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YouTube has evolved from a dinner party lark 20 years ago into a modern lifestyle staple poised to overtake US cable television in paid viewership.PayPal colleagues Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim conceived YouTube in 2005, reportedly during a dinner party. The domain YouTube.com launched on Valentine’s Day that year.Video uploading capabilities were added on April 23, when Karim posted the first video, titled “Me at the Zoo.” The 19-second clip showing Karim at the San Diego Zoo’s elephant exhibit has garnered 348 million views.Over the next 20 years, the site has expanded beyond what was imagined possible back in 2005.”YouTube was started by tech bros who wanted a video hosting service to watch reruns of Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during the Super Bowl,” said eMarketer analyst Ross Benes.”Now, it’s the world’s largest digital video service in terms of time spent and ad revenue — it’s an utter behemoth.”YouTube reached more than 2.5 billion viewers globally last year, with its music and premium tier subscribers hitting 100 million, according to market tracker Statista. Users worldwide watch more than a billion hours of YouTube content daily on television sets alone, Google reported.”If you go back 20 years, it would have seemed laughable that this website with kids making parody videos would become a threat to Disney, ABC, and CBS,” Benes said. “That’s what they were able to accomplish.”- ‘Firehose’ of videos -YouTube’s breakthrough came from challenging traditional television titans without requiring studios or production costs — it was users who were creating and uploading the content. The platform hosts everything from concert clips to political campaign ads to how-to videos — and much more.”The amount of new stuff coming out is a firehose that you can’t turn off, so people are always tuning in,” Benes said. According to Google, more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.Analysts consider Google’s 2006 purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock a pivotal moment, combining Google’s search and advertising expertise with a video-sharing platform that had passionate users.”YouTube was part of the recovery from the dot-com collapse, when people realized monetization was actually important,” said tech analyst Rob Enderle. “YouTube became an example of how dot-coms should have been done, as opposed to how they were done in the late 1990s.”Google used its advertising know-how to build a successful model, sharing revenue with creators who attract significant audiences. The company also enhanced technology and negotiated with studios to address copyright violations on what was once considered the Wild West of video content.”The piracy aspect isn’t quite there the way it used to be at YouTube,” Benes noted. “They used to have nudity too.”YouTube also worked its way past concerns that disturbing content, like parody videos of popular cartoon characters in violent or risque situations, were being served up to children by its recommendation software.The company launched a free “Kids” app promoted as a safe space for children, and is constantly tweaking its algorithm to avoid offending users, advertisers, and governments.Analyst Enderle credited much of YouTube’s development into a formidable platform to former chief executive Susan Wojcicki, who died last year. “She was phenomenal at her job and showcased how something like this should be done,” Enderle said.- ‘Part of me’ -YouTube is projected to surpass all US cable television services in paid subscribers within two years, according to Benes. The platform now competes with streaming services like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon Prime, as well as short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram’s Reels.In response to TikTok’s popularity, YouTube introduced its “Shorts” feature, which averages more than 70 billion views daily.”As the original streaming video platform, YouTube has continued to evolve and differentiate,” Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, told AFP. “It’s the de facto standard for long-form user-generated video, literally defining the modern ‘creator.'”While YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has traditionally favored established creators, longtime content maker “Robert G” noted that emerging creators are once again being featured on the home page.”I’m really happy that YouTube is changing,” said Robert G, who began uploading videos in 2009. “YouTube is part of me; it is what I do.”

