Axios

Andrew and Tristan Tate, prominent right-wing influencers, returned to the U.S. Thursday after Romanian prosecutors lifted travel restrictions on the brothers.

Why it matters: The brothers are dual U.S.-U.K. citizens, but their return stateside is sure to be controversial given the legal cases against them, which include rape and human trafficking charges. They have denied any wrongdoing.

Private prison company CoreCivic has inked a deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand detention capacity for immigrants at four of its prisons.

Why it matters: ICE is holding more than 40,000 immigrants in detention at over 100 locations across the country and will need vastly more bed space under President Trump's mass deportation plan.

The quality of global democracies hit an all-time low in 2024, and the U.S. continues to be seen as a "flawed democracy," according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Global Democracy Index report.

The big picture: More than one-third of the world population now lives under authoritarian rule, according to the index.

The U.S. will raise tariffs on China another 10% on Tuesday, citing the flow of illegal drugs into the country, President Trump said.

Why it matters: It's an escalation of the growing tariff war with one of the largest U.S. trading partners.

The Pentagon is moving to disqualify transgender service members from the military within 30 days, per a policy memorandum included in a Wednesday court filing.

The big picture: The memo that builds on existing Trump administration restrictions that target transgender troops states the military will consider granting waivers on a "case-by-case basis," but only if there's "a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities."

The Trump administration is axing 92% in foreign assistance-related grants to save nearly $60 billion as part of a budget cuts drive across all federal agencies, the State Department confirmed on Wednesday night.

The big picture: It plans to terminate nearly 10,000 contracts and grants given out by the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), per a Wednesday court filing from administration attorneys.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night temporarily paused a lower judge's order that would've required the Trump administration to restart $1.9 billion in foreign aid payments by midnight.

Why it matters: In the first case the Supreme Court has intervened in since the Trump administration moved to overhaul the federal government and make drastic budget cuts, Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay and requested aid groups that sued the administration to respond by 12 noon Friday ET.

Hamas transferred to Israel the bodies of four hostages on Thursday morning local time as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said.

The big picture: The return of the bodies completes the release of 33 hostages as part of the first phase of the deal.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) instructed committee staff to refer to the Israeli-occupied West Bank by its Hebrew name Judea and Samaria, according to a copy of an internal committee memo obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The international community, including the U.S. government, refers to the territory Israel occupied in 1967 as the West Bank and doesn't recognize Israeli sovereignty there. Roughly 3 million Palestinians and half a million Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.

President Trump confirmed on Wednesday that the U.S. and Ukraine have reached a minerals deal and that he still expects Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the White House on Friday.

• Comments from Zelensky earlier on Wednesday had seemed to put the deal and the visit in doubt.

Why it matters: The deal is designed to allow the U.S. to tap into Ukraine's minerals and other natural resources and establish a joint fund for rebuilding Ukraine. It has the potential to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Ukraine after a public squabble last week.

President Trump shared what appeared to be an AI-generated video late Tuesday night depicting his vision of "the Riviera of the Middle East" if his plan to "take over the Gaza strip" comes to fruition.

Why it matters: The video recasts the enclave that's been devastated by the Israel-Hamas war as an oasis of Trump's fantasy, complete with bellydancers, a golden statue of himself and Elon Musk dancing under a shower of money.

The U.S. has become much less Christian, driven in large part by Gen Z and younger Millennials, according to a new Pew study.

Why it matters: "This is a broad-based social change," says Alan Cooperman, the director of religion research at the Pew Research Center.

What can a potential arms sale portend?

• Well, in the case of the F-35, one of the most coveted, costly and complex weapons on Earth, it's more intimate ties between the U.S. and India.

Why it matters: For all the chaos President Trump is injecting into U.S. foreign policy — trade wars with allies, aligning with Russia on a UN vote — a focus on the Indo-Pacific remains steady.

• In that calculus, New Delhi is priceless.

Undocumented immigrants age 14 or older must register and provide fingerprints or face a fine or even imprisonment under new Trump administration plans announced Tuesday.

The big picture: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the escalation in the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants that she vowed the administration would enforce.

President Trump announced Tuesday the administration plans to offer $5 million "gold cards," which grant individuals permanent U.S. residency.

The big picture: The new system would replace the existing EB-5 program — a system launched in 1990 that offers green cards to individuals who invested in the U.S. — and serve as a route to citizenship, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday that Israel will send a delegation to Doha or Cairo in the coming days to discuss the next steps of the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal based on principles that the U.S. has agreed to with Israel and Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

The big picture "If these talks go well, I might be going to the region on Sunday," Witkoff said at an American Jewish Committee event in Washington, D.C.

A new Latino group is using its first appearance on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to put the Trump administration and the media on notice it plans to use "purchasing power" to improve how Latinos are represented and depicted.

Why it matters: The group, Aquí: The Accountability Movement, wants to counter the notion that "Latino equals immigrant, which equals criminal," Sindy Benavides, the group's executive director, told Axios.

The U.S. vote against a United Nations resolution condemning Russian aggression is becoming another tension point between President Trump and Senate Republicans.

Why it matters: Republicans are bracing to have their party's leader challenge or undercut their core assumption about foreign policy. Some still hold out hope for a war-ending deal.