Following is a summary of present US domestic news briefs.
US to utilize AI to withdraw visas of students it sees as Hamas fans, Axios reports
The U.S. State Department will utilize artificial intelligence to withdraw visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, pointing out senior State Department officials. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to combat antisemitism and has promised to deport non-citizen college students and others who participated in pro-Palestinian protests that have actually been ongoing for months amid Israel's military attack on Gaza after Hamas' October 2023 attack.
CIA fires an unspecified variety of brand-new officers
The Central Intelligence Agency fired a slew of current hires today, 3 people knowledgeable about the matter stated, cuts that existing and previous U.S. intelligence officers cautioned would risk harmful U.S. nationwide security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump's brand-new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump presides over massive federal workforce reductions overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Veterans, farm groups knock Trump cuts at Democrat-run Arizona town hall
Arizona farm groups and veterans combined by Democratic chief law officers blasted U.S. President Donald Trump's federal cuts, stating the president was disregarding judges who obstructed his executive orders and harming previous service members. They spoke at a sometimes raucous town hall on Wednesday night arranged by the nation's 23 Democratic chief law officers, who have filed claims to ask judges to block a string of Trump executive orders, including his suspension of trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans and financial support.
'We remain in a dark space,' US judge says on increasing risks
Threats against U.S. judges are increasing and legal representatives need to do more to push back against heated rhetoric, four 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 actually increased "tremendously."
Trump's FDA candidate tepidly backs role for vaccine advisers in safeguarded Senate appearance
Martin Makary, President Donald Trump's candidate to run the U.S. FDA, told lawmakers on Thursday he would convene a committee of vaccine consultants but said he would reassess which scientific concerns require their input. It was one of numerous concerns on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins doctor, kept his cards near to his chest while facing the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for two hours.
Trump informs cabinet secretaries they, not Musk, supervise of staff cuts
U.S. President Donald Trump informed his cabinet members on Thursday that they, not Elon Musk, have the final say 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 only, Trump said, according to the source. Musk remained in the room and informed the cabinet he was good with Trump's strategy, the source stated.
Push for permanent US daylight saving time frozen as Trump states Americans are divided
A three-year congressional effort to make daylight saving time permanent in the United States appears to have halted, with President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that Americans are evenly divided over the issue. Daylight conserving time - putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer season half of the year to maximize the longer evenings - has remained in place in almost all of the United States because the 1960s, however proponents have pressed to make it year-round.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs faces brand-new indictment, is accused of 'forced labor'
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday revealed a brand-new indictment versus Sean "Diddy" Combs, accusing the hip-hop mogul of requiring staff members 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 participate in prostitution. He has actually pleaded innocent.
US federal employees countered at Trump mass firings with class action grievances
U.S. government workers who have been fired in the Trump administration's purge of just recently employed employees are responding with class action-style complaints claiming that the mass firings are prohibited and 10s of thousands of individuals need to get their tasks back. Lawyers at 2 companies said on Thursday that they had filed 6 appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board because last week and, together with other law practice, plan to bring about 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of big groups of employees who were fired in current weeks.
Trump administration should make some foreign aid payments by Monday, judge rules
The Trump administration must make some payments to foreign aid specialists and grant recipients 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 prevent a due date for the payments. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali came at the end of a hearing in a claim by specialists and non-profit grant receivers challenging President Donald Trump's comprehensive freeze of U.S. foreign help, a day after the groups got a boost from the Supreme Court. It orders the federal government to pay invoices sent by the complainants in the case before February 13.
