U.S./World category, Page 153
Elon Musk eyes Social Security, benefit programs for cuts while claiming widespread fraud
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk pushed debunked theories about Social Security on Monday while describing federal benefit programs as rife with fraud, suggesting they will be a primary target in his crusade to reduce government spending. The billionaire entrepreneur, who is advising President Donald Trump, suggested that $500 billion to $700...
Senate confirms Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Trump’s labor secretary
The Senate voted Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that puts her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections at a time when the White House is trying to eliminate thousands of government employees. Chavez-DeRemer will oversee the Department of Labor,...
D.C. begins removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ plaza from street near White House
WASHINGTON — Crews have begun work to remove the large yellow “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street one block from the White House. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the change last week in response to pressure from activist Republicans in Congress. The work is expected to take about six...
Cargo ship hits a tanker and they catch fire off England, with 1 crew member missingVideo
LONDON — A cargo ship hit a tanker carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military on Monday off eastern England, setting both vessels ablaze and sending fuel pouring into the North Sea. One crew member was missing hours later, and search efforts continued, the cargo ship’s owner, Ernst Russ, said...
Homeland Security overhauls asylum phone app — now it’s for ‘self-deportation’
The Trump administration has unveiled an overhauled cellphone app once used to let migrants apply for asylum, turning it into a system that allows people living illegally in the U.S. to say they want to leave the country voluntarily. The renamed app, announced Monday and now called CBP Home, is...
Washington Post columnist quits after her opinion piece criticizing owner Jeff Bezos is rejected
A columnist who has worked at The Washington Post for four decades resigned Monday after the newspaper’s management decided not to run her commentary critical of owner Jeff Bezos’ new editorial policy. Ruth Marcus, who has worked at the newspaper since 1984, wrote that “it breaks my heart to conclude...
Trump warns that arrest of Palestinian activist at Columbia will be ‘first of many’
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump warned Monday that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first “of many to come” as his administration cracks down on campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil,...
Elon Musk claims X being targeted in ‘massive cyberattack’ as service goes down
Hours after a series of outages Monday that left X unavailable to thousands of users, Elon Musk claimed that the social media platform was being targeted in a “massive cyberattack.” “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,” Musk claimed in a post. “Either...
Meet the federal worker who went rogue: ‘I hope that it lights a fire under people’
NEW YORK — To billionaire Elon Musk and his cost-cutting team at the Department of Government Efficiency, Karen Ortiz may just be one of many faceless bureaucrats. But to some of her colleagues, she is giving a voice to those who feel they can’t speak out. Ortiz is an administrative...
Supreme Court will take up state bans on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children, in a Colorado case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday in a case from Colorado to decide whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children. The conservative-led court is taking up the case amid actions by President Donald Trump targeting transgender people, including a ban on military...
Young people who aspired to government service dismayed by Trump ending the federal fellows program
WASHINGTON — A young economist who had uprooted her life for civil service. A fierce housing advocate terminated just before buying her first home. A semifinalist whose dreams were dashed before they materialized. For decades, the Presidential Management Fellows program was seen as a building block for the civil service...
Trump loves the Gilded Age and its tariffs. It was a great time for the rich but not for the many
WASHINGTON — In President Donald Trump’s idealized framing, the United States was at its zenith in the 1890s, when top hats and shirtwaists were fashionable and typhoid fever often killed more soldiers than combat. It was the Gilded Age, a time of rapid population growth and transformation from an agricultural...
Drawing huge crowds, Bernie Sanders steps into leadership of the anti-Trump resistance
WARREN, Mich. — Bernie Sanders is standing alone on the back of a pickup truck shouting into a bullhorn. He’s facing several hundred ecstatic voters huddled outside a suburban Detroit high school — the group that did not fit inside the high school’s gym or two overflow rooms. The crowd...
Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete, with 83% of agency’s programs gone
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development and he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department. Rubio made the announcement in a...
Trump not ruling out recession as he downplays business concerns amid tariff uncertainty
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump is dismissing business concerns over the uncertainty caused by his planned tariffs on a range of American trading partners and the prospect of higher prices, and isn’t ruling out the possibility of a recession this year. After imposing and then quickly pausing...
Flight cancellations at Germany’s Hamburg Airport affect more than 40,000 passengers after strike
BERLIN — Flight cancellations at Hamburg Airport after a surprise strike by workers affected more than 40,000 passengers on Sunday, a day before a planned wider protest across Germany amid new contract negotiations. Only 10 of more than 280 scheduled flights went as planned early Sunday, the airport said. Many...
Ex-central banker to replace Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister after winning Liberal Party vote
TORONTO — Former central banker Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister after the governing Liberal Party elected him its leader Sunday as the country deals with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threat, and a federal election looms. Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who...
ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests, his lawyer saysVideo
NEW YORK — Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in last spring’s anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, according to his attorney. Mahmoud Khalil was inside his university-owned residence Saturday night near Columbia’s Manhattan campus when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the...
Syria’s worst violence in months reopens wounds of the civil warVideo
An ambush on a Syrian security patrol by gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar Assad escalated into clashes that a war monitor estimates have killed more than 1,000 people over four days. The attack Thursday near the port city of Latakia reopened the wounds of the country’s 13-year civil war...
Kristi Noem taps new ICE leaders, moves to identify leakersVideo
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday announced new leadership at the agency tasked with immigration enforcement as she also pledged to step up lie detector tests on employees to identify those who may be leaking information about operations to the media. “The authorities that I have under the Department...
Top health agency makes $25,000 buyout offer to most of its employees
WASHINGTON — Most of the 80,000 federal workers responsible for researching diseases, inspecting food and administering Medicare and Medicaid under the auspices of the Health and Human Services Department were emailed an offer to leave their job for as much as a $25,000 payment as part of President Donald Trump’s...
Israel cuts off electricity supply to Gaza, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water
JERUSALEM — Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, officials said Sunday, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory. Hamas called it part of Israel’s “starvation policy.” Israel last week suspended supplies of goods to the territory of more than 2 million Palestinians,...
Syria’s neighboring foreign ministers call for lifting sanctions and reconciliation
AMMAN, Jordan — Syria’s top diplomat and his counterparts from neighboring countries Sunday called for the lifting of Western-led sanctions on Syria and post-war reconciliation. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon made their remarks alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani following a meeting in the Jordanian...
North Korea unveils nuclear-powered submarine for the 1st time
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea unveiled for the first time a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, a weapons system that can pose a major security threat to South Korea and the U.S. The state media agency on Saturday released photos showing what it called “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine,”...
12 people injured by 3 men shooting randomly at Toronto pub customers
TORONTO — A dozen people were injured in a shooting at an eastern Toronto pub in what police called a reckless act of violence by three men who entered the bar and fired randomly without warning. Superintendent Paul MacIntyre of the Toronto Police Service said that authorities received numerous emergency...
