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      Trump sets sights on liberal mega-donor George Soros: ‘A chilling message to other donors’

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      Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said “everything is on the table” and left it there. But Donald Trump threw discretion to the wind and was far more specific about his choice of enemy to go after.“If you look at Soros, he’s at the top of everything,” the US president said.The gathering with reporters took place in the Oval Office last month as Trump ordered a crackdown on “leftwing terrorism” and threatened to investigate and prosecute those who financially support it.There is no evidence linking George Soros, a 95-year-old billionaire who has supported democratic causes around the world, or Reid Hoffman, who helped start PayPal and the networking site LinkedIn, to terrorism. But both are top donors to the Democratic party. And both were named by Trump as potential participants in a vast conspiracy to finance violent protesters against the government.It is no coincidence, critics say, that the president is intensifying his attacks on Soros little more than a year before the midterm elections for Congress. The billionaire has reportedly contributed more than $170m to help Democrats during the 2022 midterm cycle. A justice department investigation could deter both Soros and other would-be donors in 2026.Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “Anyone who contributes to the Democrats can expect Soros treatment if they’re giving a large amount of money. We’ve seen Trump quite skillfully using intimidation and threats to bring prominent law firms, major universities and others to their knees. This is another effort to cower opposition. The point here is to make it harder for Democrats to raise money.”Soros has long been a go-to bogeyman for the right. He was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930 and emigrated to London after surviving the Nazi occupation of his home country. He moved to New York and, in 1970, founded Soros Fund Management, which grew into one of the most successful hedge funds in history. In 1992, he was dubbed the “man who broke the Bank of England” after short-selling $10bn worth of British pounds during the UK’s currency crisis.View image in fullscreenSoros began philanthropic work in the late 1970s, funding scholarships for Black South Africans under apartheid. In the 1980s, he provided support to dissidents and pro-democracy groups in communist eastern Europe. This work evolved into the Open Society Foundations (OSF), now one of the biggest funders of groups that support human rights, government transparency, public health and education in more than a hundred countries.Soros has donated more than $32bn to the OSF but in 2023 handed over its stewardship to his son Alex, who this summer married Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton and herself the target of rightwing conspiracy theories. Within the US, the OSF has supported groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Equal Justice Initiative, Indivisible, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood, the National Immigration Law Center and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.Patrick Gaspard, who was president of the OSF from 2017 to 2020, coinciding with Trump’s first term, said: “It’s hard to believe but at one point George’s work had bipartisan support. Republican senators and Congress members would meet with George Soros regularly, openly. They would tout his work in helping to bring down the iron curtain and help instill democracy in western Europe. They were proud to have the association.”That changed in 2004, when, disenchanted by the Iraq war, Soros emerged as a major backer of Democratic candidate John Kerry during his unsuccessful presidential campaign against George W Bush. He has since been a major donor to Democrats, giving $125m to one liberal Super Pac in 2021, according to the campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets.Republicans have megadonors of their own, including Miriam Adelson, Charles Koch, Timothy Mellon and Elon Musk, whose donation of more than $270m to Trump’s presidential campaign dwarfed Soros’s input. Even so, Soros’s influence has made him a frequent target of criticism and conspiracy theories, especially from rightwing groups and authoritarian governments.Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman from Georgia, posted on the X social media platform in 2023: “No other person has undermined our democracy more than George Soros. Why is [he] still allowed to maintain his citizenship?”The critiques often play on antisemitic tropes. Emily Tamkin, author of The Influence of Soros, said: “You couldn’t imagine a more perfect cartoon villain than Soros because he’s a foreigner, he works in finance, he lives in New York and, I would say most saliently, he’s Jewish, which means that you can have all sorts of stereotypes and conspiracies take hold without ever saying the word ‘Jewish’.”When Trump ally Viktor Orbán of Hungary was running for re-election in 2018, he targeted Soros with antisemitic dog whistles, saying: “We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open, but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world.”View image in fullscreenTamkin added: “This idea of the rootless cosmopolitan or the greedy New Yorker obsessed with money. ‘Globalist’ is one you’re hearing a lot. I don’t ever need to say the word ‘Jew’ for antisemitic synapses to light up, which helps these conspiracies travel extremely effectively. That’s exactly what we’re seeing now in the United States and we should be clear about that.”Soros has long been considered a villain by Trump and his conservative base. In August, the president said without evidence that Soros and his son should be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or Rico, because of their alleged support for violent protests.Last month, the New York Times reported that the justice department has directed prosecutors to consider possible charges against the Open Society Foundations. Soros’s office sent a letter to “friends and colleagues” stating: “Allegations that George or OSF are in any way engaged in unlawful activity or in fomenting or promoting violence are 100% false.”Then, in the wake of charges against former FBI director James Comey, came Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office, suggesting that Soros and Hoffman could be prosecuted for sponsoring “professional anarchists and agitators”. There is no evidence to support these claims.Gaspard is not surprised that Trump is once again seeking to demonise George and Alex Soros. “Everyone knows – you can set your clock to it – that when the midterm elections come, when the presidential elections come, that family is going to be involved in some fashion in politics with capital ‘D’ Democrats,” he said.“Trump and those around him are interested in making the name toxic, the investments toxic, and to then find ways to destabilise what should be a source of strength for progressives and the centre left. Then this thing happens where the work of the philanthropy gets conflated with the rights of the individual to participate in American politics and to invest in national politics. That conflation is dangerous.”The move against Soros comes as Republicans face an uphill battle in next year’s midterms, when the party that holds the White House traditionally suffers losses. The jobs market is showing significant signs of weakening, consumer prices remain stubbornly high and this week the federal government shut down.But Trump has already intervened to protect his allies in Congress by pushing for the redrawing of congressional district maps, seeking to purge voter rolls, taking aim at mail-in voting and ordering the justice department to investigate ActBlue, the Democrats’ prime fundraising tool. The assault on Soros could be aimed at choking off money from bigger donors.Rick Wilson, a cofounder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “Right now Trump’s in a lot of trouble across the board politically: the job situation is terrible, the economy is crashing out, the Epstein files are still dividing the party. All these things have led to a moment where they need some bait and they need some distraction out there.“Soros is a great target for that and I’m sure it’s also trying to send a chilling message to any other Democratic donor that they should watch out or he’ll go after them. If they don’t avoid transgressing against Trump, they’ll be in the same spot that Soros finds himself in.”Wilson, a former Republican strategist, added: “It’s absolutely about scaring people and freaking people out and causing fear and suppressing free speech. They do not want people to fund campaigns or Super Pacs or organisations that oppose Trump or Trumpism or their movement and so they’re going to seek to punish people and scare them off.” More

