Pentagon says it will withdraw 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany; blame game begins after Spirit airlines ceases operations. Key US politics stories from Saturday 2 May at a glance
Two top US Republican lawmakers expressed concern on Saturday about the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany.
“We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a US brigade from Germany,” senator Roger Wicker and representative Mike Rogers said in a joint statement.
Wicker, of Mississippi, and Rogers, of Alabama, chair the Senate and House armed services committees, respectively. Their statement comes a day after the Pentagon announced the withdrawal and said the move was expected to be completed over the next six to 12 months.
Donald Trump threatened the withdrawal earlier this week after German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the Iranians were “humiliating” the United States in talks to end the war and that he couldn’t see Washington’s exit strategy.
Nato is seeking to “understand the details” of a US decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, a redeployment ordered by Donald Trump amid the feud with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
The German government sought to play down the severity of Trump’s move, describing it as “anticipated”, and a reminder of Europe’s need to invest in its own defence.
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US airlines and government officials battled on Saturday to deal with stranded passengers and stricken employees after discount carrier Spirit Airlines abruptly ceased operations – and a political and business blame game got under way over the collapse of the low-cost carrier.
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In the first 15 months since Trump returned to the White House, district court judges ruled the administration was violating a court order in at least 31 lawsuits over a wide range of issues, including mass layoffs, deportations, spending cuts and immigration practices, a review from the Associated Press found. That’s about one out of every eight lawsuits in which courts have at least temporarily blocked the administration’s actions.
The repeated refusal of Trump officials to follow court orders has been highlighted most notably in individual immigration cases.
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Donald Trump has said the US navy acted “like pirates” as he described an operation seizing a ship amid the tit-for-tat American blockade of Iranian ports.
“We … land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” said Trump at a rally in Florida on Friday.
“We’re like pirates,” he added to cheers from the crowd. “We’re sort of like pirates. But we’re not playing games.”
Trump’s comparison of US naval activity to piracy comes as legal experts raise alarms about Iran’s blockade of the vital strait of Hormuz and its plans to charge a fee for ships passing through it.
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has awarded a contract to a private security company that has faced accusations of “torture” and “enforced disappearance” to assist in tracking down undocumented immigrant children who arrived in the US alone, a contracting document shows.
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The US president’s move to pull American troops out of Germany has hit Landstuhl – the largest American military community outside the US – like a bombshell. Deborah Cole travelled to the German town, where Americans have been woven into the fabric of life since 1945.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Friday 1 May.