Category Archives: Trump administration

US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry

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Rights groups in Gaza and Ramallah had asked international criminal court to investigate Israel over genocide claims

The US has imposed sanctions against three Palestinian human rights groups that asked the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate Israel over allegations of genocide in Gaza, according to a notice posted to the US treasury department’s website.

The three groups – the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Ramallah-based Al-Haq – were listed under what the treasury department said were ICC-related designations.

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Trump hosts US tech leaders at White House dinner – minus Elon Musk

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Tesla CEO’s absence is marked departure from his constant presence at the White House in early days of Trump 2.0

As Donald Trump hosted leaders from the biggest US tech companies at a lavish White House state dining room dinner on Thursday night, there was one notable absence. Elon Musk, once inseparable from Trump and a constant, contentious presence in the White House, was not in attendance.

The dinner, which included Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, was exactly the type of event where Musk would have sat at Trump’s right hand only a few months ago. Instead, the Tesla CEO stated on his social media platform X that he had been invited but could not make it. He said he planned to send a representative and spent the day on X posting a familiar stream of attacks on immigration and trans people.

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US justice department opens criminal inquiry into Fed governor Lisa Cook

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Officials to investigate claims of mortgage fraud against Cook, who has refused to accept firing by Donald Trump

The US justice department has initiated a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud claims against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook as a lawsuit she filed against Donald Trump over her firing makes its way through court.

Lawyers with the justice department have issued subpoenas for the investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal, who first reported the investigation, which has since been confirmed by multiple news publications.

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Macron says 26 nations ready to provide postwar military backing to Ukraine

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French president says allies would either deploy ‘reassurance force’ troops to Ukraine, or be present in the area on land, sea or in the air

Twenty-six nations have pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international force on land and sea and in the air, Emmanuel Macron said after a summit at which European leaders sought to pin down Donald Trump on the level of support he is willing to give Kyiv.

“The day the conflict stops, the security guarantees will be deployed,” the French president told a press conference at the Élysée Palace in Paris, standing alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Trump asks US supreme court to overturn trade tariffs ruling

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Move follows federal appeals court decision that sweeping ‘liberation day’ levies on imports had overstepped presidential powers

Donald Trump has asked the US supreme court to overturn a lower court decision that most of his sweeping trade tariffs were illegal.

The US president filed a petition late on Wednesday to ask for a review of last week’s federal appeals court ruling in Washington DC, which centred on his “liberation day” border taxes introduced on 2 April, which imposed levies of between 10% and 50% on most US imports, sending shock waves through global trade and markets.

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Louisiana prison chosen for immigration detainees due to its notoriety, says Noem

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Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said she hoped it would encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport

The Trump administration purposefully chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday.

A complex inside the Louisiana state penitentiary, an immense rural prison better known as Angola, will be used to detain those whom Noem described as the “worst of the worst” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. Noem was speaking to reporters as she stood on the grounds of the facility near a new sign reading, “Louisiana Lockup.”

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Only two more Republicans needed to force vote on Epstein files release, bill co-sponsor says – live

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Donald Trump calls clamor over Jeffrey Epstein files a ‘Democrat hoax that never ends’ as bipartisan group of lawmakers try to force vote on legislation

As part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations, the defense department will soon have hundreds of military judges work on immigration cases, the Associated Press reports:

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the federal justice department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press.

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Top Obama-era Latin American expert warns of ‘disastrous’ US intervention in Venezuela

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US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South America

The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.

Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.

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Democrats call for firing of January 6 defendant who works at justice department

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Jared Wise, a DoJ senior adviser, urged fellow rioters to kill police officers during the 2021 Capitol attack

A January 6 defendant who urged fellow rioters to kill police officers should be fired from his job at the justice department, three senate Democrats wrote in a letter to US attorney general Pam Bondi on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, the defendant, Jared Wise, was hired as a counselor to Ed Martin, a prominent January 6 defense lawyer who is leading a so-called weaponization working group inside the justice department that is targeting Trump’s political rivals. The scope of Wise’s role remains unclear.

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Democrats blast state department for lack of ‘basic oversight’ of controversial Gaza food organization

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Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

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California bill requires families to be alerted of immigration agents on school campuses

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Bill says state and community colleges must have ‘early warning systems in place’ amid Trump’s deportation push

California lawmakers have passed a bill requiring schools to alert families and teachers when immigration enforcement authorities are on campuses as the Trump administration continues its aggressive mass deportation campaign.

