NewsFlash

NAIROBI, March 11 (Reuters) - The health clinic where Alice Okwirry collects her HIV medication in Kenya's capital Nairobi has been rationing supplies of antiretrovirals to one-month refills since the U.S. government froze foreign aid. On the outskirts of the city, meanwhile, millions of life-saving doses sit on the shelves of a warehouse, unused and unreachable. The clinic is a half hour's drive from the warehouse, but for Okwirry, they may as well be an ocean apart. Without U.S. funding, distribution from the warehouse, which stocks all U.S. government-donated HIV medicine to Kenya, has ceased, leaving supplies of some drugs worryingly low, according to a former USAID official and a health official in Kenya.

The 90-day foreign aid freeze, ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump after taking office on January 20, has upended the global supply chain for medical products to fight HIV and other diseases. It is also blocking the distribution of drugs that long ago reached their destination countries. "I was just seeing death now coming," said 50-year-old Okwirry who was diagnosed with HIV in 2008 and has a 15-year-old daughter, Chichi, who is also HIV-positive. Okwirry used to receive six-month supplies of ARVs from the clinic but now can only get one month.

"I told Chichi: what about if you hear the drugs are doomed?" Okwirry said, growing emotional. "She told me: Mom, I'll be leaning on you." The State Department issued a waiver last month exempting funding for HIV treatment from the freeze. But the USAID payments system in Kenya is down after the cuts, meaning contractors who implement the programmes cannot be paid, said Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin, who was the deputy head of communications for USAID, East Africa, until resigning on Feb. 3 in protest at the dismantling of the agency. "Projects are left wondering: 'Well, how am I going to resume activities if you're not paying me money?" he said. "The waivers that have been given are really waivers on paper."

In Kenya, officials in Washington have not authorised the release of money required to distribute the $34 million worth of medicine and equipment at the warehouse, he added.

MORE - https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/kenya-hiv-patients-live-fear-us-aid-freeze-strand-drugs-warehouse-2025-03-11/

A federal judge is requiring the head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to testify on Thursday about the mass firing of probationary employees, setting up a legal standoff that could potentially result in the reinstatement of thousands of government workers. A group of federal unions has alleged that OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell lied in a sworn declaration that his office did not order the firing of probationary employees based on "performance or misconduct," prompting U.S. District Judge William Alsup to order Ezell to testify in person and under oath in San Francisco on Thursday.

The Trump administration has attempted to push back on the order -- arguing in a filing Monday that the testimony raises "fundamental constitutional concerns" -- and suggested that Ezell might miss the hearing despite the court's order.

Judge Alsup late Monday denied their request to cancel the hearing and still wants to directly hear from Ezell, who, as the acting director of OPM, effectively runs the HR department for the federal government. "The problem here is that Acting Director Ezell submitted a sworn declaration in support of the defendant's position but now refuses to appear to be cross examined or to be deposed," Judge Alsup wrote in an order Monday night.

Judge Alsup's order effectively gives the Trump administration two choices to fight the lawsuit. If Ezell skips the hearing, Judge Alsup said he would consider sanctioning the government and nullifying Ezell's sworn declaration about the purported legality of the mass firings, a move that would likely mean that the judge pauses the mass firings and potentially reinstates thousands of employees. Alternatively, if Ezell does testify on Thursday, he's likely to face tough questions about his sworn statements related to the firings.

The plaintiffs allege that on Feb. 13, Ezell convened a phone call with the heads of federal agencies to direct them to terminate thousands of federal employees and "falsely state that the terminations are for performance reasons." In a sworn declaration last month, Ezell denied directing the terminations based on performance reasons, instead arguing that OPM only issued guidance to individual agencies about the need for probationary workers to "demonstrate why it is in the public interest" for the government to continue to employ them. "OPM did not direct agencies to terminate any particular probationary employees based on performance or misconduct, and did not create a 'mass termination program,' as the plaintiffs in this matter described it," Ezell wrote.

The groups challenging the firings in court say that was a lie, and Judge Alsup appeared inclined to agree during a court hearing last month."How could so much of the work force be amputated suddenly overnight? It's so irregular and so widespread and so aberrant from the history of our country," Judge Alsup said. "How could that all happen with each agency deciding on its own to do something so aberrational?" "I don't believe it," said the judge. "I believe they were directed or ordered to do so by OPM in that telephone call. That's the way the evidence points."

