Page 64 - Donald Trump Administration

Trump's tariff threats may be good for India: Ex-RBI deputy Viral Acharya

Acharya, who was a deputy governor at the RBI between 2017 and 2019, said large firms that had benefited from the protectionist measures will initially lose some value, but the economy will benefit

Activists vandalise Trump golf resort over his remark on emptying out Gaza

Pro-Palestinian activists said Saturday they have vandalised one of US President Donald Trump's golf resorts in Scotland in response to his proposal to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population. Activists targeted Trump's Turnberry golf course and hotel in southwest Scotland overnight, painting Gaza Is Not For Sale in giant letters on the lawn and using red spray paint on the club house's exterior wall. The group Palestine Action said it rejects Donald Trump's treatment of Gaza as though it were his property to dispose of as he likes. To make that clear, we have shown him that his own property is not safe from acts of resistance," it said in a statement. Police Scotland said it received a report of damage to the golf course in the early hours of Saturday, and that inquiries are ongoing. The future of Gaza is uncertain as the first phase of a ceasefire that paused the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas ended with no clarity on what would come next because the agreement'

Panama frees many US deportees amid rights criticism, leaving them in limbo

After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama on Saturday released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have 30 days to leave the Central American nation. It thrust many like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, into a legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward. We are refugees. We do not have money. We can not pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives, Omagh told the Associated Press in an interview. I can't go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances ... It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?" Authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after that many like Omagh don't know what they will do. Omagh climbed off a bus in Panama City alongside 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ir

Donald Trump hints at possible revision of US-Canada border demarcation

Notably, the border treaty that Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States

US economic worries mount as Trump implements tariffs, cuts workforce

With his flurry of tariffs, government layoffs and spending freezes, there are growing worries President Donald Trump may be doing more to harm the US economy than to fix it. The labour market remains healthy with a 4.1 per cent unemployment rate and 151,000 jobs added in February, and Trump likes to point to investment commitments by Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to show that he's delivering results. But Friday's employment report also found that the number of people stuck working part-time because of economic circumstances jumped by 460,000 last month. In the leisure and hospitality sectors that reflect consumers having extra money to spend, 16,000 jobs were lost. And the federal government reduced its payrolls by 10,000 in a potential harbinger of the alarm being sounded by the stock market, consumer confidence and other measures of where the economy is headed. Since January, the economic policy uncertainty index has spiked 41 per cent to a level, 334.5, t

Expenses over $50,000 now require DOGE approval, says new EPA guidance

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new guidance directing that spending items greater than USD 50,000 now require approval from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The guidance, issued this week, escalates the role that the new efficiency group, known as DOGE, plays in EPA operations. Any assistance agreement, contract or interagency agreement transaction (valued at) USD 50,000 or greater must receive approval from an EPA DOGE team member," the EPA guidance says, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. To facilitate the DOGE team review, EPA staff members have been directed to submit a brief, one-page explanation of each funding action each day between 3 and 6 pm Eastern time, the guidance says. Other relevant forms also must be completed. President Donald Trump has tasked DOGE with digging up what he and Musk call waste, fraud and abuse. The Republican president suggested Thursday that Cabinet members and agency leaders would take the lead

Georgia bill may help Trump, others recover costs of election meddling case

Georgia's Senate passed a bill that could allow President Donald Trump and more than a dozen people to seek compensation for legal bills stemming from an attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The bill passed unanimously by state legislators Thursday would enable compensation from counties for attorneys' fees and other legal costs in criminal cases in which a district attorney has been disqualified if the case gets dismissed, or compensation for the cost of arguing the district attorney should be disqualified. Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted in Fulton County in August 2023. The accusations included asking Georgia's Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for Trump to win the battleground state, harassing an election worker and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the election interference case

Trump Organisation sues Capital One for closing accounts after Jan 6 attack

A company owned by President Donald Trump sued Capital One on Friday, claiming the bank unjustifiably terminated over 300 of the Trump Organization's accounts without cause in 2021, shortly after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The suit was filed by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and Eric Trump in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The Trump Organization claims the decision by Capital One to close the accounts was an attack on free speech and free enterprise. The suit also claims the decision was a response to Trump's political views. Capital One has not and does not close customer accounts for political reasons, the company said in a statement. The Trump Organization claims it suffered considerable financial harm and losses when Capital One notified them in March 2021 that accounts holding millions of dollars would be closed in three months. The lawsuit claims Capital One violated the law and the Trump Organization is seeking damages. The account closures were announced about

Obama supported the UN global goals in 2015, Trump just rejected them

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama committed the United States to achieving newly adopted UN global goals by 2030, including ending poverty, achieving gender equality and urgently tackling climate change. The Trump administration now says it rejects and denounces the goals. The US renunciation was one of the first if not the first by any country of the 17 goals that were adopted unanimously by all 193 UN member nations, with the aim of eliminating global hunger, protecting the planet, ensuring prosperity for all people, and promoting peace. The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, also include providing clean water and sanitation for all people and quality education for every child, while promoting good health and decent work and economic growth for everyone. The Trump administration's announcement was buried in remarks on a General Assembly resolution on the International Day of Peaceful Coexistence this week by Edward Heartney, a minister-counselor at the US mission to the

