The Headlines - Deaths in ICE Custody Are Growing, and Trump Defends Ballroom Plans

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Plus, a three-minute, multimillion-dollar art heist.  Here’s what we’re covering: Iran’s Fractured Leadership Is Struggling to Coordinate, Officials Say, by Julian E. Barnes, Adam Goldman and Ronen Bergman Two More U.N. Peacekeepers Are Killed in Southern Lebanon, by Euan Ward Deaths in ICE Custody Are Growing. ‘They Let Him Rot in There.,’ by Jazmine Ulloa, Allison McCann and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega Trump’s Ballroom Design Has Barely Been Scrutinized, by Emily Badger, Junho Lee and Larry Buchanan Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse Paintings Are Stolen in 3-Minute Museum Heist, Police Say, by Ali Watkins and Josephine de La Bruyère Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, March 31st. Here's what we're covering. For the last few days, my colleagues and I in Tel Aviv and Washington, D.C., have been trying to gain a better understanding of Iranian leadership and their ability to make decisions. And what we found is there's really a lot of paranoia among Iranian leadership. Adam Goldman is part of the team at the Times looking at who is calling the shots in Iran,

after U.S. and Israeli strikes have taken out dozens of top leaders and their deputies. Adam says those strikes have fractured the government. And while Iran's security and military agencies continue to function, the regime's ability to plan new strategies has been weakened. That's in part because the country's surviving leaders feel it can be dangerous to even talk to each other. They're reluctant to send messages or make calls because they're scared of being tracked by U.S. and Israeli intelligence and killed. On the one hand, we found that the Israelis and Americans have been incredibly successful at penetrating Iranian communications and getting the jump on Iranian leaders that they want to target or, you know,

installations where they might be hiding at. But there's probably an unattended consequence here, which is because of this, it's made it increasingly difficult for the Iranian regime to not only A, and our peace talks, but, you know, be able to communicate with others within the regime about what that piece might look like. Adam says that in the past week, President Trump has expressed frustration at what he said are mixed messages coming from Iran,

which may be a consequence of the fractured government. Still, Trump is threatening more military action if Iran doesn't agree to a peace deal quickly. Meanwhile, Israel is doubling down on its plans to take control of large parts of southern Lebanon. Its latest push into the country

came at the start of the war after the Hezbollah militia fired rockets Israel in solidarity with Iran. But Israel's now saying it could hold that territory even after the conflict ends. Israel has conducted widespread airstrikes and sent ground troops into the region, displacing hundreds of thousands of people just in the south. Israel's attacks across Lebanon have killed more than 1,200 people. The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is intensifying, and it's raising fears for many Lebanese about how long Israeli forces could try to occupy the territory. The last time Israel invaded and took over large parts of Lebanon was in the early 1980s

when it tried to subdue Palestinian groups launching attacks from there. That occupation lasted 18 years. We consider that these deaths reveal systemic failures, operational deficiencies, and possible negligence. The recurrence and frequency of these deaths are absolutely unacceptable. The government of Mexico is speaking out about how many, many of its citizens have died in U.S. immigration facilities since the Trump administration ramped up its deportation campaign. Mexico says the numbers now at 14, with the latest death just last week. In all, federal data shows that nearly 50 people from Mexico and elsewhere have died in federal

immigration custody since Trump took office. That's a record high since the Department of Homeland Security, which overseas ICE, was formed two decades ago. My colleagues and I combed through federal lawsuits and interviewed more than a dozen lawyers, detainees, and their family members, and they painted a very stark picture of what's happening inside these facilities. Jasmine Oyoa covers immigration for the Times. She says as a growing number of people have been put in ICE detention centers, there were 70,000 as at the beginning of the year, there have been accusations that some are being held in inhumane conditions. They describe some of the country's largest immigrant detention facilities as places where disease and illness are rampant and detainees are often denied sufficient food, clean drinking water, medications, and medical care. One story that really stands out to me is of Emmanuel Damas. He had migrated from Haiti. He was in an Arizona detention center when he began to feel a sharp pain in his tooth. and detainees told his family that he was given only ibuprofen for about a week.

Then one of his brothers received a call that he was in an intensive care unit. By the time his relatives were allowed to visit him, nine days later, he was on life support. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, and he was shackled to a hospital bed. Dumas died earlier this month at 56 years old. In a statement, a DHS spokeswoman said that he was sent to the hospital immediately after he reported shortness of breath. She added that overall, ICE has, quote, higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons. And one last update on the administration. When the White House fence got a redo back in Trump's first term, there were nine months of public meetings. How thick should the posts be? How much

space between them? How decorative should those little things on top be? That amount of time has been the norm for federal construction projects in Washington, D.C. The public process for for the Fed renovations took two years. The African American History Museum took even longer. The glass is extremely thick. It's high-grade bulletproof glass, so all of the windows are bulletproof. But now, President Trump is poised to get approval for his ballroom plan in just three months. And some architects warned that the hurried reviews and rushed plans will compromise the result of the 90,000 square foot project.

Rendering, for example, showed columns blocking views, a whole line of faux windows, and a grand external staircase leading to nowhere. They said, they talked about a stairway in the south. We don't have a stairway in the south. That was replaced a long time ago. After the Times published a review of the structure earlier this week, Trump showed off revised plans for the $400 million ballroom. The shifting design could mean the project's architects will have to scramble to explain those changes ahead of what's supposed to be a final sign-off on the project this week by a key planning commission in D.C. Still, the committee, which is made up mostly of the president's allies, is expected to approve the project. And finally, in Italy, at an art museum outside the city of Parma, thieves managed to make off with works by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse,

and a heist lasting just three minutes. It happened last week, and the museum tried to keep it under wraps. Yesterday, Italian police confirmed they're investigating. The paintings are worth millions. One, Les Poisson, an impressionist still life by Renoir, is estimated to be worth nearly $7 million alone. The thieves broke in through the museum's front door, and it's just the latest high-profile theft to hit the art world.

The brazen break-in at the Luzzi. this fall underscored how even major museums in broad daylight have become targets. A few months ago, two armed men stole more than a dozen works of art, including some by Matisse, from a library in Sao Paulo. The chief executive of an art recovery firm said that thieves have started considering museums or libraries easy targets because of a lack of funding for security. Experts say these kinds of art heists have also surged, right, as cryptocurrency has made it easier to launder stolen goods. But thieves aren't likely to get full value.

According to the art recovery expert, stolen art tends to sell for just a fraction of the price that it would get at auction, sometimes as little as just 5 to 10% of a legitimate sale. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.