Page 7 - Trump Govt

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 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

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

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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

Trump administration begins flying detained migrants to Guantanamo Bay

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the expansion of a migrant detention center at the military installation to full capacity

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

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Trump moves to cancel recent union agreements with federal workers

Trump embarks on a massive makeover of the US government, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants

Trump's tech buddies won't escape US scrutiny, warns Texas Attorney General

Trump realises they are a big part of our economy, how they perform matters, said Paxton

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 ...

Birthright citizenship was for slaves' children, not global migrants: Trump

President Donald Trump has said that birthright citizenship was primarily intended for the children of slaves and not for the whole world to "come in and pile" into the US. On the very first day of his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order against birthright citizenship, which was struck down by a federal court in Seattle the next day. Trump has said that he would appeal against it. On Thursday, he exuded confidence that the Supreme Court would rule in his favour. Birthright citizenship was, if you look back when this was passed and made, that was meant for the children of slaves. This was not meant for the whole world to come in and pile into the United States of America, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House. Everybody coming in, and totally unqualified people with perhaps unqualified children. This wasn't meant for that," he said. Asserting that it was meant for the children of slaves," he said it was a "very good and noble" thing to do. "I'm in fa

Marco Rubio approves some foreign aid waivers to Trump's spending halt

Rubio had provided waivers for food assistance as well as some salaries and administrative expenses

Trump signs order aimed at curtailing gender transitions for those under 19

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at curtailing gender transitions for people under age 19. It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures, Trump said in a statement. It's the latest push by Trump to reverse policies set by the Biden administration to protect transgender people and their care. On Monday, Trump directed the Pentagon to conduct a review that is likely to lead to them being barred from military service. The order directs that federally-run insurance programmes, including TRICARE for military families and Medicaid, exclude coverage for such care, and calls on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.

US Justice Department fires employees involved in prosecutions of Trump

The Justice Department said it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signalling an early willingness to take action favourable to the president's personal interests. The abrupt termination targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department and is consistent with the administration's determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president. Monday's norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately. Today, Acting Attorney .

Trump fills govt with billionaires after running on working-class message

President Donald Trump's brash populism has always involved incongruence: the billionaire businessman-politician stirring the passions of millions who, regardless of the US economy's trajectory, could never afford to live in his Manhattan skyscraper or visit his club in south Florida. His second White House is looking a lot like the inside of Mar-a-Lago, with extremely wealthy Americans taking key roles in his administration. The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is overseeing a new Department of Government Efficiency. Billionaires or mega-millionaires are lined up to run the treasury, commerce, interior and education departments, NASA and the Small Business Administration, and fill key foreign posts. He's bringing in folks who have had great success in the private sector, said Debbie Dooley, an early 2015 Trump supporter and onetime national organizer in the anti-establishment Tea Party movement. If you need to have brain surgery, you want the proven brain surgeons. Others raise ...

56 US senior officials put on leave, citing resistance to Trump orders

At least 56 senior officials in the top US aid and development agency were placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into an alleged effort to thwart President Donald Trump's orders. A current official and a former official at the US Agency for International Development confirmed the reason given for the move Monday. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere also were laid off, the officials said. It follows Trump's executive order last week that directed a sweeping 90-day pause on most US foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department. As a result of the freeze, thousands of US-funded humanitarian, development and security programmes worldwide had stopped work or were preparing to do so. Without funds to pay staff, aid organizations were laying off hundreds of employees. An internal USAID notice sent late Monday and obtained by The Associated Press said new acting administrator Jason Gray

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

Trump Inauguration highlights: Trump signs order for US to exit WHO, withdraws from Paris Accords

Donald Trump Inauguration Day LIVE Updates: Stay with us for all the latest news updates as Trump takes over the White House

TikTok's return in US comes with scrutiny over reach of Trump's powers

There are also questions about whether the extension would be legal once the ban kicked in on Sunday