A U.S. District judge appointed by former President Barack Obama ordered on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s recent order — designating violent Venezuelan prison gang members as foreign terrorists — was illegal and all planes deporting them should be stopped or returned to the United States. Judge James Boasberg ordered placed a temporary hold — for 14 days — on Trump’s use of 1798’s Alien Enemies Act, and applied it to active deportations already in progress: “Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished. Make sure it’s complied with immediately.” “I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg added, noting that because the gang members in question would remain in federal custody despite the hold on their deportation. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm.” Oopsie… Too late ? pic.twitter.com/nDHL6deLJq — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 16, 2025 Attorney General Pam Bondi responded quickly, issuing a statement regarding the judge’s ruling: “Tonight, a DC trial judge supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans. TdA is represented by the ACLU. This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also issued a lengthy statement via X, defending Trump’s decision to use the Alien Enemies Act. “President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation Invoking the Alien Enemies Act regarding the Invasion of the United States by the Foreign Terrorist Organization Tren De Aragua, using his core powers as President and Commander-in-Chief to defend the American People from an urgent threat,” she wrote. President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation Invoking the Alien Enemies Act regarding the Invasion of the United States by the Foreign Terrorist Organization Tren De Aragua, using his core powers as President and Commander-in-Chief to defend the American People from an urgent… — Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 16, 2025 “President Trump will always put the safety of the American People first — and he will never allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate on American soil and endanger our people. They will be found, restrained and removed — and their networks will be destroyed,” Leavitt concluded. The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway also called out Boasberg’s ruling directly, saying, “Would not have predicted it was Judge James Boasberg who would be throwing the country into a crisis like this. We need Article III courts to retain their legitimacy and Boasberg’s reckless order threatens that. Wiser minds must take action, and quickly.” Would not have predicted it was Judge James Boasberg who would be throwing the country into a crisis like this. We need Article III courts to retain their legitimacy and Boasberg's reckless order threatens that. Wiser minds must take action, and quickly. https://t.co/yNtyc1U5ZT — Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 16, 2025 “I’m sorry, but this absolutely lawless order to TURN AROUND PLANES OF TERRORISTS is so insane that I’m having trouble comprehending what Boasberg is possibly thinking. Trump can not possibly agree to this,” she added. I'm sorry, but this absolutely lawless order to TURN AROUND PLANES OF TERRORISTS is so insane that I'm having trouble comprehending what Boasberg is possibly thinking. Trump can not possibly agree to this. — Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 16, 2025

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said over the weekend that Russia and Ukraine are much closer today than they were when discussions first began under the Trump administration to bringing the war to an end. Witkoff made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper. Witkoff said that his meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “positive” conservation that lasted several hours. Tapper asked about how accurate media reports were that said that Putin had several demands, including the complete surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk, international recognition that territory Russia seized now belongs to Russia, limiting Ukraine’s military, and a halt to the flow of Western resources to Ukraine. Witkoff said that the description that Tapper offered was not “entirely accurate.” “Back before this visit, there was another visit, and before that visit, the two sides were miles apart in where they were,” he said. “The two sides are today, a lot closer. We had some really positive results coming out of Saudi Arabia, discussions led by our national security advisor, Mike Waltz and our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.” “I describe my conversation with President Putin as equally positive,” he continued. “So the two sides have, we’ve narrowed the differences between them, and now we’re sitting at the table. I was with the president all day yesterday. I’ll be with him today. We’re sitting with him discussing how to narrow it even further. That’s how I would describe it.” Witkoff added that Trump has been involved in “every aspect and dimension of these of these discussions” and that he believes Trump and Putin will have a phone call this week. WATCH: Special Envoy @SteveWitkoff tells @JakeTapper his hours-long meeting with Vladimir Putin was “a solutions-based discussion” and says he expects there will be a call between Trump and Putin this week. pic.twitter.com/kVgM7uaziC — State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) March 16, 2025

President Donald Trump and his administration hit a major milestone in the most recent NBC News poll, as 44% of Americans now believe that the United States is “headed in the right direction.” NBC News pollster Steve Kornacki broke down the numbers with “Meet the Press” anchor Kristen Welker during Sunday morning’s broadcast, and he noted that the last president to see a number that high was former President George W. Bush, just months ahead of his re-election in 2004. WATCH: NBC: 44% of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction under President Trump, up from just 27% in November. "If that doesn't seem like a lot, the last time it cracked 40%, you gotta go back to 2012. The last time it actually hit 44% or higher — January 2004." pic.twitter.com/56HNG3Disi — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 16, 2025 “First of all, the mood of the country — this really jumped out,” Kornacki began. “We asked folks is it on the right direction or the wrong direction, that 44% who say right direction, that’s up since November [27%]. And if that doesn’t seem like a lot, the last time it cracked 40%, you gotta go back to 2012. The last time it actually hit 44 or higher — January of 2004.” “So a lot of this is Republicans, but independents, that number is also up since the election on the direction of the country,” Kornacki added, noting that it was just Republican voters who were voicing approval of the Trump administration’s actions. The poll also spelled very bad news for the Democratic Party, marking a new all-time low in its approval rating. Just 27% had a positive view of the party as a whole, and only seven percent said that view was “very positive.” Voters who had “negative views” of the Democratic Party sat at 55%, and 38% said that they had “very negative” views of Democrats. Those numbers mark NBC News’ lowest approval ratings for Democrats since 1990. Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt and GOP pollster Bill McInturff, of Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies respectively, conducted the survey of 1000 registered voters between March 7 and March 11. Horwitt said of the results, “With these numbers, the Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted.” The poll was taken prior to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) decision to vote in favor of the Republican-led continuing resolution to fund the government through September — a move that also angered a number within his own party.