The allegations about the mass firings comes as the Trump administration faces increased scrutiny about the role of the Department of Government Efficiency in reducing the size of the federal government. During a cabinet meeting last week, Trump told the heads of the federal agencies that they are in charge of making cuts to their own departments, rather than Elon Musk and DOGE.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/top-trump-administration-official-lie-mass-firings-federal/story?id=119679685

Lawyers for an activist who led pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University are expected to face off Wednesday in court with federal officials who want him deported. A federal judge on Monday temporarily halted Mahmoud Khalil's removal, barring the government from deporting him before Wednesday's hearing in New York. Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities Saturday night at his university-owned apartment. Amy Greer, Khalil's attorney, said officials were acting on a State Department order to revoke Khalil's student visa and green card.

Khalil was sent to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana. He will not be present at the New York hearing, his lawyers said.  Khalil graduated in December with a master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. The 30-year-old is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.

President Trump said Monday that Khalil's arrest was just the first "of many to come" amid the White House's crackdown on students and alleged "agitators" protesting Israel's war with Hamas. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Khalil was "given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation's finest universities and colleges – and he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists." Leavitt alleged that Khalil had distributed flyers on Columbia's campus that were "pro-Hamas."  "We have a zero-tolerance policy of siding with terrorists, period," Leavitt said.

While Khalil has been accused of making statements in support of Hamas, he has not been publicly accused of providing any material support. His lawyers say he's being punished for exercising protected speech. Khalil's attorneys said Monday in a statement that Khalil was "chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment."  Khalil's arrest came "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting antisemitism," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media that "we will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

The arrest was criticized by some students and professors at Columbia University and led to protests Monday in Manhattan. Katrina Armstrong, the school's interim president, called the arrest and the federal government's suspension of $400 million in federal funds due to alleged antisemitism on campus "a challenging moment for our community" in a message to the Columbia University community on Monday.  "All eyes are on Columbia at present. It falls to us to ensure our University, and indeed the values of higher education more broadly, survive and thrive," Armstrong wrote.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/columbia-university-student-mahmoud-khalil-hearing-deportation/


ALSO

Khalil's wife said Tuesday that they had returned from an Iftar dinner when they were followed and confronted by ICE agents. Iftar is a meal that breaks fasting during Muslims' Ramadan holy month observations. She said agents told her to go to the couple's apartment upstairs or face arrest as she continued to stay by her husband's side. "We were not shown any warrant and the ICE officers hung up the phone on our lawyer," she said. Agents whisked him away in an unmarked vehicle, she said, as she struggled to process what happened.... ICE agents were told that Khalil has a green card and is a permanent resident, but that he was arrested anyway.



FROM - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/protesters-demand-release-palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil-judge-bl-rcna195786

SNIP

Recent estimates from the Irish government suggest that there are as many as 10,000 undocumented Irish immigrants across the United States. Many have lived in the shadows for decades, waiting for a pathway to citizenship that may never come. And with a new president that has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, anxieties have been heightened.  "It's definitely a concern, definitely a worry," Mary, an undocumented Irish immigrant in New England, told CBS News. "I've heard of different people, you know, getting caught up in a swoop of undocumented people — some of them may be criminals, but some of them may not be, and it's just a situation of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

SNIP

Mick, who arrived in New York from Ireland in 2000, said public treatment of Irish people in the U.S. was in many ways the opposite of what other nationalities face. "I used to find it quite unfair hearing how locals would speak about these immigrants coming here," he explained. "I'd have to remind them, say, 'Hey guys, I'm an immigrant.'" The attitude, he said, was, "'Yeah, but you're different.'"  Mick was undocumented for the first few years he lived in the U.S., but he is now a citizen and describes himself as a proud New Yorker. He said there was a "much broader fear" among immigrant communities now during the second Trump administration. "There's tips being posted online … for people to report businesses if they suspect there's undocumented people working. It's horrible. There's definitely a feeling here, which is new and not nice," he said.

Ciara, who arrived in the U.S. before President Trump took office, said she was on a J-1 visa, which allows for educational and cultural exchange, but working illegally on the side. "There is a bit of a safety net" for Irish people in the hospitality industry, she said. "It definitely is a worry, but I think I am definitely very privileged as well. I'm a White Irish girl with a third-level [college] education, so I think I'm in a lot more secure position to a lot of other people who are undocumented."

