A number of businesses affirm reductions in power are beneath means
The Guardian has independently confirmed that reductions in power (RIFs) are beneath means on the following departments and businesses:
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Division of Training
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Division of Well being and Human Providers
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Division of Homeland Safety (particularly the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company)
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Division of the Treasury
Sure businesses haven’t instantly responded to the Guardian’s request for remark, however different media shops have reported layoffs are anticipated on the following:
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Environmental Safety Company
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Division of Vitality
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Division of the Inside
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Division of Housing and City Growth
Key occasions
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Trump got Covid vaccine booster on Friday, and his doctor says he has the heart of a 65-year-old
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After uproar, Hegseth clarifies that Qatari air force facility in Idaho is not a foreign base
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Department of Housing and Urban Development confirms layoffs
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Trump once agains shares his imaginary tale that stores in Portland, Oregon, are all made of plywood
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Trump claims his threat to ‘obliterate’ Hamas sealed deal to end Gaza war and bring peace ‘to the entire Middle East’
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Trump starts announcement on drug prices with 2020 election lie, promises impossible 1,000% discounts
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Trump threatens additional 100% tariff on imports from China, and export controls on software
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Criminal charges against John Bolton could be filed next week – report
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Multiple agencies confirm reductions in force are under way
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HHS confirms layoffs, saying department had become ‘bloated bureaucracy’ under Biden
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Federal worker union calls mass layoffs during government shutdown ‘disgraceful’
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Department of Education confirms layoffs will happen
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White House budget office says layoffs are ‘substantial’
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Treasury department confirms that RIFs have begun
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DHS says layoffs will happen at cybersecurity agency
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Trump to host summit on Gaza with world leaders during Egypt visit – report
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Here’s a recap of the day so far
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US government workforce cuts have begun, OMB chief says
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MIT becomes first university to reject White House offer for special funding treatment
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National guard troops seen on Memphis streets as Trump faces legal challenges
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US immigration enforcement using military hardware and tactics on civilians
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Trump says there is ‘no reason’ to still meet with president Xi, weighing tariff increase
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First lady says that she has had an ‘open channel’ with Putin regarding displaced Ukrainian children
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Johnson says House will come back when Senate Democrats ‘turn the lights back on’
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Johnson holds press conference as shutdown enters tenth day
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Tariffs caused a Chinese exit from the soybean market, leaving midwestern farmers are waiting for a solution
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Senate advances annual defense policy bill as shutdown continues
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Speaker Johnson defends decision to stave off vote on separate bill to keep service members paid throughout shutdown
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Israeli police preparing for Trump visit on Monday
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White House says Nobel committee places ‘politics over peace’ as Trump misses out again
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US to send 200 troops to Israel to support and monitor ceasefire deal, reports say
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Federal appeals court hears arguments on whether Trump can federalize Oregon national guard
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Letitia James criminally charged in Trump’s latest effort to punish rivals
Trump received Covid vaccine booster on Friday, and his physician says he has the center of a 65-year-old
Shortly earlier than showing together with his vaccine-skeptic well being secretary on Friday, Donald Trump was vaccinated towards each Covid and the flu, in response to a letter from the president’s physician.
Sean Barbabella, a US Navy captain and osteopathic doctor, appeared to recommend that Trump acquired at the least another vaccine, with out specifying towards what sickness, throughout his go to to Walter Reed Medical Heart earlier within the day.
The physician additionally wrote that Trump’ underwent an analysis that included superior imaging and laboratory testing, however forged the exams as routine and steered that he’s in “distinctive well being.”
In contrast to in April, when Trump underwent what was described then as “his annual bodily examination”, no check outcomes have been launched.
“His cardiac age – a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality through ECG – was discovered to be roughly 14 years youthful than his chronological age” of 79, the physician added.
There was no point out of the persistent bruising on his proper hand, no replace on his continual venous insufficiency and no phrase on whether or not a cognitive check was administered, or handed with flying colours.
