Berlin checking if US immigration policy has changed after Fabian Schmidt becomes third German to be detained
Berlin is investigating whether US immigration policy has changed, after a German national who is a permanent US resident was detained and “violently interrogated” by US border officials.
Fabian Schmidt, 34, is being held at a detention centre in Rhode Island after attempting to return to his home in New Hampshire after a trip to Luxembourg.
Continue reading...Advocates warn firings and funding freezes already risk poisoning drinking water and decimating fish population
Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s attacks on federal agencies and funding freezes will be “cataclysmic” for the environment of the sensitive Great Lakes region if not reversed, industry and environmental advocates in the region warn.
Initial actions taken since Trump returned to the White House in January – and put Musk in charge of slashing the federal government – already risk poisoning drinking water, decimating fish populations, and risking the jobs and health of tens of millions of people who rely on the lake system, they add.
Continue reading...Error message previously shown on Maj Gen Rogers’s site as officials argue that it’s wrong to call diversity a strength
The US defense department webpage celebrating a Black Medal of Honor recipient that was removed and had the letters “DEI” added to the site’s address has been restored – and the letters scrubbed – after an outcry. But defense department officials have continued to argue publicly that it is wrong to say that diversity is a strength, and that it’s essential to dismantle all “diversity, equity and inclusion” efforts.
On Saturday, the Guardian reported that US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a “404” error message – and that the URL had been changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.
Continue reading...Remaining members of board – Pete Hegeth, Marco Rubio and Peter Garvin – fire president of independent non-profit
The Trump administration fired most of the board of the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and sent its new leader into the Washington DC headquarters of the independent organization on Monday, in its latest effort targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.
The remaining three members of the group’s board – defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and national defense university president Peter Garvin – fired president and CEO, George Moose, on Friday, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Administration claims it didn’t stop flights despite judge’s instructions because he did not write it in the formal order
The Trump administration claimed to a federal judge on Monday that it did not recall deportation flights of hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members over the weekend despite his specific instructions because that was not expressly included in the formal written order issued afterwards.
The administration also said that even if James Boasberg, the chief US district judge in Washington, had included that instruction in his formal order, his authority to compel the planes to return disappeared the moment the planes entered international airspace.
Continue reading...Webpage listing statistics and information on shootings taken down as Trump seeks to protect second amendment
The Trump administration has removed former surgeon general Vivek Murthy’s advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ website. This move was made to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order to protect second amendment rights, a White House official told the Guardian.
The “firearm violence in America” page, where the advisory had been posted, was filled with data and information about the ripple effects of shootings, the prevalence of firearm suicides and the number of American children and adolescents who have been shot and killed. Now, when someone reaches the site they will be met with a “page not found” message.
Continue reading...Trump administration used Alien Enemies Act to deport about 250 alleged gang members to El Salvador
The White House has denied allegations that it engaged in a “a blatant violation” of a judge’s order by deporting about 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador on Saturday, with the US border czar appearing to contradict the denial on Monday by declaring: “I don’t care what the judges think.”
The US district judge James E Boasberg has scheduled a hearing for Monday afternoon to demand an explanation about why his Saturday order temporarily blocking the deportation flights had apparently been ignored.
Continue reading...Raphaël Glucksmann quips that US should give back 19th-century gift from France over Trump’s approach to Ukraine
A French European parliament member has quipped that the US should return the Statue of Liberty, which it received as a gift from France about 140 years ago, after Donald Trump’s decision “to side with the tyrants” against Ukraine.
Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, then responded to Raphaël Glucksmann on Monday by calling him an “unnamed low-level French politician” and saying the US would keep the statue.
Continue reading...James Boasberg sets 4pm ET hearing as rights groups say Trump deportation of Venezuelans could be ‘blatant violation’ of court order
The justice department says that Rasha Alawieh, a kidney specialist working in Rhode Island who was deported to Lebanon despite having a US visa, had “sympathetic” photos and videos of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, according to Politico.
Alawieh’s deportation raised concerns because a judge had required 48 hours’ notice before being sent out of the country, and because she was detained despite having a valid visa and a job in the United States. Her lawyers have alleged that Customs and Border Protection ignored that order, and Massachusetts federal judge Leo Sorokin is expected to consider the matter this morning.
Continue reading...Russia and allies were target of International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine
The Trump administration is withdrawing from an international body formed to investigate responsibility for the invasion of Ukraine in the latest sign that the White House is adopting a posture favouring Vladimir Putin.
