Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as national intelligence director advances in key Senate committee vote – live

The message from Democrats gathered outside the Treasury building now is focused on the threat not from Donald Trump, but from the man they have identified as the self-appointed “co-president” Elon Musk.

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“No one elected Elon Musk to nothing,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, said. “And yet Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people. We are here to fight back. This is no longer business as usual.”

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of people rally in front of building”,”caption”:”Demonstrators rally outside the treasury building after it was reported Elon Musk has gained access to the federal payments system.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

“Elon Musk is here to collect on his investment,” in Donald Trump’s election, Warren said. “Musk has grabbed control of America’s payment system.”

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That control of payment systems means, Warren said, Musk could decide whether or not to make social security payments to people who criticize him on X, or to doctors who provide treatment he does not approve of.

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Earlier, Senator Chris Murphy was even more blunt. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the billionaires,” Murphy said. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the creepy 22-year-olds working for Elon.”

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“We are taking back this country from Elon Musk,” Murphy concluded.

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Democratic members of Congress are attempting to enter the treasury building to perform oversight into the activities of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, which has been granted access to sensitive information, including federal payment systems.

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In video posted on Bluesky and X from outside the treasury, Representatives Maxwell Frost, of Florida, and Jasmine Crockett, of Texas, explain that they are there to demand answers.

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We are members of Congress at the Treasury Department. We want to be let in to provide oversight on behalf of our constituents. @jasmineforus.bsky.social @sethmagaziner.bsky.social

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— Maxwell Frost (@maxwellfrost.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 1:40 PM

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“We’re here because an unelected billionaire has access to the private information of our constituents, and we want answers”, Frost said.

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“Oversight is going to do out job,” Crockett added. “We need to understand why it is that our Department of Treasury has been broken into.”

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Representative Seth Magaziner, from Rhode Island, added: “We need to know who is in control of the treasury, what their permissions are, what their intentions are, and what they want to do with your money and your identity. We need answers now.”

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“Zero people voted for Elon to run our government,” Frost wrote in an earlier post. “This is about oversight and transparency.”

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Wired magazine reported early on Tuesday:

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n

A 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government, three sources tell WIRED.

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Two of those sources say that Elez’s privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a secure mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy.

n

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Democratic Congressional leaders assailed Elon Musk for operating a “shadow government” of billionaires and unveiled new legislation designed to curb his reach.

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Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, previewed a bill aimed at preventing “unlawful access” to the treasury department’s payment systems, after staff members at Doge – Elon’s “department of government efficiency” – were granted entry.

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The measure, titled the bill Stop the Steal – a tongue-in-cheek reference to Trump’s baseless election fraud campaign, has little chance of passing, but is part of the Democrats’ efforts to push back against the Trump administration.

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“Our belief is there’s a real danger, a terrible, terrible danger and a looming danger that they will not only have access to American privacy information, but that they will use that to cut programs left and right,” Schumer said.

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The sensitive payment systems are used to pay the government’s bills, including the distribution of social security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal employees, tax refunds, among countless other functions.

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“It’s unfortunate that many of our Republican colleagues are determined to stand up a shadow government of the billionaires, by the billionaires and for the billionaires that will stick it to the American people,” Jeffries said.

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Schumer added: “Our message to the president is it’s exactly the opposite of what he’s campaigned on. It’s going to hurt voters, across the board, people who voted for him, people who voted against him, people who didn’t vote. And look, whenever he’s ready to talk to us, we’re ready to talk to him.”

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The Democratic leaders appealed to the public for support in pushing back against Trump’s most controversial and potentially unlawful moves: “It’s an all hands on deck effort,” Jeffries said.

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Many progressives and community advocates have expressed dismay over the Democratic party’s relatively muted and disjointed response to the Trump administration’s blitz of orders and actions. This week, the leaders have been much more visible and vocal about the measures they are taking to hold the line.

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“We are working on this and pushing back on all fronts,” Jeffries said.

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They claimed Trump’s decision to rescind a memo freezing all federal funds as an early victory. Public backlash led the administration to hold off after the directive unleashed chaos across the federal government. And Schumer said public outcry helped push Trump to accept a one-month delay in his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

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Schumer pledged to use the filibuster – requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation in the Senate – as a backstop and as leverage while also using the authority they have to conduct Congressional oversight. Keeping the public informed will be essential, he added.

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“The roots of democracy are still deep,” he said. “And when the public is really outraged by things, there is a response.”

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Donald Trump said he would support sending US citizens to serve time in overseas jails, after El Salvador’s president told secretary of state Marco Rubio he’d be willing to house prisoners from the United States.

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“In an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country, President Bukele offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals, including US citizens and legal residents,” Rubio said on Twitter/X earlier today, after meeting with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American country.

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Asked about the idea in the Oval Office, Trump said:

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n

These are sick people. If we could get them out of our country, we have other countries that would take them. They could. It’s no different than a prison system, except it would be a lot less expensive and it would be a great deterrent send them to other countries …

n

If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don’t know if we do or not. We’re looking at that right now, but we could make deals where we’d get these animals out of our country.

n

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Donald Trump reiterated that his administration would seek to dismantle the US Department of Education and leave standards at schools up to the individual states.

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Referring to Linda McMahon, his to-be-confirmed nominee to lead the department, Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office:

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n

I told Linda, Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. … So we’re ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right? We’re ranked number one in cost per pupil, so we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked at the bottom of the list. We’re ranked very badly. And what I want to do is let the states run schools.

n

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Taking questions in the Oval Office after he signed executive orders, Donald Trump confirmed that his administration will “wind down” USAid, and alleged fraud at the agency tasked with implementing the United States’s foreign aid agenda, Reuters reports.

