AFP USA

It began with a hastily written note and a whisper. It ended with a Gaza deal long sought by Donald Trump.Something was obviously going on when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an unexpected appearance during a roundtable at the White House on the left-wing Antifa movement on Wednesday.”By the way, we have Marco Rubio. Marco, come on up here please,” Trump said, beckoning him over to his side of the White House’s State Dining Room. “Anything we should know about the Middle East?”There was. But the scrupulously low-key Rubio was not about to do it in public. “That’s what we’re hoping to talk to you about Mr President, once they leave,” said Rubio, pointing to journalists and eliciting a laugh from the 79-year-old Trump.What followed next was history playing out in real time — an extraordinary moment even for a reality TV star-turned-president with a flair for showmanship.With reporters watching carefully for signs about the progress of the Israel-Hamas peace talks in Egypt, Rubio took a seat vacated by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and briefly gave Trump the thumbs up.The top US diplomat then reached over and took a pen and a White House notepad from Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to his right.While Trump answered a question about “cutting the head off the snake” of Antifa, Rubio scribbled for nearly a minute as Miller leaned over to look.- ‘Very close’ -Rubio then showed the note to Miller, and leaned over to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, seated on Miller’s right. The three of them consulted briefly together before Rubio tore off a sheet of paper.Seconds later, Rubio reached behind the back of US Attorney General Pam Bondi as she answered another reporter’s question, and handed Trump the piece of paper.As the cameras rolled, Trump sat back in his chair and read the note for 10 seconds, with an approving nod.Rubio then got up and went over to Trump and whispered in his ear, with his hand covering his mouth.It was perhaps the most notable presidential whisper since George W. Bush’s chief of staff Andy Card interrupted him during an event at a Florida school to tell him that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.”Ok,” said Trump as Rubio went back to his seat, motioning for reporters to be quiet as they shouted questions. “I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East and they’re going to need me pretty quickly, so we’ll take a couple more questions.” Reporters could not immediately see what the note said. But photographs, including an AFP picture, later revealed the contents of Rubio’s history-making note to the president.”Very close. We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” it said, referring to Trump’s social network.The words “very close” were underlined twice.- ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ -At the end, Rubio stood waiting for Trump, who shook hands with the roundtable attendees on his way out as the clock ticked.Images later shared by the White House showed the urgency of the moment.Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Rubio and Wiles strode purposefully through the Rose Garden colonnade towards the Oval Office as they made the final preparations to announce the deal, in a video posted on social media by Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino.Almost exactly two hours after Rubio’s intervention, Trump’s Truth Social finally went out. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!” it proclaimed.

A Texas appeals court on Thursday halted the scheduled execution of an autistic man convicted in a problematic “shaken baby” case.Robert Roberson, 58, had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection next week for the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Roberson so a lower court can consider a challenge to his conviction and the evidence of shaken baby syndrome.Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, welcomed the decision, which comes after another Texas man convicted in a shaken baby case was exonerated.”We are confident that an objective review of the science and medical evidence will show there was no crime,” Sween said in a statement.A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing “voluminous new scientific evidence” that casts doubt on his guilt.Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers.His case has drawn the attention of not only Texas lawmakers but also best-selling American novelist John Grisham, medical experts and the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions.Also among his supporters is the man who put him behind bars — Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine — who has said “knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man.”Roberson has always maintained his innocence and his lawyers maintain his chronically ill daughter died of natural and accidental causes, not abuse.The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where Roberson’s daughter died, was erroneous, they say, and the cause of death was pneumonia, aggravated by doctors prescribing improper medication.Roberson’s autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, also contributed to his arrest and conviction, according to his lawyers.There have been 34 executions in the United States this year.

