Trump plans executive order to make English the US’s official language

United States has never had national language at a federal level, with hundreds of languages spoken across country

Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would make English the official language of the US for the first time.

The order would also rescind a federal mandate issued by the former president Bill Clinton that agencies and other recipients of federal funding are required to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal.

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US defense secretary saw few political drawbacks in backing joint chiefs ouster

Pete Hegseth viewed his political odds as being unchanged in pushing Trump to fire Gen Charles Brown

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, saw few political consequences in supporting Donald Trump’s ouster of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff because he never had the support of the senators who wanted Gen Charles Brown to remain in the role, advisers close to the secretary said.

The ramifications of Trump’s decision to fire Brown and seven other senior officials at the Pentagon took on new urgency on Thursday after five former defense secretaries, outraged at Trump’s firings, urged Congress to hold hearings and extract justifications for their dismissals under oath.

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Ex-US defence chiefs urge congressional hearings on Trump’s military firings

Trump’s first defence secretary James Mattis among five to express alarm at ‘reckless’ dismissals of top military figures

Five former US defence secretaries have demanded congressional hearings on Donald Trump’s firings of several military commanders, including the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, saying it was done for “purely partisan reasons” and weakens national security.

The five – including James Mattis, who served as defence secretary during Trump’s first presidency – wrote in a letter that they were “deeply alarmed” by the dismissals, which they said were “reckless” and unjustified by operational reason.

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US shutdown of HIV/Aids funding ‘could lead to 500,000 deaths in South Africa’

USAid cuts to clinics dispensing antiretroviral drugs will be ‘death sentence for mothers and children’, expert warns

Sweeping notices of termination of funding have been received by organisations working with HIV and Aids across Africa, with dire predictions of a huge rise in deaths as a result.

After the US announced a permanent end to funding for HIV projects, services across the board have been affected, say doctors and programme managers, from projects helping orphans and pregnant women to those reaching transgender individuals and sex workers.

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Mexico releases 29 high-level organized crime operatives into US custody

Prisoners, including Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited as Mexico faces pressure to show it’s tackling fentanyl trafficking

Mexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the US, as it faces intense pressure from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling fentanyl trafficking.

Among the prisoners sent to the US was Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord who was convicted of the murder of an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985.

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Trump says Putin would keep his word on a Ukraine peace deal

President claims presence of US workers in Ukraine would deter Russian aggression after talks with Keir Starmer

Donald Trump has insisted that Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” on a peace deal for Ukraine, arguing that US workers extracting critical minerals in the country would act as a security backstop to deter Russia from invading again.

During highly anticipated talks at the White House with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president said that Putin could be trusted not to breach any agreement, which could aim to return as much of the land as possible to Ukraine that was seized by Russia during the brutal three-year conflict.

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Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he was fired from coaching job after Maga protest

  • 43-year-old was arrested at city council meeting
  • Former player was coaching local high school

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he has been fired from his job as a high school football coach after his protest at a city council meeting in California.

Kluwe was arrested at the Huntington Beach city council meeting last week, at which he spoke out against the decision to erect a plaque at a local library. The plaque features the words “Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing and Adventurous” and the city commission confirmed it was a reference to Maga. The former Minnesota Vikings player then made critical comments about the Trump administration before saying he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience” and walked on to the meeting’s stage. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting an assembly.

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Colorado woman charged with vandalizing Tesla dealership

Lucy Grace Nelson is accused of throwing molotov cocktails and spray-painting ‘Nazi cars’ on the EV maker’s building

Federal prosecutors have charged a woman in a string of vandalism incidents against a Colorado Tesla dealership, including throwing molotov cocktails at vehicles and spray-painting “Nazi cars” on the building along with a message that appeared directed at company co-founder Elon Musk.

The case comes amid rising concerns voiced by Democrats and some Republicans about Musk’s influence over the administration of Donald Trump and follows recent protests at Tesla showrooms elsewhere in the US.

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US deportees in ‘black box’ in Panama with no access to counsel, lawyers say

About 112 people held in immigration center deep in the jungle are unable to communicate with their attorneys

Lawyers for immigrants from around the world who were deported from the United States and moved to a remote jungle camp in Panama say they have been unable to communicate with their clients since they arrived there.

About 112 deported people are being held in the “San Vicente” immigration center deep in the dense jungle that separates Panama from Colombia, according to Panamanian authorities. Their future is uncertain as they wait to see whether they will be granted asylum in Panama or elsewhere.

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Trump administration ends funding for UN program fighting HIV/Aids

Peter Marocco sends letter to UNAids terminating US involvement in serious blow to live-saving health service

The Trump administration has terminated its funding of the joint United Nations program on HIV/Aids, known as UNAids, delivering another devastating blow to the global fight against the disease.

