'Substantial' Government Layoffs Have Begun: Vought

Can confirm RIFs have begun and they are substantial," an OMB spokesperson told POLITICO, adding "These are RIFs not furloughs."

The news comes on the 10th day of the government shutdown after Senate Democrats insisted on maintaining Obama-era benefits that include illegal immigrants, and both sides of the aisle have repeatedly failed to pass subsequent packages to fund the government.

According to the report, the layoffs have hit agencies including: Interior, Homeland Security, Treasury, EPA, Commerce, Education, Energy, HHS and HUD.

On Thursday, Trump said his administration would target programs backed by Democrats - saying during a cabinet meeting: "We’re only cutting Democrat programs, I hate to tell you, but we are cutting Democrat programs," adding "We will be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly."

The move follows an OMB memo leaked two weeks ago which ordered Trump administration officials to prepare to carry out reduction-in-force (RIF) plans during the shutdown, targeting employees that aren't legally required - OR, those which conflict with Trump's priorities.

Democrats are of course freaking out.

"We believe that they are not only unethical and immoral but illegal for him to be RIFing people in a shutdown," said Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) on Friday.

The cuts also come hours ahead of a court deadline for the DOJ to file a report detailing any plans to terminate workers during the shutdown - ahead of an Oct. 16 hearing on a request by federal worker unions to block layoffs.

Over 2/3 of civilian federal employees have remained on the job during the shutdown, between essential workers or jobs that receive longer-term funding. The vast majority of employees are going without pay.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/substantial-government-layoffs-have-begun-vought

Massive Explosion at Military Explosives Facility in Tennessee – Multiple People Dead, Others Missing

Police confirmed reports of a large explosion at a military explosives facility in Hickman, Tennessee on Friday morning.

The Hickman County Sheriff’s Office said that there had been an explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, a military explosives plant. Emergency services are responding, the office said.

CBS affiliate WTVF-TV in Nashville reported multiple people were unaccounted for after the explosion. The station broadcast images of debris strewn about the site, with damaged vehicles in a parking lot.

Accurate Energetic Systems specializes in the development, manufacture, handling and storage of products and explosives for military, aerospace and commercial demolition markets, according to their website.

https://x.com/i/status/1976680048045301924

This is an antisemitic remark. I call on all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to clearly denounce it.

https://x.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1976345700503060537

Russian Drone and Missile Attack Leaves Ukrainian Capital Without Electricity and Water

MASSIVE STRIKE ON UKRAINE’S ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE

According to reports from the ground, Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack targeting key energy facilities across Ukraine.

🔺 Main impact zones: Kiev, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk.

🔺 Explosions were also reported in Poltava, Cherkasy, and Kharkov regions.

🔺 Kiev: The entire left bank is without power; the right bank faces severe outages. Water supply issues are also reported.

🔺 Zaporizhzhia: Multiple strikes on infrastructure — seven UAV attacks, FAB air bombs, and missiles. Gas facilities damaged; residents urged to limit gas use. Traffic across the DniproHES dam is suspended.

🔺 Dnipropetrovsk: Heavy fires and power disruptions after direct hits.

🔺 Sumy region: Rolling blackouts introduced under a 10-phase schedule.

🔺 Emergency power cuts are ongoing in Kiev, Kharkov, Poltava, and Sumy regions, according to local authorities.

Widespread outages are affecting millions, with reports of cities plunged into darkness and major energy infrastructure sustaining serious damage.

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1976517697371296038

South American nation ousts president

Peruvian lawmakers have voted to remove Dina Boluarte amid public anger over the government’s failure to curb violent crime and corruption scandals

Peru’s Congress has overwhelmingly impeached President Dina Boluarte and immediately installed congressional chief Jose Jeri as her replacement amid public outrage over crime and allegations of corruption.

Early on Friday, lawmakers voted unanimously, 124-0, to remove Boluarte, invoking a constitutional clause of “permanent moral incapacity” to declare the presidency vacant.

Her ouster follows months of mounting political pressure and criminal investigations. Boluarte, 63, saw her public approval collapse to as low as 2% amid a firestorm of allegations, including bribery and responsibility for lethal crackdowns on protesters, all of which she denied.

Under the constitution, congressional president Jose Jeri Ore, 38, will act as interim leader and must call new elections. A member of the conservative Somos Peru party who just took the congressional helm in July, Jeri now joins the ranks of the world's youngest heads of state.

Boluarte became Peru's first female president in 2022 after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was impeached and arrested for trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

Her tenure, however, was marred by escalating scandals. The most serious of which was the crackdown by security forces on protests following Castillo's arrest, which resulted in more than 60 deaths.

She also faced separate accusations of illicit enrichment for allegedly accepting Rolex watches and other jewelry as bribes, and for using a presidential vehicle to transport a fugitive politician.

Critics accused her of abandoning her post in 2023 to undergo cosmetic nose surgery, as she did not formally delegate her powers during the nearly two-week absence as required by law. Boluarte maintained the procedure was medically essential, a claim reportedly contradicted by the surgeon, who described it as purely aesthetic.

Her removal, on Friday, was driven by public fury over rampant crime. According to national police, extortion cases have surged from a few hundred annually in 2017 to over 2,000 per month this year. The violence has proven deadly, with dozens of bus drivers killed and businesses targeted by explosives, prompting a state of emergency to be declared in Lima earlier this year.

https://www.rt.com/news/626194-peru-president-impeachment/

Melania Trump Secures Agreement With Russia On Displaced Ukrainian Children

THE WHITE HOUSE – First lady Melania Trump announced Friday that she secured an agreement with Russia on the reunification of Ukrainian children with their families.

Trump spoke for six minutes, sharing that she had been keeping an “open channel of communication” with Russian President Vladimir Putin over displaced Ukrainian children. She shared that Russia agreed to return Ukrainian children with their families, and in the 24 hours since the agreement, eight children have been returned.

“Each child has lived in turmoil because of the war in Ukraine,” Melania Trump said. “Three were separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting. The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict, including one young girl who has now been reunited from Ukraine to Russia.”

The first lady also said she had expressed concern over children who were displaced as minors but have since turned 18 years old. Russia has also agreed to return these children, she announced.

She wrote Putin a letter for her husband to deliver to the Russian president during their meeting in Alaska. That letter started an “open channel of communication” after Putin responded to the letter, the first lady shared.

Plans to continue to reunite more children with their families are already underway, she said.

“We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war,” Melania Trump said.

https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/10/melania-trump-russia-vladimir-putin-ukrainian-children-reunite-communication-channel/

#Romanov

Flock Safety Expands Audio Surveillance, Deepening Its Network Of Unlawful Data Collection

The shift represents a new stage in the normalization of mass monitoring. What began as a program to track vehicles has expanded into the surveillance of speech.

Flock Safety, the private surveillance company already operating tens of thousands of automated license plate readers across the United States, is quietly expanding its surveillance network to include audio monitoring. The company’s Raven acoustic sensors, originally marketed as gunshot detectors, are now being updated to analyze human voices and sounds of distress. These microphones operate alongside Flock’s camera systems under the same software platform, linking audio and visual tracking within a unified infrastructure.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the company’s new “distress detection” feature scans public spaces for sounds such as screaming or calls for help, then transmits automated alerts to law enforcement. Flock claims it does not record conversations, but that misses the point. To detect and classify a sound, a system must first capture and process it. The analysis itself is surveillance.

The shift represents a new stage in the normalization of mass monitoring. What began as a program to track vehicles has expanded into the surveillance of speech. What began as a corporate experiment now operates as public infrastructure. These systems are being installed in cities and small towns with almost no oversight, justified by the language of “public safety” and “community protection.” Yet their function and intent extend far beyond either.

From Plates to Voices

Flock’s plate readers already document and store the movement patterns of millions of people who have never been accused or suspected of a crime. They scan first and justify later, reversing the fundamental order of lawful search and seizure. The Fourth Amendment guarantees protection from unreasonable searches, yet the act of scanning itself constitutes the search. Each entry into Flock’s database represents a moment of unconsented tracking.

In United States v. Jones (2012), the Supreme Court ruled that warrantless GPS tracking of a vehicle violated the Fourth Amendment. In Carpenter v. United States (2018), the Court extended that logic to digital location data, recognizing that long-term surveillance—even of public activity—invades privacy in ways that require judicial oversight. Flock’s systems recreate those violations on an industrial scale.

California law nominally limits such practices. Civil Code Sections 1798.90.5 through 1798.90.55 require public agencies using Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems to adopt written usage policies, maintain access logs, and minimize data retention. Yet few municipalities comply, and even fewer disclose how often the data is shared or for what purpose. The notion that data deletion after thirty days resolves the problem is misleading. The violation occurs at the moment of capture.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/flock-safety-expands-audio-surveillance-deepening-its-network-of-unlawful-data-collection

British citizens serving in the IDF can now be tried for war crimes in the UK

The legal landscape around UK citizens serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has shifted, lawyers say. Palestinian statehood means that Brits who served in Israel’s genocide can be tried and jailed.

Paul Heron of Public Interest Law Centre told Novara Media:

The legal landscape has shifted.

Now that Palestine has been recognised as a state, the legal and moral excuses for inaction have fallen away.

For the first time, it is now arguable that British dual nationals serving in the Israeli military in Gaza or the West Bank could fall foul of the Foreign Enlistment Act, a law that makes it an offence for a British subject to fight for a foreign state at war with another state with which the UK is at peace.

Foreign enlistment act: applicable to the IDF?

Technically the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 means Brits who served in foreign armies can be jailed or fined. But the act is very old and poorly enforced. Heron said may not serve as a basis for prosecution.

In April 2010, Public Law Interest Centre and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights submitted evidence to British police regarding ten individuals who’d served in the Israeli military:

Our 240-page submission to the Metropolitan police highlights that the UK cannot turn a blind eye.

The police have the power, the resources and the responsibility to investigate British nationals alleged to have taken part in war crimes, wherever they occur.

How many serve?

In March 2024, Declassified UK reported that 80 Brits were serving in the Israeli military on 7 October 2023. However, we only know this as Declassified submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the government.

Phil Miller wrote:

They took so long to answer that the Information Commissioner threatened to have the High Court hold them in contempt.

The request was sensitive because the government had previously told parliament it does not track the number of Britons serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) or living in illegal settlements.

Those figures also showed “approximately 20-30 British Citizens residing in illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Death toll

The first stage of a new ceasefire started 9 October. Though as of Thursday afternoon (GMT) Israel forces still appear to be engaged:

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/10/09/british-idf-crimes/