By SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.

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Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social media site X that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.

A spokesperson for the budget office, said the reductions are “substantial” but did not offer more immediate details.

The White House previewed that it would pursue the aggressive layoff tactic shortly before the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, telling all federal agencies to submit their reduction-in-force plans to the budget office for its review. It said reduction-in-force could apply for federal programs whose funding would lapse in a government shutdown, are otherwise not funded and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

This goes far beyond what usually happens in a government shutdown, which is that federal workers are furloughed but restored to their jobs once the shutdown ends.

Democrats have tried to call the administration’s bluff, arguing the firings could be illegal, and seemed bolstered by the fact that the White House had yet to carry out the firings.

But Trump had said earlier this week that he would soon have more information about how many federal jobs would be eliminated.

“I’ll be able to tell you that in four or five days if this keeps going on,” he said Tuesday in the Oval Office as he met with Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister. “If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back.”

Meanwhile, the halls of the Capitol were quiet on Friday, then 10th day of the shutdown, with both the House and the Senate out of Washington and both sides digging in for a protracted shutdown fight. Senate Republicans have tried repeatedly to cajole Democratic holdouts to vote for a stopgap bill to reopen the government, but Democrats have refused as they hold out for a firm commitment to extend health care benefits.

There was no sign that the top Democratic and Republican Senate leaders were even talking about a way to solve the impasse. Instead, Senate Majority Leader John Thune continued to try to peel away centrist Democrats who may be willing to cross party lines as the shutdown pain dragged on.

“It’s time for them to get a backbone,” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said during a news conference.

By MELINA WALLING

Arctic seals are being pushed closer to extinction by climate change and more than half of bird species around the world are declining under pressure from deforestation and agricultural expansion, according to an annual assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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One bright spot is green sea turtles, which have recovered substantially thanks to decades of conservation efforts, the IUCN said Friday as it released its latest Red List of Threatened Species.

While many animals are increasingly at risk of disappearing forever, the updated list shows how species can come back from the brink with dedicated effort, Rima Jabado, deputy chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, told The Associated Press.

“Hope and concern go hand in hand in this work,” Jabado wrote by email. “The same persistence that brought back the green sea turtle can be mirrored in small, everyday actions — supporting sustainable choices, backing conservation initiatives, and urging leaders to follow through on their environmental promises.”

The list is updated every year by teams of scientists assessing data on creatures around the world. The scope of the work is enormous and important for science, said Andrew Farnsworth, a visiting scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who studies bird migration and wasn’t involved with the IUCN report.

“Every time one is done and every time there’s revision, there’s more information, and there’s more ability to answer questions” on species, some of which are still largely a mystery to researchers, Farnsworth said.

FILE – A hooded seal is released March 30, 2008, by the University of New England’s Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Joel Page, File)

Sea ice loss

Because all the marine mammals native to the Arctic — seals, whales and polar bears — rely on the habitat provided by sea ice, they’re all at risk as it diminishes because of human-caused climate change, said Kit Kovacs, co-chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Pinniped Specialist Group, which focuses on seals.

The three species highlighted in the latest IUCN report — harp, hooded and bearded seals — have been moved up to a designation of greater concern in the latest update, indicating they are increasingly threatened by extinction, Kovacs said.

The same melting of glaciers and sea ice destroying seal habitats also “generally will bring escalation in extreme weather events, which are already impacting people around the globe,” wrote Kovacs.

“Acting to help seals is acting to help humanity when it comes to climate change,” Kovacs said.

Global bird decline

The update also highlighted Madagascar, West Africa and Central America, where Schlegel’s asity, the black-casqued hornbill and the tail-bobbing northern nightingale-wren were all moved to near-threatened status. Those are three specific birds in trouble, but numbers are dropping for around three-fifths of birds globally.

Deforestation of tropical forests is one of a “depressing litany of threats” to birds, a list that includes agricultural expansion and intensification, competition from invasive species and climate change, said Stuart Butchart, chief scientist at BirdLife International.

“The fact that 61% of the world’s birds are declining is an alarm bell that we can’t afford to ignore,” Butchart said.

The annual U.N. climate summit will be held in November in Belem, Brazil, with much attention on the Amazon and the value of tropical forests to humans and animals. But Farnsworth, of Cornell, said he was “not so confident” that world’s leaders would take decisive action to protect imperiled bird species.

“I would like to think things like birds are nonpartisan, and you can find common ground,” he said. “But it’s not easy.”

Green sea turtles

One success story is the rebound of green sea turtles in many parts of the world’s oceans. Experts see that as a bright spot because it shows how effective human interventions, like legal protections and conservation programs, can be.

Still, “it’s important to note that conservation efforts of sea turtles can take decades before you realize the fruits of that labor,” said Justin Perrault, vice president of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida, who wasn’t involved with the IUCN report.

