Trump news at a glance: administration turns to supreme court after failed bid to block Snap payment order

Trump demands supreme court intervene after latest bid to halt Snap funding

US district judge John J McConnell Jr had given the Trump administration until Friday to make the payments through Snap, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, after the administration said last month that it would not pay benefits for November because of the shutdown.

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Judge’s final order bars Trump from sending national guard to Portland

US district court judge Karin Immergut issued her order minutes before a temporary restraining order was set to expire.

Immergut, who was nominated to the bench by Trump in his first term, ruled last month that the president’s wildly false claims about conditions in Portland resembling those in a war zone, due to a small protest against immigration raids, were “simply untethered to the facts”.

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People at over 100 US universities protest against Trump

Students, faculty and staff at more than 100 campuses across the US rallied against the Trump administration’s assault on higher education on Friday – the first in a planned series of nationwide, coordinated protests that organizers hope will culminate in large-scale students and workers’ strikes next May Day and a nationwide general strike in May 2028.

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US grants Hungary one-year exemption from sanctions over Russian oil and gas

The decision came after Viktor Orbán pressed his case for a reprieve during a friendly meeting with Donald Trump in Washington.

Last month, Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft that carried the threat of further sanctions on entities in countries that buy oil from those firms.

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Supreme court may take up case challenging legality of same-sex marriage

The US supreme court is considering taking up a case that could challenge the legality of same-sex marriage across the country. Hours after ruling that Donald Trump’s administration can block transgender and non-binary people from selecting passport sex markers that align with their gender identity, the justices are holding their first conference on the Davis v Ermold case. While their deliberations are typically kept private, the court may announce whether it will take the case as early as Monday.

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Trump says US will boycott G20 summit in South Africa, citing treatment of white farmers

The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of allowing minority white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked. As it restricted the number of refugees admitted annually to the US to 7,500, the administration indicated that most will be white South Africans who it claimed faced discrimination and violence at home.

But the government of South Africa has said it is surprised by the accusations of discrimination, because white people in the country generally have a much higher standard of living than its Black residents, more than three decades after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule.

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Washington National Opera may leave Kennedy Center due to Trump ‘takeover’

Leaving the Kennedy Center is a possible scenario after a collapse in box office revenue and “shattered” donor confidence in the wake of Trump’s “takeover”, according to WNO’s artistic director, Francesca Zambello.

The president declared himself chair of the institution in February, sacking and replacing its board and leadership.

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