Page 46 - Donald Trump Administration

More storms target central US as recovery efforts continue after tornado

More severe storms were expected to roll across the central US this week following the weather-related deaths of more than two dozen people and a devastating Kentucky tornado. The National Weather Service said a multitude of hazardous weather would impact the US over the next several days from thunderstorms and potentially baseball-sized hail on the Plains, to heavy mountain snow in the West and dangerous heat in the South. Areas at risk of thunderstorms include communities in Kentucky and Missouri that were hit by Friday's tornadoes. In London, Kentucky, people whose houses were destroyed scrambled Sunday to put tarps over salvageable items or haul them away for safe storage, said Zach Wilson. His parents' house was in ruins, their belongings scattered. We're trying the hardest to get anything that looks of value and getting it protected, especially pictures and papers and things like that, he said. Here's the latest on the recent storms, some tornado history and where to look o

US-China trade deal shows Global South power lies in leverage, not values

Unlike the Biden administration, which emphasized democratic credentials, Trump has signaled that alignment with the US depends more on what partners can bring to the table

Italy's Meloni scores diplomatic win by bringing US, EU to Rome summit

Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni hosted a key trilateral meeting in Rome on Sunday, bringing US Vice President JD Vance and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the same table, hoping to usher in what she said could be a new beginning. It was a diplomatic score for Meloni, who has been touted as a potential bridge-builder with the Trump administration, but so far had been unable to provide decisive breakthroughs amid increasingly strained relations with her main European partners. I am very proud to host two of the leaders of the EU and the US to start a dialogue, Meloni told the press ahead of the trilateral meeting, while sitting at a round table with her counterparts. The Italian premier recalled that she had proposed such an initiative a month earlier in the US capital when she met President Donald Trump at the White House. I hope that today can be a first meeting and a new beginning, Meloni said, noting that for trade matters the competence belonged to the EU Commissi

Secret Service questions Comey over his '86 47' social media post

Former FBI Director James Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service on Friday about a social media post that Republicans insisted was a call for violence against President Donald Trump. The interview was part of an ongoing Trump administration investigation and was expected to help authorities assess the purpose and intent of the post and whether Comey intended to communicate a threat to the president, which he has flatly denied. Any decision on whether charges should be filed would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump said Friday, though there's a high bar in proving that comments or posts amount to direct threats of violence. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Comey had been interviewed and said she would take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of Trump. The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security. An interview is a standard part of an investigation into comments perceived as potentially threatening but

Moody's strips US govt of top credit rating over failure to rein in debt

Moody's Ratings stripped the U.S. government of its top credit rating Friday, citing successive governments' failure to stop a rising tide of debt. Moody's lowered the rating from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1 but said the United States "retains exceptional credit strengths such as the size, resilience and dynamism of its economy and the role of the U.S. dollar as global reserve currency.' Moody's is the last of the three major rating agencies to lower the federal government's credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded federal debt in 2011 and Fitch Ratings followed in 2023. In a statement, Moody's said: "We expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of (the U.S. economy) by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation.' Extending President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, a priority of the Republican-controlled Congress, Moody's said, would add $4 trillion over the next decade to

India offered to cut US tariffs, but we are not rushing a deal: Trump

Trump cited India as an example of a country where he's seeking to slash barriers to US exports during an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier that aired Friday

Trump slams US Supreme Court after ruling blocks fast-track deportations

The Supreme Court on Friday barred the Trump administration from quickly resuming deportations of Venezuelans under an 18th-century wartime law enacted when the nation was just a few years old. Over two dissenting votes, the justices acted on an emergency appeal from lawyers for Venezuelan men who have been accused of being gang members, a designation that the administration says makes them eligible for rapid removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The court indefinitely extended the prohibition on deportations from a north Texas detention facility under the alien enemies law. The case will now go back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to intervene in April. President Donald Trump quickly voiced his displeasure. THE SUPREME COURT WON'T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! he posted on his Truth Social platform. The high court action is the latest in a string of judicial setbacks for the Trump administration's effort to spe

Humanities groups sue Trump administration to reverse local funding cuts

A humanities federation and a state council have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to reverse local funding cuts made by Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Portland, Oregon, by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Oregon Council for the Humanities, names DOGE, its acting administrator, Amy Gleason, and the NEH among the defendants. The plaintiffs ask the court to "stop this imminent threat to our nation's historic and critical support of the humanities by restoring funding appropriated by Congress." It notes the disruption and attempted destruction, spearheaded by DOGE, of a partnership between the state and the federal government to support the humanities. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, maintains that DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities exceeded their authority in terminating funding mandated by Congress. DOGE shut down the funding and lai

US consumer sentiment hits 3-year low as trade war raises inflation fears

US consumer sentiment fell slightly in May for the fifth straight month, surprising economists, as Americans increasingly worry that President Donald Trump's trade war will worsen inflation. The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's closely watched consumer sentiment index, released Friday, declined 2.7 per cent on a monthly basis to 50.8, the second-lowest level in the nearly 75-year history of the survey. The only lower reading was in June 2022. Since January, sentiment has tumbled nearly 30 per cent. Americans have largely taken a sour view about where the economy is headed in the wake of the Trump administration's imposition of huge import duties, which threaten to slow growth and push up prices. In recent weeks the White House has pulled back on its most draconian policies, though average duties are still high by historical standards. Consumers' outlooks are also sharply divided by their political views, which has caused some economists to question the survey's ..