The notice that US funding of UNAids is being cut off is the latest move by the administration to end American involvement in life-saving health and anti-poverty programs around the world. It was issued by Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist who is spearheading the evisceration of the US overseas aid program through USAid.

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Trump threatens China with additional 10% tariff in escalation of trade war

US president also insists delayed tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico will go into effect on 4 March

Donald Trump has threatened China with an additional 10% tariff on its exports to the US, setting the stage for another significant escalation in his trade war with Beijing.

The US president also claimed that he plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting next Tuesday, having delayed their imposition last month following talks with his counterparts.

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Transgender US military personnel must be identified and stood down, says Pentagon memo

Being transgender is not compatible with service, court filing says, foreshadowing removal of people from service within 60 days

Transgender service members will be separated from the US military unless they receive an exemption, according to a Pentagon memo filed in court on Wednesday – essentially banning them from joining or serving in the armed forces.

Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way – at one point saying that a man identifying as a woman was “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member”.

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Top Democrat says Trump may seek mineral deal with both Russia and Ukraine

Jeanne Shaheen discusses Trump’s demand that Kyiv grant US firms access to rare-earth reserves for helping end war

Donald Trump may be pursuing a mineral rights deal with Vladimir Putin and Russia as well as with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine, a top Senate Democrat has warned, discussing the US president’s demand that Kyiv grant US firms access to 50% of its rare-earth reserves, as a price for helping end the war three years after Russia invaded.

I think anything that helps position Ukraine for any peace negotiations is a positive move,” said Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate foreign relations and armed services committee, who recently visited Ukraine.

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Trump plans to cut more than 90% of USAid foreign aid contracts

Internal memo and court filings reveal president to also eliminate $60bn in overall US assistance around world

The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60bn in overall US assistance around the world.

The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAid projects for advocates to try to save in what are current court battles with the administration.

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Trump signs executive order expanding power of Elon Musk’s Doge agency

Order calls for ‘transformation’ in US spending on contracts, grants and loans by requiring centralized payment system

Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order meant to expand the power of Elon Musk’s governmental cost-cutting program, the so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge.

The new order calls for a “transformation” in federal spending on contracts, grants and loans by requiring agencies to create a centralized system to record and justify payments, which may be made public for transparency – an initiative that would be monitored by Musk’s team.

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What will Keir Starmer try to achieve during talks with Donald Trump?

British prime minister heads to Washington as Europe reels from seismic shift in relations with US president

Keir Starmer heads to Washington on Wednesday for a visit that will be brief but watched intensely not just in the UK but in many other European capitals – particularly Kyiv. What will the prime minister hope to get from his talks with Donald Trump on Thursday? And just as importantly, how can he get the US president to listen? These will be the main issues.

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US climate research agency braces for ‘efficiency’ cuts: ‘They will gut the work’

Workers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fear crackdown will have global fallout

The Trump administration has set its sights on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency, with significant cuts and a political crackdown on climate science. As Trump takes aim at the agency, the impact is likely to be felt across the US and around the world.

Noaa provides essential resources to the public and has helped make the US a scientific leader internationally. Operating 18 satellites and 15 research and survey ships, the agency’s scientists, engineers and policy experts issue forecasts relied on by aviation, agriculture and fishing industries; ocean floor mapping depended upon for shipping; advises on species protection, and increasingly precise and accurate modeling on what to expect as climate crisis unfolds.

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Trump may rue firing experts when environmental rollbacks land in court

Advocacy groups are better prepared than the first term for legal challenges – but will the administration obey rulings?

Amid spending freezes and policy rollbacks from Donald Trump, environmental advocacy groups are gearing up for a long series of legal showdowns with the administration.

The experience of suing Trump during his first term has left the movement better prepared, but the court battles will still be daunting, with the administration appearing to test the nation’s legal boundaries in an effort to consolidate power under the executive branch.

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Donald Trump orders new tariff investigation into US copper imports

President opens new front in assault on global trade norms as advisers claim China moving to dominate copper market

Donald Trump on Tuesday opened yet another front in his assault on global trade norms, ordering a new investigation into possible tariffs on copper imports to rebuild US production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, semiconductors and a wide range of consumer goods.

Trump, looking to thwart what his advisers see as a move by China to dominate the global copper market, signed an order directing commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to start a new national security investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the same law that Trump used in his first term to impose 25% global tariffs on steel and aluminum.

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US judge blocks Trump’s suspension of refugee resettlement program

US district judge in Seattle says Trump’s executive order exceeded his powers by shutting down program

A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to suspend the US’s refugee admission system after ruling that the move exceeded his powers.

The ruling, from US district judge Jamal Whitehead, stated that Trump’s executive order affecting refugee admissions, issued on the day of his inauguration, amounted to an illegal usurpation of the powers of Congress.

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