Musk in Wisconsin, Trump's law firm fight and Kurds in Turkey
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Today, Elon Musk wades into a judicial race in Wisconsin, Trump's attack on big law firms, and Turkey's Kurds push for concessions as Erdogan continues his crackdown. It's Monday, March 31st. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Jonah Green in New York. And I'm David Spencer in London.

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First to some breaking news from France, where a court has found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement. The ruling could potentially see Le Pen barred from the next presidential race. The sentence is expected to be issued later today. Keep up to date with this story at Reuters.com or on the Reuters app.

Thank you. Congratulations. Elon Musk at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, handing out two $1 million checks to voters. He also promised to pay supporters $20 for every voter they recruit.

This is the battle for an open seat at Wisconsin's Supreme Court, and it's become the most expensive judicial campaign in U.S. history. Groups affiliated with Musk have poured millions of dollars into the race, which will determine whether liberals or conservatives control Wisconsin's top court. Reporter Joseph Axe is covering the race.

A lot of observers think this race might exceed $100 million by the time all is said and done. And that's the kind of money that you would expect in a high-profile governor's race or maybe a Senate race, not a state Supreme Court race between two people that probably your average person hasn't even heard of.

Musk has said that he's interested in this race because he's worried that a liberal majority on the court might order the congressional districts to be redrawn, which would in turn potentially cost Republicans a couple of seats. So given the razor thin majority that Republicans have in the U.S. House,

Musk has basically argued that if the court overturns those congressional maps, it could block all of the things that he and Trump are trying to accomplish. But Democrats have also pointed out that Musk has a personal stake potentially in this race. That's because Tesla in January sued the state over a law that bars car manufacturers from opening dealerships. And that's a case that, at least in theory, could eventually reach the state Supreme Court. And so

A lot of the Democrats have argued that Musk is essentially trying to buy himself a key vote on this court. But then also because of its status as a swing state, this is a really interesting early test of how Donald Trump and Elon Musk's unprecedented cost cutting across the federal bureaucracy is playing out internationally.

in a really politically divided place. And so this is going to give us an opportunity to see how are voters responding to Trump and to Elon Musk and the things that they've been focused on since he took office.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was, quote, pissed off at Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump telling NBC News he was angry after Putin last week criticized the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's leadership. Trump threatening to impose secondary tariffs of 25% to 50% on buyers of Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

In the same interview, Trump also threatened Iran with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. And Trump made clear he wasn't joking about seeking a third term, which he is not allowed to do under the Constitution.

A woman being pulled from the rubble in Mandalay, Myanmar. Four people have been rescued from collapsed buildings, according to Chinese media, after a massive earthquake there killed around 2,000. In Thailand, where the quake also hit, rescue efforts have focused on the 76 people feared trapped under a collapsed Bangkok skyscraper.

Markets are having a rocky start to the week with new US tariffs looming. Carmel Crimmins is here with more. President Trump upped the ante on Sunday when he told reporters that reciprocal tariffs he's set to announce this week will include all countries, not just a smaller group of 15 nations with the biggest trade imbalances. Stocks have taken fright and are down across the board and Goldman Sachs has lifted the chance of a US recession to 35% from 20%.

Later today, Reuters will be speaking to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in her first major interview since Trump's inauguration. So check out Reuters.com on the Reuters app to see what she has to say about a global trade war. Trump is targeting major U.S. law firms with executive orders that restrict how they do business.

On Friday, two judges temporarily blocked key parts of these orders against two firms, while another law firm, Skadden Arps, cut a deal with the White House to avoid a similar directive. This follows a similar agreement with the firm Paul Weiss, which agreed to dedicate $40 million in pro bono work to causes supported by the Trump administration. Legal Affairs reporter Mike Scarcella is in Washington, D.C.,

President Trump has sort of declared war on the legal industry at large, and there's always a connection to his past. And essentially, his big picture take is firms, in his view, have weaponized the legal system against him. And what do these orders do? They're very broad in terms of their impact on the ability of law firms to do their jobs, right? So one of the big things is it restricts

lawyers at these firms from even meeting with government officials or entering federal buildings. You know, one of the big things cutting across all of these executive orders is a provision that would essentially end contracts that the law firm clients have with the U.S. government. And that's a really lucrative part of business for these big law firms. So it would essentially cripple their ability to do business. So how are they approaching this? How are they responding?

Yeah, so law firms are essentially divided in two camps. Some are suing in U.S. federal court. Others are, at least in two instances, making deals with the Trump administration. And we hear the Trump administration wants to bring more executive orders. And I think, you know, law firms, really big law firms across the country are sort of having internal discussions now about how to respond.

Hundreds of thousands of Turks waving flags and protesting. The biggest demonstrations in more than a decade. Triggered by the arrest of Istanbul's mayor on graft charges more than a week ago.

A letter from Ekrem Imamoglu was read out to supporters, blaming President Tayyip Erdogan. And his crackdown on his political rival is having wider ramifications. That includes the peace process with Kurdish militants, despite jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan's call for the PKK to disband last month.

Darren Butler covers Turkey for us. Kurdish people were very hopeful, actually, when Erdogan first made the call for the PKK to lay down arms. But they have become increasingly sceptical and mistrustful for the government. And the reasons for that, not only has the party that they support, the pro-Kurdish Dem Party, faced a crackdown, but also the main opposition is now facing a similar crackdown

So considering these developments, that's really eroded some of the confidence and hope that many Kurds in the southeast had for the peace process. How critical is the support of the Kurds then for Erdogan? The president and his ruling party have long sought a new constitution, which they say would help democratize Turkey. And

It's possible that Kurdish support for such a move would help the government push through such reforms in parliament. But at the same time, given that we have these protests and, as I said, the crackdown which the opposition is facing, this could actually undermine Kurdish support, certainly from the main Kurdish political party. It could undermine their support for any constitutional changes unless they got what they wanted.

Before we go, our recommended read today takes us to the Caribbean and anger over the soaring prices of things like bottled water in the French territory of Martinique. Polluted soil and water is a major health concern there, but the anger is also linked to issues over class and race and generational links to the slave trade. There's a link to the full story in the pod description.

For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.