WATCH: Christians protest anti-faith policies outside Seattle City Hall

WATCH: Christians protest anti-faith policies outside Seattle City Hall

(The Center Square) – Hundreds of Christians gathered outside Seattle City Hall Tuesday evening to protest what they say are the anti-faith policies of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and the Seattle City Council, just days after 23 people were arrested after counter-protesters interrupted a rally Saturday focused on protecting children from transgender ideologies. Counter-protesters also gathered Tuesday evening but were prevented by police from interrupting the main permitted protest. There still were skirmishes between trans rights activists who tried to force their way inside the police barricades. At least two counter-protesters were placed into custody after confronting an independent conservative journalist who was filming their activity, video posted to X showed. Breaking — Journalist@choeshowwas just assaulted by trans Antifa activists outside of Seattle City Hall.@SeattlePDmade two arrests.The incident occurred ahead at the pro-Christian rally calling for Mayor Harrell's resignation.pic.twitter.com/JaxCFR2LLk— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt)May 27, 2025 Inside the permitted event, various Christian church leaders sang songs of worship and talked of loving those who they don't agree with. Hundreds of Christians had to be escorted through security into the event, as counter-protesters attempted to block the entrance at 4th Avenue and Cherry Street. The religious organization Pursuit Northwest hosted the"Rattle in Seattle"protest Tuesday to "stand against the religious bigotry" of city policies. The city shut down Saturday's rally at Cal Anderson Park early during the violence. Saturday's rally was hosted byOn Fire Ministriesand was in protest of policies that expose children to transgender ideologies. As The Center Square previouslyreported, Cal Anderson Park is within the Capitol Hill neighborhood – a prominent LGBTQ area. Harrell called the Saturday rally far-right and claimed it was held in Capitol Hill to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that "are inherently opposed to our city's values." But the rally's organizers said that the park was suggested by the mayor's office. Permitting decisions are made by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. This is a developing story and will be updated. • Reporter Spencer Pauley contributed to this report

byDan Dunne

in

May 27, 2025

WATCH: Christians protest anti-faith policies outside Seattle City Hall

WATCH: Christians protest anti-faith policies outside Seattle City Hall (The Center Square) – Hundreds of Christians gathered outside Seattl...

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DOGE can access sensitive Treasury payment systems, judge rules

DOGE can access sensitive Treasury payment systems, judge rules

The Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency can now access sensitive Treasury Department systems that control trillions of dollars of payments and contain private information for millions of Americans, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. US District Judge Jeannette Vargas said in her ruling that she was clearing the way for the Elon Musk-backed team at the Treasury to access thesesystemsbecause the Trump administration has created a process to train the DOGE staffers and prevent improper disclosures of private data. A coalition of 19 states, all with Democratic attorneys general, filed the lawsuit earlier this year to block DOGE from accessing the payment systems. The Democratic states did not oppose the DOGE team at Treasury accessing the systems as long as they receive proper training, Vargas noted. "The parties are in agreement that … the New DOGE Employees should be permitted to have access to (Bureau of the Fiscal Service) payment systems," Vargas wrote Tuesday. CNN has reached out to the Treasury Department for comment. Back in February,Vargas blocked DOGEfrom accessing Treasury's payment systems, finding that the Trump administration acted in a "chaotic and haphazard" way and failed to "adequately consider" the privacy and security risks of letting Musk's team touch the data. Her order on Tuesday eliminates many of the restrictions that she initially imposed. She had already eased some of the limitations before Tuesday's order. In her eight-page ruling, Vargas said the Trump administration wouldn't need to get her permission if any additional DOGE staffers want to access the data, as long as they undergo the training, because "there is little utility in having this Court function as Treasury's de facto human resources officer each time a new team member is onboarded." DOGE staffers tried earlier this year to use the Treasury payment systems to shut down spending for programs they didn't believe should be funded,CNN previously reported. New York Attorney General Letitia James, a noted Trump critic, led the Democratic coalition behind the lawsuit and previously called DOGE's actions an "illegal power grab." James and the other Democratic officials previously said their lawsuit was necessary to stop Musk and his allies from withholding federal funds for essential programs like Social Security and Medicaid. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byDan Dunne

in

May 27, 2025

DOGE can access sensitive Treasury payment systems, judge rules

DOGE can access sensitive Treasury payment systems, judge rules The Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency can now a...

