Page 4 - Us Government

US flies supersonic B-1 bombers near Venezuela coast amid drugs crackdown

The U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela, a little over a week after another group of American bombers made a similar journey as part of a training exercise to simulate an attack. The U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off of Venezuela, raising speculation that President Donald Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro. Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S. Adding to the speculation, the U.S. military since early September has been carrying out lethal strikes on vessels in the waters off Venezuela that Trump says are trafficking drugs. According to flight tracking data, a pair of B-1 Lancer bombers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas on Thursday and flew through the Caribbean and up to the coast of Venezuela. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, confirmed that a training flight of B-1s to

Paul Kapur sworn in as US Assistant Secy for South & Central Asian Affairs

Indian-American author and security expert Paul Kapur has been officially sworn in as the new Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US Department of State. His sworn in was announced by the Bureau in a social media post on late Wednesday night. "Welcome to @State_SCA, Assistant Secretary Paul Kapur! This morning Dr. Kapur was officially sworn in as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs," it said. As Assistant Secretary, Kapur will oversee America's diplomatic engagement and strategic partnerships in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He succeeds Donald Lu, who served in the post since 2021. Kapur was born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother. He served as a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School. He is a visiting fellow at Stanf

2 killed as US strikes eighth alleged drug-carrying boat, now in Pacific

The US military conducted its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel, killing two people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. The Tuesday night strike occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The seven previous strikes all targeted vessels in the Caribbean. According to Hegseth in a social media post, the strike killed two people, bringing the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people. In a brief video released by Hegseth, a small boat, half-filled with brown packages, is seen moving along the water. Several seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is seen floating motionless on the water in flames. In his post, Hegseth took the unusual step of equating the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11, 2001, attack. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people, Hegseth said, adding there will be no refuge or forgiveness only justice. President Donald Trump has justified the .

Taliban govt urges US to reopen embassy, focus on economic, political ties

Despite repeated criticism from the US President regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the official stance of the US on the country's current leadership remains unclear

Senate Republicans head to White House amid stalemate on shutdown

As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, Senate Republicans are headed to the White House on Tuesday not for urgent talks on how to end it, but for a display of unity with President Donald Trump as they refuse to negotiate on any Democratic demands. Senate Democrats, too, are confident in their strategy to keep voting against a House-passed bill that would reopen the government until Republicans, including Trump, engage them on extending health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year. With both sides showing no signs of movement, it's unclear how long the stalemate will last even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss another paycheck in the coming days and states are sounding warnings that key federal programmes will soon lapse completely. And the meeting at the White House appears unlikely, for now, to lead to a bipartisan resolution as Senate Republicans are dug in and Trump has followed their lead. I think the president's ready to get involv

A CIA secret kept for 35 years found in the Smithsonian's archives

Jim Sanborn is auctioning off the solution to Kryptos, the puzzle he sculpted for the intelligence agency's headquarters. Two fans of the work then discovered the key

Trump govt sued by US labour unions for tracking immigrants' social media

US labour unions have sued the government for monitoring legal immigrants' social media, alleging that the surveillance violates free speech and creates fear of online expression

US judge lifts travel restrictions for Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil

A federal judge has lifted travel restrictions for Mahmoud Khalil, allowing the Palestinian activist to speak at rallies and other events across the US as he fights his deportation case brought by the Trump administration. Khalil, who was freed from a Louisiana immigration jail in June, had asked a federal magistrate judge to lift the restrictions that limited his travel to New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, Louisiana and Michigan. "He wants to travel for the very significant First Amendment reasons that are at the bottom of this case," his lawyer, Alina Das, said during a virtual hearing on Thursday. "He wants to speak to issues of public concern." An attorney for the government, Aniello DeSimone, opposed the move, arguing that Khalil "has not provided enough of a reason why he could not attend these and other events telephonically". The magistrate judge, Michael Hammer, agreed on Thursday to allow Khalil to travel, noting he is not considered a flight risk and had not violated

Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton charged with storing, sharing classified info

Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton was charged on Thursday with storing top secret records at home and sharing with relatives diary-like notes about his time in government that contained classified information. The 18-count indictment also suggests classified information was exposed when operatives believed linked to the Iranian regime hacked Bolton's email account in 2021 and gained access to sensitive material he had shared. A Bolton representative told the FBI that his emails had been hacked, prosecutors say, but did not reveal that he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers now had possession of government secrets. The investigation into Bolton, who served for more than a year in President Donald Trump's administration before being fired in 2019, burst into public view in August when the FBI searched his home in Maryland and his office in Washington for classified records he may have held onto from his years in ...

'Stopped 8 wars in 8 months, saved millions of lives', says Trump again

He suggested that his contributions toward global peace had not received due recognition

Vance warns of 'deeper' cuts for federal workers as shutdown enters day 12

Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said there will be deeper cuts to the federal workforce the longer the government shutdown goes on, adding to the uncertainty facing hundreds of thousands who are already furloughed without pay amid the stubborn stalemate in Congress. Vance warned that as the federal shutdown entered its 12th day, the new cuts would be painful," even as he said the Trump administration worked to ensure that the military is paid this week and some services would be preserved for low-income Americans, including food assistance. Still, hundreds of thousands of government workers have been furloughed in recent days and, in a court filing on Friday, the Office of Management and Budget said well over 4,000 federal employees would soon be fired in conjunction with the shutdown. The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be, Vance said on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. This is not a situation that we

Trump in 'exceptional health,' says his doctor after visit to Walter Reed

President Donald Trump is in exceptional health," his physician said Friday after he underwent a checkup that included lab tests and preventive health assessments at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump spent roughly three hours at the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital earlier Friday for what his doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, called a scheduled follow-up evaluation" that was a part of his ongoing health maintenance plan. While there, Trump also got his yearly flu shot, as well as a COVID-19 booster vaccine. President Donald J. Trump remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological and physical performance, Barbabella wrote in a one-page memo released Friday night by the White House. The doctor noted in the memo that the evaluation helped prepare for Trump's upcoming overseas trips and included advanced imaging, lab testing and preventive health assessments. The president is travelling to the Middle East this weekend and is ...

