White House halts $2.1bn of Chicago infrastructure funding
The federal government put $2.1bn earmarked for Chicago infrastructure projects on hold, office and management and budget director Russ Vought said on Friday, in another jab at a Democrat-led city during the US government shutdown.
Vought wrote on X that projects affected included the Red Line extension – which was set to break ground next year and extend public transport to underserved areas in the city – as well as modernization work to a number of transit lines.
Vought wrote on social media Friday that the money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting”.
He made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where Vought said $18m for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
Key events
Trump gives Hamas until 6pm ET on Sunday to agree to Gaza deal
As the world waits for Hamas’s response to Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, the US president has issued a new deadline for the militant group of 6pm ET on Sunday.
Trump, who on Monday gave Hamas “three or four days” to respond to his ultimatum, said they were being given “one last chance”. He wrote on his Truth Social platform this morning:
Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.
Trump previously said that if Hamas failed to back the deal, it would “pay in hell” and he would give Israel his full backing to “finish the job” in Gaza.
Egypt and Qatar have been working to convince Hamas to accept the deal to end Israel’s assault on Gaza as the group is reportedly split on its response. An official told Agence France-Presse on Friday that it needed more time to consider the proposal, under which it would have to agree to disarm, release all the remaining hostages, and play no role in the future governance of Gaza.
Pam Bondi has previously argued that Joshua Aaron, the Texas-based creator of ICEBlock, is “not protected” under the constitution and that they are looking at prosecuting him. “We are looking at him, and he better watch out,” she said in July.
In an interview with the BBC, Aaron said he was “incredibly disappointed” with Apple’s decision to remove the app, saying it would not affect the security of law enforcement.
Apple removes Ice tracking apps after pressure by Trump administration
Apple said yesterday that it had removed ICEBlock, the most popular Ice-tracking app, and other similar apps from its App Store after it was contacted by the Trump administration, in a rare instance of an app being taken after a US federal government demand.
The app alerts users to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their area, which the US justice department says could increase the risk of assault on agents.
Fox Business was first to report its removal, citing a statement by US attorney general Pam Bondi, who said the justice department contacted Apple to pull the app on Thursday, and that the company complied. Bondi said:
ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.
Civilian surveillance of federal immigration agents has become more assertive since Trump returned to office, as activists say they are trying to protect their communities from aggressive enforcement. Legal experts have told Reuters that surveillance of Ice is largely protected under the constitution, as long as they do not try to obstruct law enforcement.
Since Trump took office, Ice has raided multiple facilities with people who are in the US illegally. The agency has also arrested visa holders and permanent US residents targeted by the Trump administration over pro-Palestinian advocacy.
“Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store,” Apple said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Apple removed more than 1,700 apps from its App Store in 2024 in response to government demands, but the vast majority – more than 1,300 – came from China, followed by Russia with 171 and South Korea with 79.
Over the last three years, the US does not appear as one of the countries where apps were removed due to government demands, according to company application transparency reports.
Apple’s actions may also lead to further scrutiny over the ties that tech firms have built with the Trump administration during his second term.
Key monthly jobs report delayed amid government shutdown
As today is the first Friday of the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics would typically have published the previous month’s employment report at 8.30am ET sharp. But with the BLS shut amid the ongoing federal government shutdown and some 2,000 of its workers furloughed, September’s jobs figures won’t be released today and likely won’t be until the government reopens.
Yesterday, Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent a letter calling on the labor department to release the data despite the shutdown. “The BLS’ monthly jobs data is essential to the Federal Reserve’s decision-making process as it gets ready to meet this month to decide on interest rates that will impact every American household,” she wrote.
Warren cites former BLS commissioner Bill Beach, a Trump appointee, who wrote on Wednesday that “the September data … have been completely collected and processed. The jobs report is likely written in final draft and could be released on Friday”. The Trump administration, Warren wrote, “is choosing not to release Friday’s jobs report”.
The 17-day government shutdown in 2013 caused the September 2013 jobs report to be delayed by two weeks. The BLS released it four days after federal agencies reopened.
How Chicago is resisting Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown
In the aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk, the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to Chicago, where Donald Trump’s Ice deployment, codename Operation Midway Blitz, has been met by a defiant wave of sustained protests. With political violence on the rise, they speak to a new generation of political candidates and organisers, including Kat Abughazaleh, to find out if worse is still to come. You can watch the episode of Anywhere but Washington here:
RFK Jr fires NIH scientist who filed whistleblower complaint
Three weeks after, Jeane Marrazzo, a leading scientist at the National Institutes of Health filed a whistle-blower complaint against the Trump administration, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr fired her, the New York Times (paywall) reported on Thursday citing her lawyer and a copy of the termination letter.
“Her dismissal is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken against government scientists and environmental experts after they warned that administration policies were endangering public health and safety,” the NYT notes.
Marrazzo told the paper she received notice of her firing from Kennedy this week, in a letter dated 26 September, in which he wrote that he had the authority to appoint directors of NIH institutes. “Accordingly, in my capacity as secretary, I have decided to terminate your appointment as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease,” he wrote. The letter did not elaborate, and Marrazzo said she was given no further explanation.
Debra S Katz, a lawyer for Marrazzo, said in a statement that the firing was retaliatory. “The Trump Administration terminated Dr. Marrazzo for her advocacy on behalf of critical health research and for her support of the overwhelming body of evidence that shows vaccines are safe and effective,” Katz said.
Transportation department cites ‘race-based contracting’ as reason for freezing $2bn of Chicago infrastructure funding
In Russell Vought’s announcement that the White House is halting $2bn in funding for infrastructure projects for Chicago, he said the move was “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting”.
If follows a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York City, where Vought said $18m for infrastructure would be frozen, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, due to the Trump administration’s belief that the money was “based on unconstitutional DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] principles”.
Now a statement from the US transportation department echoes the sentiment, declaring a “review of Chicago’s discriminatory, unconstitutional processes”. Through an interim final rule issued this week, it notes that the US Department of Transportation is removing the use of the race- and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage in contracting requirements for federal grants.
“Illinois, like New York, is well known to promote race- and sex-based contracting and other racial preferences as a public policy,” the statement reads. It refers to the Chicago Transit Authority’s spending on DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) firms (where at least 51% of the business is owned and controlled by one or more socially and economically disadvantaged individuals) as “discriminatory, illegal and wasteful contracting practices”.
“The American people don’t care what race or gender construction workers, pipefitters , or electricians are,” the statement from the government department adds.
It marks the latest instance since the government shutdown began at midnight on Wednesday of the White House punishing Democrats by withholding money for projects in blue states and cities.
On the same day as the move targeting NYC, the energy department cancelled almost $8bn in funding for projects in 16 states won by Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
The Eisenhower Presidential Library’s director has exited his position after advocating against giving a sword from the collection to King Charles as a gift during Donald Trump’s recent state visit, according to US media reports on Thursday.
Todd Arrington left his post on Monday after being told to “resign or be fired”, he told CBS News, which did not specify who had relayed the message to the historian.
The library and museum – located in former US president Dwight D Eisenhower’s home town in Abilene, Kansas – is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara).
White House halts $2.1bn of Chicago infrastructure funding
The federal government put $2.1bn earmarked for Chicago infrastructure projects on hold, office and management and budget director Russ Vought said on Friday, in another jab at a Democrat-led city during the US government shutdown.
Vought wrote on X that projects affected included the Red Line extension – which was set to break ground next year and extend public transport to underserved areas in the city – as well as modernization work to a number of transit lines.
Vought wrote on social media Friday that the money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting”.
He made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where Vought said $18m for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics, with the shutdown entering its third day.
Although the Senate is scheduled to return today for another vote, there is little optimism that a deal is imminent as Democrats hold out for a series of health-focused concessions.
Meanwhile, the White House has continued to use its official, taxpayer-funded social media accounts to insult and mock Democrats, treating the standoff more like a political campaign than a negotiation over policy.
In addition, a growing number of federal agencies and staff are explicitly blaming Democrats for the shutdown. The political messaging by the agencies may be a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.
Furloughed federal employees at some agencies have been instructed to set out-of-office messages explaining that they are not working because Democrats caused a shutdown. Government agency websites also have displayed messages informing site visitors the websites are temporarily on hold due to the “Democrat-led” shutdown.
Other agency websites have used more combative language.
“The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism,” the treasury department’s website reads.
You can read our full report here
Even warnings over economic damage don’t appear to be encouraging conciliatory moves. A report by EY Parthenon said that every week the shutdown lasts will mean a $7bn hit to the economy.
So stay with us to see what today holds.