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The president added that Elon Musk, who he has put in charge of the effort, is doing a “great job”.

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Donald Trump just signed executive orders preventing the United States from providing support to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and ending its cooperation with the global body’s human rights council.

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He also signed an order to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran as his administration renews efforts to curb its nuclear program.

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The United States has had an on-again-off-again relationship with the UN human rights council, and is not currently a member. Trump’s executive order criticizes the body for anti-US bias.

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Under Joe Biden, the US also froze funding to Unrwa amid allegations some of its employees participated in the 7 October attack, and the order Trump signed prevents future funding to the agency.

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We have a separate live blog covering the latest news in the Middle East, and you can follow it here:

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Politico reports that almost all USAid employees at its Washington DC headquarters will be put on leave on orders of the Trump administration.

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The move comes after officials from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” gained access to secure information in the organization, over the objections of two security officials who were subsequently put on leave. Hundreds of employees were then told they were on leave over the weekend, and the Trump administration plans to tell much of the rest of its staff the same in the hours to come.

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Here’s more, from Politico:

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n

A person familiar with the situation said some 1,400 people will be notified Tuesday, on top of about 600 who were placed on leave starting Sunday night. That amounts to the majority of Washington-based staff – many of them civil and Foreign Service officers, the person said.

n

A senior USAID official said the agency’s human resources department said in a meeting Tuesday morning that it had already revoked system access for more than 1,400 staffers – an indication that they are likely about to be notified they’re being put on leave.

n

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The Senate intelligence committee has approved former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.

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The committee’s Republican chair Tom Cotton announced the outcome of the behind-closed-doors vote on X:

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n

I’m pleased that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence. Once confirmed, I look forward to working with Ms. Gabbard to keep America safe and to bring badly needed reforms to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

n

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He did not reveal the tally of the vote. The panel’s Democrats were not expected to support Gabbard over her statements on foreign policy seen as deferential to US adversaries like Russia.

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Gabbard awaits confirmation by the full Senate.

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A group of anonymous FBI employees who were involved in cases related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol or the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump have filed a class action lawsuit against the justice department and the acting attorney general, James McHenry, over efforts to compile a list of employees who worked on these cases, which the agents fear could be used for termination or disciplinary action.

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The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, states that on 2 February, the FBI employees were instructed to fill out a survey that would identify their specific role in the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.

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It adds that some employees were required to fill out the survey themselves, whereas others were told that their supervisors would be filling out the form.

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“Plaintiffs were informed that the aggregated information is going to be forwarded to upper management” the complaint reads, adding that they believe that “the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action”.

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The lawsuit states that the employees “fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons”.

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The complaint alleges that the gathering, retention, and disclosure of the employees activities related to the acts of President Trump “is a violation of Plaintiffs’ rights under the First Amendments to the Constitution”.

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The employees also allege that it is a “violation of Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment substantive and due process rights” and the “publication or dissemination of the information in these surveys would be a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974”.

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“Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek to enjoin the publication or dissemination of these surveys, or any information derived therefrom,” it states.

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This comes as last week, the FBI’s acting director, Brian Driscoll, said that he had been directed by the acting deputy attorney general to provide a list of names of all current and former agents who had ever been assigned to investigate or prosecute January 6 attack cases.

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Donald Trump launched the opening salvo in his trade war by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to immediately slap its own levies on US imports and announce an anti-trust investigation of Google. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro raised hopes of a deal by saying the US president would speak with Xi Jinping today, but a US official has reportedly said that call is off. Meanwhile, Trump appears set to get the cabinet he wants, after two of his more controversial nominees hit crucial milestones in their Senate confirmation process. The chamber’s finance committee voted to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination as health and human services secretary despite his peddling of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and Tulsi Gabbard won the support of two Republican holdouts ahead of the Senate intelligence committee’s vote on her nomination for director of national intelligence around 2pm.

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Here’s what else has been doing on:

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n
• n

  About 20,000 federal workers have reportedly accepted the deferred resignation offer connected to Elon Musk, but that’s a far cry from his stated goal to trim the government workforce.

n

• n

  Trump will later today meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making him the first foreign leader to visit the White House since he was sworn in again.

n

• n

  Pam Bondi’s nomination for attorney general is set to get voted on by the Senate today. Democrats are concerned she will use the justice department to go after Trump’s enemies, but Bondi appears to have the support needed to be confirmed.

n

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Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will not be speaking today after all, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a US official.

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White House trade adviser Pete Navarro had earlier in the day said that the two leaders will speak. The conversation raised the possibility of a similar deal to the one Trump reached with Canada and Mexico’s leaders yesterday, where both agreed to additional border security steps in exchange for a month-long reprieve from 25% tariffs on imports to the United State that otherwise would have begun at midnight.

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Donald Trump is expected to speak with China’s president Xi Jinping today, hours after the two countries levied tariffs on each other.

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The Trump administration ordered 10% tariffs on Chinese goods to begin at midnight today, prompting Beijing to immediately announce an anti-trust investigation into US tech giant Google and retaliatory levies on imported American coal, liquified natural gas and petroleum, as well as some vehicles.

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“Let’s see what happens with the call today,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said in a live interview with Politico.

