LIVE: US starts sending illegal immigrants back home

The Trump administration has put a freeze on many federal health agency communications with the public through at least the end of the month.

In a memo obtained by AP, acting secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services, Dorothy Fink, told agency staff leaders that an "immediate pause" had been ordered on, among other things, regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website posts until such communications had been approved by a political appointee.

The pause also applies to anything intended to be published in the Federal Register, where the executive branch communicates rules and regulations, and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientific publication.

The pause is in effect through February 1, the memo said.

Agencies subject to the HHS directive include the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration — entities that fight epidemics, protect the nation's food supply and search for cures to diseases.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, a far-right extremist group leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in the January 6, 2021, attack, visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday after President Donald Trump commuted his 18-year prison sentence.

Rhodes' appearance came a day after he was released from prison as a result of Trump's order of clemency benefitting more than 1,500 people charged with federal crimes in the January 6 attack.

Rhodes was convicted in one of the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department over the riot that left more than 100 police officers injured.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded an apology from the Episcopal bishop of Washington after she made a direct appeal to him during a prayer service marking his inauguration to have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers who are in the United States illegally.

Referencing Trump's belief that he was saved by God from assassination, the Right Rev. Mariann Budde said, “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

After he returned to the White House, Trump said, “I didn't think it was a good service” and “they could do much better.”

But later, in an overnight post on his social media site, he sharply criticised the “so-called Bishop” as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater.” “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” said Trump, a Republican, adding that Budde didn't mention that some migrants have come to the United States and killed people.

“Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job!” Trump said. “She and her church owe the public an apology!” A cathedral spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Wednesday.

The Trump administration has already issued executive orders rolling back transgender rights and toughening immigration policies.

Upbeat about the future of the India-US ties, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said clearly there is an interest in the new Trump Administration in taking this relationship forward.

“Special Envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is naturally treated very well,” Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters when asked about the front row seat that he was given during the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States on January 29.

Jaishankar, 70, represented India at the inauguration ceremony at the invitation of the US government.

Over the last three days, the minister said he had an opportunity to meet about half a dozen cabinet ministers of the Trump Administration.

He had a bilateral meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and attended the Quad ministerial meeting along with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the US, the first of the Trump Administration.

“Clearly there is an interest in taking the relationship forward. Now the exact mechanics of it, as and when we have something to tell you we'd be happy to share with you. But I do remind you that the prime minister had a very early phone call with President Trump and that I had come last month and made the initial contact with the NSA. So, it should give you a direction in which the relationship is going,” Jaishankar said.

“I would say, one, it was very clear that the Trump Administration was keen to have India present at the inaugural itself and they're clearly prioritising the bilateral relationship.

"Secondly, I think in the meetings I had, it was also evident that they would like to build on the foundation of the relationship, a foundation, which the first Trump Administration also contributed a lot to building. But President Trump and Prime Minister Modi at that time took a number of initiatives and we have seen that mature in many ways,” he said.

“And the third impression was with regard to Quad, again, a very strong sense that the current administration would reciprocate our desire as well to take the Quad further to intensify its activities,” he said, noting that the Quad itself was restarted in 2017 when Donald Trump was the president.

Jaishankar said he also flagged some concerns which are very widespread in India about delays in visas and the relationship is not well served if it takes that many days for people to get a visa because ultimately those visa delays do impact business, they do affect tourism.

Briefing on his bilateral meetings with Rubio and Waltz, he said: “Between us and the Trump Administration, we approach the world both with a clear sense of our national interest belief. We have a very strong degree of trust today between India and the United States. A very high level of convergence of our interests and a sense that while we serve our national interest, while we build our bilateral partnership, definitely on regional issues and global issues, there is a lot of good that we can do.” 

Jaishankar said there was consensus between them that “we need to be bolder, we need to be bigger, we need to be more ambitious. The interactions between us should be more intensive”.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said 'tariff' has become a household word with the second coming of US President Donald Trump, as he shared the origin of the word.

"With the second coming of Trump, 'tariff' has become a household word and the US President himself never tires of using it," Ramesh said in a post on X.

"The word 'tariff' owes its origin to the bustling Venetian trade with the Arab world during the 10th-15th centuries. The Arabic 'arrafa' meaning 'notify' led to the Italian 'tariffa' and through French it entered the English language," he said.

