Database, first proposed by Trump in 2020 and created by Biden administration in 2023, is now offlineDonald Trump’s second presidential administration shut down a national database that tracked misconduct by federal police, a resource that policing reform advocates hailed as essential to prevent officers with misconduct records from being able to move undetected between agencies.The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), which stored police records documenting misconduct, is now unavailable, the Washington Post first reported. Continue reading...

Politics

Trump administration is seeking to oust Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counselThe US supreme court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Donald Trump’s second presidency.The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. That’s when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires. Continue reading...

Events

The Trump administration laid off 1,000 National Park Employees last week, a move rangers say will cause chaos across the country.

Events

US president’s attempt to control or dismantle cultural institutions plays into a long history of authoritarians using arts to push their agendaIn 1937, leaders of Germany’s Third Reich hosted two simultaneous art exhibitions in Munich. One, titled the Great German Art Exhibition, featured art viewed by the regime as appropriate and aspirational for the ideal Aryan society – orderly and triumphant, with mostly blond people in heroic poses amid pastoral German landscapes. The other showcased what Adolf Hitler and his followers deemed “degenerate art” (“Entartete Kunst”). The works, chaotically displayed and saddled with commentary disparaging “the sick brains of those who wielded the brush or pencil”, were abstract, profane, modernist and produced by the proclaimed enemies of the Reich – Jewish people, communists or those suspected of being either.The Degenerate Art exhibition, which later toured the country, opened a day after Hitler declared “merciless war” on cultural disintegrati...

Politics

The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials on Friday after the organisation's journalists were banned from Mar-a-Lago, Air Force One and even the White House for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America.'

Events

Department of Justice continues to drag its feet on court orders

Politics

A stop-work order had been issued to government-funded attorneys to cease counsel for about 26,000 minorsThe Trump administration has rescinded its decision to cut off legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children, just three days after it ordered government-funded attorneys across the country to immediately stop their work.The Acacia Center for Justice and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) confirmed that the stop-work order affecting non-profits that provide legal counsel for about 26,000 unaccompanied minors had been lifted. Continue reading...

Events

The Trump administration is restoring jobs for dozens of fired National Park Service employees and hiring nearly 3,000 additional seasonal workers, following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency

Society

Days after telling legal groups who help migrant children who arrive in America alone — some so young they are in diapers or their feet dangle from their chairs in court — that they must stop their work, the federal government reversed itself

Politics

Caleb Vitello reassigned as administration reportedly unhappy at slow rate of arrests and deportationsDonald Trump’s presidential administration has reassigned its top official at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after the agency’s arrests and deportations have been slower than expected, Reuters reported, citing a senior administration official and two other sources familiar with the matter.The official, Caleb Vitello, was in the role in an acting capacity and had been grappling with pressure to step up enforcement after other top Ice officials were reassigned days earlier. Continue reading...

Politics

Trump has only been in office for a month, but some donors and liberal groups are retreating as they struggle to fight the pace of the new administration

Politics

US president also accuses Kyiv of talking ‘tough’ but having few bargaining chips in latest remarks in feud with Ukrainian president ZelenskyyNational security adviser Mike Waltz told a crowd of Donald Trump loyalists that he believes the president will receive the Nobel peace prize.“This is the presidency of peace. He’s going to end the war in Europe. He is going to end the wars in the Middle East. He is going to reinvest the United States and our leadership in our own hemisphere, from the Arctic to the border to Panama all the way down to our good friends in Argentina,” Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference.The pause comes after CNN reported on Wednesday that the mass terminations, which could affect over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon, could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the US code. Following that report, Pentagon lawyers began reviewing the legality of the planned terminations more closely, the officials said.That law says that the secre...

Politics

The Trump administration’s proposal to layoff half of federal workers at the nation’s housing agency is targeting employees who support disaster recovery, rental subsidies, discrimination investigations and first-time homebuyers, according to two documents obtained by The Associated Press

Politics

Court orders have had only limited effect in the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development

Politics

Republicans approve spending plan that will pay for hardline immigration policies; sackings on hold amid concerns they could hit military readinessMass firings could cause ‘monumental’ bill, say expertsNational security adviser Mike Waltz told a crowd of Donald Trump loyalists that he believes the president will receive the Nobel peace prize.“This is the presidency of peace. He’s going to end the war in Europe. He is going to end the wars in the Middle East. He is going to reinvest the United States and our leadership in our own hemisphere, from the Arctic to the border to Panama all the way down to our good friends in Argentina,” Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference.The pause comes after CNN reported on Wednesday that the mass terminations, which could affect over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon, could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the US code. Following that report, Pentagon lawyers began reviewing the legality of the planned terminations m...

Politics

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said it is clear Europe must ‘do more’ to contribute to its own defence and the UK must play a leading role.

Politics

Decision needs commissioner approval but suggests a friendlier regulatory approach under Trump administration

Politics

Senate Republicans approve spending plan that will pay for hardline immigration policies; mass layoffs get all-clear after judge lifts blockMass firings could cause ‘monumental’ bill, say expertsThe defense department will delay a plan to fire civilian employees on probation as it assess whether the move complies with the law and if it affects military readiness, CNN reports.The cuts were to be made as part of Donald Trump’s effort to dramatically downsize the federal government, which is being led by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”. Here’s more, from CNN:The pause comes after CNN reported on Wednesday that the mass terminations, which could affect over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon, could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the US code. Following that report, Pentagon lawyers began reviewing the legality of the planned terminations more closely, the officials said.That law says that the secretary of defense “may not reduce the civilian workforce ...

Politics

Exclusive: Mustafa Hajj-Obeid, who left Australia in 2015, is being held in Panorama prison, a detention centre for accused IS members run by the SDFAn Australian member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle and whose fate was not publicly known has been discovered alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria.Mustafa Hajj-Obeid, 41, who is one of a cohort of accused IS members whose Australian citizenship was stripped and then restored in 2022 after a legal challenge, has been reported as missing for the past six years since the military defeat of IS. Continue reading...

Events

The state-run Korea Development Institute has downgraded its growth forecast for the national economy to 1.6% in 2025

Politics