Joseph Lynskey was quietly waiting for the New York subway on New Year’s Eve when someone shoved him from behind onto the tracks as a train pulled into the station.Highly publicized horror stories like Lynskey’s have had a chilling effect on many New Yorkers even as authorities say crime is down on the metro system and across the city.Lynskey survived because he fell into a deeper, recessed space under the train and between the tracks, and was not hit by the wheels but rather the undercarriage.”I knew instantly… that somebody had pushed me and tried to kill me,” the music producer told AFP of the attack at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.”When I hit the tracks and I opened my eyes, the train was on top of me. It was so fast.”He recalled thinking “I’m going to get hit by the train and I’m going to die.” A 45-year-old adopted New Yorker, he has not been able to return to the subway, used by four million people daily who flock to the sprawling network of 472 stations and more than 660 miles of track, running day and night.When he looked around after falling onto the tracks, Lynskey recalled being just inches from the high-voltage rail that powers trains, and seeing his blood pooling on the rail bed.He was left with a fractured skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.”I knew that I had to remain calm. There was nobody on the platform answering my calls for help. For about 90 seconds, I was alone, screaming for help,” he said. “A woman started answering me… a Good Samaritan. She asked me what my name was. She asked me if I could move. She asked me if I could wiggle my fingers and wiggle my toes to see if, I guess if I was paralyzed, and I think she was trying to keep me awake.”Within minutes firefighters, police and subway workers arrived, with two firefighters retrieving him from the tracks, having been trained to do so just days before.Lynskey later met his rescuers to give them a hug and thank them properly.His rescue was captured on film and widely shared on social media, with rescuers expressing surprise that he was alive once he was lifted through the gap between two carriages.Lynskey still struggles to understand why his attacker, a 23-year-old man with criminal convictions and mental health issues, would want to harm him.He chooses instead to focus his attention on the kindness of strangers, like those who have written to him from around the world to express solidarity.- ‘Back against the wall’ -Last year 26 people were pushed or fell onto tracks, one of whom died, an increase of nine on 2023, police say.Cases like Lynskey’s, though rare, attract a disproportionate share of headlines and public awareness.Another subway tragedy that shocked New Yorkers became front page news in May 2023 when Jordan Neely, an unhoused Michael Jackson impersonator who had struggled with psychiatric issues, was choked to death by a former US Marine, Daniel Penny. Penny was charged with murder despite claiming he acted in self-defense when Neely became agitated, and a jury acquitted him.Similarly shocking was the killing of a woman who was set alight by another passenger.One rider, Marissa Keary, 24, said that she had “definitely heightened” her vigilance when riding the metro.”If I have to wait, I’ll have my back against the wall, and I’ll also stand near another woman,” she said.Lynskey said that the subway operator could do more to make passengers feel safe.”I think everyone deserves to feel safe when they go down into their commute,” he said.Despite chronic issues with reliability and dirtiness, the subway remains the fastest way for the city’s eight million people to crisscross the tightly packed urban jungle.In mid-January, authorities stepped up police patrols at stations and on trains, while also steeping up mental health outreach and erecting barriers on the edges of some platforms.Administrators said they hope that President Donald Trump does not scrap a $9 per car congestion charging scheme despite his opposition to the measure which will be used to fund a $65 billion subway overhaul bill, and the system’s $48 billion debt pile. 

During his campaign, Donald Trump shunned Project 2025, a radical governing blueprint that envisioned a humbled federal bureaucracy bending the knee to a nearly omnipotent White House.Seeing the Heritage Foundation’s 922-page brainchild as toxic to his election prospects, the canny campaigner said he didn’t even plan to read it, much less endorse it.Yet Trump’s embrace of Project 2025’s recommendations since returning to office — and his nomination for cabinet posts of many of its key architects — has alarmed critics and even raised some eyebrows on the right.- Federal workforce -The Heritage Foundation recommended reclassifying federal workers to make them easier to fire, and stripping protections from civil servants perceived as disloyal. Trump ordered both reforms.On the law enforcement front, it reinforced Trump’s conspiracy theory about a “deep state” working to undermine Republicans as it called for an end to the “weaponization” of government.And it demanded that intelligence chiefs undo the “damage” done by investigations into the Trump campaign and its coordination with Russia’s attack on the 2016 US election.Trump, who was indicted in 2023 by four grand juries, signed orders against weaponization and ordered the FBI to identify agents who had investigated his involvement in the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.On national disasters Trump has also indicated that he is open to shifting response costs from the federal government to affected states — another Project 2025 idea. The Heritage Foundation was also an early proponent of Trump’s hiring freeze for career officials.