President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” lashing out after the Ukrainian president said Trump was being influenced by Russian disinformation as he moves to end the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine on terms that Kyiv says are too favorable to Moscow.
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Hawaii governor signs executive order to help state employ laid-off federal workers
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has signed an executive order to help the state employ newly laid-off federal workers. The initiative fast-tracks hiring so qualified candidates can receive a conditional job offer within 14 days. He said the state needs conservationists, engineers, nurses, information technology professionals, accountants and others.
“With so many federal jobs being cut, I want to make sure those with the skills to protect and serve our islands have a place here,” Green said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Hawaii’s Department of Human Resources Development says about 4,000, or 23.5%, of the state’s 17,000 civil service jobs are currently vacant.
Hundreds rally against federal workforce cuts outside HHS building
About 300 protestors, many of them current or former federal employees, rallied Tuesday outside the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Amid frigid temperatures and light snow, attendees chanted slogans like “Funding, not freezes” and carried signs which proclaimed, “Protect civil servants because they protect you!”
Among the protesters was Ellen Bak, a former scientist with the National Institutes of Health who was terminated. Bak said her research into stem cells had essentially been lost. And since she was the lab manager, the rest of her team’s research has been slowed as they absorb her admin duties.
“The sheer amount of money and time and testing and care and effort,” she said. “Is it all just gone?”
Civil rights organizations sue Trump administration over DEI executive orders
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of advocacy groups, challenging three diversity, equity, and inclusion orders from the White House.
They claim the orders will significantly limit how plaintiffs — the National Urban League, AIDS Foundation Chicago and the National Fair Housing Alliance — will provide services including HIV treatments, fair housing and civil rights protections to people nationwide. The orders that are being disputed would end grants specific to this work, stop collaborative funding efforts from DEI programs and erase transgender people from existence, the lawsuit claims.
“For these organizations, choosing between ending their diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives and losing federal funds is really no choice at all,” said Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives at the Legal Defense Fund, during a media briefing. “This is in direct violation of our clients’ free speech rights.”
Jobs cut at the FAA helped support air safety, union says
President Donald Trump’s administration has said no one at the Federal Aviation Administration with a “critical safety” position has been fired. But some FAA jobs that were eliminated had direct roles in supporting safety inspectors and airport operations, according to their union and former employees.
About 400 personnel were let go starting Friday. The union representing about 130 of them said the staffers included aviation safety assistants, maintenance mechanics and nautical information specialists.
They’re the types of workers tasked with helping aircraft safety inspectors, repairing air traffic control facilities and updating digital maps that pilots use in flight.
“We protected roles that are critical to safety,” Department of Transportation spokesperson Halee Dobbins said Wednesday. “On the layoffs, these were probationary employees — meaning they had only been at the FAA for less than two years, represented less than 1% of FAA’s more than 45,000 employees.”
JD Vance warns Ukraine’s Zelenskyy that ‘badmouthing’ Trump is a bad idea
In the midst of escalating tensions between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the U.S. administration’s push to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. vice president is suggesting the Ukrainian leader knock it off.
“The idea that Zelenskyy is going to change the president’s mind by bad mouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the President will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vance told the Daily Mail.
Vance’s warning came in an interview published Wednesday as sharp words between Trump and Zelenskyy continue.
Trump in his latest salvo on social media called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections.” Ukraine has delayed its April 2024 election because of the ongoing war. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Trump was being influenced by Russian disinformation as the U.S. administration tries bring the fighting to a close in the three-year war on terms that Kyiv says are too favorable to Moscow.
Pence criticizes Trump’s Ukraine comments
Former Vice President Mike Pence is pushing back on his onetime boss’ comments about Ukraine.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Pence directed his comments to Trump and said, “Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.”
Trump administration appeals ruling that blocks the president’s order ending birthright citizenship
The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s ruling blocking the president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for people whose parents are not legally in the country.
Attorneys for the administration filed a notice of appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. The appeal comes nearly a week after U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued a preliminary injunction in a case brought by New Jersey and 17 others states in Massachusetts federal court.
Three other federal judges have issued temporary blocks of the president’s order.