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Trump had imposed similar levies on Canada and Mexico, but backed off before they went into effect after speaking with each country’s leader on Monday and securing commitments that he said would improve security on their shared borders. Here’s more about the new trade turmoil between the United States and China:

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Republican senator Todd Young says he will support former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as director of national intelligence, greatly increasing the likelihood she will be confirmed.

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Young was the last known Republican holdout on advancing Gabbard through the Senate intelligence committee. Democrats have condemned the former congresswoman for her comments supporting Vladimir Putin, and for her meeting with Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad, while Republicans were displeased with her refusal to condemn Edward Snowden at a hearing last week.

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On X, Young wrote that Gabbard has alleviated his concerns:

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n

I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership.

n

I have done what the Framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, which is my top priority as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer.

n

Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security.

n

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The Senate finance committee has voted to advance Robert F Kennedy’s nomination as the next secretary of health and human services, with Republicans on the committee unanimously backing the cabinet pick.

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One Republican on the committee, senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, was considered a potential no vote on Kennedy, but joined his colleagues in favorably reporting the nomination ahead of the floor vote.

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The vote to advance fell along party lines, with 14 Republicans supporting the nomination and 13 Democrats opposing it.

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The number of federal workers who have accepted a deferred resignation offer connected to Elon Musk’s effort to downsize the government at Donald Trump’s behest is about 20,000, Axios reports.

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However, a senior administration official expects that figure to rise. “We expect more to come. If you see what’s happening at USAID, it’s just one piece of the puzzle”, the official told the outlet.

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That total is about 1%, well below the 5% to 10% reduction that Trump is reportedly targeting, and not far from the federal government’s usual yearly attrition rate of 6%, Axios reports.

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The unusual offer of deferred resignations for all federal workers – under which they will continue getting paid until September but don’t have to work and are allowed to find other jobs – has been attacked by unions and many workers as a dangerous assault on the civil services that keeps the government running:

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Donald Trump will today welcome Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, in the US president’s first meeting with a foreign leader since taking office.

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The war in Gaza and the implementation of the ceasefire deal that has largely halted hostilities and seen Israel release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages take on 7 October will likely be top of Trump and Netanyahu’s agenda. Citing a senior administration official, Reuters reports that the leaders will also discuss the possibility of Israel normalizing relations with other countries, including Saudi Arabia.

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Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive at 4pm ET, and later hold a press conference with Trump at 5.10pm, the White House said.

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The Senate intelligence committee is set to today vote on whether to advance former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as director of national intelligence.

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The one-time Democrat has faced blowback for statements supportive of Vladimir Putin and visit to Syria’s now-ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, and is expected to pick up support only from Republicans on the panel. The vote will be taken behind closed doors.

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The GOP controls the Senate and has a one-seat majority on the committee. If Gabbard’s nomination founders, it may be because of her comments regarding Edward Snowden, as the Guardian’s Robert Tait reported last week:

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Robert F Kennedy’s candidacy to lead the health and human services department faces a crucial test on at 10am ET, when the Senate finance committee votes on whether to advance his nomination.

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Kennedy has a long history of espousing conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine views, and it’s unclear if enough Republicans on the panel will back his nomination, despite the support of Donald Trump.

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Even if the committee declines to advance him, the full Senate can still decide to vote to confirm Kennedy. Here’s a look back at how his confirmation hearing went last week:

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Donald Trump is expected on Tuesday to stop US engagement with the UN human rights council and continue a halt to funding for the UN’s Palestinian relief agency (Unrwa), a White House official has said.

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The move coincides with a visit to Washington by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accused the agency of anti-Israel incitement and its staff of being “involved in terrorist activities against Israel” (you can keep up with the latest Middle East news in this blog)

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Unrwa, which has denied such allegations, is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region. A ban preventing Unrwa from operating in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel came into effect last week after the Israeli parliament voted in favour of it late last year.

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Palestinian boy sits beside an aid box provided by Unrwa outside a distribution point in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.”,”caption”:”A Palestinian boy sits beside an aid box provided by Unrwa outside a distribution point in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The US was the agency’s biggest donor – providing $300m-$400m a year – but Joe Biden paused funding last January after Israel accused some Unrwa staff of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. The US Congress then formally suspended contributions to Unrwa until at least March 2025.

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The UN last year investigated Israel’s claim that 19 Unrwa workers took part in the 7 October attack, and fired nine of those accused, but said Israel had not provided evidence to substantiate its broader allegations.

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During Trump’s first term in office, from 2017-2021, he also cut off funding for Unrwa, questioning its value, and saying that Palestinians needed to agree to renew peace talks with Israel, and calling for unspecified reforms.

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The first Trump administration also quit the 47-member human rights council halfway through a three-year term over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. The US is not currently a member of the Geneva-based body. Under the Biden administration, the US was re-elected and served a 2022-2024 term.

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USAid was established in 1961 by Democratic president John F Kennedy at the height of the cold war with the aim of better coordinating foreign assistance, already a key platform of US foreign policy in countering Soviet influence.

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It now administers about 60% of US foreign assistance and disbursed $43.79bn in the 2023 fiscal year. According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report this month, its workforce of 10,000, about two-thirds of whom serve overseas, assisted about 130 countries. USAid is funded by Congress, based on administration requests.

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The CRS said USAid helps “strategically important countries and countries in conflict; leads US efforts to alleviate poverty, disease, and humanitarian need; and assists US commercial interests by supporting developing countries’ economic growth and building countries’ capacity to participate in world trade”.

