Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
Trump plans to use military bases to detain migrantsThe Trump administration is developing a plan to detain thousands of undocumented immigrants at military sites across the country. The move, which is designed to make up for a shortfall of space at immigration facilities, appears to be a significant expansion of efforts by President Trump to use wartime resources to carry out the mass deportations he promised. Trump’s aides decided to begin at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, where they are setting up a deportation hub that could eventually hold up to 10,000 migrants as they go through the process of being deported. It could serve as a model for sites the administration aims to develop at bases in Utah, near Niagara Falls and several other locations. It is not clear how many immigrants could be held at the facilities, but the plans to rely on bases in more than a dozen states would be a major expansion of capacity. Previous administrations have held some immigrants at military bases, most recently children who would then be released into the country to the care of relatives or friends. But the Trump administration plan would greatly expand that practice, and potentially redirect military resources to the president’s immigration goals.
A botched hostage return renewed fears of fightingAfter an identification process, Israel announced today that Hamas had returned an anonymous, unidentified body and not that of Shiri Bibas, an Israeli hostage, as the group had claimed. Hours later, Hamas officials said they handed over another body that they believed belonged to Bibas — whose kidnapping, along with her young children, had come to epitomize the brutality of the Oct. 7 attack. Israel, which said it was reviewing reports of the second repatriation, had initially accused Hamas of breaching the cease-fire deal. The revelation had prompted alarm over the future of the brittle truce, and the fate of the remaining hostages — who have now been held in Gaza for more than 500 days. Another exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners is planned for tomorrow. In related news, Trump appeared to back away from his Gaza plan.
Germany appears set to choose a new leaderGermans will head to the polls this weekend to choose their next chancellor. The leading candidate, Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats, is considered a potentially better counter to Trump than the current Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Polling second is the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has been linked to neo-Nazis and plots to overthrow the state. The top issue for voters, according to our Berlin bureau chief, Jim Tankersley, is the economy — which is no longer the envy of Europe. “Germany is in a crisis of stagnant growth and declining competitiveness,” Jim said. “Its famed industries, like auto manufacturing, are slumping. Voters are frustrated and appear likely to evict Scholz over it.”
Archaeologists found a pharaoh’s tombEgypt’s ministry of antiquities announced this week that researchers had discovered what they described as the “the last missing royal tomb of the 18th Dynasty.” It belonged to Thutmose II, who is believed to have reigned around 1480 B.C. The Egyptian officials described the finding as the first excavation of a pharaoh’s tomb since Tutankhamen’s burial chamber was unearthed in 1922. Others have been reported, but not in the so-called Valley of the Kings, archaeologists said. More top news
They debuted on Broadway as children. Now they’re back.This year, more than half a dozen new New York City shows will prominently feature performers who made their Broadway debuts as children. Some were in hits, others in flops; a few pursued music or film and are just now returning to the stage. They include Nick Jonas, the pop star, and Sadie Sink, the “Stranger Things” actress. We talked to each of them about their early experiences.
“Suits” became too big to stay in one cityAfter the final episode of the legal procedural “Suits” premiered on USA Network in 2019, there were no plans for a spinoff. Then, in 2023, the show moved to Netflix and set streaming records. In an effort to recapture some of that success, the show’s creator, Aaron Korsh, agreed to transform a script he was already writing about a talent agent into “Suits LA,” which begins this weekend on NBC. My colleague Alexis Soloski went to the set to see what was different.
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