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      How Democrats are trying to bust Republican lies about healthcare for undocumented immigrants

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      Leading up to the government shutdown on Wednesday, congressional Republicans and Donald Trump have repeated misleading claims that Democrats were trying to pass a resolution that would provide “free healthcare for illegals”. It’s become a well-rehearsed refrain fueling GOP lawmakers as government funding lapsed this week.At the White House on Wednesday, the vice-president JD Vance said the Democrats’ spending plan “would have undone” the work of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) – which ended the eligibility of many types of lawfully present immigrants to access federally funded health coverage, like Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for private health insurance.Meanwhile Republican leadership on Capitol Hill has maintained their colleagues across the aisle are holding the government “hostage”, while dueling funding bills continue to fail in the Senate.“They have made a decision that they would rather give taxpayer funded benefits to illegal aliens, than to keep the doors open for the American people,” said Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, in a news conference on Thursday.Democrats have lambasted Republicans’ claims.“Not a single federal dollar goes to providing health insurance for undocumented immigrants. NOT. ONE. PENNY,” said the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer. “Republicans would rather lie and shut down the government down than protect your healthcare.”In an interview with ABC News, on the first day of the government shutdown, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries fact-checked Republican claims. “Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape or form, to undocumented immigrants. Period, full stop,” he said. “And Democrats aren’t trying to change that.”By framing the issue as being about illegal immigration, it shifts the debate to ground that is politically “friendlier” for the GOP, according to Jonathan Oberlander, professor of healthcare policy at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.“[Republicans] absolutely do not want to talk about the healthcare provisions,” Oberlander said. “Whereas Democrats, in general, don’t want to talk a lot about immigration. They do want to talk a lot about healthcare and people losing health insurance, and so that’s exactly what they’re doing.”Undocumented immigrants remain ineligible for federally funded health insurance, and are only able to receive emergency Medicaid treatment, according to longstanding US laws. Instead, Democrats’ funding patch seeks to reverse many of the cuts to Medicaid that are set to take effect after Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda passed earlier this year.View image in fullscreenThis includes allowing lawfully present noncitizens – which includes several groups, such as refugees and asylum seekers, those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and survivors of domestic abuse and human trafficking who are awaiting visas or documentation – to still enroll in certain federal health care programs. All of these immigrants have entered the country legally and are accounted for by the federal government.The congressional budget office (CBO) estimates that the impact of the OBBBA will leave around 1.4 million lawfully present noncitizens without coverage.While the impasse in Washington continues, vocalizing any of this nuance seems futile, says Oberlander. “These are all groups that potentially could command political sympathy, but I’m not sure they can break through the misinformation, the toxic environment and the restrictive era we’re living in right now,” he added.“I think what they [Democrats] are going to do, and what they have been doing, is simply to say this has nothing to do with undocumented immigrants. This is not about them. You’re taking health insurance away from Americans.”According to Michael Trujillo, a veteran Democratic strategist, Republicans have been able to land their messaging around the government shutdown by playing “offense”, mainly because Democrats’ language of preservation is harder to sell.“What we’re trying to do is keep what people have today,” Trujillo said.Trujillo noted that Democrats also have to “repeat the lie” in order to dismantle Republicans’ rapid and spurious claims that their funding bill will provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants.“If their [Republicans’] debate is, we’re accusing you of liking sour milk. And then our response is, ‘we in fact do not like sour milk’. Well, guess what, sour milk just became the issue,” Trujillo said.This week, Karoline Leavitt said that programs like TPS are a “complete abuse of the immigration system” that allow “illegals from all over the world to get free benefits”, while speaking to reporters. Since returning to office, Trump has attempted to end temporary protections for several countries through a series of lawsuits with varying degrees of success.Notably, the White House press secretary was unclear when answering a question from a reporter, who asked whether doctors should treat patients in emergency rooms regardless of their immigration status – which is required under federal law. “I don’t speak for emergency rooms across the country, I speak for the president of the United States,” she replied.Through their continuing resolution, Democrats are also trying to remedy the OBBBA’s cuts to Medicaid dollars hospitals receive from the federal government – for emergency care they are mandated to provide to individuals who do not have an eligible immigration status, but would otherwise qualify for Medicaid. According to a recent analysis by KFF, this kind of emergency Medicaid spending accounted for less than 1% of the program’s total expenditure between 2017-2023.Larry Levitt, executive vice-president for health policy at KFF, said the false claim about who is getting access to healthcare has been the “biggest effort at misinformation on a health policy issue since Republicans claimed that the Affordable Care Act included ‘death panels’”.“I’m sure it’s an effective talking point to say the Democrats want to expand health care for undocumented immigrants, but it’s just not true,” he said.A key aspect of the Democrats’ funding bill, and one they have emphasized more than the reversal of the cuts in the Republican budget law, is a permanent extension of the widely popular ACA premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of this year. KFF estimates that healthcare costs are set to double for the vast majority of enrollees when these subsidies lapse. Meanwhile, the CBO has projected that around 4 million people stand to lose their health insurance if enhanced tax credits expire at the end of 2025.“My sense is that they [Democratic leadership] would take a deal if they just get the subsidies extended,” Oberlander said. He also underscored that Democrats’ push to reverse the wider healthcare cuts in the president’s sweeping tax legislation may be more of a statement than a demand: “They want to call attention to the fact that Republicans enacted them and what the consequences are, but they know, realistically, there’s no chance that they’re going to reverse what they just passed.” More

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      US government shutdown: Donald Trump promises firings and cuts to ‘Democrats’ favorite projects’ if shutdown continues – live

