Category Archives: Trump administration

US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

Posted on by

Hundreds of cases reported in the DRC after USAID has been dismantled and key scientific research canceled

A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts.

There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.

Continue reading...

Young Americans demand court halt Trump’s biggest rollbacks of pollution protections

Posted on by

Suit says administration is impinging on rights to life and liberty by worsening planet-warming and toxic pollution

Eighteen American youth are demanding that a court immediately halt the Trump administration’s repeal of the scientific finding underpinning virtually all US climate regulations.

The plaintiffs sued the Trump administration in February days after officials revoked the 2009 endangerment finding, which found that greenhouse gas pollution threatens public health and welfare. Filed in the Washington DC circuit court of appeals Venner v EPA alleges that the move infringes upon rights guaranteed by the US constitution, including to religious freedom, life and liberty.

Continue reading...

Trump may see himself in Ahmadinejad but having him lead Iran was a perplexing idea

Posted on by

Former Iranian president has a populist, headline-grabbing communication style but is an avowed anti-Zionist. How could Israel see him as a man to do business with?

For all their outward differences, there always seemed to be things that linked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Donald Trump.

A visit to the then Iranian president’s rather humble Tehran neighbourhood nearly 20 years ago highlighted cost of living problems that prefigured those facing Trump now.

Continue reading...

Rubio criticizes WHO’s Ebola response as US continues sweeping public health cuts

Posted on by

US secretary of state says WHO was ‘a little late’ in identifying deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) was “a little late” in identifying the deadly Ebola outbreak in the the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

On Tuesday, Rubio told reporters: “The lead is obviously going to be CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and the World Health Organization, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately.”

Continue reading...

Trump threatens ‘a big hit’ if Tehran does not make deal soon

Posted on by

Renewed threat comes after US president said he was ‘an hour away’ from ordering a strike before pulling back

Donald Trump has again threatened Iran, saying the US may launch new attacks if Tehran continues to refuse the significant concessions he wants before a deal can be struck to end the Middle East war.

The US president said he had called off a fresh wave of strikes, which would have broken the ceasefire in place since early last month. “I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Trump officials plan to repeal limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

Posted on by

EPA outlines effort to kill Biden-era rules as critics condemn RFK Jr and Lee Zeldin’s ‘hocus pocus’

The Trump administration has announced a plan to kill Biden-era drinking water limits on four Pfas “forever chemicals”, and to delay the implementation of standards for two other compounds.

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing two separate rules to delay and rescind the limits. The rules must go through an approval process that can take several years, and almost certainly will be challenged in court.

Continue reading...

Cuba warns US of ‘bloodbath’ if military action follows drone claims

Posted on by

Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, says any US strike would be catastrophic after reports of 300+ drones

Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has warned that any US military action against his country would lead to a “bloodbath” with incalculable consequences for regional peace and stability.

“Cuba does not represent a threat,” Díaz-Canel said in a post on X.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis live: Trump warns ‘clock is ticking’ for Iran to reach peace deal

Posted on by

US president says there ‘won’t be anything left’ of country if it doesn’t come to an agreement

Oman’s foreign ministry has condemned the drone strike that caused a fire at the perimeter of UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant on Sunday.

In a statement shared to X, the ministry expressed its solidarity with the UAE but stressed that it rejected all “hostile and escalatory acts” as it urged for dialogue to address regional issues and called for international law to be respected by all parties.

Continue reading...

Trump attacks Massie as Republican critic describes ‘desperate’ attempts to oust him from primary

Posted on by

US president writes ‘vote the bum out’ as congressman faces close race against Trump-endorsed Republican

With two days to go before the next big test of Donald Trump’s iron grip over his party, the president went head-to-head on Sunday with his nemesis, Thomas Massie the Kentucky congressman who is in a fight for his political life in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

Over an eight-hour period starting in the early hours of Sunday, Trump took to his bully pulpit on Truth Social to taunt Massie, one of very few senior Republicans who has dared to defy him. Massie is the “worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country”, the rant began, followed by a mid-morning exhortation to Kentucky voters to “vote the bum out on Tuesday”.

Continue reading...

Workers racing to turn reflecting pool blue for Trump may be at risk, union warns

Posted on by

Union representative concerned about safety as workers rush to finish repainting DC pool before 250th celebrations

Workers renovating one of Washington DC’s most historically symbolic sites in a project ordered by Donald Trump may be risking their safety as they race to finish on time for the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations, a union monitoring the site has warned.

