Following is a summary of present US domestic news briefs.
US to use AI to withdraw visas of students it views as Hamas advocates, Axios reports
The U.S. State Department will use synthetic intelligence to withdraw visas of foreign students who it perceives as fans of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior State Department authorities. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to fight antisemitism and has actually pledged to deport non-citizen university and others who participated in pro-Palestinian protests that have actually been continuous for months in the middle of Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack.
CIA fires an undefined number of new officers
The Central Intelligence Agency fired a slew of recent hires today, 3 people acquainted with the matter said, cuts that existing and previous U.S. intelligence officers alerted would risk harmful U.S. national security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s brand-new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump presides over enormous federal workforce reductions overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Veterans, farm groups slam Trump cuts at Democrat-run Arizona town hall
Arizona farm groups and veterans combined by Democratic attorney generals of the United States blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal cuts, saying the president was disregarding judges who blocked his executive orders and hurting former service members. They spoke at an often raucous town hall on Wednesday night arranged by the nation’s 23 Democratic chief law officers, who have filed lawsuits to ask judges to block a string of Trump executive orders, including his suspension of trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans and financial assistance.
‘We’re in a dark space,’ US judge says on rising threats
Threats versus U.S. judges are increasing and attorneys must do more to push back versus heated rhetoric, 4 federal judges said in a panel discussion on Thursday. Speaking at an American Bar Association conference on clerical criminal activity in Miami, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware of Las Vegas federal court stated hazards against the judiciary had actually gone up “greatly.”
Trump’s FDA candidate tepidly backs function for vaccine consultants in guarded Senate look
Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s candidate to run the U.S. FDA, informed lawmakers on Thursday he would assemble a committee of vaccine advisors but said he would reevaluate which scientific problems require their input. It was one of numerous concerns on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins doctor, kept his cards near his chest while facing the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for 2 hours.
Trump tells cabinet secretaries they, not Musk, are in charge of staff cuts
U.S. President Donald Trump told his cabinet members on Thursday that they, not Elon Musk, have the last word on staffing and policy at their agencies, according to a source acquainted with the matter. The billionaire Tesla CEO and his Department of Government Efficiency will play an advisory role just, Trump stated, according to the source. Musk remained in the room and told the cabinet he was good with Trump’s plan, the source said.
Promote permanent US daylight conserving time frozen as Trump says Americans are divided
A three-year congressional effort to make daytime saving time irreversible in the United States appears to have halted, with President Donald Trump stating on Thursday that Americans are equally divided over the concern. Daylight conserving time – putting the clocks forward one hour during the summertime half of the year to make the many of the longer evenings – has actually remained in place in almost all of the United States because the 1960s, but proponents have actually pressed to make it year-round.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs deals with new indictment, is implicated of ‘required labor’
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday revealed a new indictment versus Sean “Diddy” Combs, implicating the hip-hop mogul of forcing workers to work long hours and threatening to punish those who did not help in his two-decade sex trafficking plan. Combs, 55, still faces a scheduled May 5 trial in Manhattan on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has actually pleaded not guilty.
US federal employees hit back at Trump mass firings with class action complaints
U.S. federal government employees who have been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of recently worked with workers are responding with class action-style grievances claiming that the mass firings are illegal and 10s of thousands of individuals should get their tasks back. Lawyers at two companies stated on Thursday that they had actually filed six appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board since recently and, together with other law practice, plan to bring about 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of large groups of workers who were fired in recent weeks.
Trump administration must make some foreign help payments by Monday, judge guidelines
The Trump administration need to make some payments to foreign help specialists and grant receivers by 6 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Monday, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the administration’s request to avoid a deadline for the payments. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali came at completion of a hearing in a suit by contractors and non-profit grant receivers challenging President Donald Trump’s extensive freeze of U.S. foreign help, a day after the groups got an increase from the Supreme Court. It purchases the federal government to pay billings sent by the plaintiffs in the event before February 13.