Five hundred US troops deployed in the Chicago area on Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown, despite strenuous objections of local leaders seeking a judge’s order to block the mobilization.District Judge April Perry was set to hold a hearing on the issue, a day after Trump called for jailing the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago for resisting his military-backed mass deportation and anti-crime campaign.The government argues the troops are needed to protect federal agents during immigration raids in the Democratic stronghold, the third-largest city in the United States, which the Trump administration depicts in exaggerated and lurid terms as “a war zone.”A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview “has been the target of actual and threatened violence,” requiring “assistance from the Department of War,” the Trump administration said in a court filing late Wednesday.Local elected officials were seeking to “second-guess” Trump’s judgement, the filing said.”But responsibility, and accountability, for those decisions should rest with the political branches of the federal government, not this Court,” the filing argued.National Guard troops were seen entering the Broadview facility overnight, local media reported Thursday.The deployment includes 200 National Guard troops from Texas and 300 from Illinois, the US Army Northern Command said in a statement Wednesday evening. They have been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.- ‘Come and get me’ -Perry’s decision will be closely followed, as Trump has said he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act — which allows the president to deploy the military within the United States to suppress rebellion — if courts or local officials are “holding us up.”The Republican has been accused by critics of growing authoritarianism as he fulfills his campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants.Raids by armed and masked federal agents have sparked allegations of rights abuses and illegal detentions.Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle protests against ICE officials and street crime.Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, called Trump “unhinged.””He’s a wannabe dictator. And there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: if you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me,” Pritzker said Wednesday.In recent days, protesters have gathered outside the ICE facility in Broadview, leading to scattered clashes.On Wednesday, a viral video showed agents on the roof of the facility taking aim at a church minister among a small group of protesters. The clergyman was struck in the head with a pepper ball and fell to the ground.Protester Aiden Price, a Marine veteran and Chicago Public Schools civics teacher, told the Sun-Times newspaper he felt like a “hypocrite” lately in the classroom.”I’m teaching things that aren’t being practiced by our government,” the 34-year-old said. “These rights are supposed to be given to anyone in the confines of the country.”He noted a recent Border Patrol raid at an Chicago apartment building that saw residents zip-tied for hours.”The things I’m seeing are too similar to what you’d see if a member of the military was detaining a member of the Taliban or Al Qaeda, but these are kids and grandmas on the South Side of Chicago,” Price said.

The world’s top conservation body kicked off its world congress Thursday in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, where it will unveil its updated “red list” of threatened species a day later.Hundreds of participants were meeting at the venue where the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose decisions help set the global agenda on environmental protection, will on Friday publish its list ranking plant and animal species from “least concern” to “extinct”.The congress, held every four years, sheds light on the dire state of the world’s biodiversity. An increasing number of animals suffer from the destruction of their natural habitat, climate change, and water, air and soil pollution.According to the United Nations’s expert scientific panel on biodiversity (IPBES), biodiversity has declined every decade in the past 30 to 50 years.In an update to its “red list” last year, the IUCN said that out of the 169,420 species studied, a total of 47,187 were classified as threatened — more than a quarter.The most impacted species were corals and amphibians, with more than 40 percent of each group under threat.- UAE climate diplomacy -The United Arab Emirates, a major oil exporter that also hosted the UN’s annual climate talks in 2023 (known as COP28), is seeking a bigger role in setting the environmental agenda by hosting these events.”The UAE has become a global convening power to bring countries together, bring all stakeholders on discussions that are very vital for our environment,” UAE climate change and environment minister Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak told AFP at the meeting.”This is a platform where conversations can converge,” Al Dahak said of the congress.She called for translating “those conversations into pledges, into actions and into implementation plans”, urging “more implementation plans and actions on the ground”.The IUCN congress last convened in the French city of Marseille in 2021.The meeting revolves around votes on adopting resolutions.Though not legally binding, the resolutions can “shape the international agenda” and “accelerate” work on treaties under discussion, an IUCN source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the event freely.”The Congress programme reflects the urgency and ambition of our time,” said Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi and IUCN councillor from the West Asia region.IUCN Director General Grethel Aguilar of Costa Rica said the upcoming announcements “reflect the scale of ambition and the real possibility of delivering the solutions we need to build a planet where people and nature thrive together”.- Synthetic biology debate -The most closely watched vote revolves around two competing motions on synthetic biology — a controversial technique widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and agribusiness.It enables scientists to redesign organisms by engineering them to have new abilities.One motion calls for a moratorium on the technology because “genetic engineering of wild species in natural ecosystems, including in protected areas, is not compatible with the practices, values and principles of nature conservation”.A competing motion argues that synthetic biology could complement conservation efforts, and says IUCN policy “should not be interpreted as supporting or opposing synthetic biology, per se”.Organisers expect 10,000 delegates and 5,000 civil society attendees.The IUCN congress describes itself as the “world’s largest and most inclusive nature conservation forum”.Its voting members include government agencies, national and international NGOs, and Indigenous groups.

