US politics live: Trump administration reportedly weighing layoffs for federal health workers

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Student association sues over Doge accessing education department database

An association of university students has filed a lawsuit over Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reported access of a department of education database containing information about student loan program enrollees.

“The Department of Education has tens of millions of Americans’ sensitive personal information – everything from income history to Social Security numbers to banking information,” said Alex Elson, vice president of Student Defense, which is representing the University of California Student Association in the lawsuit filed along with Public Citizen, a progressive advocacy group.

“They collect that data with a promise to keep it safe and use it to help students secure financial aid and make informed decisions about their future. Turning around and handing it over to political operatives with an axe to grind is a fundamental violation of both Americans’ trust and federal law. We urge the Court to quickly stop it.”

The lawsuit comes after the Washington Post this week reported accessed the database at the education department, even as the Trump administration considers shutting down the federal agency.

Donald Trump may order the dismantling of the education department after its secretary, Linda McMahon, is confirmed by the Senate, Axios reports.

McMahon will have her confirmation hearing next week. Doing away with the department of education is a longtime goal of the political right, and one Donald Trump endorsed this week when he said that he hopes McMahon puts herself out of a job.

Trump administration considering mass layoffs at health and human services department - report

The Trump administration is planning an executive order that will lead to mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Thousands of federal workers at the department and agencies it oversees, including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, could be let go by the order, the Journal reports. Here’s more:

The order could come as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said, after workers have an opportunity to take a buyout. The terms of the order haven’t been finalized, however, and the White House could still decide against going forward with the plans.

The job cuts under consideration would affect the Department of Health and Human Services, which employs more than 80,000 people and includes the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in addition to the FDA and CDC.

The agencies are responsible for a range of functions, from approving new drugs to tracing bird-flu outbreaks and researching cancer. A loss of staff could affect the efforts depending on which workers are cut and whether they are concentrated in particular areas.

The White House on Thursday denied that there is an executive order related to HHS coming.

Agency officials have been told to prepare lists of probationary workers who have essential roles and must be retained, and of employees who don’t, according to people familiar with the instructions. Generally, probationary employees have served less than one year, or two years for “excepted service” and can be let go more easily than other workers.

Donald Trump will today welcome Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba to the White House, with his arrival due at 11.30am.

In the afternoon, the president will make an unspecified “Faith Office” announcement, the White House says, and sign executive orders, before heading to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.

Both events will provide reporters the opportunity to ask questions of the president, who will perhaps make news.

A total of 611 essential workers will be kept on at USAID following cuts to the agency’s funding, according to an update sent to staff late on Thursday and shared with Reuters by a Trump administration official on Friday.

Under initial plans, fewer than 300 of the agency’s 10,000-strong worldwide workforce was reportedly to be kept on.

Trump has signed an executive order imposing a 90-day suspension on all US foreign assistance, with an exemption for life-saving treatment.

UK will not follow US on ICC sanctions

The UK has no plans to sanction international criminal court (ICC) officials and supports the court’s independence, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson has said.

It follows an executive order issued by president Trump authorising sanctions against people who have worked on ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel.

Elon Musk arrives at the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump at the US Capitol. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Reuters

Donald Trump’s attempts to slash incentives for electric cars would cause sales of the vehicles to plummet, with this effort cheered on by a seemingly confounding supporter – Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla and erstwhile champion for action on the climate crisis.

The US president, who previously suggested supporters of EVs “rot in hell” before somewhat tempering his rhetoric, has already ditched an aspirational goal for half of all car sales to be electric by the end of the decade, halted some funding for EV chargers and began reversing vehicle pollution standards that prod auto companies to shift away from gasoline models.

A key tax credit for Americans buying an EV, worth up to $7,500, is also a major target for elimination, although to overturn this Trump will require Republicans in Congress. Should he succeed, though, the impact would be significant, with a recent study finding that electric car sales could fall by 27% without the incentive.

Trump’s agenda has been enthusiastically backed by Musk, despite the world’s richest person heading Tesla, the market-leading EV company that also relies upon some parts made in China that may be targeted by tariffs imposed by Trump.