After uproar, Hegseth clarifies that Qatari air power facility in Idaho will not be a international base
The secretary of protection, Pete Hegseth, was pressured to challenge a clarification on social media on Friday night, hours after he publicly signed what he referred to as “a letter of acceptance” to construct a Qatari air power facility in Idaho.
Sitting alongside Qatar’s protection minister, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan bin Ali al-Thani, on the Pentagon on Friday morning, Hegseth stated that the situation “will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots”.
Within the aftermath of the televised event, it was broadly reported that america had accepted the constructing of a international army base on its territory, which triggered a backlash from Donald Trump’s base, significantly these motivated by the anti-Muslim animus he expressed most vociferously within the run-up to the 2016 election.
Amongst these most outraged was Trump’s influential exterior adviser, the extremist podcaster Laura Loomer, who’s infamous for her anti-Muslim racism.
Loomer voiced her objections, laced with virulent Islamophobia, in dozens of posts on the platform X, together with one through which she embedded video of Trump, in 2017, calling the nation of Qatar “a funder of terrorism”.
By no means thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil to allow them to homicide Individuals.
I don’t suppose I’ll be voting in 2026.
I can not in good conscience make any excuses for the harboring of jihadis.
That is the place I draw the road. pic.twitter.com/24OdLMw14Y
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) October 10, 2025
One other influential podcaster, Steve Bannon, told Newsweek: “There ought to by no means be a army base of a international energy on the sacred soil of America.”
Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist in 2017 when he carried out his promised Muslim ban by barring entry to the US by residents of seven nations with Muslim majorities, prompting mass protests at airports.
The uproar over plans to construct a Qatari air power facility in Idaho led Hegseth to post what he referred to as an “vital clarification” on social media in a while Friday. “The US army has a long-standing partnership w/ Qatar, together with at the moment’s introduced cooperation w/ F-15QA plane,” the previous Fox weekend anchor put in as protection secretary wrote. “Nonetheless, to be clear, Qatar won’t have their very own base in america – nor something like a base. We management the present base, like we do with all companions.”
Division of Housing and City Growth confirms layoffs
Shrai Popat
A spokesperson for the Division of Housing and City Growth has confirmed that layoffs of federal staff are beneath means throughout the federal government shutdown. “HUD is implementing a discount in power to align our packages with the Administration’s priorities and the appropriations obtainable to the division,” the spokesperson advised the Guardian.
Trump as soon as agains shares his imaginary story that shops in Portland, Oregon, are all manufactured from plywood
For at the least the third time in latest weeks, the president of america publicly acknowledged his agency perception within the fully imaginary declare that only a few shops stay in enterprise in the thriving city of Portland, Oregon, and the few that proceed to function are constructed fully of plywood, to make them simpler to rebuild after serial arson assaults and looting, which aren’t, the truth is, taking place.
“Portland, Oregon, I imply, each time I have a look at that place, the place is burning down. There’s fires all over,” Donald Trump told reporters within the Oval Workplace, the place he made the identical wildly false declare final month to justify his need to deploy federal troops to town.
“When a retailer proprietor, there’s only a few of them left, however when a retailer proprietor rebuilds his retailer, they construct it out of plywood. They don’t put up storefronts anymore. They simply put wooden up, as a result of they understand it’s going to be ripped down,” the president insisted, as his well being secretary, FDA commissioner and Medicare administrator seemed on however stated nothing.
“After which I hear how fantastic it’s. It’s not fantastic, it’s a catastrophe,” Trump continued, apparently referring to the imaginative and prescient of town as a fiery hellscape frequent in rightwing media that he has confused with actuality.
The president made the identical false declare on Wednesday, throughout a roundtable with conservative influencers who exaggerate the influence of protests in Portland, and on 25 September, two days earlier than declaring that troops have been wanted within the “struggle ravaged” metropolis.
“That’s virtually an riot, that place,” he concluded, maybe hinting that he’s able to invoke the Rebel Act to deploy army forces to town the place protesters dancing in inflatable costumes have made a mockery of his claims on a number of nights this week.