US President Donald Trump called Wednesday for the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago to be jailed for resisting his mass deportation campaign, a day after armed troops from Texas arrived in the state.Chicago, the largest city in Illinois and third-largest in the country, has become the latest flashpoint in a crackdown by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that has sparked allegations of rights abuses and myriad lawsuits.Masked ICE agents have surged into several Democratic-led cities to conduct raids, stoking outrage among many residents and protests outside federal facilities.”Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump posted Wednesday on his social media platform.Trump’s attacks on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, both Democrats, follow similar extraordinary public calls by the president for his political opponents to face legal charges.Trump later hosted an event at the White House regarding left-wing Antifa groups which focused on Portland, another Democratic-run city on the US west coast which has also become a flashpoint.The roundtable featured a number of right-wing independent journalists who said they had been assaulted by left-wing demonstrators from Antifa, which Trump recently classified as a terrorist group despite its ill-defined nature.”We have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country,” Trump said.His Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was in Portland a day earlier, said Antifa protesters were “just as dangerous” as the Palestinian militant group Hamas.”They have an agenda to destroy us just like the other terrorists,” Noem said.- ‘Full-blown authoritarianism’ -Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle the protests, but Trump claims the military is needed to keep federal agents safe, heightening concerns by his critics of growing authoritarianism.After National Guard deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, 200 troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday.”Elements of the Texas National Guard, under Title 10 authority and command and control of U.S. Northern Command, are employed in the greater Chicago area,” US Northern Command posted on X.”These soldiers are employed to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.”Chicago Governor Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has become one of Trump’s most fiery critics.He pledged Wednesday to “not back down,” listing a litany of grievances against Trump’s immigration crackdown.”What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” he wrote on X. “We must all stand up and speak out.”Chicago Mayor Johnson has announced “ICE-free zones” where city-owned property will be declared off-limits to federal authorities, following raids, including one in which Black Hawk helicopters descended on a housing complex.Johnson accused Republicans of wanting “a rematch of the Civil War.”Trump’s call for the arrests of the Illinois Democrats came on the same day that former FBI director James Comey was arraigned on charges of lying to Congress.Comey’s indictment came just days after Trump urged his attorney general to quickly take action against him and others.Trump’s immigration crackdown is aimed at fulfilling a key election pledge to rid the country of what he called waves of foreign “criminals.”But he has also faced some legal setbacks, including a judge in Oregon temporarily blocking his bid to deploy troops in Portland.Trump said this week he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to force deployments of troops around the country if courts or local officials are “holding us up.”

