Page 51 - Donald Trump Administration

$6 bn funding crisis at US mass transit threatens commuters, travel

The Trump administration's spending cuts raise fears of job losses that could slash transit ridership, while tariffs may fuel inflation, making riders less able to afford potential fare hikes

Harvard vows reforms after internal reports on antisemitism, anti-Arab bias

Harvard University is promising to review its academic offerings and admissions policies in response to a pair of internal reports on antisemitism and anti-Arab prejudice at the Ivy League campus commissioned in the aftermath of last spring's pro-Palestinian protests. Harvard released the reports on Tuesday while the university simultaneously battles the Trump administration over demands to limit campus activism reforms the government says are necessary to root out campus antisemitism. The administration has frozen USD 2.2 billion in federal funding and Harvard responded with a lawsuit in a clash that is being watched closely across higher education. In a campus message, Harvard President Alan Garber said Harvard has made necessary changes and essential progress over the last year but promised further action. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the University is a place where ideas are welcomed, entertained and contested in the spirit of seeking truth, Garber wrote. Garber

Judge orders Trump admin to restore $12 million for Radio Free Europe

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore USD 12 million that Congress appropriated for Radio Free Europe, a pro-democracy media outlet at risk of going dark for the first time in 75 years. US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted the temporary restraining order for the US Agency for Global Media to disburse money for April 2025 for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to keep the station on the air. Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, found that the administration could not unilaterally revoke funding approved by by Congress. Attorneys for the media outlet say President Donald Trump's administration has terminated nearly all of its contracts with freelance journalists, missed payments on leases and furloughed 122 employees. They warn that more employees will be furloughed and more contracts will be cancelled on May 1 if funding isn't restored. By the end of May, RFE/RL will be forced to cancel the

Trump admin plans to label Haitian gangs as foreign terror organisations

The Trump administration has told Congress that it intends to designate Haitian gangs as foreign terrorist organisations, according to people familiar with the notification. The State Department had similarly labeled eight Latin American crime organisations as it ratcheted up pressure on cartels operating in the US and anyone assisting them, and the new move indicates that the administration plans to put similar pressure on gangs from Haiti. The designation carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing material support for the group. It comes after a series of steps against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which was designated a foreign terror organisation and then dubbed an invading force under an 18th-century wartime law to justify the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison under President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown. According to the notification sent to congressional committees on April 23, the Trump administratio

Trump secures future of Michigan air base with new fighter jet announcement

Republican President Donald Trump landed in Michigan on Tuesday and shared a hug with a longtime antagonist, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, as they appeared together to announce a new fighter jet mission being placed at an Air National Guard base outside Detroit and ease fears that the installation could close. Trump delivered the news at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, shortly after arriving in Michigan for an evening rally marking his 100th day in office. He was joined by Whitmer, who has softened her stance toward Trump in hopes of finding common ground with securing a new mission for the base a top priority. For decades, Trump said the base has stood as a crucial pillar of North American air defence. In recent years, many in Michigan have feared for the future of the base. They've been calling everybody, but the only one that mattered is Trump," he said. Today I have come in person to lay to rest any doubt about Selfridge's future. After Trump and ..

Trump wishes 'good luck' to Canadians amid polls, proposes US statehood

Voting is in full swing in Canada, as voters pick the party and prime minister they see as best fit to respond to Trump's tariffs, economic uncertainty and an affordable housing crisis

Trump demands free passage for US ships through Panama, Suez canals

Trump's focus has been on Chinese commercial shipping and shipbuilding, with the ultimate goal of promoting a revival of US shipbuilding

Elon Musk's DOGE cuts $400 mn in AmeriCorps grants affecting thousands

AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, was created in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and annually enrolls over 200,000 individuals to serve organisations

Judge blocks Trump admin from nixing federal staff's collective bargaining

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that a labour union says would cancel collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees. US District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that a key part of President Donald Trump's March 27 order can't be enforced at roughly three dozen agencies and departments where employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. The union, which represents nearly 1,60,000 federal government workers, sued to challenge Trump's order. The union said it would lose more than half of its revenue and over two-thirds of its membership if the judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction. Friedman said he would issue an opinion in several days to explain his two-page order. The ruling isn't the final word in the case. He gave the attorneys until May 2 to submit of a proposal for how the case should proceed. Some agencies, including the FBI, are exempt from

US DOJ to resume subpoenas for journalists in leaks crackdown: Pam Bondi

The US Justice Department is poised to crack down on leaks of information to the news media, authorising prosecutors to issue subpoenas to news organisations as part of leak investigations, serve search warrants when appropriate and force journalists to testify about their sources. New regulations, announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi in a memo to the workforce obtained by AP on Friday, rescind a Biden administration policy that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations -- a practice long decried by news organisations and press freedom groups. The new regulations assert that news organisations must respond to subpoenas "when authorised at the appropriate level of the Department of Justice" and also allow for prosecutors to use court orders and search warrants to "compel production of information and testimony by and relating to the news media". The memo says members of the press are "presumptively entitled to advance notice o

19 states sue Trump admin over push to end school diversity programmes

Nineteen states that refused to comply with a Trump administration directive aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in public schools went a step further on Friday, filing a federal lawsuit challenging what they consider an illegal threat to cut federal funding. The lawsuit filed in Massachusetts by Democratic attorneys general seeks to block the Department of Education from withholding money based on its April 3 directive ordering states to certify their compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls "illegal DEI practices". States also were told to gather signatures from local school systems certifying their compliance by April 24. Instead, the plaintiffs informed the government that they stand by their prior certifications of compliance with the law but refuse to abandon policies that promote equal access to education. "Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are legal efforts that help students feel .