US Senate unanimously endorses repeal of 2002 Iraq war resolution

More than two decades later, Congress is on the verge of writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq. The Senate voted Thursday to repeal the resolution that authorised the 2003 US invasion, following a House vote last month that would return the basic war power to Congress. The amendment by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, and Indiana Sen. Todd Young, a Republican, was approved by voice vote to an annual defence authorisation bill that passed the Senate late Thursday a unanimous endorsement for ending the war that many now view as a mistake. Iraqi deaths were estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 US troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush's administration falsely claimed that then-President Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. That's the way the war ends, not with a bang but a whimper, Kaine said after the vote, which lasted only a few seconds with no debate and no objections. Still, he said, America is forever .

US govt shutdown grinds into second week, but quiet talks emerging

Tours at the Capitol have come to a standstill. The House is keeping its doors closed, while the Senate is stuck in a loop of failed votes on a rejected plan to reopen the government. President Donald Trump is threatening to mass fire federal workers and refuse back pay for the rest. As the government shutdown enters a second week, there's no discernible endgame in sight. You have to negotiate, Sen Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, argued late into the evening on the Senate floor. That's the way it works. But no negotiations, at least publicly, are underway. Shutdown grinds on, but signs of quiet talks The Republicans who have majority control in Congress believe they have the upper hand politically, as they fend off Democratic demands to quickly fund health insurance subsidies as part of any plan to end the shutdown. But so have Democrats dug in, convinced that Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent the looming health care price spikes and blaming Trump

Staffing shortages cause US flight delays as govt shutdown enters day 7

Staffing shortages led to more flight delays at airports across the US on Tuesday as the federal government shutdown stretched into a seventh day, while union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners warned the situation was likely to get worse. The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing issues at airports in Nashville, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, and at its air traffic control centres in Atlanta and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The agency temporarily slowed takeoffs of planes headed to the first three cities. Major flight delays a day earlier also were tied to insufficient staffing during the shutdown, which began October 1. The FAA reported delays on Monday at the airports in Burbank, California, Newark, New Jersey and Denver. Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said the risk of significant disruptions to the US aviation system is growing by the day" as federal workers whose jobs are deemed critical continue working without pay. The .

Lai urges Trump to support Taiwan as doubts rise over US commitment

In July, Lai reportedly postponed an overseas trip after the US denied him a transit stop in New York

Mass layoffs will start if shutdown talks 'going nowhere': White House

Trump described the potential job cuts on Sunday as 'Democrat layoffs,' telling reporters, Anybody laid off that's because of the Democrats

Lack of jobs data due to govt shutdown muddies view of hiring, US economy

From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 am eastern as everyone awaits the Labor Department's crucial monthly jobs report. But with the government shut down, no information was released Friday about hiring in September. The interruption in the data has occurred at a particularly uncertain time, when policymakers at the Federal Reserve and Wall Street investors would need more data on the economy, rather than less. Hiring has ground nearly to a halt, threatening to drag down the broader economy. Yet at the same time, consumers particularly higher-income earners are still spending and some businesses are ramping up investments in data centres developing artificial intelligence models. Whether that is enough to revive hiring remains to be seen. It's the first time since a government shutdown in 2013 that the jobs report has been delayed. .

Trump goes online to target Democrats as US govt shutdown continues

On Thursday morning, as thousands of federal employees stayed home and faced potential layoffs because of the government shutdown, President Donald Trump got right to work on social media. He started by sharing praise from supporters. Then he falsely claimed that DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE MONEY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS. And then he announced that he would meet with his top budget adviser to figure out where to make permanent cuts to federal programmes that are a political SCAM. All that was before 8 am, just one flurry in a blizzard of online commentary from the president as the government shutdown entered a second day. Like so many other times when he's faced complex crises with no easy solutions, Trump seems determined to post his way through it. The stream of invective and trolling has been remarkable even for a 79-year-old president who is as chronically online as any member of Gen Z. His style is mirrored by the rest of his administration, which so far seems more interest

Trump uses govt shutdown to target federal workers, halt key projects

President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting irreversible cuts to programmes important to Democrats. Rather than simply furlough employees, as is usually done during any lapse of funds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said layoffs were imminent. The Office of Management and Budget announced it was putting on hold roughly USD 18 billion of infrastructure funds for New York's subway and Hudson Tunnel projects in the hometown of the Democratic leaders of the US House and Senate. Trump has marvelled over the handiwork of his budget director. He can trim the budget to a level that you couldn't do any other way, the president said at the start of the week of OMB Director Russ Vought, who was also a chief architect of the Project 2025 conservative policy book. So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown, Trump said during an event