Trump claims his risk to ‘obliterate’ Hamas sealed deal to finish Gaza struggle and produce peace ‘to your entire Center East’
Hours after not successful the Nobel peace prize he had brazenly campaigned for, Donald Trump stated that his threats of violence towards Hamas had satisfied the Palestinian militants to conform to a deal to alternate Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and had led to an finish to Israel’s US-backed offensive in Gaza.
Trump additionally continued to make grand claims concerning the Gaza deal, claiming to reporters within the Oval Workplace on Friday that it will carry peace “to your entire Center East”.
Requested what ensures he had given Hamas to steer them that Israel won’t merely restart its bombing marketing campaign in Gaza as soon as the Israeli hostages have been exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, Trump steered his personal risk to obliterate the militant group had been decisive.
“What did I do, with respect to them? Nicely, you recognize, I spoke a little bit bit robust, and that’s what would occur, it’s a must to converse robust. That’s a troublesome world, that’s a troublesome, as they are saying, neighborhood. They usually’re robust folks, they’re very robust folks. They usually’re good folks. They’re good negotiators, you recognize, they’ve received a variety of issues going. They put that to good use, they’re going to be very, very profitable,” the president said.
“However they knew the retribution could be super, unsustainable. It could’ve been unsustainable. It could have been full obliteration, and so they didn’t need that. And no one needs it at this level. They wish to get on with, you recognize, rebuilding your entire Center East. It’s not solely Gaza, it’s going to be your entire Center East. They’re going to have the ability to stay in peace,” Trump continued.
“Now, now we have some little hotspots, however they’re very small, you recognize those I’m speaking about,” the president stated to the reporter whose query he didn’t truly deal with. “They’re very small, they’ll be very simple to place out. These fires are going to be put out in a short time.”
Trump begins announcement on drug costs with 2020 election lie, guarantees not possible 1,000% reductions
Donald Trump simply began an Oval Workplace announcement on a cope with the British-based drug maker AstraZeneca, for a “most-favored-nation” drug-pricing mannequin aimed toward making prescription medicines extra reasonably priced, by boasting that he would have struck the deal sooner, however “we have been interrupted by a rigged election”.
Trump went on to repeat the wildly false declare that the discounted costs for American customers would cut back the value of prescribed drugs by as much as 1,000%.
As Daniel Dale of CNN has explained: “Slicing drug costs by greater than 100% would imply that Individuals would receives a commission to amass their drugs reasonably than paying for them.” A well being economist, Timothy McBride, advised the community Trump’s claims are “simply not logical”, since a 500% value discount would imply {that a} drug that now prices $100 could be obtainable at no cost, with customers given a $400 rebate.
The precise deal contains slicing costs for the federal government’s Medicaid well being plan for low-income Individuals and discounted costs by way of a “TrumpRx” web site, the president stated.
AstraZeneca’s chief government Pascal Soriot stood close to Trump within the gold-clad Oval Workplace because the president made the announcement.
Pfizer beforehand agreed to drop prescription drug costs within the Medicaid program for lower-income Individuals to what it costs in different developed nations in alternate for reduction from tariffs threatened by Trump.
Individuals presently pay by far essentially the most for prescription medicines, typically almost thrice greater than in different developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to decrease their costs to what sufferers pay elsewhere or face stiff tariffs.
Final month, he threatened 100% tariffs on drugmakers, growing strain on the pharmaceutical business to agree to cost cuts and shift manufacturing to the US.
Trump threatens extra 100% tariff on imports from China, and export controls on software program
Writing on his social media platform, Donald Trump simply announced that, in response to what he referred to as China’s “terribly aggressive place on Commerce” and new export restrictions, he intends to “impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they’re presently paying” beginning on 1 November.
The identical day, he provides, “we are going to impose Export Controls on any and all important software program”.
That date is after Trump’s deliberate assembly with Chinese language chief Xi Jinping.
Our colleague Callum Jones has more on the most recent friction in Trump’s commerce struggle with China.
The wave of layoffs at federal businesses has reportedly reached the Inside Income Service (IRS) now, according to the PBS correspondent Lisa Desjardins.
Legal costs towards John Bolton could possibly be filed subsequent week – report
Federal prosecutors in Maryland may search prison costs subsequent week towards Donald Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser John Bolton, report the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Carol Leonnig and her colleague Ken Dilanian for MSNBC.
