Senate anticipated to vote on RFK’s bid to be well being secretary – US politics dwell

Donald Trump mentioned he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday however gave no different particulars, Reuters stories.

“Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

Guardian columnist and former economics editor Larry Elliott writes immediately that Donald Trump sees his commerce warfare as a present of power, however, in reality, it’s the other.

You possibly can learn the opinion piece right here: Larry Elliot – Donald Trump sees his commerce warfare as a present of power. In reality, it’s the other

A gaggle representing China’s metal business has warned {that a} new 25% tariff on imports of the product into the United States would have an “adverse impact” on the sector, Chinese language state media reported Thursday.

Donald Trump signed government orders on Monday slapping new 25% tariffs on metal and aluminium, attributable to come into impact on 12 March.

“The US move is essentially an act of trade protectionism,” the China Iron and Metal Affiliation (CISA) mentioned in a press release revealed by state broadcaster CCTV, Agence France-Presse stories. “In the short term, the impact on [China’s] steel exports is limited,” the CISA mentioned within the report.

“But in the long term, the US move could lead other countries to follow suit, thereby reducing [(China’s] steel export competitiveness,” it added.

Regardless of being the world’s high producer of metal, China final 12 months accounted for less than a small proportion of US metal imports.

Greater than 350 rabbis, alongside further signatories together with Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an advert within the New York Occasions during which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the efficient ethnic cleaning of Palestinians from Gaza.

The advert, which was signed by rabbis together with Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Clever, in addition to Jewish creatives and activists together with Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”

The advert follows Trump’s proposal to “take over Gaza” and depart 2 million Palestinians who’ve survived Israel’s lethal onslaught in opposition to the slender strip with “no alternative” however to depart their houses.

Trump has known as on Jordan, Egypt and different Arab nations to absorb Palestinians – a proposal that has been met with widespread criticism from Arab nations and different allies whereas being condemned as an ethnic-cleansing plan.

Robert F Kennedy Jr has mass enchantment regardless of his excessive concepts. This concept explains why

Darren Loucaides

“Back at home in the United States, the newspapers are saying that I came here today to speak to about 5,000 Nazis,” Robert F Kennedy Jr informed a big crowd in Berlin. Estimated at 38,000 folks, the gang was a mixture of hippies, anti-war varieties, Inexperienced occasion voters and anti-vaxxers, rubbing shoulders with a smattering of skinheads. It was late August 2020 and a gaggle known as Querdenken had rallied this motley crew collectively in defiance of Covid-19 restrictions.

“Governments love pandemics,” Kennedy mentioned. “They love pandemics for the same reason they love war – it gives them the ability to impose controls that the population would otherwise never accept.”

Final month, in Senate affirmation hearings for his appointment because the US secretary of well being and human companies, Kennedy was questioned on having beforehand in contrast the Heart for Illness Management’s work to that of “Nazi death camps”, calling Covid-19 a bioweapon genetically engineered to focus on black and white folks whereas sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language folks, and blaming college shootings on antidepressants. “He has made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids life-saving vaccines,” mentioned the Democratic senator Ron Wyden. “It has been lucrative for him and put him on the verge of immense power.”

Learn the complete piece right here:

Peace push ‘not a betrayal’ of Ukraine, US defence secretary Hegseth insists

Jakub Krupa

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has been talking to reporters earlier than immediately’s Nato defence ministers assembly in Brussels, the place he denied that Donald Trump’s peace push with Vladimir Putin was a “betrayal” of Ukraine.

Hegeseth mentioned that the Russian aggression on Ukraine was “a factory reset for Nato,” and a second of “realisation that this alliance needs to be robust, strong, and real.”

“That is why president Trump has called for increased defence spending across the board for Nato, for European countries to recognise this is an urgent, real threat to the continent and this aggression needs to be a wake up call,” he mentioned.

He mentioned that standing as much as Russian aggression is “an important European responsibility.”

Confronted by reporters with ideas that the fast push to peace and talks with the Russian president who annexed Crimea in 2014 and invaded Ukraine in 2022 could possibly be seen as amounting to a betrayal of Ukraine, Hegseth insisted “That is your language, not mine. Certainly not a betrayal.”

“There is no betrayal; there is a recognition that the whole world and the US is invested in peace, in a negotiated peace,” he says.