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Its top aid recipients in 2023 were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria.

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Here is a breakdown of how some markets reacted to Trump’s tariff plans on Tuesday, as reported by my colleagues in this story:

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  In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng share index jumped by almost 2.8%, while South Korea’s Kospi rose by 1.3%. The FTSE 100 fell 31 points to 8,551 shortly after opening in London.

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  Sterling dropped by half a cent against the US dollar to $1.24, while the euro was down a similar amount at $1.03.

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  The Canadian dollar, which slumped to a 20-year low on Monday before rebounding, weakened – to 1.445 to the dollar.

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  Chinese markets remain closed because of the lunar new year holiday and will reopen on Wednesday.

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Here are today’s key developments:

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  China on Tuesday slapped tariffs on US imports in a rapid response to new US duties on Chinese goods, renewing a trade war between the world’s top two economies as President Donald Trump sought to punish China for not halting the flow of illicit drugs.

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  Trump’s additional 10% tariff across all Chinese imports into the US came into effect at midnight on Tuesday. Within minutes, China’s Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for US coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos. The new tariffs on US exports will start on 10 February, the ministry said.

n

• n

  Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is imposing export controls on critical minerals tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.

n

• n

  China also announced a probe into Google, moments after the deadline for the US imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods passed. China will investigate the US tech company for alleged anti-trust violations, according to a brief statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

n

• n

  And Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization “to defend its legitimate rights and interests” in response to the US tariffs.

n

• n

  New York attorney general Letitia James on Monday told hospitals that they would be violating state law if they stop offering gender-affirming care for people under age 19 in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at curtailing federal funding for such treatments, the Associated Press reports.

n

• n

  US secretary of state Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

n

• n

  Trump announced he’s planning to appoint Michael Ellis and the deputy director of the CIA. Ellis is a close Trump ally and worked in the president’s previous administration and helped fight allegations of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.

n

• n

  The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five US universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

n

• n

  The US Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary. The vote was 59-38. Wright, 60, the CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 has said he will step down from the company once confirmed. He wrote in a Liberty report last year that he believes human-caused climate change is real, but that its hazards are “distant and uncertain”. He has also said that top-down governmental policies to curb it are destined to fail.

n

• n

  The US interior department has unveiled a suite of orders aimed at carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda to maximise domestic energy and minerals production and slash red tape, Reuters reports. In a statement, the agency said interior secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, signed six orders on his first day in office.

n

• n

  Trump has invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week, a White House official said, hours after a US military plane departed to return deported migrants to the country.

n

• n

  Senator Susan Collins, a republican from Maine, said she’ll vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. Collins is a key swing vote and her support brings Gabbard’s nomination close to being sealed.

n

• n

  Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, in alignment with mandates from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to slash federal agencies.

n

• n

  Musk’s Doge reportedly accessed administration systems for the federal Small Business Administration. It has also reportedly accessed secure information at USAid and the Treasury department. According to Wired, Musk has reportedly deployed six young men to lead Doge’s efforts to access federal government data.

n

• n

  The Trump administration made plain its intent to merge USAid with the state department under Musk’s supervision. Employees were barred from the agency headquarters today, after the website was shuttered over the weekend. Several democrats cried foul, calling the act illegal and denouncing Musk.

n

• n

  The Trump administration may begin using an obscure 18th-century law to deport undocumented migrants without first going through the courts.

n

• n

  Darren Beattie, a former White House official who wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” is reportedly set for a top role at the state department.

n

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Beijing on Tuesday said it had filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization “to defend its legitimate rights and interests” in response to hiked US tariffs on Chinese goods.

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“China has filed a case against the US tariff measures under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,” the commerce ministry said in a statement, adding the US actions were of a “malicious nature”.

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Among the measures announced by China in response to US tariffs on Chinese goods coming into effect is export controls on certain natural elements.

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China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.

n Tungsten, tellurium, molybdenum and ruthenium are critical minerals – materials that are essential for advanced technologies, clean energy, and national security, according to the Australian National University and US Geological Survey.

n Tungsten is among the rarest elements on earth and is used in fluorescent lamps and the aerospace industry, as well as in wear-resistant metals. Tellerium is used in solar panels. Ruthenium is used in solar cells and in electrical contacts and chip resistors in computers. Among molybdenum’s uses is in jet engines.

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China has also announced it is adding the US companies PVH Group and Illumina, Inc. to the Unreliable Entity List.

n PVH Group is an American clothing company which owns brands including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Illumina Inc is a biotech company specialising in genomic sequencing, which recently partnered with Nvidia on health related AI tech.

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“The above two entities violated normal market trading principles, interrupted normal transactions with Chinese companies, adopted discriminatory measures against Chinese companies, and seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” the commerce ministry said, without detailing what exactly the companies were accused of.

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“The Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism will take corresponding measures against the above entities in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.”

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Listing likely means fines, and restrictions on sales and investments in China for the two companies.

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More now on China’s response to US tariffs taking effect, via Reuters:

n China on Tuesday slapped tariffs on US imports in a rapid response to new US duties on Chinese goods, renewing a trade war between the world’s top two economies as President Donald Trump sought to punish China for not halting the flow of illicit drugs.

n Trump’s additional 10% tariff across all Chinese imports into the US came into effect at 12:01 am ET on Tuesday (05:01 GMT). Within minutes, China’s Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for US coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos. The new tariffs on US exports will start on 10 February, the ministry said.

n Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.

