WASHINGTON: Legal advocacy groups sounded alarms on Saturday after US President Donald Trump threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems unethical.
In a memorandum to US Attorney General Pam Bondi late on Friday, Trump said lawyers were helping to fuel “rampant fraud and meritless claims” in the immigration system, and directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct.
The order also took aim at law firms that sue the administration in what Trump, a Republican, called “baseless partisan” lawsuits. He asked Bondi to refer such firms to the White House to be stripped of security clearances, and for federal contracts they worked on to be terminated.
Ben Wizner, a senior lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new directive sought to “chill and intimidate” lawyers who challenge the president’s agenda. Trump has separately mounted attacks on law firms over their internal diversity policies and their ties to his political adversaries. “Courts have been the only institution so far that have stood up to Trump’s onslaught,” Wizner said. “Courts can’t play that role without lawyers bringing cases in front of them.”
The ACLU is involved in litigation against the administration over immigrant deportations, including the expulsion of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
The Trump administration has been hit with more than 100 lawsuits challenging White House actions on immigration, transgender rights and other issues since the start of the president’s second term. Legal advocacy groups, along with at least 12 major law firms, have brought many of the cases.
A White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said “President Trump is delivering on his promise to ensure the judicial system is no longer weaponized against the American people.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the memorandum, which directed Bondi to assess lawyers and firms that brought cases against the government over the past eight years.
Law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, which is working with the ACLU in an immigrant rights case against the administration, said in a statement that it was “inexcusable and despicable” for Trump to attack lawyers based on their clients or legal work opposing the federal government.
Representatives from other prominent law firms that are representing clients in cases against Trump’s administration, including Hogan Lovells, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump issued executive orders this month against law firms Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, suspending their lawyers’ security clearances and restricting their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work.
The president also last month suspended security clearances of lawyers at Covington & Burling, in each case citing the firms’ past work for his political or legal opponents.
The Keker firm on Saturday called on law firms to sign a joint court brief supporting a lawsuit by Perkins Coie challenging the executive order against it.
Paul Weiss on Thursday struck a deal with Trump to rescind the executive order against it, pledging to donate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal work to support some of the administration’s causes such as support for veterans and combating antisemitism.
Lawyers are bound by professional ethics rules that require them to investigate allegations before filing lawsuits and not deceive the courts. Imposing disciplinary sanctions on lawyers who violate such rules falls on the court system, not federal prosecutors, though prosecutors can charge lawyers with criminal misconduct.
Some lawyers aligned with Trump faced professional discipline over claims that they violated legal ethics rules in challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win over Trump.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who later was an attorney for Trump, was disbarred in New York and in the District of Columbia over baseless claims he made alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group suing the administration over deportations, called Trump’s sanctions threat hypocritical in a statement to Reuters, saying Trump and his allies “have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law.”
Trump targets lawyers in immigration cases, lawsuits against administration
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Trump targets lawyers in immigration cases, lawsuits against administration
- The Trump administration has been hit with more than 100 lawsuits challenging White House actions on immigration, transgender rights and other issues since the start of the president’s second term
Holocaust survivor questioned by UK police after laying flowers at Gaza protest
- Stephen Kapos, 87, called on British government to condemn Israel, cease arms exports
- Politicians, campaigners, Holocaust survivors, lawyers condemn police over ‘repressive and heavy-handed’ arrests
LONDON: A Holocaust survivor was questioned by police after laying flowers in London’s Trafalgar Square to commemorate Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Stephen Kapos, 87, took part in a demonstration in the UK capital on Jan. 18. He was among nine people later questioned by the Metropolitan Police, after 77 others were arrested in what critics say was an example of “repressive and heavy-handed policing.”
Kapos survived the Holocaust after Nazi Germany occupied his home country of Hungary. He lived in hiding in Budapest as a child, losing his mother in the process. His father was imprisoned in the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
After questioning by police, Kapos told The Independent that he was “proud” to demonstrate in support of the Palestinian people, adding that members of his family accompanied him on protests.
Speaking outside Charing Cross Police Station in central London, he said he wanted to dispel ideas that “there is solid support from all Jews” for Israel’s actions.
