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New York Post
21-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
OPM keen on using AI to increase ‘efficiency' of jobs — as federal agency cuts staff by one-third
WASHINGTON — The Office of Public Management is interested in using AI to increase 'efficiency' of jobs in its quest to downsize the US government, the agency's new director told reporters Monday. Scott Kupor, a former venture capitalist, said he has a 'Silicon Valley' mentality when it comes to motivating employees and maximizing performance, and is looking to integrate AI into some of the agency's tasks. 'I view AI as probably the most significant disinflationary technology that I think we have seen yet today,' Kupor told The Post in a meeting with reporters. Advertisement 'What I mean by that is basically AI, however you deploy it, it's not gonna replace everybody's jobs, but I think AI can massively increase the efficiency of a lot of jobs, and certainly, as we know, it'll probably create new job opportunities as well.' 3 Scott Kupor, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, hopes to integrate AI into the federal agency. AP While AI won't be used to cut jobs outright, the agency has been working to drastically downsize its number of employees. Advertisement OPM is on track to cut one-third of its staff by Dec. 31, largely through voluntary departures, from 3,110 employees to around 2,000. The number of contractors used by OPM is also set to be slashed from 1,200 to about 600, the agency said. Kupor mentioned customer service and information combing — like going through the tens of thousands of comments the agency gets — as some of the tasks potentially fit for artificial technology. While the hard writing of OPM is not what he's looking to change with AI, Kupor said its 'hard to imagine' that in a few years we won't be able to 'significantly increase the efficiency' of the comment reading process 'by at least having some of that summarization, some of the kind of information gathering, information dissemination being enhanced by AI.' Advertisement 3 The Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building headquarters of the US Office of Personnel Management in Washington, DC. Getty Images As the agency's new head, he said he wants OPM employees to be 'prepared' for work in an AI 'forward way' — as President Trump has made clear he wants the US to be the global leader in AI innovation. 'I think it's a good bet that the types of jobs that we will need five or 10 years from now will be different. The types of skills we will need will be different. And I'd like to make sure that as we think about … the recruitment and talent pipeline for government,' he said. Kupor wouldn't reveal which AI companies he was most keen on using in the US government, as it's an ongoing conversation with his team. Advertisement Other government agencies have also been using AI to be more cost-efficient, especially after the Trump administration came out with policies eliminating barriers for agencies to use the technology. The Department of Veterans Affairs uses the tech to standardize care, while the Department of Justice uses it to analyze the drug market, according to a White House readout published in April. 3 Kupor said OPM will work with DOGE as much as it benefits the agency. United States Office of Personnel Management Kupor said he hopes that the OPM mindset of government efficiency transcends to other federal agencies, and that the Department of Government Efficiency was the 'catalyst' for some of the movements towards downsizing. 'To the extent that they're helpful in like the overall goals and objectives we have, then we're happy to partner with people, but we're going to ultimately make the decisions that we think are in the best interests of OPM,' Kupor said of the agency working with DOGE after Elon Musk's departure. On AI, he said he wants 'to change the mindset here' and 'we'll see if other people across the government agree where we ought to be willing to experiment with some things in a contained area with contained risk.'
