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 utilize artificial intelligence to withdraw visas of foreign students who it views as advocates 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 pledged to deport non-citizen college trainees and others who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have been ongoing for months amidst Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack.

CIA fires an unspecified number of new officers

The Central Intelligence Agency fired a variety of recent hires today, 3 individuals knowledgeable about the matter said, cuts that existing and previous U.S. intelligence officers cautioned would run the risk of damaging U.S. nationwide security. The shootings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s brand-new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump commands huge federal workforce decreases 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 combined by Democratic chief law officers lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal cuts, saying the president was overlooking judges who obstructed his executive orders and damaging previous service members. They spoke at an in some cases raucous town hall on Wednesday night organized by the nation’s 23 Democratic attorneys general, who have submitted 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 support.

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

Threats versus U.S. judges are increasing and legal representatives ought to do more to push back against heated rhetoric, four federal judges stated 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 said risks against the judiciary had gone up « greatly. »

Trump’s FDA candidate tepidly backs role for vaccine advisers in secured Senate look

Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s candidate to run the U.S. FDA, told legislators on Thursday he would convene a committee of vaccine consultants however stated he would reassess which clinical concerns need their input. It was one of numerous problems on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins doctor, kept his cards close to his chest while dealing with the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for 2 hours.

Trump tells 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 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 just, Trump stated, according to the source. Musk remained in the space and told the cabinet he was excellent with Trump’s plan, the source stated.

Promote irreversible US daytime saving time frozen as Trump says Americans are divided

A three-year congressional effort to make daylight saving time permanent in the United States appears to have stopped, with President Donald Trump stating on Thursday that Americans are equally divided over the concern. Daylight saving time – putting the clocks forward one hour during the summertime half of the year to maximize the longer evenings – has remained in location in almost all of the United States since the 1960s, but supporters have actually pushed to make it year-round.

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

U.S. district attorneys on Thursday revealed a new indictment versus Sean « Diddy » Combs, accusing the hip-hop mogul of forcing staff members to work long hours and threatening to penalize those who did not help in his two-decade sex trafficking plan. Combs, 55, still deals with a scheduled May 5 trial in Manhattan on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.

US federal employees countered at firings with class action grievances

U.S. civil servant who have been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of just recently hired employees are reacting with class action-style grievances declaring that the mass firings are illegal and tens of thousands of people must get their tasks back. Lawyers at two companies stated on Thursday that they had filed 6 appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board considering that last week and, in addition to other law companies, strategy to produce 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of large groups of employees who were fired in recent weeks.

Trump administration must make some foreign aid payments by Monday, judge rules

The Trump administration must 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 lawsuit by contractors and non-profit grant recipients challenging President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging 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 case before February 13.