Page 79 - Donald Trump Administration

Panama agrees to eliminate fees for US govt vessels transiting the canal

It further said the decision will save the US government millions of dollars each year

Trump admin to seize Venezuelan prez's 2nd plane held in Dominican Republic

The Trump administration plans to seize a second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro 's government that is currently in the Dominican Republic. Secretary of State Marco Rubio intends to announce the seizure on Thursday during a visit to Santo Domingo, the last stop of his five nation tour of Central America, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter and a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press. Carrying out the seizure required that Rubio sign off on a foreign aid freeze waiver request to pay more than USD 230,000 in storage and maintenance fees. It also required approval by the Department of Justice. That waiver request, submitted early last week, has been approved and Rubio is expected to make the announcement at what the State Department has described publicly as only a law enforcement engagement. The plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been used by Maduro and top aides, including his vice president and defense minister to ..

Argentina's President Milei orders withdrawal from WHO, echoing Trump

Argentina's president has ordered the country's withdrawal from the World Health Organization due to profound differences with the U.N. agency, a presidential spokesperson said Wednesday. President Javier Milei 's decision echoes that of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, who began the process of pulling the United States out of WHO with an executive order on his first day back in office on January 21. The loss of another member country will further fracture cooperation in global health, though Argentina was expected to provide only about USD 8 million to WHO for the agency's estimated $6.9 billion 2024-2025 budget. Argentina's decision is based on profound differences in health management, especially during the (COVID-19) pandemic, spokesperson Manuel Adorni told a news conference in Buenos Aires. He said WHO guidelines at the time led to the largest shutdown in the history of mankind. Argentina will not allow an international organization to intervene in its sovereignty and m

World inflation at risk of rekindling with Donald Trump's trade war

In the US, a resilient labor market is keeping the Federal Reserve on alert as Trump's policies and threats drive bond yields higher

Democrats protest Trump's alleged move giving Musk's team classified info

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are demanding answers after they say President Donald Trump gave billionaire Elon Musk and his staff access to sensitive data and classified secrets as part of their work to overhaul the federal government. The lawmakers on Wednesday wrote to Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, and asked what security precautions had been taken to prevent unauthorized leaks of information by staff at the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Trump tapped Musk to run the taskforce, which has quickly gotten to work dismantling whole agencies of the federal government. As part of that effort, Musk and his staff have gained access to computer systems that the senators say contain potentially sensitive medical and financial information about millions of Americans as well as federal payroll information, classified documents, information from foreign intelligence partners and the identities of undercover agents and intelligence sources. In the .

Google ends diversity hiring, says will no longer have 'aspirational goals'

Google said it was reviewing its programs and would no longer have aspirational goals tied to representation

Trump's demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage, anxiety

Frustration boiled over Wednesday among supporters of the United States' lead aid agency at a Washington rally, and anxious aid workers abroad scrambled to pack up households after the Trump administration abruptly pulled almost all agency staffers off the job and out of the field. The order issued Tuesday followed 2 1/2 weeks that have seen the Trump administration and teams led by billionaire ally Elon Musk dismantle much of the US Agency for International Development, shutting down a six-decade mission intended to shore up US security by educating children, fighting epidemics and advancing other development abroad. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been touring Central America on his first visit in office, defended the administration's broad shutdown of aid funding and other actions while saying, Our preference would have been to do this in a more orderly fashion. But, Rubio said, the administration faced a lack of cooperation in an attempt to review the worth of each agenc

Trump wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarily, say officials

President Donald Trump's top diplomat and his main spokesperson on Wednesday walked back the idea that he wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rebuffed his suggestion that the U.S. take ownership of the territory. Trump on Tuesday had called for permanently resettling Palestinians from war-torn Gaza and left open the door to deploying American troops there as part of a massive rebuilding operation. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he only sought to move the roughly 1.8 million Gazans temporarily to allow for reconstruction. Even that proposal has drawn criticism from Palestinians, who are worried they may never be allowed back in if they flee, and from the Arab nations that Trump has called on to take them in. Rubio, on his first foreign trip as secretary of state, described Trump's proposal as a very generous offer to help with debris removal and ...

Iran willing to give Trump diplomacy 'another chance': Iranian official

In 2018, then-President Trump ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country's economy

News updates: Nepal ends solo expeditions on Mt Everest, other 8000-metre peaks

Catch all the latest news updates from around the world here

Kremlin says contacts with Trump's team intensified over Ukraine, Nato

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed what he described as an acknowledgment from Trump that drawing Ukraine towards NATO was a mistake

Iran praises US cuts on foreign aid funding, looks forward to nuclear talks

Iran's government seems to be welcoming some recent decisions by the United States even though they happen to come from a man Iranian operatives have allegedly been plotting to assassinate. President Donald Trump's moves to freeze spending on foreign aid and overhaul, maybe even end, the US Agency for International Development have been lauded in Iranian state media. The reports say the decisions will halt funding for opponents of the country's Shiite theocracy pro-democracy activists and others supported through programs as part of US government's efforts to help democracy worldwide. At the same time, Iranian officials appear to be signalling that they are waiting for a message from Trump on whether he wants to negotiate over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. At stake are potentially billions of dollars withheld from Iran through crushing sanctions and the future of a program on the precipice of enriching weapons-grade uranium. And even when signing an executive order

Trump to sign executive order, ban trans female athletes from competing

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women's or girls' sporting events. The order, which Trump is expected to sign at an afternoon ceremony, marks another aggressive shift by the president's second administration in the way the federal government deals with transgender people and their rights. The president put out a sweeping order on his first day in office last month that called for the federal government to define sex as only male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and in policies such as federal prison assignments. Trump found during the campaign that his pledge to keep men out of women's sports resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed by AP VoteCast said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. He leaned into the rhetoric before the election, ...

Trump wants Ukraine to supply US with rare earths in exchange for war aid

Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said Ukraine was willing, adding that he wants equalisation from Ukraine for Washington's close to $300 billion in support

Trump's potential tariffs will only add to the pain for hard-hit Nissan

The US is the top market by vehicle sales for Nissan and bigger rivals Toyota and Honda

Trump's executive order to bar transgender female athletes in women's sport

According to the administration, the directive is designed to restore fairness in women's sports, aligning with the original intent of Title IX.

Trump admin cancels study on impact of trade on under-served communities

Since taking office on Jan. 20, US President Donald Trump has ended all federal work on diversity, equity and inclusion programs with a series of executive orders and memorandums

Unions sue to block federal worker buyout plan as 20,000 line up to quit

The American Federation of Government Employees and two other unions claim the buyout offer is arbitrary and capricious and violates federal law

Donald Trump in no hurry to talk to Xi Jinping amid new tariff war

China imposed targeted tariffs on US imports on Tuesday and put several companies, including Google, on notice for possible sanctions, in a measured response to Trump's tariffs

CIA offers staff buyouts as Donald Trump looks to shrink workforce

As part of the offer sent to the workforce on February 4, employees could receive pay and benefits through Sept 30, without having to work