Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a of current US domestic news briefs.

US to utilize AI to withdraw visas of students it sees as Hamas advocates, Axios reports

The U.S. State Department will utilize artificial intelligence to withdraw visas of foreign students who it views 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 combat antisemitism and has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have actually been ongoing for months amidst Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack.

CIA fires an unspecified number of brand-new officers

The Central Intelligence Agency fired a slew of recent hires this week, three individuals familiar with the matter stated, cuts that present and former U.S. intelligence officers cautioned would run the risk of harmful U.S. nationwide security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump commands massive federal workforce decreases supervised 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 blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal cuts, saying the president was overlooking judges who blocked his executive orders and harming previous service members. They spoke at an often raucous town hall on Wednesday night organized by the nation’s 23 Democratic attorneys general, who have actually 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 monetary assistance.

‘We’re in a dark space,’ US judge states on rising threats

Threats versus U.S. judges are increasing and lawyers must do more to push back against heated rhetoric, four federal judges stated in a panel discussion on Thursday. Speaking at an American Bar Association meeting on white collar crime in Miami, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware of Las Vegas federal court stated hazards against the judiciary had increased “greatly.”

Trump’s FDA candidate tepidly backs function for vaccine advisors in protected Senate appearance

Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. FDA, informed legislators on Thursday he would assemble a committee of vaccine consultants but stated he would reassess which clinical issues need their input. It was among several problems 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 personnel 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 familiar with the matter. The billionaire Tesla CEO and his Department of Government Efficiency will play an advisory function only, Trump said, according to the source. Musk remained in the space and informed the cabinet he was excellent with Trump’s plan, the source stated.

Push for permanent US daytime saving time frozen as Trump says Americans are divided

A three-year congressional effort to make daytime conserving time permanent in the United States appears to have actually stopped, with President Donald Trump stating on Thursday that Americans are uniformly divided over the problem. Daylight conserving time – putting the clocks forward one hour during the summertime half of the year to maximize the longer evenings – has remained in location in nearly all of the United States given that the 1960s, but advocates have actually 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 new indictment versus Sean “Diddy” Combs, accusing the hip-hop magnate of forcing employees to work long hours and threatening to punish those who did not help in his two-decade sex trafficking scheme. Combs, 55, still faces a scheduled May 5 trial in Manhattan on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to take part in prostitution. He has pleaded innocent.

US federal employees countered at Trump mass shootings with class action grievances

U.S. government staff members who have actually been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of recently hired workers are responding with class action-style grievances declaring that the mass firings are unlawful and 10s of thousands of individuals need to get their jobs back. Lawyers at two firms stated on Thursday that they had submitted 6 appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board given that last week and, in addition to other law firms, strategy to cause 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of large groups of employees who were fired in current weeks.

Trump administration should make some foreign help payments by Monday, judge rules

The Trump administration need to make some payments to foreign aid 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 demand to prevent 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 specialists and non-profit grant recipients challenging President Donald Trump’s extensive freeze of U.S. foreign help, a day after the groups got a boost from the Supreme Court. It purchases the government to pay invoices submitted by the complainants in the event before February 13.