- Culture wars and the military -Project 2025 called for the reinstatement of military personnel discharged for refusing Covid-19 vaccines. Transgender troops, on the other hand, should be kicked out, it said.Trump signed orders reinstating vaccine-skeptical service members and declaring gender dysphoria inconsistent with troop “readiness” and “lethality.”Project 2025 also called for an end to “Marxist indoctrination” in the military, singling out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the armed forces and across the government.It recommended purging the federal bureaucracy of terms considered “woke” by conservatives, from “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to “reproductive rights.””Sex,” it said, should mean biological sex recognized at birth and has nothing to do with people’s identity preferences.Trump abolished DEI offices funded by the defense and homeland security departments — along with “illegal” DEI initiatives in every department.He ordered an end to hiring practices based on “illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity'” and set US policy to recognize “two sexes, male and female.”He also revoked a Biden administration memorandum supporting abortion access abroad, following a recommendation from the Heritage Foundation.In education, Project 2025 pushed for parental choice and wanted the Civil Rights Act (CRA) invoked to end “gender ideology and critical race theory” in schools.Trump issued edicts prioritizing “education freedom” and cited the CRA in an executive order withdrawing funding from public schools failing to respect parents’ rights and discrimination laws.- Immigration -Project 2025 wanted state and local police to be involved in immigration raids and pushed for the mandatory detention of undocumented migrants.Countries that don’t take back deported citizens should face “stiff sanctions,” the Heritage Foundation said.Trump ordered migrant criminal suspects to be detained until deportation and announced the creation of new “federal-state partnerships” on immigration enforcement.He directed officials to ensure that diplomacy includes “the foreign states’ acceptance of their nationals who are subject to removal from the United States.”Trump also ordered so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement to be denied federal funding.- Environment -While much that Project 2025 had to say on fossil fuel production was standard Republican fare, it called specifically for drilling in Alaska.Trump, who made “drill, baby, drill” a clarion call for his campaign, said it was US policy to “fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources.”Project 2025’s calls for the abolition of renewable energy subsidies and efficiency requirements for household appliances was also music to Trump’s ears — and fodder for several orders.- Foreign aid -“US foreign aid is too often disconnected from the strategy and practice of US foreign policy,” Project 2025 said.Trump halted all foreign aid in his first week back in office, saying the system was “not aligned with American interests.” The president is also trying to shutter the humanitarian agency USAID, although he faces legal challenges.Project 2025 — which aligns with Trump’s protectionist “America First” outlook — had foreshadowed the president’s tariffs crackdown and pushed for his withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

US President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs as a blunt weapon to extract concessions on everything from commerce to immigration and drug trafficking could redraw global trading norms, analysts say.Since his inauguration on January 20, Trump has unveiled and paused blanket tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods over migration and illegal fentanyl, and hiked duties on Chinese imports in the same breath, triggering retaliation.And on Monday he imposed sweeping steel and aluminum levies, drawing comparisons to his first term when he imposed duties across both sectors before allowing exemptions.Trump sees tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.But “the degree of uncertainty about trade policy has basically exploded,” said Maurice Obstfeld, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.Analysts can try to predict where tariffs might be imposed based on economic variables, he told AFP, but basing trade policy on non-economic objectives could throw things into a tailspin.Trump’s tactics could lead to a “retraction of global supply chains,” he warned, or countries seeking to decouple from the US market if risk levels are deemed too high.- Broader scale -Already, the scale of Trump’s tariff threat is larger than before.While he imposed sweeping duties on steel and aluminum imports previously, alongside levies on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese products, he has now threatened all US partners.Trump has vowed “reciprocal tariffs” to match levies that other governments charge on US goods, and ordered a review of US trade deficits by April 1.US officials are to recommend measures such as a global supplemental tariff to remedy deficits.Across-the-board duties, if imposed, could affect more than $3 trillion in imported goods.But Trump’s reasons for levies on Canada and Mexico — as well as a lower additional rate on China — go beyond trade.”It’s not a tariff per se, it is an action of domestic policy,” Trump’s commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing last month.”I don’t think anyone should be surprised about these tariffs or tariff threats,” said Christine McDaniel, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center.Trump “has been very clear that he sees them as an important tool in his toolkit,” added McDaniel, a former official in George W. Bush’s administration. “He views this as as much of a negotiating tool, as he does in trying to balance trade.”- ‘Upsetting the applecart’ -Stephen Moore, a longtime external Trump advisor, sees tariffs as a way to “incentivize” countries to act in US interests, saying that partners like Canada, Mexico and China risk bigger losses economically than the United States.While he believes Trump’s approach has been effective, he conceded it could be dangerous if it triggered escalating trade tensions with partners like Canada.Similarly, Washington would want a “strong and stable economy in Mexico,” added Moore, a senior visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation.Inu Manak, a fellow for trade policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, warned that Trump’s tariffs could backfire.Besides threatening tit-for-tat tariffs, Canadians also offered a “cultural response,” with people booing the US national anthem at sporting events, she said.”This is really damaging the United States’ reputation, and I think that’s something we need to be concerned about in the long term,” she said.To McDaniel, the risk of unilateral tariffs may upend global trade.”What is the use of WTO membership when one of the biggest countries in the world can threaten tariffs for national security reasons in such an aggressive way?” she asked, referring to the World Trade Organization.”It’s definitely upsetting the applecart in terms of how we’ve been thinking about the role of international trade institutions, international trade rules and trade agreements,” she said.

