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Education Department to Lay Off Half of Its Staff

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon visits "Fox & Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios in New York City, on March 7, 2025.

WASHINGTON — The Education Department plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of an effort to halve the organization’s staff—a prelude to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency.

Department officials announced the cuts Tuesday, raising questions about the agency’s ability to continue usual operations.

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The Trump Administration had already been whittling the agency’s staff, though buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees. After Tuesday’s layoffs, the Education Department’s staff will sit at roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said.

Read More: The Department of Education’s History Shows It is Essential

The layoffs are part of a dramatic downsizing directed by Trump as he moves to reduce the footprint of the federal government. Thousands of jobs are expected to be cut across the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration and other agencies.

The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said.

Department officials said it would continue to deliver on its key functions such as the distribution of federal aid to schools, student loan management and oversight of Pell Grants.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said when she got to the department, she wanted to reduce bloat to be able to send more money to local education authorities.

“So many of the programs are really excellent, so we need to make sure the money goes to the states,” McMahon said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News.

McMahon told employees to brace for profound cuts in a memo issued March 3, the day she was confirmed by the Senate. She said it was the department’s “final mission” to eliminate bureaucratic bloat and turn over the agency’s authority to states.

The department sent an email to employees Tuesday telling them its Washington headquarters and regional offices would be closed Wednesday, with access forbidden, before reopening Thursday. The only reason given for the closures was unspecified “security reasons.”

Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, saying it had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.” At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, she acknowledged only Congress has the power to abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a reorganization.

Whether the cuts will be felt by America’s students—as Democrats and advocates fear—is yet to be seen. Already there are concerns the Administration’s agenda has pushed aside some of the agency’s most fundamental work, including the enforcement of civil rights for students with disabilities and the management of $1.6 trillion in federal student loans.

McMahon told lawmakers at her hearing that her aim is not to defund core programs, but to make them more efficient.

Even before the layoffs, the Education Department was among the smallest Cabinet-level agencies. Its workforce included 3,100 people in Washington and an additional 1,100 at regional offices across the country, according to a department website.

The department’s workers had faced increasing pressure to quit their jobs since Trump took office, first through a deferred resignation program and then through a $25,000 buyout offer that expired March 3.

Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform, which advocates for charter school expansion, said the cuts were important and necessary.

“Ending incessant federal interference will free up state and local leaders to foster more opportunities to give schools and educators true flexibility and innovation to address the needs of students, wherever they are educated,” Allen said.

Some advocates were skeptical of the department’s claim that its functions would not be affected by the layoffs.

“I don’t see at all how that can be true,” said Roxanne Garza, who was chief of staff in the Office of Postsecondary Education under President Joe Biden.

Much of what the department does, like investigating civil rights complaints and helping families apply for financial aid, is labor intensive, said Garza, who is now director of higher education policy at Education Trust, a research and advocacy organization. “How those things will not be impacted with far fewer staff … I just don’t see it.”


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Trump Pauses Doubling Tariffs on Canadian Metals After Ontario Suspends Electricity Price Hikes

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President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md. on March 7, 2025.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s threat Tuesday to double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada led the provincial government of Ontario to suspend its planned surcharges on electricity sold to the United States.

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As a result, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the U.S. President pulled back on his doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs, even as the federal government still plans to place a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports starting Wednesday.

Read More: What Are Tariffs and Why Is Trump In Favor of Them?

The drama delivered a win for Trump but also amplified concerns about tariffs that have roiled the stock market and stirred recession risks. Tuesday’s escalation and cooling in the ongoing trade war between the United States and Canada only compounded the rising sense of uncertainty of how Trump’s tariff hikes will affect the economies of both countries.

Trump shocked markets Tuesday morning, saying the increase of the tariffs set to take effect Wednesday was a response to the 25% price hike that Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States.

“I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday afternoon that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called him and Ford agreed to remove the surcharge. He said he was confident that the U.S. President would also stand down on his own plans for 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

“He has to bounce it off the President but I’m pretty confident he will pull back,” Ford said on Trump’s steel and aluminum tariff threat. “By no means are we just going to roll over. What we are going to do is have a constructive conversation.”

After a brutal stock market selloff Monday and further jitters Tuesday, Trump faces increased pressure to show he has a solid plan to grow the economy. So far the President is doubling down on tariffs and can point to Tuesday’s drama as evidence that taxes on imports are a valuable negotiating tool, even if they can generate turmoil in the stock market.

Trump suggested Tuesday that tariffs were critical for changing the U.S. economy, regardless of stock market gyrations.

The U.S. President has given a variety of explanations for his antagonism of Canada. He has said that his separate 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada, some of which are suspended for a month, are about fentanyl smuggling and objections to Canada putting high taxes on dairy imports that penalize U.S. farmers. He also continued to call for Canada to become part of the United States, which has infuriated Canadian leaders.

“The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump posted Tuesday. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”

Tensions between the United States and Canada

Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will keep tariffs in place until Americans show respect and commit to free trade after Trump threatened historic financial devastation for his country.

Read More: How Canada Got Hooked on the U.S. Economy

Carney, who will be sworn in as Justin Trudeau’s replacement in coming days, said Trump’s latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families and businesses.

“My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade,” Carney said in a statement.

Canadian officials are planning retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s specific steel and aluminum tariffs. Those are expected to be announced Wednesday.

Carney was referring to an initial $30 billion Canadian (US$21 billion) worth of retaliatory tariffs that have been applied on items like American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles and certain pulp and paper products.

Trump also has targeted Mexico with 25% tariffs because of his dissatisfaction over drug trafficking and illegal immigration, though he suspended the taxes on imports that are compliant with the 2020 USMCA trade pact for one month.

Asked if Mexico feared it could face the same 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as Canada, President Claudia Sheinbaum, said, “No, we are respectful.”

Trump participated in a question and answer session Tuesday afternoon with the Business Roundtable, a trade association of CEOs that he wooed during the 2024 campaign with the promise of lower corporate tax rates for domestic manufacturers. But his tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China—with plans for more to possibly come on Europe, Brazil, South Korea, pharmaceutical drugs, copper, lumber and computer chips—would amount to a massive tax hike.

The stock market’s vote of no confidence over the past two weeks puts the President in a bind between his enthusiasm for taxing imports and his brand as a politician who understands business based on his own experiences in real estate, media and marketing.

“The tariffs are having a tremendously positive impact—they will have, and they are having.” Trump told the gathering of CEOs, saying the import taxes would cause more factories to relocate to the United States.

Read More: Why Trump’s Threats to Canada Will Continue to Backfire

Worries about a recession are growing

Harvard University economist Larry Summers, President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary, has put the odds of a recession at 50-50. The investment bank Goldman Sachs revised down its growth forecast for this year to 1.7% from 2.2% previously. It modestly increased its recession probability to 20% “because the White House has the option to pull back policy changes if downside risks begin to look more serious.”

Trump has tried to assure the public that his tariffs would cause a bit of a “transition” to the economy, with the taxes prodding more companies to begin the yearslong process of relocating factories to the United States to avoid the tariffs. But he set off alarms in an interview broadcast Sunday in which he didn’t rule out a possible recession.

The stock market slide continues

The promise of great things ahead did not eliminate anxiety, with the S&P 500 stock index tumbling 2.7% on Monday in an unmistakable Trump slump that has erased the market gains that greeted his victory in November 2024. The S&P 500 index fell roughly 0.8% on Tuesday, paring some of the earlier losses after Ontario backed down on electricity surcharges.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 478 points, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%.

Trump has long relied on the stock market as an economic and political gauge to follow, only to look past it as he remains determined so far to impose tariffs. When he won the election last year, he proclaimed that he wanted his term to be considered to have started Nov. 6, 2024, on Election Day, rather than his Jan. 20, 2025, inauguration, so that he could be credited for post-election stock market gains.

Trump also repeatedly warned of an economic freefall if he lost the election.

“If I don’t win you will have a 1929 style depression. Enjoy it,” Trump said at an August rally in Pennsylvania.

—Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report from Mexico City. Gillies reported from Toronto.


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Boris Johnson: I knew Trump had a plan for Ukraine

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(NewsNation) — Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he has “always been confident” that United States President Donald Trump could get the Ukrainians to sign up to “some sensible things.”

On Tuesday, Ukraine agreed to accept a deal for a temporary ceasefire in its war with Russia in exchange for the U.S. resuming intelligence sharing and security assistance.

“I’ve been one of the tiny minority of European commentators, politicians, Turners, to think that actually there was method in the madness of Donald Trump, and that he did have a plan,” Johnson said on “On Balance” Tuesday.

“I’m a believer in the president, Donald Trump’s ability to get things done,” Johnson said. “When I was Foreign Secretary, I saw how he dealt with Ukraine.”

While Johnson said he “may be proved wrong,” he added that “Trump is the kind of President who has the guts to stand up to Putin.”

“I think he’s in a very strong position to exert leverage on the Russians,” Johnson said.


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Dems for Some Reason Expect Trump to Follow the Law on Detention of Mahmoud Khalil

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As protests arise and First Amendment questions mount surrounding the immigration detention of Mahmoud Khalil, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. penned and circulated a letter demanding the immediate release of the recent Columbia University graduate. 

It found little support among Tlaib’s colleagues in Washington, with a mere 14 Democrats signing their names on the letter condemning Khalil’s detention as an “illegal abduction.” 

Instead, statements from prominent Democrats suggest much of the party is taking the Trump administration’s targeting of Khalil in good faith.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., who counts Khalil as one of his constituents, did not sign the letter. When contacted by The Intercept about the case, Espaillat said he expects the Trump administration – which has explicitly flouted and sought to circumscribe federal legal protections for civil liberties – to adhere to the rule of law.

“Regarding the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a constituent who lives in my district, my office has been following this case closely and as a former green card holder, I expect the Department of Justice to work within the confines of the law and that due process is guaranteed to him and his family,” Espaillat said in a statement Tuesday morning. “The rule of law must be respected.” 

In a statement on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned Khalil’s activism and “antisemitic actions at Columbia,” without providing examples of those actions. He said that the administration should release Khalil if it could determine he had not broken any laws. 

“This illegal justification has been stated clearly by figures throughout the administration, including the president himself.”

The Trump administration itself has admitted the case against Khalil does not hinge on allegations that he broke the law and told a conservative news outlet that it will these proceedings as a blueprint to target other students.

Tlaib’s letter — first reported by Jewish Insider — specifically calls out the Trump administration’s campaign for pushing to expel Khalil despite the fact he “has not been charged or convicted of any crime.”


Related

If Trump Can Deport Mahmoud Khalil, Freedom of Speech Is Dead


“As the Trump administration proudly admits, he was targeted solely for his activism and organizing as a student leader and negotiator for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Columbia University campus, protesting the Israeli government’s brutal assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza and his university’s complicity in this oppression,” the letter said. “This illegal justification has been stated clearly by figures throughout the administration, including the president himself.”

In a bid to find additional backers, the letter was distributed among all 100 House members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Monday evening with a 10 a.m. deadline, according to a source familiar with the letter. Less than 15 percent of CPC members signed onto the letter, which was published Tuesday morning.

Signatories of the letter include: Andre Carson, D-Ind., Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, Al Green, D-Texas, Summer Lee, D-Penn., Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Gwen Moore, D-Wisc., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y. and Nikema Williams, D-Ga. 

At least one Democrat reportedly consulted about Khalil prior to his arrest. According to The Forward, an aide for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., discussed Khalil’s situation with a former operative for the Zionist group Betar. The group has taken credit for sending a list of students it wanted deported to the White House. Betar named Khalil, misspelling his first name, in a tweet in January.

In response to a tweet on Monday from the Senate Judiciary Democrats calling to free Khalil, Fetterman replied: “Free all the hostages who have been tortured, starved, raped, beaten and STILL in tunnels in Gaza by Hamas since October 7th, 2023.” Fetterman’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Correction: Tuesday, March 11, 11:09 p.m. ET
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the publication that first that reported an aide for Fetterman discussed Khalil prior to his detention. That was first reported by The Forward.

The post Dems for Some Reason Expect Trump to Follow the Law on Detention of Mahmoud Khalil appeared first on The Intercept.


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Anti-Israel Agitators Arrested in New York Amid Nationwide Walkouts Protesting Pro-Hamas Activist’s ICE Arrest

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Several anti-Israel agitators were arrested in New York on Tuesday after clashing with police during a protest against the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student activist and foreign national whom the Trump administration moved to deport over his pro-Hamas campus organizing. It was part of a nationwide student and faculty walkout at several elite colleges across the nation.

NYPD moved in after the protesters refused to clear the roadway in front of City Hall. Agitators pushed back, and police began making arrests.

Among the crowd was Aidan Parisi, a Columbia graduate student who was arrested for storming Hamilton Hall last year. He was suspended last spring over his involvement in an event that featured a number of terror-tied speakers who advocated for violence against Jews. Also in attendance was Barnard College student and anti-Israel activist Maryam Iqbal, who was arrested with Parisi during last spring’s illegal encampments at Columbia.

Anti-Israel activist Maryam Iqbal

The crowd first gathered at Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall as part of a protest organized by New York University’s Faculty and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and joined by the anti-Semitic group Within Our Lifetime. During the event, billed as a “rally against compliance with fascist policies,” hundreds chanted in unison, “We want justice, you say how, release Mahmoud Khalil now.”

One attendee sported a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine headband, while others displayed posters of militants holding AK-47s with the caption “Palestine will be free.”

“By resistance … we mean action. We mean taking to the streets, mobilizing in our thousands, no, in our millions, and dealing blow after blow to our enemies,” one agitator told the crowd.

At Columbia, a smaller crowd of about 40 faculty and students walked out of their classes and assembled outside the Low Memorial Library. Similar walkouts were staged at the City University of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles—most of which have faced anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)—an anti-Israel group accused of providing material support to Hamas—urged the protests, calling on “individuals to walk out of class, take over central spaces on campus, and assert our mass power” on Tuesday.

“In the face of the state’s existential attacks on the Student Movement and popular education, we declare that we, the united students, faculty, staff, and workers, are the university,” NSJP posted to Instagram on Monday. “The popular movement against Zionism, imperialism, and fascism will not shy away in the face of federal threats; we will show our Board of Trustees, administrators, and the state that we will not back down.”

At Columbia, protesters wore shirts and held signs sporting slogans like “FUCK ICE” and “PIGS ARE NOT KOSHER.” Among the crowd was Joseph Howley, a Columbia classics professor and member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP). Also in attendance was Bruce Robbins, a Columbia humanities professor who falsely denied that protesters at the encampment chanted for the “destruction of civilian lives.”

Columbia professor Joseph Howley in the background of a protest

The crowd sang the “Ruth Song,” which agitators also crooned the evening the New York Police Department cleared Hamilton Hall after a mob stormed it. They also chanted, “Free Mahmoud,” and “Immigrants are welcome here.” The protesters called out the interim Columbia president, chanting, “We will never let this slide, Katrina Armstrong you can’t hide” and “Katrina Armstrong what do you say, how many boots did you lick today.”

Aharon Dardik, a founding member of the anti-Israel student group CU Jews4Ceasefire, which condemned Columbia’s Hillel for hosting an exclusive event with former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett last week, led the crowd in prayer to bring Khalil home safely, a protest attendee told the Washington Free Beacon.

One demonstrator asked bystanders to bring the protesters food, water, and sunscreen since they were exposed to the “very hot sun,” a witness told the Free Beacon. “We need that support from our communities so if you are someone who has access to those things, please pull up and help us!”

“We are aware of a small protest on the steps of Low Library,” a Columbia spokesperson told the Free Beacon. “Our public safety and University delegates were monitoring for any disruptions to campus activity. Our focus is to preserve our core mission to teach, create, and advance knowledge.”

Khalil was taken into ICE custody Saturday night after the Trump administration pulled his visa and green card.

“This should serve as a warning to foreign students on temporary status in America—under this administration, if you support terror groups, we will deport you,” a State Department official told the Free Beacon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a similar statement on Sunday, saying he will “be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

President Donald Trump issued his own statement Monday, declaring Khalil’s detention marks “the first arrest of many to come.”

That same day, a federal judge paused deportation proceedings pending a ruling on a petition Khalil filed in court claiming there was “no basis” for his arrest and subsequent detention.

In April, Khalil spearheaded negotiations with Columbia administrators during the pro-Hamas student encampments, representing Columbia University Apartheid Divest—the Ivy League institution’s most anti-Semitic student organization—and demanding divestment from Israel. He pledged further unrest in the buildup to the fall semester, telling The Hill he would continue to push Columbia to divest from the Jewish state by “any available means necessary.”

“And we’ve been working all this summer on our plans, on what’s next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history,” Khalil said in August. “We’re considering a wide range of actions throughout the semester, encampments and protests and all of that. But for us, encampment is now our new base.”

Last week, Khalil again served as a negotiator for CUAD after a mob of radical Columbia activists stormed a Barnard library. Once inside the building, the agitators distributed Hamas propaganda meant to justify Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. A week earlier, CUAD stormed a separate campus building at Barnard, resulting in the hospitalization of a security guard and $30,000 in damages.

On Monday at least three Columbia professors canceled in-person classes in support of Khalil, the Free Beacon reported. English professor Joseph Albernaz, philosophy lecturer Ruairidh MacLeod, and an unnamed third emailed students to cancel courses or remove attendance requirements. MacLeod ditched the “discussion requirement for [his] Marx class,” citing “sensitivity to the situation arising from the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.” Albernaz went as far as to give every student an “A” on an upcoming midterm scheduled for Thursday, saying he was “sickened at the news of the ICE detainment of a student.” The third instructor canceled courses for the rest of the week, arguing it was “unsafe to continue teaching as usual.”

Update, 11:30 p.m.: This story has been updated to include comment from a Columbia spokesperson.

The post Anti-Israel Agitators Arrested in New York Amid Nationwide Walkouts Protesting Pro-Hamas Activist’s ICE Arrest appeared first on .


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Will Putin accept US-Ukraine ceasefire deal?

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(NewsNation) — As Ukraine agrees to a 30-day ceasefire proposal brokered by the United States, experts remain skeptical Russian President Vladimir Putin will reciprocate without adding demands that could derail peace efforts.

“Putin does not want a ceasefire. He wants to take more Ukrainian territory,” John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told NewsNation Tuesday following the announcement of the agreement reached in Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would immediately resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the ceasefire agreement, reversing a controversial freeze implemented in late February.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The ball is now in Russia’s court,” but military experts caution against optimism.

“He could agree to a ceasefire but then continue to fight,” said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander. “There could always be accusations of provocations by Ukraine. There’s no one to monitor the ceasefire.”

‘Lot of games’ until Putin agrees to ceasefire deal: Ex-NATO commander

Clark outlined several potential scenarios where Putin might undermine the agreement, including demanding substantial Ukrainian territorial concessions or using the pause to rebuild Russian forces.

“He could say ‘yes’ and then put some really tough demands on the table, like Ukraine expected to give up the rest of these oblasts provinces,” Clark said.

The ceasefire announcement comes after Ukraine launched its largest drone attack of the conflict, with approximately 90 drones targeting Moscow, reportedly killing three people.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Russia in the coming days to present the ceasefire proposal to Putin.

Trump said he hoped that an agreement could be solidified “over the next few days.”

“I’ve been saying that Russia’s been easier to deal with so far than Ukraine, which is not supposed to be the way it is,” Trump said later Tuesday. “But it is, and we hope to get Russia. But we have a full ceasefire from Ukraine. That’s good.”

Herbst suggested Putin may try to “probe some Ukrainian weak spots during the ceasefire period” to test American resolve in enforcing the agreement’s terms.

“The United States can push back on this,” Clark said, noting that sanctions relief could be a powerful bargaining chip. “The question is, will we do so?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Department of Education eliminates almost 50% of workforce

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(NewsNation) — The Department of Education announced Tuesday almost half of its staff will be laid off starting March 21.

“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

The statement added that the department will continue to deliver on programs, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for students who are disabled and competitive grantmaking. 

This makes it so the department’s workforce will total 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when President Donald Trump first took office.

Included in this number are almost 600 employees who took buyouts.

According to a note obtained by NewsNation, all Washington, D.C., offices in the National Capital Region will be closed for “security reasons” starting 6 p.m. ET Tuesday and also Wednesday.

“Employees will not be permitted in any ED facility on Wednesday, March 12 for any reason,” the note said. “All offices will reopen on Thursday, March 13, at which time in-person presence will resume.”

Several federal agencies have seen layoffs and firings through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump created at the beginning of the year. This includes the Social Security AdministrationInternal Revenue Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other agencies.


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Apple fixed the third actively exploited zero-day of 2025

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Apple addressed a zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24201, that has been exploited in “extremely sophisticated” cyber attacks.

Apple has released emergency security updates to address a zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24201, in the WebKit cross-platform web browser engine.

The vulnerability is an out-of-bounds write issue that was exploited in “extremely sophisticated” attacks.

An attacker can exploit the vulnerability using maliciously crafted web content to escape the Web Content sandbox. Apple released this fix as an additional measure after blocking a similar attack in iOS 17.2.

“Maliciously crafted web content may be able to break out of Web Content sandbox. This is a supplementary fix for an attack that was blocked in iOS 17.2. (Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.)” reads the advisory published by the company.

The company addressed this vulnerability with improved checks. Apple released iOS 18.3.2, iPadOS 18.3.2macOS Sequoia 15.3.2visionOS 2.3.2, and Safari 18.3.1 to address the zero-day.

The flaw impacts iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later, Macs running macOS Sequoia, and Apple Vision Pro.

Apple did not disclose details about the attacks or attribute them to any threat actor.

CVE-2025-24201 is the third zero-day since the start of the year. Below are the other flaws the company has fixed:

  • January 2025 – CVE-2025-24085 – The vulnerability is a privilege escalation vulnerability that impacts the Core Media framework.
  • February 2025 – CVE-2025-24200 – An attacker could have exploited the vulnerability to disable the USB Restricted Mode “on a locked device.” Apple’s USB Restricted Mode is a security feature introduced in iOS 11.4.1 to protect devices from unauthorized access via the Lightning port.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Zero-day)


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House Passes Funding Bill To Avert Government Shutdown, Slash Spending by $7 Billion

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The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 217-213 to approve a stopgap funding bill to keep federal agencies running for the next six months, staving off a partial government shutdown while cutting overall spending by around $7 billion.

The vote was mostly along party lines, with one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (Maine), voting for the bill and one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), voting against. The bill cuts non-defense discretionary funding by $13 billion while increasing defense spending by $6 billion to fund warship construction and a pay raise for junior military personnel, Reuters reported.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it will need the support of at least eight Democrats to pass.

The House bill comes as President Donald Trump works to rein in government waste. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, says its cost-cutting measures have saved taxpayers an estimated $55 billion since Trump’s inauguration. Musk’s team is also reviewing the Pentagon’s $890 billion budget, which accounts for around half of all federal discretionary spending.

This bill, however, excludes DOGE’s proposed cuts, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Republicans will incorporate in next fiscal year’s budget. It also preserves funding for major spending programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

In addition to cutting funding, the House bill also strips more than $1 billion from Washington, D.C.’s budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser (D.) protested the bill outside the Capitol on Monday, arguing the cuts are “not savings for the federal government” but “simply damage to the District.”

The post House Passes Funding Bill To Avert Government Shutdown, Slash Spending by $7 Billion appeared first on .


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Pressure is now on Putin as Ukraine agrees to Trump’s ceasefire proposal

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Ukraine has agreed to a United States proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, representing a potentially significant breakthrough in US-led diplomatic efforts to end the largest European conflict since World War II. The agreement on a potential ceasefire came following eight hours of negotiations between high-level US and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia.

In a joint statement issued following the talks in Jeddah, Ukraine expressed its readiness to accept the United States proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation. The United States will now communicate to the Kremlin that Russia’s readiness to accept the ceasefire proposal is the key to achieving peace. “We’ll take this offer to the Russians. We hope the Russians will reciprocate,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented.

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There was more positive news for Ukraine from Saudi Arabia, with the US delegation announcing the immediate lifting of a freeze on military assistance and intelligence sharing. This decision to renew US support reflects a thaw in bilateral ties following weeks of increased tension including a disastrous Oval Office meeting in late February that saw US President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance clash publicly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump responded to his White House confrontation with Zelenskyy by claiming that the Ukrainian leader was “not ready for peace.” The change in tone from US officials following today’s meeting was palpable. “The Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear, that they share President Trump’s vision for peace, they share his determination to end the fighting, to end the killing, to end the tragic meat grinder of people,” commented White House national security adviser Michael Waltz.

With Ukraine now clearly backing the US peace initiative, the world will be watching closely to see Russia’s reaction. Trump has stated that he may speak directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week. If Putin decides not to support the push for a temporary ceasefire, it will dramatically alter the optics of the war and position Russia as the main obstacle to peace.

Developments in the coming few days will reveal much about Trump’s personal relationship with Putin. The US leader has long claimed to be on good terms with the Russian dictator and has talked up the progress being made during initial negotiations with the Kremlin over a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. If his efforts are now rebuffed, Trump will face mounting pressure to adopt a far tougher stance toward Moscow.

This places Putin in something of a quandary. Despite suffering heavy battlefield losses, his armies continue to advance slowly but steadily in Ukraine. Meanwhile, dramatic recent changes in US foreign policy have increased his sense of confidence that the international coalition supporting the Ukrainian war effort is finally fracturing. Putin will therefore be understandably reluctant to embrace US calls for an immediate ceasefire. At the same time, he knows that if he rejects Trump’s peace overtures, this will likely derail the broad reset in US-Russian relations that the new United States administration has been signaling since January.

The US has been pushing for a ceasefire as the first step toward comprehensive negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace agreement. While a peace deal is still a long way off, this initial step from the Ukrainian side could create much-needed momentum. If Russia chooses not to reciprocate, calls will grow for the US and Europe to strengthen Ukraine’s position militarily while increasing sanctions pressure on Russia.

Peter Dickinson is editor of the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert service.

Further reading

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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