The president wants to detain thousands of people at a site that is notorious for its secrecy and history of abuse
It has been denounced as “America’s gulag”: a secretive, abuse-ridden Caribbean prison camp for terror suspects that Donald Rumsfeld once said contained “the worst of the worst”.
“All of us have scars in our souls, deformities, from living at Guantánamo,” a former Yemeni inmate recalled of his time at the notorious military detention facility in south-east Cuba.
Continue reading...Abrupt decision to pause all foreign aid could exacerbate violence in region already struggling with organized crime
The Trump administration’s abrupt decision to immediately pause all US foreign aid programmes could exacerbate violence in Latin America, driving more migration from a region already struggling with the rise of organised crime, experts have warned.
The world’s largest aid provider by far, the US disbursed $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to South American countries in the 2023 financial year, funding a broad range of projects, including humanitarian, military, environmental and economic aid.
Continue reading...Howard Lutnick testified at his US Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination to head commerce department
Donald Trump’s nominee to run the commerce department, Howard Lutnick, said on Wednesday that Canada and Mexico can avoid looming US tariffs if they act swiftly to close their borders to fentanyl, while vowing to slow China’s advancement in artificial intelligence.
Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street CEO, at his US Senate confirmation hearing said he has advised Trump to pursue across-the-board tariffs country by country to restore “reciprocity” to America’s trading relationships and said he would erect stronger curbs on China’s access to US technology, including advanced AI semiconductors.
Continue reading...President has made clear he wants rates to fall as benchmark interest rate now sits at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%
Federal Reserve officials decided on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady as uncertainty over Donald Trump’s impact on the US economy looms and inflation remains above the central bank’s target levels.
This is the first time Fed policymakers have met since the president, who has made clear he wants rates to fall, returned to the White House. The benchmark interest rate now sits at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
Continue reading...Move come after federal judge blocked freeze that disrupted payments to medical and childcare providers
Donald Trump’s administration pulled back a proposed spending freeze that threatened to disrupt hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to US programs, a White House official said on Wednesday.
The first major domestic policy reversal of the Republican president’s new term came after one federal judge had temporarily blocked the freeze and before another judge was due to hear a separate legal challenge. The proposal had thrown the federal government into chaos and disrupted payments to medical and childcare providers.
Continue reading...Advocates say email sent to 3 million employees offering resignations is dangerous and ‘of questionable legality’
Federal workers and their advocates on Wednesday condemned the Trump administration’s attempt to encourage them to resign en masse, describing an unprecedented email from the government’s human resources department office as a ham-handed attempt to create hostility in their workplaces and offer a false promise of an easy transition out of government service.
On Tuesday, the US office of personnel management (OPM) sent nearly all of its 3 million employees an email offering them deferred resignations and warning that, if they choose to stay, they may be laid off or reassigned.
Continue reading...Government employees’ union says offer pressures career workers to quit and will cause chaos in federal programs
The Trump administration has offered federal workers buyouts worth more than seven months’ salary if they would leave their jobs by 6 February as the White House attempts to slash the civil service in an unprecedented overhaul of US government.
The office of personnel management, the government’s human resources agency, sent a memo to the federal workforce on Tuesday evening with four directives that it says Trump is mandating, including a full-time return to the office for most employees. It also said that the federal workforce would be subjected to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” and warned that most agencies would be downsized.
Continue reading...Press secretary Karoline Leavitt says late-night dismissals came after White House’s personnel office issued memo
The justice department fired more than a dozen federal prosecutors involved in the two criminal prosecutions against Donald Trump after receiving instructions to do so from the White House, indicating the late-night purge was a political directive that deputized the justice department.
The termination of the career prosecutors were ostensibly at the direction of the acting attorney general, James McHenry, according to the notices sent to anyone remaining on the trial team of 18 who had worked for former special counsel Jack Smith.
Continue reading...Memo says social security and Medicare are excluded but congressional Democrats express ‘extreme alarm’
Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has paused all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government, potentially upending programs relied upon by millions of Americans.
In a two-page internal memo, Matthew Vaeth, Trump’s acting head of the office of management and budget (OMB), instructed all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
Continue reading...A pregnant mother from Venezuela responds to Trump’s executive order that would render her baby stateless
On his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an order ending constitutionally recognized right of birthright citizenship. Thousands of expecting parents across the US suddenly had to consider that their babies would be born into a legal limbo.
