
US appeals court temporarily blocks ending Afghans' protected status
An administrative stay on the termination of temporary protected status for Afghans will remain until July 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in an order granting a request from immigration advocacy organization CASA.
The group had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to challenge the terminations of the temporary protected status for Afghans and Cameroonians announced by the Trump administration in April.
CASA had filed for an emergency motion for a stay on Monday, when the protected status for Afghans was scheduled to be terminated. The protected status for Cameroonians is set to end on August 4, according to the court document.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In April when the Trump administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians, the department had said conditions in Afghanistan and Cameroon no longer merited the protected status.
The Trump administration has until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0359 GMT, Thursday) to respond.
The U.S. evacuated more than 82,000 Afghans from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, including more than 70,000 who entered the U.S. with temporary "parole," which allowed legal entry for a period of two years.
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The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Senate Republicans advance Trump bill to cancel $9bn in approved spending
Senate Republicans on Tuesday advanced Donald Trump's request to cancel about $9bn in previously approved spending, overcoming concerns about what the rescissions could mean for impoverished people around the globe and for public radio and television stations in their home states. JD Vance broke the tie on the procedural vote, allowing the measure to advance, 51-50. A final vote in the Senate could occur as early as Wednesday. The bill would then return to the House for another vote before it would go to the US president's desk for his signature before a Friday deadline. Republicans winnowed down the president's request by taking out his proposed $400m cut to a program known as Pepfar. That change increased the prospects for the bill's passage. The politically popular program is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then president George W Bush to combat HIV/Aids. 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Senator Mike Rounds tweeted that he would vote to support the measure after working with the administration to 'find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption'. Some senators worried that the cuts to public media could decimate many of the 1,500 local radio and television stations around the country that rely on some federal funding to operate. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes more than 70% of its funding to those stations. Maine senator Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate appropriations committee, said the substitute package marked 'progress', but she still raised issues with it, particularly on a lack of specifics from the White House. She questioned how the package could still total $9 billion while also protecting programs that Republicans favor. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she didn't want the Senate to be going through numerous rounds of rescissions. 'We are lawmakers. 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Times
37 minutes ago
- Times
Gagging order to cover up Afghan leak must never be used again
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Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Accused Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter indicted on federal murder charges over Democrat shootings
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The murder counts in the deaths of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, could carry the federal death penalty. The indictment also charged Boelter with shooting and wounding a state senator and his wife, and attempting to shoot their adult daughter. Thompson said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty 'will not come for several months' and will be up to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911, but President Donald Trump's administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes. Prosecutors initially charged Boelter with the same six counts, but under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial. His arraignment, where he could enter a plea, will probably be scheduled for later in the week, Thompson said Boelter's federal defender, Manny Atwal, did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the indictment and the new allegations. Thompson also disclosed new details at a news conference. He said investigators had found the handwritten letter, which was addressed to the FBI chief, in a car Boelter abandoned near his home. 'In the letter, Vance Boelter claims that he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books and he had conducted missions on behalf of the U.S. military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa,' Thompson said. The letter doesn't specifically say though why he targeted the Hortmans and Hoffmans. Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. At a hearing on July 3, Boelter said he was 'looking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out.' In an interview published by the New York Post on Saturday, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for Trump, but he declined to discuss why he allegedly killed the Hortmans and wounded the Hoffmans. 'You are fishing and I can´t talk about my case...I´ll say it didn´t involve either the Trump stuff or pro life,' Boelter wrote in a message to the newspaper via the jail´s messaging system. Boelter also faces state murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County, but the federal case will go first. Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, who has lived in rural Sibley County south of Minneapolis, was disguised as a police officer, driving a fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask and wearing tactical gear around 2am on June 14 when he went to the home of Senator John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He allegedly shot the senator nine times, and Yvette Hoffman eight times, but they survived. He also allegedly tried to kill their adult daughter, Hope, but they pushed her out of the way and she was not hit. Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers. One wasn't home while a police officer may have scared him off from the other target. Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Brooklyn Park police, who had been alerted to the shootings of the Hoffmans, arrived at the Hortman home around 3:30am, moments before the gunman opened fire on the couple, court documents said. Boelter allegedly fled and left behind his car, which contained notebooks listing dozens of Democratic officials as potential targets with their home addresses, as well as five guns and a large quantity of ammunition. Thompson said the gun used to shoot the Hoffmans was found near the Hortman home, while the gun used to shoot the Hortmans was recovered from a pond near their home a few days later. Law enforcement officers finally captured Boelter about 40 hours later, about a mile from his rural home in Green Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect in state history. Senator Hoffman is out of the hospital and is now at a rehabilitation facility, his family announced last week, adding he has a long road to recovery. Yvette Hoffman was released a few days after the attack. Hope Hoffman said in a statement Tuesday that she was relieved that Boelter will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 'Though I was not shot physically, I will now forever coexist with the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face,' she said. Hortman led the House from 2019 until January and was a driving force as Democrats passed an ambitious list of liberal priorities in 2023. She yielded the speakership to a Republican in a power-sharing deal after the November elections left the House tied, and she took the title speaker emerita.