The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Friday it plans to reduce its workforce by 23% and close its research and development office. 

The loss of more than 3,000 employees comes after layoffs and incentives to leave the agency amid the Trump administration’s broad effort to streamline the federal government. 

‘Under President Trump’s leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback,’ EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. 

‘This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars.’

The EPA said the cuts will save the government $748.8 million.

As part of the restructuring, the EPA said it plans to open a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions to replace the Office of Research and Development, saying the new office would allow it to focus on research ‘more than ever before.’

This comes a week after the Supreme Court issued a ruling clearing the way for the administration to conduct mass layoffs.

Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees, called the research and development office the ‘heart and brain of the EPA.’ 

‘Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,” Chen said. ‘Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the EPA for comment. 

This announcement also comes two weeks after 139 employees signed a ‘declaration of dissent’ claiming the Trump administration was hurting the agency’s mission. 

The administration claimed the employees were ‘unlawfully undermining’ the president’s agenda. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Microsoft said it will cease using China-based computer engineering teams for work on Pentagon cloud systems and other classified systems after an investigation this week led to national security concerns at the highest levels over a program that Microsoft has used since 2016.

A ProPublica report released Tuesday accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business. 

The report got the attention of GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisting Friday that foreign engineers from ‘any country … should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DOD systems.’ He added that the Defense Department would be ‘looking into this ASAP.’

After Hegseth’s indication that the Pentagon would be looking into the matter, Fox News Digital reached out to Microsoft, which responded that it would be ceasing its use of China-based computer engineers providing assistance to sensitive Defense Department cloud ‘and related’ services.

‘In response to concerns raised earlier this week about U.S.-supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for U.S. government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DOD government cloud and related services,’ Frank Shaw, chief communications officer at Microsoft, said.

‘We remain committed to providing the most secure services possible to the U.S. government, including working with our national security partners to evaluate and adjust our security protocols as needed.’

The ProPublica report released earlier this week, which spurred Microsoft’s action, cited current and former employees and government contractors who worked on a cloud computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016. The program, meant to meet federal contracting regulations, used a system of ‘digital escort’ chaperones for global cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, meant to create a security buffer so that they can work on agency computing systems. DOD guidelines require that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

According to sources who spoke to ProPublica, including some who had intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $18-per-hour ‘digital escort’ positions, the tech employees being hired to do the supervising lacked the adequate tech expertise to prevent a rogue Chinese employee from hacking the system or turning over classified information to the CCP.

The sources elaborated that the escorts, often former military personnel, were hired for their security clearances more than their technical abilities and often lacked the skills to evaluate code being used by the engineers they were supervising.

Microsoft used its escort system to handle sensitive government information that falls below ‘classified,’ the ProPublica report indicated. That includes ‘data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin.’ At the Defense Department, the data is categorized as ‘Impact Level’ four and five, which ProPublica reported includes materials directly supporting military operations.

People in China are governed by sweeping laws compelling government cooperation with data collection efforts.

Before Microsoft’s announcement Friday that it would be ceasing its use of China-based engineers for sensitive Defense Department programs, the company defended its ‘digital escort’ program, noting all personnel and contractors with privileged access must pass federally approved background checks. The company also pointed to a response from the Defense Information Systems Agency, which said that ‘digital escorts’ are used ‘in select unclassified environments.’     

‘For some technical requests, Microsoft engages our team of global subject-matter experts to provide support through authorized U.S. personnel, consistent with U.S. government requirements and processes,’ a company spokesperson told Fox News Digital Tuesday. ‘In these instances, global support personnel have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.’

The spokesperson added at the time that Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements outlined by the Defense Department and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program established in 2011 to address the risks associated with moving from entirely government-controlled servers to cloud-based computing.

‘We establish layers of mitigation at the platform level with security and monitoring controls to detect and prevent threats. This includes approval workflows for system changes and automated code reviews to quickly detect and prevent the introduction of vulnerabilities,’ the spokesperson said. ‘This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the U.S. government.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pentagon to inquire whether Microsoft’s action changes its planned investigation but did not receive a response by publication time.

