Trump’s meeting with tax bill holdouts ‘moved ball in right direction’, says White House – as it happened

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A federal judge has rejected a bid by the US treasury department to cancel a union contract covering tens of thousands of IRS staff, Reuters reports, in an early blow to Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many federal workers.

US district judge Danny Reeves in Lexington, Kentucky, said in a written opinion late on Tuesday that the department lacked legal standing to bring a lawsuit against the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).