US President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned Rod Blagojevich, a former Illinois governor whose jail sentence for corruption he commuted five years ago during his first term.Democrat Blagojevich was removed from his governor’s post in 2009 and later convicted of essentially selling the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he won the US presidency in 2008.”It was sort of a terrible injustice. They just went after him, they go after a lot of people. These are bad people on the other side,” Trump told reporters as he signed the pardon in the Oval Office. “I think he’s a very fine person, and this shouldn’t have happened.”Asked whether he was considering Blagojevich to be US ambassador to Serbia, as US media had reported, Trump said: “No, but I would. He’s now cleaner than anybody in this room.”Back in 2020, Trump was vague about his reasoning for freeing Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years.The president noted that he’d once performed with Blagojevich during the TV reality show “The Apprentice” and said he “seemed like a very nice person,” but added: “I don’t know him very well.””He served eight years in jail. He has a long time to go. Many people disagree with the sentence,” Trump told reporters.Trump has already exercised the US president’s wide-ranging powers to issue pardons on a number of occasions since he returned to the White House on January 20.On the evening of his inauguration, he pardoned some 1,500 people accused of involvement in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack by supporters trying to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.He has also pardoned two dozen anti-abortion protesters and Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the “Silk Road” online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday pushing for a return to plastic drinking straws, saying their impact on marine life was limited and that paper ones favored by environmentalists “explode.” Republican Trump’s order reverses a target set by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden to eliminate single-use plastic utensils like straws across government agencies by 2035.”We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office.”These things don’t work, I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode. If something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation,” Trump said.Environmentalists have long campaigned for an end to the use of plastic straws and other utensils, saying they pollute marine environments in particular.But Trump — who has long appeared vexed by paper straws — rejected their concerns.”I don’t think that plastic is going to affect a shark as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean,” said Trump.Presenting the document for Trump to sign, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the environmental impact was “entirely debatable” and that American consumers were “wildly dissatisfied with their straws.”Trump, who has called climate change a “scam,” has issued a series of orders on the environment since returning to the White House for a second term.He pulled out of the Paris climate change agreement soon after his inauguration on January 20 and has pledged to “drill, baby, drill” for oil.

