Washington
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s push to rebuke judge over foreign aid freeze
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration push to rebuke a federal judge who imposed a quick deadline to release billions of dollars in foreign aid.
By a 5-4 vote, the court told U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to clarify his earlier order that required the Republican administration to release nearly $2 billion in aid for work that had already been done.
Although the outcome is a short-term loss for President Donald Trump’s administration, the nonprofit groups and businesses that sued are still waiting for the money they say they are owed. One of the organizations last week was forced to lay off 110 employees as a result, according to court papers.
Justice Samuel Alito led four conservative justices in dissent, saying Ali lacks the authority to order the payments. Alito wrote that he is stunned the court is rewarding “an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”
The court’s action leaves in place Ali’s temporary restraining order that had paused the spending freeze, Ali is holding a hearing Thursday to consider a more lasting pause.
The majority noted that the administration had not challenged Ali’s initial order, only the deadline, which in any event passed last week.
The court told Ali to “clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, two conservatives, joined the three liberal justices to form a majority.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined Alito’s dissent.
The Trump administration has argued that the situation has changed because it has replaced a blanket spending freeze with individualized determinations that led to the cancellation of 5,800 U.S. Agency for International Development contracts and another 4,100 State Department grants totaling nearly $60 billion in aid.
The federal government froze foreign aid after an executive order from Trump targeting what he called wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.
The lawsuit that followed claimed that the pause breaks federal law and has shut down funding for even the most urgent life-saving programs abroad.
Ali ordered the funding temporarily restored on Feb. 13, but nearly two weeks later he found the government was giving no sign of complying and set a deadline to release payment for work already completed.
The administration appealed, calling Ali’s order “incredibly intrusive and profoundly erroneous” and protesting the timeline to release the money.
North Carolina
NASCAR sues 23XI and Front Row in dispute over charters
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR on Wednesday filed a counterclaim against Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports for “willfully” violating antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the most recent charter agreements.
23XI and Front Row were the only two teams out of 15 that refused to sign the new agreements, which were presented to the teams last September in a take-it-or-leave-it offer a mere 48 hours before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs.
The charters are NASCAR’s version of a franchise and guarantee 36 of the 40 spots in each week’s field to the teams that hold them, as well as other financial incentives. 23XI and Front Row sued, alleging NASCAR and the France family that owns the stock car series are a monopoly.
NASCAR already has lost one round in court in which the two teams have been recognized as chartered organizations for the 2025 season as the legal dispute winds through the courts.
In the counterclaim filed Wednesday — which names Curtis Polk, Jordan’s longtime agent, as a defendant — NASCAR said “the undisputed reality is that it is 23XI and FRM, led by 23XI’s owner and sports agent Curtis Polk, that willfully violated the antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the terms of the 2025 Charter Agreements.”
“This is not the first time that 23XI and FRM have sought to impose their viewpoints, and those of their counsel, on the racing teams writ large,” NASCAR continued. “And it is truly ironic that in trying to blow-up the Charter system, 23XI and FRM have sought to weaponize the antitrust laws to achieve their goals.”
Washington
U.S. charges Chinese hackers, government officials in broad cyberespionage campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight leaders or members of a Chinese hacking company have been charged alongside two Chinese law enforcement officers in a global cyberespionage campaign that targeted dissidents, news organizations and U.S. agencies, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
A set of criminal cases adds new detail to what U.S. officials say is a hacking-for-hire ecosystem in China, in which private companies and contractors are paid by the Chinese government to target victims of particular interest to Beijing.
One indictment charges officials with a private hacking company known as I-Soon, whose officials conducted a sweeping array of breaches around the world as part of what U.S. officials say was a broad intelligence-gathering operation.
The targets were in some cases directed by China’s Ministry of Public Security — two law enforcement officers were also charged — but in other instances the hackers acted at their own initiative and tried to sell the stolen information to the government afterward, the indictment says. The company charged the government the equivalent of between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully hacked, officials said.
Among the targets of the hacking was the U.S. Treasury Department, which disclosed a breach by Chinese actors late last year in what it called a “major cybersecurity incident.”
A separate indictment charges two other Chinese hackers in a for-profit hacking campaign that targeted victims including U.S. technology companies, think tanks, defense contractors and health care systems.
I-Soon is part of a sprawling industry in China, documented in an Associated Press investigation last year, of private hacking contractors are companies that steal data from other countries to sell to the Chinese authorities.
Over the past two decades, Chinese state security’s demand for overseas intelligence has soared, giving rise to a vast network of these private hackers-for-hire companies that have infiltrated hundreds of systems outside China.