But immigration attorneys have told CBS News that it would be naive for Irish undocumented people to believe that they may be immune to deportation. "When Irish people come here, they come on what we call the visa waiver program, so that allows them to come to the United States without going to the consulate in Dublin, and they can come in for 90 days and stay for 90 days, and so most of them [who are undocumented] overstay," John Foley, a Boston-based immigration attorney told CBS News.  "The waiver part means they waive all rights to judicial processing, meaning they can be removed or deported from the United States without going in front of a judge," Foley said. "If you're an ICE officer and you need to get 40 people a week, it's Thursday and you're at 27, you don't care where the last 13 come from."

SNIP

MORE at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irish-immigrants-trump-america/


[Ciara lives in fantasyland.]

A federal judge on Wednesday will consider the fate of more than 20,000 probationary government employees fired by the Trump administration.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Maryland, Judge James Bredar will consider issuing a temporary restraining order that would block future firings and reinstate the probationary employees who have already been terminated. The court hearing Wednesday comes after 20 Democratic attorneys general sued to block the firings last week.

"These large-scale, indiscriminate firings are not only subjecting the Plaintiff States and communities across the country to chaos. They are also against the law," the Democratic officials argued in their complaint, which named 41 agencies and agency heads as defendants. The attorneys general have argued that the Trump administration violated federal law with the firings by failing to give a required 60-day notice for a reduction in force, opting to pursue the terminations "suddenly and without any advance notice."

Lawyers with the Department of Justice have argued that the states lack standing because they "cannot interject themselves into the employment relationship between the United States and government workers," and that to grant the temporary restraining order would "circumvent" the administrative process for challenging the firings. In separate lawsuits, two other federal judges have declined to immediately block firings of federal employees or to reinstate them to their positions.

FROM - https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-blocking-mass-firings-government-employees-after-20/story?id=119695195

LONDON -- The European Union responded on Wednesday to the Trump administration's metals tariffs, saying member states would place countermeasures on some 26 billion euros, or about $28 billion, worth of U.S. goods. The U.S. at midnight began imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from all trading partners, with no exceptions or exemptions, the White House said.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement that the EU "must act to protect consumers and business." "Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers," von der Leyen said. "These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States."

https://abcnews.go.com/International/eu-announces-28-billion-countermeasures-trumps-steel-tariffs/story?id=119702601

[Question:  As I understand it, the UK has not retaliated against the USA for Trump's trade attack on a commonwealth country (Canada). Does the UK actually think they're going to get a better deal out of Trump than everyone else if they just stand aside and/or kiss up? Shades of Neville Chamberlain!]

A wasted life.

[Question:  As I understand it, the UK has not retaliated against the USA for Trump's trade attack on a commonwealth country (Canada). Does the UK actually think they're going to get a better deal out of Trump than everyone else if they just stand aside and/or kiss up? Shades of Neville Chamberlain!]

I don't believe the UK has any such trade alliances with Commonwealth countries.  If the USA was to militarily attack Canada then that would be different.

The US currently has a trade surplus with the UK which is why Starmer is hoping to avoid a trade war with the US but now that the US has imposed tariffs on UK steel and aluminum he is now considering retaliating. (According to The Guardian today)

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration is considering cutting most of the lawyers in the U.S. Justice Department unit that handles public corruption cases, four people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The people said that Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti told several Public Integrity Section employees that the majority of the attorneys who work in the unit would be offered transfers to other positions, or else they could face layoffs.

The plan targets a Justice Department unit where several supervisors pushed back on a directive from Justice Department leadership to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Approximately 20 attorneys would face reassignments to handle cases involving drugs, violent crime or immigration, leaving a handful behind, two of the people said. The four people requested anonymity to discuss the department's internal moves.

A Justice Department spokesperson said that no final decisions have been made, and that leadership is still looking at resources broadly across the department. The changes under consideration would also shift control over public corruption and election-related cases from the Washington-based unit to U.S. attorneys' offices across the country, the four people said. The unit would no longer be responsible for prosecuting cases, and would instead play a consulting role. The Public Integrity Section typically handles the department's most politically sensitive cases, including cases against local, state and federal elected officials. “This decision to dismantle the section charged with maintaining 'public integrity' in government by a President who has escalated corruption to a new level is yet another piece of President Trump's purge of all forms of accountability in the federal government," said Democratic U.S. Representative Dan Goldman of New York, a former federal prosecutor.

