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Year: 2025

US judge issues deadline for Trump administration to pay foreign aid funds

US judge issues deadline for Trump administration to pay foreign aid funds

The judge said that the administration had failed to comply with earlier orders that the funds be unfrozen. A federal judge has ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients by the end of Wednesday. The order marks the third time the judge in the case, Amir Ali, has ruled that officials must release funds that were frozen after Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid. In Tuesday’s ruling, Judge Ali noted there is no indication the administration has taken any steps to comply with his earlier orders. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit — which include nonprofits and businesses with government contracts — have argued they may have to shutter their organisations if the agreed-upon funds are not paid. They also allege that the administration has violated federal law and the United States Constitution by refusing to pay out the funds, which were allocated by Congress. The complaint also points out that the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) might run afoul of the constitutional separation of powers, since Congress created the independent agency in 1961. Advertisement The court order applies to payments for work done before February 13, when the judge issued the earlier temporary restraining order. On Sunday, USAID said that all of its staff, except certain essential workers, would be put on paid administrative leave starting on Sunday. In addition, 1,600 positions were eliminated. “Individuals that are impacted will receive specific notifications on February 23, 2025, with further instructions and information about their benefits and rights,” a notice from the Trump administration said the next day. Led by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration has moved to effectively dismantle the agency. Musk — who has called USAID a “criminal organisation” and a “viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America” — has claimed the agency is rife with waste and fraud and pursues an ideological agenda. Former USAID officials and humanitarian workers have condemned Trump’s move, warning that the demise of the aid agency will harm millions of vulnerable people worldwide and weaken US soft power. “Eliminating US unique response capacity of crisis experts who help contain disease outbreaks, stabilise displaced populations – a shortsighted, high risk and frankly, stupid act,” Marcia Wong, a former deputy assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, wrote on the social media platform X. Last week, a judge also cleared the way for the Trump administration to push ahead with its plans to call back thousands of USAID staffers from overseas within 30 days. Advertisement “For overseas personnel, USAID intends a voluntary, Agency-funded return travel program and other benefits,” USAID’s website said in its notice. “USAID is committed to keeping its overseas personnel safe. Until they return home, personnel will retain access to Agency systems and to diplomatic and other resources. In the coming week, we will provide details on how to retrieve personal items from the former USAID workspaces and return government issued devices.” Adblock test (Why?)

Apple shareholders vote against pressure to scrap diversity policies

Apple shareholders vote against pressure to scrap diversity policies

The proposal urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have recently rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Apple shareholders have rebuffed an attempt to pressure the technology trendsetter into joining President Donald Trump’s push to scrub corporate programmes designed to diversify the workforce. The proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Research — a self-described conservative think tank — urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives currently in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. After a brief presentation about the anti-DEI proposal, Apple announced shareholders had rejected it without disclosing the vote tally. The preliminary results will be outlined in a regulatory filing later Tuesday. The outcome vindicated Apple management’s decision to stand behind its diversity commitment even though Trump asked the US Department of Justice to look into whether these types of programmes have discriminated against some employees whose race or gender aren’t aligned with the initiative’s goals. Advertisement But Apple CEO Tim Cook has maintained a cordial relationship with Trump since his first term in office, an alliance that so far has helped the company skirt tariffs on its iPhones made in China. After Cook and Trump met last week, Apple on Monday announced it will invest $500bn in the US and create 20,000 more jobs during the next five years — a commitment applauded by the president. Tuesday’s shareholder vote came a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco’s annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected. That snub didn’t discourage the National Center for Public Policy Research from confronting Apple about its DEI programme in a pre-recorded presentation by Stefan Padfield, executive director of the think tank’s Free Enterprise Project, who asserted “forced diversity is bad for business”. In the presentation, Padfield attacked Apple’s diversity commitments for being out of line with recent court rulings and said the programmes expose the Cupertino, California, company to an onslaught of potential lawsuits for alleged discrimination. He cited the Trump administration as one of Apple’s potential legal adversaries. “The vibe shift is clear: DEI is out and merit is in,” Padfield said in the presentation. ‘Culture of belonging’ The spectre of potential legal trouble was magnified last week when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a federal lawsuit against Target alleging the retailer’s recently scaled-back DEI programme alienated many consumers and undercut sales to the detriment of shareholders. Advertisement Just as Costco does, Apple contends that fostering a diverse workforce makes good business sense. But Cook conceded that Apple may have to make some adjustments to its diversity programme “as the legal landscape changes” while still striving to maintain a culture that has helped elevate the company to its current market value of $3.7 trillion — greater than any other business in the world. “We will continue to create a culture of belonging,” Cook told shareholders during the meeting. In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed that nearly three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees were men. Other major technology companies for years have reported employing mostly white and Asian men, especially in high-paid engineering jobs — a tendency that spurred the industry to pursue largely unsuccessful efforts to diversify. Adblock test (Why?)