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      President Donald Trump on Thursday said firings of federal workers and cuts to projects could occur if a government shutdown that began Wednesday continues, Reuters reports.“There could be firings, and that’s their fault,” Trump said of Democrats in Congress, when asked during an interview with OAN television network about a recent memo from the Office of Management and Budget that raised prospects of firings.“We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut,” he said, adding “I am allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place and I will probably do that.”My colleage Lauren Gambino has another key line from the Donald Trump interview that aired today on One America News:“A lot of people are saying Trump wanted this, that I wanted this closing, and I didn’t want it, but a lot of people are saying it because I’m allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place, and I will probably do that,” Trump said.Federal authorities refuse to release a Michigan man in a pending deportation case, despite his life-threatening leukemia and the inconsistent health care he’s received while in custody since August, his lawyer said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is now seeking a bond hearing for Contreras-Cervantes, which could allow him to return to his Detroit-area family and doctors while his case winds through immigration court. He’s currently being held at a detention center about three hours away.Jose Contreras-Cervantes, a 33-year-old married father of three who has been living in the U.S. for about 20 years, but not legally, was arrested at a 5 Aug traffic stop in Macomb County, near Detroit. He had no criminal record beyond minor traffic offenses, said ACLU lawyer Miriam Aukerman.Contreras-Cervantes was diagnosed last year with chronic myeloid leukemia, a life-threatening cancer of the bone marrow, said his wife, Lupita Contreras.“The doctor said he has four to six years to live,” she said.Trump’s proposed “compact” with nine prestigious universities was offered to schools that were seen by Trump as “good actors”, May Mailman, a senior White House adviser told the Wall Street Journal yesterday, with a president or a board who were, in the Trump administration’s view, “reformer[s]” who have “really indicated they are committed to a higher-quality education.”The “compact” requires universities to eliminate departments that are seen as hostile or dismissive to conservatives, limit the proportion of international students on campus, accept the Trump administration’s definition of gender, and restrict the political speech of employees.Among the universities the Trump administration is wooing with promises of preferential federal funding in exchange for compliance with Trump’s values is the University of Southern California, a private research university with an $8.2 billion endowment.And even putting academic freedom aside, some of Trump’s proposals would be economically challenging for the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Times reported.At USC, “26% of the fall 2025 freshman class is international,” the more than 50% of those students come from China or India, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Trump administration’s compact not only limits international student enrollment to 15% of students, but also requires that no more than 5% come from any one country.“Full-fee tuition from international students is a major source of revenue at USC, which has undertaken hundreds of layoffs this year amid budget troubles,” the Los Angeles Times noted.In threatening to cut state funding to any California university that cuts an ideological deal with Trump, California governor Gavin Newsom’s office called Trump’s proposed “compact” with nine leading American universities “nothing short of a hostile takeover of America’s universities.”“It would impose strict government-mandated definitions of academic terms, erase diversity, and rip control away from campus leaders to install government-mandated conservative ideology in its place,” Newsom’s office said in a statement. “It even dictates how schools must spend their own endowments. Any institution that resists could be hit with crushing fines or stripped of federal research funding.”Any California universities that sign the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will “instantly” lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.“If any California University signs this radical agreement, they’ll lose billions in state funding—including Cal Grants—instantly. California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom,” Newsom said in a statement. Trump offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign his “compact” yesterday, which asked that the universities close academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”.Newsom’s office said Trump’s offer to universities “ties access to federal funding to radical conservative ideological restrictions on colleges and universities.”President Donald Trump on Thursday said firings of federal workers and cuts to projects could occur if a government shutdown that began Wednesday continues, Reuters reports.“There could be firings, and that’s their fault,” Trump said of Democrats in Congress, when asked during an interview with OAN television network about a recent memo from the Office of Management and Budget that raised prospects of firings.“We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut,” he said, adding “I am allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place and I will probably do that.”The government shutdown will likely go into next week, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune telling Politico that it is “unlikely” senators will be in the Capitol voting this weekend.“They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to open up the government, and if that fails, we’ll give them the weekend to think about it, and then we’ll come back and vote on Monday,” the Republican senator said.Thune also reiterated he will not negotiate the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which has been the point of contention leading to the government shutdown.Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer previously said that Republicans need to work with Democrats “to reach an agreement to reopen the government and lower healthcare costs.”The Trump administration is considering giving at least $10bn in aid to US farmers, as the agriculture industry begins to grapple with an economic fallout due to Trump’s tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reports.The Journal reports that the Trump administration is considering using revenue from tariffs to fund the aid provided to US farmers and may start to be distributed in the coming months.The deliberations are reportedly still ongoing and the deal to give billions for US farmers has not been finalized. A potential negotiation with China in the coming weeks may change Trump’s calculation to provide aid to the farmers.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Trump administration has done “nothing” to lower the high cost of living for people in the US, while at the same time giving the wealthy significant tax breaks.“The Trump tariffs are actually making life more expensive,” Jeffries said. “And now Republicans refuse to do anything to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the Trump administration and Republicans of desiring a government shutdown.“They want to inflict on the American people, they continue to engage in their retribution efforts,” Jeffries said. “And they have zero interest in providing high-quality, affordable and accessible care to everyday Americans.”House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called Trump’s behavior “unserious and unhinged.”Ahead of the looming shutdown, Trump shared a racist video on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, depicting Jeffries wearing a sombrero and mustache, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke in a fake, AI-generated voice.