Trump's sanctions on ICC prosecutor disrupt tribunal's functioning

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen. The Hague-based court's American staffers have been told that if they travel to the US they risk arrest. Some non-governmental organisations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won't even reply to emails from court officials. Those are just some of the hurdles facing court staff since US President Donald Trump in February slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, according to interviews with current and former ICC officials, international lawyers and human rights advocates. The sanctions will prevent victims from getting access to justice, said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch. Trump sanctioned the court after a panel of International Criminal Court (ICC) judges in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Judges

Harvard President Alan Garber takes 25% pay cut amid Trump funding row

The US terminated $450 million in grants to Harvard this week, after earlier freezing more than $2.2 billion in funding

Prosecutor in Trump files case invokes 5th Amendment in Congress interview

A key prosecutor on the classified documents case against President Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a congressional interview Wednesday, declining to answer questions because of concern about the Trump administration's willingness to weaponise the machinery of government against perceived adversaries, a spokesman said. Jay Bratt had been subpoenaed to appear before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee for a closed-door interview but did not answer substantive questions because of his Fifth Amendment constitutional right to remain silent. Bratt spent more than three decades at the Justice Department before retiring in January, just weeks before President Donald Trump took office. He was a key national security prosecutor on special counsel Jack Smith's team, which in 2023 charged Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and with obstructing the government's efforts to recover them.

Trump secures $1.2 trn US-Qatar deal spanning aviation, energy and tech

Boeing and GE Aerospace secured a landmark order from Qatar Airways, a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines

US declares global use of Huawei AI chips a violation of its export laws

The guidance, issued by the US Department of Commerce, clarified that Huawei's Ascend processors are subject to strict export controls because they are believed to be designed using US-origin tech

Trump to meet Syria's prez before heading to Qatar on his Mideast tour

President Donald Trump is set to meet Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, going face-to-face with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by US forces after being captured in Iraq. The White House said Trump has agreed to say hello to al-Sharaa before the US leader wraps up his stay in Saudi Arabia and heads to Qatar, where Trump is to be honoured with a state visit. His Mideast tour also will take him to the United Arab Emirates. Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family. Trump said he agreed to meet with al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president also pledged to lift yearslong sanctions on Syria. There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilising the country and

Family of 2-year-old US citizen deported to Honduras drops lawsuit

Lawyers for a 2-year-old U.S. citizen who was deported with her mother to Honduras confirmed on Tuesday that the family was dropping its lawsuit against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. The girl - one of three U.S.-born children who were deported alongside their Honduran-born mothers - had been at the heart of one of the mounting legal battles playing out in the United States weighing if the Trump administration broke the law in implementing its new deportation policies. Given the traumatizing experiences the families have been through, they are taking a step back to have full discussions about all their options, the safety and well-being of their children, and the best ways to proceed so the harms they have suffered can be fully addressed, said Gracie Willis, one of the family's lawyers. The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups, which said the deportations were a shocking although

20 Democrat attorneys sue Trump admin over conditions on federal funding

A coalition of 20 state Democratic attorneys general filed two federal lawsuits on Tuesday, claiming that the Trump administration is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in transportation and disaster-relief funds unless states agree to certain immigration enforcement actions. According to the complaints, both Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have threatened to cut off funding to states that refuse to comply with President Donald Trump's immigration agenda. While no federal funding is currently being withheld, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference on Tuesday that the threat was imminent. President Donald Trump can't use these funds as a bargaining chip as his way of ensuring states abide by his preferred policies, Bonta added. Department of Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the lawsuit will not stop the Trump Administration from ...

US warns of missile threats that Donald Trump's Golden Dome may face

The DIA released a chart as a prelude to a White House announcement regarding threats to the US that the Golden Dome missile defense umbrella, a priority of President Donald Trump, would counter

In Donald Trump's world, aircraft are key to unlocking political favours

The US president is a noted aviation buff - branding his personal Boeing 757 "Trump Force One" and seeking to acquire a Qatari luxury jet to serve as a the new presidential aircraft

Luxury jet being gifted by Qatar will be temporary Air Force One: Trump

Under the arrangement, which officials from both countries have acknowledged discussing, Qatar would offer a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet for use as Air Force One