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid share eight-goal Copa del Rey thriller

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid share eight-goal Copa del Rey thriller

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid draw 4-4 in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid both rallied from two goals down in a frantic 4-4 draw in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Catalonia, Spain. Atletico scored twice in the first six minutes before conceding four unanswered goals and coming back to even the match with goals in the final 10 minutes, including the equaliser by substitute Alexander Sorloth three minutes into stoppage time on Tuesday. Barcelona saw Atletico jump to an early lead, with goals by Julian Alvarez in the first minute and Antoine Griezmann in the sixth, but the hosts tied the game by the 21st minute thanks to goals two minutes apart by Pedri and Pau Cubarsi. The Catalan club took a 3-2 lead into halftime after Iñigo Martínez scored in the 41st. Robert Lewandowski increased the lead in the 74th. Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez opened the scoring on the night [Albert Gea/Reuters] Atletico pulled closer with Marcos Llorente in the 84th and Sorloth got the equaliser from close range. Advertisement The second leg will be at Atletico’s Metropolitano Stadium in April. The winner will play either Real Madrid or Real Sociedad, which will play their first-leg match on Wednesday in Basque Country. Barcelona last won the competition in 2021, and Atletico in 2013. Atletico had beaten Barcelona 2-1 in the Spanish league when the teams last met in December. Until the semifinal stage, the Copa’s knockout rounds were played in single-elimination games. Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski looked to have sealed the match with his side’s fourth goal [Joan Monfort/AP] Adblock test (Why?)

Trump budget bill with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts survives House vote

Trump budget bill with .5 trillion in tax cuts survives House vote

The House of Representatives has adopted a resolution that will eventually become a massive multi-trillion-dollar bill full of President Donald Trump’s priorities on the border, defense, energy and taxes. In a major victory for House GOP leaders, the resolution passed in a 217 to 215 vote. All Democrats voted against the measure, along with lone Republican rebel Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was concerned about its effect on the national deficit. The next step is now for the relevant House committees to meet and build their own proposals, which will eventually be returned into the framework and negotiated into a compromise deal with the Senate. BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS It was a dramatic scene in the House chamber on Monday night as Republican leaders delayed formally ending a vote for roughly 45 minutes as they worked to convince conservative fiscal hawks to support the legislation. Impatient Democrats called out loud for the vote to be closed as Republicans huddled in varied groups. Two people on the House floor told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump got involved at one point, speaking to one of the holdouts, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., by phone. Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, could be seen on the phone at other points on the House floor as well, but it’s not clear if they were speaking with Trump. At one point, House GOP leaders appeared to lose confidence that they had enough support and abruptly canceled the planned vote.  Moments later, however, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were rushing back to the House floor and Fox News Digital was told the vote would be held. Meanwhile, three House Democrats who had been absent early in the day returned for the Tuesday evening vote in dramatic fashion.  Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., who had a baby roughly a month ago, returned to the House floor with her infant to oppose the bill. And Rep. Kevin Mullin, R-Calif., who was recently hospitalized for an infection, appeared in the chamber aided by a walker. House and Senate Republicans are aiming to use their majorities to advance Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process.  It’s a Senate maneuver that lowers the threshold for passage from two-thirds to a simple majority, but it’s used when a party controls both houses of Congress and the White House because it allows that party to pass its policy goals even under the slimmest margins. And Republicans are dealing with slim margins indeed; with current numbers, the House GOP can afford no more than one defection to pass anything without Democratic votes if all liberals are voting. On the Senate side, Republicans can lose no more than two of their own in the reconciliation process. The House resolution aimed to increase spending on border security, the judiciary and defense by roughly $300 billion, while seeking at least $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts elsewhere.  As written, the House bill also provided $4.5 trillion to extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, which expire at the end of this year. An amendment negotiated by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and conservatives on his panel would also force lawmakers to make $2 trillion in cuts, or else risk the $4.5 trillion for Trump’s tax cuts getting reduced by the difference.  The resolution also fulfilled Trump’s directive to act on the debt limit, raising it by $4 trillion or roughly two years.  NONCITIZEN VOTER CRACKDOWN LED BY GOP AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS A bipartisan deal struck in 2023 saw the debt limit suspended until January 2025. Now, projections show the U.S. could run out of cash to pay its debts by spring if Congress does not act. The resolution’s odds were touch and go for much of the week so far, since House lawmakers returned from a week-long recess period Monday. Several fiscal conservatives had demanded more assurances from House GOP leadership that Republicans would seek deep spending cuts to offset the cost of Trump’s priorities. Republican lawmakers in more competitive districts are concerned some cuts may go too far, however.  The resolution directs the House Energy & Commerce Committee to find at least $880 billion in spending cuts – which those lawmakers fear will mean severe cuts for federal programs like Medicaid. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed back against fears of such cuts during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste and abuse. Everybody knows that. We all know it intuitively. No one in here would disagree,” Johnson said. “What we’re talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste, and abuse. It doesn’t matter what party you’re in, you should be for that because it saves your money, and it preserves the programs so that it is available for the people who desperately need it.” It was also supported by a wide swath of Republicans, including conservative Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, a member of the House Budget Committee that approved the bill earlier this month. “It’s the best bill we’re going to get,” Gill said while praising Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, for his efforts. “If I were writing it then I’d write it differently, but this is the best we’re gonna get it.” Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, said he was eager to begin working on “cutting taxes for Iowans, securing our border, unleashing American energy production, and eliminating waste and fraud in our government.”

