First Thing: US lawmakers decry ‘national disgrace’ of student detentions on visit to Ice jails

Delegation visit detention centers and report poor conditions. Plus, Musk says he’ll step back slightly from Doge after Tesla profits slide 71%

Good morning.

Congressional lawmakers denounced the treatment of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, students being detained by US immigration authorities for their pro-Palestinian activism, as a “national disgrace” during a visit to the two facilities in Louisiana where each are being held.

“We stand firm with them in support of free speech,” the Louisiana congressman Troy Carter, who led the delegation, said during a press conference after the visits on Tuesday. “They are frightened, they’re concerned, they want to go home.”

Öztürk, a Tufts University PhD student, and Khalil, a graduate of Columbia, have been detained for more than a month since US immigration authorities took them into custody. Neither have been accused of criminal conduct and are being held in violation of their constitutional rights, members of the delegation said.

The delegation included representatives Carter, Bennie Thompson, Ayanna Pressley, Jim McGovern, Senator Ed Markey, and Alanah Odoms, the executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana.

What are conditions like in detention? Those in custody were shaken and visibly upset and afraid, the delegation said. They have said they are not receiving necessary healthcare and that the facilities are kept extremely cold.

How does the Trump administration justify this? It has argued that Khalil, a lawful permanent resident of the US and child of Palestinian refugees, undermines the country’s foreign policy interests. Trump also said yesterday that he believes he is entitled to deport people without trials.

Trump says China tariffs will drop ‘substantially – but it won’t be zero’

Donald Trump said during a White House news conference that high tariffs on goods from China would “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.

Trump’s remarks were in response to earlier comments on Tuesday by the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who said that the high tariffs were unsustainable and that he expects a “de-escalation” in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump has placed tariffs on several dozen countries, causing the stock market to stumble and interest rates to increase on US debt as investors worry about slower economic growth and higher inflationary pressures.

What are the tariffs on Chinese goods currently? Trump placed import taxes of 145% on China, which has countered with 125% tariffs on US goods.

How did markets react? The S&P 500 stock index rose 2.5% after Bloomberg News initially reported Bessent’s remarks.

Record high early voting in Canadian election, figures show

A record 7.3 million people have cast their ballots over four days of advanced voting in Canada’s election, official figures showed on Tuesday, in a sign of elevated interest in the 28 April vote.

Elections Canada said its estimated tally for voting from Friday through Monday marked a 25% increase over the 5.8m advanced ballots cast in the 2021 vote. Canada has 28.9 million eligible voters.

What are the polls saying? The Liberal leader and prime minister, Mark Carney, is the frontrunner, but some polls show Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party incrementally gaining ground. As of Tuesday, the public broadcaster CBC’s poll aggregator gives the Liberals 43.1% support, with the Tories at 38.4%.

In other news …

Israel has quietly stopped designating areas of Gaza as humanitarian zones since it restarted its assault last month, heightening fears among aid workers for the safety of civilians sheltering in places previously deemed protected.

Pope Francis’s body will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica, to lie in state for three days to allow Catholic faithful to pay their final respects.

A panel of Brazil’s supreme court justices unanimously accepted criminal charges against six more allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro, over an alleged coup plot to keep him in office after his 2022 election defeat.

Discussions are taking place around a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, with some reports suggesting Russia may be willing to drop territorial claims on parts of Ukraine it doesn’t occupy while the Trump administration may be willing to recognize Crimea as part of Russia, something Ukraine vehemently rejects.

Stat of the day: Elon Musk to pull back somewhat in Doge role starting May amid 71% dip in Tesla profits

Elon Musk told investors on a Tesla earnings call that he would pull back from his role in the Trump administration’s cost-slashing “department of government efficiency” starting in May. It came as Tesla saw profits slide 71% in first-quarter earnings.

Don’t miss this: ‘Death to streamers!’ – can a New York video store start a revolution?

Defying the streaming era, Brooklyn’s Night Owl Video hopes formats like VHS, DVD and Blu-ray will see a vinyl-like revival. Night Owl sells new and used movies from cinephile Blu-ray labels such as Criterion, Radiance, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Kino Lorber, 88 Films and Umbrella, as well as film-related books, posters and vinyl soundtracks. “I love seeing someone pick up a title and another customer say, ‘Hey, that’s a really good one,’” one of the co-founders said.

Climate check: 84% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching

The world’s coral reefs have been pushed into “uncharted territory” by the worst global bleaching event on record that has now hit 84% of the planet’s reefs, according to the US government’s Coral Reef Watch. Reefs in at least 82 countries and territories have been exposed to enough heat to turn corals white since January 2023.

Last Thing: Race of the miniature horses takes place in New Zealand

Dozens of miniature horses have taken part in the Great Northern Gallop, an adventure race through dense forests and across rugged beaches in New Zealand. Participants travel 100km over four days, raising money for miniature horses.

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