Among them is Monica, a woman expecting her first child after escaping political persecution in Venezuela. If Trump’s order stands, Monica’s baby will be born stateless.
Continue reading...Council including defense and homeland security secretaries will report within 180 days on future of agency
Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into whether there should be a radical shake-up of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the US government’s body for responding to natural disasters, after saying he supported its abolition.
In a new executive order, the returning president appointed a review council to examine the workings of the agency, which he accused of political bias and of denying aid to his supporters.
Continue reading...TV personality embeds in one of several raids in US cities in what Tom Homan says are only ‘beginning stages’
The TV personality Dr Phil joined the US border czar, Tom Homan, in a choreographed immigration raid in Chicago, one of several conducted in US cities over the weekend in what Homan claimed was only “the beginning stages” of Donald Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests – short of the 1,200 to 1,500 daily arrests that Trump has reportedly demanded. The Washington Post reported that Trump’s White House has issued a directive to Ice field offices that they should make 75 arrests daily and that agency managers would be held responsible for missed targets, raising fears of indiscriminate arrest tactics.
Continue reading...Experts say any incursion could come with serious repercussions, include violence against US tourists
Evan Hafer, a popular veteran and founder of Black Rifle Coffee, was on Joe Rogan’s podcast after the November election. As with any Maga acolyte, the US-Mexico border figured prominently in his mind.
“If we declare war on the cartel, these dudes are not going to understand what the fuck is going on. They are in for a world of ultra-violence,” said Hafer, who served in the Green Berets and the CIA.
Continue reading...Executive order comes two days after visit to LA, which has been devastated by wildfires that burned over 35,000 acres
Donald Trump on Sunday issued an executive order directing the federal government to override the state of California’s water management practices if they are found to be ineffective.
The order comes two days after the president visited the Los Angeles region, which has been devastated by a series of wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and burned more than 35,000 acres.
Continue reading...Ice confirms ‘enhanced targeted operations’ in a city on edge after Trump officials warned of enforcement actions
US federal authorities have begun immigration raids in Chicago, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) statement confirmed on Sunday, just days after incoming “border czar” Tom Homan said officials were “reconsidering” after details leaked into the press.
In a statement, Ice said its agents, along with the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the US Marshals Service, had begun conducting “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago “to enforce US immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities”.
Continue reading...Former secretary of state has faced threats from Iran since since he took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic
The Ohio Republican Mike Turner said on Sunday’s Face the Nation he is “very concerned” for former secretary of state Mike Pompeo after Donald Trump revoked his security detail earlier in the week.
Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, who have faced threats from Iran since they took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic during Trump’s first administration, were told of the loss of protection on Wednesday evening.
Continue reading...Official cites review of course curriculum at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where new recruits get basic training
Donald Trump’s order halting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has led the US air force to suspend course instruction on a documentary about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a US official said on Saturday.
The famed Black aviators included 450 pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during the second world war. Their success in combat helped pave the way for Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948.
Continue reading...Far-right chatrooms are abuzz as extremists plan to use the next four years as ‘breathing room’ and look to expand
One week into Donald Trump’s second administration and the verdict among far-right activists and neo-Nazis is that the next four years will be a time to relax, organize and take advantage of the popular awakening of American fascism.
“Be ready to cash out the next four years,” wrote one delighted neo-Nazi account on Telegram, in a post viewed more than 1,000 times. “Get the bag, infiltrate existing institutions with power, build new institutions while we have breathing room, and tear down anything leftist.”
Continue reading...Amy Spitalnick of Jewish Council for Public Affairs warns far right will take action as ‘license for violent extremism’
The head of a prominent US Jewish civil rights body said Elon Musk’s repeated fascist-style salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration could act as a spur for violent extremists.
“The salute itself should be enough to warrant condemnation and attention,” said Amy Spitalnick, adding that so should “the ways extremists see an action like this and take it as license for their own violent extremism”.
Continue reading...In first week in office, president has made false claims on topics from immigration and economy to Panama canal
Donald Trump had been US president again for less than 15 minutes when he made his first factually dubious claim.
“The vicious, violent and unfair weaponisation of the justice department and our government will end,” he said early in his inaugural address. There is no evidence that former president Joe Biden ordered the justice department to prosecute Trump and no violence took place.
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