Sunday, March 9

Tag: USA

Mitch McConnell won’t seek reelection in 2026, ending long tenure as Republican power broker

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell is announcing he won't seek reelection next year, ending a decades-long tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of US President Donald Trump. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends. He informed The Associated Press of his decision before he was set to address colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday (Friday AEDT). His announcement begins the epilogue of a storied career as a master strategist, one in which he helped forge a conservative Supreme Court and steered the Senate through tax cuts, presidential i...

Elon Musk is checking on US gold supply at Fort Knox. Here’s what we know about one of the world’s most secure buildings

US President Donald Trump says Elon Musk will be looking at Fort Knox, the legendary depository in Kentucky for American gold reserves, to make sure the gold is still there. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says there is an audit every year and that "all the gold is present and accounted for". The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox has stored precious metal bullion reserves for the United States since 1937 and has become synonymous for secure and well protected. The United States Depository for gold reserves stands in Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1974. (AP) Along with protecting gold reserves, Fort Knox is currently also used as the US Army's human resources command centre, and it hosts the Army's largest annual training event each summer. Fort Knox his...

Vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr is sworn in as Trump’s health chief after a close Senate vote

Robert F. Kennedy Jr has been sworn as President Donald Trump’s health secretary after a close Senate vote, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $US1.7 trillion ($2.7m) in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country. Nearly all Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political — and Democratic — families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats unanimously opposed Kennedy. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump's picks for the Pentagon chief and d...

Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realising they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say

Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers on Thursday night at the National Nuclear Security Administration — the agency tasked with managing the nation's nuclear stockpile — as part of broader Energy Department layoffs, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Sources told CNN the officials did not seem to know this agency oversees America's nuclear weapons. An Energy Department spokesperson disputed the number of personnel affected, telling CNN that "less than 50 people" were "dismissed" from NNSA, and that the dismissed staffers "held primarily administrative and clerical roles." Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers on Thursday night. (AP) The agency began rescinding the terminations Friday morning. Some...

Black Hawk helicopter involved in DC mid-air collision may not have heard key instruction, investigators say

The crew of the Army helicopter that collided in midair with an American Airlines jet near Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport may have had inaccurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash, and also may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers to move behind the plane, investigators said yesterday. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters that the recording from the Black Hawk helicopter cockpit suggested an incomplete radio transmission may have left the crew without understanding how it should shift position just before the January 29 crash, in which all 67 aboard the two aircraft were killed. “That transmission was interrupted -– it was stepped on,” she said, leaving them unable to hea...

Federal judge blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE access to critical Treasury payment system

A federal judge, citing a risk of "irreparable harm", has temporarily restricted Elon Musk's government efficiency team from accessing a critical Treasury Department payment system. The judge's order, issued early on Saturday, temporarily halts access to a sensitive payment system that distributes Americans' tax returns, Social Security benefits, disability payments and federal employees' salaries. US District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the destruction of any downloaded information from the payment system by anyone given access to it since January 20, citing "the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking". The judge'...
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