A federal judge in California has blocked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio from proceeding with planned layoffs at the State Department, ruling the move violates an existing court order on federal job cuts.
US District Judge Susan Illston ruled that her earlier injunction from May — which blocked layoffs across federal agencies under President Donald Trump’s directive — also applies to the State Department’s restructuring efforts.
Last month, the State Department notified Congress of plans to lay off approximately 2,000 employees and restructure more than 300 offices and bureaus starting in June. Rubio had argued that the restructuring was independent of the president’s broader executive order and therefore exempt from the injunction.
Judge Illston rejected that claim in a virtual hearing, stating the department remains bound by the court’s previous decision.
“If the State Department has any question about whether planned actions fall within the scope of the Court’s injunction, the Court ORDERS the Department to first raise those questions with the Court before taking action,” she wrote.
The ruling marks a legal setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to streamline the federal workforce and reorganize executive branch agencies, a key plank of the president’s second-term reform agenda.
Legal experts say the ruling could have broader implications for other departments planning similar cuts under the White House directive.
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China has announced plans to fully cover childbirth-related costs for families as authorities move to incentivise young couples to have more children.
The Taliban leadership in Afghanistan opted out of a major regional meeting held in Iran’s capital Tehran on Sunday.
Australia vowed stricter gun laws on Monday as it began mourning victims of its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, in which police accused a father-and-son duo of killing 16 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Oil prices are rising worldwide as investors assess supply risks linked to growing tensions between the United States and Venezuela after the former seized an oil tanker Skipper on 10 December, a move Caracas calls “international piracy”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated his offer to host Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Ankara, at his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The talks took place on the sidelines of the international Forum for Peace and Trust in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on Friday (12 December).
Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, has said that Ukraine has not provided Moscow with a list of thousands of children it alleges were taken illegally to Russia, despite the issue being discussed during talks in Istanbul.
Iranian authorities have seized a foreign tanker carrying more than 6 million litres of smuggled fuel in the Sea of Oman, detaining all 18 crew members on board.
An explosive device found in a vehicle linked to one of the alleged attackers in Bondi shooting has been secured and removed according to Police. The incident left 12 people dead.
The latest round of clashes between Thailand and Cambodia has left 15 Thai soldiers dead and 270 others injured, Thailand’s Ministry of Defence spokesman Surasant Kongsiri said at a press conference on Saturday.
Oil prices are rising worldwide as investors assess supply risks linked to growing tensions between the United States and Venezuela after the former seized an oil tanker Skipper on 10 December, a move Caracas calls “international piracy”.
Syria has arrested five people suspected of having links to a deadly attack on a joint U.S.–Syrian convoy in the central town of Palmyra on Saturday, the country’s Interior Ministry said.
The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, the foreign spy service known as MI6, has warned that Russia "remains an aggressive and expansionist threat", vowing sustained support for Ukraine and calling for greater use of technology to protect UK security.
Odesa residents remained without power for a third straight day on Monday (15 December) after a Russian missile and drone strike crippled the power grid on Saturday (13 December).
Fighting along the Thailand–Cambodia border has entered a fifth consecutive day, despite U.S. President Donald Trump claiming he had brokered a ceasefire between the two sides.
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