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Mack Schroeder, a Department of Health and Human Services employee who was unceremoniously fired as part of Elon Musk's DOGE cuts, appeared on CNN to hit back at a senator's reaction to his plight.Schroeder took part in protests on Capitol Hill Wednesday when he approached Sen Jim Banks (R-IN) as the Republican made his way toward a congressional elevator."Hi, I was a worker at HHS. I was fired illegally on February 14th," Schroeder said as the incident was caught on tape. "There are many people who are not getting social service programs, especially people with disabilities. Are you going to do anything to stop what's happening?"Banks shot back, "You probably deserved it ... because you seem like a clown," as the elevator doors closed.CNN's Boris Sanchez read a statement that Banks posted to X, writing, "I have no sympathy for left-wing activists who have been let go from overpaid positions that should never have existed. I do have sympathy for the hardworking Hoosiers whose tax dollars have been wasted on bankrolling these positions.""I was really just there to not even talk about getting my job back or being reinstated," Schroeder began. "I really just wanted to ask him what he was doing to ensure the residents in his state are getting the services that they're entitled to, as we cut workers who are really ensuring that grants are going out the door to programs, in my case, working on programs that support people with disabilities and older adults. "So, I was hoping he would have some sort of plan to say, 'This is why we're cutting workers. This is how we're going to continue supporting residents in Indiana.'"Schroeder said his department made sure grants supported Meals on Wheels for older adults, programs that supported independent living for people with disabilities, and programs that provided heating to low-income Americans."Much like all other civil servants, I am nonpartisan," Schroeder said, taking issue with being called a left-wing activist. "I would like to know if if he actually knows what I was doing, and without people like me and similar folks who are working on budgets for those programs, how is he going to get those services to constituents who desperately need them?" Schroeder added, "If there's a good plan to increase efficiency by cutting workers, I haven't seen it yet."Watch the clip below or at this link via CNN.

Óscar Arias Sánchez, the former president of Costa Rica who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, has had his visa revoked without explanation this week.The New York Times reported that Sánchez has been a "vocal critic" of President Donald Trump and that the rescission of his visa "appears to be the most high profile in a string of individuals who have had their visas canceled or been denied entry as the Trump administration bars people who it says have 'hostile attitudes' toward the United States."During a news conference in Costa Rica on Tuesday, Sánchez said he didn't know why his visa had been revoked, but he vowed not to remain silent in his criticism of Trump.“If someone wants to punish me in the hopes of silencing me, that isn’t going to work,” he declared.ALSO READ: ‘This is not legal’: Dem scorches Ted Cruz after he explodes at judges blocking TrumpAs the Times notes, Sánchez earlier this year criticized Trump for trying to boss around neighboring nations and compared him to a "Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do."Sánchez won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in crafting a plan to end civil wars across Central America.

Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-FL) used state Sen. Randy Fine's "underperformance" in Florida's special election to revive the war of words between the two men, according to Politico. Fine, who serves as a Florida state senator, defeated progressive Josh Weil (D) by 14 points to become the newly-elected Representative for Florida's 6th District. DeSantis held a press conference Wednesday to say that margin wasn't good enough. Reporter Kimberly Leonard wrote, "DeSantis argued that President Donald Trump’s involvement in the 6th District race pushed Fine over the line. He added voters had not wanted to support Fine, who Trump had endorsed, and that the president 'really had to bail him out in the end.'” "I would not read into the underperformance that this is somehow a referendum on MAGA and Trump," DeSantis said. He continued, "These are voters who didn’t like Randy Fine, but who basically are like, ‘You know what? We’re going to take one for the team. The president needs another vote up there, and so we’re going to do it.’” ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs DeSantis even referred to Fine as a "squish," political slang for someone who does not back the party whole-heartedly. Leonard wrote that DeSantis and Fine "had a falling out in 2023, after Fine flipped his endorsement for president from the governor to Trump." To further the hard feelings, Fine eviscerated DeSantis in a Washington Times op-ed, "accusing him of not doing enough to fight antisemitism in Florida in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war." Fine has been considered "one of the governor’s top archenemies in Tallahassee," and posted video on social media of DeSantis denigrating him after his victory. "A dying star burns hottest before it fades into oblivion. I’m focused on working with @realDonaldTrump to stop Democrats from taking this country backwards, not working with them. Let’s go," Fine wrote. Read the Politico article here.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz issued a warning to Donald Trump just hours before the president was set to announce his "liberation day" tariffs that experts say threaten to drain Americans' bank accounts as they shop for everyday items. Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, told CNBC Wednesday that Trump's sweeping tariffs "will throw the global economy into turmoil and leave Americans holding the bag." But Trump appeared to be plowing full steam ahead. Luntz, who spoke with CNN's Boris Sanchez Wednesday, called the United States a "polarized and angry country" that's only going to get more unstable as the Trump tariffs drag on. ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the world "The reason why I appreciate this discussion is that it's a chance to say precisely, the agenda and the policies have support, the communication and the execution do not," Luntz said. "So, I don't know if you're Democrat or Republican, you're going to be mad at this analysis, but this is the way things are, and we should start to pursue the truth rather than pursue some sort of partisan gain." Sanchez asked, "How do you take that sentiment and apply it to...this announcement on tariffs?" "It's going to freak the world out, and some Americans don't care," Luntz answered. He claimed that Trump chose 4 p.m. for his announcement "because the markets are closed at that point." Luntz continued, "You could see an explosion on Wall Street, and Donald Trump has always used the stock market as a measurement of his success. Well, he can't ignore it now. And if the markets are saying this is not the right way to do it, he needs to listen." Luntz admitted that Americans "are tired of being treated as second class citizens. They're tired of countries like China taking advantage of our markets, selling their products and blocking our products," he said."But they don't want to pay more, and the tariffs are like a tax. And, so, we've got once again, a mixed message. I hope Americans respond slowly to this because in the end, our businesses are at stake. Our economic system is at stake. Capitalism is at stake. And how we handle this will determine how the rest of the world is going to see us, trade with us, negotiate with us, and treat us in the months and years to follow." Watch the video below or at this link.