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Trump administration moves to cancel all remaining federal contracts with Harvard

Trump administration moves to cancel all remaining federal contracts with Harvard

The White House is directing federal agencies to cancel all remainingcontractswith Harvard University – about $100 million in all, two senior Trump administration officials told CNN – the latest barb against the school as it refuses to bend to the White House's barrage of policy demands amid a broader politically charged assault on US colleges. "We recommend that your agency terminate for convenience each contract that it determines has failed to meet its standards," reads a Tuesday letter to procurement executives from General Services Administration official Josh Gruenbaum, who also signed an Aprilletterto Harvard with a series of demands on governance and curriculum the schoolrejected. The New York Times first reportedthe latest planned cuts, which come on top of $2.65 billion in recent federal cuts to Harvard. The White House announced nearly two months ago it was reviewing about $9 billion in contracts and grant commitments the government had pledged to pay to Harvard over several years. Tuesday's letter repeats a litany of complaints against Harvard, including claims the university "continues to engage in race discrimination" in its admission process – the subject of alandmark Supreme Court decision– and shows a "disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." CNN has reached out to lawyers for Harvard, which in recent weeks has borne the bulk of the White House's ire against institutions it believes embody a liberal woke front. The university near Bostonbroadly has refusedmany government demands, including that it hand over foreign students' entire conduct records and allow audits to confirm it has expanded "viewpoint diversity." But officials say they are complying with the Supreme Court's order knocking down affirmative action and have takensteps to address antisemitismon campus. "I don't know fully what the motivations are, but I do know that there are people who are fighting a cultural battle," Harvard President Alan Garbertold NPRin an interview recorded and aired before the plans for new cuts came to light Tuesday. "I don't know if that is what is driving the administration," Garber said. "They don't like what's happened to campuses, and sometimes they don't like what we represent." The US Department of Education haswarnedUS colleges and universities of possible consequences if they don't take adequate steps to protect Jewish students and separatelythreatened federal fundingof any American academic institution that considers race in most aspects of student life. Harvard has been lashed on both fronts. The nation's oldest and wealthiest university sued the Trump administration last month over itsfreeze of $2.2 billionin federal grants and contracts, which it followed with thehalt of another $450 million. Garber said the loss of funding will affect people far beyond their Massachusetts campus. "At the center of our university is teaching and learning. But actually, if you look at the activities of the university, so much of this is about research," he told NPR. "There's so many discoveries that have come from Harvard and other research universities, advances in cancer and treatments of cancer of all kinds." The Trump administration last week canceled Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students, a move that was the subject of a brief telephone status conference with lawyers Tuesday after a federal judgeput it on hold. The school has argued revocation of its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program was "clear retaliation" for its refusal of the government's ideologically rooted policy demands. Trump further has threatened tocut off$3 billion more in Harvard's federal grant funding and pull itstax-exemptstatus. On Tuesday, organizers from the alumni group Crimson Courage rallied thousands of people online to protest the Trump administration's efforts to slash remaining contracts, with some speaking in stark terms about the stakes of the fight. New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat and former member of Congress in a district won by Trump in 2016, called the university's efforts a "moral fight." "What Harvard is, in many respects, is a test case for the Trump administration. The goal here is to figure out how much information can be controlled, how much dissent can be quashed, how much of the ability can they leverage by way of the power of the state to control the way we communicate?" the Harvard alum said. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Harvard alumna and another Democrat, noted the school's international students "contribute $400 million to our local economy every year and support thousands and thousands of jobs." Trump, Healey said, is "directly undercutting our ability to attract the world's talent." This story has been updated with additional information. CNN's Devan Cole, Danya Gainor and Betsy Klein contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byDan Dunne

in

May 27, 2025

Trump administration moves to cancel all remaining federal contracts with Harvard

Trump administration moves to cancel all remaining federal contracts with Harvard The White House is directing federal agencies to cancel al...

