Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US to utilize AI to revoke visas of trainees it views as Hamas supporters, Axios reports

The U.S. State Department will utilize synthetic intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as fans of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, mentioning 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 been continuous 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 variety of recent hires this week, three individuals acquainted with the matter said, cuts that present and former U.S. intelligence officers warned would run the risk of harmful U.S. national security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump commands massive federal workforce reductions supervised by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Veterans, farm groups slam Trump cuts at Democrat-run Arizona town hall

Arizona farm groups and veterans united by Democratic lawyers general lashed out at 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 an in some cases raucous town hall on Wednesday night organized by the country’s 23 Democratic chief law officers, who have actually submitted claims to ask judges to obstruct a string of Trump executive orders, including his suspension of trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans and financial assistance.

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

Threats against U.S. judges are increasing and legal representatives should do more to push back against heated rhetoric, 4 federal judges said in a panel conversation on Thursday. Speaking at an American Bar Association conference on white collar criminal offense in Miami, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware of Las Vegas federal court stated threats versus the judiciary had actually gone up “greatly.”

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

Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. FDA, informed lawmakers on Thursday he would assemble a committee of vaccine advisers but said he would reevaluate which clinical issues need their input. It was among several issues on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins doctor, kept his cards close to his chest while facing the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for two hours.

Trump informs cabinet secretaries they, not Musk, are in charge 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 agencies, according to a source knowledgeable about the matter. The billionaire Tesla CEO and his Department of Government Efficiency will play an advisory role just, Trump said, according to the source. Musk was in the room and informed the cabinet he was good with Trump’s plan, the source stated.

Push for long-term US daytime 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 stating on Thursday that Americans are evenly divided over the concern. Daylight conserving time – putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer season half of the year to take advantage of the longer nights – has actually been in place in almost all of the United States since the 1960s, but advocates have pushed to make it year-round.

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

U.S. prosecutors on Thursday unveiled a against Sean “Diddy” Combs, accusing the hip-hop magnate of forcing staff members to work long hours and threatening to punish 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 take part in prostitution. He has actually pleaded not guilty.

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

U.S. federal government employees who have actually been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of just recently hired employees are reacting with class action-style complaints declaring that the mass firings are prohibited and 10s of countless people ought to get their tasks back. Lawyers at 2 firms stated on Thursday that they had actually filed six appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board given that last week and, together with other law companies, plan to produce 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of large groups of employees who were fired in current weeks.

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

The Trump administration should 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 request to avoid a due date for the payments. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali came at the end of a hearing in a lawsuit by contractors and non-profit grant receivers challenging President Donald Trump’s comprehensive freeze of U.S. foreign help, a day after the groups got an increase from the Supreme Court. It buys the government to pay billings sent by the complainants in the event before February 13.