A grand jury in Maryland has been listening to proof associated to claims that Bolton, a former ally of Trump turned harsh critic, improperly saved labeled nationwide safety info in his Maryland dwelling.
The journalists additionally report that Ed Martin, a Republican operative who served briefly as Trump’s appearing US legal professional within the District of Columbia now working the justice division’s “Weaponization Working Group”, has met a number of instances with the Trump-appointed appearing US legal professional in Maryland, Kelly Hayes, on the Bolton case.
An indictment on Bolton for illegally retaining labeled paperwork could be the third of a Trump critic in latest weeks, and would echo the indictment of New York’s legal professional normal, Tish James, in accusing critics of the president of committing crimes he was indicted for after his first time period.
I’ve been chatting to Jessica Roth, a former federal prosecutor within the southern district of New York, concerning the indictment of Letitia James.
Roth stated it was “extraordinarily distressing” to see prosecutions introduced towards the president’s perceived political enemies.
“I can’t say that I used to be shocked that the division [under attorney general Pam Bondi] pursued these costs towards Tish James,” she added. “That doesn’t reduce my misery … significantly in gentle of what had been longstanding Division of Justice coverage to not pursue an indictment except prosecutors have been satisfied that they might be capable to show a case past an affordable doubt at trial.”
Lindsey Halligan, the handpicked and newly put in US legal professional for the japanese district of Virginia, has pursued the costs towards James and former FBI director James Comey, and Roth notes that we may see a wider effort to carry costs towards the president’s adversaries in districts all through the nation that at the moment are run by Trump-friendly prosecutors.
Very similar to the costs introduced towards Comey, Roth underscored that the crimes that James is being accused of are very troublesome to show “even beneath one of the best stances” as a result of they require proof of “prison intent versus an sincere mistake or negligence”.
A number of businesses affirm reductions in power are beneath means
The Guardian has independently confirmed that reductions in power (RIFs) are beneath means on the following departments and businesses:
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Division of Training
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Division of Well being and Human Providers
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Division of Homeland Safety (particularly the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company)
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Division of the Treasury
Sure businesses haven’t instantly responded to the Guardian’s request for remark, however different media shops have reported layoffs are anticipated on the following:
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Environmental Safety Company
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Division of Vitality
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Division of the Inside
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Division of Housing and City Growth
HHS confirms layoffs, saying division had turn out to be ‘bloated paperwork’ beneath Biden
The Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) confirmed to the Guardian that workers throughout “a number of divisions” have acquired reduction-in-force notices. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon stated this was “a direct consequence of the Democrat-led authorities shutdown”.
He added that HHS beneath the Biden administration “turned a bloated paperwork, rising its finances by 38% and its workforce by 17%”.
Nixon stated that every one workers receiving RIF notices have been “designated non-essential by their respective divisions”.
“HHS continues to shut wasteful and duplicative entities, together with these which can be at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Wholesome Once more agenda,” he added.
Federal employee union calls mass layoffs throughout authorities shutdown ‘disgraceful’
The American Federation of Authorities Staff (AFGE), the biggest union representing federal authorities staff, has condemned the mass layoffs introduced by the White Home finances workplace.
“It’s disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the federal government shutdown as an excuse to illegally hearth 1000’s of staff who present important companies to communities throughout the nation,” stated Everett Kelley, the union’s president.
AFGE has already filed a lawsuit in federal courtroom difficult the firings, and a listening to is ready for Thursday, 16 October. “We won’t cease preventing till each reduction-in-force discover is rescinded,” Kelley added.
Division of Training confirms layoffs will occur
The Division of Training has additionally confirmed to the Guardian that their workers shall be affected by the reductions in power.
White Home finances workplace says layoffs are ‘substantial’
An workplace of administration and finances (OMB) spokesperson advised the Guardian that the reductions in power which have begun are “substantial”.
The official didn’t affirm an actual quantity, however we’re bringing you the most recent as we hear from totally different businesses and departments about how they stand to be affected.
