A US appeals court cleared the way Friday for President Donald Trump’s administration to implement mass firings at a bank regulator set up after the 2008 financial crisis.The decision sets the stage for significant staff cuts at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog for banks and fintech companies that has been long targeted by congressional Republicans and far-right Trump allies.By a 2-1 vote, the appeals court panel annulled a preliminary injunction issued by a US district court in March that had given a lifeline to agency staff. Labor unions representing CFPB workers had argued that Trump appointees’ mass downsizing of CFPB effectively destroyed the agency, overstepping constitutional authority. “We hold that the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider the claims predicated on loss of employment,” said the ruling. “Accordingly, we vacate the preliminary injunction.”The ruling was backed by Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, who were appointed to the court by Trump during his first term.Dissenting was Judge Cornelia Pillard, appointed in 2013 by Democrat Barack Obama, who endorsed the district court’s conclusion that a deep downsizing of the CFPB amounted to the destruction of the agency.While the president holds great influence over the CFPB, the administration does not have the power to “decide that the country would benefit most if there was no Bureau at all,” Pillard said, adding that only Congress has the authority to repeal the law that created the CFPB.The CFPB was formed in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, and serves as a monitor over a variety of US consumer issues ranging from mortgages to credit cards to debt collection.In February, Trump designated Russell Vought as director of the CFPB. Vought, who also leads the White House Office of Management and Budget, was a key architect of the conservative blueprint known as Project 2025, which called for the abolishment of the agency.On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi cheered the appeals court ruling as clearing the way for the CFPB “to right-size itself in accordance with the law to best serve the American people.”The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB staff, decried the ruling.”This decision could lead to widescale firings, which would result in the cessation of the Bureau’s important work protecting consumers,” said NTEU president Doreen Greenwald, adding that the CFPB has returned more than $21 billion to consumers since its establishment in 2011.The union can appeal Friday’s decision to the full appeals court.

From false claims of a Ukrainian assassin shot dead in Alaska to baseless reports of Russia declaring the sale of the territory to the United States illegal, misinformation has swirled around the summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.The online falsehoods spreading across tech platforms were muddying the waters around Friday’s closely watched Alaska summit, a test of the US president’s pledge to end the three-year bloody war in Ukraine.”Malign actors (have) flooded the internet and social media with falsehoods and distortions” that were “circulating from across the political spectrum and across the globe,” disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said in a report.Among them was the unfounded claim that American soldiers had recently shot and killed a Ukrainian assassin named Stefan Orestovych, a supposed trained sniper for Ukraine’s special forces, in the Alaskan city of Wasilla.There was no evidence that an assassin by that name even exists.The falsehood, which circulated on X, Instagram, a QAnon conspiracy theory platform as well as a Sri Lankan news website, originated on Real Raw News, according to NewsGuard.A self-proclaimed “humor, parody, and satire” site, Real Raw News is often mistaken as a legitimate news outlet and has repeatedly been called out by researchers for publishing fabricated claims about the Russia-Ukraine war as well as American officials and politicians.Trump critics online have also falsely claimed that Putin signed a decree in January last year declaring Russia’s sale of Alaska to the United States “illegal,” while mocking the US president for hosting a leader who purportedly rejected American sovereignty over the territory.Putin was “preparing the future annexation of Alaska and Trump fell for it,” one user wrote on X, an unfounded claim that has also spread across Bluesky and TikTok.The United States bought Alaska in 1867 from Russia, and there was no evidence that Putin had signed such a decree.Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin nationalist accounts on social media were circulating an image of a fake “People’s Republic of Alaska” flag, using the summit to assert that the territory rightfully belonged to Russia.The images were being spread online by Russian nationalist media outlets as well as the Pravda network, a well-resourced Moscow-based operation known to circulate pro-Russian narratives globally.”The fake flag is the latest instalment in a decades-old narrative pushed by ultra-nationalists in Russia, framing the Nineteenth Century sale of Alaska as a national betrayal,” NewsGuard report said.The swirling misinformation underscores how easily online falsehoods can originate and spread around a high-profile event, especially across tech platforms that have largely scaled back content moderation.Trump extended the invitation for the summit at the Russian leader’s suggestion. The meeting will be closely followed by European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included and has publicly refused pressure from Trump to surrender territory seized by Russia.