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China also announced a probe into Google, moments after a deadline for the US imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods passed, restarting a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

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China will investigate the US tech company for alleged anti-trust violations, according to a brief statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

n Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.

n But there was no such reprieve for China, and a White House spokesperson said Trump would not be speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping until later in the week.

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China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said on Tuesday that to “safeguard national security interests” the country is imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items, Reuters reports.

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China has announced a probe into Google in an apparent retaliatory move, moments after a deadline for the US imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods passed, restarting a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

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China will investigate the US tech company for alleged anti-trust violations, according to a brief statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

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China’s finance ministry has also announced 15% tariffs on coal and liquefied natural gas and 10% on crude oil and agricultural equipment from the US. A 10% tariff also applies to pickup trucks and large-displacement vehicles.

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Donald Trump has fired the opening salvo of his trade war, imposing tariffs on China on Tuesday in a move he claims will strengthen the US economy, despite warnings it will increase prices and knock growth.

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The US president pulled back from the brink of an economic conflict with Canada and Mexico, however, delaying threatened duties for another month following 11th-hour talks.

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He pushed ahead with higher tariffs on China, introducing a 10% levy on all goods exported from the country to the US and further straining relations between the world’s two largest economies.

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For exports from China, the US is also scrapping an exemption through which shipments valued at less than $800 have not faced tariffs. Popular Chinese retailers such as Shein and Temu have relied on the exemption to sell cheap goods in the US.

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After a call with Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed to postpone tariffs of 25% on Mexico – the latest of several delays – after she offered to send 10,000 of the country’s troops to its border with the US.

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Talks with Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, also prompted Trump to postpone 25% tariffs on the country. Canada is implementing a $1.3bn border plan, Trudeau said, and will appoint a fentanyl czar, list cartels as a terrorists and “ensure 24/7 eyes on the border”.

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US tariffs of 10% on Chinese imports has come into effect, risking a renewed trade war between the world’s top two economies as President Donald Trump punishes China for not halting the flow of illicit drugs.

n Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.

n But there was no such reprieve for China, with new levies coming into effect at 12:01am ET on Tuesday (05:01 GMT).

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Sovereign wealth funds generally exist in countries that either have large foreign exchange reserves, such as China, or revenue from the sale of oil or other commodities, like Norway and Saudi Arabia. The US, however, has consistently run budget deficits in recent years.

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There are in fact some US states that do have smaller wealth funds, generally funded by commodities or land. The largest is the Alaska Permanent Fund, started in 1976, which currently manages about $82bn.

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But the size of the American private investment sector on Wall Street and beyond is such that various investment managers and private equity firms manage large pools of capital. That reduces both the need for and availability of capital for a sovereign wealth fund to exist, absent political will.

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Bessent said the US sovereign wealth fund would be set up in the next 12 months. While on the election campaign trail in September, Trump proposed setting up a fund which would finance “great national endeavours,” including infrastructure projects such as highways and airports, manufacturing and medical research.

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Trump also suggested, without providing specifics, that the fund could be used to keep TikTok operating in the US. TikTok is now operating due to an extension Trump granted prolonging the deadline for a forced sale or shutdown.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday told hospitals that they would be violating state law if they stop offering gender-affirming care for people under age 19 in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at curtailing federal funding for such treatments, the Associated Press reports.

n In a letter, James, a Democrat, told health care facilities that refusing to provide the treatments would violate New York’s anti-discrimination laws.

n “Regardless of the availability of federal funding, we write to further remind you of your obligations to comply with New York State laws,” her letter reads.

n Trump, a Republican, last week signed an executive order that directed agencies to take steps to make sure that hospitals receiving federal research and education grants “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” The language in the order – using words such as “maiming,” “sterilizing” and “mutilation” – contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States.

n The letter from James came as some hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and Washington DC, said they were pausing gender-affirming treatments for young people while administrators evaluate the order. The White House on Monday released a statement that said the executive order was “already having its intended effect.”

n A spokesperson for the Greater New York Hospital Association said they were in close contact with member hospitals about the gender-affirming care executive order.

n “We are collaboratively working through every aspect of the EO to determine its legal and clinical implications. That work is ongoing,” Brian Conway said in an email.

n Gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth is not common but such treatments have been the subject of fierce political debate. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 adolescents in the US with commercial insurance received puberty blockers or hormones during a recent five-year period, according to a new study.

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US secretary of state Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

n President Nayib Bukele, “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said.

n “He’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they’re US citizens or legal residents.”

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Bukele said in a post on X that he had offered the US “the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system”.

n “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison… in exchange for a fee,” he wrote shortly after Rubio’s announcement, referring to El Salvador’s so-called terrorism confinement center.

n “The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

n Bukele is seen by the Trump administration as a key ally in its migration efforts in the region. The Salvadoran president has launched an unflinching security crackdown in his country, arresting more than 80,000 people, and bringing the number of homicides down sharply. His policies are credited by Washington with reducing the number of Salvadorans seeking to enter the US illegally.

n Since taking office on 20 January, President Donald Trump has stepped up the number of migrants the US deports to Latin America, including using military planes for repatriation flights.

n The Trump administration on Monday removed protection against deportation from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the US.

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Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.

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It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday.

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Following talks with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed at the last minute to hold off from imposing new duties on the two countries.

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The agreements came on a day of extreme volatility in global financial markets as rattled investors reacted to the prospect of a dramatically escalating dispute involving the world’s largest economies.

