.
Climate check: India and Pakistan already sweltering in ‘new normal’ of heatwaves
It is only April but d boiling temperatures have already arrived in much of India and Pakistan. Scientists say sweltering heatwaves so early in the year are becoming the “new normal”, with South Asia particularly vulnerable to global heating. In Pakistan, the city of Shaheed Benazirabad in Sindh province hit 122F (50C) in April.
Last Thing: Kangaroo shuts down Alabama interstate
An escaped kangaroo shut down a stretch of interstate in Alabama on Tuesday before state troopers and its owners managed to tranquilize and capture the animal, named Sheila, and return her to her owner. Macon county’s sheriff said: “We see a little bit of everything here.”
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