Seated in the White House State Dining Room, US President Donald Trump called on far-right content creators to name and shame backers of Antifa, leading a roundtable discussion that quickly devolved into media bashing. The president had invited “independent journalists” to the White House on Wednesday to share their experiences with the nebulous left-wing antifascist movement that his administration accuses of inciting violence against conservatives.But Trump and his guests largely used the event to pile on mainstream media, blaming one of his favorite scapegoats for inflaming left-wing “anti-fascist” activists who have increasingly clashed with far-right groups. “I think they [Antifa] work in conjunction with some of the media,” Trump told the roundtable, which was also attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials.Trump recently classified Antifa as a terrorist group, despite its amorphous and leaderless nature, and has pledged to dismantle it.  The 79-year-old Republican, who has launched multiple lawsuits against the media, also called MSNBC “sick,” and ABC and NBC “very bad.” He encouraged participants to continue the tirade against the press corps. “What network would you say is the worst, if I could ask?”Seated at a large, U-shaped table, many of the assembled guests joined in.”The same media that’s sitting in this room with us has declared all of us at this table Nazis and fascists, and they’ve been doing this for years,” said Savanah Hernandez a representative of youth conservative organization Turning Point USA, whose founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated.”This is why Antifa feels emboldened to attack us.”- ‘Garbage’ -Conservative influencer Nick Sortor accused the press of lying about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”People genuinely believe, based on what comes out of the garbage standing over here, that you guys are deporting US citizens,” he said, pointing at the press box, cordoned off by a velvet rope. Sortor brought a partially burned American flag to the event, saying he had recovered it from Portland.The Democratic-run city on the US West Coast has emerged as a flashpoint, with Trump declaring it under attack from Antifa and sending troops to quell demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Trump asked Sortor to give Attorney General Pam Bondi the name of the man who burned the flag so she could file charges.Trump signed a decree in August that makes burning the American flag punishable by up to a year in prison. – ‘Worst network’ -Reality TV personality Trump pivoted during his reelection campaign to relying on social media influencers and podcasters to amplify his views. Once back at the White House, he has granted them significant access, inviting them to attend his addresses in the Oval Office and to travel aboard Air Force One.At the same time, he has escalated his war on legacy media, often calling outlets “fake news” and “enemy of the people”, at a time of already record-low public trust.He has moved to exclude major news outlets from the press pool and suggested TV networks critical of his policies should have their licences revoked.The American Civil Liberties Union, a rights advocacy group, has accused the Trump administration of autocratic retaliation against the press, likening its targeting of opponents to the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s under senator Joseph McCarthy.During a Q&A session on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at a journalist attempting to question him about the Middle East: “That’s CNN, by the way. She’s one of the worst journalists… I don’t even want to take that question.”However, Trump said he was optimistic about CBS, where Bari Weiss, a noted critic of mainstream media, was recently appointed editor-in-chief.”We have hope for CBS,” he said.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living hostages, in a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.The agreement, which follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, is to be signed Thursday in Egypt, and calls for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Under the deal, there will be a a surge of aid into Gaza after more than two years of war started by Hamas’s unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel.The Israeli army said it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza as part of the deal.Further down the line, Trump’s plan also calls for the disarmament of Hamas and for Gaza to be ruled by a transitional authority headed by the US president himself, though this point has yet to be addressed.A source within Hamas told AFP the group will exchange 20 living hostages all at the same time for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal’s first phase, with the swap to happen within 72 hours of its implementation.The timing of the implementation would be announced on Thursday, the source said, while Trump said he believed all the hostages would “all be coming back on Monday”.- ‘Tears of joy’ -The announcement sparked waves of joy in Gaza, much of which has been flattened by bombardment and most of whose residents have been displaced at least once over the past two years.”Honestly, when I heard the news, I couldn’t hold back. Tears of joy flowed. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the constant feeling that we could die at any moment,” displaced Palestinian Samer Joudeh told AFP.”Now, we finally feel like we’re getting a moment of respite.”In Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, young people sang, danced and clapped, AFP footage showed.The deal is being thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Red Sea.There was none of the pomp around the talks of previous deals agreed in Egypt, in a possible signal that the deeper issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not being addressed.Qatar said the deal was the “first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid”.The hostages are to be freed in exchange for 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began, added the source within Hamas.