White House confirms who was appointed as acting administrator of DOGE

White House confirms who was appointed as acting administrator of DOGE

White House officials confirmed with Fox News that while billionaire Elon Musk is overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an acting administrator has been appointed to the role. Amy Gleason, who is a low-profile executive with an expertise in healthcare technology, has been appointed as the acting leader of DOGE, the department responsible for gutting many federal agencies while locating and cutting billions of dollars in government waste. Gleason’s identity was revealed after a reporter pressed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on who is actually running DOGE. CBS News’ Nancy Cordes pointed out to Leavitt that President Donald Trump’s executive order to create DOGE called for the naming of a DOGE administrator. She then asked the president’s spokesperson who is serving as the DOGE administrator. KAROLINE LEAVITT: TRUMP, ELON MUSK’S DOGE TEAM ARE DOING WHAT DEMOCRATS PROMISED ‘FOR DECADES’ “So, the president tasked Elon Musk to oversee the DOGE effort,” Leavitt said. “There are career officials and there are political appointees who are helping run DOGE on a day-to-day basis. “There are also individuals who have onboarded as political appointees at every agency across the board to work alongside President Trump’s Cabinet to find and identify waste, fraud and abuse, and they are working on that effort every day.” Cordes quickly asked, “So, is Elon Musk the administrator?” as Leavitt twice called on another reporter. ELON MUSK SAYS MILLIONS IN SOCIAL SECURITY DATABASE ARE BETWEEN AGES OF 100 AND 159 After the exchange, Fox News learned of Gleason’s temporary appointment. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Gleason, 53, worked from 2018 through 2021 for the United States Digital Service, an agency that has been renamed the US DOGE Service, according to her LinkedIn profile. In that role, she worked with the White House on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Gleason returned to the agency after Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump signs executive order to make healthcare prices ‘transparent’

Trump signs executive order to make healthcare prices ‘transparent’

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing the departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to make healthcare prices transparent. The order directs the departments to “rapidly implement and enforce” the Trump healthcare price transparency regulations, which he claims were slowed by the Biden administration. The departments will ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices, not estimates, and take action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices. In addition, they will be required to update their enforcement policies to ensure hospitals and insurers are in compliance with requirements to make prices transparent. HERE’S HOW TRUMP’S TARIFFS ON CHINA COULD IMPACT DRUG PRICING AND OTHER HEALTHCARE COSTS “When healthcare prices are hidden, large corporate entities like hospitals and insurance companies benefit at the expense of American patients,” the White House wrote in a statement. “Price transparency will lower healthcare prices and help patients and employers get the best deal on healthcare.” The executive order notes a number of concerns with current healthcare pricing, including that prices vary between hospitals in the same region. “One patient in Wisconsin saved $1,095 by shopping for two tests between two hospitals located within 30 minutes of one another,” according to the statement. The White House claims one economic analysis found Trump’s original price transparency rules, if fully implemented, could deliver savings of $80 billion for consumers, employers and insurers by 2025. ‘THIS IS ABOUT FENTANYL’: TARIFFS ARE CRUCIAL TO COMBATING ‘DRUG WAR,’ TRUMP AND CABINET OFFICIALS SAY It added that employers will lower their healthcare costs by an average of 27% on 500 common services by better shopping for care. “They’ll be able to check them, compare them, go to different locations, so they can shop for the highest-quality care at the lowest cost,” Trump wrote in the statement. “And this is about high-quality care. You’re also looking at that. You’re looking at comparisons between talents, which is very important. And, then, you’re also looking at cost. And, in some cases, you get the best doctor for the lowest cost. That’s a good thing.” The White House said American patients are “fed up with the status quo,” with 95% saying healthcare price transparency is an important priority. More than 50% said it should be a top priority of the government. In his first term, Trump took historic action by mandating that hospitals and insurers make prices public. A lawsuit was filed against the Biden administration in 2023, alleging it did not enforce the prescription drug transparency requirements.  “While the prior Administration failed to prioritize further implementation and enforcement of these requirements, President Trump is delivering on his promises to make the healthcare system more affordable and easier to navigate for patients,” according to the statement. Fox News Digital previously reported the administration’s tariffs on China will affect drug costs. Consumers are more dependent on China for medications for anxiety and other psychiatric disorders, such as antidepressants.