Trump declares pardons issued by Biden ‘void’ because of alleged autopen use and issues new threat to Jan 6 investigators: Live

Government workers who are part of the LBGTQ+ community say they are operating under a cloud of suspicion and uncertainty as the Trump administration purges trans people and “diversity hires” from the machinery of state.

The president appears to be considering reintroducing the travel ban from his first term, now expanded to include as many as 43 countries.

Although Trump failed to reintroduce the “travel ban” on “day one” of his second term as he had promised his supporters on the campaign trail, he did issue an executive order on January 20 directing cabinet members to draft a list of countries that should face full or partial travel restrictions because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient” within 60 days.

Now, with that deadline approaching, a draft list of proposed countries banned from traveling to the U.S. is circulating.

The retired general’s path from discarded envoy to Ukraine tsar highlights the U.S. president’s volatile approach to international relations, writes Mark Almond.

But what does it mean for America’s relationship with Kyiv?

The president said yesterday as he returned to Washington from Florida aboard Air Force One that he and Vladimir Putin will discuss “dividing up certain assets” in Ukraine as part of peace talks this week that will include “land [and] power plants”.

Trump and his Russian counterpart are due to talk by phone on Tuesday.

“A lot of work’s been done over the weekend,” the American said.

“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”

You can follow all the latest updates on the U.S.-led peace talks live with Tom Watling below.

The U.S. military launched ari strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday night for targeting Red Sea shipping routes.

The attacks are understood to have killed at least 31 people, most of them women and children, at the start of a campaign expected to last many days.

Trump’sadministration revealed over the weekend that it has deported hundreds of people from the U.S. after invoking a wartime law to speed up the deportations of individuals connected to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The announcement was made in the face of a court order from a federal judge temporarily blocking the administration’s ability to use the law, the Alien Enemies Act 1798, and ordered any planes flying migrants out of the country to turn around.

Here’s Katie Hawkinson and Kelly Rissman with the full story.

Elsewhere on the president’s social media platform, he has been expressing sympathy over those impacted by terrible storms over the weekend and blaming Democrats for allowing “monsters” from Central America to enter the U.S. and engage in violent crime.

Characteristically, he has also had plenty to say about his latest golfing exploits and has been paying tribute to a celebrity you might not have thought about in years ( if ever), in this case veteran crooner Paul Anka.

Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to declared that presidential pardons issued by his predecessor Joe Biden are “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT” on the grounds that the Democrat allegedly signed off on them using an autopen, rather than his real signature.

Whether or not that claim is accurate, Trump goes on to insist, without evidence, that Biden was not even aware of the pardons and further issues a threat against the members of the House select committee that investigated the events of January 6 2021, warning them that they are no longer shielded from investigation and should expect to be pursued.

“Those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,” the president writes.

He also trolled Biden with a meme in which the 46th president’s official portrait is replaced by an image of an autopen mimicking his signature.

Here’s James Liddell’s earlier reporting on the allegations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s push to target and cancel the visas of individual students living in America for participation in protests against the government of Israel.

Rubio deflected questions from CBS’s Margaret Brennan about Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal US permanent resident (green card holder) who was arrested and immediately targeted for deportation last weekend after the Trump administration canceled his visa and arrested him with plainclothes officers at Columbia.

Khalil was a leader in the student protests that developed around campus but was also outspoken against antisemitism.

His arrest has outraged Democrats and civil rights advocates; Khalil is not charged with a crime and did not enter the US illegally. His removal has been temporarily blocked by a judge.