A SpaceX crew docked at the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday morning on a mission to relieve two NASA astronauts who have been stuck in space for nine months. The SpaceX Crew-10 Dragon capsule docked at the ISS just after midnight on the east coast after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday evening, according to the New York Post. The capsule carried a four-person crew composed of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Video from the ISS showed the Dragon capsule approach and dock at the orbiting space station. Crew 10 Dragon vehicle arriving! pic.twitter.com/3EZZyZW18b — Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) March 16, 2025 Cameras inside the space station caught the moment that the Dragon crew entered the hatch of the ISS just before 2 a.m. EST. The astronauts from the Dragon and ISS greeted each other warmly with hugs and smiles. “The hatch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened March 16 at 1:35 a.m. ET and the members of Crew-10 entered the @Space_Station with the rest of their excited Expedition 72 crew,” NASA’s Johnson Space Center said in a post on X. All the hugs. ? The hatch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened March 16 at 1:35 a.m. ET and the members of Crew-10 entered the @Space_Station with the rest of their excited Expedition 72 crew. pic.twitter.com/mnUddqPqfr — NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 16, 2025 “Hi everybody down there on Earth. Crew-10 has had a great journey up here, about 28 hours to get back up to the space station,” said McClain, the Dragon crew’s commander on a live video of the docking. “And I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and saw the space station for the first time.” “You can hardly even put it into words.” she added, “orbiting the Earth for the last couple of days, it has been absolutely incredible.” SpaceX undertook the mission to relieve and retrieve American astronauts Butch Willmore and Sunita Williams, who have been on the ISS since June after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft suffered technical issues and had to return to Earth unmanned. Willmore and Williams were originally expected to stay aboard the ISS for just 10 days. “It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Williams told Mission Control after the Dragon crew arrived. Crew-10 is expected to rotate into roles on the ISS and be trained for several days before Willmore and Williams leave the station with American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) applauded President Donald Trump invoking a 227-year-old law on Saturday to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens from the U.S. Rounds made the remarks when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” about using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport members of Tren de Aragua, a hyper violent gang from Venezuela that has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. “I can tell you that clearly, these individuals should never have been in the United States to begin with,” Rounds said. “And the question is, which laws are we using to get them back out, and whether or not the courts agree.” “In the meantime, I’m happy to see that the President is following up with his promises that he’s going to keep Americans safe, and that means getting these criminal, drug or gang members, clearly criminal in nature, out of the United States,” he continued. “And there are thousands of them here.” The remarks come after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, issued an order stopping Trump from using the law to deport the narco terrorists. Tapper asked Rounds about the order from Boasberg, which demanded that any flights in the air carrying the illegal aliens be turned around immediately, specifically whether Trump would defy or ignore the order. “I do know that we will follow the law,” Rounds said. “We expect the executive branch to follow the law. We’ve said in the past that we will follow the law that will remain consistent. We are a constitutional republic, and we will follow those laws.” “At the same time, just once again, I think the President is doing everything he can to honor his promise that he’s going to keep our families safe,” he continued. “These illegal immigrants to begin with that are here, they are parts of a violent gang … and if we can get them out of the United States, we’re going to do it with ever legal means there are that we have available to do that.” WATCH: Republican @SenatorRounds defends Trump invoking wartime powers to speed up deportations but tells @JakeTapper, “We expect the executive branch to follow the law… We are a constitutional republic, and we will follow those laws.” pic.twitter.com/NI3LlgazI4 — State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) March 16, 2025

