Category Archives: Trump administration

Hegseth reportedly plans to cut support to US scouts group for being ‘genderless’

Posted on by

Scouting America decries accusations by defense secretary that the organization is attacking ‘boy-friendly spaces’

Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, has said it is “surprised and disappointed” by a report that the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, could sever all military ties to the organization for being “genderless” and failing to “cultivate masculine values”.

In a draft memo to Congress obtained by NPR, Hegseth criticized Scouting America, which began admitting girls in 2018, for purportedly attempting to “attack boy-friendly spaces”.

Continue reading...

Noem made decision to continue deportation flights to El Salvador, justice department says

Posted on by

Justice department maintains that Trump administration didn’t violate judge’s order to return flights to US

The Department of Justice said in a statement that Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was the one who made the decision to continue with the deportation flights of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador in March, despite a federal judge’s directive that the flights must be returned to the United States.

In a court filing on Tuesday, the justice department said that “Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove provided DHS with legal advice regarding the court’s order as to flights that had left the United States before the order issued, through DHS Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara” and that “after receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador”.

Continue reading...

Noem made decision to continue deportation flights to El Salvador, justice department says

Posted on by

Justice department maintains that Trump administration didn’t violate judge’s order to return flights to US

The Department of Justice said in a statement that Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was the one who made the decision to continue with the deportation flights of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador in March, despite a federal judge’s directive that the flights must be returned to the United States.

In a court filing on Tuesday, the justice department said that “Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove provided DHS with legal advice regarding the court’s order as to flights that had left the United States before the order issued, through DHS Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara” and that “after receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador”.

Continue reading...

Junta hails end to US protected status for Myanmar nationals

Posted on by

Human rights monitors say it is not safe to return, citing reports of ‘serious crimes in the run-up to elections’

Myanmar’s junta applauded the Trump administration on Wednesday for halting a scheme that protected its citizens from deportation from the US back to their war-racked homeland.

About 4,000 Myanmar citizens are living in the US with temporary protected status (TPS), which shields foreign nationals from deportation to disaster zones and allows them the right to work.

Continue reading...

US triples national park fee for non-residents, amid ‘new’ fee for Americans

Posted on by

Interior department, which has defunded conservation organizations, claims fee hike is for conservation

The interior department announced today new “America-first” entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026” including Trump’s birthday.

Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple.

Continue reading...

Judge orders Trump administration to provide bond hearings to detained migrants

Posted on by

District judge in California says detainees who were already living in the US are legally entitled to a bond hearing

A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump’s administration cannot impose mandatory detention on thousands of migrants held by US immigration authorities without first giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond.

US district judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, certified a nationwide class of individuals who were already living in the United States when they were detained and are legally entitled to a hearing to determine whether they can be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed.

Continue reading...

US justice department memo about boat strikes diverges from Trump narrative

Posted on by

Exclusive: Officials frame strikes as self-defense against violence, without naming aggressor, while Trump claims they’re to stop US overdose deaths

The Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration’s internal legal argument.

The legal analysis rests on a premise – for which there is no immediate public evidence – that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments.

Continue reading...

Mark Kelly: call for troops to disobey illegal orders is ‘non-controversial’

Posted on by

Senator hits back at Trump administration after Pentagon launches investigation for possible breaches of military law

US senator Mark Kelly said it was “non-controversial” for him and other Democrats to implore military personnel to disobey “illegal orders” from the Trump administration – hitting back at accusations of “serious allegations of misconduct” leveled against him by the Pentagon.

“I said something that was pretty simple and non-controversial – and that was that members of the military should follow the law,” the Arizona Democrat senator, a former US Navy officer and astronaut who flew on four separate space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011, told MS Now on Monday night.

Continue reading...

Trump begins process of designating Muslim Brotherhood chapters as terrorist groups

Posted on by

President signed executive order for Rubio and Bessent to submit report on chapters in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan

Donald Trump on Monday began the process of designating certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, a move would bring sanctions against one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements.

Trump signed an executive order directing secretary of state Marco Rubio and treasury secretary Scott Bessent to submit a report on whether to designate any Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, according to a White House fact sheet. It orders the secretaries to move forward with any designations within 45 days of the report.

Continue reading...

Surprise envoy pushing Ukraine ‘peace’ plan belies Vance influence on US policy

Posted on by

Army secretary Daniel Driscoll presented a Russian wishlist, highlighting differences with the administration

The US army secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration’s newest proposal to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine – but his ties to JD Vance have put a close ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president on the frontlines of Donald Trump’s latest push to end the war.

Before his trip to Kyiv last week, Driscoll was not known for his role as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts at selling the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Continue reading...

Disarray over leaked US-Russia peace plan is ideal scenario for Putin

Posted on by

Ukraine has been cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and faces threat of losing its most important ally

The Kremlin has barely lifted a finger in recent days. It hasn’t needed to.

