What The Hell America!

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States’ deportation scheme with El Salvador, Chinese trade efforts to counter U.S. tariffs, and deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Deportation Flights

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday. Their meeting centered on bolstering migration cooperation, with Trump saying that he is open to sending U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador if they commit violent acts—though immigration experts say there is no legal way for the Trump administration to do so. “You gotta build about five more places,” Trump told Bukele, indicating that El Salvador’s current mega-prison will not be large enough for Trump’s plans.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States’ deportation scheme with El Salvador, Chinese trade efforts to counter U.S. tariffs, and deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Deportation Flights

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday. Their meeting centered on bolstering migration cooperation, with Trump saying that he is open to sending U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador if they commit violent acts—though immigration experts say there is no legal way for the Trump administration to do so. “You gotta build about five more places,” Trump told Bukele, indicating that El Salvador’s current mega-prison will not be large enough for Trump’s plans.

Self-styled as the “world’s coolest dictator,” Bukele has played an integral role in Trump’s migration crackdown, as the United States transports hundreds of alleged gang members to the Central American country. However, a series of court challenges and deportation scandals have embroiled the two leaders in controversy.

Last month, Trump invoked the wartime 1798 Alien Enemies Act to send hundreds of migrants allegedly part of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, where they were then placed in the country’s notorious mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). Since then, several deportation flights have occurred, with the latest carrying 10 alleged gang members to CECOT over the weekend.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg initially ordered the White House to stop these flights, citing lack of transparency concerns. Human Rights Watch has condemned the administration’s actions, calling the flights “enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention” to a prison “known for its abusive conditions.”

When Trump was pressed on Monday about alleged human rights abuses at CECOT, he responded with: “I don’t see it. I don’t see that happening.” The U.S. president remains a close ally and admirer of Bukele, saying on Sunday that “I think he’s doing a fantastic job. He’s taking care of a lot of problems that we have.”

Bukele declared a state of emergency in 2022 to combat gang violence and high homicide rates in the country. Under the law, El Salvador has arrested around 85,000 people, only 1,000 of whom have been convicted of a crime. In response to homicide rates decreasing from over 2,000 in 2019 to just 114 last year, the U.S. State Department updated its travel safety rating for El Salvador last week to a coveted Level 1 position.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that deportations under the Alien Enemies Act can continue if the accused receive due process. However, it also said in a separate ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

Neither Trump nor Bukele, though, has pushed for his return. On Sunday, the U.S. Justice Department said that the courts have “no authority” to force El Salvador to release him, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying, “It’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him,” and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling him an El Salvador citizen. Meanwhile, Bukele on Monday said, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Today’s Most Read

The World This Week

Wednesday, April 16: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk hosts German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Warsaw.

European Council President António Costa hosts Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora in Brussels.

Thursday, April 17: Trump hosts Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House.

Friday, April 18: Meloni hosts U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance in Rome.

Saturday, April 19: U.S. and Iranian officials hold another round of nuclear talks in Oman.

Sunday, April 20: Trump’s 90-day pause on U.S. foreign aid ends.

Monday, April 21: The International Monetary Fund and World Bank begin their weeklong spring meetings in Washington.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof begins a three-day trip to Japan.

What We’re Following

‘No winners’ in a trade war. Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off a three-country tour of Southeast Asia on Monday in a bid to foster closer relations with Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Beijing hopes that the trip demonstrates how reliable China is as a trading partner at a time when U.S. tariffs are placing unprecedented pressure on the global economy.

“There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and there is no way out for protectionism,” Xi wrote in an editorial jointly published in Vietnamese and Chinese media. “We must firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, maintain the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain, and maintain an open and cooperative international environment.”

Last Wednesday, Trump paused new, higher reciprocal tariffs on virtually all trading partners except for China, instead raising duties there to 145 percent. Beijing has since retaliated with a 125 percent levy on all U.S. imports. On Sunday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned that the White House will announce new tariffs on critical technology products from China as well as on semiconductors in the near future, to go into effect within the next two months.

Deadliest strikes this year. Two Russian ballistic missiles hit the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, killing at least 35 people and injuring around 117 others, including children. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack as Moscow’s deadliest this year, and European allies balked at continued U.S. efforts to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There are two waves of attacks, and the second arrived as emergency workers were taking care of the victims,” Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next chancellor, said on Sunday of the strikes. “That is the response. That is what Putin does to those who talk with him of a cease-fire.” He went on to call the attack a “deliberate and calculated war crime” and said those who seek peace talks with Putin are naive.

Trump took a lighter tone on Sunday, calling the attack a “horrible thing” while adding that he was told that it was “a mistake.” It is unclear who told Trump this and whether his choice of words was an effort to avoid directly criticizing the Kremlin, something that the U.S. president has repeatedly done since taking office in January and seeking talks with Moscow.

Civilian casualties. Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed on Sunday to have seized North Darfur’s Zamzam refugee camp following a four-day assault that left hundreds of people dead or wounded. The RSF accused “mercenary factions” of using the camp as a base of operations; however, the United Nations and humanitarian groups said the attack targeted vulnerable civilians, including women, children, and older adults.

According to U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami, at least 100 civilians at the Zamzam and nearby Abu Shouk refugee camps are feared to be dead since last Friday. This includes more than 20 children and nine medical aid workers from Relief International. Darfur Gov. Minni Minnawi put the death toll on Sunday at more than 400 people.

Together, the camps host some 700,000 people displaced by Sudan’s civil war, which will hit its two-year mark on Tuesday. Zamzam and Abu Shouk are located near the city of El Fasher, the last major city in Darfur that the paramilitary group does not control.

Odds and Ends

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Katy Perry may have when she reached zero gravity on Monday. The singer was part of a six-person Blue Origin flight that reached outer space for a trip totaling 10 minutes and 21 seconds. This was the first all-female space flight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to reach the vast unknown in her 1963 solo mission. Other participants in Monday’s historic flight included journalist Gayle King; Lauren Sánchez, the fiancé of Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; bioastronautics scientist Amanda Nguyen; and film producer Kerianne Flynn. It really is a woman’s world.