Another retail store announced multiple store closings across the United States. This year, we’ve already seen closures and bankruptcies from retailers like Walgreens, Big Lots, and Joann Fabrics. Dollar General Corporation announced on March 14 that it planned to shut 141 stores between its Dollar General and pOpshelf retail stores. The announcement accompanied Dollar General Corporation’s fourth-quarter and fiscal-year 2024 earnings report. The company chose to close stores based on operating conditions and expectations for the future. The company explained, “As a result of this review, the company plans to close 96 Dollar General stores and 45 pOpshelf stores and convert an additional six pOpshelf stores to Dollar General stores in the first quarter of the 52-week fiscal year ending January 30, 2026.”  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dollar General (@dollargeneral) The Dollar General Closings Represent A Small Portion Of The Company Fast Company reported the company currently operates 20,000 stores in 48 states. CEO Todd Vasos put the number of closing stores into perspective. “While the number of closings represents less than one percent of our overall store base, we believe this decision better positions us to serve our customers and communities,” Todd Vasos said in a statement. The CEO also thanked valued Dollar General and pOpshelf stores for their dedication to the company. “I want to thank each of our associates for their dedication to fulfilling our mission of Serving Others every day. Looking ahead, we believe we are well-positioned to deliver our unique combination of value and convenience at a time when our customers need it most. We have fortified the foundation of this business over the last year and are confident in our plans and initiatives for 2025 and beyond, as we look to further build on this base and create sustainable long-term value for our shareholders,” he said. This story’s featured image is by Retail Photographer via Shutterstock. The post Popular Discount Chain Announces Countrywide Closures appeared first on InspireMore.

A new book by Bill and Dana Wichterman is challenging Christians to reconsider their relationship with money. In an interview with The Daily Signal, the Wichtermans shared insights from their 35-year marriage and the financial journey that led them to write “Stewards Not Owners: The Joy of Aligning Your Money with Your Faith.” “We were $13,000 in debt when we got married. We lived in a house with no car, we had cockroaches, and we started the joy of financial stewardship right at the beginning,” said Bill Wichterman, emphasizing this approach is accessible to anyone regardless of their financial situation. The book encourages Christians to bring their financial decisions in line with their spiritual values. Quoting from Matthew 6:21, Bill cited Jesus’ own words, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” “In many ways, money is the way you put legs to your faith,” he explained. “If you go look at your checkbook or your credit card purchases, would the Lord be pleased?” Dana Wichterman offered practical advice for families looking to involve children in their stewardship journey. “We did things like at Christmas give them a certain amount of money for them to give out to others,” she said. “We even said, you can’t give it out right now. You have to think about it and kind of assess the needs around you.” The Wichtermans also addressed a topic many Christians overlook—faith-aligned investing. “People sometimes get scared of this because they assume that to invest in line with your faith is another word for making less money. And that’s not necessarily the case,” Bill said. He said there are approximately 250 funds aligned with Christian values. When asked about their faith-aligned approach to money, Dana said that “The benefit also is less anxiety, less stress, and more peace. So not only is there joy, but there’s peace and even just a calmness.” For those who purchase the book and follow the Wichtermans’ advice, both authors emphasized starting small. “Start with baby steps. Don’t feel like you have to look at every single part,” Dana advised. Bill added, “Just the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. … Don’t be overwhelmed by this, just start thinking about it.” The Wichtermans plan to donate all proceeds from their book sales. They’re also providing free resources at the website stewardsnotowners.com. The post How This Couple Transformed Their Financial Life by Aligning Their Money With Their Faith appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. For years, Amazon has marketed Alexa as a helpful, ever-improving assistant, one that respects user privacy (not really) while delivering convenience. However, a quiet announcement buried in an email to users suggests otherwise. On March 28, 2025, Amazon will disable local voice processing on select Echo devices, ensuring that every single Alexa request must be sent to the cloud for processing. This is a fundamental shift in how Alexa works, one that strips users of a crucial privacy feature. No longer will certain commands — like adjusting smart home settings — be processed locally, on-device. Instead, even the most basic requests will now be routed through Amazon’s servers before being erased. For those who chose local processing specifically to limit how much of their personal data Amazon collects, the message is clear: your privacy is no longer a priority. The change was quietly disclosed in an email to users, explaining that Amazon is “no longer supporting” local processing as it rolls out its generative AI-powered Alexa Plus. This is no upgrade; it’s a degradation of privacy under the guise of innovation. For users who deliberately enabled local processing to limit how much of their personal data Amazon collects, the message is clear: your control over your own voice data is no longer a priority. Privacy lovers will likely not be using Amazon’s Alexa anyway but for years, many users have demanded more control over their data, not less. Amazon initially responded by providing opt-out settings, including the ability to prevent voice recordings from being stored or even sent to the cloud at all. But come March 2025, that control will be gone. Right now, the most privacy-conscious setting allows certain Alexa requests — like controlling smart home devices — to be processed entirely on the device. Once that setting is disabled, every command will be sent to Amazon’s servers, processed, and then (potentially) deleted. This distinction matters. By forcing everything through the cloud, Amazon is removing a layer of protection between users and the company’s sprawling data-collection infrastructure. Even if Amazon doesn’t store the recordings, it is still processing and analyzing them—meaning every interaction with Alexa will be subject to the company’s evolving policies, security vulnerabilities, and potential government requests. Local processing limits Amazon’s ability to harvest valuable user data—data that feeds its advertising business, informs product recommendations, and helps refine its AI models. By eliminating local processing, Amazon ensures that every interaction with Alexa becomes another data point in its vast surveillance economy. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Alexa’s Privacy Backtrack: Amazon Pushes All Voice Data to the Cloud appeared first on Reclaim The Net.