Page 12 - Us Government

Trump draft order proposes radical reshaping of US State Department

Some employees writing on a foreign service-dedicated Reddit page also expressed doubt about how such an order could be implemented

White House proposes significant cuts to State dept, UN, Nato funding

The White House's Office of Management and Budget has proposed gutting the State Department's budget by almost 50 per cent, closing a number of overseas diplomatic missions, slashing the number of diplomatic staff, and eliminating funding for nearly all international organizations, including the United Nations, many of its agencies and for NATO headquarters, officials said. The proposal, which was presented to the State Department last week and is still in a highly preliminary phase, is not expected to pass muster with either the department's leadership or Congress, which will ultimately be asked to vote on the entire federal budget in the coming months. Officials familiar with the proposal say it must still go through several rounds of review before it even gets to lawmakers, who in the past have amended and even rejected White House budget requests. Though the proposal is preliminary, it gives an indication of the Trump administration's priorities and coincides with massive job and

International students challenge widespread US visa revocations in court

Several international students who have had their visas revoked in recent weeks have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, arguing the government denied them due process when it suddenly took away their permission to be in the US. The actions by the federal government to terminate students' legal status have left hundreds of scholars at risk of detention and deportation. Their schools range from private universities like Harvard and Stanford to large public institutions like the University of Maryland and Ohio State University to some small liberal arts colleges. In lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security, students have argued the government lacked justification to cancel their visa or terminate their legal status. Why is the government canceling international students' visas? Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but colleges say some students are being singled out over infractions as minor as traffic violations, including some long in the past. In

Wisconsin teen killed parents to fund plot to assassinate Trump, FBI says

Nikita Casap is currently in the Waukesha County jail on a $1 million bond and is expected in court next month to enter a plea

Trump's registration rules not to impact H-1B holders, but rise in concern

The move is part of US President Donald Trump's attempt to crack down on illegal immigration and deport millions living illegally

Pressed for evidence, US cites power to deport Mahmoud Khalil for beliefs

Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration's authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country damages US foreign policy interests. The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent US resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against Israel's treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs. He said that while Khalil's activities were otherwise lawful, letting him remain in the country would undermine US policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from ..

Defence chiefs from 30 nations to attend Nato talks on future Ukraine force

Britain and France are convening a meeting of defence ministers from around 30 countries on Thursday to press ahead with plans to deploy troops to Ukraine to police any future peace agreement with Russia. The meeting at NATO headquarters the first between defence ministers representing the so-called coalition of the willing comes after a visit to Kyiv last week by senior British and French military officers. It's expected to work on fleshing out an agreement reached at an earlier meeting between leaders. As usual with coalition gatherings, the United States will not take part, but the success of the coalition's operation hinges on US backup with airpower or other military assistance. However, the Trump administration has made no public commitment that it will do so. Amid that uncertainty and US warnings that Europe must take care of its own security and that of Ukraine in future, the force is seen as a first test of the continent's willingness to defend itself and its interests.

Trump's new energy order puts states' climate laws in crosshairs of DOJ

A new executive order from President Donald Trump that's part of his effort to invigorate energy production raises the possibility that his Department of Justice will go to court against state climate change laws aimed at slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels. Trump's order, signed Tuesday, comes as US electricity demand ramps up to meet the growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing applications, as well as federal efforts to expand high-tech manufacturing. It also coincides with climate superfund legislation gaining traction in various states. Trump has declared a national energy emergency " and ordered his attorney general to take action against states that may be illegally overreaching their authority in how they regulate energy development. American energy dominance is threatened when State and local governments seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authorities, Trump said in the order. He said the attorney ..

US Senate confirms former Arkansas Guv Mike Huckabee as Israel ambassador

The Baptist minister expressed his gratitude to President Trump, saying, "I am Grateful to a great Donald Trump and look forward to serving!"

Trump targets 'Anonymous' author, ex-cyber chief in retribution move

US President Donald Trump intensified his efforts to punish his critics on Wednesday by signing a pair of memoranda directing the Justice Department to investigate two officials from his first administration and stripping them of any security clearances they may have. Trump's targeting of Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official in Trump's first term, and Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity official, came as the president has sought to use the powers of the presidency to retaliate against his adversaries, including law firms. Trump also on Wednesday retaliated against another law firm, Susman Godfrey, as he seeks to punish firms that have links to prosecutors who have investigated him or employed attorneys he sees as opponents. Although Trump has ordered security clearances to be stripped from a number of his opponents, including former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, the president's order Wednesday directing the Justice ...

