Supreme court hands Trump first win over $1.5bn USAid payment freeze
The US supreme court has handed Donald Trump a temporary victory by overturning a lower court's decision demanding his administration immediately pay for $1.5bn in work already completed on behalf of the US Agency for International Development (USAid).
John Roberts, the chief justice, issued an 'administrative stay' late on Wednesday, removing a midnight deadline on the Trump administration to release the funds. The money has been frozen since day one of Trump's second term in the presidency, when he signed an executive order halting US spending abroad.
The supreme court order was made in response to an emergency appeal from the Trump administration protesting the deadline to release the funds. The decision is temporary, in effect buying the justices time to come to a more considered ruling.
But it represents the first victory for Trump awarded by the supreme court amid the welter of lawsuits that the president has provoked in his aggressive return to the Oval Office. There have so far been 94 legal challenges to the administration's actions, according to the Just Security tracker.
USAid has been a major target for the Trump administration's campaign to tear up long established government practices and fire thousands of federal employees. The president has argued that the agency, which was founded in 1961 by John F Kennedy and provides disaster and poverty relief as well as environmental protections around the world, is out of step with his 'America first' objectives.
Trump and the tech billionaire Elon Musk have made false claims and aired conspiracy theories about rampant fraud and waste at the agency.
The supreme court's action overturns the ruling of a federal judge, Amir Ali, who had ordered the Trump administration to keep funds flowing to thousands of USAid contractors and non-profit organisations. The contractors had complained that they were being deprived of compensation that had already been agreed and carried out.
When the judge discovered that the funds were still largely frozen despite his order, he set the Wednesday midnight deadline that the supreme court then lifted.
Almost all of the 10,000 USAid employees have been placed on leave. Many have been given a 15-minute window on Thursday and Friday in which they are allowed to return to their workplaces to clear their desks.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
12 minutes ago
- Reuters
Stocks, dollar stay calm in Asia as oil rises
SYDNEY, June 16 (Reuters) - Asian markets kept their nerve on Monday and oil prices climbed anew as the conflict between Israel and Iran showed no sign of cooling, adding geopolitical uncertainty to the world's economic troubles in a week packed with central bank meetings. The escalation came just as Group of Seven leaders were gathering in Canada with U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs already straining ties. Yet there was no sign of panic among investors with currency markets calm and Wall Street stock futures steadying after an early dip. Oil did add 2% to last week's 13% surge in an inflationary pulse that, if sustained, should make the Federal Reserve even less likely to cut interest rates when it meets on Wednesday. Futures imply almost no chance of a reduction in the 4.25% to 4.5% rate band, and scant prospect of a move in July either. Markets will be particularly sensitive to any change in the Fed's "dot plot" path for rates. "The Committee will release a new set of economic forecasts, and we expect that the interest rate forecast 'dots', which last showed a median expectation of two cuts this year, will instead look for only one cut this year," said Michael Feroli, head of U.S. economics at JPMorgan. Markets are still wagering on two easings by December, with a first move in September seen as most likely. Data on U.S. retail sales on Tuesday will also be a hurdle, as a pullback in autos could drag the headline down even as core sales edge higher. A market holiday in Thursday, means weekly jobless claims figures are out on Wednesday. For now, investors were waiting on developments and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab edged up 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab firmed 0.8% and South Korean stocks (.KS11), opens new tab added 0.5%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1% and Nasdaq futures gained 0.2%. European markets were more pressured by the region's reliance on oil imports and EUROSTOXX 50 futures slipped 0.1%, while DAX futures lost 0.2%. FTSE futures were flat. Yields on 10-year Treasuries nudged up 1 basis point to 4.42%, showing little sign of safe haven demand. In currency markets, the dollar firmed 0.3% on the Japanese yen to 144.49 , while the euro dipped 0.1% to $1.1537 . The spike in oil prices is a negative for the yen and euro at the margin as both Japan and the EU are major importers of energy, while the United States is a net exporter. Currencies from oil exporters Norway and Canada both benefited, with the Norwegian crown hitting its highest since early 2023. Central banks in Norway and Sweden meet this week, with the latter thought likely to trim rates. The Swiss National Bank meets on Thursday and is considered certain to cut by at least a quarter point to take rates to zero, with some chance it may go negative given the strength of the Swiss franc. The Bank of Japan holds a policy meeting on Tuesday and is widely expected to hold rates at 0.5%, while leaving open the possibility of tightening later in the year. There is also speculation it could consider slowing the rundown of its government bond holdings from next fiscal year. In commodity markets, gold was getting the safe-haven bid from Mid-East tensions and rose 0.5% to $3,450 an ounce . Oil prices were underpinned by fears the Israeli-Iran conflict could spread and disrupt exports from the region, particularly through the vital Strait of Hormuz. Brent climbed $1.11 to $75.34 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose $1.05 to $74.03 per barrel.