- ‘With God’s help’ -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would bring the hostages home “with God’s help”, and an official source added the premier’s cabinet would meet Thursday to approve the deal.Trump said earlier that he may travel to the Middle East this week as a deal was “very close”.The fast-paced developments came after AFP journalists saw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupt an event at the White House on Wednesday and hand Trump an urgent note about the progress of the negotiations in Egypt.”I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday,” Trump said, adding that he was “most likely” to turn up in Egypt but would also consider going to Gaza.Hamas has submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released from Israeli jails in the first phase of the truce.In exchange, Hamas is to free the remaining 47 hostages, both alive and dead, who were seized in October 2023.In Egypt, the talks were taking place under the shadow of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,183 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.Gaza’s civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas’s authority, reported several strikes on the territory after the announcement of the deal.- Protests, prisoners -Global pressure to end the war has escalated, with a UN-declared famine unfolding in Gaza and Israeli hostage families longing for their loved ones’ return.Protests have erupted in countries around the globe in recent weeks, and a UN probe last month accused Israel of genocide, a charge the government rejected as “distorted and false”.Hamas has also been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.One key to the negotiations was the names of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas pushed for.High-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti — from Hamas’s rival, the Fatah movement — is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media. Hamas’s top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, also said the Islamist group wants “guarantees from President Trump and the sponsor countries that the war will end once and for all”.burs-dk/jm/hmn/ser

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday said he hopes the outrage over his late-night show’s suspension following pressure from the Trump administration had drawn a “bold red line” for free speech.Kimmel was briefly taken off the airwaves last month over remarks the host made in the wake of the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, prompting a public outcry.Disney-owned ABC brought back Kimmel’s show after a week-long hiatus.”I hope that we drew a really, really bold red line as Americans about what we will and will not accept,” said Kimmel.”I really hope that that’s what comes out of all this.”President Donald Trump, who has long chafed at the mockery he receives from Kimmel and his fellow late night talk show hosts, has repeatedly demanded they be taken off air, and has called other criticism of him “illegal.”Kimmel’s removal from the airwaves came shortly after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr appeared to threaten the licenses of stations broadcasting the show unless they did so.Kimmel said his comments about Kirk’s alleged killer had been “intentionally and, I think, maliciously mischaracterized” by Republicans. But he said he would “love to have Trump on the show” in future.”I wouldn’t necessarily be interested in (having) Brendan Carr on the show,” he deadpanned.Reflecting on the boycotts by companies owning dozens of ABC affiliate stations, Kimmel on Wednesday admitted he initially thought his show was permanently finished.”The idea that I would not have whatever it was, 40 affiliates… I was like, ‘Well, that’s it,'” he told the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles.”I said to my wife, ‘that’s it. It’s over,'” he said.Kimmel’s return proved a huge ratings hit, even as the blackout meant a quarter of the country could not watch.

The world’s top conservation body is holding its world congress starting Thursday in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi and will unveil its updated “red list” of threatened species.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose decisions help set the global agenda on environmental protection, will on Friday publish its list ranking at-risk plant and animal species from “least concern” to “extinct”.The congress, held every four years, sheds light on the dire state of the world’s biodiversity. An increasing number of animals suffer from the destruction of their natural habitat, climate change, and water, air and soil pollution.According to the United Nations’s expert scientific panel on biodiversity (IPBES), biodiversity has declined every decade in the past 30 to 50 years.The IUCN congress last convened in the French city of Marseille in 2021.In an update to its “red list” last year, the IUCN said that out of the 169,420 species studied, a total of 47,187 were classified as threatened — more than a quarter.The most impacted species were corals and amphibians, with more than 40 percent of each group under threat.- ‘Urgency’ -“The Congress programme reflects the urgency and ambition of our time,” said Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi and IUCN councillor from the West Asia region.IUCN Director General Grethel Aguilar of Costa Rica said the upcoming announcements “reflect the scale of ambition and the real possibility of delivering the solutions we need to build a planet where people and nature thrive together”.The IUCN congress votes on adopting resolutions.Though not legally binding, they can “shape the international agenda” and “accelerate” work on treaties under discussion, an IUCN source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the event freely.- Synthetic biology debate -The most closely watched vote revolves around two competing motions on synthetic biology — a controversial technique widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and agribusiness.It enables scientists to redesign organisms by engineering them to have new abilities.One motion calls for a moratorium on the technology because “genetic engineering of wild species in natural ecosystems, including in protected areas, is not compatible with the practices, values and principles of nature conservation”.A competing motion argues that synthetic biology could complement conservation efforts, and says IUCN policy “should not be interpreted as supporting or opposing synthetic biology, per se”.Organisers expect 10,000 delegates and 5,000 civil society attendees.The IUCN congress describes itself as “world’s largest and most inclusive nature conservation forum”.Its voting members include government agencies, national and international NGOs, and Indigenous groups.