Trump admin opens investigation into UC Berkeley over foreign funding

The Trump administration launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley, on Friday centred on foreign funding, making it the latest university to be targeted by the federal government. The investigation revives criticism from several years ago about the university's partnership with China's Tsinghua University. It comes after President Donald Trump earlier this week signed a series of executive orders focused on universities that he views as liberal adversaries to his political agenda. One order called for harder enforcement of Section 117, a federal law requiring colleges to disclose foreign gifts and contracts valued at USD 2,50,000 or more. The Department of Education's Office of General Counsel will investigate "UC Berkeley's apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources", Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. UC Berkeley denied the government's claims, saying that for the last two yea

US reverses longtime stance, says UN Palestinian refugee agency can be sued

The Trump administration has decided that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is not immune from being sued, reversing the US government's longstanding position that the organisation was protected from civil liability. The Justice Department revealed its new stance in a letter it filed in federal court in New York on Thursday as part of a lawsuit that aims to hold the agency, known as UNRWA, accountable for the Oct 7, 2023, deadly attack on Israel by Hamas. The change in position underscores the hardened perspective toward the agency under the Trump administration following allegations by Israel that some of the agency staff was involved in the Hamas rampage. The lawsuit, filed by families of some of the victims of the massacre, alleges that UNRWA had aided Hamas by, among other things, permitting weapons storage and deployment centres in its schools and medical clinics and by employing Hamas members. Lawyers for UNRWA have called the lawsuit absurd and have said in court filing

Trump's mixed signals on tariffs make fragile global economy nervous

President Donald Trump can't stop contradicting himself on his own tariff plans. He says he's on a path to cut several new trade deals in a few weeks but has also suggested it's physically impossible" to hold all the needed meetings. Trump has said he will simply set new tariff rates negotiated internally within the US government over the next few weeks although he already did that on his April 2 Liberation Day, which caused the world economy to shudder. The Republican president says he's actively negotiating with the Chinese government on tariffs while the Chinese and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said talks have yet to start. What should one believe? The sure bet is that uncertainty will persist in ways that employers and consumers alike expect to damage the economy and that leave foreign leaders scratching their heads in bewilderment. And the consequences of all this tariffs turmoil are enormous. Trump placed tariffs totalling 145% on China, leading China to reta

Iran, US resume negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme in secluded Oman

Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme will return Saturday to the secluded sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal. The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's programme if a deal isn't reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. Neither Iran nor the US have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to the Omani capital of Muscat, nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend's talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Ab

As immigrant arrests surge, abuse complaints rise at Miami detention centre

As hundreds of migrants crowded into the Krome Detention Centre in Miami on the edge of the Florida Everglades, a palpable fear of an uprising set in among its staff. As President Donald Trump sought to make good on his campaign pledge of mass arrests and removals of migrants, Krome, the United States' oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse, saw its prisoner population recently swell to nearly three times its capacity of 600. There are 1700 people here at Krome!!!!, one US Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee texted a co-worker last month, adding that even though it felt unsafe to walk around the facility nobody was willing to speak out. That tension comes amid a battle in federal courts over whether the president's immigration crackdown has gone too far, too fast at the expense of fundamental rights. At Krome, reports have poured in about a lack of water and food, unsanitary confinement and medical neglect. With the surge of complaints,

Trump orders DOJ to investigate Democrats' top fundraising platform

President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate the Democratic Party's top fundraising platform, the latest example of Trump using the tools of the government to go after his political opponents. Trump, in an executive order signed Thursday, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations. Democrats, who had anticipated they would be targeted, condemned the move Thursday and ActBlue called it an oppressive use of power by the White House. The Trump Administration's and GOP's targeting of ActBlue is part of their brazen attack on democracy in America. Today's escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and needs to be seen for what it is: Donald Trump's latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition," ActBlue said in a statement. ActBlue said it would pursue all legal avenues to protect and defend itself. "ActBlue

Harvard in talks to sell $1 billion in private equity amid financial strain

Harvard Management Co., managing the largest fund in US higher education, is collaborating with Jefferies Financial Group to sell the portfolio to Lexington Partners in a secondaries transaction

Rulings coming fast in lawsuits over Trump's immigration, DEI policies

The Trump administration was handed a rapid-fire series of court losses Wednesday night and Thursday in lawsuits filed over its policies on immigration, elections and its crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in schools. But the legal disputes playing out across the country are far from over, and administration attorneys pushed back, asking the federal appellate courts and the US Supreme Court to overturn some of the unfavourable decisions. Here's a look at the latest developments in some of the more than 170 lawsuits filed over President Donald Trump's executive orders. DEI Judges blocked the administration from enforcing its diversity, equity and inclusion crackdown in education in at least two lawsuits Thursday. The decisions came ahead of a Friday deadline that the Education Department set for states to sign a form certifying they would not use illegal DEI practices. A federal judge in New Hampshire blocked a series of directives from the Education Department

Houthis shot down 7 US Reaper drones worth $200 million in recent weeks

Houthi rebels in Yemen have shot down seven US Reaper drones in less than six weeks, a loss of aircraft worth more than USD 200 million in what is becoming the most dramatic cost to the Pentagon of the military campaign against the Iran-backed militants. According to defence officials, three of the drones were shot down in the past week suggesting the militants' targeting of the unmanned aircraft flying over Yemen has improved. The drones were doing attack runs or conducting surveillance, and they crashed both into the water and onto land, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The US has increased its attacks on the Houthis, launching daily strikes since March 15, when President Donald Trump ordered a new, expanded campaign. He promised to use overwhelming lethal force until the Houthis cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. The US has done more than 750 strikes on the Houthis since that new effort ...