Monday morning news: March 24, 2025

Ukraine, Russia talks » Russian drone attacks killed at least seven people across Ukraine Sunday morning. The latest strikes came just hours before American diplomats are set to meet separately with both Russian and Ukrainian leaders in Saudi Arabia today.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff:

WITKOFF:  The agenda is, stop the killing, stop the carnage. Let's end this thing. You can't end things without communicating with both sides, understanding what each of them need, and then trying to bring them together.

Negotiators will continue work on the details on a limited ceasefire related to energy targets that both sides have already agreed to in principle. From there, they hope to expand that ceasefire.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz:

WALTZ:  We're going to move to, uh, maritime. Both countries sit on the Black Sea. They have to trade and oil and gas and grain to literally feed their people and others. Uh, that will be the next step.

Steve Witkoff said he sat in on separate phone calls last week between President Trump and Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin. He said both expressed a desire to work toward a lasting peace.

Witkoff on Gaza / Iran » Meantime, in the Middle East, a lasting peace in Gaza remains elusive.

Witkoff said that earlier this month, he believed both Israel and Hamas had agreed on terms to renew an expired ceasefire.

WIKOFF:  I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that's just me getting, um, getting, uh, you know, duped. Uh uh. But uh, but I thought we were there and evidently we weren't. So this is on Hamas.

 All of this is happening as discussions about Iran are expected to take place this week. Axios reports a senior Israeli delegation is expected to visit the White House in the coming days to talk about Iran. President Trump has given Iran two months to negotiate a new nuclear deal.

He has warned Tehran that time is running out, and has threatened military action to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Trump administration / judge fight » The Trump administration and many Republicans continue to take aim at federal judges blocking President Trump’s agenda. Trump advisor Jason Miller:

MILLER:  I think that these radical judges who are undermining what President Trump is attempting to lawfully do to implement his policies, I think these judges are a threat to democracy.

Miller charges that some judges are overstepping their constitutional authority.

But Democrats say it is the White House that is not respecting the separation of powers. Congressman Jim Himes:

HIMES: We see, uh, how this administration goes after the many judges and the many courts who are stopping the wild and illegal actions of this administration.

Some GOP lawmakers are pushing to impeach certain federal judges, but they lack the two-thirds majority needed in the Senate to do so.

Homan on deportations » The Trump administration has been locked in a high profile battle with District Court Judge James Boasberg. He placed a temporary injunction on President Trump’s use of the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act … to deport high-risk illegal immigrants such as gang members.

He’s demanding information on deportation flights already completed. Border czar Tom Homan spoke Sunday about a flight that he says was loaded with members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TDA:

HOMAN:  That plane was full of the uh, peoples designated as terrorists, number one. Number two, every, every Venezuelan migrant on that flight was a TDA member.

Trump officials note that the president has formally declared certain foreign gangs as designated terrorist organizations. Therefore, they assert that the president lawfully deported terrorists under the Alien Enemies Act, and that the judge wrongfully is interfering in U.S. foreign policy.

Judge Boasberg has called the Trump administration’s response to his demands “Woefully insufficient.”

Democrat infighting » Democrats in Washington are fighting over how best to fight President Trump’s agenda. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

SCHUMER:  I knew when I cast my vote against, uh, the c uh, against the government shutdown, that it would be, that there'd be a lot of controversy and there was.

Schumer earlier this month reluctantly backed a Republican-authored funding bill to keep the government open. He said the alternative would have been worse.

Democrats wanted language inserted to limit the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to audit government spending. Some criticized Schumer, saying he surrendered the party’s leverage.

And the party’s socialist wing has launched a high-profile campaign to ramp up the fight against Trump. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders:

SANDERS:  I'm trying to make it clear that the American people are not gonna sit idly by and allow Trump establish an oligarchic form of government where Musk and other billionaires are running our government.

Sanders has launched what he’s calling his “fighting oligarchy” tour with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, holding rallies in numerous states.

Pope Francis » A weak and frail Pope Francis has returned home to the Vatican from the hospital after a five-week bout of pneumonia.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri says the pontiff survived a serious ordeal.

ALFIERI: During his hospitalization, the holy father’s critical conditions presented two very critical episodes in which the holy father’s life was in danger.

The motorcade carrying the 88-year-old pontiff drove through the gates of Vatican City after a brief stop at St. Mary Major basilica, where the pope always goes to pray after a foreign visit.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Legal Docket, plus the Monday Moneybeat and the WORLD History Book.

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