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The US president had upended US-Mexico ties over the weekend when he announced 25% tariffs and accused Sheinbaum’s administration of engaging in an “intolerable alliance” with Mexican crime groups.

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Sheinbaum rejected that “slanderous” accusation, but on Monday morning struck a softer note as she announced “a series of agreements” with Trump after a conversation between the two leaders during which they agreed to pause US tariffs for a month to allow for fresh negotiations.

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The Guardian’s Tom Phillips, Richard Partington and Callum Jones report:

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Donald Trump’s administration has confirmed plans to merge the US international aid agency USAid into the state department in a major revamp that would shrink its workforce and align its spending with Trump’s priorities.

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The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, declared himself the acting administrator of the agency and employees have been locked out of its Washington DC headquarters, while others have been suspended.

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Trump has entrusted Elon Musk, the billionaire heading his drive to shrink the federal government, to oversee the project. On Sunday, Trump said USAid had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out”, while Musk called it “a criminal organization” without providing any evidence and said it was “time for it to die”.

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live US politics coverage. This is Helen Sullivan bringing you the latest.

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Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.

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It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday.

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Meanwhile, confusion over the fate of USAid continues. Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, said he was taking over the agency and then named controversial figure Peter Marocco to be the deputy administrator.

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Here’s what else has happened today:

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  Trump announced he’s planning to appoint Michael Ellis and the deputy director of the CIA. Ellis is a close Trump ally and worked in the president’s previous administration and helped fight allegations of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.

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  The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five US universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

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  The US Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary. The vote was 59-38. Wright, 60, the CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 has said he will step down from the company once confirmed. He wrote in a Liberty report last year that he believes human-caused climate change is real, but that its hazards are “distant and uncertain”. He has also said that top-down governmental policies to curb it are destined to fail.

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  The US interior department has unveiled a suite of orders aimed at carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda to maximise domestic energy and minerals production and slash red tape, Reuters reports. In a statement, the agency said interior secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, signed six orders on his first day in office.

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  US President Donald Trump has invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week, a White House official said, hours after a US military plane departed to return deported migrants to the country.

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  Senator Susan Collins, a republican from Maine, said she’ll vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. Collins is a key swing vote and her support brings Gabbard’s nomination close to being sealed.

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  Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, in alignment with mandates from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to slash federal agencies.

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  Musk’s Doge reportedly accessed administration systems for the federal Small Business Administration. It has also reportedly accessed secure information at USAid and the Treasury department. According to Wired, Musk has reportedly deployed six young men to lead Doge’s efforts to access federal government data.

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  The Trump administration made plain its intent to merge USAid with the state department under Musk’s supervision. Employees were barred from the agency headquarters today, after the website was shuttered over the weekend. Several democrats cried foul, calling the act illegal and denouncing Musk.

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  The Trump administration may today begin using an obscure 18th-century law to deport undocumented migrants without first going through the courts.

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  Darren Beattie, a former White House official who wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” is reportedly set for a top role at the state department.

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As our colleagues on the Middle East live blog report, Donald Trump just called for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, casting it as a humanitarian move “to resettle people permanently”.

Sitting alongside his long-time political ally, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House, Trump was asked how many people he believed should be resettled from Gaza. “All of them”, Trump replied.

Democrats and protesters rally outside treasury department to protest Elon Musk’s access to sensitive information

The message from Democrats gathered outside the Treasury building now is focused on the threat not from Donald Trump, but from the man they have identified as the self-appointed “co-president” Elon Musk.

“No one elected Elon Musk to nothing,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, said. “And yet Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people. We are here to fight back. This is no longer business as usual.”

“Elon Musk is here to collect on his investment,” in Donald Trump’s election, Warren said. “Musk has grabbed control of America’s payment system.”

That control of payment systems means, Warren said, Musk could decide whether or not to make social security payments to people who criticize him on X, or to doctors who provide treatment he does not approve of.

Earlier, Senator Chris Murphy was even more blunt. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the billionaires,” Murphy said. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the creepy 22-year-olds working for Elon.”

“We are taking back this country from Elon Musk,” Murphy concluded.

Here is a live feed of Democrats denouncing Elon Musk outside the treasury, from the YouTube channel of Senator Jeff Merkley, of Oregon.

Standing behind a podium with the slogan “Nobody Elected Elon!” and in front of someone holding a sign that reads “It’s a Coup”, Representative Maxine Waters of California just said Musk thinks he is “the co-president of the United States of America”.

Then she was more blunt, saying: “Nobody elected your ass.”

A few minutes earlier, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, said: “I know some of y’all have been frustrated and you’ve been saying ‘Where are Democrats.’ Where are the leaders? We ain’t never left all. We are here … we are going to be in your face. We are going to be on your asses. We are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like. And this ain’t it.”

Democrats rally outside treasury building to protest Musk’s access to sensitive information

Democratic members of Congress are attempting to enter the treasury building to perform oversight into the activities of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, which has been granted access to sensitive information, including federal payment systems.

In video posted on Bluesky and X from outside the treasury, Representatives Maxwell Frost, of Florida, and Jasmine Crockett, of Texas, explain that they are there to demand answers.

We are members of Congress at the Treasury Department. We want to be let in to provide oversight on behalf of our constituents. @jasmineforus.bsky.social @sethmagaziner.bsky.social

[image or embed]

— Maxwell Frost (@maxwellfrost.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 1:40 PM

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“We’re here because an unelected billionaire has access to the private information of our constituents, and we want answers”, Frost said.