The Department of Justice said it was pulling out of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) two years after the Biden administration joined it with a commitment to hold Putin, Russia’s president, to account for the 2022 invasion and subsequent crimes committed by Russian forces.
Continue reading...Rasha Alawieh’s case highlights Donald Trump’s escalating immigration policies and tensions with universities
A Brown University medical professor was deported to Lebanon over the weekend despite having a valid US work visa, defying a judge’s order blocking her immediate removal from the country.
The case centering on Rasha Alawieh, 34, comes as Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has been escalating its immigration policies and attacking universities.
Continue reading...President claims without evidence that January 6 panel members’ pre-emptive clemency was not signed personally
Donald Trump claimed on Monday, without offering evidence, that pardons signed by Joe Biden were “void, vacant and of no further force and effect” because they were signed with an autopen.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an autopen as “a device that mechanically reproduces a person’s signature”.
Continue reading...US official urges stop to plan to re-evaluate Biden program to connect communities to high-speed internet, which will likely benefit Starlink
Small town USA is facing a “significant risk” that the Trump administration is going to abandon key elements of a $42.45bn Biden-era plan to connect rural communities to high-speed internet so that Elon Musk can get even richer, a top departing commerce department official warned in an email.
Evan Feinman, who headed up the so-called Bead program for the last three years, urged governors across the country to lobby their congressional delations in Washington to stop the Trump administration from implementing plans he said could have “deeply negative outcomes” for American homes and businesses.
Continue reading...Planned missiles on Kyushu said to be part of ‘counterstrike capabilities’, as fears grow over US security pact
Japan is planning to deploy long-range missiles on its southern island of Kyushu amid concerns around the Trump administration’s stance towards its security pacts and continuing regional tensions.
The missiles, with a range of about 1,000km, would be capable of hitting targets in North Korea and China’s coastal regions, and are due to be deployed next year in two bases with existing missile garrisons. They would bolster the defences of the strategically important Okinawa island chain and are part of Japan’s development of “counterstrike capabilities” in the event it is attacked, according to reports from Kyodo News agency, citing government sources.
Continue reading...Christian organizations helped create Pepfar, credited with preventing 25m early deaths, particularly in Africa
Christian evangelical organizations instrumental in creating the US program that has saved millions of lives from HIV/Aids are pressing the Trump administration to rescue the scheme from crushing cuts to foreign assistance.
The state department has said that the two-decade-old President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), which is estimated to have prevented 25m early deaths, is exempt from the cancellation of most US overseas aid. But the program is heavily reliant on logistical support from the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which has seen most of its projects killed off.
Continue reading...Page honoring Charles C Rogers for his Vietnam war service is now defunct with letters “DEI” added to website address
The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters “DEI” added to the site’s address.
On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a “404” error message. The URL was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Doctor Who writer says he feels ‘a wave of anger heading towards us’ and hostility in UK as well as US
Russell T Davies has said gay society is in the “greatest danger I have ever seen”, since the election of Donald Trump as US president in November.
Speaking to the Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards in Manchester on Friday, the Doctor Who screenwriter said the rise in hostility was not limited to the US but “is here [in the UK] now”.
Continue reading...By standard measures such as job and GDP growth and the stock market, the US economy was in excellent shape
Donald Trump keeps saying he inherited a terrible economy from Joe Biden and many Americans believe him, even though that’s not true. During his White House marketing event for Tesla on Tuesday, Trump said the US and its economy “went to hell” under Biden. Last week, in his national address to Congress, Trump said: “We inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.”
But the truth is that by standard economic measures, the US economy was in excellent shape when Biden turned over the White House keys to Trump, even though most Americans, upset about inflation, told pollsters the economy was in poor shape.
Continue reading...Don Farrell points out most Australian beef exported to US goes to fast food giant McDonald’s
Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.
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Continue reading...After a SpaceX rocket exploded, investors offloaded Tesla shares and Doge hit legal roadblocks, the world’s richest man saw his fortune sink by $100bn
Elon Musk began the week of 10 March with a friendly sit-down interview on Fox Business to talk about his work with the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and the state of his businesses. Already, it had been a trying few days for the world’s richest man, who was facing a Tesla stock selloff and fierce backlash over his attempts to radically overhaul the federal government. His net worth declined over $22bn on Monday alone.
After Musk jokingly brushed off initial questions about the mounting pressure, host Larry Kudlow asked the Tesla and SpaceX CEO how he was managing to run his numerous companies amid the chaos.
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