By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is drastically shrinking the workforce and mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, eviscerating an agency created after the Great Recession with the goal of protecting Americans from fraud, abuse and deceptive practices.

Related Articles

White House proposes eliminating Head Start funding as part of sweeping budget cuts

Former Pentagon spokesman tied to online DEI purge was asked to resign, official says

University protests blast Trump’s attacks on funding, speech and international students

Can the IRS revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status?

Trump officials’ defiance over Abrego Garcia’s deportation is ‘shocking,’ appeals court says

The plan, which is being challenged by an employee union, is the latest step in an extraordinary reshaping of the federal government. Conservatives and businesses have often chafed at the agency’s oversight and investigations, and Elon Musk made it a top target of his Department of Government Efficiency.

Roughly 1,500 employees are slated to be cut, leaving around 200 people, according to an administration official who wasn’t authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Fox Business first reported the number of layoffs.

Employees started receiving layoff notices on Thursday. Their access to agency systems, including email, ends on Friday evening.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau identified your position being eliminated and your employment is subject to termination in accordance with reduction-in-force (RIF) procedures,” the emails said.

The Trump administration’s plans have been the subject of a legal battle. A federal judge initially blocked what she described as “a hurried effort to dismantle and disable the agency.”

However, an appeals court said Friday that layoff notices could be sent “to employees whom defendants have determined, after a particularized assessment, to be unnecessary to the performance of defendants’ statutory duties.”

On Thursday, the National Treasury Employees Union asked a federal judge to step in by arguing that officials were violating the order.

“It is unfathomable that cutting the Bureau’s staff by 90 percent in just 24 hours, with no notice to people to prepare for that elimination, would not ‘interfere with the performance’ of its statutory duties, to say nothing of the implausibility of the defendants having made a ‘particularized assessment’ of each employee’s role in the three-and-a-half business days since the court of appeals imposed that requirement,” the union wrote.

Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer for the agency, sent a message to employees on Wednesday describing the CFPB’s reduced mission.

“To focus on tangible harms to consumers, the Bureau will shift resources away from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States,” he wrote.

Problems with mortgages will be the top priority, while issues involving medical debt, student loans and digital payments will receive less attention, according to Paoletta.

The change in focus could benefit Musk’s efforts to offer financial services through X, his social media company. He has long wanted to allow users to make peer-to-peer payments using his platform, and he announced in January that X would be working with Visa.

Such services will now be a lower priority for the CFPB.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who helped create the CFPB, said in a statement that Trump was preventing the agency from doing “its job of helping Americans who get scammed by big banks and giant corporations.”

She described his plans as “yet another assault on consumers and our democracy by this lawless administration, and we will fight back with everything we’ve got.”

The CFPB was formed in 2010, two years after the financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Officials said that it has obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers since its founding in the form of canceled debts, compensation and reduced loans.

By TOM NOUVIAN and SYLVIE CORBET

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that historic injustice was imposed on Haiti when it was forced to pay a colossal indemnity to France in exchange for its independence 200 years ago.

Related Articles

Ukraine’s future is at the center of talks in Paris with Rubio, Witkoff and top European officials

Russia strikes Dnipro as Ukrainian officials seek security pledges in Paris

A recovering Pope Francis visits Rome prison to keep annual Holy Week appointment

UN nuclear watchdog says US-Iran talks at a ‘very crucial’ stage

Today in History: April 17, the Bay of Pigs Invasion

Macron also announced the creation of a joint French-Haitian historical commission to ‘’examine our shared past” and assess relations, but did not directly address longstanding Haitian demands for reparations.

France ″subjected the people of Haiti to a heavy financial indemnity, … This decision placed a price on the freedom of a young nation, which was thus confronted with the unjust force of history from its very inception,” Macron said in a statement.

It comes on the 200th anniversary of the April 17, 1825 document issued by King Charles X of France, which recognized Haiti’s independence after a slave revolt — but also imposed a 150 million gold francs debt as compensation for the loss of France’s colony and enslaved labor force.

Although the indemnity was later reduced to 90 million gold francs, the debt crippled the Caribbean nation, which continued to pay it off through French and American banks until 1947. Economists estimate it’s the equivalent of billions of dollars today.

