By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MATTHEW LEE

Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff in the U.S. by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide as part of the Trump administration’s “America First” mandate.

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The reorganization plan, announced by Rubio on social media and detailed in documents obtained by The Associated Press, is the latest effort by the White House to reimagine U.S. foreign policy and scale back the size of the federal government.

“We cannot win the battle for the 21st century with bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources,” Rubio said in a department-wide email obtained by The AP. “That is why, under the leadership of President Trump and at my direction, I am announcing a reorganization of the Department so it may meet the immense challenges of the 21st Century and put America First.”

Plans include consolidating 734 bureaus and offices to 602 as well as transitioning 137 offices “to another location within the Department to increase efficiency,” according to a fact sheet obtained by The AP.

There will also be a “reimagined” office focused on foreign and humanitarian affairs to coordinate the remaining foreign assistance programs left at State after the recent dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Some of the bureaus that are expected to be cut include the Office of Global Women’s Issues and the department’s diversity and inclusion efforts, which have been cut government-wide since President Donald Trump took office in January. State is also expected to eliminate some offices previously under the Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, but the fact sheet says that much of their work will continue in other sections of the department.

It is unclear if the reorganization would be implemented through an executive order or other means. Draft reorganization proposals shared within the department in recent weeks outlined an even more drastic shift of priorities than the one revealed Tuesday. The official plans came a week after The AP learned that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget proposed gutting the State Department’s budget by almost 50% and eliminating funding for the United Nations and NATO headquarters.

The budget proposal was still in a highly preliminary phase and not expected to pass muster with Congress.

Ahead of the changes at the State Department, the Trump administration has been slashing jobs and funding across agencies, from the Education Department to Health and Human Services.

On foreign policy, beyond the destruction of USAID, State has also moved to defund so-called other “soft power” institutions like media outlets delivering objective news, often to authoritarian countries, including the Voice of America, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Asia and Radio/TV Marti, which broadcasts to Cuba.

Amiri reported from the United Nations.

Max Brosmer grabbed a black dry-erase marker and went to a white board inside the Larson Football Performance Center in late December. The quarterback was preparing for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, but took time to draw up a passing concept the senior transfer brought from New Hampshire to the Gophers.

Brosmer drew Xs and Os for a three-by-one formation that was implemented by offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh and became a staple of the U offense in 2024. He sketched routes for three pass catchers on one side of the line, the lone receiver on the other and the tailback next to Brosmer in the shotgun.

Then Brosmer ticked through the memorable times the routes led to big completions last fall. There were plenty to pull from as he set a program record for completions (268).

“I hit this versus Michigan to Elijah (Spencer),” Brosmer told the Pioneer Press. “I hit this to Jameson (Geers) against Maryland in that drive for that field goal before halftime. Hit this to Elijah against Maryland as well. This one to (Le’Meke Brockington) … I threw this about 45 times this year.”

Brosmer’s intelligent preparation and savvy execution are traits that make the sixth-year college player a late-round NFL Draft prospect this week. The Georgia native is ranked the 13th-best QB and is projected to be a sixth- or seventh-round pick, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler.

If Brosmer’s name is called, he will become the first Gophers quarterback drafted since 1972, when Craig Curry was selected by the Dolphins in the eighth round.

But the best example of Brosmer’s cerebral command of an offense came against Rhode Island in September. Late in the third quarter of that 48-0 blowout, the Gophers lined up in that three-by-one formation. Brosmer completed a “go” route to the outside receiver, Brockington, for a 29-yard touchdown.

“That ball is not supposed to go there,” Harbaugh said in April. And when Brosmer came to the sideline, Harbaugh needed to know how he knew to throw it there.

Brosmer told his coach it was the particular coverage look that reminded him of what he saw at New Hampshire against Rhode Island in 2022. He took advantage of no safety over the top and that completion was a game-winning 26-yard toss with 17 seconds remaining.

“He can remember so much,” Harbaugh marveled.