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “Republicans have shown zero interest in even having a conversation” to come to a government funding agreement.Jeffries added Democrats are willing to meet with Republicans, including Trump and vice-president JD Vance, to come to an agreement.House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries blamed Republicans for the government shutdown during a press conference.“This is day two of Donald Trump’s shutdown, but it’s day 256 of the chaos that the Trump presidency has unleashed on the American people,” Jeffries said. “Republicans have shut the government down because they don’t want to provide healthcare to working class Americans.”The Trump administration is seeking to strike deals with companies across 30 different industries deemed critical to national or economic security, Reuters reports, in a concerted push before next year’s midterm elections. In some cases, the Trump administration is offering tariff relief in exchange for concessions.Reuters reports that pharmaceutical companies have been contacted by the White House and top Trump administration officials to strike potential deals. For example, Eli Lilly was asked to produce more insulin, Pfizer was asked to produce more cancer and cholesterol medications and AstraZeneca was asked to consider moving its headquarters from London to the US.The administration’s plan to strike deals with companies is an effort to push companies to further Trump’s goal of moving manufacturing to the United States, reducing dependence on China, strengthening supply chains for critical products and contributing to the government’s coffers, according to Reuters. It is an all-out effort to secure wins before next year’s midterms.The administration has reached out to companies working in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, AI, mining, energy and other industries.This week, Trump announced a deal with Pfizer to cut drug prices in exchange for relief from looming tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals.WIC, the federal program that provides free, healthy food to low-income pregnant women, new mothers and children under five, could run out of funds if the government shutdown persists, NBC News reports.The program serves some 6.8 million people. According to the National WIC Association, “devastating disruptions” may deny millions of moms and children access to nutritious foods if the government remains closed for longer than a week or two, as contingency funds from the USDA will have dried up by then.“Historically, when there has been a shutdown, WIC has remained open for business, but because this one falls at the start of the fiscal year, there are some risks,” Georgia Machell, president of the National WIC Association, told NBC. She called on Congress to pass a funding bill that protects the program and keeps it running without interruption.A USDA spokesperson told the outlet that WIC’s continued operation will depend on “state choice and the length of a shutdown”.Meanwhile, some administration officials are privately warning agencies against mass firings during the shutdown, the Washington Post (paywall) reports.Senior federal officials are telling agencies not to fire employees en masse, warning that it may violate appropriations law and be vulnerable to challenges from labor unions, the Post reports citing two anonymous sources.Senate majority leader John Thune told Politico last night that Democrats folding is the only way he sees the shutdown ending.His comments were echoed House speaker Mike Johnson, who earlier told reporters this morning, “I have quite literally nothing to negotiate,” and insisted that Democrats should support the “clean” continuing resolution.Per Politico’s report, Thune “insisted he would not negotiate on the substance of an extension [to Obamacare subsidies] while the government is closed. But pressed on whether he was open to discussions with Democrats about how the health care negotiations might work post-shutdown or how to advance full-year appropriations bills, he said, ‘We are.’”
      Some of those conversations are happening. With our members and their members there’s a lot of back-and-forth going on right now about some of the things they would like to see happen.
      Thune also said it’s “unlikely” that there will be Senate votes this weekend, meaning the shutdown is likely to last for at least six days. He told Semafor this morning:
      They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to open up the government. If that fails, we’ll give them the weekend to think about it. We’ll come back vote again Monday.
      Venezuela’s defense minister General Vladimir Padrino said on Thursday that five combat planes had been detected near country’s coast, in what he characterized as a threat by the United States.“They are imperialist combat planes that have dared to come close to the Venezuelan coast” Padrino said at an air base, in comments broadcast on state television, saying information about the planes had been reported to a control tower by an airline. “The presence of these planes flying close to our Caribbean Sea is a vulgarity, a provocation, a threat to the security of the nation.”The US has deployed a fleet of warships through the Caribbean, which Washington says is to combat drug trafficking, and has also struck several boats it claims were carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing those aboard. Experts have questioned the legality of the strikes.Earlier, we reported that Trump has declared drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are unlawful combatants and said the US is now in a “non-international armed conflict”, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.The US military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.On Monday, Venezuela’s vice-president said Nicolás Maduro was ready to declare a state of emergency in the event of a US military attack on the country, and warned of “catastrophic” consequences if such an onslaught materializes.Hamas will demand key revisions to Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire proposal but is likely to accept the plan in coming days as a basis for renewed negotiations, analysts and sources close to the group have told my colleague and Guardian international security correspondent Jason Burke.Trump imposed a deadline of “three or four days” from Tuesday for Hamas to give its response to his 20-point plan, which aims to bring the two-year war in Gaza to a close and allow an apparently indefinite international administration of the devastated territory, or “pay in hell”.Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist from Gaza based in Cairo, said Hamas now had to “choose between the bad and the worst”. “If they say ‘no’, as Trump has made clear, that will not be good and will allow Israel to do whatever it takes to finish this. They will say “yes, but we need this and that”, Abusada said.Hamas leaders are divided between Istanbul, Doha and Gaza, which complicates discussions on the group’s response. Turkey and Qatar are putting pressure on Hamas to make concessions.One sticking point is the plan’s demand that Hamas disarm, a source close to the organisation said. The surrender of all weapons would be very difficult for Hamas to accept, especially without any political process or substantial progress towards a two-state solution.Another concern for Hamas is the vague promise of Israeli withdrawals, though the clear statement that there will be no annexation or occupation of Gaza by Israel was welcomed by one source close to Hamas.Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said it would be very difficult for Hamas to accept the terms unconditionally. “That is understandable. The text lacks details. But then anything other than total and final acceptance will be used against Hamas by Israel, the Trump administration and possibly the Europeans,” he said.You can read Jason’s full piece here: More

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      Federal agencies blaming Democrats for shutdown in potentially illegal move

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      A growing number of federal agencies and staff are explicitly blaming Democrats for the current government shutdown. The political messaging by the agencies may be a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.Furloughed federal employees at some agencies have been instructed to set out-of-office messages explaining that they are not working because Democrats caused a shutdown. Government agency websites also have displayed messages informing site visitors the websites are temporarily on hold due to the “Democrat-led” shutdown.Other agency websites have used more combative language.“The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism,” the treasury department’s website reads.Similarly, the US Department of Agriculture’s website says that their site will not be updated “due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown”.According to Department of Education (DoE) sources, DoE officials changed the language in employees’ automated out-of-office replies to include rhetoric blaming the shutdown on Democrats.View image in fullscreen“This message is uniform and provided to us by the Department. We all enabled the auto-reply before logging off for the shutdown,” a DoE employee said, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation. “However, the Department has gone in without our knowledge or approval and changed the message.”NBC News previously reported on the changes to the DoE employees’ automated email messages.The government shut down on Wednesday at midnight, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement before the Tuesday night deadline. As the Guardian’s Chris Stein explained, Democrats are demanding a series of concessions related to healthcare, funding for public media and foreign aid. As a result of the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed and agencies have shut down key functions.By reviewing agency websites and news reports, the Guardian has tracked a number of federal government agencies promoting language that blames Democrats for the shutdown. They include:

      The Department of Justice

      The Department of State

      The Department of the Treasury

      The Department of Agriculture

      The Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud)

      The Department of Education

      The Department of Heath and Human Services

      The Department of Commerce

      The Department of Labor

      The Small Business Administration (SBA)

      The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

      The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

      The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

      The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

      The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

      The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

      The Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
      Some explicit political activity by federal employees is prohibited by the Hatch Act, a 1939 law seeking to prevent political influence on the agencies.The use of government websites and employees’ out-of-office messages to blame Democrats for the shutdown is “extraordinarily irresponsible and inappropriate”, said Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or Crew.“This is clearly behavior that does not comport with ethical guidance,” he said. “Some of it, I think, is illegal. Some of it is not illegal, depending on the law that you’re talking about, but it’s extraordinarily irresponsible and inappropriate.”Sherman said it was possibly “the worst time to be engaged in this kind of partisan chicanery” because many Americans are relying on government websites for information on essential services disrupted by the shutdown.“It’s part of a pattern and practice of politicizing and weaponizing the government in ways that we have not seen before,” he continued, adding: “It’s astonishing, which is saying something for this administration.”Already, Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, has filed a complaint against the SBA for the message on its webpage blaming Democrats for the shutdown. The organization says it is a violation of the Hatch Act.“The SBA and other agencies increasingly adopting this illegal, partisan tactic think they can get away with it because Trump has gutted any and all ethics oversight of the federal government,” said Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen.The independent office of special counsel enforces Hatch Act violations. The penalties can include removal from federal service for up to five years, and civil fines up to $1,000. The office is currently closed because of the funding lapse, and Trump fired the head of the office earlier this year and installed Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, in the role.NBC News reported that the Department of Labor sent a message to employees on Wednesday morning, suggesting their out-of-office email messages include language blaming “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown. HuffPost similarly reported workers at the Department of Health and Human Services were instructed to to the same.The Trump administration on Thursday morning threatened to fire many employees at federal agencies across the nation, leading to worry and fear among furloughed employees for their job security.DoE sources said some workers printed out their furlough notices and last few pay stubs, in case they have to file for unemployment in response to Trump administration threats of firings during the shutdown.Sherman noted that it’s Congress’s responsibility to perform oversight of the executive branch but said there also could be investigations by inspectors general or the government accountability office (GAO). In this case, he said, accountability would not come in the form of firing the officials ordering the partisan messaging.“That power exists solely within the executive branch and clearly they’re the ones doing this. Nobody is acting out of school0. They are acting consistent with the administration’s edict,” Sherman said.House speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday morning that lawmakers are still far from reaching a deal on government funding, placing blame on Democrats.Despite the government shutdown, the Trump administration is taking advantage of it to pursue its policy goals. As the Guardian previously reported, the US energy department will be slashing nearly $8bn in climate-related funding for projects in 16 US states and freezing $18bn for two New York City construction projects.Trump said on Thursday he would be meeting with Russell Vought, the head of the office of management and budget, to discuss further cuts to agencies that do not align with his political priorities.“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Vought was a significant player in pushing forward Project 2025, which seeks to radically reshape the federal government.“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump added.Michael Sainato and Lauren Gambino contributed reporting More

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      Trump sees ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to punish Democrats as shutdown enters day two

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      As the US government shutdown stretched into its second day, Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the funding lapse as an “unprecedented opportunity” to further his campaign of firing federal workers and downsizing departments.The president announced on social media that he would sit down with Russell Vought, the White House office of management and budget chief and architect of the mass firings and buyouts of federal workers.“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”The government shutdown on Wednesday at midnight, after Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to continue funding unless it included a series of healthcare-focused concessions. Vought has threatened to use the shutdown to conduct further layoffs of federal workers, and on Wednesday announced the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding for projects tied to Democrats.About $18bn was frozen for infrastructure projects in and around New York City over “unconstitutional DEI principles”, Vought said, referring to the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that Trump has sought to stamp out from the federal government. The projects for which money was held include the Second Avenue subway line in Manhattan and the Hudson River tunnel project connecting the city to New Jersey.The cancellations sparked a furious reaction from Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, both of whom are New Yorkers.“Donald Trump is once again treating working people as collateral damage in his endless campaign of chaos and revenge,” they said in a joint statement.Vought also announced that around $8bn in funds for 16 states – all of which are run by Democrats – was put on hold. Vought did not specify the projects, but called it “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda”.The Democratic senator Adam Schiff, who represents California, one of the states for which funding was slashed, responded: “Our democracy is badly broken when a president can illegally suspend projects for Blue states in order to punish his political enemies. They continue to break the law, and expect us to go along. Hell no.”Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator representing Oregon, another state that lost funding, said: “Ripping funding away from only blue states will raise utility bills for EVERYONE. It’s not rocket science. Vought is unfit to serve in this or any administration.”At the White House on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that “layoffs are imminent”, but gave no further details. That’s a shift from past shutdowns, when federal workers were furloughed or told to work unpaid, with back pay coming once funding is restored.Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, on X replied: “If the president fires a bunch of people, it’s not because of his shutdown–it’s because HE decided to fire them. People aren’t negotiating tools & it’s sick that the president is treating federal workers like pawns.”Some Republicans signaled they were uncomfortable with using a shutdown as an opportunity to further slash the federal workforce, which has already lost hundreds of thousands of workers through firings and buyouts.“This is certainly the most moral high ground Republicans have had in a moment like this that I can recall, and I just don’t like squandering that political capital when you have that kind of high ground,” Kevin Cramer, a Republican senator of North Dakota, told CNN, when asked about the layoff threats.The broader effects of this shutdown remain to be seen. Many national parks have remained open, but with reduced services, as have the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC.There has been no indication of a breakthrough in the funding dispute in Congress, where both parties have refused to back down from their demands in the day since the shutdown began.“I quite literally have nothing to negotiate,” Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, said on Thursday. The Republican-controlled chamber has passed a bill to fund the government through 21 November, but it needs at least some Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancements in the Senate.On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators was seen huddling on the Senate floor, but it is unclear if that brought the two sides any closer to a deal.The House remains out of session, with no vote planned in the Senate today due to the Yom Kippur holiday. More

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      Why healthcare spending was at the center of the US government shutdown battle

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      The federal government shut down on Wednesday in part, due to a battle between Democrats and Republicans over healthcare spending.Democrats had said that they would not vote for legislation to keep the government open unless Donald Trump and Republicans, who hold the majority in Congress, agreed to reverse cuts to Medicaid and extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans. That did not respire in either of the votes in the Senate on Tuesday.In June, the US president approved legislation he calls his “big, beautiful bill”, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $793bn and increase the number of uninsured people by 7.8 million.The savings in federal Medicaid spending will largely come from the implementation of the new requirements, which include completing 80 hours of work or community service activities per month, or meeting exemption criteria.The law also means that the premium tax credits implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic for insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace will expire at the end of 2025. That would make coverage more expensive and lead to 3.1 million more people without health insurance, according to the CBO.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said following a negotiation with Trump and Republican leaders on Monday.Meanwhile, Trump doubled down during an Oval Office press conference on Tuesday that if the parties can’t reach an agreement, “we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them,” Trump said while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon. “Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”He did not mention Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act but said: “We can do things medically and other ways, including benefits.”Still, there could be an opening for negotiation in coming weeks. The Senate majority leader, John Thune, said on the Senate floor on Tuesday that the Democrats should vote to keep the government open until 21 November and that he would be happy to fix the “ACA credit issue” before the credits expire at the end of the year. More

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      US government shuts down after Democrats refuse to back Republican funding plan

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      The US government shut down on Wednesday, after congressional Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments unless they won a series of concessions centered on healthcare.The GOP, which controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, repudiated their demands, setting off a legislative scramble that lasted into the hours before funding lapsed at midnight, when the Senate failed to advance both parties’ bills to keep funding going.The shutdown is the first since a 35-day closure that began in December 2018 and extended into the new year, during Trump’s first term. It comes as Democrats look to regain their footing with voters, who re-elected Trump last year and relegated them to the minority in both chambers of Congress.“Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s healthcare,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday evening, as it became clear a shutdown was inevitable.Last month, House Republicans passed a bill that would fund the government through 21 November, but it requires the support of some Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the Senate. It failed to gain that support in votes held late on Tuesday, while Republicans also blocked a Democratic proposal to continue funding through October while also making an array of policy changes.“Far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted to show down with the president, and so Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats’ partisan interests,” Senate majority leader John Thune said.Senate Republicans have scheduled another round of votes on the two funding bills on Wednesday morning, with the stated goal of giving Democrats an opportunity to change their minds.The White House has responded to the shutdown threat by announcing plans to fire federal workers en masse if funding lapses. “When you shut it down, you have to do layoffs, so we’d be laying off a lot of people,” Donald Trump said earlier on Tuesday, adding: “They’re going to be Democrats.”Shortly after the failed votes, Russ Vought, director of the White House office of management and budget, released a letter blaming “Democrats’ insane policy demands” for a shutdown. “It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict,” Vought wrote in the letter, which was addressed to the heads of federal offices and agencies.Democrats have demanded an extension of premium tax credits for ACA plans, which expire at the end of the year. They also want to undo Republican cuts to Medicaid and public media outlets, while preventing Trump’s use of a “pocket rescission” to further gut foreign aid.The total cost of those provisions is expected to hit $1tn, while about 10 million people are set to lose healthcare due to the Medicaid cuts, as well as to changes to the ACA. Without an extension of the tax credits for premiums, health insurance prices will rise for around 20 million people.While Thune has said he would be willing to negotiate over extending the ACA credits, he insists new government funding be approved first.Democratic leaders say they are not backing down, but signs have emerged of dissent within their ranks. Three members of the Democratic caucus voted for the Republican proposal on Tuesday evening – two more than when the bill was first considered earlier this month.“The cracks in the Democrats are already showing,” Senate Republican whip John Barrasso said.Democrats who broke with their party indicated they did so out of concern for what the Trump administration might do when the government shuts down. Federal law gives agencies and departments some leeway in determining which operations continue when funding lapses.“I cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration,” said Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto.Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, called the vote “one of the most difficult” of his Senate career, but said: “The paradox is by shutting the government we’re actually giving Donald Trump more power, and that was why I voted yes.”Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, the sole Democrat to vote for the Republican funding bill when it was first considered a week and a half ago, supported it once again, saying: “My vote was for our country over my party. Together, we must find a better way forward.”While the party that instigates a shutdown has historically failed to achieve their goals, polls have given mixed verdicts on how the public views the Democrats’ tactics.A New York Times/Siena poll taken last week found that only 27% of respondents said the Democrats should shut down the government, while 65% thought they should not. Among Democrats, the split was 47% in favor of a shutdown and 43% against, while 59% of independents were opposed to a shutdown.A Marist poll released on Tuesday found that 38% of voters would blame congressional Republicans for a shutdown, 27% would blame the Democrats and 31% would point a finger at both parties.Republican senator Ted Cruz – an architect of a 2013 shutdown intended to defund the ACA – described Democrats’s shutdown threat as a “temper tantrum” that would go nowhere.“They’re trying to show … that they hate Trump,” Cruz told reporters. “It will end inevitably in capitulation. At some point they’re going to turn the lights on again, but first they have to rage into the night.” More