US President Donald Trump on Monday made good on a promise to slap 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, stepping up a long-promised trade war despite warnings from Europe and China.The Republican president had unveiled the policy on Sunday aboard Air Force One while flying to the Super Bowl in Louisiana.Before he signed executive orders imposing the measures, global stock markets rose as traders with “tariff fatigue” appeared to shrug off Trump’s plans.”Today I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s 25 percent without exceptions or exemptions.”He also signaled that he would look at imposing additional tariffs on automobiles, pharmaceuticals and computer chips.Canada and Mexico — which Trump has already threatened with tariffs — are the biggest steel importers to the United States, according to US trade data. Brazil and South Korea are also major steel providers.”President Trump has made it clear that an important part of an America First Golden Age is steel production,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC.The US leader said he was considering an exemption for Australia from the steel tariffs, confirming comments made by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.”We have a (trade) surplus to Australia, one of the few. And the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes. They are rather far away and need lots of airplanes,” he said.Trump has also promised an announcement on Tuesday or Wednesday on broader “reciprocal tariffs” to match the levies other governments charge on US products.He imposed sweeping tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency to protect US industries, which he believed faced unfair competition from Asian and European countries. – ‘Losers’ -Canadian steelmakers warned of “massive” disruption, while the European Commission said it would “react to protect the interests of European businesses, workers and consumers from unjustified measures.”French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in an interview aired Sunday to go head-to-head with Trump over his wider tariff threats against the European Union, though he said the United States should focus its efforts on China.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said a tariff conflict “only has losers.”Around 25 percent of European steel exports go to the United States, according to consultancy Roland Berger.Britain’s steel industry body called the tariff plan a “devastating blow.”Trump has already shown his fondness for weaponizing the United States’ power as the world’s largest economy, ordering tariffs on key trade partners China, Mexico and Canada soon after he took office.He paused 25 percent levies against Canada and Mexico for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.- ‘Tariff fatigue’ -But Trump went ahead with tariffs on China, the world’s second biggest economy, with products entering the United States facing an additional 10 percent levy.Chinese retaliatory tariffs targeting US coal and liquified natural gas come into play on Monday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Monday that “there is no winner in a trade war and tariff war.”Trump also focused on steel during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week. The American leader said he had secured an agreement for Japan’s Nippon Steel to make a major investment in US Steel, instead of seeking to take over the troubled firm.Trump, who has promised a “new golden age” for the United States, insists the impact of any tariffs would be borne by foreign exporters without being passed on to US consumers, despite most experts saying the contrary.But he did acknowledge this month that Americans might initially feel economic “pain” from the levies.Wall Street’s main indices finished up Monday despite the tariff threat. London and Frankfurt set fresh records, while Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks also rose.”The fact that global equity indices are higher at the start of the week could be a sign of tariff fatigue,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.The dollar also rose against the Canadian dollar, the Mexican peso and South Korean won on Monday.burs-dk/sst/md

Elon Musk is leading an investment group offering $97.4 billion for the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, marking a new front in his war with the ChatGPT-maker, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.Musk attorney Marc Toberoff said he submitted the bid to OpenAI’s board of directors, according to the Journal.”No thank you, but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” OpenAI chief Sam Altman wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, apparently responding to the offer.Musk, who bought X under its former moniker for $44 billion in 2022, replied to the post by simply writing: “Swindler.”Musk’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Tesla boss and close ally of US President Donald Trump has been mired in an ongoing feud with Altman, with Musk filing repeated lawsuits against the San Francisco-based OpenAI.Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, with the company becoming the world’s leading AI startup since he left in 2018. He launched his own generative AI startup, xAI, in 2023.”We created a bespoke structure: a for-profit, controlled by the non-profit, with a capped profit share for investors and employees,” OpenAI said in a December blog post that outlined a plan to become a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation.The shift would require the company to balance the interests of shareholders, stakeholders, and the public in a tilt away from non-profit, according to the post.Musk established xAI in early 2023 to have a foothold in the technology expected to disrupt how people live and work.OpenAI is one of the world’s highest valued startups, but loses money on the high costs of turning out its expensive technology.Trump in January announced a major investment to build infrastructure for AI led by Japanese giant Softbank, cloud giant Oracle and OpenAI.The venture, called Stargate, “will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States,” Trump said in remarks at the White House.OpenAI co-founder and boss Altman, SoftBank’s chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison attended the announcement.But Musk was quick to cast doubt on the project, saying the money promised for the investment actually was not there.The comments marked a rare instance of a split between the world’s richest man and Trump, with Musk playing a key role in the new US administration after spending $270 million on the Republican’s election campaign.