At Attorney General Pam Bondi’s direction, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday formally moved to unseal long-secret grand jury transcripts from the Jeffrey Epstein case, citing what it called intense public interest in the notorious sex trafficking investigation.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche submitted the motion in Manhattan federal court, urging a judge to release the transcripts from Epstein’s 2019 grand jury proceedings and those from the prosecution of Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as part of a new transparency push by the department.

Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI issued a memorandum describing an ‘exhaustive review’ of their Epstein investigative files. That internal review sought to determine if any evidence could justify charging additional individuals, but it concluded that ‘no such evidence was uncovered’ against any uncharged third parties. 

Since the memo’s July 6 release, officials say, public interest in its conclusions has remained high.

While the department maintains it stands by the memo’s findings, the filing emphasizes that ‘transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.’ Given the intense public interest, the DOJ told the court it is moving to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts to shed light on its investigative work in the Epstein matter.

The DOJ said it will work with prosecutors to redact all victim names and personal identifying information from the transcripts before any release. 

‘Transparency in this process will not be at the expense of our obligation under the law to protect victims,’ the motion assured.

Epstein, 66, was indicted by a New York grand jury July 2, 2019, on sex trafficking charges. Just over a month later, on Aug. 10, 2019, he died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and the case was dismissed.

Epstein’s longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, was indicted by a grand jury in 2020 on multiple counts related to trafficking and coercing minors.

She was convicted in December 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell’s convictions were upheld on appeal in 2024, and she is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case.

Grand jury proceedings are ordinarily secret by law, or as the motion says, ‘a tradition of law that proceedings before a grand jury shall generally remain secret.’ But the filing notes this tradition ‘is not absolute.’

Federal courts have recognized ‘certain ‘special circumstances’’ where releasing grand jury records is appropriate even outside the usual exceptions, like when a case holds significant public or historical importance.

The DOJ argues Epstein’s case is exactly such a special circumstance given its unparalleled notoriety.

‘Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,’ the motion notes. 

The motion points out that a Florida judge last year ordered the release of some Epstein grand jury records after concluding the financier was ‘the most infamous pedophile in American history’ and that the facts of Epstein’s case ‘tell a tale of national disgrace.’

By the DOJ’s account, the sealed grand jury transcripts are ‘critical pieces of an important moment in our nation’s history,’ and ‘[t]he time for the public to guess what they contain should end.’ 

The motion stresses that Epstein’s death means any privacy interests on his side are now ‘substantially diminished.’ And even though Maxwell is still fighting her conviction, prosecutors said the extraordinary public scrutiny around the Epstein saga justifies pressing ahead with unsealing now.

For these reasons, the DOJ is urging the court to conclude that the Epstein and Maxwell cases qualify as matters of public interest and to grant the unsealing of the grand jury transcripts while lifting any protective orders. 

The unsealing would shine unprecedented light on one of America’s most notorious criminal cases, a move the department says is legally justified and necessary in the name of public accountability.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Mike Ruiz contributed to this report.

During a celebratory dinner at the White House with a number of Donald Trump’s GOP allies, including several Republican lawmakers from Congress, the president signaled that 10 more hostages in Gaza would be ‘coming very shortly.’

The dinner was largely focused on touting the achievements Republicans have had over the last six months, but while praising his administration’s work on foreign policy, Trump commented about the hostages. 

‘Gaza – we got most of the hostages back,’ Trump said when his comments turned to the Middle East. ‘We’re going to have another ten coming very shortly. And we hope to have that finished pretty quickly,’ the president added.

So far, the U.S. has brought home five total American hostages captured by Hamas, three of whom were alive, two of whom were dead. Two Americans reportedly still remain in captivity, in addition to dozens of other non-Americans.

The rest of Trump’s address Friday night mostly included praise for Congressional Republicans over their work passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with the president stating he doesn’t ‘think anybody’s ever come close to’ passing such sweeping legislation with such a small majority. 

In particular, Trump thanked by name Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelly Moore-Capito, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.

‘Nobody’s done so much, so fast. And probably you could say, with so few votes,’ Trump praised. ‘You stayed in session for a marathon ten consecutive weeks, and that’s the longest of any Senate in 15 years. And you held over 400 votes, more than any Senate in 35 years. And they were successful votes. And just a few weeks ago, we had the biggest victory of them all. When you passed the one big beautiful bill.’ 

