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Trump Administration
The Justice Department on Tuesday sued six more states in its ongoing campaign to obtain detailed voter data and other election information. The department announced it was suing Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington over their failure to produce statewide voter registration lists. It has portrayed the litigation as part of an effort to ensure the security of elections, but Democratic officials have raised concerns over how the data will be used and whether the department will follow privacy laws in protecting it. Tuesday's actions bring to at least 14 the number of states the Justice Department has sued in its quest for the voter information. Our federal elections laws ensure every American citizen may vote freely and fairly, said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the department's Civil Rights Division. States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they g
President Donald Trump has said National Guard troops will soon head to New Orleans and bring another federal surge to the city that is already awaiting a separate immigration crackdown dubbed "Swamp Sweep" that is expected to begin this week. Trump did not say how many troops would be sent to New Orleans or exactly when they would arrive. Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who asked the Trump administration in September for up to 1,000 troops to fight crime, told reporters on Monday that he expected the Guard to arrive in New Orleans before Christmas. "Gov. Landry a great guy, a great governor he's asked for help in New Orleans. And we're going to go there in a couple of weeks," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. Landry, a staunch Trump ally, has said he welcomes federal intervention in Democratic-run New Orleans, citing concerns about elevated violent crime rates even though local police officials say crime is down. Separately, Landry posted o
President Donald Trump's administration has said it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless they provide information about those receiving the assistance. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested such as the names and immigration status of the aid recipients. She said the cooperation is necessary in order to root out fraud in the programme. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement. About 42 million lower-income Americans, or one in eight, rely on SNAP to help buy groceries. The average monthly benefit is about USD 190 per person, or a little over USD 6 a day. The programme is not normally in the political spotlight, but it has been this year. As part of Trump's big tax and policy bill earlier in the year, work requirements are expanding to include people who ar
US-operated flights returning deported migrants to Venezuela will continue despite President Donald Trump's assertion that the airspace of the South American country should be considered closed. The government of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro on Tuesday announced that the twice weekly flights will go on following a request from the Trump administration. That reverses a Venezuelan government Saturday announcement indicating that US immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended the flights. An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by US-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for an arrival Wednesday. The application was made public Tuesday by Venezuela's foreign affairs minister. Venezuelans have been steadily deported to their home country this year after Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the US. Immigrants arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on ...
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his claim of resolving the India-Pakistan conflict and asserted that he should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each of the eight wars he says he has ended. We ended eight wars...But we're going to do one more, I think, I hope, Trump said in remarks at a Cabinet Meeting, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war. Every time I end a war, they say, if President Trump ends that war, he's going to get the Nobel Prize'. If I end that war, well, he won't get it for that war, but if he ever gets it for the next war'. "Now they're saying, if he ever ends the war with Russia and Ukraine, he's going to get the Nobel Prize'. What about the other eight wars? India, Pakistan, think of all the wars I ended. I should get the Nobel Prize for every war, but I don't want to be greedy, Trump said. The US President said he cares more about the lives being lost in these wars, and added that the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate Venezuelan activist Mara Corina Machado Parisc
Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they support congressional reviews of US military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a September 2 attack. The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week's Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were sceptical, but they said attacking survivors of an initial missile strike poses serious legal concerns. This rises to the level of a war crime if it's true, said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no long able to fight, said Congress does not have information that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations. Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be
The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people travelling on Afghan passports, seizing on the National Guard shooting in Washington to intensify efforts to rein in legal immigration. The suspect in Wednesday's shooting near the White House that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, both of the West Virginia National Guard, is facing charges including first-degree murder. Investigators are seeking to find a motive for the attack. Rahmanullah Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was granted it this year under President Donald Trump, according to a group that assists with resettlement of Afghans who helped U.S. forces in their country. The Republican administration is promising to pause entry to the United States from some poor nations and review Afghans and other legal ...
Top Trump administration officials are meeting Ukrainian negotiators in Florida this weekend, pushing to broker an end to Russia's war in Ukraine and setting the stage for key talks planned this week in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, were expected to sit down with a Ukrainian delegation to further hash out the details of a proposed peace framework talks that come at a sensitive moment for Ukraine as it continues to push back against Russian forces that invaded the country in 2022. On Friday, just before the Florida sit-down, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the resignation of his powerful chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, who up until that point had been the country's lead negotiator in talks with the US. The announcement came after Yermak's home was searched by anti-corruption investigators. Zelenskyy's government has been roiled by ...