Calling the shots as his West Wing clears out, President Donald Trump sees his hard-line immigration stance as a winning issue heading into a midterm election he views as a referendum on his protectionist policies. "You have to stand for something," Trump declared Tuesday, as he defended his administration's immigration policy amid mounting criticism over the forced separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Get More

The United States and China edged closer Tuesday to triggering the riskiest trade war in decades, a fight that could weaken the world's two largest economies, unsettle relations between Beijing and Washington and crimp global growth. The collateral damage could be widespread. Get More

The United States announced Tuesday it was leaving the United Nations' Human Rights Council, with Ambassador Nikki Haley calling it "an organization that is not worthy of its name." It was the latest withdrawal by the Trump administration from an international institution. Haley, Trump's envoy to the U.N., said the U.S. had given the human rights body "opportunity after opportunity" to make changes. She lambasted the council for "its chronic bias against Israel" and lamented the fact that its membership includes accused human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Get More

A letter signed by at least 130 sexual abuse victims of former sports doctor Larry Nassar on Tuesday urged Michigan State University's governing board to oust interim president John Engler, saying he has reinforced a "culture of abuse" at the school. The women and girls issued their joint statement three days before the board of trustees' next meeting and after a week in which demands for Engler's resignation reached a fever pitch. Engler, who served as the state's Republican governor from 1991 through 2002, has resisted pressure to step down. He took over on an interim basis in February after the previous president resigned amid fallout from the Nassar scandal. Get More

Alexa has a new job: hotel concierge. Amazon has launched a version of Alexa for hotels that lets guests order room service through the voice assistant, ask for more towels or get restaurant recommendations without having to pick up the phone and call the front desk. Marriott has signed up for the service, and will place Amazon Echo smart speakers in 10 hotels this summer, including its Westin and St. Regis brands. Get More

Protesters disrupted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's meal at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., while chanting "shame" and "no human being is illegal." The Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America posted a video to Facebook showing members of the group interrupting Nielsen's dinner at the MXDC Cocina Mexicana restaurant. Get More

The American military command in South Korea is preparing for the North Koreans to turn over the remains of an unknown number of U.S. or allied service members who have been missing since the Korean War, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Officials say the timing of a ceremony is uncertain but could be very soon. The officials weren't authorized to discuss the preparations before an official announcement so spoke on condition of anonymity. Get More

The man who jumped a fence at the White House complex Monday afternoon told police he was on a mission from God and wanted to attack President Donald Trump, according to charging documents. Alexander Thomas Miner, 29, of Danville, California, is accused of jumping a concrete barrier with a fence on top of it that separates E Street from the Ellipse on the south side of the complex despite signs reading "Restricted Area, Do Not Enter." Get More

Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three "tender age" shelters in South Texas, The Associated Press has learned. Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday. Get More

Vice President Mike Pence touched down in Philadelphia Tuesday evening as national outrage grows over separating migrant children from their parents along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pence was attending a fundraiser at the Rittenhouse Hotel with Scott Wagner, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania. Outside the event, hundreds of protesters descended on Center City during the Stop Separating Families rally to oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. Get More

In what Facebook is calling its single largest fundraiser ever, a couple from Silicon Valley raised more than $5 million to help reunite immigrant families being separated at the border. The issue has created a national firestorm about the Trump administration’s immigration policies, with many calling the separation of children from their parents at the southern U.S. border barbaric. Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their families over a six-week period. Get More

The sights and sounds are wrenching: A boy's cries of "Papa! Papa!" for the father he had been separated from. Youngsters placed in chain-link cages in an old Texas warehouse. Parents begging to know what will happen to their children. Child welfare has always been a challenging profession; state and local agencies across America make difficult decisions every day to separate children from their parents. But those agencies have ways of minimizing the trauma that aren't being employed by the Trump administration in separating immigrant families at the Mexican border. Get More