The president also lauded Republicans for all the work they have done on immigration, border security, foreign diplomacy, speedy cabinet nominations, deregulation and spending cut efforts, calling out Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff specifically for their work on U.S. foreign diplomacy.

Top of mind Friday night was the GOP recission package as well, which Trump praised the passage of. Trump did not indicate when he would sign the GOP bill, but did note that ‘we have numerous other recissions coming up, adding more, many more $10 billion dollars to it.’

Meanwhile, Trump also predicted that, in 2026, the GOP majority ‘is going to be stronger in both the House and the Senate.’ Typically, conventional wisdom predicts that the party that won the presidency will not typically perform as well two years later during the midterm elections. 

‘I don’t understand why they say that when you win the presidency, you always almost automatically lose the midterms, because nobody’s had a more successful period of time than we have,’ Trump told the crowd of attendees at the White House Friday evening. ‘Based on that, we should do great.’

Trump added Friday that ‘We achieved more in six months than almost any administration could accomplish in eight years.’

‘And we’re going to have a lot of good six months left. We’re going to have a six and another six and another six. So we’ll keep going,’ he continued. ‘Over the next year and a half, we’ll have an incredible record to share with the American people,’ he continued. ‘As long as we continue to keep our promises to the voters, Americans will continue to stand by our side.’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions on a Brazilian judge after the country’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, his unspecified allies on the court and his immediate family members will face visa revocations, according to Rubio, who criticized what he called a ‘political witch hunt’ against the former president.

‘President Trump made clear that his administration will hold accountable foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States,’ Rubio said in a statement. 

‘Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro created a persecution and censorship complex so sweeping that it not only violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans,’ he continued.

As part of the court’s orders, Bolsonaro is prohibited from contacting foreign officials, using social media or approaching embassies over allegations he sought the interference of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the decision issued by Moraes, who cited a ‘concrete possibility’ of him fleeing the country.

Federal police raided Bolsonaro’s home, and he had an ankle monitor placed on him.

Trump has already attempted to pressure Brazil’s officials to help Bolsonaro by announcing a 50% tariff on goods from the country from August 1 in a letter that began by criticizing Bolsonaro’s trial before Brazil’s Supreme Court on accusations of attempting to overturn the last election.

The U.S. president has pushed Brazil to end the case against Bolsonaro, arguing that the former Brazilian leader was the victim of a ‘witch hunt.’

Bolsonaro is on trial before Brazil’s Supreme Court on charges of plotting a coup to stop President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office in January 2023.

Bolsonaro told Reuters that he believed the orders against him were issued in response to Trump’s criticism of his trial.

The former president described Moraes as a ‘dictator’ and called the latest court orders acts of ‘cowardice.’

‘I feel supreme humiliation,’ he said about wearing the ankle monitor. ‘I am 70-years-old, I was president of the republic for four years.’

Bolsonaro denied any plans to leave the country, but said he would meet with Trump if he could obtain access to his passport, which was seized last year. He also said he had contacted the top U.S. diplomat in Brazil to discuss Trump’s tariff threat.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said on Friday, citing previous comments from Trump, that ‘Bolsonaro and his supporters are under attack from a weaponized court system.’

On Thursday, Trump shared a letter he sent to Bolsonaro.

‘I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you. This trial should end immediately!’ he wrote.

Moraes said in his decision that the restrictions against Bolsonaro were because of allegations that the former president was attempting to have the ‘head of state of a foreign nation’ interfere in Brazilian courts, which the judge called an attack on national sovereignty.

The judge added that Trump’s threats of higher tariffs sought to create a serious economic crisis in Brazil to interfere in the country’s judicial system.

Bolsonaro was also prohibited from contacting key allies, including his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman who has been working in the U.S. to gather support for his father.

The former Brazilian president told Reuters he had been talking to his son almost daily and denied any concerted U.S. lobbying effort on his behalf. He said he expected his son to seek U.S. citizenship to avoid returning to Brazil.

A five-judge panel of Brazilian Supreme Court judges upheld Moraes’ decision.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Slovenian lawmakers became the first Eastern European country to legalize a law on Friday to allow medically-assisted suicide for terminally-ill adults, in a shift in regional end-of-life policy. 

