Democrats and protesters rally exterior treasury division to protest Elon Musk’s entry to delicate info – because it occurred

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After calling for the everlasting “resettlement” of all Palestinians from Gaza earlier within the day, Trump mentioned the US would “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip. The US president mentioned he envisioned “long-term” US possession of Gaza after Palestinians had been moved elsewhere:

The Trump administration is putting US Company for Worldwide Improvement direct-hire staffers around the globe on depart, besides these deemed important, the Related Press stories.

A discover posted on-line Tuesday provides the employees 30 days to return residence, upending the help company’s six-decade mission abroad.

1000’s of USAid workers already had been laid off and packages worldwide shut down after President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on international help.

Elon Musk’s budget-slashing Division of Authorities Effectivity had taken USAID’s web site offline over the weekend because it steadily dismantled the company, which has been a particular goal of Musk, Trump and Republicans within the first two-and-a-half weeks of Trump’s second time period. The web site got here again on-line Tuesday evening, with the discover of recall or termination for international staffers its sole publish.

The transfer had been rumored for a number of days and was probably the most excessive of a number of proposals thought-about for consolidating the company into the state division. Different choices had included closures of smaller USAid missions and partial closures of bigger ones.

The choice to withdraw direct-hire employees and their households sooner than their deliberate departures will most likely price the federal government tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in journey and relocation prices.

Employees being positioned on depart embody each international and civil service officers who’ve authorized safety towards arbitrary dismissal and being positioned on depart with out purpose.

The American Overseas Service Affiliation, the union which represents US diplomats, despatched a discover to its members denouncing the choice and saying it was getting ready authorized motion to counter or halt it.

Domestically employed USAid employees would not have a lot recourse and had been excluded from the federal authorities’s voluntary buyout supply.

The discover says those that will exempted from depart embody staffers accountable for “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” and would be told by Thursday afternoon.

“Thank you for your service,” the discover concluded.

David Smith

Donald Trump has vowed that US would “take over” warfare ravaged Gaza and “own it”, successfully endorsing the ethnic cleaning of Palestinians, in an announcement surprising even by the requirements of his norm-shattering presidency.

Trump, who has beforehand threatened Greenland and Panama and instructed that Canada ought to change into the 51st state, added Gaza to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it may change into the “Riviera of the Middle East” and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it occur.

“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,” the president instructed a joint press convention with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the White Home on Tuesday night. “It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.”

Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Division of Commerce in Washington DC in the present day, inciting considerations of downsizing on the company.

“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” mentioned Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who’s now a fellow on the College of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”

Mission 2025, written by a number of former Trump staffers, has referred to as for the company to be “broken up and downsized”, claiming the company is “harmful to US prosperity” for its position in local weather science.

Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed reporters on the White Home, the place the US president introduced his intention to take over the Gaza Strip, transfer Palestinians to neighbouring international locations and redevelop the territory for occupation by “the world’s people”. Listed below are the principle takeaways from their joint press convention on Tuesday night:

• In a shock announcement, Trump mentioned the US will “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip. The US president mentioned he envisioned a “long-term” US possession of the territory in spite of everything Palestinians had been moved elsewhere. He didn’t clarify how and beneath what authority the US can take over the land of Gaza. “We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” he mentioned. He mentioned the US would “level” destroyed buildings and “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”

• The US president referred to as Gaza a “symbol of death and destruction” and that the one purpose folks need to return there may be as a result of they’ve nowhere else to go. The 1.8 million Palestinians dwelling in Gaza ought to transfer to neighbouring international locations with “humanitarian hearts” and “great wealth”, Trump mentioned. Earlier he had referred to as for Jordan, Egypt and different Arab states to soak up Palestinians. He mentioned they could possibly be cut up up throughout a lot of separate websites. Compelled displacement of the inhabitants would most likely be a violation of worldwide regulation and can be fiercely opposed not solely within the area but in addition by Washington’s western allies. Some human rights advocates liken the concept to ethnic cleaning.

• He went on to say that Gaza may change into “the Riviera of the Middle East” the place “the world’s people” may dwell there, echoing the earlier sentiments of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who mentioned Gaza had very precious “waterfront property”.

• Trump gave a imprecise reply when requested a query on whether or not he supported a two-state answer. Requested if his view that Palestinians needs to be relocated from Gaza was an indication that he was towards the two-state coverage that has been the international coverage strategy of the USA for many years, Trump mentioned no. “It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or one state or any other state. It means that we want to have, we want to give people a chance at life,” he mentioned. “They have never had a chance at life because the Gaza Strip has been a hellhole for people living there. It’s been horrible.”

• Trump claimed high-level help amongst unnamed leaders he had spoken to. “This is not a decision made lightly,” he mentioned, including that “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.” He mentioned the transfer would convey “great stability to that part of the Middle East”.

• Trump didn’t rule out sending US troops to safe Gaza. “As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that,” he mentioned. On Trump’s concept of taking up Gaza, Netanyahu mentioned the US president “sees a different future for Gaza”, including: “I think it’s something that could change history.”

• Trump mentioned he would most likely announce a place on Israeli sovereignty over the West Financial institution within the subsequent month. “We haven’t been taking the position on it yet,” he mentioned. Trump added that he deliberate to go to the Gaza Strip, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

• Netanyahu described Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”. The Israeli chief mentioned “we have to finish the job in Gaza”, and mentioned “Israel will end the war by winning the war.” Netanyahu praised Trump for “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas” and “showing willingness to puncture conventional thinking”.