When NFL scouts have asked Harbaugh about Brosmer during the draft process, Brosmer’s work ethic is among the top things he tells them about.

“It’s a number of different things, but I just talked about how hard of a worker he is,” Harbaugh shared. “He’s going to be able to come in and learn your system.”

At UNH, Brosmer was an honors student en route to a biomedical sciences degree, so he has the book smarts. When he came to the U as a one-semester graduate student, he took classes to stay eligible, but his focus was on football.

“When he went to the (NFL Scouting Combine), Max told me that he had watched our season probably 12 times,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh clarified that that included every offensive play across the 13-game season. It’s a diligent process he has tried to pass on to his Gophers heir apparent, redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey.

“Watch every game, every play, as many times as you can from the season,” Harbaugh relayed. “See how much you can remember and take notes on every play, regardless if it affected you or didn’t affect you, because he’s just registering that in his mind.”

Another impressive aspect of the formation Brosmer brought to the Gophers from the FCS level is that it’s filled with “read” routes, meaning a pass-catcher’s paths are determined by the defense’s coverage.

“It’s cool to be able to have guys that are like, ‘Oh, it’s a cool play,’ ” Brosmer said. “But like, actually, dive into it and really, really care about what you install and run hell of it every single week.”

Then Brosmer kept adding examples.

“Hit this to Elijah against North Carolina, going down on the last drive,” Brosmer continued. “I hit that one to D-Jack (Daniel Jackson) against Wisconsin.”

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By ILLIA NOVIKOV

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones battered the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and glide bombs hit Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said Tuesday, as the Kremlin again warned that negotiators are unlikely to obtain a swift breakthrough in peace talks on the war.

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Ukrainian, British, French and U.S. officials are due to meet in London on Wednesday to discuss the war. Anticipation is building over whether diplomatic efforts can stop more than three years of fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Hostility has run deep since Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that negotiations were “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the war. That came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the U.S. might soon back away from negotiations if they don’t progress.

Rubio has suggested that Wednesday’s meeting could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that “the settlement issue is so complex that it would be wrong to put some tight limits to it and try to set some short time frame for a settlement, a viable settlement — it would be a thankless task.”

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Trump envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to visit Moscow again this week. Ushakov provided no further details.

Western analysts say Moscow is in no rush to conclude peace talks because it has battlefield momentum and wants to capture more Ukrainian land.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions.

Latest attacks

Odesa came under a “massive attack” by Russian drones overnight, injuring at least three people, the head of the regional administration, Oleh Kiper, wrote on his Telegram page.

A residential building in a densely populated urban area, civilian infrastructure and an educational facility were hit, he said.

Later Tuesday, Russia hit the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with two massive aerial glide bombs — a retrofitted Soviet weapon that for months has used to lay waste to eastern Ukraine.

The attack killed a 69-year-old woman and injured 24 people, including four children, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that his earlier offer of a ceasefire covering civilian sites still stands. “Russia needs to be seriously prepared to talk about this,” Zelenskyy said. “There are no obstacles on the Ukrainian side and there will be none.”

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said there are no plans for talks on the proposal. He said Moscow is prepared to consider such a step but noted that reaching an agreement could take time.

“While talking about civilian infrastructure, it’s necessary to clearly define when such facilities can be a military target and when they can’t,” he said. “If a military meeting is held there, is it a civilian facility? It is. But is it a military target? Yes, it is. There are some nuances here that need to be discussed.”

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 54 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, marking a resumption of long-range attacks that have blasted civilian areas and sown terror.

Russia has stepped up its use of Shahed drones, expanding its production of the weapon and refining its tactics, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a recent analysis.

After Putin declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, Ukraine said it was ready to reciprocate but said Russian attacks continued. Zelenskyy asserted that Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times.

The Associated Press was unable to verify whether a ceasefire was in place along the roughly 620-mile front line.

Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are preparing for the spring-summer military campaign, Ukrainian and Western officials say.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

By Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald

A flurry of recent federal court rulings have stalled, for the moment, the Trump administration’s efforts to deport as many as one million undocumented migrants this year, as judges increasingly determine that individuals cannot be removed from the country without due process.

