Tuesday morning news: March 18, 2025

Ukraine peace talks » President Trump is expected to speak with Vladimir Putin today, as the White House pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine and an end to the war.

TRUMP:  We're getting down to a very critical stage, and we want to get the whole Russia Ukraine thing done. And I think Ukraine wants it, I know they want it, everybody wants it. It's tremendous death, the bloodshed is unbelievable.

Trump said the call will likely include a difficult conversation about how territory might be divided. White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt stressed that that’s not a conversation that’s happening without Ukraine’s involvement.

LEAVITT:  The president and his entire national security team have been engaged directly with President Zelensky and the Ukrainians team. Um, and that has been part of the discussion between the President's team and the Ukrainians. As for where those lines will be drawn or any specifics, I am not going to get into that from this podium.

Putin recently rejected the outline of a U.S. backed Ukraine peace plan. But President Trump and his team remain guardedly optimistic.

Israel resumes fighting in Gaza » Leavitt also spoke to reporters about news out of the Middle East, where explosions once again rang out in Gaza, after Israel resumed attacks on Hamas terrorist targets. The latest strikes come more than two weeks after a ceasefire agreement expired. Hamas has since rejected proposals to renew the ceasefire.

LEAVITT:  The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry claims that at least 44 people were killed in the new wave of airstrikes.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says Israel will press ahead until all hostages are released and Israel achieves all of its war goals.

Trump Iran warning » President Trump is warning Iran that it will “suffer the consequences” if there are any further attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Tehran has long funded and armed the group.

The warning follows a U.S. airstrike against the Houthis on Friday. And at the Pentagon, Lt. General Alex Grynkewich said more strikes will follow.

GRYNKEWICH: There is a design to the operation. There are specific effects that we're trying to achieve, and there's specific targets that have been selected and approaches that we're taking in order to achieve the president's end state. So it isn't that we're just striking capabilities.

And ‘the president’s end state’ is to crush the ability of the Houthis to terrorize critical shipping lanes in the Middle East, as they have for nearly a year and a half.

But Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander, Hossein Salami, denied that Iran controls the rebels. And he brushed off Trump’s warning, saying Iran would deliver a “decisive and devastating” response to any aggression.

Kennedy assassination files » The president on Monday also said he has ordered the release of tens of thousands of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy sometime today.

TRUMP:  We are giving all of the Kennedy files. So people have been waiting for decades for this.

Last month, the FBI announced it inventoried and digitized about 2,400 newly discovered records related to that assassination.

TRUMP: I don't believe we're gonna redact anything. I said, just don't redact. You can't redact.

The release follows an executive order he signed in January ordering the declassification of records related to the killings of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Reactions to judge deportation halt The White House is blasting an order from a federal judge temporarily halting further deportation fights of what the administration says are dangerous and violent illegal immigrants.

On Saturday, US district judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, imposed a two week restraining order against President Trump‘s use of the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act to deport high-risk illegal migrants.

Border czar Tom Homan:

HOMAN:  President Trump invoked the authorities of the Alien Enemies Act, which he has the right to do, and we removed over 200 violent criminals from the United States. The actions of President Trump made this country safer.

The Trump administration says activist judges are overstepping their authority.

At least one Republican lawmaker is now pushing to impeach Judge Boasberg.

SOUND: [Storm pickup]

Storm damage, death toll update » Crews in Dallas, Georgia work to remove trees knocked to the ground by powerful weekend storms.

Nationwide the confirmed death toll now stands at 42 Forty-two after storms pounded roughly a dozen states from Texas, to Illinois, to Tennessee.

Georgia resident Scott Bingham said the storm destroyed his grandmother's home, and nearly cost her her life.

BINGHAM: There was probably like an 8-inch-diameter branch that came through her side—beside her. If she had a-been sleeping two or three inches further away from the edge of the bed, it would have went through her.

Severe weather triggered dozens of tornadoes across more than a half-dozen states.

A storm also triggered blinding dust storms from Texas to Kansas - blamed for deadly car crashes. And in Oklahoma, powerful winds triggered wildfires that destroyed more than 400 homes.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Canada has a new Prime Minister. Plus, a seminary student heads to the rodeo and finds fields ripe for harvest.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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