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      Trump is using the shutdown to make life tougher for millions of workers | Steven Greenhouse

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      For many Americans, government shutdowns are a painful experience, but in the current shutdown, Donald Trump – that supposed champion of workers – has gone out of his way to make things more painful for millions of workers and their families.As part of his effort to clobber the Democrats in the shutdown showdown, the US president has repeatedly treated workers like pawns by employing a callous calculus that the worse he makes things for workers, the greater the pressure on congressional Democrats to cry uncle and end the shutdown on his terms. Not only are several of Trump’s shutdown moves blatantly anti-worker, but legal experts say many of them violate federal law.Take the Trump administration’s abrupt decision to effectively cut off funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) beginning this Saturday. That’s the food stamp program used by millions of workers and their families – a total of 42 million people, one-eighth of the US population.Last Friday, the administration said it wouldn’t let the Department of Agriculture’s $5bn-plus contingency fund be used to ensure continued food benefits after 1 November. Nutrition experts and Snap recipients warn that this will result in increased hunger in the world’s richest nation. The administration cut off funding by asserting that the contingency money could only be used for natural disasters, and it did so even though it had said just before the shutdown began that the contingency fund could be used to finance Snap benefits.JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, slammed the move, saying that working families “are about to go without food assistance because Trump and congressional Republicans want to score political points and refuse to reach a deal.” Pritzker added: “They can find the money to pay masked federal agents wreaking havoc in our communities but not help people in need put food on the table.”Cutting off food stamps will hurt millions of low-wage workers as well as seniors, veterans and many other vulnerable Americans. “People receive Snap in every part of the country and in every state,” said Sharon Parrott, president of the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive thinktank. “It is quite something to be sitting on billions of dollars that could be used for food assistance for people who need help and to refuse to release it.”This past Tuesday, two dozen states sued the Trump administration, asserting that the Snap cutoff was unlawful. David A Super, a federal budget expert at Georgetown University, told the New York Times that “nothing in the law imposes that limit” of using contingency funding only for natural disasters. He added: “This [funding cutoff] is blatantly lawless.”The government shutdown began on 1 October, after Democrats blocked legislation to finance the government unless Trump and Republicans agreed, as part of any deal, to take an important step to help working Americans – extending subsidies that help 22 million Americans pay for Obamacare. Trump refused.The Snap cutoff is just one of the anti-worker moves Trump has taken during the shutdown. He alarmed 670,000 furloughed federal workers by threatening not to provide them with backpay. After previous government shutdowns, the hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal employees almost always received retroactive pay for the time the shutdown lasted. Not only that, during Trump’s first term, he signed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which was understood to guarantee backpay to federal workers furloughed during shutdowns.But during the current shutdown, Trump suddenly backtracked on that legislation and threw an unwelcome curveball to the 670,000 furloughed workers. He warned them that there is no guarantee they will receive backpay for the four-plus weeks they have been furloughed.This was widely seen as “a strong-arm tactic” to pressure congressional Democrats to agree to reopen the government and drop their demand to extend Obamacare subsidies. Senator Patty Murray of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, called this Trump tactic illegal and “another baseless attempt to try and scare & intimidate workers”. She wrote on X: “The letter of the law is as plain as can be – federal workers, including furloughed workers, are entitled to their backpay following a shutdown.”In a draft memo, the Trump White House indicated that only workers it deemed essential – like military personnel and air traffic controllers – may be automatically entitled to backpay. In a slap at the 670,000 furloughed workers, Trump told reporters that backpay was iffy for federal workers, saying it “depends on who you’re talking about” and there were “some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of”.In another anti-worker move, Trump and Russell Vought, the director of the White House office of management and budget, seized on the shutdown to announce permanent layoffs of 4,000 federal workers. They did this after Trump called the shutdown an “unprecedented opportunity” to revamp the government and cut “Democrat agencies”. In previous shutdowns, furloughed workers weren’t laid off; they returned to their jobs when the government reopened.On Tuesday, Susan Illston, a federal district court judge in San Francisco, extended an injunction temporarily blocking the layoffs. She calling them capricious and a form of “political retribution’ and said that such mid-shutdown layoffs were “unprecedented in our country’s history”.Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 800,000 federal and Washington DC government workers, called the layoffs illegal. “Federal workers are tired of being used as pawns,” Kelley said. He added: “It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country.”We shouldn’t be at all surprised that Trump has pursued new anti-worker policies during the shutdown, considering that he has embraced dozens of anti-worker policies during his nine months back in office. Notwithstanding his repeated promises to help miners, Trump halted enforcement of a regulation that protects coalminers from a devastating, often deadly lung disease. Enraging labor leaders, Trump has moved to strip collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal workers. He scrapped the minimum wage requirement that federal contractors pay their employees at least $17.75 an hour; as a result, many full-time workers will see their wages fall by more than $9,200 a year. Trump fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), leaving the country’s top labor agency without a quorum to protect workers from companies’ unlawful anti-union tactics.Meanwhile, Trump has slashed regulations on oil companies and crypto-billionaires to help them increase profits. Trump “talks a good game of being for working people, but he’s doing the absolute opposite,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation. “This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires.”For weeks now, Trump could have easily ended the shutdown by doing a straightforward favor for America’s working class. But he has refused to do so because he doesn’t want to be seen as bending in any way in his showdown with the Democrats. Trump could end the shutdown in an hour or two by telling congressional Republicans: “Let’s do the working class a solid by extending Obamacare subsidies.” That would be a boon to millions of workers because without the extension, Obamacare premiums will more than double on average for 22 million Americans.All this shows that Trump has acted coldly, cruelly and calculatingly toward working-class Americans during the shutdown. Any president who truly cared about American workers, any president who wanted to reduce their worrying and their pain, would, during the shutdown, be doing the opposite of what Trump has done.

      Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues More

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      Donald Trump says rare earths dispute ‘settled’ after Xi Jinping meeting in South Korea – live updates

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      In case you’re just joining us, here’s a rundown on what happened at the high-stakes talks between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea.Trump said afterwards that Washington’s dispute with Beijing over the supply of rare earths had been settled, China would resume buying US soybeans and Washington would reduce its tariffs on China.Trump shook hands with Xi after their talks and boarded Air Force One to return to Washington, saying onboard that the meeting had been a “great success”.He told reporters the Chinese leader had agreed to work “very hard” to prevent the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl – blamed for many American deaths – and in exchange the US would reduce fentanyl-linked tariffs from 20% to 10%, lowering the overall tariff burden from 57% to 47%.Trump also said he would visit China in April and that Xi would come to the US some time afterwards.In key developments:

      Xi said after the meeting that he and Trump had reached “consensus” on trade issues, Chinese state media reported. Xi said both sides should “finalise follow-up work as soon as possible, maintain and implement the consensus and provide tangible results to set minds at ease about the economies of China, the United States and the world”.

      Trump said they had agreed to work together on Ukraine, adding that the war “came up very strongly” as an issue. “We talked about it for a long time, and we’re both going to work together to see if we can get something.”

      Taiwan was not discussed at the meeting, Trump said. Earlier, both leaders ignored a question about the self-governing democracy, amid concern in Taipei that Trump may be willing to make concessions to Xi.

      Before the meeting at Gimhae airbase in Busan, South Korea – their first face-to-face meeting in six years – Trump and Xi shook hands in front of their countries’ flags and the US president said: “We’re going to have a very successful meeting.” He added: “He’s a tough negotiator – that’s not good,” before patting the Chinese leader on the back.

      Trump had suggested before the meeting – at which their delegations faced each other across a negotiating table – that it could last three or four hours. The two leaders parted after one hour and 40 minutes.

      Xi said China and the US should “stay on the right course” and “be partners and friends” and should “work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and the whole world”.

      The optimism in Busan was in stark contrast to the recent exchanges of aggressive rhetoric over trade that had threatened to set the US and Chinese on an economic collision course, with potentially disastrous consequences globally. China’s yuan retreated from a near one-year high against the dollar on Thursday after the meeting met expectations but gave investors few new reasons for trade optimism.

      Minutes before meeting Xi, Trump said in a social media post that he had ordered the Pentagon to start nuclear weapons testingat the same level of China and Russia. He did not respond to a reporter’s question about the decision as he and Xi began their summit.With Justin McCurry and agencies
      Donald Trump has used his Truth Social platform to declare the trade tensions with China are “very close to being resolved” as he urges US farmers to go out and buy “more land and bigger tractors” as Beijing ends its soya bean embargo.The US exports about £18bn worth of soya bean a year, half of which goes to China, but China stopped buying the product leaving Trump contemplating a multi-billion dollar bailout for farmers.Trump said on Truth Social:
      I had a truly great meeting with President Xi of China. There is enormous respect between our two Countries, and that will only be enhanced with what just took place.
      We agreed on many things, with others, even of high importance, being very close to resolved. I was extremely honored by the fact that President Xi authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products.
      Our Farmers will be very happy! In fact, as I said once before during my first Administration, Farmers should immediately go out and buy more land and larger tractors.
      The deal covers Fentanyl, rare earths and critical minerals such as refined lithium used in electric vehicle car batteries – a sector in which China dominates the world.China has also agreed to liberalise the sale of magnets used in everything from dishwasher doors to car window openings, he said.It will also buy oil and gas from Alaska, Trump added.Donald Trump had first laid out his intention to pursue nuclear arms control efforts in February, saying he wanted to begin discussions with both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping about imposing limits on their arsenals, reports Reuters.Most major nuclear powers except North Korea stopped explosive nuclear testing in the 1990s. North Korea conducted its last nuclear test in 2017. Russia’s last confirmed test was in 1990, followed by the last US test in 1992, and by China’s in 1996.The reaction to Donald Trump’s announcement on nuclear testing was swift in the US also.Representative Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, said on X:
      I’ll be introducing legislation to put a stop to this.
      Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association, said it would take the US at least 36 months to resume contained nuclear tests underground at the former test site in Nevada. Kimball said on X:
      Trump is misinformed and out of touch. The US has no technical, military, or political reason to resume nuclear explosive testing for the first time since 1992.
      Apart from providing technical data, a US test would be seen in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of Washington’s strategic power. Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia will test if the US does.In August, Trump said he had discussed nuclear arms control with Putin and wanted China to get involved. Beijing responded by saying it was “unreasonable and unrealistic” to ask the country to join in nuclear disarmament negotiations with the two countries, since its arsenal was much smaller.Reuters has some reaction to Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social about the US defence department to immediately begin nuclear testing on a par with Russia and China’s testing (see 1.49am GMT)A senior Russian lawmaker said Trump’s decision would herald a new era of unpredictability and open confrontation, state news agency RIA reported, while China’s foreign ministry called for the US to abide by its commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing and uphold the global strategic balance and stability.It was not immediately clear whether Trump was referring to nuclear-explosive testing, which would be carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), or flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles. No nuclear power, other than North Korea, has carried out explosive testing in more than 25 years.Russian senator Vladimir Dzhabarov said on Thursday that US president Donald Trump should negotiate with Russia, rather than imposing sanctions on it, state news agency RIA cited him as saying.US president Donald Trump said on Thursday he has given South Korea approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine, a dramatic move that would admit Seoul to a small club of nations possessing such vessels.The submarine will be built in a Philadelphia shipyard, where South Korean firms have increased investment, Trump wrote on social media.Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform:I have given them approval to build a Nuclear Powered Submarine, rather than the old fashioned, and far less nimble, diesel powered Submarines that they have now.The US president, who met South Korean president Lee Jae Myung and other regional leaders during his visit, also said Seoul had agreed to buy vast quantities of US oil and gas.Trump and Lee finalised details of a fraught trade deal at a summit in South Korea on Wednesday. Lee had also been seeking US permission for South Korea to reprocess nuclear fuel.However, South Korea’s industry ministry said its officials had not been involved in any detailed discussions about building the submarines in Philadelphia.While South Korea has a sophisticated shipbuilding industry, Trump did not spell out where the propulsion technology would come from for a nuclear-powered submarine, which only a handful of countries currently possess.One opposition lawmaker said on Thursday the Philadelphia shipyard does not have facilities to build submarines, reports Reuters.Asked about Trump’s submarine announcement, Hanwha Ocean, which owns the shipyard with another Hanwha affiliate, said it was ready to cooperate with both countries and provide support with advanced technology, but did not mention specifics.Defence minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers that plans called for South Korea to build its own submarins and modular reactors, and receive a supply of enriched uranium fuel from the US.US president Donald Trump said on Thursday that China agreed to begin the process of purchasing US energy.Trump said in a Truth Social post:
      China also agreed that they will begin the process of purchasing American Energy. In fact, a very large scale transaction may take place concerning the purchase of Oil and Gas from the Great State of Alaska. Chris Wright, Doug Burgum, and our respective Energy teams will be meeting to see if such an Energy Deal can be worked out.
      Chinese state media reported shortly after the meeting that the US and China had reached a “consensus” on trade, but the language was a little vague.We’ve now had more information which confirms the consensus Xi referred to in the meeting was actually developed by the US and China trade negotiation teams which met last Sunday in Kuala Lumpur. After that meeting we were told they had developed a “framework” for trade deals, including the forthcoming sale of TikTok.A short time ago, China’s commerce ministry told reporters that consensus included:

      The US will remove the 10% fentanyl tariff on goods from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, and will extend its suspension of a 24% equitable tariff for another year. In return China will “adjust its countermeasures against the aforementioned US tariffs accordingly”. Both sides also agreed to extend certain tariff exclusions.

      The US will suspend its 50% penetration rule on export controls, and in return China will suspend its own export control measures – understood to be its ban on sales of rare earths to foreign countries for suspected dual-use purposes.

      The US will suspend for one year its Section 301 (harmful trade practises) investigations against China’s maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding industries for one year. In return China will suspend its related countermeasures.
      The ministry said the two sides also reached agreement on issues including fentanyl control, the expansion of agricultural trade, and “handling individual cases involving relevant companies”, which could refer to trade blacklists or investigations against US or American firms based in the other country.“Both sides further affirmed the outcomes of the Madrid trade consultations, with the US side making positive commitments in areas such as investment, and China agreeing to work with the US to properly resolve issues related to TikTok.”Additional research by Lillian YangChina’s defence ministry has said Beijing maintains an open attitude towards developing military relations with the US.Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for the defence ministry, told a press briefing that China hopes the US will work with them to jointly build equal, just, peaceful and stable military ties.Oil prices have fallen slightly as investors digest the new trade deal between Trump and Xi.The two world leaders met in South Korea this morning, with Trump agreeing to reduce tariffs on China from 57% to 47% in a one-year deal, in exchange for Beijing resuming purchases of US soybeans, the continuation of rare earth exports and a crackdown on the trade of fentanyl.Brent crude futures dropped by 0.31% to $64.72 a barrel this morning, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped by 0.33% to $60.28.The drops suggest that some investors are sceptical that the new agreement marks an end to the trade war. But president Trump has said his discussions with Xi were “fantastic”, and emphasised their “great relationship”.You can follow more market reaction to the meeting in our business live blog:Earlier we reported that Donald Trump said he would visit China next year.A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has now confirmed that, saying the trip has been scheduled for April.In case you’re just joining us, here’s a rundown on what happened at the high-stakes talks between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea.Trump said afterwards that Washington’s dispute with Beijing over the supply of rare earths had been settled, China would resume buying US soybeans and Washington would reduce its tariffs on China.Trump shook hands with Xi after their talks and boarded Air Force One to return to Washington, saying onboard that the meeting had been a “great success”.He told reporters the Chinese leader had agreed to work “very hard” to prevent the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl – blamed for many American deaths – and in exchange the US would reduce fentanyl-linked tariffs from 20% to 10%, lowering the overall tariff burden from 57% to 47%.Trump also said he would visit China in April and that Xi would come to the US some time afterwards.In key developments:

      Xi said after the meeting that he and Trump had reached “consensus” on trade issues, Chinese state media reported. Xi said both sides should “finalise follow-up work as soon as possible, maintain and implement the consensus and provide tangible results to set minds at ease about the economies of China, the United States and the world”.

      Trump said they had agreed to work together on Ukraine, adding that the war “came up very strongly” as an issue. “We talked about it for a long time, and we’re both going to work together to see if we can get something.”

      Taiwan was not discussed at the meeting, Trump said. Earlier, both leaders ignored a question about the self-governing democracy, amid concern in Taipei that Trump may be willing to make concessions to Xi.

      Before the meeting at Gimhae airbase in Busan, South Korea – their first face-to-face meeting in six years – Trump and Xi shook hands in front of their countries’ flags and the US president said: “We’re going to have a very successful meeting.” He added: “He’s a tough negotiator – that’s not good,” before patting the Chinese leader on the back.

      Trump had suggested before the meeting – at which their delegations faced each other across a negotiating table – that it could last three or four hours. The two leaders parted after one hour and 40 minutes.

      Xi said China and the US should “stay on the right course” and “be partners and friends” and should “work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and the whole world”.

      The optimism in Busan was in stark contrast to the recent exchanges of aggressive rhetoric over trade that had threatened to set the US and Chinese on an economic collision course, with potentially disastrous consequences globally. China’s yuan retreated from a near one-year high against the dollar on Thursday after the meeting met expectations but gave investors few new reasons for trade optimism.

      Minutes before meeting Xi, Trump said in a social media post that he had ordered the Pentagon to start nuclear weapons testingat the same level of China and Russia. He did not respond to a reporter’s question about the decision as he and Xi began their summit.With Justin McCurry and agencies
      On his Truth Social account before the meeting, Trump had described the Busan catch-up as the “G2”, a nod to the US and China being the world’s biggest economies and a play on the names of other formal multilateral groupings like the G7 and G20.Even though it’s not an official name, “G2” has been welcomed by some Chinese people online.“Clearly, the core of the global order is the US-China relationship”, said one popular post on Weibo.Another said:
      Americans’ attitudes are shifting quickly; they are gradually adapting to the idea that the US and China are starting to stand on equal footing, and the world is big enough to accommodate a G2.
      With Lillian Yang More

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      Extremists exploit political ‘trigger events’ to recruit people online, says study

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      Extremists are exploiting political violence on online platforms to recruit new people to their causes and amplify the use of violence for political goals, according to a new report that monitored social platforms after recent attacks.Researchers at New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights tracked social media feeds for several months this year, including in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.“Violent extremist groups systematically exploit trigger events – high-profile incidents of violence – to recruit supporters, justify their ideologies and call for retaliatory action,” the findings say.The US is experiencing an increase in political violence and extremism, with high-profile incidents targeting Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, Kirk, an ICE facility, a church, a Jewish museum and more. Donald Trump and his allies have falsely claimed the violence is coming solely from the “radical left” and sought to clamp down on left-leaning groups. Republican members of Congress took testimony in a House subcommittee this week about rising political violence.In the first six months of 2025, more than 520 plots and acts of terrorism and targeted violence occurred, affecting nearly all US states and causing 96 deaths and 329 injuries. This is a nearly 40% increase over the first six months of 2024, according to data from the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.The NYU report looked across the political spectrum, including far-right, far-left, violent Islamist and nihilistic violent extremists, to examine their tactics and how they at times converged. The researchers monitored online networks from 24 March to 6 June this year, then extended their gathering to include a period following Kirk’s assassination.“The general takeaway that I had from this report is just how the threat landscape is becoming far more volatile,” said Luke Barnes, senior research scientist at NYU Stern and co-author of the report. “And there is worrying growth of kind of highly specific, bespoke ideologies where there isn’t that kind of traditional left-right categorization that you might have seen historically, and when a lot of the time the performative in-group joke or the performative shock value becomes the objective.”Violence in recent years has included attacks from nihilistic violent extremists, a new category used by the FBI to label the crop of attackers who don’t fit into standard ideological frames and prioritize violence for its own sake.Previously, these attackers would try to advocate for some kind of political position, albeit an extreme one, Barnes noted, but now it has “degenerated into that sense of performative shock value for the sake of it”. This can include memes or references to online communities in manifestos or on bullet casings, which then get passed around online.That evidence then is “fashioned into opportunities for other extremists to exploit and spin off for their own propagandistic value”, which creates a “feedback loop of violence and extremism”, Barnes said.Groups will use mainstream sites such as X to spread their messages, then funnel people into semi-private or private platforms to coordinate further and share more extreme messages, the authors say.“Because you have an audience that may be more mainstream, more generic, extremist groups tend to promote their messages there, but in a different tone, or in a different way that would make the appeal more mainstream, and then what they’ll do is include an outlink or hyperlink to another platform,” said Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, a co-author of the report and policy adviser on technology and law at NYU Stern.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNihilistic violent extremists were difficult to monitor because they reportedly use semi-private platforms, the report said. The shooter at the Annunciation Catholic church in Minneapolis, for instance, seemed to glorify other extremist shooters and used meme-like callouts, which nihilistic violent extremist communities disseminated to “glorify violence generally”, the report said.With violent acts like the stabbing of Austin Metcalf, a Texas high school student, or Iryna Zarutska, who was killed on a train in North Carolina, far-right groups spread narratives about white victimhood. Far-left networks celebrated a shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum, with pro-Palestine activism dominating their channels.The report makes recommendations for social platforms and US lawmakers. Online service providers should have clear policies on threats and incitement and enforce those policies. Users should have a way to report violations to the platform, which should be handled quickly. Lawmakers should establish standards for how platforms and law enforcement cooperate, while recognizing the limits of legal remedies.“The kind of more nihilistic branch of extremism does create opportunity for bipartisanship, which I don’t think is something that’s said often these days,” Barnes said. More

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      Trump directs Pentagon to match Russia and China in nuclear weapons testing

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      Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to immediately start matching other nuclear powers in their testing of nuclear weapons, specifically citing Russia and China.In a post to Truth Social, Trump said “because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”The post came less than an hour before Trump met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in South Korea on Thursday morning in an effort to come to a trade war truce. The meeting was the first between the two since 2019.The United States last held a full nuclear weapons test in 1992, and China and Russia are not known to have held any such tests since the same era. Trump’s reference to “on an equal basis” left it unclear what weapons testing could take place, or whether he was referring to displays of power similar to those recently conducted by Russia.Since 1998, no country other than North Korea is confirmed to have conducted a full explosive nuclear test. But nuclear-armed countries such as the US have subsequently carried out simulated nuclear explosions using high-powered computers, as well as related nuclear physics experiments, tests of nuclear-capable missiles, warhead mechanisms and “subcritical” tests of nuclear materials to ensure their arsenals remain viable.Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to questions about the announcement from Trump.Speaking on Air Force One after his meeting with Xi, Trump said he would “like to see” denuclearisation, adding that the US was “talking to Russia about that”.“And China would be added to that if we do something,” he said, without elaborating.On Thursday China’s foreign ministry told a regular press conference that Beijing hoped the US would honour the non-proliferation treaty “and take actions that contribute to regional peace, rather than the opposite”.“We would like to emphasise that China remains committed to the path of peaceful development, pursuing defensive national security policies and friendly diplomatic policies,” said spokesperson Guo Jiakun. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested its “unique” nuclear-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead. The Kremlin described it as part of efforts to “ensure the country’s national security”. Trump later described Putin’s announcement as “not appropriate”. Sergei Ryabkov, a close aide to Putin, told Russian media that Moscow had notified the US in advance about the test.The timing of Russia’s Burevestnik testing is notable, coming amid the Kremlin’s intensified nuclear posturing and a break in US-Russia talks over the war in Ukraine.On Wednesday, Putin said Russia also carried out a test of a Poseidon nuclear-powered super torpedo that military analysts say is capable of devastating coastal regions by exploding a nuclear warhead and triggering vast radioactive ocean swells that would swamp and contaminate cities.Trump also falsely noted in his Truth Social post that the US had more nuclear weapons than any other country, a claim he repeated during his Air Force One press conference. Russia currently has the most confirmed nuclear weapons, with more than 5,500 nuclear warheads, while the US has 5,044 nuclear weapons, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.The last full nuclear test by the US, codenamed “Divider,” was carried out on 23 September 1992 at what is now called the Nevada National Security Site. The then president, George HW Bush, announced a moratorium on underground nuclear testing that same year. The US still, however, has the ability to resume tests at the Nevada National Security Site.In response to Trump’s post, Nevada congresswoman Dina Titus posted on X: “Absolutely not. I’ll be introducing legislation to put a stop to this.”Despite repeated statements from both Moscow and Washington about wanting to halt the arms race, little progress has been made. The Kremlin has recently criticised Trump’s push to develop a missile shield – known as the Golden Dome – which he claims would make the US impervious to attack.During his first term, Trump reportedly sought to increase the US nuclear arsenal “tenfold”.In December 2016, he tweeted: “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”Additional reporting by Helen Davidson in Taipei and Jason Tzu Kuan Lu More

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      Trump news at a glance: president’s effort to sue his own DoJ is ‘absurd’ and ‘frivolous’, expert says

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      What are the odds that the president can successfully sue his own government to recoup hundreds of millions in damages from past federal investigations? If he were any other claimant, it would be a long shot, according to a legal expert and a former Department of Justice official who handled damages claims against the government.Trump has asked the justice department to pay him $230m in damages, the New York Times reported last week. The amount is the total of two separate claims in which Trump argues he is entitled to compensation because of investigations into the links between Russia and his 2016 campaign as well as the 2022 search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and subsequent criminal prosecution.“Typically, someone who was asking for this amount of money, it would be very quickly rejected, because it would be thought of as absurd to request that amount,” said Gregory Sisk, a law professor at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota. “I cannot think of any prior claim, at least at this early stage, that has been settled that involves money approaching that level.”Trump’s ‘absurd’ DoJ compensation bid would be rejected if he were anyone else, experts sayDonald Trump’s effort effort to win $230m in damages from Mar-a-Lago and Russia investigations is being criticized as “frivolous”, one expert told the Guardian.The effort is also seen as a staggering act of corruption because the two justice department officials with power to sign off on the claims are Trump appointees and allies. House Democrats sent a letter to the justice department this week calling the effort “blatantly illegal and unconstitutional”.Read the full storyTrump fires federal arts board in charge of reviewing White House ballroom and ‘Arc de Trump’Donald Trump has fired all six members of an independent federal agency responsible for reviewing his controversial White House ballroom and planned “Arc de Trump” in Washington DC.The Washington Post first reported that all members of the Commission of Fine Arts were dismissed on Tuesday.“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the Commission of Fine Arts is terminated, effective immediately,” read an email sent to one of the commissioners, which was obtained by the Post.Read the full storyRevealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’A top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and US territories to form “quick reaction forces” trained in “riot control”, including use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray, according to an internal Pentagon directive reviewed by the Guardian.The memo, signed on 8 October by Maj Gen Ronald Burkett, the director of the Pentagon’s national guard bureau, sets thresholds for the size of the quick reaction force to be trained in each state, with most states required to train 500 national guard members, for a total of 23,500 troops nationwide.Read the full storyObamacare insurance prices will jump up 26% next year, report predictsPeople in the US shopping for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will face a steep 26% average price increase next year, according to new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation released just days before enrollment begins on 1 November.Read the full storySenate Democrats demand list of donors to $300m Trump ballroomSenate Democrats, led by Adam Schiff of California, are calling for full disclosure on how Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom is being financed.The effort follows the release of a donor list showing that wealthy individuals and corporations, many with business before the federal government, have contributed to the project. Democrats argue that without transparency, the financing of the ballroom could become a channel for improper influence within the administration.Read the full storyToyota denies promising to invest $10bn in US after Trump announcementThe Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor has denied Donald Trump’s suggestion that it is poised to invest more than $10bn in the United States over the coming years.On a visit to Japan earlier this week, the US president claimed he had been told that the carmaker was going to be setting up factories “all over” the US “to the tune of over $10bn”.“Go out and buy a Toyota,” added Trump.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      When Google and Amazon negotiated a major $1.2bn cloud-computing deal in 2021, their customer – the Israeli government – had an unusual demand: agree to use a secret code as part of an arrangement that would become known as the “winking mechanism”.

      The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday, the second rate cut this year amid economic turbulence from the federal government shutdown and Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Fed has been under immense pressure from Donald Trump to cut rates despite persistent inflation and no longer has access to key data thanks to the shutdown.

      Pro-Palestinian students are threatening to sue George Mason University in Virginia after the school cited a contentious definition of antisemitism it recently adopted to demand the removal of a social media post in which they described Israel as a “genocidal Zionist state” and the US as “the belly of the beast”.

      Cuts at CBS began on Wednesday morning and are expected to affect a significant number of news division employees, though probably fewer than 100 people. The company declined to provide a specific number.

      Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for Congress, has been indicted on federal charges related to her participation in protests outside an ICE processing facility near Chicago in September. The 26-year old Palestinian American candidate and five other individuals were accused of “physically hindered and impeded” a federal agent who was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators”.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Tuesday 28 October. More

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      Meta reports mixed financial results amid spree of AI hiring and spending

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      Meta reported mixed financial results for the third quarter of 2025. The company brought in record quarterly revenue but reported a major tax bill that dampened earnings per share, the company announced on Wednesday. The financial results come as Meta ends a multibillion-dollar hiring spree focused on artificial intelligence talent.The tech giant earned $51.24bn in quarterly revenue, beating Wall Street’s expectations and the company’s own projections for third-quarter sales. However, it reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.05, far below Wall Street expectations of $6.70 in EPS. The major drop was due to a one-time non-cash income tax charge of $15.93bn. The EPS would have been $7.25 without this one-time charge, the company said.The report, and the scheduled investor call, gives investors another opportunity to find out whether the company’s lavish spending on AI infrastructure is justified. The company projected full-year total expenses would be between $116 to $118bn, upping the lower end of the range from $114bn. The company also expects 2025 capital expenditures to be between $70 and $72bn, up from a previously projected range of $66 and $72bn. Meta said its fourth-quarter revenue would likely fall somewhere between $56 and $59bn.“We had a strong quarter for our business and our community,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO. “Meta Superintelligence Labs is off to a great start and we continue to lead the industry in AI glasses. If we deliver even a fraction of the opportunity ahead, then the next few years will be the most exciting period in our history.”Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com, said the latest report reveals “the growing tension between the company’s massive AI infrastructure investments and investor expectations for near-term returns”.It’s the first financial update since Meta said it planned to lay off 600 staffers from its AI unit – the same unit the company went on a spending and hiring spree to restructure and fill with the top AI talent from other companies. The company said the layoffs were an effort to reduce the bloat within the company’s “super-intelligence” unit and brought the number of employees there down to just under 3,000.Investors will also likely be hearing more about the company’s latest move to fund and support the development of its network of data centers. Earlier this month, the company announced a new joint venture with Blue Owl Capital that would help the firms build and finance the new $27bn Hyperion data center campus in Louisiana, the biggest Meta is involved in developing.The company’s stock has been on a steady rise over the past six months. Its previous two earnings reports have beaten Wall Street expectations. The wider US stock market likewise reached record highs the week.Meta also launched its new Ray-Ban Display glasses last month, which feature a screen embedded in the lenses, and analysts are eager to hear sales figures. Meta’s original camera glasses, simply dubbed Meta Ray-Bans, proved to be a popular gadget. Both types of glasses have already prompted privacy concerns. While Meta has designed the glasses not to work if a light that notifies people that the glasses are recording is covered, a $60 modification can disable the light, 404 Media reported.“I suspect these glasses, in particular, will predominantly appeal to early ‘tech-curious’ adopters, and that scheduled demos will far outpace sales,” said Mike Proulx, Forrester VP, research director.On the advertising side, Meta lost its accreditation from the Media Rating Council, a non-profit that sets industry wide standards for brand safety, after the company decided to pull out of the organization’s annual audits. The accreditation signals to advertisers that the content on the platform that their ads may appear next to would not be harmful to their brand. Meta received the accreditation just four months before it was stripped.Analysts were optimistic that the loss of accreditation would not ultimately hurt Meta’s ability to attract advertisers.“While this may raise eyebrows among advertisers, it won’t deter them from investing in Meta due to its sheer audience reach and brand reliance,” Proulx said. “Brands will overlook potential brand safety risks as long as their Meta media investments continue to perform.” More

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      Top Senate Democrat blames ‘heartless’ Trump for food aid being cut off – US politics live

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      Democratic senator minority leader Chuck Schumer is laying into Donald Trump, after his administration announced that it could not continue a crucial food aid program beyond Saturday, because of the government shutdown.Schumer argues that money is available to continue the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), otherwise known as food stamps, but Trump refuses to use it.“For the first time in history, a president, Donald Trump, is refusing to fund Snap during a shutdown,” Schumer told a press conference.“Forty-two million Americans – hungry children, middle class families who’ve just … lost [their] job, veterans, senior citizens who struggle to pay for their food, all of these people will lose their SNAP benefits, not because the money’s gone, not because it’s not permitted, because Donald Trump ordered it stopped. Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man.”Thanks for reading the US politics live blog. We’re closing down for the day, and here is a look back at our top stories:

      The US government shutdown hit its 29th day, with no indication Democrats and Republicans were close to an agreement to restart funding.

      Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, called Trump “heartless” after his administration determined it could not continue a crucial food aid program because of the shutdown.

      John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader, blocked a bill to continue federal food aid from passing the chamber, arguing Democrats should vote to reopen the government instead.

      The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan forecaster, predicted the shutdown would negatively impact the economy, but much of its damage would be reversed when the government reopens. Nonetheless, anywhere between $7bn and $14bn in real GDP will be lost.

      Donald Trump continues his trip through Asia, with the White House confirming a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday. That prompted Democratic senators to write to Trump, asking him “not to negotiate away” national security measures targeting Beijing.

      Two federal prosecutors were suspended after saying “a mob of rioters” attacked the Capitol on January 6.

      The Federal Reserve made a quarter-percentage-point cut to its interest rates, while warning of “elevated inflation” and an uncertain economic outlook.

      Las Vegas may be the site of the proposed midterm political convention Trump wants Republicans to hold ahead of next year’s pivotal legislative elections, the Wall Street Journal reported.

      Demonstrators in South Korea staged “No Trump” protests as the US president visited the city of Gyeongju for events around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
      New polling indicates voters across the country are downbeat on Donald Trump, and, in the battleground state of Wisconsin, skeptical his policies can lower their cost of living.A survey of 1,000 American adults conducted earlier this month by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and YouGov found Trump’s approval rating is at 42%, and 65% of respondents believe the country is on the wrong track. The numbers were similar to data from April 2024, when the question concerned Joe Biden’s performance as president – a sign of long-term dissatisfaction with governance across the country across parties.“These numbers are not particularly strong for the Trump administration, especially considering we’re in the first year of his second term,” said Rodrigo Castro Cornejo, a political science professor and associate director of the university’s Center for Public Opinion.In Wisconsin, Marquette University Law School found that inflation and the cost of living was the top concern of the 846 registered voters surveyed, with immigration in second and health insurance third. There was, however a partisan split over the top issue: for Republicans, it was immigration, while Democrats and independents were most concerned about inflation.When it came to Trump, 57% of those surveyed in Wisconsin thought his policies would cause prices to rise, 30% believed they will cause it to fall and 12% think they will have no effect. There was a substantial partisan split here, too, with Republicans more likely to see him as effective against inflation, and Democrats much less so.With Donald Trump set to meet China’s president Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday (which will be 10pm on Wednesday in Washington DC), Democratic senators have asked him to protect the national security of the United States and its allies in what are expected to be high-stake trade talks.“Ahead of your meeting with President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, we write to urge you not to negotiate away America and our allies’ national security,” reads the letter signed by 12 Democratic senators, including minority leader Chuck Schumer.Saying that the Chinese Communist Party “poses a fundamental threat to US national security, economic prosperity, and global leadership”, they note that there has previously been bipartisan support for “export controls and investment screening mechanisms on critical technologies” being sent to China.“We are deeply disturbed by your recent statements and actions, which indicate that you are all too willing to sacrifice these vital national security tools for empty promises and illusory ‘wins,’” the senators write.They urge Trump not to relax restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States, allow a Treasury program that ensures US firms don’t help China develop sensitive technology to continue and to not agree to any statements that indicates the US “opposes” the independence of Taiwan.“America’s export controls, investment safeguards, and our longstanding security partnerships must not be on the negotiating table,” the Democrats said.Amid the logjam in Congress over reauthorizing government funding, two dozen states have sued the Trump administration over its plan to pause Snap on 1 November. Here’s more on their case filed yesterday, from the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:A coalition of more than two dozen states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its decision to suspend food stamps during the government shutdown.The lawsuit, co-led by New York, California and Massachusetts, asks a federal judge to force the US Department of Agriculture to tap into emergency reserve funds to distribute food benefits to the nearly 42 million families and children who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap). The USDA has said no benefits will be issued on 1 November.“Snap is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running,” the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “There is no excuse for this administration to abandon families who rely on Snap, or food stamps, as a lifeline. The federal government must do its job to protect families.”Things just grew heated on the Senate floor after the Democratic senator, Ben Ray Luján, of New Mexico asked the chamber to unanimously pass his bill guaranteeing federal food aid during the shutdown.John Thune, the Republican majority leader, blocked the bill to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), arguing that Democrats should instead vote to reopen the government.“Snap recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country, and we’ve tried to do that 13 times. You voted no 13 times. This isn’t a political game,” Thune said, referring to the number of votes he has held on the Republican bill to fund the government through 21 November.Democrats have blocked passage of that bill, because it does not address their health care concerns, including the extension of subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans.Thune continued to hammer Luján’s bill:
      This request is a transparent admission that Democrats want to keep the shutdown for what – another month longer? This bill is a cynical attempt to provide political cover for Democrats to allow them to carry on their government shutdown for the long term.
      In response, Luján accused Thune of refusing to compromise:
      When you hold power, when you’re the majority, you meet people, you pull them in. You don’t tell folks, you know where my office is. You all have heard me talk about the late governor Bruce King, a cattle farm out in New Mexico. He used to tell us when people can’t figure out what’s going on, you lock them up in a barn and you don’t let them out until they figure out how to get along.
      Well, we don’t got a barn. Maybe they’ve got an office around here to sit some people. And there’s a White House. It’s easy to get in – there’s a big hole in it.
      More about that big hole:In the government funding standoff, Democrats are demanding that Republicans support extending tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans, arguing that they will soon become unaffordable for many enrollees without congressional action. Here’s the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon with more about just how much prices may rise:People in the US shopping for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will face a steep 26% average price increase next year, according to new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation released just days before enrollment begins on 1 November.The jump represents one of the sharpest rises since the healthcare program launched over a decade ago, with consumers using the federal healthcare.gov platform set to see even steeper hikes of 30% on average. State-run marketplaces are also expected to experience a 17% increase.But the financial pain for many of the 24 million Americans enrolled in ACA plans, now a record number, could be far worse. Enhanced subsidies that have kept premiums affordable for millions are set to expire at year’s end, which threatens to more than double what many households actually pay out of pocket, according to KFF.The research from the non-partisan health policy organization found that monthly payments for subsidized enrollees could increase by an average of 114% if Congress fails to extend the enhanced tax credits. The healthcare.gov website, which opened for preview shopping on Tuesday, is already displaying the higher costs that reflect the lapse in assistance.Two federal prosecutors have been put on leave after writing in a court filing that “a mob of rioters” attacked the Capitol on January 6, Reuters reports.Donald Trump pardoned all those convicted or facing charges over the insurrection at the Capitol on the first day of his second term. Reuters reports that Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia were prosecuting Taylor Taranto on gun charges after he drove to the neighborhood around Barack Obama’s Washington DC home in 2023. Taranto had previously been involved in the January 6 attack, and White and Valdivia noted his presence at the Capitol in a memo where they argued he should face a 27-month sentence on the gun charges.The story was first reported by ABC News. Here’s more, from Reuters:
      Taranto had previously been charged for his role in the 2021 assault on the Capitol and was pardoned in January on Trump’s return to the White House. He was one of nearly 1,600 people pardoned but remained incarcerated on the 2023 gun charges.
      Trump and his allies have sought to play down the January 6 violence, decrying the prosecutions as a “national injustice.”
      White and Valdivia had asked US district judge Carl Nichols in Washington DC, to impose a sentence of 27 months for Taranto.
      They were not provided an official reason for their removal, which was carried out by the executive office for United States attorneys, three of the people said. A justice department spokesperson declined to comment and Reuters could not immediately reach the two attorneys for comment.
      The decision to place them on leave marks the latest in a string of personnel actions targeting justice department employees who worked on criminal or civil cases disfavored by Trump and his supporters. More than 200 prosecutors, agents and other personnel have been fired, some of whom worked on two criminal cases against Trump or on cases related to the attack on the Capitol.
      Taranto was convicted on gun charges after having “perpetrated a hoax” on 28 June 2023, in which he falsely claimed he would cause a car bomb to drive into the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
      The next day, after Trump posted Obama’s purported address on social media, Taranto reposted it and began live-streaming himself as he drove into Obama’s neighborhood in Washington DC In the video, he said he was searching for “tunnels” to access private residences. Eventually he parked and walked into a restricted area protected by the US Secret Service where he stated: “Gotta get the shot, stop at nothing to get the shot.”
      In a search of his van, law enforcement found two firearms, a stabilizing brace and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
      Here’s a rundown of what’s been happening today:

      The US government shutdown hit its 29th day, with no indication Democrats and Republicans were close to an agreement to restart funding.

      The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan forecaster, predicted the shutdown would negatively impact the economy, but much of its damage would be reversed when the government reopens. Nonetheless, anywhere between $7bn and $14bn in real GDP will be lost.

      Donald Trump continues his trip through Asia, with the White House confirming a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday.

      The Federal Reserve made a quarter-percentage-point cut to its interest rates, while warning of “elevated inflation” and an uncertain economic outlook.

      Las Vegas may be the site of the proposed midterm political convention Trump wants Republicans to hold ahead of next year’s pivotal legislative elections, the Wall Street Journal reported.

      Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, called Trump “heartless” after his administration determined it could not continue a crucial food aid program because of the shutdown.

      Demonstrators in South Korea staged “No Trump” protests as the US president visited the city of Gyeongju for events around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
      Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that the government shutdown has undermined US economic growth, but restored funding should undo the damage.“The shutdown of the federal government will weigh on economic activity while it persists, but these effects should reverse after the shutdown ends,” Powell said at his ongoing press conference.He noted that the shutdown had also delayed the release of some government data the central bank relies on to make its decisions.Powell also nodded to the economics impacts of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, saying: “Job gains have slowed significantly since earlier in the year. A good part of the slowing likely reflects a decline in the growth of the labor force due to lower immigration and labor force participation, though, labor demand has clearly softened as well.”Here’s more from the Guardian’s Lauren Aratani on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision:The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday, the second rate cut this year amid economic turbulence from the federal government shutdown and Donald Trump’s tariffs.The decision to cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to a range of 3.75% to 4% comes at an extraordinary moment for the central bank. The Fed has been under immense pressure from Donald Trump to cut rates despite persistent inflation.In a statement, the Fed said that the unemployment rate had gone up but remains low. “Job gains have slowed,” the statement reads. “Inflation has moved up and remains somewhat elevated.”The ongoing federal government shutdown, now one of the longest in US history, has also complicated the Fed’s job. Collection of important economic data has been indefinitely halted as employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are furloughed during the shutdown.The Fed typically studies BLS data to determine labor market conditions, including the number of new jobs added to the economy and the current unemployment rate. The last jobs report was released in early September, before the shutdown, and gave a relatively bleak snapshot of the jobs market in August. The number of jobs added to the economy in August was down by more than 100,000 since the spring, and unemployment crept up to 4.3% – the highest since 2021.Though BLS was scheduled to release September’s job market report in early October, it suspended its release once the shutdown started. Private payroll firm ADP reported earlier this month that the private sector cut 32,000 jobs in September, a sign that the job market is continuing to slow.The Federal Reserve has voted to slash its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point amid inflation that has remained “somewhat elevated” and an uncertain US economic outlook.The rate cut comes as the central bank shifts from fighting the inflation that plagued the economy’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and towards bolstering economic growth and the labor market.“Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August; more recent indicators are consistent with these developments. Inflation has moved up since earlier in the year and remains somewhat elevated,” the policy setting Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement released just now, following the conclusion of its regular meeting.In a sign of the tricky balance the Fed faces between quelling inflation and supporting hiring, the statement noted: “Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated. The Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate and judges that downside risks to employment rose in recent months.”The decision was endorsed by 10 of the committee’s 12 members. Donald Trump’s former top economic adviser, Stephen Miran, dissented, arguing for a cut of a half a percentage point, in line with the president’s desire for lower interest rates. Jeffrey Schmid also did not vote for the decision, preferring not to lower the rate. More

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      Democratic contender for Congress indicted over Chicago ICE protests

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      Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for Congress, has been indicted on federal charges related to her participation in protests outside an ICE processing facility near Chicago in September.The indictment, filed last week, alleges that the 26-year old Palestinian American candidate and five other individuals “physically hindered and impeded” a federal agent who was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators”.Abughazaleh, who is running for Illinois’s ninth congressional district to replace the outgoing Democrat Jan Schakowsky, was charged with conspiracy to forcibly impede or injure a federal agent, and assaulting or impeding the agent while they were performing official duties.According to the indictment, the group “conspired with one another and others, known and unknown, to prevent by force, intimidation, and threat, Agent A, a United States law enforcement officer, from discharging the duties of his office”.It alleged that Abughazaleh, along with the other individuals, “banged aggressively” on the agent’s vehicle, “crowded together in the front and side” of the vehicle and “pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement”.According to the indictment, the group etched the word “pig” on to the vehicle and broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper. It also alleged that Abughazaleh specifically “joined the crowd at the front of the government vehicle, and with her hands on the hood braced her body and hands against the vehicle while remaining directly in the path of the vehicle, hindering and impeding” the agent.Following the indictment, Abughazaleh, who is known for her large social media platform on which she frequently criticizes Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns, called the indictment “political prosecution”.“This is a … gross attempt at silencing dissent, a right protected under the first amendment. This case is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish those who dare to speak up. That’s why I’m going to fight these unjust charges,” she said.Abughazaleh added: “As I and others exercised our first amendment rights, ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls, and teargassed hundreds of protesters, myself included. Simply because we had the gall to say masked men abducting our neighbors and terrorizing our community cannot be the new normal.“This case targets our rights to protest, speak freely, and associate with anyone who disagrees with this government … I’ve spent my career fighting America’s backwards slide towards fascism and I’m not going to give up now,” she continued.The indictment comes as the Trump administration ramps up federal immigration raids across numerous progressive cities including Chicago – a move which has been harshly criticized by local and state leaders.The raids have drawn widespread opposition from the public, congressional Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups, with the ACLU describing them as a “build out of a national paramilitary policing force that could be used to … consolidate President Donald Trump’s power”. More