“Oversight is going to do out job,” Crockett added. “We need to understand why it is that our Department of Treasury has been broken into.”

Representative Seth Magaziner, from Rhode Island, added: “We need to know who is in control of the treasury, what their permissions are, what their intentions are, and what they want to do with your money and your identity. We need answers now.”

“Zero people voted for Elon to run our government,” Frost wrote in an earlier post. “This is about oversight and transparency.”

Wired magazine reported early on Tuesday:

A 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government, three sources tell WIRED.

Two of those sources say that Elez’s privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a secure mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy.

Stop the Steal: Democrats unveil bill to counter Musk’s ‘shadow government’

Lauren Gambino

Democratic Congressional leaders assailed Elon Musk for operating a “shadow government” of billionaires and unveiled new legislation designed to curb his reach.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, previewed a bill aimed at preventing “unlawful access” to the treasury department’s payment systems, after staff members at Doge – Elon’s “department of government efficiency” – were granted entry.

The measure, titled the bill Stop the Steal – a tongue-in-cheek reference to Trump’s baseless election fraud campaign, has little chance of passing, but is part of the Democrats’ efforts to push back against the Trump administration.

“Our belief is there’s a real danger, a terrible, terrible danger and a looming danger that they will not only have access to American privacy information, but that they will use that to cut programs left and right,” Schumer said.

The sensitive payment systems are used to pay the government’s bills, including the distribution of social security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal employees, tax refunds, among countless other functions.

“It’s unfortunate that many of our Republican colleagues are determined to stand up a shadow government of the billionaires, by the billionaires and for the billionaires that will stick it to the American people,” Jeffries said.

Schumer added: “Our message to the president is it’s exactly the opposite of what he’s campaigned on. It’s going to hurt voters, across the board, people who voted for him, people who voted against him, people who didn’t vote. And look, whenever he’s ready to talk to us, we’re ready to talk to him.”

The Democratic leaders appealed to the public for support in pushing back against Trump’s most controversial and potentially unlawful moves: “It’s an all hands on deck effort,” Jeffries said.

Many progressives and community advocates have expressed dismay over the Democratic party’s relatively muted and disjointed response to the Trump administration’s blitz of orders and actions. This week, the leaders have been much more visible and vocal about the measures they are taking to hold the line.

“We are working on this and pushing back on all fronts,” Jeffries said.

They claimed Trump’s decision to rescind a memo freezing all federal funds as an early victory. Public backlash led the administration to hold off after the directive unleashed chaos across the federal government. And Schumer said public outcry helped push Trump to accept a one-month delay in his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

Schumer pledged to use the filibuster – requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation in the Senate – as a backstop and as leverage while also using the authority they have to conduct Congressional oversight. Keeping the public informed will be essential, he added.

“The roots of democracy are still deep,” he said. “And when the public is really outraged by things, there is a response.”

Trump proposes sending US criminals to foreign jails

Donald Trump said he would support sending US citizens to serve time in overseas jails, after El Salvador’s president told secretary of state Marco Rubio he’d be willing to house prisoners from the United States.

“In an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country, President Bukele offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals, including US citizens and legal residents,” Rubio said on Twitter/X earlier today, after meeting with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American country.

Asked about the idea in the Oval Office, Trump said:

These are sick people. If we could get them out of our country, we have other countries that would take them. They could. It’s no different than a prison system, except it would be a lot less expensive and it would be a great deterrent send them to other countries …

If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don’t know if we do or not. We’re looking at that right now, but we could make deals where we’d get these animals out of our country.

Trump backs ending education department, wants to ‘let the states run schools’

Donald Trump reiterated that his administration would seek to dismantle the US Department of Education and leave standards at schools up to the individual states.

Referring to Linda McMahon, his to-be-confirmed nominee to lead the department, Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office:

I told Linda, Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. … So we’re ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right? We’re ranked number one in cost per pupil, so we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked at the bottom of the list. We’re ranked very badly. And what I want to do is let the states run schools.

Trump says he will ‘wind down’ USAid

Taking questions in the Oval Office after he signed executive orders, Donald Trump confirmed that his administration will “wind down” USAid, and alleged fraud at the agency tasked with implementing the United States’s foreign aid agenda, Reuters reports.

The president added that Elon Musk, who he has put in charge of the effort, is doing a “great job”.

Trump stops future US funding to Unrwa, ends cooperation with UN human rights council

Donald Trump just signed executive orders preventing the United States from providing support to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and ending its cooperation with the global body’s human rights council.

He also signed an order to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran as his administration renews efforts to curb its nuclear program.

The United States has had an on-again-off-again relationship with the UN human rights council, and is not currently a member. Trump’s executive order criticizes the body for anti-US bias.

Under Joe Biden, the US also froze funding to Unrwa amid allegations some of its employees participated in the 7 October attack, and the order Trump signed prevents future funding to the agency.

We have a separate live blog covering the latest news in the Middle East, and you can follow it here:

Trump to put nearly all USAid staffers at headquarters on leave – report

Politico reports that almost all USAid employees at its Washington DC headquarters will be put on leave on orders of the Trump administration.

The move comes after officials from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” gained access to secure information in the organization, over the objections of two security officials who were subsequently put on leave. Hundreds of employees were then told they were on leave over the weekend, and the Trump administration plans to tell much of the rest of its staff the same in the hours to come.