The 28-point US-Russia peace proposal, leaked to the media last week, has thrown Washington, Kyiv and European capitals into disarray, creating precisely the conditions Vladimir Putin has long sought: a negotiating table sharply tilted in the Russian president’s favour, with Ukraine cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and the threat of losing its most important ally hanging over its head.

Continue reading...

Venezuela accuses US of using ‘narco-terrorism’ allegations to justify ‘regime change’

Posted on by

Venezuelan group known as Cartel of the Suns designated as terrorist organization despite doubts over its existence

Venezuela’s government has accused the US of peddling “ridiculous hogwash” about its supposed role in sponsoring “narco-terrorism” as Washington continued to turn up the heat on Nicolás Maduro’s regime and leftwing European politicians warned South America faced being plunged into “a torrent of bloodshed”.

On Monday, the Trump administration officially designated a Venezuelan group known as the “Cartel de los Soles” (the Cartel of the Suns) a terrorist organization – despite widespread doubts over its actual existence.

Continue reading...

US senator slams Republicans’ silence on Trump’s violent threats to Democrats

Posted on by

Mark Kelly, a veteran and Democrat targeted by Trump over military comments, says he is ‘not going to be intimidated’

Senator Mark Kelly on Sunday urged congressional Republicans to publicly reject Trump’s threats against him and five other Democratic lawmakers who stated that military personnel are not obligated to follow illegal commands.

“We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the United States Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress,” Kelly, of Arizona, said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Continue reading...

Mamdani reiterates Trump is a ‘fascist’ just days after cordial meeting

Posted on by

New York mayor-elect reaffirms past criticisms of president after agreeing to work with him on cost-of-living concerns

Zohran Mamdani has reiterated his view that Donald Trump is a “fascist” and a “despot” just days after the pair had a surprisingly cordial meeting at the White House.

Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the New York City mayor-elect was asked if he still considered Trump a threat to democracy. “Everything that I’ve said in the past I continue to believe,” Mamdani replied. “I think it is important in our politics that we don’t shy away from where we have disagreements.”

Continue reading...

ICE detained teenaged US citizen during school lunch break, family says

Posted on by

Christian Jimenez, Oregon high school senior, faces possible obstruction charges after traffic stop by immigration agents

Immigration officers detained a student at a high school in Oregon during his lunch break on Friday, according to the student’s family.

Seventeen-year-old Christian Jimenez, a US citizen and senior at McMinnville high school, was driving his father’s vehicle around 12.30pm during lunch when agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stopped him, his older brother, Cesar Jimenez, told Oregon Live.

Continue reading...

Many prominent Maga personalities on X are based outside US, new tool reveals

Posted on by

Users posing as rightwing Americans are operating internationally, per the platform’s transparency feature

Many of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (Maga) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed.

The new tool, called “about this account,” became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded.

Continue reading...

Trump says Ukraine deal is not ‘final offer’ as officials gather for Geneva summit

Posted on by

US president signals potential room for adjustments after Zelenskyy says proposals force Ukraine to choose between national dignity and losing the US

Donald Trump said on Saturday that his “peace plan” was “not my final offer”, after a furious backlash from Ukrainians who described it as reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.

The US president told reporters during brief remarks at the White House: “We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago … we’re trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended.”

Continue reading...

Trump to end temporary protected status for Somali immigrants in Minnesota

Posted on by

Move could affect hundreds of Somalis who fled civil war in their home country

Donald Trump said on Friday night that he’s “immediately” terminating temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota, further targeting a program seeking to limit deportations that his administration has already repeatedly sought to weaken.

Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community. Many fled the long civil war in the east African country and were drawn to the state’s welcoming social programs.

Continue reading...

Trump may yet impose a Ukraine deal – but it threatens to be a disaster for Kyiv

Posted on by

Ukraine could be forced into an agreement but plan as it stands seems too bizarre for Zelenskyy to sell to his public

We’ve been here before: the Trump administration announces a roadmap towards peace in Ukraine that seems to be dramatically skewed towards Moscow’s demands; Volodymyr Zelenskyy gets on the phone to alarmed European allies; they quickly call Trump to message him that the whole idea is unworkable; the plan quietly dies. Rinse and repeat.

This time it feels a bit different, however. Reports on Friday suggested the US has threatened that if Ukraine does not sign a hastily concocted peace plan, Washington could withdraw intelligence-sharing and other support critical to the Ukrainian war effort.

Continue reading...

Nigeria reels after 215 children taken in second mass school abduction in a week

Posted on by

Twelve teachers also kidnapped from Catholic school amid threats from Trump to intervene over ‘Christian genocide’

Unknown gunmen have abducted 215 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, the second mass abduction in the country in a week.

The latest kidnapping, in Papiri community in Niger state, came against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s threat to intervene militarily to end a “Christian genocide”, which the Nigerian government has denied is happening.

Continue reading...