Failed Trump cabinet pick Matt Gaetz and wife Ginger Luckey are having a ‘Baby Gaetz'
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Reuters
38 minutes ago
- Reuters
US judge blocks Trump's elimination of union bargaining for federal workers
June 24 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the administration of President Donald Trump from eliminating union bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal workers. U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco agreed with the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions that Trump's March 27 executive order, opens new tab exempting many federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions was likely illegal. Donato blocked about 20 agencies from implementing Trump's order pending the outcome of the unions' lawsuit. Eliminating collective bargaining would allow agencies to alter working conditions and fire or discipline workers more easily, and it could prevent unions from challenging Trump administration initiatives in court. In April, a judge in Washington, D.C., blocked Trump's order from being implemented at seven agencies including the departments of Justice, Treasury, and Health and Human Services. A federal appeals court on May 16 paused that ruling while it considers the Trump administration's appeal. Donato's ruling applies to those agencies and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, State and Labor, among others. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump's executive order exempted agencies that he said "have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work," from collective bargaining obligations, significantly expanding an existing exception for workers with duties implicating national security, such as certain employees of the CIA and FBI. The order applies to the departments of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services, among other agencies. It affects about 75% of federal workers currently represented by unions, according to filings in the unions' lawsuit. The lawsuits challenging the executive order say it was meant to punish federal worker unions that have sued over Trump's other efforts to overhaul the government, including the mass firings and layoffs of agency employees. Unions also argue that the vast majority of workers covered by the order do not perform national security or intelligence work. The Trump administration filed a pair of lawsuits against AFGE and another union seeking to invalidate existing bargaining agreements in light of Trump's order shortly after he issued it. A judge in Kentucky on May 20 said the Treasury Department lacked standing to sue over a union contract covering thousands of Internal Revenue Service employees and dismissed the agency's lawsuit. A separate case that eight agencies filed against AFGE is pending in Texas federal court.
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
Heat pumps and EVs making progress, UK climate advisers say
More people are buying electric cars and installing heat pumps than ever before, but those numbers need to increase even further, according to the government's climate independent Climate Change Committee said that the government needed to make sure that households benefit from the switch to cleaner technologies through lower bills."The government has made progress on a number of fronts, including on clean power, [but] they need to do more on making electricity cheap," Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of the CCC, told BBC response Energy Secretary Ed Miliband thanked the committee for its advice and said it was committed to bringing down bills. By law, the UK must stop adding to the total amount of planet-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2050. This is known as "net zero".Reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions globally is widely seen as essential to limit further warming. Previous political consensus around the UK's target has broken down, however, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch branding it "impossible" and Reform using the phrase "net stupid zero". But the committee argues it is achievable and could lead to long-term economic benefits. "[The UK] can absolutely meet net zero by 2050," said Ms gas emissions within the UK's borders have already fallen by more than half since that's mostly because polluting fossil fuels – particularly coal – have been increasingly replaced with renewable energy like wind and solar for electricity generation. The UK's biggest emitters last year were transport and buildings, which will also need to get cleaner to help reach net CCC sees signs of progress, including a near doubling of the number of electric cars on UK roads in the past two years. Nearly one-in-five new cars sold in 2024 was has helped to reduce emissions from transport – not counting planes and ships – for the second year in a row, even though traffic levels rose last new electric cars remain more expensive to buy than their petrol equivalents, the CCC expects them to cost the same in a couple of second-hand models are already as cheap, and electric cars can be more economical to run too."We see these transitions happen surprisingly fast once they get going, usually starting slowly and accelerating rapidly, where falling prices and rising demand reinforce each other," said Dr Emily Nurse, the CCC's head of net zero."When that's combined with effective policy, it really can lead to this rapid change." Heat pump progress but a long way to go Sales of electric heat pumps are growing quickly too, up by more than half last year, thanks partly to grants introduced under the Conservatives, the CCC said. But they still remain well below committee also praised the new government's relaxation of planning rules, which it says should encourage more people to install heat even after grants, they can be expensive to install and while they are much more efficient than a gas boiler, they are not necessarily cheaper to because the cost of electricity is so high, something the CCC has repeatedly said needs tackling. Make electricity cheaper The single largest reason for the rise in household electricity prices in recent years is the increase in wholesale costs, driven by international gas prices, the CCC says."The only way to get bills down for good is by becoming a clean energy superpower and we continue to work tirelessly to deliver clean power for families and businesses," argued Energy Secretary Ed the committee adds that electricity bills are artificially high because charges are added to them to support largely older renewable energy projects – which were more expensive – as well as energy efficiency Monday the government announced plans to remove these costs for some them from household electricity bills too would be a quick fix to the UK's high prices, making it much cheaper to run an electric car or heat pump, the committee these costs would have to go somewhere, potentially onto general would take "about £200 off the average [household] bill but at a cost of about £6bn per year to the Exchequer," said Adam Bell, director of policy at Stonehaven Consultancy and former head of energy strategy at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Additional reporting by Jonah Fisher and Miho Tanaka Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Trump administration expects deal with Harvard by end-June, Washington Post reports
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is ramping up negotiations with Harvard University and expects a deal by the end of June to resolve the White House's campaign against the country's oldest and richest university, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. On Friday, Trump said a deal could be announced "over the next week or so" to end a months-long battle with the Ivy League school, which sued after the administration terminated billions of dollars in grants and moved to bar the school from admitting international students.
