Category Archives: Trump administration

Majority of special education staff in US education department laid off – report

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Layoffs ‘decimating’ office responsible for protecting rights of infants, children and youth with disabilities, says worker

The majority of staff in the education department handling special education has been laid off, according to multiple reports.

Friday’s total of 466 layoffs across the education department also impacted the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which oversees programs that support millions of children and adults with disabilities nationwide, according to sources speaking to various outlets.

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Republican and Democratic senators dig in heels over government shutdown

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Lindsey Graham says closure won’t push him to meet Democrats’ demands on Obama-era healthcare subsidies

Republican and Democratic senators Lindsey Graham and Mark Kelly have dug their heels in over the government shutdown – which is now approaching two weeks, with the former saying that the closure won’t push him to meet Democrats’ demands for a restoration of Obama-era healthcare subsidies.

Graham said on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he was in favor of the Senate voting to reopen the government and prepared to “have a rational discussion” with Democrats – but not with the government shut down.

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US Smithsonian museums and National Zoo close due to government shutdown

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Washington DC-based institution says it’ll temporarily close museums and research centers in response to shutdown

Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo closed their doors on Sunday in response to the ongoing government shutdown.

In a statement over the weekend, the Washington DC-based Smithsonian Institution announced that it was temporarily closing its museums, research centers and its zoo due to the government shutdown which has now entered the third week.

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Trump ‘looking at all options’ amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act, Vance says

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Vice-president calls crime ‘out of control’ in US cities as Trump faces legal battles for use of federal forces

The White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act that would allow the deployment of military troops on US soil to quell domestic unrest amid legal challenges over the moves, JD Vance confirmed on Sunday.

Vance was asked on NBC News’s Meet the Press whether Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy national guard forces and even the US military in domestic settings.

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China warns US of retaliation over Trump’s 100% tariffs threat

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Beijing says it will act if US president doesn’t stand down, while investors brace for trade war turmoil

Beijing has told the US it will retaliate if Donald Trump fails to back down on his threat to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports as investors brace for another bout of trade war turmoil.

China’s commerce ministry blamed Washington for raising trade tensions between the two countries after Trump announced on Friday that he would impose the additional tariffs on China’s exports to the US, along with new controls on critical software, by 1 November.

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National guard troops in Illinois can remain but cannot be deployed yet, judge rules

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Troops can stay under federal control, as US senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth decry being barred access to Ice facility

The national guard troops Donald Trump sent to Illinois can remain in the state and under federal control but can’t be deployed, an appeals court ruled on Saturday.

The appeals court granted a pause in the case until it can hear further arguments.

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Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s effort to deploy national guard in Chicago

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Much-anticipated judgment centers on efforts by Trump administration to use troops to aid immigration crackdown

A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from federalizing or deploying the national guard in Illinois after Donald Trump ordered hundreds of troops to Chicago to help with immigration enforcement and to battle what the White House says are high crime rates in the city.

US district judge April Perry issued her decision from the bench after more than two hours of arguments from lawyers for the federal government and the state of Illinois, which sued the Trump administration over the deployment. The order took effect on Thursday and will remain in place for two weeks.

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Gaza ceasefire plan live: Israel says it is preparing to pull back troops; living hostages could be released within days

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US president Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to ‘first phase’ of plan to pause fighting and release some hostages and prisoners

Families of Israelis held hostage in Gaza gathered in what has come to be known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after the announcement.

“President Trump, thank you very much. We thank him, our children will not have returned home without him,” said Hatan Angrest, whose son Matan is among the hostages.

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Senate Republicans vote against check on Trump using deadly force against cartels

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First vote in Congress on military campaign that White House says has hit four vessels and killed at least 21 people

Senate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on Donald Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration’s extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and the Democrat John Fetterman voting against.

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Marco Rubio interrupts Trump with handwritten note on Gaza deal

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Note from secretary of state says ‘you need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first’

The text of the note handed to Donald Trump by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, on Wednesday afternoon, captured in a photograph, suggested the president could soon announce a ceasefire deal in Gaza on his social media platform.

“Very close,” the note read, according to an image of the handwritten note taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci. “We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

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More than 40 Trump administration picks tied directly to oil, gas and coal, analysis shows

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Report looks at White House nominees and appointees and agencies dictating energy, environment and climate policy

Donald Trump has placed dozens of people with ties to the fossil fuel sector in his administration, including more than 40 who have directly worked for oil, gas or coal companies, according to a new analysis.

