FATAL WINDS: As many as 40 people were killed in tornados and wind storms over the weekend that swept from Arizona and Michigan to Georgia and the Carolinas.

  As the system moved east at least seven states from Florida to Western Pennsylvania were under tornado watch later yesterday.

  At least 12 deaths were reported in Missouri as the storms tore apart homes and businesses. In some areas all that was left was a moonscape. Eight people were killed in Kansas; six in Mississippi, four each in in Texas and Oklahoma, three in Arkansas and Alabama where Gov. Kay Ivey said 52 of 67 counties had damage.

DEPORTED:  Hundreds of Venezuelan gang members detained in the US were sent to El Salvador in possible defiance of the order by a federal judge blocking the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to deport them with little or no due process.

  Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the deportations on social media saying:  “We have sent 2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador. Also, as promised by @POTUS, we sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars.”

  The timing of the deportation flights is not certain, but Judge James E. Boasberg of Federal District Court in Washington said at the time of his order that any flights in the air must turn around and return to the US.

  The government of Venezuela compared the transfer of its citizens to El Salvador to “the darkest episodes of human history,” including slavery and Nazi concentration camps. They said that even minors were “considered criminals simply for being Venezuelan.”

  Thousands of Venezuelans, and not just gang members, have fled their country fleeing the rule of its dictator, President Nicolás Maduro. 

FOREIGN WARS: US air and naval forces over the weekend carried out heavy strikes against Houthi rebels who have been firing missiles at civilian and military ships in the Red Sea.

  It was the opening of what might be a major campaign by the US to erase or neutralize the Houthi threat.

  With his usual braggadocio, President Trump posted on social media that, “Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.” He went on in his signature all caps, “To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”

 BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— The Voice of America, the US radio outlet that broadcasts news and information in multiple languages around the world, has gone to “hold” music. The voices are silent. The  director of VOA and virtually the entire staff of 1,300 was put on leave by the Trump administration as they gut and shut down government operations. A veteran news correspondent told CNN, “The Voice of America has been silenced, at least for now.”

  By shutting down, the US is ceding the airwaves to Russian and Chinese broadcasters.

— Firings and buyouts have cut deeply into the staff of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which builds reactors for Navy submarines and maintains the arsenal of 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads.

— The Minnesota’s National Guard sent out a email last week telling soldiers to resign if they have a “current diagnosis, history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria.” In other words, if you transgender, get out.

  The email refers to President Donald Trump’s executive order that said gender dysphoria is inconsistent with “the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” 

RETURN TO EARTH: NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who went to the International Space Station for 10 days last year and got stuck up there for nine months, are coming back to Earth as soon as tomorrow.

  The pair went up on Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starliner, which had technical problems that made operators at home decide not to fly them back. 

  Veteran astronauts say the transition back to gravity can be difficult and that even a pencil can feel like a heavy weight, not to mention the loss of physical fitness and the health effects of physical effort against resistance.

  Although, the first thing noticeable about Williams will be that her long hair will be hanging straight down on landing rather than flying free in all directions.

THE SPIN RACK: Fifty-nine people died and about 150 were injured in a nightclub fire in northern Macedonia over the weekend. Ironically the club was called “The Pulse,” similar to the nightclub in Orlando where 49 people died in a mass shooting in 2016. — The NY Times dug into the phenomenon of deaths among East African women who go to work as maids and nannies in Saudi Arabia. At least 274 Kenyan workers, mostly women, died in Saudi Arabia in the past five years, 55 of them just last year, performing work that would universally be considered safe. The Times investigation found that the women are raped, beaten, and even thrown from a balcony and autopsy reports are often vague. — Helicopters have been permanently banned from flying routes near Reagan National Airport in Washington following the collision of an Army chopper with a passenger jet that killed 67 people. — A Cornell graduate student who is a citizen of both Gambia and the UK and who has been outspoken about US policy in the Middle East filed a pre-emptive lawsuit to prevent his deportation for his activities.

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and pretty much the entire administration skipped the annual Gridiron dinner in which DC’s politicians dine together and roast each other. Daniel Driscoll, the Army secretary and one of few administration officials to attend, walked out during a joke about Vance.

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