Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US to use AI to revoke visas of students it views as Hamas advocates, Axios reports

The U.S. State Department will use synthetic 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 promised to deport non-citizen college students and others who participated in pro-Palestinian protests that have actually been continuous for months amidst Israel’s military attack on Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack.

CIA fires an unspecified number of new officers

The Central Intelligence Agency fired a multitude of recent hires this week, 3 people acquainted with the matter stated, cuts that existing and previous U.S. intelligence officers cautioned would run the risk of damaging U.S. national security. The firings under U.S. President Donald Trump’s new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, come as Trump commands enormous federal workforce reductions 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 attorney generals of the United States blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s federal cuts, saying the president was neglecting judges who obstructed his executive orders and damaging former service members. They spoke at an often raucous town hall on Wednesday night arranged by the nation’s 23 Democratic lawyers general, who have actually filed 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 backing.

‘We remain in a dark area,’ US judge states on rising threats

Threats versus U.S. judges are rising and legal representatives should do more to press back against heated rhetoric, four federal judges stated in a panel conversation on Thursday. Speaking at an American Bar Association conference on white collar crime in Miami, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware of Las Vegas federal court said dangers against the judiciary had actually increased “tremendously.”

Trump’s FDA candidate tepidly backs function for vaccine consultants in safeguarded 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 consultants but said he would reassess which scientific issues require their input. It was among several issues 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 two hours.

Trump informs cabinet secretaries they, not Musk, are in charge 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 acquainted with the matter. The billionaire Tesla CEO and his Department of Government Efficiency will play an advisory role only, Trump stated, according to the source. Musk remained in the room and informed the cabinet he was good with Trump’s strategy, the source stated.

Promote long-term US daylight conserving 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 stating on Thursday that Americans are uniformly divided over the issue. Daylight saving time – putting the clocks forward one hour throughout the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer nights – has actually remained in place in nearly all of the United States considering that the 1960s, but proponents have pressed to make it year-round.

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

U.S. 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 help in his two-decade sex trafficking plan. Combs, 55, still faces a scheduled May 5 trial in Manhattan on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has actually pleaded not guilty.

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

U.S. government staff members who have actually been fired in the Trump administration’s purge of just recently employed workers are responding with class action-style grievances claiming that the mass firings are illegal and tens of countless individuals need to get their jobs back. Lawyers at 2 companies stated on Thursday that they had submitted six appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board considering that recently and, along with other law companies, strategy to cause 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 guidelines

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 avoid a deadline 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 receivers challenging President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging freeze of U.S. foreign help, a day after the groups got a boost from the Supreme Court. It buys the government to pay invoices submitted by the plaintiffs in the event before February 13.