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Chaos erupts on first day of US-backed aid distribution in Gaza after weeks of hunger

Chaos erupts on first day of US-backed aid distribution in Gaza after weeks of hunger

Chaos broke out at an aid distribution site in Gaza run by a controversial US-backed group on Tuesday as thousands of desperate Palestinians rushed to receive food supplies, with Israeli troops firing warning shots into the air and the US contractors overseeing the site briefly withdrawing. An 11-week Israeliblockadeon humanitarian aid has pushed the enclave's population of more than 2 million Palestinians towards famine and into a deepeninghumanitarian crisis, with the first resumption of humanitarian aid trickling into the besieged enclave last week. Videos from the distribution site in Tel al-Sultan, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), showed large crowds rushing the facilities, tearing down some of the fencing and appearing to climb over barriers designed to control the flow of the crowd. "They want order, but there will be no order because these are desperate people who want to eat and drink," said Wafiq Qdeih, who had come to the site in the hope of receiving aid. "The Israeli army was shooting in the air, and the Americans and their workers retreated, making it impossible to distribute aid to the people." Several residents trying to access the aid told CNN they were grateful for the food they received, but described walking long distances to reach the distribution center, hours-long lines and general confusion. "The place is very far, and we struggled until we arrived. I am tired and exhausted. How can they provide food for all these people? There are too many people here; security will not be able to control them all," Abu Ramzi said. A diplomatic official called the chaos at the site "a surprise to no one." The GHF acknowledged the pandemonium, saying "the GHF team fell back to allow a small number" of Palestinians to take aid safely. "This was done in accordance with GHF protocol to avoid casualties," it said. A security source said American security contractors on the ground did not fire any shots and that operations would resume at the site on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces said their troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound and that the situation was brought under control. They denied carrying out aerial fire toward the site. "It's a big failure that we warned against," said Amjad al-Shawa, director of Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network. "If Israel believes that through this blockade and emboldening starvation, which violates humanitarian principles, that this distribution method would work, they are mistaken." GHF said it has distributed about 8,000 food boxes totaling 462,000 meals in Gaza so far. They say the flow of meals will increase each day, with a goal of delivering food to 1.2 million – 60% of Gaza's population – by the end of the week. The GHF claimed it began operating on Monday, but photos from the organization showed only a handful of people carrying boxes of aid, with pallets of boxes sitting at an otherwise empty lot. GHF is readying three additional sites for the distribution of aid, two of which are in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza. All of the sites in the south are in an area that fell under a massive evacuation order one day earlier. There are no distribution sites in northern Gaza – a point of criticism from many aid experts. The UN has previously warned that the fact the initial sites were only insouthern and central Gazacould be seen as encouraging Israel's publicly stated goal of forcing "the entire Gazan population" out of northern Gaza, as Defense Minister Israel Katz put it earlier this month. Israel plans to occupy 75% of Gaza within two months as part of its new offensive in the besieged territory, an Israeli military official told CNN earlier this week. If carried out, the plans would force more than two million Palestinians into a quarter of the already decimated coastal enclave, surrounded on nearly all sides by Israeli forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month the entire population would be displaced to southern Gaza. The GHF aid mechanism "appears practically unfeasible, incompatible with humanitarian principles and will create serious insecurity risks, all while failing to meet Israel's obligations under international law," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs wrote earlier this month in a document obtained by CNN. In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday an Israeli military official said that both the new mechanism and the old mechanism under the United Nations are working now. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said 95 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had earlier said that it is ready, with other humanitarian organizations, "to distribute meaningful quantities of aid the moment we are allowed to" but that the amount of families permitted into Gaza so far have been "minimal." Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, has criticized the GHF aid plan as "a distraction from what is actually needed, which is a reopening of all the crossings into Gaza, a secure environment within Gaza and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border." Israel and the US had declined to name the humanitarian organizations involved in the controversial new mechanism, but images from the GHF showed boxes labeled "Rahma Worldwide," a Michigan-based non-profit organization that says it provides "aid and assistance to the most vulnerable communities in the world." This story has been updated. Dana Karni contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byDan Dunne