The report from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy and ethics non-profit that has been critical of the Trump administration, alongside the Revolving Door Project, a corporate watchdog, analyzed the backgrounds of nominees and appointees within the White House and eight agencies dictating energy, environmental and climate policy. That includes the Environmental Protection Agency, the interior and energy departments and others.

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Ex-FBI director James Comey pleads not guilty on lying to Congress charge

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Case marks significant step in Trump’s efforts to politicize the justice department and punish political enemies

The former FBI director James Comey pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday in connection with federal charges that he lied to Congress in 2020.

Comey entered the federal courthouse shortly before 10am through a private entrance. He was joined in court by his legal team, as well as his wife and daughter, Maurene, who was fired last month as a federal prosecutor in the southern district of New York. Troy Edwards Jr, Comey’s son-in-law who resigned as a prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia immediately after Comey was indicted, was also seen at the courthouse.

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Trump calls for jailing of Chicago mayor and Illinois governor as national guard arrives in city

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President accused Brandon Johnson and JB Pritzker of failing to protect Ice officers as troops deploy to Chicago

Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. “Governor Pritzker also!”

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Thirty Bob Ross paintings to be sold at auction to help fund public TV stations

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Money will aid with licensing fees and ensure artist’s ‘legacy continues to support’ medium that made him popular

Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to defray the costs of programming for small and rural public television stations suffering under cuts in federal funding.

Ross, a public television stalwart in the 1980s and 90s, “dedicated his life to making art accessible to everyone”, said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. “This auction ensures his legacy continues to support the very medium that brought his joy and creativity into American homes for decades.”

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US delegation led by Steve Witkoff due to arrive in Egypt for Gaza talks

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White House says it is important ‘that we get this done quickly’ as indirect talks restart in Sharm el-Sheikh

A US delegation led by envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to join talks in Egypt on Wednesday to reinforce President Donald Trump’s involvement in the newly restarted negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

The indirect talks at Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort city on the Red Sea, entered their second day on the second anniversary of the Hamas surprise attack into Israel that triggered the bloody conflict.

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Federal agents taunted Chicago woman to ‘do something’ before shooting her, attorney claims

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Officers say woman was in chase ending in ramming border patrol vehicle during Trump’s immigration crackdown

The attorney for a woman who was shot by federal agents in Chicago over the weekend after she allegedly rammed a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicle has claimed that body-camera footage captures one of the officers saying: “Do something, bitch,” before opening fire, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The shooting occurred on Saturday morning in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, as immigration agents, at the behest of the second Trump administration, have been scouring Illinois’s largest city for people to deport.

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Pam Bondi and Senate Democrats spar amid Trump’s troop deployments

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US attorney general blames shutdown on Democrats as judiciary panel questions her on Epstein and deployments

Democratic senators sparred with attorney general Pam Bondi over her handling of the Epstein files and Donald Trump’s nationwide deployments of national guard at a bitterly partisan Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Bondi’s appearance before the Senate judiciary committee was her first since being confirmed in February, and comes as the president steps up his crackdown on political opponents and Democratic-run cities nationwide.

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Diplomacy’s lowest point: how the Israel-Gaza conflict was mishandled

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In two years there have been many versions of a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza and many obstacles to overcome

George Mitchell, the great US advocate for the Northern Ireland peace agreement, described diplomacy as 700 days of failure and one of success. In Gaza, tragically, there have been 730 days of failure and none of success. Indeed, the destruction, the death toll and the spillover of the conflict into other countries is a monument to shame diplomacy and what remains of international law. Arguably, it is the profession’s lowest point since 1939.

Some will claim failure is inevitable since this conflict is now so embedded and impervious to compromise that it can only be settled at the barrel of the gun, in essence through the repression or erasure of one side.

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Trump orders approval of 211-mile mining road through Alaska wilderness

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Ambler Road project, approved in Trump’s first term but blocked by Biden, would harm Native tribes and wildlife

Donald Trump on Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.

The long-debated Ambler Road project was approved in the US president’s first term, but was later blocked by the Biden administration after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Indigenous tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.

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Gaza ceasefire talks live: Israeli airstrikes continue with negotiations due to begin in Egypt

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Negotiators from the US, Israel and Hamas are set to begin talks, as the US president said the first phase should be completed this week

The UN commission of inquiry, several human rights groups and the world’s leading association of genocide scholars have concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Despite the evidence, Israel denies the accusation and says it has only acted in self-defence.

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