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Trump's investment claims - are tariffs boosting the US economy?
US President Donald Trump may have called tariffs his favourite word in the dictionary. But when it comes to obsessions, business investment has got to be close. As of last month, he said more than $12 trillion (£8.8tn) had been "practically committed" on his watch. "Nobody's ever seen numbers like we have," he said, crediting his agenda of tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation with making the true, the figure would indeed be astonishing, potentially tripling the roughly $4tn in gross private investment the US reported all of last is a sudden gush of business spending setting the stage for a new golden economic era as Trump claims, or is it all theatre? First things first: it is too early in Trump's tenure to have clear data to evaluate his claims. The US government publishes statistics on business investment only every three to March, which reflect two months of Trump's tenure, show a strong jump in business investment, albeit one that analysts said was partly due to data skewed by an earlier Boeing anecdotal and survey evidence indicates that Trump's impact on investment is far more incremental than he has claimed."We have hardly any data at this point and almost all the information we have is probably for investment projects that were planned and ordered last year," says economist Nick Bloom, a professor at Stanford University whose work looks at the impact of uncertainty on business investment. "My guess is business investment is down a little bit, not massively... primarily because uncertainty is quite high and that will pause it." Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche, which announced plans to invest $50bn in the US over five years in April, is a good example. Some of the projects included in the sum were already in the works. Executives have also warned that some of Trump's ideas - in particular a proposal to overhaul drug pricing - could imperil its plans."The pharma industry would need to review their expenses including investments," the company said. Trump typically makes his case pointing to investment promises made by high-profile firms such as Apple and White House keeps a running tally of those announcements, but at the start of June, it put total new investments at roughly $5.3tn - less than half the sum cited by that figure is inflated. Roughly a third of the 62 investments on the list include plans that were at least partially in the works before Trump took office. For example:US manufacturer Corning is listed for a $1.5bn investment in a new manufacturing plant, but the core $900m of the project was announced in early on the list for a $5bn plan to reopen a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, initially made that promise in commitments include items that are not traditionally considered investments at all - like Apple's $500bn spending pledge, which includes taxes and salaries paid to workers already at the company. An investment promise, by ADQ and Energy Capital, is not limited to the US. Falling 'well short' of headlines In reality, as of mid-May, new investment stemming from the announcements likely totalled something closer to $134bn, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs. That sum shrank to as little as $30bn, not including investments backed by foreign governments, once researchers factored in the risk that some projects might fail to materialise, or would have happened anyway."Though not negligible economically, such increases would fall well short of the recent headlines," they wrote. When pressed on the numbers, White House spokesman Kush Desai brushed off concerns that the administration's claims did not match reality. "The Trump administration is using a multifaceted approach to drive investment into the United States... and no amount of pointless nitpicking and hairsplitting can refute that it's paying off," he said in a statement, which noted that many firms had explicitly credited Trump and his policies for shaping their plans. The BBC approached more than two dozen firms with investments on the White House did not respond or referred to previous acknowledged that work on some of their projects pre-dated the current administration. Incentive to exaggerate Exaggeration by politicians and companies is hardly unexpected. But the Trump administration's willingness to radically intervene in the economy, with tariffs and other changes, has given companies reason to pump up their plans in ways that flatter the president, says Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Petersen Institute of International Economics."A firm making an announcement is a way to get some current benefits, without necessarily being held to those [spending pledges] if the situation changes," he says. "There's a strong incentive for companies to provide as large a number as possible." That's not to say that Trump policies aren't making a tariff threats have "definitely been a catalyst" for pharmaceutical firms to plan more manufacturing in the US, a key source of sector profits, says Stephen Farrelly, global lead for pharma and healthcare at he adds, there are limits to what the threats can accomplish. The pharma investments are set to unfold over time - a decade in some cases - in a sector that