MORE - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-eyes-cuts-justice-department-public-corruption-unit-people-2025-03-12/

I don't believe the UK has any such trade alliances with Commonwealth countries.  If the USA was to militarily attack Canada then that would be different.

The US currently has a trade surplus with the UK which is why Starmer is hoping to avoid a trade war with the US but now that the US has imposed tariffs on UK steel and aluminum he is now considering retaliating. (According to The Guardian today)

Ok, so I'm not clear on this - then what is the purpose of the Commonwealth? Ex-colonial social niceties only (not being facetious here) and military aid, not economic support? Sorry, I never really looked at this before. 

[And the last thing you guys need is a trade war right now!  It looks like the trade deficit was only in 4th quarter of last year, and not prior, and that's what Trump is seizing on. Fingers are crossed it's a more sane path for you folks. Trump can't be trusted to not say one thing then turn around and do the opposite for the flimsiest of reasons. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/under-threat-trump-tariffs-uk-posts-rare-goods-trade-deficit-with-us-2025-02-13/ ]

EDIT - Did a bit of reading. So even if the US were to attack Canada or any other Commonwealth country militarily, the Commonwealth status means nothing.  It would be a matter of defense treaties signed. (May it NEVER come to this!) https://thegunzone.com/is-the-commonwealth-a-military-alliance/

Trump warns EU on retaliatory tariffs, says Irish tax policies lured US firms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to respond to the European Union's threat to impose counter tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28 billion) worth of U.S. goods from next month after Trump implemented blanket tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. "Of course I will respond," Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office. He said Ireland, a member of the European Union, was among countries taking advantage of the United States.

Trump said Ireland had used its tax policies to lure away pharmaceutical and other companies from the United States, but U.S. reciprocal tariffs would help rebuild U.S. manufacturing. "There's a massive deficit that we have with Ireland and with other countries," he said, saying he blamed U.S. leadership for allowing U.S. pharmaceutical companies and others to move to Ireland due to its tax policies. "I have great respect for Ireland ... but the United States shouldn't have let it happen," he said.
 

FROM
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-warns-eu-retaliatory-tariffs-165756397.html


So, now he's going to target Ireland? Or just the EU in general? Stay tuned....

[Nice of him to say that while hosting the Irish Prime Minister! This guy has the diplomatic talents of a brick.]

Old news. Biden said the thing about the Republic of Ireland. A New York paper then said that the only thing Ireland had was labour.

Prior to that, upon Brexit the EU said that those US companies must pay taxes in the countries they sell their products in.  It was always when and not if.
The UK had always blocked that, to help the RoI. Why did you think the Republic of Ireland was so desperate to stop Brexit? To be fair, RoI was a net taker of EU funds until they became a tax haven; which stopped the EEA countries getting their taxes.

Recently it was revealed that the Republic of Ireland doesn't have a defence budget! That won't go down well with Trump either.

Old news. Biden said the thing about the Republic of Ireland. A New York paper then said that the only thing Ireland had was labour.

Prior to that, upon Brexit the EU said that those US companies must pay taxes in the countries they sell their products in.  It was always when and not if.
The UK had always blocked that, to help the RoI. Why did you think the Republic of Ireland was so desperate to stop Brexit? To be fair, RoI was a net taker of EU funds until they became a tax haven; which stopped the EEA countries getting their taxes.

Recently it was revealed that the Republic of Ireland doesn't have a defence budget! That won't go down well with Trump either.

Oh my, no that will not go down well with him at all!!!!

The difference between the "old news" and the "current news" part of all this is that the "old news" was when we had stable Presidents who weren't trying to be King.

EDIT - Uh.... https://breakingdefense.com/2024/10/ireland-draws-up-record-1-5-billion-defense-budget/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62139358

Ok, so I'm not clear on this - then what is the purpose of the Commonwealth? Ex-colonial social niceties only (not being facetious here) and military aid, not economic support? Sorry, I never really looked at this before.

The Commonwealth is just a big friendly group of English speaking nations, not all are ex-British colonies. Most of the members are small countries and every 4 years one of the larger countries hosts the Commonwealth games.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations

Recently it was revealed that the Republic of Ireland doesn't have a defence budget! That won't go down well with Trump either.

The Irish examiner say that the Republic of Irelend spends 0.24 of their GDP on defence.
Ireland spends least on defence among 38 European nations, study finds
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41574028.html

but
"More than €18m of Ireland's defence budget unspent and handed back to exchequer last year"
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41489399.html