Trade union scrutiny has focused on the reflecting pool on the US capital’s National Mall – scene of Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream speech” – after it was drained of water and fenced off from the public to allow contractors the chance to upgrade it by 4 July.

Continue reading...

Kash Patel faces scrutiny over snorkeling outing at USS Arizona memorial in Hawaii

Posted on by

FBI director reportedly took a snorkel excursion at site containing remains of more than 1,000 navy sailors and marines

The FBI director, Kash Patel, is facing new scrutiny following reports that he participated in a snorkeling excursion around the USS Arizona during a trip to Hawaii last summer.

The outing was first reported this week by the Associated Press, which obtained government emails describing the excursion as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona – the site that holds the remains of more than 1,000 US navy sailors and marines who died at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Continue reading...

Trump says Islamic State ‘second in command’ killed by US and Nigerian forces

Posted on by

US president calls Abu-Bilal al-Minuki ‘most active terrorist in the world’ and says he was eliminated in ‘very complex mission’

Donald Trump has said US and Nigerian forces killed the “second in command” global leader of the Islamic State.

“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” the US president said on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

Continue reading...

FDA turmoil deepens as top drug chief departs claiming she was fired

Posted on by

Dr Tracy Beth Høeg, the Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, says she was fired from agency after declining to resign

In a major shake-up at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), top regulators left on Friday – including Tracy Beth Høeg, the acting drug chief, who says she was fired, and Katherine Szarama, the acting vaccines chief who has only been in the position for days. Jim Traficant, the chief of staff, has also been ousted.

The FDA now has no permanent commissioner or deputy commissioner and no permanent leaders of two major centers, after the resignation of Marty Makary on Tuesday and other high-profile departures.

Continue reading...

Oman caught between US and Iran after Tehran’s claims of joint strait of Hormuz plan

Posted on by

Muscat silent about plans – opposed by US – to charge fee and demand details on nationality of all transiting ships

Oman has been caught in geopolitical crossfire after Iran said it was coordinating with the Gulf state over the future management of the strait of Hormuz, including Tehran’s plans to impose fees on commercial shipping.

The Omani exclave of Musandam lies to the south of the contested waterway, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traffic but has been blockaded for 10 weeks since the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February.

Continue reading...

Men in the mirror: Trump and Xi’s suits put ‘chameleon effect’ to test in Beijing

Posted on by

Mirroring of each other’s attire may signal alignment – though the look wasn’t a huge departure for either leader

When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.

Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties.

Continue reading...

13 men killed by US military boat strikes identified: ‘These were flesh-and-blood people’

Posted on by

All victims of US strikes in eastern Pacific and the Caribbean identified so far came from extremely poor communities

A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.

It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House.

Continue reading...

Judge orders Trump administration to return Colombian woman deported to DRC back to the US

Posted on by

Judge called Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata’s deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo ‘likely illegal’

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to bring a Colombian woman back to the US from the Democratic Republic of Congo, after she was deported to the African country that had refused to accept her.

The deportation of Adriana María Quiroz Zapata “was likely illegal”, the US district judge Richard Leon ruled on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Howard Lutnick said he had three ‘inconsequential’ meetings with Epstein

Posted on by

In House committee transcript, commerce secretary denied any further contact with disgraced financier

The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, told lawmakers in a closed-door interview earlier this month that he met Jeffrey Epstein only three times and had no “personal or professional relationship” with the disgraced financier, according to a newly released transcript of the meeting.

“I unequivocally condemn the conduct attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and everyone who participated in his illegal activities,” Lutnick said in his opening statement before the House oversight and reform committee.

Continue reading...

JD Vance threatens health funding to states that don’t comply with White House anti-fraud effort

Posted on by

Medicare has already paused hospice and home healthcare agency signups as potential fraud is investigated

JD Vance has threatened to “turn off” federal funding for government health insurance programs in states that refuse to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on suspected fraud.

States which fail to “get serious” about fraud would lose Medicaid and Medicare funding, the US vice-president announced on Wednesday, sparking fresh accusations that Trump officials are using unfounded allegations to punish political rivals.

Continue reading...

1MDB financier Jho Low seeks pardon from Donald Trump

Posted on by

Fugitive faces charges including corruption and money laundering in US and Malaysia for role he allegedly played in scandal

The fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, a central figure in the multibillion-dollar scandal at the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), is reportedly seeking a pardon from the US president, Donald Trump.

Low faces multiple charges including corruption and money laundering in the US and Malaysia for the important role he allegedly played in the misappropriation of at least $4.5bn (£3.3bn) from 1MDB.

Continue reading...