Under the bill, K-12 schools, state universities and community colleges must notify students, faculty and staff, “similar to early warning systems in place for other campus emergencies”, according to a statement from state senator Sasha Renée Pérez, who authored the legislation.

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US appeals court reinstates FTC commissioner fired by Trump

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Win for Rebecca Slaughter as court rules commissioners may not be dismissed by a president without cause

A divided US appeals court on Tuesday allowed US Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, to resume her role at the agency, as Donald Trump tries to remove her from office.

In a 2-1 decision, the District of Columbia circuit court of appeals allowed a lower court decision in favor of Slaughter to take effect, rejecting the Trump administration’s request to delay the ruling during its appeal.

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US conducts ‘kinetic strike’ against drug boat from Venezuela, killing 11, Trump says

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Trump says ‘we took it out’ referring to the operation in international waters, amid US-Caracas tensions

The US military has killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela during a “a kinetic strike” in the Caribbean Sea, the US president, Donald Trump, has claimed amid growing tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Trump trailed the announcement during an address at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters the US had “just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out … a drug-carrying boat”.

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Lawyers say men deported by US to Eswatini are being imprisoned illegally

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The men, who had been released after serving criminal sentences, are from Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Jamaica and Yemen

Lawyers for five men deported by the US to Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, said they are being denied proper access to their clients, who they said are being imprisoned illegally.

The men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba have criminal convictions, but had all served their sentences and been released in the US, their lawyers said. The US deported them to the small southern African country without warning in July, claiming they were “depraved monsters”.

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Trump illegally deployed national guard during LA Ice protests, judge rules

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Judge said administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany Ice agents on immigration raids

A judge has ruled the Trump administration’s use of national guard troops during southern California immigration enforcement protests is illegal.

Judge Charles Breyer ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on immigration raids. The judge did not require the remaining troops withdrawn, however.

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Guatemala says it is willing to receive hundreds of deported children from US

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Announcement comes a day after a US federal judge halted the deportation of 10 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors

Guatemala is ready and willing to receive about 150 unaccompanied children of all ages each week from the United States, the country’s president has said, a day after a US federal judge halted the deportation of 10 Guatemalan children.

Those children had already boarded a plane when a court responded to an emergency appeal on Sunday. They were later returned to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

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US reportedly suspends visa approvals for nearly all Palestinian passport holders

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Restrictions to prevent travel for healthcare and college and come after denying visas to Palestinian Authority leaders

The United States has suspended visa approvals for nearly everyone who holds a Palestinian passport, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The restrictions go beyond those Donald Trump’s administration had previously announced on visitors from Gaza. They would prevent Palestinians from traveling to the United States for medical treatment, attending college and business travel, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials.

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Judge orders US to halt deportation of hundreds of Guatemalan children

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Washington judge says unaccompanied children cannot be deported for at least 14 days as legal process unfolds

A US judge on Sunday ordered an emergency halt to a plan by the Trump administration to deport a group of nearly 700 unaccompanied Guatemalan children back to their home country after immigrant advocates lawyers called the plan “illegal”.

Attorneys for 10 Guatemalan minors, ages 10 to 17, said in court papers filed late on Saturday that there were reports that planes were set to take off within hours for the Central American country. But a federal judge in Washington said those children couldn’t be deported for at least 14 days, and after a hastily scheduled hearing on Sunday, she enforced that they needed to be taken off the planes and back to the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities while the legal process plays out.

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JB Pritzker calls for ‘all to stand up’ to Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago

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President is preparing for controversial federal takeover of US city in crusade against immigration ‘sanctuary cities’

Illinois’s governor JB Pritzker has called on “all to stand up” to Donald Trump as the US president prepares to launch a federally led immigration crackdown across Chicago, a plan which has been met with widespread backlash from local leaders and the public.

Pritzker’s comments come as White House officials vow to target Chicago next in its sweeping immigration crackdowns across the country. Recently, the White House requested that a US military base on the outskirts of Chicago assist with immigration operations as the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”.

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Trump says he plans unconstitutional executive order to mandate ID for voters

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President also wants to ban most voting by mail in push stemming from baseless claims related to 2020 election loss

Donald Trump has said he will issue an executive order to mandate identification for all US elections, a move likely to be challenged in court as unconstitutional.

“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!,” the US president said on Truth Social late on Saturday.

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