The Trump administration announced on Thursday new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production.
The oil industry has been seeking access to new offshore areas as a way to boost U.S. energy security and jobs. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters
in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Florida and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995, because of concerns about oil spills. California has some offshore oil rigs, but there has been no new leasing in federal waters since the mid-1980s.
Since taking office for a second time in January, Trump has systematically reversed former President Joe Biden’s focus on slowing climate change to pursue what the Republican calls U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Trump, who recently called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” created a National Energy Dominance Council and directed it to move quickly to drive up already record-high U.S. energy production, particularly fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has blocked renewable energy sources such as offshore wind and canceled billions of dollars in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pronounced the idea “dead on arrival” in a social media post. The proposal is also likely to draw bipartisan opposition in Florida. Tourism and access to clean beaches are key parts of the economy in both states.
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Under pressure, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is looking for ways to back off a new law that allows senators to sue the federal government if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge.
The House this week unanimously voted to repeal the new law, which was slipped into a government funding bill earlier this month.
Thune on Thursday attempted to pass through unanimous consent a resolution that would stipulate that any of the money received by senators should be given back to the Treasury Department. Democrats objected, saying that they wanted to work for full repeal of the law.
Still, Thune is insisting that it is important to protect the information of senators.
An Illinois National Guard civilian employee sued the Trump administration Thursday over a policy that bars her, as a transgender woman, from using a women’s bathroom at work.
LeAnne Withrow, spent 13 years as a member of the Guard before retiring in 2023, says in her legal filing that she usually skips breakfast and eats only a granola bar or a spoonful of peanut butter for lunch — all to avoid needing the restroom at work. She says there’s just one single-user restroom at Camp Lincoln, where she works, that she can use under the policy, which was rooted in an executive order.
Withrow is seeking class-action status with her claim.
The U.S. Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Justice Department is examining the handling of the mortgage fraud investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff, including the potential involvement of people who claimed to be acting at the behest or direction of two Trump administration officials who have been pushing the probe of the California Democrat, according to a document reviewed by The Associated Press.
Federal authorities involved in the Schiff investigation in Maryland interviewed a Republican congressional candidate on Thursday who has promoted the mortgage fraud allegations against the lawmaker and quizzed her about any communications she may have had with Justice Department official Ed Martin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.
The interview came after the woman received a subpoena seeking information about communications she may have had with people claiming to be working at the direction of Pulte and Martin.
▶ Read more about the investigation of Sen. Adam Schiff
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to end its monthslong deployment of National Guard troops to help police the nation’s capital.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded that President Donald Trump’s military takeover in Washington, D.C., violates the Constitution and illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the district. She put her order on hold for 21 days to allow for an appeal, however.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to challenge the Guard deployments. He asked the judge to enjoin the White House from deploying Guard troops without the mayor’s consent.
In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington. Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling the city under the command of the Secretary of the Army. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist in patrols.
▶ Read more about National Guard troop deployment
The Trump administration announced on Thursday new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production.
The oil industry has been seeking access to new offshore areas, including Southern California and off the coast of Florida, as a way to boost U.S. energy security and jobs. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Florida and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995, because of concerns about oil spills. California has some offshore oil rigs, but there has been no new leasing in federal waters since the mid-1980s.
Since taking office for a second time in January, Trump has systematically reversed former President Joe Biden’s focus on slowing climate change to pursue what the Republican calls U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Trump, who recently called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” created a National Energy Dominance Council and directed it to move quickly to drive up already record-high U.S. energy production, particularly fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has blocked renewable energy sources such as offshore wind and canceled billions of dollars in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.
▶ Read more about offshore oil drilling
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday he has requested U.S. Capitol Police protection for Democratic Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly.
The move follows President Trump’s assertion that Slotkin and Kelly, in addition to four House Democrats, committed “sedition, punishable by DEATH” after they urged U.S. service members to uphold the Constitution and refuse “illegal orders.”
The group of six Democrats are all veterans of the military or intelligence community.
“The president has called for the execution of senators of elected officials, and he’s not doing this in a vacuum,” said Schumer. “He is lighting a match in and throwing it into a country soaked with political gasoline.”
The U.S. military is involved in planning by the Trump administration to stop the killings of Christians in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants and others, a U.S. State Department official said Thursday.
Jonathan Pratt, who leads the Bureau of African Affairs, told a congressional committee that “possible Department of War engagement” is part of a larger plan to prevent religious violence in the West African nation.