was poised for growth anyway. And they have come from firms selling branded drugs - not the cheaper, generic medicines that many Americans rely on and that are made in China and India. Mr Farrelly also warned that the sector's investments may be at risk over the long term, given uncertainty about the government's approach to tariffs, drug pricing and scientific research. Overall, many analysts expect investment growth to slow in the US this year due to policy German Gutierrez of the University of Washington says Trump is right to want to boost investment in the US, but believes his emphasis on global competition misdiagnoses the own work has found the decline in investment is due in part to industry consolidation. Now a few large firms dominate sectors, there is less incentive to invest to compete. In addition, the kinds of investments firms are making are typically cheaper items such as software rather than machines and factories. Tariffs, Prof Gutierrez says, are unlikely to address those issues."The way it's being done and the type of instruments they are using are not the best ways to achieve this goal. It just takes a lot more to really get this going," he says.
Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
Israel-Iran battle escalates, will be high on agenda as world leaders meet
TEL AVIV/DUBAI/WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - Israel and Iran kept up their attacks, killing and wounding civilians and raising concern among world leaders meeting in Canada this week that the biggest battle between the two old enemies could lead to a broader regional conflict. The Iranian death toll in four days of Israeli strikes, carried out with the declared aim of wiping out Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, had reached at least 224, with 90% of the casualties reported to be civilians, an Iranian health ministry spokesperson said. At least 10 people in Israel, including children, have been killed so far, according to authorities there. Group of Seven leaders began gathering in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday with the Israel-Iran conflict expected to be a top priority. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his goals for the summit include for Iran to not develop or possess nuclear weapons, ensuring Israel's right to defend itself, avoiding escalation of the conflict and creating room for diplomacy. "This issue will be very high on the agenda of the G7 summit," Merz told reporters. Before leaving for the summit on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump was asked what he was doing to de-escalate the situation. "I hope there's going to be a deal. I think it's time for a deal," he told reporters. "Sometimes they have to fight it out." Iran has told mediators Qatar and Oman that it is not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack, an official briefed on the communications told Reuters on Sunday. Explosions shook Tel Aviv on Sunday during Iran's first daylight missile attack since Israel's strike on Friday. Shortly after nightfall, Iranian missiles hit a residential street in Haifa, a mixed Jewish-Arab city, and in Israel's south. In Bat Yam, a city near Tel Aviv, residents braced on Sunday evening for another sleepless night after an overnight strike on an apartment tower. "It's very dreadful. It's not fun. People are losing their lives and their homes," said Shem, 29. Images from Tehran showed the night sky lit up by a huge blaze at a fuel depot after Israel began strikes against Iran's oil and gas sector - raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state. Brent crude futures were up $1.17, or 1.6%, to $75.39 a barrel by 0015 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained $1.11, or 1.6%, to $74.14. They had surged more than $4 earlier in the session. In Washington, two U.S. officials told Reuters that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When asked about the Reuters report, Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday: "There's so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I'm not going to get into that." "We do what we need to do," he told Fox's "Special Report With Bret Baier." Israel began the assault with a surprise attack on Friday that wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command and damaged its nuclear sites, and says the campaign will escalate in coming days. The intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy were killed in attacks on Tehran on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said. Iran has vowed to "open the gates of hell" in retaliation. Trump has lauded Israel's offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the U.S. has taken part and warning Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include U.S. targets. Two U.S. officials said on Friday the U.S. military had helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed toward Israel. The U.S. president has repeatedly said Iran could end the war by agreeing to tough restrictions on its nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but which Western countries and the IAEA nuclear watchdog say could be used to make an atomic bomb. The latest round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the U.S., due on Sunday, was scrapped after Tehran said it would not negotiate while under Israeli attack.