The Irish Sun
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Irish Sun
Kremlin mocks Trump's 50-day deadline – and ‘unfazed' Putin ‘may demand MORE Ukrainian territory over sanctions threat'
THE Kremlin has mocked Trump's 50-day deadline to strike a peace deal - and may demand even more Ukrainian territory instead of laying down arms. Putin will keep terrorising Ukrainian civilians during the seven-week period, sources said, apparently unfazed by America's threat of sanctions and decision to arm Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of long-range weapons. 5 Putin is reportedly unfazed by Trump's latest threats and may demand even more Ukrainian territory 5 Moscow defiantly blitzed Ukraine again just hours after Trump issued his ultimatum Credit: AP 5 Trump said he is 'disappointed but not done with' Putin Credit: AP Trump on Monday vowed to slap Russia if Moscow did not reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days. Dismissing the President's ultimatum, Russian Foreign Minister said: "We of course want to understand what is behind this statement - 50 days. "It used to be 24 hours, it used to be 100 days, we have been through all of this and we really want to understand what motivates the President of the United States." Lavrov suggested Trump's move was simply driven by "indecent pressure from the European Union". read more on russia Sources familiar with the internal workings of the Kremlin said that Putin would not end the war under pressure from the west, and believes the economy is strong enough to weather any additional economic measures. He also believes his military has the upper hand on the battlefield - and will be able to deal with the extra "top-of-the-line' long-range weapons Trump intends to supply. A source said: "Appetite comes with eating," meaning he is likely to continue grabbing land until the war has stopped. Explaining the dictator's thinking, another said: "Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine - including the Americans - so he will continue until he gets what he wants." Most read in The US Sun Despite several telephone calls between Trump and Putin, and diplomatic visits to Russia , Putin feels there have not been detailed discussions towards a peace plan, the source said. They added: "Putin values the relationship with Trump and had good discussions with [Steve] Witkoff, but the interests of Russia come above all else." Trump shipping long-range missiles to Ukraine will change face of war' after 'p****d' Don's patience with Putin runs out Meanwhile, former Russian President Dmiitry Medvedev made a jibe on X: "Trump issue a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. "Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn't care." It was also reported by The Financial Times and The Washington Post that Trump encouraged Ukraine's President Zelensky during a phone call He apparently asked whether Ukraine could "hit Moscow" in order to "make Putin feel the pain of war", according to anonymous sources cited by the papers. Zelensky's answer was swift and direct: 'Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.' However, the White House denied Trump was calling for escalation, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling "He's working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war." 5 Kremlin sources said Putin will not end the bloodshed during the deadline period Credit: EPA 5 Trump has promised to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles Credit: EPA Putin's indifference was evident just hours after Trump issued the ultimatumwhen he In Sumy Oblast, Russian drones injured six people, including a 19-year-old student and 14-year-old girl, when they struck a university. A separate missile strike in Shostka wounded another teen and damaged a medical facility. Trump gave He also repeated his new-found backing for Nato and spoke of his respect for The King and Sir Keir Starmer ahead of his September state visit to the UK. Trump - for the first time - opened up about his difficulty trusting Putin, who has stalled four US attempts to end the 40 months Ukraine bloodbath. The President said: 'I thought I had a deal four times. 'I'm not done with him I'm disappointed in him. We thought we had a deal done four time the you go home and find he just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv… 'And so what the hell was that all about.' Trump, who once branded Nato 'obsolete,' told the BBC his view has changed. 'No. I think NATO is now becoming the opposite of that,' he said, because members were 'paying their own bills .' What have experts said of Trump's sending long-range weapons to Ukraine? by Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter DONALD Trump sending long-range weapons to Ukraine could be a game-changer for the war by helping halt Vladimir Putin's nightly blitzes, experts said. Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a decorated Mr de Bretton-Gordon told The Sun: "These weapons can strike Moscow - over 400 miles from the border. That allows the Ukrainians to strike drone factory production and ammunition sites, and others. "So this will have both psychological as well as physical effects. "People in Moscow will realise that they potentially could be targeted. "And when you also add to it the American bombings on Iranian sites that were supposed to be impregnable, it shows that American missile and drone technology rather superior to the Russian air defence system." The former army chief said these weapons will put real pressure on Russia, adding: "The metric has now changed and Trump's decision could make a huge difference." Ex-military intelligence officer Colonel Philip Ingram told The Sun how these long-range weapons could help strike Russian missile and drone launchpads - the ones that are used to launch nightly attacks on Ukraine. He said: "The Ukrainians are already attacking to hit Russian military logistics, defence industry bases. "And with these sophisticated weapons, they will have increased capability of doing so. "It will impact the ability of the Russians to prosecute these increasingly large drone and rocket attacks on a nightly basis. "And then that's the best way for the Ukrainians to stop it."