Pratt said the National Security Council has also discussed the matter. But he stressed that military action is part of a comprehensive approach that includes “primarily diplomatic” tools, such as economic assistance and policing programs.
Pratt faced questions from lawmakers who cited President Donald Trump’s warning on social media this month that the U.S. would go into Nigeria with ”guns-a-blazing” against Islamic militants.
She was responding to comments from President Cyril Ramaphosa that the U.S. had “changed its mind” and said his comments were “not appreciated by the president or his team.”
Leavitt said the U.S. had not changed its stance on boycotting the G20 in South Africa this month. She said the U.S. is not participating in talks at the summit but is merely sending a diplomatic official to a handover ceremony at the end of the event which is meant to recognize that near year’s G20 will be hosted by the U.S. It’s scheduled to take place at Trump’s golf club in Doral, Florida.
Asked about Trump telling a female reporter, “Quiet, piggy” while answering questions aboard Air Force One last week, Leavitt responded that the president “is very frank and honest with everyone in this room.”
Speaking during her media briefing at the White House, Leavitt allowed that Trump sometimes “gets frustrated with reporters.”
But she insisted, “He also is the most transparent president in history.”
Leavitt said that his speaking to reporters nearly every day — as Trump has since taking office in January — is “a lot more respectful than” Democratic President Joe Biden, who took questions more infrequently.
She also said reporters “should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the invitation “speaks volumes” about Trump.
The president during Zohran Mamdani’s successful run to lead United States biggest city, however, repeatedly threatened to limit federal funding if voters elected the Democratic Socialist.
“I think it’s very telling, but I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone, and talk to anyone, and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people,” Leavitt said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that members of Congress who made a video saying military officials shouldn’t follow “illegal orders” shouldn’t be executed for sedition, despite Trump’s social media post saying that the video was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”
Asked if Trump meant that the Democratic lawmakers who are military veterans behind the video should be killed, Leavitt said, “No.”
Leavitt said that defying the military chain of command could create national security risks and lead to deaths.
“Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander in chief and through this command chain of command, through the Secretary of war, is lawful,” she said.
Trump’s social media account has featured videos of him created by artificial intelligence and he’s banking on AI investments to grow the economy. But the president doesn’t appear to be personally using AI.
When asked at Thursday’s news briefing if Trump personally uses AI, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I don’t think so.”
Leavitt added that she hasn’t “personally witnessed it.”
Trump recently talked up the economic benefits of AI bringing in foreign investment at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum. His account has posted AI videos of Trump playing soccer with Cristiano Ronaldo in the Oval Office, as well as Trump flying a jet plane and dropping what appeared to be feces on U.S. cities that contained people protesting him.
A federal appeal court has halted a Chicago judge’s order to release on bond hundreds of immigrants detained during an enforcement surge.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said last week that he would consider a list of more than 600 detainees after determining that the federal government violated a 2022 consent decree that outlines how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can make so-called warrantless arrests.
Without offering details, the federal government objected to dozens as apparent security risks while others had already been deported. That left roughly 400 people to be released as soon as Friday.
In pausing their release on Thursday, the appeals court said it would hear arguments on Dec. 2.
Detainees are being held at jails nationwide and would have been released on alternative forms of detention such as ankle monitoring after each paying a $1,500 bond.
House Democratic leaders say they have contacted the House Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police to ensure the safety of lawmakers who were attacked on social media by President Donald Trump.
Trump had called for the lawmakers’ arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”
“We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against Members of Congress and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same,” said a joint statement from Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.
“Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed,” the Democratic leaders wrote.
Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges against Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ruiz, 21, marking a dramatic reversal in one of the most closely watched cases tied to the immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.
Prosecutors had accused Martinez and Ruiz of using their vehicles to strike and box in Border Patrol agent Charles Exum’s vehicle on Oct. 4 on city’s southwest side — a narrative refuted by the two’s lawyers. Exum then exited his car and opened fire at Martinez, who suffered seven gunshot wounds.
DHS has characterized people who have protested “Operation Midway Blitz ″ as violent rioters and vowed to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. But of the more than two dozen people arrested for impeding or assaulting federal officers or other protest-related offenses, none have gone to trial and charges have been dropped against at least nine of them.
The top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said President Donald Trump’s administration is undermining America’s intelligence community, leaving the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, cyber attacks and espionage.