The Polish prime minister says his centrist political party was the target of a cyberattack, and suggested that it could have been interference by Russia ahead of Poland's presidential election next month

Construction crews in Vienna last year made an unprecedented discovery

Beijing continues drills in Taiwan strait, practising hitting key ports and energy infrastructureThe US has accused China of putting the region’s security at risk after it launched a second day of military drills targeting Taiwan with a rehearsal blockade and attack.The China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began the joint drills without notice on Tuesday morning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 navy and coastguard ships, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around Taiwan’s main island. Continue reading...

Two women who were taken to El Salvador as part of Donald Trump's mass deportation policy say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials deceived them about their destination, and the chaotic process resulted in them being returned to the U.S. – at least for now.The Trump administration herded more than 200 men onto planes March 15 and flew them to the Central American nation's notorious CECOT prison in a widely publicized operation, but eight women also on the planes never got off because El Salvador refused to take them, and two of them told NBC News about their experience.“We were lied to,” said 24-year-old Heymar Padilla Moyetones. “They told us we were going to Venezuela, and it turns out that, no. When we arrived at our destination, that’s when they told us we were in El Salvador.”ALSO READ: 'Came as a surprise to me': Senators 'troubled' by one aspect of government funding billThe administration claims all the people deported to El Salvador were Venezuelans with ties to the Tren de Aragua gang Trump has declared a terrorist organization, but their vetting process did not include a determination that El Salvador would accept women detainees.“They didn’t let us leave [the plane]," Moyetones said. "They told us that we were going back, that we were coming back here."Senior administration officials insist there's no need for judges to review the cases of anyone sent to El Salvador, but the women's experience and the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father married to a U.S. citizen sent on those same planes to El Salvador, show a chaotic and haphazard vetting process.“It just shows how little process there is and how little due diligence,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who is challenging the deportations. “Whoever heard of sending someone potentially for a life sentence in El Salvador without giving them any due process?”The women described confusion and delay consistent with an affidavit that describes two failed attempts to move them out of detention to an airport, and 18 women were ultimately taken to the airport but only eight were flown to El Salvador, and one of the 10 left behind on a bus told NBC News they were "desperate" to find out what was going on.“An immigration official got on and she told us, ‘You want to go back to your country, right?’ and we said, ‘Yes, obviously!’” said one of those 10 women, who gave her name as Karla. “'Well then, you should thank God that you’re not going on that plane, because that plane is not going to Venezuela.'"The women on the plane didn't realize where they were going until they landed in El Salvador after a brief stop in Guatemala, but officials continued to lie about their destination as the men were taken off the plane and roughly treated by Salvadoran officials on the tarmac.“We kept asking where we were,” said one of the women, Scarleth Rodriguez. “They would tell us, ‘You’re in Venezuela.’ We are from Venezuela, we know that airport, it’s the only airport that’s in Caracas, so, like, we would know where we were, and we were not in Venezuela.”Moyetones, who is sharing a cell with Rodriguez at a detention center in Laredo, Texas, describes what they saw from the plane windows.“Very little. ... But the little we could see was the brutal way they were taking the men down, because [Salvadoran officials] did take them down in a very ugly way," Moyetones said. "Almost hitting them, dragging them.”