Now into its second week, the US government shutdown has started impacting federal workers, prompting some to take out new loans to help make ends meet. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed since the shutdown began on October 1, while others deemed essential — including some military personnel — have been required to turn up to work without receiving a paycheck.”We kind of feel like we’re like a bargaining chip to an extent,” a long-serving US Air Force employee told AFP. “We’re not getting paid because people in D.C. who are getting paid can’t get on the same page.””Not only are we working without pay, we’re actually doing more without pay, because our civilian teammates have all gone home on furlough,” added the man, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “That’s not good for troop morale.”The first test will come next week, when federal workers will start seeing their paychecks affected.But if no deal is reached by the end of this month, federal workers will receive nothing in the following paycheck. “It’s very stressful,” said Marilyn Richards, a 46-year-old Air Force and Navy veteran in Missouri, who has been furloughed — forced to take leave — from her job as an administrative support worker at a federal agency.Richards, who is the main breadwinner at home, told AFP that she was concerned about how the shutdown could affect her finances. “For most of us who live paycheck to paycheck, you’re counting on your next paycheck to continue to keep the lights on,” she told AFP. “And that’s what I do.”- Bridging the gap -The uncertainty unleashed by the shutdown is pushing some federal employees to make use of paycheck protection programs being rolled out by credit unions across the country. The Navy Federal Credit Union — which helped around 19,000 people with loans totaling more than $50 million during the last shutdown in 2018-2019 — has already seen applications for its program this time around, according to a spokesperson. These loans are designed to help federal workers get through a few weeks without pay and “bridge the gap” until the shutdown ends and they receive their back pay, Haleigh Laverty, a spokesperson for the Defense Credit Union Council, told AFP. Many of their members are offering short-term, interest-free loans of a few thousand dollars for between 90 days and six months, helping to protect consumers — and their credit scores — during the shutdown.   Among them is the Cobalt Credit Union, which serves around 120,000 members with ties to Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base, home to the headquarters of the US Strategic Command.”We still have active duty and a lot of essential positions on the base that have to report due to missions all over the world,” Cobalt Credit Union president and CEO Robin Larson told AFP. The credit union helped thousands of its members get through the last shutdown, and has received several applications for new loans since October 1. – Mortgage challenges? -While federal workers are the most affected by the shutdown, many in the private sector could also soon feel its effects, according to mortgage brokers who spoke to AFP. The biggest impact of the shutdown on the mortgage market is likely to be a slowing down of the lending process, said Alex St. Pierre, a Charleston, South Carolina-based broker. Flood insurance — which is vital in some coastal areas of the United States — is also likely to be affected, as many state-run lenders are currently shuttered, potentially pushing borrowers to look at more expensive options in the private sector, he told AFP.  Government workers looking for a mortgage face additional pressures, including the very real threat of dismissal by the Trump administration, and delays to identity verification checks while their departments are closed, he said.