Speaking Thursday on the Senate floor, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said that under Trump, the nation’s spy agencies have shed hundreds of jobs, rolled back cybersecurity defenses and shuttered departments focused on countering foreign disinformation. He noted that several spy agency veterans either departed or were fired by Trump, including the former head of the NSA.
China, Russia and other adversaries will look to capitalize on these changes amid escalating global tensions, Warner said.
“We are watching, in real time, an administration strip away the guardrails that have protected this country for generations,” Warner said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he did not interpret President Donald Trump’s social media posts about sedition as inciting violence against Democratic lawmakers.
“Somebody just showed me what the president posted on social media and he’s defining a crime,” Johnson said. “What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition. That is a factual statement. But obviously attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that.”
The Democratic lawmakers in a video called for service members to “refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws.”
Johnson called it a “wildly inappropriate thing for so-called leaders of Congress to do, to encourage troops to disobey orders.”
A federal immigration crackdown based in North Carolina’s largest city that authorities said led to hundreds of arrests is now over, a local law enforcement agency said Thursday.
A news release from the sheriff’s office in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, said that federal officials have confirmed with Sheriff Garry McFadden that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation known as “Charlotte’s Web,” has officially concluded. No border agent operations will occur on Thursday, the news release said.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn’t immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking a response about the sheriff’s release.
▶ Read more about immigration enforcement surge
Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, is warning that President Donald Trump’s threats against Democratic lawmakers on social media could have deadly consequences.
“He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline,” Schumer said, adding that Trump’s execution threats could incite his followers to violence.
Schumer called on Republicans to denounce the president’s comments.
President Trump is once more targeting former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, picking a political fight before next year’s elections that is reminiscent of one he lost in his first term.
Back then, Trump and fellow Republicans tried but failed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a stinging defeat viewed as contributing to the party’s losses in 2018.
This time, Trump seems to be scaling back his ambition to repeal and replace the law. But he’s struggling to ease voters’ concerns over the high cost of living — combined with a looming deadline to extend expiring subsidies that help people pay for their “Obamacare” premiums — and it’s not clear how he plans to prevent history from repeating itself.
▶ Read more about Trump and health care
The United States government has indicated that it’s had a “change of mind” and wants to participate at the Group of 20 summit in South Africa in a reverse of its boycott, the South African president said Thursday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the summit host country had received communication from the U.S. at “the 11th hour” and was now working on the logistics to accommodate the U.S.
President Trump had announced that his administration would boycott the two-day meeting of rich and developing nations in Johannesburg that opens Saturday. Trump has said the U.S. was boycotting over his claims that Ramaphosa’s government is violently persecuting a white minority.
▶ Read more about the G20 summit in South Africa
Vance was asked about the late former vice president as he appeared on stage at a Breitbart event in Washington on Thursday.
“Obviously there’s some political disagreements there but he was a guy who served his country. We certainly wish his family all the best in this moment of grieving,” Vance said.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he hopes to “share the facts about the affordability crisis in the city” during a long-awaited meeting with President Trump this week.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mamdani acknowledged that he and Trump have differences but stressed that he’s willing to work with anyone to deliver on his central campaign theme of making the city a more affordable place to live.
“It behooves me to ensure that I leave no stone unturned in looking to make this city more affordable,” Mamdani said. “And this is a meeting where I look forward to speaking about the affordability agenda, public safety and economic security for each and every person who calls this city home.”
Trump has for months railed against Mamdani, incorrectly calling the incoming mayor a communist and lobbing threats to deport Mamdani and pull federal money from the city. Mamdani was born in Uganda but became a naturalized American citizen in 2018.
Mamdani is set to travel to Washington for a sit-down meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.
Washington National Cathedral on Thursday hosts a bipartisan show of respect and remembrance for Dick Cheney, the consequential and polarizing vice president who in later years became an acidic scold of fellow Republican President Donald Trump.
Trump, who’s been publicly silent about Cheney’s death Nov. 3, was not invited to the 11 a.m. memorial service.
Two ex-presidents are coming: Republican George W. Bush, who is to eulogize the man who served him as vice president, and Democrat Joe Biden, who once called Cheney “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” but now honors his commitment to his family and to his values.
Daughter Liz Cheney, a former high-ranking House member whose Republican political career was shredded by Trump’s MAGA movement, will join Bush in addressing the gathering at the grand church known as “a spiritual home for the nation.”
▶ Read more about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral
The modest increase of 119,000 jobs reflects a rebound in hiring after a weak summer, but many industries are still shedding workers, including manufacturing, which President Trump has sought to bolster with his sweeping tariffs.
Nearly all the jobs added were gained in health care, restaurants, hotels, and state and local government. Health care and government are largely insulated from the ups and downs of the economy and so don’t necessarily reflect economic health.
Construction companies added 19,000 jobs last month, likely fueled by the data center building boom. Factories, however, cut workers for the fifth straight month and have shed 94,000 jobs compared with a year ago. Transportation and warehousing firms slashed 25,300 jobs in another hit to lower-income workers.
Many Fed officials were already leaning against reducing their key rate for the third time this year at their meeting next month.
The case for reducing borrowing costs has largely been based on the fear that the job market could be rapidly deteriorating. Yet in September, employers added 119,000 jobs, a modest increase but a clear improvement after a summer slowdown that saw employers shed jobs in June and August.
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.4% from 4.3% but that largely occurred for what economists call a “good” reason — more Americans came off the sidelines to look for work, and not all immediately found jobs. That’s considered a more reassuring reason for the increase than a sharp rise in layoffs.
Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, said in a statement that the Florida representative will take leave from her role as ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.
The move comes after the Justice Department announced Wednesday that she had been indicted on charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to support her 2021 campaign.
Stephenson said Cherfilus-McCormick “is entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence,” but that House rules require her to step aside from the committee “while this matter is ongoing.”
New Orleans, the laid-back city known as the Big Easy and the birthplace of jazz, where lavish parades, bead-throwing debauchery and Creole cuisine attract tourists from around the globe, is about to become the next staging ground for the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Operation “Swamp Sweep,” an expansive, monthslong immigration crackdown, is expected to launch in southeast Louisiana Dec. 1, but Democrat-run New Orleans is anticipating the arrival of as many as 250 federal troops as soon as Friday, all with the backing of the state’s Republican governor.
Gov. Jeff Landry has sought to align New Orleans with federal immigration enforcement efforts through legislation and legal challenges, and the Border Patrol deployment is just the latest drive to ramp up that pressure. And with the New Orleans Police Department being released from a federal reform pact Wednesday, its officers have lost a legal mechanism that has long-shielded them from having to participate in immigration enforcement.
▶ Read more about the immigration crackdown in New Orleans
The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in August, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The increase in payrolls was more than double the 50,000 economists had forecast. But Labor Department revisions showed the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August instead of gaining 22,000 as originally reported.
During the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, investors, businesses, policymakers and the Federal Reserve were groping in the dark for clues about the health of the American job market because federal workers had been furloughed and couldn’t collect the data.
The report comes at a time of considerable uncertainty about the economy. The job market has been strained by the lingering effects of high interest rates and uncertainty around President Trump’s erratic campaign to slap taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. But economic growth at midyear was resilient.
▶ Read more about the U.S. jobs report
About half of U.S. adults believe democracy is functioning “very” or “moderately” poorly in the United States, while only around one-quarter think it’s doing “very” or “moderately” well, according to a new poll, marking a sharp decline from several decades ago when majorities thought democracy was generally working the way it should.
The Kettering Foundation-Gallup survey found that about two-thirds of Americans “strongly agree” or “agree” that democracy is the best form of government. Very few disagree, with about one-third saying they don’t have an opinion. But alongside the widespread disappointment in how democracy is working, few believe the country’s leaders are committed to democratic governance or think government decisions reflect the will of the people.
Few U.S. adults doubt their fellow Americans’ commitment to strong democracy, according to the poll, but they’re less certain about their political leadership. More than 4 in 10 Americans don’t believe their leaders are committed to having a strong democracy, while about 3 in 10 say they’re not sure.
▶ Read more about the poll on democracy in the U.S.
That’s because it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate during the government shutdown.
Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data — including the number of jobs that employers created last month — along with the full November jobs report Dec. 16, a couple of weeks late.
That puts an even more intense focus on September jobs numbers released Thursday. They are the last full measurement of hiring and unemployment that Fed policymakers will see before they meet Dec. 9-10 to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate for the third time this year.
Stephen Stanley forecasts that employers added 75,000 jobs.
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is expected to reduce the number of people looking for work, which means the economy can create fewer jobs without sending the unemployment rate higher.
In the past, Stanley wrote in a commentary Wednesday, the “breakeven’’ point for monthly job creation was seen as somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000; but as fewer immigrants seek work, he says, the job market can remain stable even if employers add just 50,000 jobs a month, maybe fewer.
