Day: February 10, 2025

France Reiterates Support for Armenia’s Sovereignty  Asbarez Armenian News

Yerevan Applauds Iran’s Commitment to Armenia’s Territorial Integrity  Asbarez Armenian News

France Reiterates Support for Armenia’s Sovereignty  Asbarez Armenian News

BOSTON/WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge kept his block on President Donald Trump’s buyout plan for federal employees in place on Monday while he considers whether to impose it for a longer period of time. 

The decision by U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston prevents Trump’s administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to labor unions that have sued to stop it entirely. 

More than 2 million federal civilian employees had faced a midnight deadline Monday to accept the proposal. It is unclear when O’Toole will rule on the request by the unions. 

The buyout effort is part of a far-reaching plan by Trump and his allies to reduce the size and rein in the actions of the federal bureaucracy. Trump, who returned to the presidency on Jan. 20, has accused the federal workforce of undercutting his agenda during his first term in office, from 2017 to 2021. 

Unions have urged their members not to accept the buyout offer — saying Trump’s administration cannot be trusted to honor it — but about 65,000 federal employees had signed up for the buyouts as of Friday, according to a White House official. 

Reuters has been unable to independently verify that number, which does not include a breakdown of workers from each agency. 

The offer promises to pay employees their regular salaries and benefits until October without requiring them to work, but that may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14, and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point. 

At a court hearing, U.S. Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton called the buyout plan a “humane off-ramp” for those frustrated by Trump’s decision to reduce the size of the workforce and end the ability of many of them to work from home. 

But a lawyer for the unions said the plan had been carried out in a “slap dash” fashion with little regard to how it might disrupt operations at agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

“They failed to consider the continued functioning of government,” lawyer Elena Goldstein said. 

The administration had initially proposed a deadline of last Thursday before O’Toole, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton, extended it so he could consider the case. 

Trump has tasked Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, with overseeing the purge of federal employees through his Department of Government Efficiency, which is not an actual government agency. 

Musk’s actions have sown panic among federal workers and prompted public protests. His actions also have led to a flood of calls to U.S. lawmakers by voters worried about the access that Musk’s team has been given to sensitive information in government computer systems that contain data on federal payments to Americans and personal details of federal workers. 

Several lawsuits 

The unions and Democratic attorneys general have brought lawsuits challenging Trump’s rapid remaking of government and won some initial victories. 

A union that represents Consumer Financial Protection Bureau workers has filed a lawsuit seeking to block acting chief Russell Vought’s move to suspend CFPB activities, one of several legal challenges that Trump’s administration now faces. 

Democratic attorneys general from 22 U.S. states filed a lawsuit on Monday in Boston challenging sharp cuts to federal grant funding for universities, medical centers and other research institutions by the Trump administration. 

An effort to hollow out the U.S. Agency for International Development is partially on hold after a judge’s ruling. 

Trump’s effort to freeze trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants and other financial assistance has also been paused in a separate case. A federal judge in Rhode Island on Monday ruled that the administration must restore all domestic funding while he considers the case. 

On Saturday, a judge temporarily blocked Musk’s entity from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments at the Treasury Department.

Washington — President Donald Trump moved to substantially raise tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Monday, canceling exemptions and duty-free quotas for major suppliers Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other countries in a move that could boost the risk of a multifront trade war. 

Trump signed proclamations that raised the tariff rate on aluminum imports to 25% from the previous 10% that he imposed in 2018 to aid the struggling sector. His action reinstates a 25% tariff on millions of tons of steel imports and aluminum imports that had been entering the U.S. duty free under quota deals, exemptions and thousands of product exclusions. 

The proclamations were extensions of Trump’s 2018 Section 232 national security tariffs to protect steel and aluminum makers. A White House official said the exemptions had eroded the effectiveness of these measures. 

Trump also will impose a new North American standard requiring steel imports to be “melted and poured” and aluminum to be “smelted and cast” in the region to curb imports of minimally processed Chinese steel into the U.S. 

The order also targets downstream steel products that use imported steel for tariffs. 

Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said the measures would help U.S. steel and aluminum producers and shore up America’s economic and national security. 

“The steel and aluminum tariffs 2.0 will put an end to foreign dumping, boost domestic production and secure our steel and aluminum industries as the backbone and pillar industries of America’s economic and national security,” he told reporters. 

“This isn’t just about trade. It’s about ensuring that America never has to rely on foreign nations for critical industries like steel and aluminum.” 

Trump first broached the steel and aluminum action on Sunday, adding that he would also announce a further set of reciprocal tariffs later in the week, drawing warnings of retaliation from trade partners.

Boston — A jury found a Boston man not guilty on Monday of U.S. charges that he acted as an unlawful agent of China’s government by supplying officials information about individuals, dissidents and groups in the local Chinese community. 

Litang Liang, 65, was acquitted in federal court of charges that he acted as an unregistered Chinese agent in a case brought in 2023 that U.S. authorities had portrayed as part of their commitment to counter efforts by China’s government ato silence its critics abroad. 

Liang, a China-born U.S. citizen, had denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. His lawyer during the trial called the charges “ridiculous” and called them an effort to chill the free speech of a local community activist who advocated for the “reunification” of democratically governed Taiwan with mainland China — a view in harmony with China’s leaders. 

“Justice has finally arrived,” Liang told reporters through a translator following the verdict. 

U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, whose office pursued the case, said in a statement that while prosecutors “respect the jury’s decision, we are disappointed in (Monday’s) verdict.” 

Liang had worked at a hotel and for years had been an active member in his union as well as a community organizer and activist in the Chinese-American community in Boston, according to his lawyer, Derege Demissie. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Kistner told jurors on Friday during closing arguments in the case that China’s government sought out Liang because it “wanted someone already involved in the community who knew the people who were there.” 

Prosecutors said Liang from 2018 to 2022 provided Chinese officials with information on individuals and shared details about dissidents and groups with pro-Taiwan leanings. 

Prosecutors said that in 2018, after traveling to Beijing for meetings with an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, Liang founded the New England Alliance for the Peaceful Unification of China, which focused on promoting China’s goals with Taiwan. 

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future. 

Prosecutors said Liang, also at the direction of Chinese officials, in 2019 organized a counter-demonstration against pro-democracy protesters, and in 2022 provided an official with a Chinese agency, tasked with investigating political dissidents, information on two potential local recruits. 

Demissie in his closing argument to the jury countered that Liang made no secret of his activism and that his prosecution infringed on Liang’s right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. 

“This case would have meant nothing if it did not involve China,” Demissie said. “That’s what this is about. And it had the purpose of scaring people, and it achieved that purpose.”