United States | News & Politics

Friday's layoffs swept up scientists involved in responding to disease outbreaks and running an influential journal. Officials said the mistaken dismissals were being rescinded.

Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.

Democrats say that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s massive overhaul of the Justice Department “will take decades to recover from,” in the wake of a contentious Senate hearing with Bondi this week.

Bondi’s defensive and combative attitude during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, in which she repeatedly refused to answer Democrats’ questions, has left many concerned about the future of the department.

Under Bondi’s leadership, more than 4,500 Justice Department employees have left, task forces dedicated to probing criminal activity have been disbanded, resources have been re-allocated to support Trump’s targeting of political opponents and more.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43912468

Mass firings of US federal workers have begun, as Republicans work to exert pressure on Democrat lawmakers to end a government shutdown. The White House budget office said the layoffs were “substantial”, with unions for federal workers taking the matter to court. President Donald Trump said of the job losses “it’ll be a lot” and suggested those losing their jobs would be in areas that were “Democrat oriented”.

The government shutdown comes as the US president has revived the trade war with China, this time promising to increase tariffs on Chinese imports by 100%. His administration is also considering using visa restrictions and sanctions against countries that support the International Maritime Organization’s “net zero framework” proposal.

“Disease detectives,” high-ranking scientists, the entire Washington office and the staff of a weekly public health journal were among those who learned late Friday that they would lose their jobs.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37393989

cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/79452

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the ABC and NBC networks two of the "most biased" broadcasters ever and said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should revoke their licenses.