The overall success with green sea turtles should be celebrated and used as an example with other species, some of which, like hawksbills and leatherbacks, aren’t doing nearly as well, said Nicolas Pilcher, executive director of the Marine Research Foundation.

And even for green sea turtles, areas still remain where climate change and other factors like erosion are damaging habitats, Pilcher said, and some of those are poorer communities that receive less conservation funding.

But in the places where they have recovered, it’s “a great story of, actually, we can do something about this,” Pilcher said. “We can. We can make a difference.”

Follow Melina Walling on X at @MelinaWalling and on Bluesky at @melinawalling.bsky.social.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday she “cannot support” a White House proposal that asks MIT and eight other universities to adopt President Donald Trump’s political agenda in exchange for favorable access to federal funding.

MIT is among the first to express forceful views either in favor of or against an agreement the White House billed as providing “multiple positive benefits,” including “substantial and meaningful federal grants.” Leaders of the University of Texas system said they were honored its flagship university in Austin was invited, but most other campuses have remained silent as they review the document.

In a letter to Trump administration officials, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said MIT disagrees with provisions of the proposal, including some that would limit free speech and the university’s independence. She said it’s inconsistent with MIT’s belief that scientific funding should be based on merit alone.

“Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education,” Kornbluth said in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and White House officials.

The higher education compact circulated last week requires universities to make a wide range of commitments in line with Trump’s political agenda on topics from admissions and women’s sports to free speech and student discipline. The universities were invited to provide “limited, targeted feedback” by Oct. 20 and make a decision no later than Nov. 21.

Others that received the 10-page proposal are: Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia. It was not clear how the schools were selected or why.

University leaders face immense pressure to reject the compact amid opposition from students, faculty, free speech advocates and higher education groups. Leaders of some other universities have called it extortion. The mayor and city council in Tucson, home of the University of Arizona, formally opposed the compact, calling it an “unacceptable act of federal interference.”

Even some conservatives have dismissed the compact as a bad approach. Frederick Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, called it “profoundly problematic” and said the government’s requests are “ungrounded in law.”

Kornbluth’s letter did not explicitly decline the compact but suggested that its terms are unworkable. Still, she said MIT is already aligned with some of the values outlined in the deal, including prioritizing merit in admissions and making college more affordable.

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Kornbluth said MIT was the first to reinstate requirements for standardized admissions tests after the COVID-19 pandemic and admits students based on their talent, ideas and hard work. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay nothing for tuition, she added.

“We freely choose these values because they’re right, and we live by them because they support our mission,” Kornbluth wrote.

As part of the compact, the White House asked universities to freeze tuition for U.S. students for five years. Those with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate could not charge tuition at all for students pursuing “hard science” programs.

It asked colleges to require the SAT or ACT for all undergraduate applicants and to eliminate race, sex and other characteristics from admissions decisions. Schools that sign on would also have to accept the government’s binary definition of gender and apply it to campus bathrooms and sports teams.

Much of the compact centers on promoting conservative viewpoints. To make campuses a “vibrant marketplace of ideas” campuses would commit to taking steps including “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By DAVID CRARY, PETER SMITH and TIFFANY STANLEY, Associated Press

Every week hundreds of millions of people around the world gather to worship in peace. But for some, there comes a day when deadly violence invades their sacred spaces and shatters that sense of sanctuary and safety.

It happened recently at a synagogue in England and two churches in the U.S. Before that, there were high-profile attacks at mosques in New Zealand, a synagogue in Pennsylvania and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. This violence can intensify anxiety and outright fear among clergy and worshippers worldwide.

Security measures have been bolstered, congregants have been placed on alert, and yet the key question lingers: Can believers feel safe — and at peace — continuing to worship together?

The Oct. 2 attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, left two congregants dead and, according to police, was carried out by a man who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Two days later, a mosque in an English coastal town was targeted with a suspected arson attack.

Following those two attacks, “there is real fear,” said a Church of England bishop, the Right Rev. Toby Howarth. “People must feel safe in going to places of worship.”

How to instill that feeling is a constant challenge. In Germany, in response to several attacks, many synagogues have been surrounded by barriers and guarded by heavily armed police. In the United States, most synagogues — and many non-Jewish houses of worship — employ layered security strategies. These can involve guards, cameras, and various systems for controlling access to events through ticketing, registration or other forms of vetting.

Seeking security without heightening anxiety

The deadliest attack on Jews in the United States occurred in October 2018, when a gunman killed 11 worshippers from three congregations at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

Eric Kroll, deputy director of community security at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said synagogues there had begun systemic security trainings before the attack.

Some of the training recommendations — such as keeping a phone on hand for emergencies even on the Sabbath, when observant Jews normally wouldn’t use a phone — helped save lives during that attack, he said. The federation continues to evaluate attacks such as the one in Manchester to prepare for assailants’ evolving tactics.

