Reuters United States Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US to use AI to withdraw visas of trainees it views as Hamas fans, Axios reports

The U.S. State Department will use expert system to revoke visas of foreign trainees who it perceives as advocates of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior State Department officials. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to fight antisemitism and has actually promised to deport non-citizen college trainees and others who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have actually been ongoing for months in the middle of Israel’s military attack on Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack.

CIA fires an undefined number of new officers

The Central Intelligence Agency fired a multitude of recent hires this week, 3 people familiar with the matter stated, cuts that existing and previous U.S. intelligence officers warned would risk damaging U.S. nationwide security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s brand-new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump commands huge 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 city center

Arizona farm groups and veterans brought together by Democratic chief law officers lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal cuts, saying the president was neglecting judges who obstructed his executive orders and damaging former service members. They spoke at an often raucous city center on Wednesday night organized by the nation’s 23 Democratic chief law officers, who have filed suits to ask judges to block a string of Trump executive orders, including his suspension of trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans and financial backing.

‘We remain in a dark area,’ US judge states on increasing risks

Threats versus U.S. judges are increasing and lawyers must do more to push back against heated rhetoric, 4 federal judges stated in a panel conversation on Thursday. Speaking at an American Bar Association conference on clerical criminal offense in Miami, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware of Las Vegas federal court stated dangers against the judiciary had increased “tremendously.”

Trump’s FDA candidate tepidly backs role for vaccine consultants in protected Senate look

Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. FDA, told legislators on Thursday he would assemble a committee of vaccine consultants but stated he would reassess which clinical issues require their input. It was one of a number of problems on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins doctor, kept his cards near his chest while dealing with the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for two hours.

Trump tells cabinet secretaries they, not Musk, supervise of personnel cuts

U.S. President Donald Trump informed 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 function just, Trump stated, according to the source. Musk remained in the room and told the cabinet he was excellent 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 daylight saving time long-term in the United States appears to have stopped, with President Donald Trump stating on Thursday that Americans are uniformly divided over the issue. Daylight conserving time – putting the clocks forward one hour throughout the summer season half of the year to maximize the longer nights – has been in location in almost all of the United States given that the 1960s, but advocates have pressed to make it year-round.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces brand-new indictment, is accused of ‘required labor’

U.S. district attorneys on Thursday revealed a brand-new indictment versus Sean “Diddy” Combs, accusing the hip-hop magnate of forcing employees to work long hours and threatening to penalize those who did not help in his two-decade sex trafficking scheme. Combs, 55, still deals with a scheduled May 5 trial in Manhattan on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transport to engage in prostitution. He has actually pleaded innocent.

US federal workers hit back at firings with class action problems

U.S. civil servant who have actually been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of recently hired workers are reacting with class action-style problems claiming that the mass shootings are unlawful and 10s of countless individuals should get their tasks back. Lawyers at 2 firms said on Thursday that they had actually submitted 6 appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board considering that recently and, along with other law office, plan to produce 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 aid payments by Monday, judge rules

The Trump administration need to make some payments to foreign help contractors 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 due date for the payments. The judgment by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali came at the end of a hearing in a claim by contractors and non-profit grant recipients challenging President Donald Trump’s comprehensive freeze of U.S. foreign aid, a day after the groups got a boost from the Supreme Court. It orders the government to pay billings sent by the plaintiffs in the event before February 13.