Trump to order a plan to shut down the US Education Department

PARIS: US government efforts to eliminate diversity initiatives are not going down well on the European continent.
Laurent Saint-Martin, France’s minister for foreign trade, said on Monday the country won’t compromise after the US State Department said that French companies who have contracts with the US government need to drop diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

In neighboring Belgium, where some companies received similar requests, the government lashed out at the new US rules.
French media reported last week that French companies received a letter saying US President Donald Trump’s rollback of DEI initiatives also could apply outside of the US.
Saint-Martin spoke to RTL Radio following the reports and said French authorities will seek explanations from their US counterparts about the letter.
The reported demands included abandoning inclusion policies that are part of French and European Union laws such as equality between men and women, the fight against discrimination and racism or the promotion of diversity to help people with disabilities, he said.
“All of this is progress that corresponds first and foremost to our French values, we are proud of this and we don’t want to compromise on it,” Saint-Martin said. “We can’t just cancel the application of our own laws overnight.”
French media said the letter was signed by an officer of the US State Department who is on the staff at the US Embassy in Paris. The embassy didn’t respond to questions from The Associated Press.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, speaking to reporters at a briefing in Washington, confirmed that letters were sent.
“This is an effort to comply with the executive order from the president and it is essentially a self-certifying statement to local consulates and embassies,” she said.
Le Figaro daily newspaper published what it said was a copy of the letter. The document said an executive order that Trump signed in January terminating DEI programs within the federal government also “applies to all suppliers and service providers of the US Government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate.”
The document asked US government contractors to complete, sign and return within five days a separate certification form to demonstrate that they are in compliance.
Saint-Martin said he was “deeply shocked” but insisted on the need to have a “positive agenda” and maintain a dialogue with the US.
In Belgium, Finance Minister Jan Jambon said Europeans have a “culture of “non-discrimination” that must be continued. “We have no lessons to learn from the boss of America,” he told channel RTL-TVi.
In a joint statement quoted by local media, Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot and Equal Opportunities Minister Rob Beenders regretted the “step backward” taken by the US.
“Diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but the foundations of a strong and dynamic society,” they said. “They strengthen our economy, foster innovation and allow talent to flourish.”
In Spain, Barcelona’s mayor said last week that his municipal government will defy Trump’s attack on DEI initiatives that have included a cultural program hosted by the city.
Trump issued the executive order to roll back the programs with federal funding, including those receiving US government aid abroad.
The Barcelona-based program is one of 700 “American Spaces” located in 140 countries. They offer English-language and other courses to adults and children, information and materials about the US and counseling for foreign students hoping to enroll at US schools and universities.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA’s celebrity astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeing’s Starliner again.
SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year.
In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.
Wilmore didn’t shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing’s bungled test flight.
“I’ll start and point the finger and I’ll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide,” he told reporters. “All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.”
Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. “Because we’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We’re going to fix them. We’re going to make it work,” Wilmore said, adding he’d go back up “in a heartbeat.”
Williams noted that Starliner has “a lot of capability” and she wants to see it succeed. “We’re all in,” she said.
The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.
“It’s not for pointing fingers,” Wilmore said. “It’s just to make the path clearer going forward.”
The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeing’s first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked.
Their space station stay kept getting extended as engineers debated how to proceed. NASA finally judged Starliner too dangerous to bring Wilmore and Williams back and transferred them to SpaceX. But the launch of their replacements got stalled, stretching their mission beyond nine months.
President Donald Trump urged SpaceX’s Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts’ ordeal. The dragged-out drama finally ended two weeks ago with a flawless splashdown by SpaceX off the Florida Panhandle.
“It’s great being back home after being up there,” Williams told The Associated Press in an interview. She waited until she was steadier on her feet before reuniting with her two Labrador retrievers the day after splashdown. “Pure joy.”
Wilmore already has a to-do list. His wife wants to replace all the shrubs in their yard before summer. “So I’ve got to get my body ready to dig holes,” he told the AP.
NASA said engineers still do not understand why Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned; more tests are planned through the summer. If engineers can figure out the thruster and leak issues, “Starliner is ready to go,” Wilmore said.
The space agency may require another test flight — with cargo — before allowing astronauts to climb aboard. That redo could come by year’s end.
Despite Starliner’s rocky road, NASA officials said they stand behind the decision made years ago to have two competing US companies providing taxi service to and from the space station. But time is running out: The space station is set to be abandoned in five years and replaced in orbit by privately operated labs.