Here’s more, from Politico:

A person familiar with the situation said some 1,400 people will be notified Tuesday, on top of about 600 who were placed on leave starting Sunday night. That amounts to the majority of Washington-based staff – many of them civil and Foreign Service officers, the person said.

A senior USAID official said the agency’s human resources department said in a meeting Tuesday morning that it had already revoked system access for more than 1,400 staffers – an indication that they are likely about to be notified they’re being put on leave.

Senate committee approves Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as national intelligence director

The Senate intelligence committee has approved former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.

The committee’s Republican chair Tom Cotton announced the outcome of the behind-closed-doors vote on X:

I’m pleased that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence. Once confirmed, I look forward to working with Ms. Gabbard to keep America safe and to bring badly needed reforms to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

He did not reveal the tally of the vote. The panel’s Democrats were not expected to support Gabbard over her statements on foreign policy seen as deferential to US adversaries like Russia.

Gabbard awaits confirmation by the full Senate.

The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has condemned the Trump administration’s purge of top FBI officials, saying the move undermines national security and the bureau’s efforts to fight drug trafficking.

Several top officials, including assistant directors at the bureau in charge of intelligence, counter-terrorism and science and technology, were among those forced out last week, Virginia senator Mark Warner said in a statement.

“These are people who have served our country, protected Americans, and put criminals behind bars. Now they have been pushed out simply for doing their jobs. As we deal with a myriad of threats – to our homeland, to our cyber networks, to our economic competitiveness – this blatant abuse of power is making us all less safe,” Warner said.

CNN reports that the FBI has turned over to the justice department the names of thousands of FBI agents who worked on January 6-related cases, while officials connected to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” have been seen at the agency’s headquarters.

The demand for the names came from Emil Bove, who is now the acting deputy attorney general after previously representing Donald Trump as he faced state and federal prosecutions during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Here’s more, from CNN:

The demand has caused consternation among FBI employees who fear it is meant to amass a list of personnel for possible termination by the Trump administration.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, in a Friday memo with the subject line “Terminations,” had given FBI officials a noon deadline Tuesday to submit the names of thousands of agents and analysts. Bove previously ordered the firing of eight senior FBI officials, including those who oversaw cyber, national security and criminal investigations.

More than 5,000 names were submitted, sources said. There are more than 13,000 agents and 38,000 total FBI employees.

Meanwhile, officials dispatched by Elon Musk have been seen at FBI headquarters. Musk has headed up efforts by President Donald Trump’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Unions representing federal workers have begun a legal counterattack to Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency” accessing government computer systems, the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports:

Three federal employee unions are suing the Trump administration, alleging that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been granted unprecedented and potentially illegal access to sensitive government records.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court, claims that the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, violated federal privacy laws by giving Musk’s team full access to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s confidential payment systems.

Within days of Bessent’s appointment, the bureau’s top career official, David A Lebryk, was placed on administrative leave after reportedly resisting Doge’s data access requests. Lebryk subsequently announced his retirement, according to the lawsuit.

The unions argue that millions of Americans’ personal data – including social security numbers, tax returns and payment details – could be at risk.

“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the complaint reads.

The Senate has confirmed Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs.

According to the Associated Press, Collins was confirmed on a 77-23 vote.

Collins, a former air force chaplain and former Georgia representative who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, pledged during his 21 January hearing to “take care of the veterans” should he succeed in the confirmation process.

“I’m an Iraq war veteran,” he said during his hearing, “I understand burn pits because I slept next to one for many months. I understand this generation that went time and time and again, deployment after deployment in a different way than we’d seen many times before in our past wars.”

Collins served in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021.

FBI employees sue government over efforts to compile a list of employees who worked on Jan 6 or Trump cases

A group of anonymous FBI employees who were involved in cases related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol or the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump have filed a class action lawsuit against the justice department and the acting attorney general, James McHenry, over efforts to compile a list of employees who worked on these cases, which the agents fear could be used for termination or disciplinary action.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, states that on 2 February, the FBI employees were instructed to fill out a survey that would identify their specific role in the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.

It adds that some employees were required to fill out the survey themselves, whereas others were told that their supervisors would be filling out the form.

“Plaintiffs were informed that the aggregated information is going to be forwarded to upper management” the complaint reads, adding that they believe that “the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action”.

The lawsuit states that the employees “fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons”.

The complaint alleges that the gathering, retention, and disclosure of the employees activities related to the acts of President Trump “is a violation of Plaintiffs’ rights under the First Amendments to the Constitution”.

The employees also allege that it is a “violation of Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment substantive and due process rights” and the “publication or dissemination of the information in these surveys would be a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974”.

“Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek to enjoin the publication or dissemination of these surveys, or any information derived therefrom,” it states.

This comes as last week, the FBI’s acting director, Brian Driscoll, said that he had been directed by the acting deputy attorney general to provide a list of names of all current and former agents who had ever been assigned to investigate or prosecute January 6 attack cases.

The assistant commissioner of a division within the General Services Administration (GSA) reportedly informed staff this week that layoffs across the federal government are “likely” after the resignation offer expires on Thursday, according an email obtained by the Washington Post.

In the email obtained by the Post, Erv Koehler, the assistant commissioner of general supplies and services at GSA, reportedly expressed that he empathized with the “tough decisions you each are having to make” and encouraged staff to “focus on making the best decision for you and your particular situation”.

He said that GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service “is being asked” to cut its program by 50%.