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s push to rebuke judge over foreign aid freeze
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration push to rebuke a federal judge who imposed a quick deadline to release billions of dollars in foreign aid.
By a 5-4 vote, the court told U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to clarify his earlier order that required the Republican administration to release nearly $2 billion in aid for work that had already been done.
Although the outcome is a short-term loss for President Donald Trump’s administration, the nonprofit groups and businesses that sued are still waiting for the money they say they are owed. One of the organizations last week was forced to lay off 110 employees as a result, according to court papers.
Justice Samuel Alito led four conservative justices in dissent, saying Ali lacks the authority to order the payments. Alito wrote that he is stunned the court is rewarding “an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”
The court’s action leaves in place Ali’s temporary restraining order that had paused the spending freeze, Ali is holding a hearing Thursday to consider a more lasting pause.
The majority noted that the administration had not challenged Ali’s initial order, only the deadline, which in any event passed last week.
The court told Ali to “clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, two conservatives, joined the three liberal justices to form a majority.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined Alito’s dissent.
The Trump administration has argued that the situation has changed because it has replaced a blanket spending freeze with individualized determinations that led to the cancellation of 5,800 U.S. Agency for International Development contracts and another 4,100 State Department grants totaling nearly $60 billion in aid.
The federal government froze foreign aid after an executive order from Trump targeting what he called wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.
The lawsuit that followed claimed that the pause breaks federal law and has shut down funding for even the most urgent life-saving programs abroad.
Ali ordered the funding temporarily restored on Feb. 13, but nearly two weeks later he found the government was giving no sign of complying and set a deadline to release payment for work already completed.
The administration appealed, calling Ali’s order “incredibly intrusive and profoundly erroneous” and protesting the timeline to release the money.
North Carolina
NASCAR sues 23XI and Front Row in dispute over charters
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR on Wednesday filed a counterclaim against Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports for “willfully” violating antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the most recent charter agreements.
23XI and Front Row were the only two teams out of 15 that refused to sign the new agreements, which were presented to the teams last September in a take-it-or-leave-it offer a mere 48 hours before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs.
The charters are NASCAR’s version of a franchise and guarantee 36 of the 40 spots in each week’s field to the teams that hold them, as well as other financial incentives. 23XI and Front Row sued, alleging NASCAR and the France family that owns the stock car series are a monopoly.
NASCAR already has lost one round in court in which the two teams have been recognized as chartered organizations for the 2025 season as the legal dispute winds through the courts.
In the counterclaim filed Wednesday — which names Curtis Polk, Jordan’s longtime agent, as a defendant — NASCAR said “the undisputed reality is that it is 23XI and FRM, led by 23XI’s owner and sports agent Curtis Polk, that willfully violated the antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the terms of the 2025 Charter Agreements.”
“This is not the first time that 23XI and FRM have sought to impose their viewpoints, and those of their counsel, on the racing teams writ large,” NASCAR continued. “And it is truly ironic that in trying to blow-up the Charter system, 23XI and FRM have sought to weaponize the antitrust laws to achieve their goals.”
Washington
U.S. charges Chinese hackers, government officials in broad cyberespionage campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight leaders or members of a Chinese hacking company have been charged alongside two Chinese law enforcement officers in a global cyberespionage campaign that targeted dissidents, news organizations and U.S. agencies, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
A set of criminal cases adds new detail to what U.S. officials say is a hacking-for-hire ecosystem in China, in which private companies and contractors are paid by the Chinese government to target victims of particular interest to Beijing.
One indictment charges officials with a private hacking company known as I-Soon, whose officials conducted a sweeping array of breaches around the world as part of what U.S. officials say was a broad intelligence-gathering operation.
The targets were in some cases directed by China’s Ministry of Public Security — two law enforcement officers were also charged — but in other instances the hackers acted at their own initiative and tried to sell the stolen information to the government afterward, the indictment says. The company charged the government the equivalent of between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully hacked, officials said.
Among the targets of the hacking was the U.S. Treasury Department, which disclosed a breach by Chinese actors late last year in what it called a “major cybersecurity incident.”
A separate indictment charges two other Chinese hackers in a for-profit hacking campaign that targeted victims including U.S. technology companies, think tanks, defense contractors and health care systems.
I-Soon is part of a sprawling industry in China, documented in an Associated Press investigation last year, of private hacking contractors are companies that steal data from other countries to sell to the Chinese authorities.
Over the past two decades, Chinese state security’s demand for overseas intelligence has soared, giving rise to a vast network of these private hackers-for-hire companies that have infiltrated hundreds of systems outside China.
