US government workforce cuts have begun, OMB chief says
Donald Trump’s White House budget chief, Russ Vought, just ominously posted on X that “reductions in force” (laying off federal workers) have begun, as the government shutdown enters its 10th day. He offered no further details, but we’ll bring you more as soon as we get it.
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Updated at 18.41 CEST
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MIT becomes first university to reject White House offer for special funding treatment – NYT
MIT has become the first university to reject an agreement that would exchange adoption of the Trump administration’s higher education agenda for favorable treatment and funding, according to the New York Times (paywall).
The administration’s proposal – the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” – was sent to nine universities and set out a list of requirements including a cap international student enrollment, freezing tuition for five years, adhering to definitions of gender and creating a more “welcoming” environment on campuses for conservatives. Doing so would give the institutions preferential access to federal funding.
According to the Times’s report, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s president, Sally Kornbluth, wrote to the Trump administration to say that “the university has already freely met or exceeded many of the standards outlined in the proposal, but that she disagrees with other requirements it demands, including those that would restrict free expression”. She wrote:
Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
The other eight colleges are the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.
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Updated at 18.34 CEST
National guard troops seen on Memphis streets as Trump faces legal challenges
National guard troops were seen patrolling in Memphis for the first time on Friday, as part of Donald Trump’s controversial federal taskforce, amid fierce legal challenges as he was blocked from sending troops to Chicago and a court ruling is awaited in Portland, Oregon.
At least nine national guard troops began their Tennessee patrol at the Bass Pro Shops, an outdoor gear chain, located at the Pyramid, a commercial landmark in Memphis. They were being escorted by a Memphis police officer and posed for photos with visitors who were standing outside.
It was unclear how many federalized troops were on the ground or were expected to arrive later.
Members of the national guard patrol outside a Bass Pro Shops in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday. Photograph: George Walker IV/AP
During an NAACP Memphis forum on Wednesday, Memphis’s police chief, Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, had said she hoped guard personnel would help direct traffic and have a presence in “retail corridors”, but not be used to operate checkpoints or anything similar – the kind of situation Washington DC experienced.
Memphis authorities did not request federal troops but Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, supports the move by the White House.
Read the full story here:
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US immigration enforcement using military hardware and tactics on civilians
George Chidi
Even without the national guard, law enforcement agencies of the federal government have been using military hardware and tactics on civilian targets.
At a low-rent apartment complex on Chicago’s south shore, people started hearing the boots hit the roof around one in the morning. The oh-dark-thirty immigration enforcement raid in the early hours of 1 October featured an air assault from helicopters. Officers went door to door in the building, using charges to blow the hinges off doors and flashbang grenades to clear apartments. They hauled men, women and children from the building in zip ties and often little else, ostensibly to capture undocumented gang members.
The troubled apartment building at 7500 S South Shore Drive hadn’t passed an annual inspection since 2022. With the remains of doors and furniture and the bloodied, scattered belongings of former tenants in tatters, it may struggle to pass another.
“So many of these people remain without shelter or a place to live because it essentially rendered their homes and that entire apartment complex uninhabitable,” said Colleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. She described the apartment raid as a military-style attack. Days afterward, the building looked like a war zone, which may be the point.
Read more of George’s report below.
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Trump says there is ‘no reason’ to still meet with president Xi, weighing tariff increase
Donald Trump said that there is now “no reason” to meet with China’s president, Xi Jingping, at the Apec summit in South Korea.
Trump said he was surprised to learn that China has been sending letters to countries worldwide saying it planned to impose “export controls” on “every element of production” related to rare earths. “I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right,” he added.
The president concluded his post on Truth Social by saying that the US is now calculating a “massive increase” of tariffs on Chinese products coming into the US. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, average US tariffs on Chinese exports now stand at over 57%.
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Updated at 18.05 CEST
First lady says that she has had an ‘open channel’ with Putin regarding displaced Ukrainian children
At the White House, first lady Melania Trump is now addressing reporters.
She said that in recent months, following a letter she wrote to Russian president Vladimir Putin, she has had an “open channel” with the Kremlin leader about children of Ukraine displaced by the ongoing war.
“Eight children have been rejoined with their families during the past 24 hours,” the first lady said. “Three were separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting. The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict.”
Melania Trump didn’t take any questions from reporters after delivering her short speech.
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The president will arrive at Walter Reed medical center shortly for what’s being described as a “semi-annual physical” despite already having his yearly check-up in April. “I think I’m in great shape, but I’ll let you know,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
This comes as he prepares to travel to Israel on Sunday, as the first phase of a plan to end the war in Gaza gets under way. Yesterday, Trump said that he expects Israeli hostages to be released by Monday or Tuesday.
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Updated at 17.17 CEST
A White House official confirms to the Guardian that Donald Trump’s announcement in the Oval Office at 5pm ET will be about lowering drug prices.
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Updated at 17.17 CEST
Johnson says House will come back when Senate Democrats ‘turn the lights back on’
Mike Johnson said the only end in sight for the House to return to legislative work is when “Senate Democrats turn the lights back on”.
The Republican speaker said that returning to work was ultimately now up to the upper chamber. “We have done the work in the House,” Johnson added. “[Democrats] are the ones blocking the checks, not Republicans, all these questions should be directed to them and not to us.”
Mike Johnson. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.45 CEST
Again, Johnson said that the need to bring a separate bill to the House floor, to keep members of the military paid during the shutdown, is redundant. He maintains that the GOP-written continuing resolution, which passed the House, would allow troops to keep their paycheck.
“We have voted so many times to pay the troops. We’ve already done it. We did it in the house three weeks ago, the ball is in the court of Senate Democrats right now,” Johnson said.
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Johnson holds press conference as shutdown enters tenth day
As the shutdown enters its 10th day, Friday marks the first day federal workers across the US will receive a partial paycheck. House speaker Mike Johnson is holding a press conference, once again, blaming Democrats for the lapse in government funding.
This comes after the Senate failed, for the seventh time, to pass a stopgap bill to reopen the government.
“Democrats don’t, don’t appear to be in any rush to end this pain,” Johnson said. “This is beyond the pale, what Chuck Schumer is doing right now, it’s sickening. It’s sickening to hear him say it’s better for him and his party when it’s so terrible for real Americans. Millions of people are experiencing real pain because these political games.”
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Updated at 16.26 CEST
My colleagues are covering the latest developments in the Middle East, as the first phase of the plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas takes effect.
Israeli troops have begun to withdraw to a redeployment line, and Palestinians have started to return to home from southern Gaza. As Aneesa Ahmed notes, thousands of officers are also set to be deployed for Donald Trump’s visit to Israel on Monday, according to Israeli police.
Officers will be stationed along key points of the president’s planned journey. As part of the president’s short trip, he’s set to address the Knesset on Monday. This would mark the first visit there by a US president in almost two decades, Aneesa reports.
You can follow along here.
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Tariffs caused a Chinese exit from the soybean market, leaving midwestern farmers are waiting for a solution
Rachel Leingang
At the Purfeerst farm in southern Minnesota, the soybean harvest just wrapped up for the season. The silver grain bins are full of about 100,000 bushels of soybeans, which grab about $10 a piece.
This year, though, the fate of the soybeans, and the people whose livelihoods depend on selling them, is up in the air: America’s soybean farmers are stuck in the middle of a trade war between the US and China, the biggest purchaser of soybean exports, used to feed China’s pigs.
“We are gonna have to find a home for them soybeans some time soon,” said Matt Purfeerst, a fifth-generation farmer on the family’s land. “They won’t stay in our bins for ever.”
No other country comes close to purchasing as many American soybeans as China – last year, it was more than $12bn worth. This year, the country has not purchased a single dollar, cutting off the country that makes up about half of US soybean exports.
While Trump has said he intends some sort of payment to go to soybean farmers hurt by tariffs, an announcement of a specific plan is on hold while the government is shut down. He said in a Truth Social post last week that he’d be meeting with the Chinese president soon and “soybeans will be a major topic of discussion”.
The White House cast blame on Democrats for the government shutdown for the delay in a response to the Guardian on Wednesday, erroneously claiming they were prioritizing healthcare for migrants over farmers.
Read more of Rachel’s report from Faribault, Minnesota.
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Senate advances annual defense policy bill as shutdown continues
Late Thursday, the Senate approved the annual defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which funds the military in 2026.
In a 77-20 vote, the upper chamber advanced the legislation which confers more than $900bn in defense spending. There had been a gridlock for over a month, after lawmakers were unable to agree on a series of amendments.
The bill now heads to armed services committees in both the House and the Senate to hammer out the details and differences in both pieces of legislation. A reminder that the lower chamber passed their version in September.
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