“The wounds still run deep here in Pittsburgh for a lot of people,” said Kroll, adding that preparations help them to worship together confidently.

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“It’s so easy to talk about all these things and be frightened,” he said. “But if you teach ways to respond to those things, it empowers people to go and live their lives.”

A similar tone was sounded by Bishop Bonnie Perry, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, in a letter to her congregations two days after a gunman killed four people inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan’s Grand Blanc Township on Sept. 29.

“Many of us feel grief, fear, and deep unease,” Perry wrote. “It is natural to wonder whether the places where we pray and gather are safe.”

She proceeded to detail a balanced approach to security, rejecting suggestions to lock church doors during worship but encouraging greater vigilance and preparedness, including formation of emergency response teams at the diocese’s churches.

“We do not want our churches to feel like fortresses; they are houses of prayer for every person,” she wrote. “At the same time, love of neighbor includes readiness to act swiftly should danger appear. … Our goal is not to shut people out but to keep everyone safe while maintaining the radical hospitality of the Gospel.”

Differences over guns in church

While some Christian pastors in the U.S. encourage congregants to bring firearms to church as an extra security measure, numerous denominations and individual houses of worship forbid this. After the Grand Blanc attack, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirmed that it prohibits carrying firearms and other lethal weapons inside its meetinghouses and temples, except for current law enforcement officers.

Black churches in the U.S. have withstood a long history of violent attacks, from decades of church burnings and bombings to the murder of nine Bible study participants in 2015 at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina. The perpetrator of that attack, now on death row, posted selfies with a Confederate flag to flaunt his racist rationale for shooting Black churchgoers.

A member of Metropolitan AME in Washington, D.C., Khaleelah Harris, 29, said the threat of violence is often on her mind.

“It can be difficult to be a part of a worship service, and you look around and five police officers are in the service because somebody just walked in, and they look a little suspicious. It shifts the atmosphere,” said Harris, who is in the AME ordination process.

Her church won a lawsuit earlier this year against the Proud Boys, after the far-right group vandalized the church’s property in 2020. The congregation has increased security, at one point paying $20,000 per month.

It’s a struggle to balance being a welcoming congregation with tightened security protocols, Harris said. “How does welcoming all and not being quote-unquote judgmental prevent someone from using their discernment or engaging security measures?”

A worldwide problem

In various forms, attacks on houses of worship have occurred through history. At present, attacks on individual houses of worship in places like the United States and Western Europe tend to draw the international spotlight more than attacks that are part of broader ongoing conflicts — such as Christian churches burned by Islamic militants in parts of Africa or the destruction of many mosques in Gaza through Israeli strikes mounted in its war against Hamas.

Attacks on mosques — usually blamed on Islamic militants with rival ideologies — have taken place in other Middle Eastern countries.

Egypt reeled in 2017 from the killing of more than 300 people in a militant attack on a mosque in Sinai frequented by Sufis, followers of a mystic movement within Islam. On March 4, 2022, an Afghan suicide bomber struck inside a Shiite mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at more than 60 worshippers. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Between those attacks was a day of horror in Christchurch, New Zealand, when a white supremacist gunman killed 51 worshippers at two mosques during Friday prayers in 2019. It prompted new laws banning an array of semiautomatic firearms and high-capacity magazines. They also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook.

During a wave of antisemitic incidents in Australia, a synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed in December 2024. Australian authorities have accused Iran of directing that attack.

Australia is among several countries, including South Africa and Britain, that have engaged with the U.S.-based Secure Community Network to share information regarding possible antisemitic threats, according to SCN’s national director, Michael Masters. The network provides security advice and training to Jewish institutions across North America.

“We act more like Interpol than we’d like to,” Masters told The Associated Press. “So many of these bad actors and their ideologies cross borders. So all of us have recognized that we are stronger when we work together.”

Next steps

In the United States, religious leaders are urging Congress to expand the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. It helps nonprofits and houses of worship pay for security system upgrades and emergency planning.

In Britain, after the recent Manchester attack, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said more police resources would be deployed at synagogues.

From both the Jewish and Muslim communities in Britain, there are calls for authorities and civic leaders to curtail antisemitic or anti-Muslim vitriol that might incite future attacks.

Dave Rich of the Community Security Trust, a charity providing security to the Jewish community, told the BBC, “There is an inability to recognize antisemitism or a reluctance to deal with incitement in ways that have just allowed it to grow.”

“I think a lot of Jewish people will be saying OK, the sympathy is great, but where’s the action?” Rich added.

Wajid Akhter, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said expanded police deployment is only a partial answer.

“There must be a reckoning with the hate being stoked in our public discourse,” he said. “The safety of British Muslims, and of all faith communities, depends on it.”

AP journalists Sylvia Hui and Lydia Doye in London; Geir Moulson in Berlin; and Mariam Fam in Cairo contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.