Jakub Krupa is following developments with Ukraine on our Europe dwell weblog right here: Trump-Putin name ‘not a betrayal’ of Ukraine, insists US’s Hegseth as he heads for Nato showdown

Denver Public Colleges turned the primary US college district Wednesday to sue the Trump administration difficult its coverage permitting ICE immigration brokers in faculties.

Colorado’s largest public college district argued within the federal lawsuit that the coverage has compelled faculties to divert important academic sources and brought on attendance to plummet, Related Press stories.

“DPS is hindered in fulfilling its mission of providing education and life services to the students who are refraining from attending DPS schools for fear of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS school grounds,” the lawsuit states.

The Senate is anticipated to vote immediately on the affirmation of Robert F Kennedy Jr – a outstanding lawyer and vocal vaccine critic – because the nation’s well being secretary, controlling $1.7tn in spending for vaccines, meals security and medical health insurance applications for roughly half the nation.

Regardless of a number of Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on vaccines, Kennedy is anticipated to win affirmation.

Writing for CBS Information, Kaia Hubbard famous that “Kennedy’s path to confirmation was once considered among the most fragile of president Trump’s nominees,” however the Senate has cleared the ultimate hurdle to a vote on his appointment 53 to 47 alongside occasion traces.

Final week Republican Sen Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana, regardless of having expressed doubts about Kennedy Jr’s votes on vaccines, supported the appointment on the committee stage, and Republican Sen Susan Collins from Maine, who has expressed some disquiet about Trump nominations, additionally vowed to assist Kennedy Jr.

Through the pandemic, Kennedy Jr, 71, devoted a lot of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode belief in vaccines in addition to the federal government businesses that promote them. He has mentioned he’s “uniquely positioned” to revive belief in public well being businesses.

About 75,000 federal staff accepted the provide to give up in return for being paid till 30 September, based on McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the workplace of personnel administration, Related Press stories.

She mentioned the deferred resignation program “provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures,” and it was now closed to further staff.

A federal decide on Wednesday eliminated a key authorized hurdle stalling president Donald Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce. The Boston-based decide’s order within the problem filed by a gaggle of labor unions was a major authorized victory for the Republican president after a string of courtroom setbacks.

American Federation of Authorities Staff Nationwide president Everett Kelley mentioned in a press release that the union’s attorneys are assessing the subsequent steps.

At this time’s ruling is a setback within the combat for dignity and equity for public servants. However it’s not the top of that combat. Importantly, this determination didn’t tackle the underlying lawfulness of this system.

She mentioned the union continues to take care of that it’s unlawful to drive residents to decide, in just a few brief days, with out ample info, about “whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk.”

In a “factsheet” issued by the White Home earlier this week, the Trump administration claimed that “excluding active-duty military and Postal Service employees, the federal workforce exceeds 2.4 million” folks, and that “only 6% of federal workers report to work in-person on a full-time basis.”

Welcome to the Guardian’s rolling protection of the second Donald Trump administration and US politics. Listed here are the headlines …

• Donald Trump’s buyout program for federal workers can proceed, a federal decide dominated on Wednesday. The transfer paves a path ahead for the about 75,000 authorities staff who’ve volunteered to resign beneath the president’s plan to shrink the federal workforce

• Robert F Kennedy Jr is ready to face a vote on his affirmation as secretary of well being and human companies early within the Senate, as does Howard Lutnick to be secretary of commerce

• Elon Musk’s so-called Doge “efficiency” company web site has added knowledge from a controversial rightwing thinktank

• Social media platform X –owned by Musk – can pay Trump $10m to settle a lawsuit the president filed after he was banned from the platform following the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, based on a report

• The US legal professional normal introduced on Wednesday that the Trump administration is suing New York state over its immigration insurance policies, accusing state officers of selecting “to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens”

• Trump mentioned he’s prepared to simply accept Russia’s longstanding objection to Ukraine becoming a member of Nato. “They’ve been saying that for a long time, that Ukraine cannot go into Nato, and I’m OK with that”

• Tulsi Gabbard has been sworn in as Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence

• The White Home has once more barred an Related Press reporter from the Oval Workplace for the company refusing to undertake the identify “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico