The White House said on Friday it had begun mass layoffs of federal workers as President Donald Trump sought to amp up pressure on opposition Democrats to end a government shutdown that has crippled public services.

With the crisis set to go into a third week and no off-ramp in sight, Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought confirmed on social media that the administration had begun following through on its threat to begin firing some of the 750,000 public servants placed on enforced leave.

The Office of Management and Budget, headed by Vought, told AFP the layoffs would be “substantial,” but gave no precise numbers or details of which departments would be most affected.

The announcement came days after Trump said he was meeting Vought to determine which agencies “he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”

The president has repeatedly emphasised that he views cutbacks as a way of increasing pain on Democrats.

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries have dismissed the job cuts threat as an attempt at intimidation and said mass firings would not stand up in court.

Those public servants who hang onto their jobs still face the misery of going without pay while the crisis remains unresolved, with the standoff expected to drag on until at least the middle of next week.

Adding to the pain, 1.3 million active-duty service military personnel are set to miss their pay due next Wednesday— something that has not happened in any of the funding shutdowns through modern history.

“We´re not in a good mood here in the Capitol — it’s a sombre day. Today marks the first day federal workers across America will receive a partial paycheck,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference marking the 10th day of the shutdown.

Rising tensions between the two parties have been on full display this week, with Johnson and Democratic senators clashing over the shutdown in front of the gathered press.

There was a fiery exchange after a House Democratic leadership press conference when Republican Congressman Mike Lawler needled Jeffries over his role in the crisis.

Jeffries told Lawler to “keep your mouth shut” as the two traded barbs and later called the Republican a “malignant clown.”

‘Tired of the chaos’

Nonessential government work stopped after the September 30 funding deadline, with Senate Democrats repeatedly blocking a Republican resolution to reopen federal agencies.

The sticking point has been a refusal by Republicans to include language in the bill to address expiring subsidies that make health insurance affordable for 24 million Americans.

With a prolonged shutdown looking more likely each day, members of Congress have been looking to Trump to step in and break the deadlock.

But the president has been largely tuned out, with his focus on the Gaza ceasefire deal and sending federal troops to bolster his mass deportation drive in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago and Portland.

“Donald Trump can find the time to play golf, but he can’t be bothered negotiating a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government… and House Republicans remain on vacation for three weeks,” Jeffries told a news conference.

“The American people are sick and tired of the chaos, crisis and confusion that has been visited upon the country by Donald Trump and Republican complete control of Congress.”

The Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), meanwhile, announced it would delay publication of key inflation data due next week to October 24, despite the ongoing shutdown, which has halted the release of most government data.

The consumer price index data is being published to allow the Social Security Administration to meet its statutory deadlines “to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits,” the BLS said on Friday in a statement.

• Trump cancels planned meeting with Xi at APEC summit.
• US president warns of massive new tariffs on China.
• Markets dip as Trump reignites fears of trade war.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he no longer feels the need for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this month, slamming Beijing for hostile trade practices and threatening “massive” tariffs.

In a lengthy and unexpected Truth Social post, Trump railed against China imposing export controls on rare earth minerals — a critical component in modern technology.

“Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile,” Trump said in the post, which he sent as he headed for a medical check-up at a military hospital near Washington.

“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he said, adding that he had also seen no reason to call Xi about the issue.

Trump added: “One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America.”

Wall Street stocks quickly tumbled into negative territory as Trump’s tariff threatened to reignite the simmering trade war between Washington and Beijing.

As recently as last week Trump had stressed the importance of his plans to meet Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which was to be their first encounter since the US president returned to power in January.

He had also said that he would travel to China next year.

But in his post on Friday, Trump said China had sent letters to countries around the world detailing export controls on “each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it´s not manufactured in China.”

‘Lying in wait’

“There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive’, but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time,” Trump wrote.

He accused Beijing of “lying in wait” despite what he characterized as six months of good relations, adding that he had not spoken to Xi about the matter.

Trump also questioned whether the timing of China’s announcement was designed to take the shine off the Gaza ceasefire deal that he brokered this week between Israel and Hamas.

Rare earth elements are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology. China dominates global production and processing of these materials.

Trump said other countries had contacted the United States expressing anger over China’s “great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”

He characterised China’s approach as building monopoly positions on magnets and other elements, calling it “a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least.”

“Dependent on what China says about the hostile ‘order’ that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move,” he said.

Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariffs war earlier this year that threatened to effectively halt trade between the world´s two largest economies.

Both sides eventually agreed to de-escalate tensions but the truce has been shaky.

Trump said last week that he would push Xi on US soybean purchases as American farmers, a key voting demographic in his 2024 election win, grapple with fallout from his trade wars.

China had said earlier Friday that it would impose “special port fees” on ships operated by and built in the United States after Washington announced charges for Chinese-linked ships in April.

• Putin claims some countries thinking about nuclear test.
• Russia to conduct nuclear test if another nation does: Putin
• Russian president calls New START Treaty extension “good idea”.
  

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia was developing new strategic weapons and it would not be critical for Moscow if the United States declined to extend the warhead limits set out in a nuclear arms treaty that expires next year.

He said it would, however, be a shame if nothing remained of the arms control framework between the two countries, which have by far the world’s biggest nuclear arsenals.

Speaking to reporters at a summit in Tajikistan, Putin said an arms race was already in progress.

Russia has said it is willing to voluntarily extend the warhead limits defined in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) treaty, which expires in February, if the United States is willing to do the same. Washington has not yet formally agreed to the proposal.

“Will these few months be enough to make a decision on an extension? I think it will be enough if there is goodwill to extend these agreements. And if the Americans decide they don’t need it, that’s not a big deal for us,” Putin said.

He added that Russia was continuing to develop and test new-generation nuclear weapons.

“We’re ready to negotiate if it’s acceptable and useful for the Americans. If not, then no, but that would be a shame, because then there would be nothing left in terms of deterrence in the area of strategic offensive weapons.”

For the second time in a week, Putin referred to the possibility that other countries, which he did not name, might carry out a nuclear test – something only North Korea has done this century. He has said that Russia would also perform a test if this happens.

Security experts say a test by one country would have a knock-on effect, prompting other nuclear powers to do the same, raising geopolitical tensions further from their current, already high, levels.

“There’s always a temptation to test the effectiveness of the same fuel that’s been in missiles for many, many years. All of this is being simulated on computers, and experts believe that is sufficient, but some of these same experts believe repeat tests are necessary,” Putin said.

“So some countries are thinking about it; as far as I know, they’re even preparing, and that’s why I said that if they do it, we’ll do the same.”

That would be good from a security perspective, but bad from the point of view of curbing the arms race, he said.

“But in this same context, extending the New START Treaty for at least a year is a good idea.”