Read the full story here:

More now on that lawsuit brought by two government workers’ unions to try to stop the Trump administration from dismantling USAID.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest such union, and the American Foreign Service Association argued in the suit that the administration’s actions were “unconstitutional and illegal”.

They said Congress was the “only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency” but that “not a single one of defendants’ actions” were taken with congressional approval.

The suit added that “the agency’s collapse has had disastrous humanitarian consequences”, including the disruption of services to treat malaria and HIV.

“Already, 300 babies that would not have had HIV, now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and childbirth,” it said.

ICC 'stands firmly' by staff after US sanctions

The International Criminal Court has condemned US sanctions against its staff, saying the move was part of an attempt to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work”.

The executive order announcing the sanctions said they were in response to “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”.

Officials facing sanctions may see any assets they have in the US frozen or be banned from entering the country altogether.

The US Treasury and State Department will decide which officials are to be sanctioned.

Aids cuts are causing carnage, writes Gordon Brown

An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or above could not have caused more carnage. Recent floods in Asia and droughts in Africa have been catastrophic, yet they have inflicted less damage and affected fewer people than the sudden withdrawal of billions of dollars of US aid from the world’s most volatile hotspots and its most vulnerable people.

Coming alongside President Trump’s plan for a US takeover of Gaza, the US administration’s resolve to shut down its international aid agency sends a clear message that the era when American leaders valued their soft power is coming to an end.

But while the Gaza plan is as yet only on the drawing board, USAid cuts – which will see funding slashed and just 290 of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide retained, according to the New York Times - have already begun to bite this week. We have seen the halting of landmine-clearing work in Asia, support for war veterans and independent media in Ukraine, and assistance for Rohingya refugees on the border of Bangladesh.

US generosity is often seen as mere charity, but it is in the country’s self-interest to be generous because the creation of a more stable world benefits us all. We all gain if USAid can mitigate the spread of infectious diseases, prevent malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, halt the upsurge of IS in Syria and support a fair, humanitarian reconstruction of Gaza and Ukraine. Only the narrowest and most blinkered view of what constitutes “America first” can justify the disaster America has unloaded on the world.

Read the full piece from the former prime minister here:

The UN’s main programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) has said the freeze on US foreign aid is causing “a lot of confusion” despite a waiver being placed on HIV/AIDS programmes.

Last month, President Trump announced an immediate 90-day pause on all foreign aid, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio later announced a waiver for “life-saving humanitarian assistance”, including HIV treatment.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Friday, Christine Stegling, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, said there was still “a lot of confusion especially on the community level”.

“Community delivery of medication of transport services, community health workers, all of these services are currently still impacted,” Stegling said.

Aid agencies have spoken previously about the damage a 90-day pause would do to their services.

Among the treatments provided by PEPFAR, the US’ global programme for combatting AIDS, are anti-retroviral treatments for 679,936 pregnant women living with HIV, both for their own health and to prevent transmission to their children, according to analysis by the Foundation for AIDS Research.

“During a 90-day stoppage, we estimate that this would mean 135,987 babies acquiring HIV,” it said.

Donald Trump has restated his proposal to take over Gaza amid widespread opposition – even from his own supporters – saying the territory would be “turned over” to the US by Israel after it concludes its military offensive against Hamas.

Trump reinforced his commitment to the idea in a rambling post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, even as it emerged that the proposal – announced without warning during a White House visit by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – was purely his own and had not been subject to detailed discussion with aides.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he wrote.

Read the full story here:

“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the plaintiffs said. “USAid provides life-saving food, medicine, and support to hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Without agency partners to implement this mission, US-led medical clinics, soup kitchens, refugee assistance programs, and countless other programs shuddered to an immediate halt.”

Among the actions called illegal are Trump’s order on 20 January, the day he was inaugurated, pausing all US foreign aid. That was followed by orders from the state department halting USAid projects around the world, agency computer systems going offline and staff abruptly laid off or placed on leave.

The White House and the departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment…

Bill Gates speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Indian Wells, Calif. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

Bill Gates says Elon Musk calling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) a criminal organisation was “a mistake.”

The Microsoft founder was referring to Musk’s comments on X, which compared foreign aid to “money laundering.” Musk also posted that USAID employees are an “arm of the radical-left globalists.”

Gates said he doesn’t object to Musk’s plan to make the government run more efficiently but said, “going in very quickly and calling all these people a criminal organisation is a mistake, and that is not quite as subtle as you’d hope to see.”

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Gates said he was surprised by Musk’s support of far-right political organisations like the AFD party in Germany.

Gates said, “I’m very careful to say Elon’s super smart, his private sector work is fantastic, I’m surprised [by] the number of things he states opinions on. I’ve always had friends around me that make sure I don’t spout off on too many things all at the same time.”

Between Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US could take control of the Gaza Strip, forcibly removing Palestinians from their homes, and Elon Musk’s continued efforts to dismantle the US federal government, the critics are lining up. The Democrat senator Andy Kim is one of them. But what can he, his party, or anybody else do to stop the president and his non-elected billionaire pal? He speaks to Jonathan Freedland…

Iran’s supreme leader says that negotiations with America 'are not intelligent, wise or honorable'

Iranian supreme leader says 'negotiation with USA is not wise'
Photograph: Iranian Supreme Leader Office/EPA

After President Donald Trump floated nuclear talks with Tehran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government”, but stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage with Washington, the Associated Press reports.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, strongly applauded Trump’s move, posting: “Thank you, President Trump, for your bold ICC executive order. It will defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemetic corrupt court that has no jurisdiction or basis to engage in lawfare against us.”

Trump said the US “will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions” including by blocking property and assets and suspending entry into the US of ICC officials and their family members.

It was unclear if the Trump administration would announce the names of specific individuals targeted by the sanctions. ICC officials have prepared for sanctions to impact senior figures at the court including its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan…

Opening summary

Good morning,

Donald Trump has signed an executive order authorising unprecedented and aggressive sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.

The US president effectively gifted himself broad powers to impose asset freezes and travel bans against ICC staff and their family members if the US thinks they are intent on investigating or prosecuting US citizens and certain allies.

In the order, Trump said the ICC had “abused its power” by issuing the warrants which he claimed had “set a dangerous precedent” that endangered US citizens and its military personnel. “This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel,” he added.

Responding to Trump’s move, the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said the order “sends the message that Israel is above the law and the universal principles of international justice”.

“Today’s executive order is vindictive. It is aggressive. It is a brutal step that seeks to undermine and destroy what the international community has painstakingly constructed over decades, if not centuries: global rules that are applicable to everyone and aim to deliver justice for all,” she added.

In other news:

• Leaders of the southern California city of San Clemente, which lies between Los Angeles and San Diego, are partnering with US Customs and Border Protection to place surveillance cameras along the city’s beach to detect boats carrying passengers attempting to enter the country without authorization. “People have observed pangas crammed with illegal aliens, hitting our beach, and then scattering in the community or jumping into a van, which is parked nearby and ready to receive them,” Knoblock told the LA Times.

• The largest US government workers’ union and an association of foreign service workers sued the Trump administration on Thursday in an effort to reverse its aggressive dismantling of the US Agency for International Development. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC federal court by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association, seeks an order blocking what it says are “unconstitutional and illegal actions” that have created a “global humanitarian crisis”

• Donald Trump demanded the “termination” of 60 Minutes, a staple of US broadcast news. The move is a continuation of the president’s vendetta against the media that also included baseless claims that money from the country’s beleaguered foreign aid body had been illicitly funding news organisations. Trump said: “CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable ‘NEWS’ show should be immediately terminated.”

• Donald Trump’s shutdown of USAid has already had disastrous effects on humanitarian aid and development programmes around the world, but it has also ceded ground to the US’s chief rival, China, analysts have said. “[The US is handing] on a silver platter to China the perfect opportunity to expand its influence, at a time when China’s economy is not doing very well,” said professor Huang Yanzhong, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

• The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes on Thursday, limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth. The move came one day after Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

• Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gave Donald Trump a “golden pager” during their meeting in Washington DC this week, in an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.In photos circulating online, the golden pager can be seen mounted on a piece of wood, accompanied by a golden plaque that reads in black lettering: “To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”