Trump admin cancels $400 mn in grants, contracts with Columbia University

The Trump administration said Friday that it's pulling $400 million from Columbia University, cancelling grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school's failure to squelch antisemitism on campus. The notice came five days after federal agencies announced they were considering orders to stop work on $51 million in contracts with the New York City university and reviewing its eligibility for over $5 billion in federal grants going forward. And it came after Columbia set up a new disciplinary committee and ramped up its own investigations into students critical of Israel, alarming free speech advocates. But Columbia's efforts evidently didn't go far enough for the federal government. Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement ...

States sue Trump administration over mass firings of probationary workers

Maryland and 19 other states are suing multiple federal agencies, contending President Donald Trump's administration has illegally fired thousands of federal probationary workers. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is leading the coalition of attorneys general in the federal lawsuit that was filed late Thursday in Maryland, where the state estimates about 10% of households receive wages from the federal government. The draconian actions of the Trump-Vance Administration could lead to tens of thousands of jobs lost, hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted, and the cratering of tens of millions of dollars in income here in Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said Friday in support of the complaint. Brown followed up on Friday by moving for a temporary restraining order in federal court in Maryland seeking to stop any more firings of federal probationary employees and to reinstate those who have already been dismissed. The mass firings will cause irreparable burdens and expens

US poised to order more companies to cease operations in Venezuela

Stopping the companies from working in Venezuela will be a blow to the nation's beleaguered economy, putting pressure on Maduro as Trump pushes for a deal over democratic reforms

'Somebody is finally exposing them': Trump attacks India's tariffs regime

This development comes as the US prepares to introduce reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose high levies on American goods

Donald Trump defies assumptions: 'Make America Great Again' redefined

The swiftness with which Mr Trump has betrayed Ukraine is less surprising than the speed with which he has moved on domestic priorities

US judge to hear arguments over blocking immigration arrests in US schools

A federal judge is set to hear arguments Friday over whether he should block immigration agents from conducting arrests at schools under a Trump administration policy that has yet to be acted upon. Denver Public Schools is asking US District Judge Daniel Domenico to block immigration enforcement in schools across the country while its lawsuit challenging the new policy plays out in court. The suit says the possibility of routine immigration arrests in its schools has led to a drop in attendance. It also says the district has had to divert resources to respond to fear among students and families over the lifting of longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools, churches and other sensitive locations. This includes providing mental health support to students, diverting administrator attention from academics to immigration issues, and assisting students who miss school to catch up, lawyers for the school district said in their request to block the new policy. Under t

US economy generated 160K jobs in Feb, but Trump's trade wars cloud outlook

The US labour market likely kept on churning out jobs last month, economists say, but the outlook is cloudy and getting cloudier as the Trump administration wages trade wars, purges federal employees and seeks to deport millions of immigrants. When the Labour Department releases February jobs numbers Friday, they're expected to show that employers added 160,000 jobs. That's far from spectacular but it's solid, and it's up from 143,000 in January. The unemployment rate is forecast to stay at a low 4%, according to economists surveyed by the data firm FactSet. Despite rising concerns about the health of the economy, momentum remains positive,' Lydia Boussour, senior economist at the tax and consulting firm EY, wrote in a commentary. Billionaire Elon Musk's purge of federal workers is not expected to have much impact on the February jobs numbers. The Labour Department conducted its survey of employers too early in the month for the Department of Government Efficiency layoffs to show ..

Judge stops immediate shutdown of small US agency for African development

A judge barred the Trump administration on Thursday from immediately moving to shut down a small federal agency that supports investment in African countries on Thursday. US District Judge Richard J Leon in Washington issued the order hours after the filing of a lawsuit by the president and CEO of the US African Development Foundation. Ward Brehm said in a complaint that he directed his staff on Wednesday to deny building entry to staffers from billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and Pete Marocco, the deputy administrator for the US Agency for International Development. DOGE and Trump do not have the authority to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress, Brehm said in the complaint. The order from Leon, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, bars Brehm from being removed or DOGE from adding members to the board over the next few days. Brehm also said that days after President Donald Trump targeted the agency in a Feb. 19 execut

Volkswagen may avoid 25% Trump tariff, but BMW and others face trade levy

Detroit's automakers lobbied for such an exemption for weeks, and praised Trump's announcement that they would receive temporary relief

Trump considers revoking legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians in US

Such a move would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden's administration and potentially put them on a fast-track to deportation

War heroes among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon's DEI purge

References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press. The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public, said the purge could delete as many as 100,000 images or posts in total, when considering social media pages and other websites that are also being culled for DEI content. The official said it's not clear if the database has been finalized. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the militar