Experts have said Haiti’s current situation can be traced back to its past. Gangs have flourished in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with a growing number of children becoming members as families struggle to find food.

Violence has surged since last year, with gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, attacking new communities daily in a bid to control even more territory. More than 5,600 people were reported killed last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless in recent years.

″Acknowledging the truth of history means refusing to forget or erase it,″ Macron said.

The new commission will be made up of historians from both countries, and will aim to propose recommendations to both governments, ’’so that they can learn from them and build a more peaceful future.″

Since taking office in 2017, Macron has already addressed France’s role in past colonial conflicts, including in Algeria, Cameroon, and Rwanda.

Over the years, French governments have acknowledged the historic wrong of slavery in Haiti and other former colonies but like other former colonial powers have resisted calls for reparations.

Danica Coto in San Juan contributed to this report.

By CHRISTINA LARSON

A colossal squid has been caught on camera for the first time in the deep sea by an international team of researchers steering a remotely operated submersible.

Related Articles

Astronomers detect a possible signature of life on a distant planet

Tatooine-like planet outside the solar system may orbit two failed stars, scientists say

Harvard stands to lose $2.2 billion in federal funding. Researchers fear science will suffer

A strong solar storm heads to Earth. Here’s what to know about northern lights

Blue Origin launches an all-female celebrity crew with Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez

The sighting was announced Tuesday by the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

The squid filmed was a juvenile about 1 foot in length at a depth of 1,968 feet in the South Atlantic Ocean. Full-grown adult colossal squids, which scientists have uncovered from the bellies of whales and seabirds, can reach lengths up to 23 feet — almost the size of a small fire truck.

The squid was spied last month near the South Sandwich Islands during an expedition to search for new sea life. Researchers waited to verify the species identification with other independent scientists before releasing the footage.

“I really love that we have seen a young colossal squid first. This animal is so beautiful,” said Kat Bolstad, a squid researcher at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, who helped confirm it.

Researchers are testing different cameras in hopes of catching an adult colossal squid, Bolstad said.

The young squid is almost entirely transparent, with thin arms. As adults, the squids lose this glassy appearance and become an opaque dark red or purple. When full grown, they are considered to be the world’s largest known invertebrates.

AP video journalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW YORK (AP) — About 429,000 portable power banks are under recall because they can overheat and potentially catch fire while charging phones, posing a burn hazard to consumers.

Related Articles

Bremer Bank CEO to step down after merger with Old National

Judge strikes down an Ohio law limiting kids’ use of social media as unconstitutional

Minnesota gains 10,700 jobs in March, largest gain in a year

How ‘buy online, pick up in store’ supercharges credit card rewards

As demand for AI rises, so do power thirsty data centers

According to a Thursday notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Brooklyn, New York-based Casely is recalling some of its “Power Pods” after receiving 51 reports of the chargers’ lithium-ion battery overheating, expanding or catching fire during use — resulting in six minor burn injuries to date.

The now-recalled Casely Power Pods, which have a battery capacity of 5000mAh, can be identified by their model number: E33A. The wireless phone chargers were manufactured in China, Thursday’s notice notes, and sold on Amazon, getcasely.com and other websites between March 2022 and September 2024.

Consumers in possession of these chargers, which came in a variety of colors and prints, are urged to stop using them immediately — and contact Casely for a free replacement.

Those eligible will receive a new “UL-Certified Power Pod,” an FAQ on Casely’s website notes. The company also says that all other battery packs not included in this recall remain safe to use.

“Casely is committed to its customers’ safety and, out of an abundance of caution, has taken proactive measures to remove potentially faulty products from circulation,” Casely wrote in its recall announcement. “If your Power Pod qualifies, we will replace it with a brand-new unit at no cost to you.”

To receive a free replacement, consumers will have to fill out a form online — and submit photos of the recalled charger they own, with the word “Recalled” and the date written on it in permanent marker. But the CPSC and Casely also stress that lithium-ion battery devices should not be thrown away in the trash or general recycling bins — instructing consumers to look up local guidance for disposal.