Donald Trump wants America to stay on daylight saving hours forever
It’s the issue that has long divided Australians and now US President Donald Trump is moving to permanently call time on daylight saving for America.
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US President Donald Trump has declared he wants to make a permanent year-round move to daylight savings time as America fiercely debates the issue which has also divided Australians.
This week the US Senate’s Commerce Committee has held a hearing cheekily titled If I Could Turn Back Time: Should We Lock the Clock? in an apparent tribute to the iconic Cher song.
Mr Trump posted to Truth Social making his feelings on the matter clear.
“The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day,” Mr Trump said.
“Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”
In the US daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.
Like in Australia, some states choose not to participate in daylight saving.
Hawaii and Arizona stay on standard time year round with the exception of the Navajo Nation – the self governing Native American nation within Arizona which does choose to observe the time change.
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GREENLAND BASE CHIEF SACKED AFTER VANCE EMAIL
The officer in charge of a US Space Force base in Greenland was stripped of her command after she sent out a mass email that distanced herself from statements by Vice President JD Vance and the Trump administration days after his visit last month.
The Space Force announced late Thursday that it removed Colonel Susannah Meyers as leader of Pituffik Space Base “for loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”
“Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties,” the Space Operations Command’s statement read.
Col Meyers, who assumed control of the 821st Space Base Group in July 2024, fired off a message to the troops in her command stating that the views discussed by Vance during his visit on March 28 “are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”
“(I) spent the weekend thinking about Friday’s visit — the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you,” she wrote to her subordinates in the email obtained by Military.com and verified by the Space Force.
“I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”
“I commit that, for as long as I am lucky enough to lead this base, all of our flags will fly proudly — together,” Meyers added.
Col Meyers sent out the email on March 31, seemingly upset over comments made by Vance about potentially annexing Greenland.
The base-wide message was a highly unusual move, as publicly speaking out again the executive branch is viewed as not falling in line with the commander-in-chief, and signals to the world that the US military is a disjointed force.
Col Meyers – who spent nearly 20 years as an Air Force officer before jumping branches to the Space Force in May 2021 – oversaw roughly 200 airmen and guardians while in command of the US’s northernmost military installation.
RFK LAUNCHES AUTISM STUDY
US authorities are conducting a large-scale study into the cause of the autism “epidemic,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
“We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” Kennedy said at a televised cabinet meeting chaired by President Donald Trump.
“By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic. And we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.” Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic, who has long promoted a debunked theory linking childhood vaccines to autism, said the prevalence of autism has jumped dramatically in recent decades.
“The autism rates have gone – from our most recent numbers, we think are going to be about one in 31 from one in 10,000 when I was a kid,” he said, without offering more details or citing the source of the figures.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently puts the rate of autism in children in the United States at one in 36, compared to earlier rates of 1 in 150.
“That’s a horrible statistic and there’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” Mr Trump commented.
Autism is a developmental disability, whose symptoms can include delays in language, learning, and social or emotional skills.
A 2022 review of autism prevalence worldwide pinned the rise on multiple factors, including “the increase in community awareness and public health response globally, progress in case identification and definition and an increase in community capacity.”
There is also evidence linking advanced parental age to autism.
TIKTOK FUELS BYTEDANCE REVENUE AS US BAN LOOMS
TikTok’s international revenue boomed last year as China-based parent ByteDance faced a deadline to sell the app or have it banned in the United States, The Information reported on Thursday.
The tech news outlet cited an unnamed person with knowledge of ByteDance financial data as saying the firm’s revenue from international operations, mostly TikTok, soared 63 per cent to $39 billion in 2024.
ByteDance did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the data. Money taken in by TikTok last year accounted for a quarter of ByteDance’s overall revenue, which reached a new high despite China operations slowing, according to the report.
ByteDance’s profit grew 6 per cent to $33 billion in 2024, The Information reported.
US President Donald Trump last week extended an April 5 deadline for 75-days for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States.
Trump said Sunday there was a deal on the sale of TikTok, but tariffs recently imposed by Washington on Beijing derailed it.
ByteDance, while confirming recently that it was in talks with the US government toward finding a solution, warned that there remained “key matters” to resolve.
‘A FRIEND OF MINE’: TRUMP HOPEFUL OF STRIKING DEAL WITH XI
Mr Trump believes it’s only a matter of time before he strikes a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We’ll see what happens with China. We would love to be able to work a deal. They’ve really taken advantage of our country for a long period of time,” Mr Trump said.
“We’re resetting the table, and I’m sure that we’ll be able to get along very well. I have great respect for President Xi. He’s been, in a true sense, he’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries.”
Mr Trump’s entourage couldn’t contain their laughter when a journalist asked about reports China would restrict the number of American movies shown in the nation.
“I think I’ve heard of worse things,” Mr Trump said.
‘MORON’: MUSK SLAMS TRUMP ADVISER
Billionaire Elon Musk has escalated his attacks against White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday, calling him a “moron” who’s “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Mr Musk responded on Tuesday local time to the trade adviser’s suggestion on Monday that the Tesla boss was “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler”.
“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Mr Musk wrote on X, adding in a subsequent post: “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
“By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content,” Mr Musk continued. “Navarro should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara.”
The White House played down the stoush.
“Boys will be boys and we will let their public sparring continue,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing when asked if the spat would harm the White House’s messaging on tariffs.
“Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs.”
The South African-born billionaire recently backed the idea of a free-trade zone between North America and Europe – a wish at odds with Mr Trump’s flagship tariffs.
And over the weekend, Mr Musk had first taken swipes against Mr Navarro, seemingly irked by Mr Trump’s onslaught of tariffs last week that Mr Navarro played a pivotal role in crafting.
Mr Musk had chided over the weekend that Mr Navarro’s Harvard degree “is a bad thing, not a good thing,” prompting the trade adviser to accuse the world’s richest man of trying to protect his own interests.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Donald Trump wants America to stay on daylight saving hours forever
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