Skip next section Schumer postpones book tour amid backlash over spending bill vote
03/17/2025March 17, 2025
Schumer postpones book tour amid backlash over spending bill vote
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has postponed book tour events amid backlash from fellow Democrats over his decision to advance a Republican spending bill last week.
Many lawmakers felt Schumer gave away a rare piece of leverage when he, along with nine other Democrats, voted with Republicans to advance the spending bill.
The bill is set to cut spending by about $7 billion and does not halt Trump’s campaign to slash the government.
Schumer was scheduled to appear across cities on the East Coast for his book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.”
“Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled,” representatives for Schumer said in a statement.
Some progressive activists had planned protests around Schumer’s book events.
https://p.dw.com/p/4ruCP
Skip next section WHO chief issues warning over USAID cuts
03/17/2025March 17, 2025
WHO chief issues warning over USAID cuts
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus once again sounded the alarm about the .
Tedros said there could be “10 million additional cases of HIV and three million HIV-related deaths,” adding: “We ask the US to reconsider its support for global health.”
The Trump administration has set into motion its plan to
USAID delivers billions of dollars to countries at only a fraction of the overall US budget. Tedros warned that yearslong battles against a long line of diseases, from HIV to measles to polio, would suffer immensely.
The Associated Press has reported citing an internal memo that the administration was set to eliminate 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall US assistance around the world.
https://p.dw.com/p/4rux3
Skip next section Trump says Biden pardons are ‘void’ because of autopen use
03/17/2025March 17, 2025
Trump says Biden pardons are ‘void’ because of autopen use
US President Donald Trump said on social media that former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons to people before he left office are “void” because he used an autopen to sign the acts of clemency.
Autopens have been used for decades by presidents. A memorandum opinion from the US Justice Department said a president can sign a bill by directing a subordinate to “affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”
Trump argued in his social media post that Biden “did not know” anything about the papers he signed to give consent for pre-emptive pardons issued to a number of people, including relatives, members of the and .
“The ‘pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump told reporters Sunday that those on the House committee should be investigated “at the highest level.”
His remarks followed a report from an arm of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with deep roots in Washington, that argued Biden used an autopen to sign the pardons.
https://p.dw.com/p/4ru7I
Skip next section Trump administration defends deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members03/17/2025March 17, 2025
Trump administration defends deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members
A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to explain whether they violated his order by deporting hundreds of alleged Venezuela gang members over the weekend.
Trump administration officials on Sunday announced the deportation of hundreds of immigrants who the White House alleges are members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador.
The deportations were carried out under an 18th-century wartime declaration — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — targeting Venezuelan gang members.
They came after a judge , but lawyers told the judge that two planes with immigrants were already in the air at the time of the ruling — with one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras.
“This administration acted within the confines of the law,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
In a statement on Sunday, Leavitt said: “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.”
The acronym refers to the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, whose members Trump said could be arrested, restrained and removed from the country.
https://p.dw.com/p/4rv0R
The post US: White House denies flouting court order on deportations appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