“The sort of killing that’s going on, it’s unbearable to watch and one wonders where it’s leading to because there is no defence to speak of. They are defenceless people out in the open,” Kapos, surrounded by supporters including other Holocaust survivors and their relatives, told The Independent.
“Their homes have been bombed to smithereens and they are in tents and now they are going to be bombed.
“It’s unbearable and I don’t understand how the world can stand it. And, I’m ashamed of our government and everybody else who facilitates it and enables it.”
Kapos called for the UK government to condemn Israel and immediately suspend military contracts with the country.
“They should at the very minimum condemn Israel’s actions, which they don’t do, and immediately stop all supplies of armaments and any other logistical and information support that they do give,” he said.
“All that should be stopped immediately because there’s no doubt about this being an atrocity and international crime, what’s going on, what’s perpetrated by Israel. So, how can you hesitate in the face of that?”
Kapos added that protesting would “make it clear that all this will have electoral consequences” for the UK government, stressing that marches in support of the Palestinians “are not hate marches” and “are not no-go areas for Jews, which is again claimed.”
Dr. Agnes Kory, another Holocaust survivor who stood with Kapos, said: “In the name of a Holocaust survivor, which is me, and a Holocaust researcher, which is also me, I say no, not in our names, and I have to be at the forefront of peace for Palestine movements.”
Mark Etkind, co-organizer of Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Against the Gaza Genocide, described the behavior of the Metropolitan Police as “terrifying, not just for the Palestine movement, but for anyone who wants to protest and believes in British democracy.”
The Metropolitan Police did not disclose why Kapos had been questioned, and said protesters were detained at the march on Jan. 18 for a breach of the Public Order Act.
A group of more than 50 politicians, trade unionists and lawyers wrote to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in the aftermath of the 77 arrests to complain about the behavior of the police.
Another group of around 40 Holocaust survivors wrote an open letter condemning the treatment of Kapos.
“Any repression of the right to protest is bad enough — but to persecute a Jewish 87-year-old whose Holocaust experiences compel him to speak out against the Gaza genocide, is quite appalling,” the group said.
South Sudan suffering worst cholera outbreak in 20 years: UNICEF
- South Sudan reporting almost 700 deaths in a six month period
NAIROBI: South Sudan is enduring its worst cholera outbreak in two decades, the United Nations said Monday, with the country reporting almost 700 deaths in a six month period.
The deeply impoverished nation — despite its major oil deposits — has been plagued by insecurity since declaring independence in 2011.
Parts of the country have lately seen fresh waves of violence, with clashes between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, displacing tens of thousands.
UNICEF said that 40,000 cholera cases were reported from the end of September to March 18, “including 694 deaths country-wide, its worst outbreak in 20 years.”
It said half the cases were children under 15.
South Sudan and Angola were facing the most severe of several outbreaks across eastern and southern Africa, the agency said.
Angola reported over 7,500 cases, including 294 deaths from 7 January 2025 to 18 March 2025, UNICEF said, warning there were “high risks for further escalation.”
Earlier this month the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan said 50,000 people had been displaced since February as violence flared in northeastern Upper Nile State.
It said a cholera treatment unit in the Upper Nile State’s Nasir county had closed, with 23 humanitarian workers forced to leave.
The region has been the main focus of clashes that are threatening a fragile power-sharing agreement between Kiir and Machar.
South Sudan has seen a steady increase in cholera — an acute form of diarrhea that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration, but which can be deadly if untreated — over the past three years.
In 2022 the country marked its first resurgence in five years, following an outbreak between June 2016 and December 2017 that killed 436 people.
In December, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned South Sudan was seeing “alarming and rapid increase” in the disease.
It said 92 people had died following an outbreak in Unity state, and that it had treated over 1,210 people in just four weeks in Bentiu city.
Sudden US aid withdrawal risking millions of lives: UNAIDS chief
- She warned that without more funding there will be an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths in the next four years
GENEVA: The sudden halt to US foreign aid funding has been “devastating,” the UNAIDS chief said Monday, warning that without more funding, millions more will die and the global AIDS pandemic will resurge.
The United States has historically been the world’s largest donor of humanitarian assistance, but President Donald Trump has slashed international aid since returning to the White House two months ago.
“It is reasonable for the United States to want to reduce its funding over time, but the sudden withdrawal of life-saving support is having a devastating impact,” UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told reporters in Geneva.
“We urge for a reconsideration and an urgent restoration of services, life-saving services.”
She warned that without more funding, “there will be an additional... 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths” in the next four years.
At the last count, in 2023, some 600,000 AIDS-related deaths were registered globally, she pointed out.
“So you’re talking of a 10-fold increase.”
At the same time, Byanyima said her agency expected to see “an additional 8.7 million new infections.”
“You’re talking of losing the gains that we have made over the last 25 years. It is very serious.”
Looking further ahead than the next four years, if aid funding is not restored, “in the longer term, we see the AIDS pandemic resurging, and resurging globally,” Byanyima said.
“Not just in the countries where now it has become concentrated, in low-income countries of Africa, but also growing among what we call key populations in Eastern Europe, in Latin America,” she said.
“We will see a... real surge in this disease. We’ll see it come back, and we’ll see people die the way we saw them in the ‘90s and in the 2000s.”
Mob ransacks Indian comedy venue after parody of politician
- Kunal Kamra, one of India’s leading comics, is known for his acerbic commentary on Indian politics.
- Latest performance included parody song referring to Eknath Shinde in the state government as a “traitor.”
MUMBAI, INDIA: A mob ransacked a club in India’s financial capital after a stand-up comedian ridiculed one of the city’s leading politicians from the stage, prompting a police investigation into the performer.
Kunal Kamra, one of India’s leading comics, is known for his acerbic commentary on Indian politics.
His Sunday performance in Mumbai included a parody song referring to Eknath Shinde, the number two figure in the state government, as a “traitor.”
Soon after the show finished, supporters from Shinde’s Shiv Sena party stormed The Habitat comedy venue and began wreaking havoc.
Footage widely shared on social media showed dozens of men throwing chairs, smashing light fittings and breaking apart paintings mounted on the wall.
At least 20 people were being sought in relation to the vandalism at the club, local media reported.
The Habitat said in a Monday social media post that it was shutting its doors until it determined the “best way to provide a platform for free expression” without putting the venue “in jeopardy.”
Police were attempting to locate Kamra after an official complaint was registered against him for making defamatory remarks.
Maharashtra state chief minister — and Shinde’s boss — Devendra Fadnavis said the comedian “should apologize” and that “insult of leaders cannot be tolerated.”
“Everyone has a right to perform stand-up comedy. But freedom should not be unrestrained behavior... Action will be taken against him as per the law,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.
The “traitor” remark was a reference to Shinde’s decision to switch his political allegiance in 2022, precipitating a weeklong political crisis in the state that forced the resignation of the then-chief minister.
Kamra has yet to publicly comment on the incident, but the backlash against him is not the first time that an Indian comic has come under fire from supporters of politicians.
In 2021, Muslim comedian Munawar Faruqui was held in prison for more than a month after being accused of insulting Hindu gods and goddesses.
He later canceled three shows in Mumbai after a Hindu activist group threatened to set the venue on fire.
US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday
- Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead the group
- President Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 are causing alarm among Indian exporters
NEW DELHI: A delegation of officials from the United States will visit India from March 25 to 29 for trade talks with Indian officials, a US embassy spokesperson said on Monday.
Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead the group. “This visit reflects the United States’ continued commitment to advancing a productive and balanced trade relationship with India,” the spokesperson said.
Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal spent nearly a week in the United States earlier this month where he held trade discussions, and as US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 causing alarm among Indian exporters. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last month, both nations agreed to work on the first phase of a trade deal by autumn 2025, with a target of reaching $500 billion in bilateral trade by 2030. India and the US are engaged in discussions to resolve tariff-related issues, and finalize a framework for a bilateral trade pact, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s external affairs ministry, said last week.
“We value our ongoing engagement with the Government of India on trade and investment matters and look forward to continuing these discussions in a constructive, equitable, and forward-looking manner,” the US embassy spokesperson said.
