Reuters United States Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

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

The U.S. State Department will use synthetic intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it views as fans of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, pointing out senior State Department officials. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to fight antisemitism and has 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 unspecified variety of brand-new officers

The Central Intelligence Agency fired a multitude of current hires this week, 3 people knowledgeable about the matter said, cuts that existing and former U.S. intelligence officers alerted would risk destructive U.S. nationwide security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump administers over huge federal workforce reductions supervised 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 united by Democratic chief law officers blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal cuts, stating the president was ignoring judges who obstructed his executive orders and hurting previous service members. They spoke at a sometimes raucous city center on Wednesday night organized by the nation’s 23 Democratic chief law officers, who have actually filed lawsuits to ask judges to obstruct 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 area,’ US judge says on rising risks

Threats against U.S. judges are rising and attorneys must do more to push back versus 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 risks against the judiciary had actually gone up “tremendously.”

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

Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. FDA, told lawmakers on Thursday he would convene a committee of vaccine advisors but said he would reassess which scientific issues need their input. It was among a number of issues on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins physician, kept his cards near his chest while facing the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for 2 hours.

Trump informs cabinet secretaries they, not Musk, supervise 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 firms, according to a source familiar 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 was in the space and told the cabinet he was good with Trump’s strategy, the source stated.

Push for permanent US daylight conserving time frozen as Trump states Americans are divided

A three-year congressional effort to make daylight saving time long-term in the United States appears to have halted, with President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that Americans are equally divided over the issue. Daylight conserving time – putting the clocks forward one hour throughout the summertime half of the year to maximize the longer evenings – has actually remained in place in almost all of the United States considering that the 1960s, however supporters have pushed to make it year-round.

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

U.S. district attorneys on Thursday revealed a new indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs, implicating the hip-hop magnate of forcing employees to work long hours and threatening to penalize those who did not assist 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 transport to participate in prostitution. He has pleaded innocent.

US federal employees countered at Trump mass firings with class action complaints

U.S. federal government staff members who have been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of recently employed employees are responding with class action-style complaints claiming that the mass firings are unlawful and tens of thousands of people should get their jobs back. Lawyers at two companies stated on Thursday that they had actually filed six appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board given that recently and, along with other law office, plan to produce 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of big groups of employees who were fired in recent weeks.

Trump administration must make some foreign help 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 demand to a deadline for the payments. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali came at the end of a hearing in a suit by specialists and non-profit grant recipients challenging President Donald Trump’s extensive freeze of U.S. foreign aid, a day after the groups got an increase from the Supreme Court. It orders the government to pay billings submitted by the complainants in the event before February 13.