• The Saudi authorities, in a press release, pressured its rejection of any try and displace Palestinians from their land and mentioned it might not set up relations with Israel with out institution of a Palestinian state. In the meantime Hamas condemned Trump’s requires Palestinians in Gaza to go away as “expulsion from their land”. The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations mentioned that world leaders and other people ought to respect Palestinians’ need to stay in Gaza.

Surprised US lawmakers have been responding to Donald Trump’s proposal to grab Gaza and expel its inhabitants.

Robert Mackey

Whereas the White Home offered Trump’s surprising announcement that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip” and take “a long-term ownership position” within the Palestinian territory” as proof of his “unwavering pursuit for peace”, present and former members of Congress expressed shock and outrage.

“He’s totally lost it. A US invasion of Gaza would lead to the slaughter of thousands of US troops and decades of war in the Middle East” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy wrote on X. It’s like a foul, sick joke.”

“I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza”, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham instructed Jewish Insider. “It might be problematic.”

“That’s insane”, Democratic Senator Chris Coons instructed NBC Information. “ I can’t think of a place on earth that would welcome American troops less and where any positive outcome is less likely.”

Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat who has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s warfare in Gaza, was extra open to the concept. “It’s a provocative part of the conversation, but it’s part of the conversation, and that’s where we are” Fetterman instructed Jewish Insider. “The Palestinians have refused, or they’ve been unwilling to deliver a government that provided security and economic development for themselves”.

Justin Amash, a former Republican member of Congress whose father was expelled from his residence by Israeli forces in 1948, was appalled. “If the United States deploys troops to forcibly remove Muslims and Christians – like my cousins – from Gaza, then not only will the US be mired in another reckless occupation but it will also be guilty of the crime of ethnic cleansing” Amash wrote on X. “No American of good conscience should stand for this.”

The US Worldwide Commerce Fee on Tuesday mentioned it had canceled an ongoing multi-year investigation into the impression of commerce coverage on under-served communities and staff on the request of the Trump administration.

The ITC, an impartial, nonpartisan federal company instructed witnesses that it was canceling a listening to on the racial and variety impacts of commerce on Wednesday after the US Commerce Consultant’s workplace withdrew its request for the broader research. A duplicate of the e-mail was seen by Reuters.

The company had deliberate a complete of six digital hearings on the problem, together with separate periods on persistent poverty in rural areas and concrete areas, and had deliberate in-person conversations in 5 US cities from March to Might.

A US decide on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from shifting transgender girls to males’s prisons and ending their gender-affirming care, Reuters stories.

In a broad ruling quickly halting an government order that Trump, a Republican, signed on his first day again in workplace on 20 January, US District Decide Royce Lamberth in Washington discovered that three transgender inmates who sued would most likely achieve arguing the coverage was unconstitutional.

The choice marked the second time {that a} federal decide had sided with LGBTQ authorized rights teams who sued to stop the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from implementing the order.

Lamberth’s order applies to all 16 transgender girls at present housed in federal girls’s prisons. It goes additional than a 27 January determination by a federal decide in Boston blocking jail officers from transferring a person transgender girl to a males’s facility.

A spokesperson for the Justice Division, which defended the Trump administration in court docket, declined to remark. The Bureau of Prisons didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Close to the tail-end of the demonstration, information broke that the treasury mentioned Musk’s workforce had been granted “read-only” entry to “coded data” of the federal government’s funds system, in response to Bloomberg.

In a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, Jonathan Blum, the treasury’s principal deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs, wrote that the system stays “robust and effective” and that no legitimate fee requests from authorities businesses had been rejected.

However that did little to quell protesters’ considerations about Musk’s involvement with programs within the first place, together with many who had been former federal contractors, equivalent to Alexa Fraser, who labored in public well being analysis.

“What protections did he turn off to get in there? Who has he sold it to?” she instructed the Guardian. “We have no reason to think his security situation is better now.”

Dave Stoakley, who drove greater than two hours from central Virginia to protest, noticed the state of affairs as half of a bigger sample. “I think it’s an intentional dismantling of the government,” he mentioned. “They’re throwing out the good with the bad.”

Blumenthal captured the gang’s fears in stark phrases: “Every American’s information is at risk. What does Elon Musk do with everything he touches? He makes money!”

A whole bunch of protesters and a contingent of Democratic lawmakers rallied exterior the Division of the Treasury in Washington on Tuesday, denouncing what they referred to as Elon Musk’s “hostile takeover” of federal monetary programs, as demonstrations spilled on to, and took over, the road exterior the constructing.

The protests focused stories of the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) workforce’s reported entry to delicate authorities monetary knowledge, together with info associated to social safety funds, Medicare reimbursements, and tax refunds – programs that course of trillions of {dollars} in annual transactions.

“He has access to all our information, our social security numbers, the federal payment system,” Consultant Maxwell Frost instructed the gang. “What’s going to stop him from stealing taxpayer money?”

A few dozen members of Congress, together with Maxine Waters, Al Inexperienced, Ayanna Pressley, and senators Jeff Merkley and Richard Blumenthal, joined the condemnations. Jasmine Crockett’s voice boomed throughout the gang: “We are not going to sit around while you go and desecrate our constitution. We are going to be in your face and on your asses!”

Minutes earlier, a handful of lawmakers, together with Crockett, Pressley, Frost and Jamie Raskin, had tried to get contained in the treasury division earlier than being rebuffed: