Trump team to stop family-planning funding as it reviews whether it's being used for DEI programs
A Health and Human Services spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal, which reported on the plan, that the department was reviewing grants to make sure they complied with the crackdown on DEI.
The freeze to the Title X program could impact as much as $120 million worth of grants to a network of roughly 4,000 clinics providing free and discounted pregnancy testing, contraception, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment, and evaluations and testing for infertility.
Planned Parenthood, whose affiliates could lose roughly $20 million if the paused grants are ultimately cut, reacted with alarm.
'The Trump-Vance-Musk administration wants to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers by any means necessary, and they'll end people's access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more to do it,' Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Alex McGill Johnson told the newspaper.
Elsewhere, the administration is reportedly weighing cuts to the Centers for Disease Control's HIV-prevention program.
Trump has also resurrected federal rules barring funds from being spent on abortions in the U.S. and abroad, and has pardoned anti-abortion activists.
His nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration has called for a review of a rule that allowed patients to get an abortion pill without seeing a healthcare provider in person.
The president has said he wants policymaking around abortion to be handled by the states, rather than the federal government.
The White House emphasis on making deep cuts to federal spending has also impacted U.S.-backed health work abroad.
The attempted funding freeze to the U.S. Agency for International Development has been estimated to put contraception access in jeopardy for one million women a week.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
We're becoming inured to Trump's outbursts – but when he goes quiet, we need to be worried
In the global attention economy, one titan looms over all others. Donald Trump can command the gaze of the world at a click of those famously short fingers. When he stages a spectacular made-for-TV moment – say, that Oval Office showdown with Volodymyr Zelenskyy – the entire planet sits up and takes notice. But that dominance has a curious side-effect. When Trump does something awful and eye-catching, nations tremble and markets move. But when he does something awful but unflashy, it scarcely registers. So long as there's no jaw-dropping video, no expletive-ridden soundbite, no gimmick or stunt, it can slip by as if it hadn't happened. Especially now that our senses are dulled through over-stimulation. These days it requires ever more shocking behaviour by the US president to prompt a reaction; we are becoming inured to him. Yet the danger he poses is as sharp as ever. Consider the events of just the last week or so, few of them stark enough to lead global news bulletins, yet each one another step towards the erosion of democracy in and by the world's most powerful country. On Wednesday, Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs – yes, he's climbed back on that dead horse – on Brazil, if the judicial authorities there do not drop the prosecution of the country's Trump-like former president Jair Bolsonaro, charged with seeking to overturn his 2022 election defeat and leading a coup against the man who beat him, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As concisely as he could manage, Lula explained, via social media, that Brazil is a sovereign country and that an independent judiciary cannot 'accept interference or instruction from anyone … No one is above the law.' This is becoming a habit of Trump's. He made the same move in defence of Benjamin Netanyahu last month, hinting that Israel could lose billions in US military aid if the prime minister continues to stand trial on corruption charges. In both cases, Trump was explicit in making the connection between the accused men and himself, decrying as a 'witch-hunt' the efforts to hold them to account. 'This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent,' he posted, of Bolsonaro's legal woes. 'Something I know much about!' It's easy to make light of the transparent effort by Trump to forge an international trade union of populist would-be autocrats, but he's not solely moved by fraternal solidarity. He also wants to dismantle a norm that has long applied across the democratic world, which insists that even those at the top are subject to the law. That norm is an impediment to him, a check on his power. If he can discredit it, so that a new convention arises – one that agrees that leaders can act with impunity – that helps his animating project in the US: the amassing of ever more power to himself and the weakening or elimination of any rival source of authority that might act as a restraint. He is being quietly assisted in that goal by those US institutions that should regard themselves as co-equal branches of government – Congress and the supreme court – and whose constitutional duty is to stand up to an overmighty executive. Republicans in Congress have now approved a mega bill that they know will leave future generations of Americans drowning in debt and deprive millions of basic healthcare cover. Even so, they put aside their own judgment and bowed to the man who would be king. Less discussed was the bill's extraordinary expansion of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice. Its budget has been increased by a reported 308%, with an extra $45bn to spend on detention and $29.9bn for 'enforcement and deportation'. It will soon have the capacity to detain nearly 120,000 people at any one time. And, remember, latest figures show that about half of all those detained by Ice have no criminal record at all. No wonder even conservative critics are sounding the alarm. The anti-Trump Republicans of the Bulwark warn that within months, the 'national brute squad' that is Ice will have twice as many agents as the FBI and its own vast prison system, emerging as 'the primary instrument of internal state power'. In this view, Trump has realised that corrupting the FBI is a tall order – though still worth trying – so he is supplanting it with a shadow force shaped in his own image. As the Bulwark puts it: 'The American police state is here.' Those most directly threatened might share clips of masked Ice agents snatching suspected migrants off the streets and manhandling them violently, just as reports circulate of appalling conditions in Ice premises, with people held in 'dungeon-like facilities', more than 100 crammed into a small room, denied showers or a chance to change clothes, and sometimes given only one meal a day and forced to sleep on concrete benches or the floor. But it is hardly a matter of national focus. Because it is not accompanied by a neon-lit Trump performance, it is happening just out of view. The same could be said of a series of recent decisions by the supreme court. They may lack the instant, blockbuster impact of past rulings, but they accelerate the same Trump trend away from democracy and towards autocracy. On Tuesday, the judges gave Trump the green light to fire federal workers en masse and to dismantle entire government agencies without the approval of Congress. Earlier, the supreme court had ruled that Trump was allowed to remove Democrats from the leadership of government bodies that are meant to be under politically balanced supervision. More usefully still for Trump, last month the judges limited the power of the lower courts to block the executive branch, thereby lending a helping hand to one of the president's most egregious executive orders: his ending of the principle that anyone born in the US is automatically a citizen of the US, a right so fundamental it is enshrined in the constitution. In ruling after ruling, the supreme court is removing restraints on Trump and handing him even more power. Small wonder that when one of the dissenting minority on the court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was asked on Thursday what kept her up at night, she answered: 'The state of our democracy.' Meanwhile, Trump is succeeding in his goal of cowing the press, extracting serious cash from major news organisations in return for dropping (usually flimsy) lawsuits against them, a move that is having the desired, chilling effect. It all adds up to the steady erosion of US democracy and of democratic norms whose reach once extended far beyond US shores. Even if it is happening quietly, by Trump's standards, without the familiar sound and fury, it is still happening. The work of opposing it begins with noticing it. Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Trump's mass layoffs hit State Department as 1,300 workers are axed in deep state purge
The State Department has officially fired more than 1,300 workers after it warned them late on Thursday that mass layoffs were set to commence. The department sent layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with assignments in the United States, the Associated Press reported. The notices said positions were being 'abolished.' The employees affected were also told they'd lose access to the State Department headquarters in Washington D.C., their emails and their shared drives by 5pm on Friday. The layoffs come only days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump 's executive order allowing mass layoffs across the federal government to proceed, despite ongoing legal challenges. Employees, some of whom were crying, were seen exiting the State Department holding boxes of their belongings. Staffers who weren't laid off lined up in the lobby and applauded for their former colleagues. Outside the building were dozens of former colleagues, ambassadors, members of Congress and others who were protesting. Signs seen in the crowd said, 'Thank you to America's diplomats,' and 'We all deserve better.' 'We talk about people in uniform serving. But foreign service officers take an oath of office, just like military officers,' Anne Bodine, who retired from the State Department in 2011 after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the AP. 'This is not the way to treat people who served their country and who believe in "America First."' Friday's firings were part of President Donald Trump's mission to dramatically shrink the size of the federal government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though not yet commenting on the layoffs, was the one who proposed to Congress the reorganization of his department in late May. The State Department also lauded the Supreme Court ruling that allowed this reorganization to go through unchallenged. 'Today's near unanimous decision from the Supreme Court further confirms that the law was on our side throughout this entire process. We will continue to move forward with our historic reorganization plan at the State Department, as announced earlier this year,' the department posted on X, which was later reposted by Rubio himself. Rubio said officials took 'a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.' 'It's not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don't need those positions,' Rubio told reporters Thursday. 'Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.' Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs. For most civil servants the separation period lasts 60 days. Critics say the scale of cuts floated at the State Department will 'leave the US with limited tools to engage as a leader on the world stage during this critical juncture,' making it hard for many offices to carry out their missions. The cuts follow Trump's earlier elimination of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) - a major pillar of America's global aid apparatus that employed over 10,000 people worldwide. Diplomats warn the gutting of both agencies in a single year could cripple US influence abroad, especially as conflicts intensify in the Middle East and Ukraine, and China expands its global footprint. The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents diplomats, urged the State Department last month to hold off on job cuts. Notices for a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate positions altogether, 'should be a last resort,' association President Tom Yazdgerdi said. 'Disrupting the Foreign Service like this puts national interests at risk - and Americans everywhere will bear the consequences.' While the administration is framing the cuts as streamlining, critics say the real effect is a hollowing out of US diplomacy with human rights, refugee resettlement, and war crimes offices facing extinction under the restructuring.
Metro
6 hours ago
- Metro
Urgent recall of bread sent to 2,500 stores over 'life-threatening' health risk
Artisan bread sent to thousands of stores has been recalled in the US over an undeclared allergen that can cause life-threatening allergic reactions. Hartford Bakery, Inc, on Thursday recalled six lots of its Lewis Bake Ship Artisan Style 1/2 Loaf after discovering that they may have hazelnuts. 'People with a nut allergy or severe sensitivity to hazelnuts run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reactions if they consume these products,' stated the company's announcement published by the nation's agency responsible for protecting the public health. The company discovered that about 883 loaves from six production lots had hazelnuts and were placed in packaging that stated, 'may contain tree nuts', according to the notice shared by the US Food and Drug Administration. The packaging did not explicitly warn of hazelnuts. The company investigated the issue and found that there was a mix-up in the packaging. Affected loaves were sent to at least 2,500 stores including Walmart and Kroger, in a dozen states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Affected loaves have the lot code T10 174010206, T10 174010306, T10 174010406, T10 174020206, T10 174020306, or T10 174020406 printed on the front of the packaging. They have a best by date of July 13, 2025, and UPC 24126018152 printed at the bottom of the packaging. Hartford Bakery said that one customer reported digestive discomfort after consuming the bread, and that it also received complaints from customers who saw the hazelnuts before eating. More Trending There have not been any reports of serious illness. Customers should return the loaves for a refund. Anyone with questions should contact the company, which is based in Evansville, Indiana. The packaging states that they are 'family bakers since 1925'. It comes two days after Mondelez Global LLC recalled four cartons of Ritz Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches because they could contain peanuts, which were not declared in the labels. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: First bubonic plague death confirmed in the US since 2007 MORE: Lorry cab plunges off bridge and leaves driver missing MORE: Trump calls reporter 'evil' for asking if Texas flood warnings went out in time