Boston Globe
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Judge says government must release Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil
Khalil's lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, accusing the Trump administration of trying to crack down on free speech. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he has the power to deport Khalil because his presence in the U.S. could harm foreign policy. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz had ruled earlier that expelling Khalil from the U.S. on those grounds was likely unconstitutional. Advertisement In a new ruling Wednesday, the judge said that Khalil had shown that his continued detention is causing irreparable harm to his career, his family and his free speech rights. Farbiarz gave the government until Friday to appeal the decision. He also required Khalil to post a $1 bond before he is freed. 'The court's decision is the most significant vindication yet of Mahmoud's rights,' said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at the City University of New York that represents Khalil. 'But we aren't out of the woods until Mahmoud is free and back home with his wife and child.' Advertisement Lawyers and spokespersons for the Justice Department, which is handling the case, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Dr. Noor Abdalla, the wife of Mahmoud Khalil, spoke during an unofficial alternative graduation ceremony on May 18, at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in upper Manhattan. TODD HEISLER/NYT The judge's decision comes after several other legal residents targeted for their activism won custody in recent weeks, including another Palestinian student at Columbia, Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify the deportation of Khalil and others, which gives him power to deport those who pose 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.' Khalil isn't accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government, however, has said that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and 'pro-Hamas,' referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University who took over a campus lawn last spring to protest Israel's military campaign in Gaza. The university brought police in to dismantle the encampment after a small group of protesters seized an administration building. Khalil is not accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn't among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations. But images of his maskless face at protests, along with his willingness to share his name with reporters, have made him an object of scorn among those who saw the protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The White House accused Khalil of 'siding with terrorists,' but has yet to give any evidence for the claim. Advertisement The Trump administration has said it is taking at least $400 million in federal funding away from research programs at Columbia and its medical center to punish it for not doing enough to fight what it considers to be antisemitism on campus. Some Jewish students and faculty complained about being harassed during the demonstrations or ostracized because of their faith or their support of Israel.
Japan Today
12-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Trump signs executive order to demand pharma industry cuts prices
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order, as he attends a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard By Steve Holland, Michael Erman and Patrick Wingrove U.S. President Donald Trump signed a wide-reaching executive order on Monday directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines to align with what other countries pay that analysts and legal experts said would be difficult to implement. The order gives drugmakers price targets in the next 30 days, and will take further action to lower prices if those companies do not make "significant progress" towards those goals within six months of the order being signed. Trump told a press conference that the government would impose tariffs on companies if the prices in the U.S. did not match those in other countries and said he was seeking cuts of between 59% and 90%. "Everybody should equalize. Everybody should pay the same price," Trump said. Investors were skeptical about the order's implementation, and shares, which had been down overnight on the threat of "most favored nation" pricing, recovered and rose in early morning trade on Monday. The United States pays the highest prices for prescription drugs, often nearly three times more than other developed nations. Trump tried in his first term to bring the United States in line with other countries but was blocked by the courts. Trump's drug pricing proposal comes as the president has sought to fulfill a campaign promise of tackling inflation and lowering prices for a host of everyday items for Americans, from eggs to the gas pump. Trump said his order on drug prices was partly a result of a conversation with an unnamed friend who told the president he got a weight loss injection for $88 in London and that the same injection in the U.S. cost $1,300. If drugmakers do not meet the government's expectations, it will use rulemaking to bring drug prices to international levels and consider a range of other measures, including importing medicines from other developed nations and implementing export restrictions, a copy of the order showed. Trade groups representing biotech and pharmaceutical decried the move. "Importing foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad deal for American patients and workers. It would mean less treatments and cures and would jeopardize the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America," PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl said in a statement. Ubl said the real reasons for high drug prices are "foreign countries not paying their fair share and middlemen driving up prices for U.S. patients." The order also directs the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to consider aggressive enforcement against what the government calls anti-competitive practices by drugmakers. "We're all familiar with some of the places where pharmaceutical companies push the limits to prevent competition that would lower their prices," one White House official said, pointing to patent protections and deals drugmakers make with generic companies to hold off on cheaper copies. The executive order is likely to face legal challenges, particularly for exceeding limits set by U.S. law, including on imports of drugs from abroad, said health policy lawyer Paul Kim. "The order's suggestion of broader or direct-to-consumer importation stretches well beyond what the statute allows," Kim said. The FTC has a long history of antitrust enforcement actions against pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies. Trump last month ordered the FTC to coordinate with other federal agencies to hold listening sessions on anticompetitive practices in the drug industry. On Monday, he was expected to ask the FTC to consider taking enforcement action, sources said. "President Donald Trump campaigned on lowering drug costs and today he's doing just that. Americans are tired of getting ripped off. The Federal Trade Commission will be a proud partner in this new effort," said FTC spokesperson Joe Simonson. Shares of major drugmakers, after initially falling during premarket trading, rallied on Monday, despite the wide-ranging order. Shares of Merck rose 5.2%, while Pfizer gained 3.2% and Gilead Sciences was up 6.7%. Eli Lilly, the world's largest drugmaker by market value, rose 2.4%. The executive order differed from what drugmakers had been expecting. Four lobbyist sources told Reuters they were expecting an executive order that called for "most favored nation" pricing on a subset of Medicare drugs. "Implementing something like this is pretty challenging. He tried to do this before and it was stopped by the courts," said Evan Seigerman, analyst at BMO Capital Markets. The White House officials did not specify any targets. Trump's order also directs the government to consider facilitating direct-to-consumer purchasing programs that would sell drugs at the prices other countries pay. It also orders the Secretary of Commerce and other agency heads to review and consider actions regarding the export of pharmaceutical drugs or ingredients that may contribute to price differences. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump could be shipping deported migrants to Rwanda under newest proposal
Donald Trump's administration is in the 'early stages' of diplomatic talks with Rwanda aimed at using the country as an offshore site to house migrants deported from the US, the country's foreign minister said. Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe made the news during an interview on Rwandan state television, and his remarks were first reported by The New York Times. The US over time has used a number of countries, including most recently El Salvador, as stopover locations to house deportees who are later transferred to their home countries or apply for asylum elsewhere. Rwanda's acceptance of US deportees would be of note especially given that the UK abandoned plans to do the same after a massive outcry over the humanitarian conditions under which migrants would be housed. Now, Trump could be on the verge of resurrecting that plan as he continues to deal with the logistics of America's immigration system — realities which are causing his administration, so far, to lag behind the deportation targets he vowed to meet on the campaign trail. Current analyses indicate that the administration is set to deport roughly 500,000 people this year, a drop from 2024. The Independent reached out to the State Department for comment on Mr Nduhungirehe's remark to Rwandan state TV — a spokesperson responded that the agency does not 'discuss the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments' but added that such conversations were 'vital to deterring illegal and mass migration and securing our borders.' 'U.S. partners and regional leaders are working closely with us to end the crisis of illegal and mass migration,' the agency spokesperson said. CBS News separately reported that the Trump administration has approached other foreign governments with similar overtures, including Angola and Equatorial Guinea. In order for the United States to deport a noncitizen, the federal government must reach an arrangement of some kind with the government of the citizen's home country or another nation willing to provide temporary custody. In most cases, the US has those agreements outstanding — in the case of nations with which the US has frostier ties, finalizing the details of deportation flights can take much longer. Some countries refuse to accept deportees altogether. Breaking from previous administrations, the second Trump presidency has leaned on the State Department to streamline those efforts. A report from the Migration Policy Institute in April described the Trump administration as having 'situated immigration enforcement at the heart of its dealings with Mexico, Canada, and other countries in the Western Hemisphere and beyond, marking a sharp shift in U.S. foreign policy.' At the same time, the administration hasn't yet shown the same understanding of the benefits of pursuing those same kinds of relationships domestically. While embracing extremist hardline rhetoric on migration and demonizing both individual migrant cases and their Democratic critics, the White House has spurned any notion of forging alliances with local municipality leaders — many of whom are Democrats — to actually increase the effectiveness of immigration enforcement. The administration has also dug in its heels over the issue of focusing deportations on those with criminal backgrounds, a key promise Trump made during the election cycle. Rather than address that criticism, White House officials have shifted back and forth between smearing individuals without criminal records as gang members and terrorists, while accusing Democrats of supporting those gangs. The president's popularity on the issue of immigration has plummeted since he took office, a devastating development for Republicans given that it was one of two issues, the other being the economy, where he enjoyed a clear advantage over his Democratic critics in terms of voter trust. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published at the end of April found that nearly two thirds of Americans said uncontrolled migration was an issue of concern for them. Yet the share of respondents who approved of Trump's actions was just 45 percent, lower than the 46 percent opposed to them. The president previously enjoyed a double-digit advantage on this issue in Reuters polling taken over the final two weeks of the election. El Salvador's housing of noncitizens from Venezuela has in particular become an area of controversy for the administration given that in some cases men with no criminal backgrounds have been sent abroad to be housed in the country's notorious CECOT megaprison, the site of many alleged rights violations. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has also faced blowback for deporting several young children — all with U.S. citizenship — including one suffering from cancer.