His remarks come with sources saying that India is examining Trump's memorandum — America First Trade Policy — to assess its impact on the bilateral trade with the US, which is its largest trading partner.

The sources said that the White House directive to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to identify countries with which the US can negotiate agreements on a bilateral or sector-specific basis is a positive development for countries like India.

But economic think tank GTRI has said that India should respond with equal measures if the US would impose higher tariffs on domestic goods. Trump has warned that he will impose 100 per cent tariffs against countries of the BRICS bloc, of which India is a part, if they take any steps to replace the US dollar.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser is sidelining roughly 160 career government employees on temporary duty at the White House National Security Council, telling them to work from home for the time-being as the administration reviews staffing for the White House arm that provides national security and foreign policy advice to the president, Trump administration officials told The Associated Press.

The career employees, commonly referred to as “detailees”, were summoned on Wednesday to an all-staff meeting in which were to be told that they'll be expected to be available to the NSC's senior directors but would not need to report to the White House, the officials said.

Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz had signalled before Inauguration Day that he would look to move holdover civil servants that served in the NSC during President Joe Biden's administration back to their home agencies. The move is meant to ensure the council is staffed by those who support Trump's agenda.

By the end of the review, Waltz will look to have a “more efficient, flatter” NSC, one official said.

Officials said that they have already begun bringing detailees from agencies with expertise that the new administration values, including some who had served during the first Trump administration. Some directors have already made decisions to inform detailiees they will be sent back to the federal agencies they were on loan from.

US President Trump on Wednesday met with a small contingent of the most politically endangered House Republicans as the party struggles to agree on a strategy for implementing the tax cuts and other priorities that it promised voters.

The meeting happened as Trump tried to advance other priorities during the first week of his second term.

Stephen Miller, a top Trump advisor, met with Senate Republicans to update them on plans for deportations and reinstating what's known as Title 42, a policy that was put in place during the coronavirus pandemic to stop border crossings.

Although Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, they have only thin majorities on Capitol Hill, and there are disagreements on how to move forward with so many issues on the table.

The Pentagon on Wednesday said it has begun deploying 1,500 active-duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, putting in motion plans US President Donald Trump laid out in executive orders shortly after he took office to crack down on immigration.

Acting Defence Secretary Robert Salesses said the Pentagon will provide military aircraft to support Department of Homeland Security deportation flights for more than 5,000 detained migrants and the troops will assist in the construction of barriers.

The number of troops and their mission may soon change, Salesses said in a statement.

“This is just the beginning,” he said.

It remains to be seen if they will end up doing law enforcement, which would put American troops in a dramatically different role for the first time in decades.

The active-duty forces will join the roughly 2,500 US National Guard and Reserve forces already there. There are currently no active-duty troops working along the roughly 3,219-km border.

The troops will include 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton in California, and the remainder will be army personnel.

Shortly after announcing the pardon for former Washington Metropolitan Police Department Lt Andrew Zabavsky, the White House said Trump has also granted clemency to Terrence Sutton for his involvement in the killing of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown.

Sutton was sentenced to five years and six months in prison for a second-degree murder conviction for his involvement in the deadly chase of the young man and a subsequent cover-up. The case had ignited protests in the nation's capital.

On the night of October 23, 2020, Sutton drove an undercover police car to chase Hylton-Brown, who was riding an electric moped on a sidewalk without a helmet. Zabavsky was riding in a marked police vehicle.

The chase lasted nearly three minutes and spanned 10 city blocks, running through stop signs and going the wrong way up a one-way street.

Sutton turned off his vehicle's emergency lights and sirens and accelerated just before an oncoming car struck Hylton-Brown, tossing his body into the air. He never regained consciousness before he died.

At an emotional news conference in the Capitol, two police officers who fought rioters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, said they are angry and exhausted but will continue to speak out after US President Trump pardoned their attackers.

Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed between doors as rioters grabbed his gas mask and tried to gouge his eyes, said he had been working 12-hour shifts since last week to protect Trump and his supporters during the inauguration.

After pausing to gather his emotions, Hodges said he was “beaten, crushed, kicked, punched, surrounded” on January 6, 2021. “They can try it again, and they know they'll be pardoned again. But it doesn't matter. I'll be there,” Hodges said.

Former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn said, “I'm not going away. They want you to stop talking, but we can't.”