Author: potus

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Friday called on several U.S. agencies to exempt seasonal wildland firefighters from the ongoing federal hiring freeze, as concerns about federal readiness for future blazes have intensified.Schiff’s letter follows an NBC News report that President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order instituting a federal hiring freeze had halted onboarding for thousands of firefighters and could contribute to a shortfall ahead of the next fire season.“I urge you to immediately exempt federal firefighters from the freeze on federal funding, to stop encouraging firefighters to resign, and to provide information on how these actions have impacted the…

Newsom told NBC News last month that the fires would be the costliest in U.S. history in terms of destruction.NBC News witnessed U.S. Forest Service firefighters respond to the Palisades Fire, and they also battled the Eaton Fire in Angeles National Forest, where they deployed five large air tankers, 10 firefighting helicopters and dozens of fire engines, according to the publication Government Executive, which covers federal business news.Federal crews are credited with saving a neighborhood in the Eaton Fire, according to video obtained by KTLA-TV of Los Angeles.The Forest Service, the largest of the federal firefighting agencies, is under a…

As unions and Democrats denounced the Trump administration’s effort to slash the federal workforce through worker buyouts, some social media users have said the president’s actions parallel those of former President Bill Clinton. “To all you Democrats freaking out over President Trump’s buyout programme, I present to you a piece of history,” LD Basler, a retired federal law enforcement officer, wrote on X. His post quoted a 1995 statement Clinton made a year after he signed the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act. “I guess Clinton didn’t have the authority either, when he did it in the 90s? (Because) the precedent was…

People lined up outside of Apple Store on University Ave. in Palo Alto, California, United States on September 20, 2024 as Apple’s iPhone 16 sales officially begins. Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty ImagesThe U.K. has ordered Apple to provide officials access to users’ encrypted accounts, the Washington Post reported Friday.Britain’s Home Office, which handles immigration and security, last month issued an order to Apple requiring a technical “backdoor” that would allow officials to view fully encrypted material uploaded to the cloud software, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.”We do not comment on operational matters, including for example…

A Trump administration envoy to the Middle East pressed Lebanon’s new leaders on Friday to ensure that Hezbollah does not become part of the government, as it grapples with a fragile cease-fire and violence that could undermine its push for stability.The United States deputy envoy to the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, said at a news conference in Beirut after meeting Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, that Hezbollah had been “defeated” by Israel.She added that the leadership of Lebanon was committed to ensuring that Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed militia, “is not a part of this government in any form.”There was no…

A Tesla showroom with its logo and electric vehicles on display, including the Model 3 and Model Y, is seen on January 12, 2025, in Chongqing, China. Cheng Xin | Getty ImagesSales of Tesla’s cars to China fell in January, as competition from domestic rivals continued to heat up.Tesla sold 63,238 units of its electric cars in January, down 11.5% from the 71,447 cars sold in the same month last year.Shares of Tesla were down about 1.5% in premarket trading.Chinese rival BYD meanwhile sold 296,446 pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles last month, up 47% year-on-year.Other Chinese rivals of Tesla, including…

President Trump touted the 2020 Abraham Accords that established formal ties between Israel and four Arab countries as one of the biggest foreign policy achievements of his first term.Now he is pursuing his long-desired goal of getting Saudi Arabia to join the accords — but he may have just dealt himself a serious setback. Mr. Trump’s proposal to transfer all two million Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and then rebuild the enclave as the “Riviera of the Middle East” has antagonized some of the very people he needs to seal the deal.The Gaza idea was swiftly rejected by Arab…

President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, made plainly clear how a Latin American nation — considered a U.S. adversary — will help the president deliver on a promise that carried him to the White House.Mr. Homan expected flights carrying Venezuelan migrants in the United States back to Venezuela to begin “within the next 30 days,” he said in an interview with The New York Times.It was the first indication of a timeline for the plan to send people back to Venezuela after Mr. Trump’s announcement that his government had struck a deal with the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro.Last week,…

On Monday, a team at IBM that is contracted to manage human resources data for more than 500,000 federal employees received an unusual request to provide “read-only” access for the HR records for all 14,000 employees of the General Services Administration, according to a source familiar with the contract.  The email was from IBM’s regular contact at the GSA, the agency that manages federal property. But the request was odd since the agency already had “read and write” access to the data.  The request and the questions it raised were one example of the suspicion and speculation in Washington as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk conduct an unprecedented effort to shrink the…

A federal judge will consider Friday whether to block Elon Musk’s team from accessing systems at the Labor Department, which has investigated SpaceX and Tesla. Three unions asked Judge John Bates, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, to keep DOGE workers out of systems that also contain sensitive information about workers who have filed complaints and about Musk’s corporate rivals.“DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action, to crucial protections for government data collected and stored on hundreds of millions of Americans,” wrote labor…