in

May 27, 2025

Chaos erupts on first day of US-backed aid distribution in Gaza after weeks of hunger

Chaos erupts on first day of US-backed aid distribution in Gaza after weeks of hunger Chaos broke out at an aid distribution site in Gaza ru...

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Arizona lawmakers: Trade decision could result in 50K jobs lost

Arizona lawmakers: Trade decision could result in 50K jobs lost

(The Center Square) - Five Arizona congressional members and their colleagues havesent a letterto the Trump administration asking it to reconsider its decision to leave the2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement. The TSA is an agreement between the United States and Mexico regarding the regulation of imported Mexican tomatoes. In their letter last week to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the congressional members said terminating this agreement would cause Americans to lose jobs, increase consumer prices and hurt the country's agricultural supply chain. Specifically, they are concerned about how this decision will impact state economies like Arizona, Texas, Utah and California. The congressional members stated that the termination of this agreement could result in more than 50,000 job losses in Arizona and Texas alone. They said international trade is "critical" for the country's food supply and ability to meet Americans' expectations for "affordable, healthy, and quality fresh produce year-round." They added that numerous sectors have become dependent on year-round access to tomatoes and other non-American crops. The letter cited a Texas A&M Universitystudythat shows Mexican tomato imports contribute more than $8 billion yearly to America's economy. Furthermore, the congressional members referenced a University of Arizonastudythat said Mexican tomato imports contribute almost $3.5 billion to the country's GDP. This agreement between the two countries began in 1996 to help inspect tomatoes coming from Mexico. That year, America started an antidumping investigation against Mexico to determine whether its imported tomatoes were sold at a lower than fair value. After launching the investigation, America suspended it, and both countries agreed to the TSA. Both countries have adjusted it, with the latest iteration coming in 2019. However, the Department of Commerce announced last month that it was leaving this deal because the current agreement did not properly protect "U.S. tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports." According to theagency's press release, it received many comments saying that America should withdraw from the agreement. The DOC said this move will let "U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace." As a result of withdrawing from the agreement, the United States will impose a 20.91% tariff on imported Mexican tomatoes starting July 14. Regarding inspection, the elected officials said that since the TSA went into effect, America has heavily regulated Mexican tomatoes. They stated that since 2020, Mexican tomatoes at ports of entry have passed inspection at a 99% success rate. "These metrics demonstrate how Mexican growers, their selling agents, and customers in the U.S. overwhelmingly comply with every facet of the agreement," they wrote. Moreover, the congressional members said they recognized the importance of American trade law and antidumping orders. Despite this, they said the one-size-fits-all approach risks undermining a domestic tomato industry that has benefited from "over two decades of protection via minimum floor prices under successive suspension agreements." Addressing the DOC's complaints about TSA, the congressional members asked for more information about them. In addition, the members said the current "tact" will jeopardize cross-border commerce and harm Mexico's economy. "Terminating the TSA now would be profoundly disruptive and run counter to the administration's goals," they said. U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both D-Arizona, with U.S. Reps. David Schweikert, R-Scottsdale; Greg Stanton, R-Prescott; and Yassamin Ansari, D-Phoenix, signed the letter with 11 other congressional members.

byDan Dunne

in

May 27, 2025

Arizona lawmakers: Trade decision could result in 50K jobs lost

Arizona lawmakers: Trade decision could result in 50K jobs lost (The Center Square) - Five Arizona congressional members and their colleague...

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