The country’s lawmakers passed the bill following a closely watched parliamentary vote with 50 votes in favor, 34 against and three abstaining. The vote also focused on a national referendum demanding expanded end-of-life rights. 

The legislation comes after a consultative referendum last year in which 55% of voters supported the right to end-of-life autonomy. While the move is being praised as historic, the law’s implementation will not be immediate as the procedures and oversight mechanisms are still being developed.

The law applies to terminally ill adults who are experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. In order for candidates to qualify, they must be mentally competent and have already exhausted their available treatment options. Individuals suffering solely from mental illness will be excluded from eligibility. The patient has to provide informed, voluntary, and repeated consent. It is believed that the process may require evaluation by multiple medical professionals.

Although it is being hailed as a landmark move, it will not be immediately implemented as the detailed procedures and oversight mechanisms are still being finalized. 

‘This is a victory for compassion and dignity,’ said one lawmaker in support of the bill. A civil rights group opposed to the law referendum to overturn the measure.

A civil rights group opposing the new law pledged on Friday to seek public backing for a potential attempt to force a referendum on the measure.

Several other countries, including Canada, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and Colombia, have legalized the so-called death with dignity.

Last month, Britain’s parliament voted to legalize assisted dying, although the bill must still clear the upper chamber of parliament.

In the U.S., 11 states allow medical aid in dying: Delaware, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Lawmakers in some other states are considering similar legislation.

Washington, D.C., also permits physician-assisted suicide.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Edwin J. Feulner, a prominent figure in the American conservative movement and co-founder and former president of the Heritage Foundation, died on Friday at the age of 83.

Feulner served as the organization’s president from 1977 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2018. He was well known for transforming the once-obscure think tank into one of the most influential policy powerhouses in Washington, D.C.

He was its longest-serving president after helping to create the Washington, D.C.-based think tank in 1973.

‘Ed Feulner was more than a leader—he was a visionary, a builder, and a patriot of the highest order,’ Heritage President Kevin Roberts and Board of Trustees Chairman Barb Van Andel-Gaby said in a joint statement. ‘His unwavering love of country and his determination to safeguard the principles that made America the freest, most prosperous nation in human history shaped every fiber of the conservative movement—and still do.’

The group had organized Project 2025, a controversial initiative that offered right-wing policy recommendations for the second Trump administration. Feulner co-wrote the initiative’s afterward and he and Roberts met with President Donald Trump ahead of last year’s election. Feulner was also on Trump’s transition team ahead of his first term.

Under his leadership, Heritage instituted a new model of conservative policy advocacy. This helped shape Reagan-era reforms and pushed market-based ideas into political mainstream. Feulner has remained active through Project 2025 and a transition plan for a second Trump term which is drawing praise and criticism for its hardline policy proposals.

An author of nine books and a former congressional aide, he was also involved in various other conservative organizations.

‘Whether he was bringing together the various corners of the conservative movement at meetings of the Philadelphia Society, or launching what is now the Heritage Strategy Forum, Ed championed a bold, ‘big-tent conservatism,” Roberts and Andel-Gaby wrote. ‘He believed in addition, not subtraction. Unity, not uniformity. One of his favorite mantras was ‘You win through multiplication and addition, not through division and subtraction.’ His legacy is not just the institution he built, but the movement he helped grow—a movement rooted in faith, family, freedom, and the founding. ‘

‘His ‘Feulnerisms’ still resonate in the halls of Heritage—where they will always be remembered. ‘People are policy,’ for instance— the heartbeat of his mission—to equip, encourage, and elevate a new generation of conservative leaders, not just in Washington, but across this great country,’ the statement continued. ‘And we still remember his adjuration to never be complacent or discouraged: ‘In Washington, there are no permanent victories and no permanent defeats.”

Roberts and Andel-Gaby vowed to honor Feulner’s life by ‘carrying his mission forward with courage, integrity, and determination.’

‘Thank you for showing us what one faithful, fearless man can do when he refuses to cede ground in the fight for self-governance,’ the leaders said of Feulner.

Heritage did not disclose Feulner’s cause of death.

Feulner is survived by his wife Lina, as well as their children and grandchildren.