Some of the most significant decisions have centered on the administration’s move to suspend benefits provided under Temporary Protected Status and a Biden-era humanitarian parole program, both of which have allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants, primarily from Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela, to temporarily live and work in the United States.

Also under legal scrutiny is the administration’s invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime law that President Donald Trump has employed to fast-track the deportation of Venezuelans suspected of being affiliated with the feared Tren de Aragua gang.

While the rulings issued in recent weeks are not final, they have effectively limited the administration’s ability to proceed with its aggressive deportation agenda — at least for now.

Here is a look at the key court decisions and what’s next:

TPS for Venezuelans

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has upheld a lower court’s ruling that prevents the Trump administration from revoking Temporary Protected Status for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans residing in various states, many of them in Florida.

The 2023 Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans was set by the Trump administration to abruptly end on April 7, but the court’s ruling reinstated the program nationwide for another 18 months until Oct. 2, 2026.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals affirmed U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen’s decision to maintain a block on the Department of Homeland Security’s revocation order. Chen had previously determined that deporting Venezuelan TPS holders without further review could result in “irreparable injury.”

Chen also ruled that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to rescind work permits and deportation protections for the Venezuelans was based on “broad generalizations and stereotypes.”

TPS for Haitians and Venezuelans

A federal judge in Boston decided not to hear arguments in a lawsuit aiming to prevent the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns cited a ruling from California the previous day that had already halted the deportation plans, making further action unnecessary for the time being. Stearns also acknowledged the likelihood of a federal government appeal and the potential for the case to reach the Supreme Court, expressing concern that additional litigation could complicate proceedings.

The CHNV program

A federal judge in Boston stopped the Trump administration on April 14 from rescinding deportation protections and work permits for more than a half-million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who were granted entrance into the United States under a humanitarian parole program during the Biden presidency. The program, which began in January 2023, allowed migrants who passed background checks and have a sponsor in the U.S. to come to the United States for two years.

As of December 2024, the last month the program — known as CHNV for the initials of the nationalities involved — was in place, more than 500,000 people had used it to come to the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the paroled migrants can stay in the United States as they pursue immigration benefits. In effect, her ruling will prevent the Department of Homeland Security’s secretary, Kristi Noem, from revoking their parole status as part of an administration plan to end the humanitarian program on April 24.

No new hearings have been scheduled by the judge yet, but lawyers for the migrants said they expect her to make her final ruling soon as to the legality of the government’s decision to remove the migrants who entered the country under the parole program.

Deportations to El Salvador

The U.S Supreme Court stepped in in the middle of the night Saturday to block the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan men held in Texas who are accused of gang affiliation. Though the court neither granted nor denied the detainees’ application outright, it effectively put the case on hold, halting deportations from areas of Texas under the Alien Enemies Act.

“The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the ruling said.

The move came shortly after an April 7 Supreme Court ruling that reaffirmed the right of individuals facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act to challenge their removal through habeas corpus petitions to federal judges.

The Supreme Court does not have another hearing scheduled on the usage of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport migrant, but has set a hearing for oral arguments for May 15 on an issue that could have profound ramifications on the lives of millions: the administration’s efforts to end automatic birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented migrants.

Courts have recognized since the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 that, with few exceptions anyone born in the U.S is a natural-born citizen. The administration argues that the amendment doesn’t apply to the children of undocumented migrants.

In the meantime, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington has ruled that “probable cause exists” to hold Trump administration officials in contempt for violating his orders in March not to use the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants to a mega prison El Salvador, or his demand for the return of planes already en route to Central America carrying the deportees.

In his decision, Boasberg gave the administration until Wednesday to either file a declaration explaining steps taken to “purge” the contempt by ensuring deported Venezuelan migrants can challenge their removals, or Identify officials responsible for defying his March 15 order to halt deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act.

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.