Page 37 - Trump Administration

Trump admin orders Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop work

The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down an agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email confirmed by The Associated Press stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalised but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama pushed to include it in the 2010 financial reform legislation that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The email also ordered the bureau to cease all supervision and examination activity. Since the CFPB is a creation of Congress, it would require a separate act of Congress to formally eliminate it. But the head of

Judge blocks Musk's access to US Treasury systems, orders data destruction

19 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit with the US Supreme Court against DOGE arguing granting Musk's team access to sensitive govt systems violates constitution and federal laws

Donald Trump meets Japan's PM Shigeru Ishiba as China trade tensions loom

Trump put a 10 per cent tariff on all imports from China in what he called an opening salvo in a clash between the world's two largest economies

Trump admin plans to slash all but fraction of USAID jobs, say officials

The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to dramatically cut staffing worldwide for US aid projects as part of its dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, leaving fewer than 300 workers out of thousands. Late Thursday, federal workers associations filed suit asking a federal court to stop the shutdown, arguing that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation. Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The Associated Press of the administration's plan, presented to remaining senior officials of the agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to a Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone outside their agency. The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are currently 8,000 direct hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run t

Will continue to counteract any scheme aimed at evading US sanctions: Rubio

Rubio emphasised that the seizure of Venezuelan aircraft demonstrates the US's determination to hold Nicolas Maduro's regime accountable for its illegal activities

Protests erupt across cities against Trump's policies, Project 2025, Musk

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration's early actions, decrying everything from the president's immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society. I'm appalled by democracy's changes in the last, well, specifically two weeks but it started a long time ago, Margaret Wilmeth said at a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. So I'm just trying to put a presence into resistance. The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 .

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 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

USAID direct hires put on leave worldwide, except those deemed essential

The Trump administration is placing US Agency for International Development direct-hire staffers around the world on leave, except those deemed essential. A notice posted online Tuesday gives the workers 30 days to return home and targets the aid agency's six-decade mission overseas. Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance after taking office. Elon Musk's budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency had taken USAID's website offline over the weekend as it steadily dismantled the agency, which has been a special target of Musk, Trump and Republicans in the first two-and-a-half weeks of Trump's second term. The website came back online Tuesday night, with the notice of recall or termination for global staffers its sole post. The move had been rumoured for several days and was the most extreme of several proposals considered for consolidating the agency i

Elon Musk's 'buyout' offer accepted by more than 20,000 US federal workers

But those numbers are increasing every day, according to an official familiar with the data, and the Trump administration expects a spike in resignations

US will 'take over' the Gaza strip, own it and develop it, says Trump

Trump said we're going to own and develop the Gaza strip, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it'll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of

Panama must reduce Chinese influence around canal or face US action: Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panamanian President Jos Ral Mulino on Sunday that the Central American ally must immediately reduce Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or face potential retaliation from the Trump administration. Rubio, on his first foreign trip as America's top diplomat, held face-to-face talks with Mulino, who has resisted pressure from the new US government over Panama's management of a waterway that is vital to global trade. Mulino told reporters after the meeting that Rubio made no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force. Speaking on behalf of President Donald Trump, who has demanded that the canal be returned to U.S. control, Rubio told Mulino that Trump had made a preliminary determination that China's presence in the canal area violates a treaty that led to the United States turning the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal, which Rubio planned to tour later .

News Highlights: Veteran Himachal BJP leader Kishan Kapoor dies at 73; CM, governor pay tribute

Catch all the latest news updates from around the world here

Trump, Nvidia CEO discuss DeepSeek, AI chip exports during meeting at WH

Trump did not provide details of the meeting but called Huang a gentleman

US aid agency in upheaval amid foreign assistance freeze, staff departures

Trump administration changes have upended the US agency charged with providing humanitarian aid to countries overseas, with dozens of senior officials put on leave, thousands of contractors laid off, and a sweeping freeze imposed on billions of dollars in foreign assistance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the pause on foreign assistance Thursday, saying the US government is not a charity. Aid organisations say the funding freeze and deep confusion over what US-funded programmes must stop work as a result has left them agonizing over whether they could continue operating programmes such as those providing round-the-clock nutritional support to extremely malnourished infants and children, knowing that closing the doors means that many of those children would die. Current and former officials at the State Department and the US Agency for International Development say staffers were invited to submit requests to exempt certain programs from the foreign aid freeze, which ...

Transparency, empowering good officers priorities for FBI, says Kash Patel

On the eve of his confirmation hearing, US President Donald Trump's FBI director nominee Kash Patel said he has two goals for the investigative agency: transparency and letting good cops be cops. Patel, 44, is the highest-ranking Indian-American nominated by President Trump in his administration. He will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing. I believe two foundational steps are necessary to rebuild public confidence in the FBI, Patel wrote in an op-ed in the prestigious Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. First, let good cops be cops. Leadership means supporting agents in their mission to apprehend criminals and protect our citizens. If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation, he wrote. Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI's mission, he added. Second, transparency is essential, he wrote, adding that members of

Kim Jong Un inspects nuclear facility as Pyongyang pressures Trump admin

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a facility that produces nuclear material and called for bolstering the country's nuclear fighting capability, state media reported Wednesday, as the North looks to increase pressure on the United States following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Kim's visit suggests a continued emphasis on an expansion of North Korea's nuclear arsenal, though Trump has said he's willing to talk to Kim again to revive diplomacy. Many analysts view North Korean weapons moves as part of a strategy to win sanctions relief and political concessions from the United States. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim visited the nuclear-material production base and the Nuclear Weapons Institute. It didn't say where those facilities are located, but North Korean photos of Kim's visit indicated that he likely visited a uranium-enrichment facility that he went to last September. That visit was North Korea's first disclosure of a ...

Trump administration freezes $50 million in funding for 'condoms in Gaza'

Calling the funding preposterous, Leavitt said that the government is focused on being good stewards of American Dollars

Trump invites Israel's Netanyahu to meet with him at White House next week

President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House next week as the first foreign leader to visit in Trump's second term, Netanhayu and the White House said Tuesday. The announcement came as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza. Talks about the ceasefire's more difficult second phase, which aims to end the war, begin next Monday. The White House letter shared by Netanyahu's office, dated Tuesday, said I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbours, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries. The meeting on February 4 is a chance for Netanyahu, under pressure at home, to remind the world of the support he has received from Trump over the years, and to defend Israel's conduct of the war. Last year, the two men met face-to-face for the first time in nearly four years at Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. Israel is the larg

Kristi Noem voted as US homeland security secretary in new Trump govt

The installation of a longtime Trump ally at the helm of an agency is poised to play a central role in the president's promised immigration crackdown