The Trump administration was on a collision course with the US courts Monday, with federal judges questioning the legality of the White House’s cost-cutting onslaught of government and Vice President J.D Vance warning the judiciary to back off. In his first three weeks in office, President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders aimed at slashing federal spending, appointing SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead efforts that critics widely denounce as unconstitutional.Trump’s sweeping plans, which have effectively shuttered some federal agencies and sent staff home, have sparked legal battles across the country. Multiple lawsuits seek to halt what opponents characterize as an illegal power grab.Musk’s team has moved aggressively through federal agencies, freezing aid programs and pushing workforce reductions through controversial buyout offers and termination threats.Democrats, unions, and activists, after initially struggling to respond, are now pursuing legal action and their numerous cases challenging Trump’s plans have drawn sharp criticism from the White House.In a social media post Sunday, Vance argued that judges lack authority to “control the executive’s legitimate power,” comparing judicial intervention to a judge dictating military strategy to a general.”Judicial tyranny is grossly improper!” Musk said, echoing the White House pushback.Their comments followed a judge’s emergency order early Saturday blocking Musk’s government reform team from accessing millions of Americans’ personal and financial data stored at the Treasury Department.Democratic attorneys general from 19 states filed that case Friday against the Republican president, the Treasury Department and the man who leads it, Scott Bessent.Separately, a federal judge in Rhode Island on Monday said the Trump administration had violated a previous order lifting a sweeping federal funding freeze.”The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order stated.It was the first time since Trump took office and unfurled his “shock and awe” reform campaign that a federal judge accused his administration of defying a court order.- ‘Unprecedented’ -In Boston, another federal judge ruled Monday that the government must extend the deadline for a controversial federal worker buyout offer that legal experts consider vague and potentially illegal.The plan, announced January 28 in an email to federal employees titled “Fork in the road” — echoing Musk’s 2022 message to Twitter employees when he acquired and renamed the platform to X — offered workers eight months’ pay in exchange for resigning, or risk future termination.While the US Office of Personnel Management, now run by Musk associates, extended the original Thursday deadline to Monday at 11:59 pm (0459 GMT), Judge George O’Toole ordered a further delay pending his decision. Civil service unions had filed for a preliminary injunction to pause the offer until courts could resolve the matter.”This is an unprecedented action taken on an unprecedented timeline that is causing irreparable harm,” attorney Elena Goldstein told the federal judge, according to WHDH-TV news.US media reported that at least 65,000 federal workers had accepted the so-called deferred resignation program as of last week.Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration continued its cost-cutting campaign Monday, effectively closing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency long criticized by Republicans as engaging in overreach.Acting CFPB director Russell Vought informed staff that the agency’s Washington office would close this week and directed employees not to report to work.

The union representing staff at the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the acting head of the agency, as the Trump administration ordered all work at the watchdog to cease on Monday.CFPB staff were told that the agency’s Washington headquarters would be shuttered and that they should not show up for work.The National Treasury Employees Union brought two court cases against acting CFPB director Russell Vought, accusing him of trying to shut down the agency — which was created by Congress — and of giving the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to employees’ personal information. Vought’s actions reflected “an unlawful attempt to thwart Congress’s decision to create the CFPB to protect American consumers,” they argued in one of the suits. The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, and serves as a watchdog over a variety of US consumer issues ranging from mortgages to credit cards to debt collection.Republicans have long accused the independent agency of overreach, with some of Trump’s most ardent supporters — including tech billionaire Musk — calling for its closure.In an email to staff on Monday, a copy of which was shared with AFP, Vought said the agency’s Washington office would be closed this week, and told employees not to show up.”Please do not perform any work tasks,” said Vought, the new director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and a key architect of the conservative plan known as Project 2025 to reform the federal government.Vought added that staff would need to seek written permission from him before doing any urgent work going forward, and should otherwise “stand down from performing any work task.”- ‘Weaponization’ -The CFPB says it has saved consumers more than $21 billion, with its enforcement actions against businesses bringing in most of that money. The White House, however, accused it of unfair conduct.The CFPB “has long functioned as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called ‘elites,'” the White House said in a statement published Monday.”Under the administration of President Donald J. Trump, the weaponization ends right now,” it added. The decision to pause all work at CFPB and close down its offices appears to be an attempt to curtail its oversight powers without shuttering it entirely — something that would require congressional approval.”Congress built the CFPB, and no one other than Congress — not the president, not Musk, not Vought — can shut it down,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who helped create the agency, said in a video message.In a separate statement, Democrats including Warren announced plans for a protest outside the CFPB’s Washington offices for Monday, to “sound the alarm” against Musk and Vought’s “attempt to kill” the agency.