Beijing increases diplomatic pressure on Africa as US influence wanes

Chinese diplomats threatened to cancel a summit and called top officials in two African countries to pressure lawmakers to quit an international parliamentary group critical of China, officials from the group told The Associated Press. It's an example of how far China will go to influence politicians overseas, and how that pressure can succeed behind closed doors. In the past year, lawmakers from Malawi and Gambia withdrew from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 38 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing, according to letters, messages and voice recordings obtained by The Associated Press. Founded in 2020, the group has coordinated sanctions on China over rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and rallied support for Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island Beijing claims as its territory. African politicians and experts say it's an escalation of Chinese diplomatic pressure in Africa, where Beijing's influence

At least 6 people killed by suspected US strikes in Yemen: Houthi rebels

Suspected US airstrikes pounded the area around Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeida on Tuesday night, killing at least six people, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said. The strikes hit around Hodeida's al-Hawak district, the rebels said, and wounded 16 people. The area is home to the city's airport, which the rebels have used in the past to target shipping in the Red Sea. Since its start, the intense campaign of US airstrikes targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters related to the Israel-Hamas war has killed at least 79 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis. Footage aired by the rebels' al-Masirah satellite news channel showed chaotic scenes of people carrying wounded to waiting ambulances and rescuers searching by the light of their mobile phones. The target appeared in the footage to be a home in a residential neighborhood, likely part of a wider decapitation campaign launched by the Trump administration to kill rebel ...

AP journalists cleared to return to White House after court ruling

A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to restore The Associated Press' full access to cover presidential events, ruling on a case that touched at the heart of the First Amendment and affirming that the government cannot punish the news organisation for the content of its speech. US District Judge Trevor N McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that the government can't retaliate against the AP's decision not to follow Trump's executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico. The decision handed the AP a major victory at a time the White House has been challenging the press on several levels. "Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewher it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints," McFadden wrote. "The Constitution requires no less." It was unclear whether the White House would move immediately to put McFadden's ruling into effect.

Billionaires Ackman, Druckenmiller call Trump tariffs a 'mistake'

The widening criticism - including from Trump ally Ackman - came as Trump offered no indication he was prepared to claw back a punishing trade overhaul set to begin on April 9

Trump admin rolls back forest protections in bid to ramp up logging

President Donald Trump's administration acted to roll back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of US national forests under an emergency designation announced Friday that cites dangers from wildfires. Whether the move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive order last month remains to be seen. Former President Joe Biden's administration also sought more logging in public forests to combat fires, which are worsening as the world gets hotter, yet U.S. Forest Service timber sales stayed relatively flat under his tenure. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did not mention climate change in Friday's directive, which called on her staff to speed up environmental reviews. It exempts affected forests from an objection process that allows outside groups, tribes and local governments to challenge logging proposals at the administrative level before they are finalized. It also narrows the number of alternatives federal officials can

Trump fires NSC officials after far-right activist questions staff loyalty

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's fired "some" White House National Security Council officials, a move that comes a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty. Trump downplayed Loomer's influence on the firings. But Loomer during her Oval Office conversation with Trump urged the president to purge staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his Make America Great Again agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel manner. Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Sergio Gor, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, also took part in the meeting with Loomer, the people said. Always we're letting go of people, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he made his way to Miami on Thursday afternoon. People that we don't like or people that we don't think can do the job

Pentagon watchdog to review Hegseth's use of Signal to plan Houthi strike

The Pentagon's acting inspector general announced Thursday that he would review Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal messaging app to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen. The review will also look at other defence officials' use of the publicly available encrypted app, which is not able to handle classified material and is not part of the Defence Department's secure communications network. Hegseth's use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by national security adviser Mike Waltz. The chain included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss March 15 military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis. The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD polici

Elon Musk will probably leave his administration in 'a few months': Trump

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Elon Musk would likely leave his administration in a few months, the clearest sign that his most powerful and disruptive adviser will be wrapping up his work inside the government. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Elon is fantastic but he has a number of companies to run." I want him to stay as long as possible," he said. "There's going to be a point where he's going to have to leave. Musk has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency, which is playing a leading role in downsizing and overhauling the federal government. Trump said that work would continue within various agencies. The Republican president's comments came after a steady drumbeat of suggestions over the last week that Musk's time was limited. Musk also faced a setback Tuesday in Wisconsin, where voters rejected his choice for a state Supreme Court candidate despite more than USD 21 million in personal donations and his campaign appearance over the ...

Wary Europe awaits US Secretary of State Rubio with Nato's future on line

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels this week to a gathering of top diplomats from NATO countries and is sure to find allies that are alarmed, angered and confused by the Trump administration's desire to reestablish ties with Russia and its escalating rhetorical attacks on longtime transatlantic partners. Allies are deeply concerned by President Donald Trump's readiness to draw closer to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who sees NATO as a threat, amid a U.S. effort to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine. Recent White House comments and insults directed at NATO allies Canada and Denmark as well as the military alliance itself have only increased the angst, especially as new US tariffs are taking effect against friends and foes alike. Rubio arrives in Brussels on Thursday for two days of meetings with his NATO counterparts and European officials, and he can expect to be confronted with questions about the future US role in the alliance. For 75 years, NATO has been anchored on American

Danish PM heads to Greenland as Trump seeks control of Arctic territory

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is travelling to Greenland on Wednesday for a three-day trip aimed at building the trust of Greenlandic officials at a time that the Trump administration is seeking control of the vast Arctic territory. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after US Vice President JD Vance visited a US air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory. Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is becoming more accessible due to climate change. Trump has said that the landmass is critical to U.S. security. It is part of North America but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark. Frederiksen is due to meet the incoming Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, after an election last month that produced a new government. She is also to meet with the future Naalakkersuisut, the Cabinet, in a visit due to last through Friday. It has my deepest respect how