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11:40 AM ET, October 12, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Brandy Zadrozny / MSNBC:
‘CDC is over’: RFK Jr. lays off over 1,000 employees in Friday night massacre  —  Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.  —  Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved …
Discussion: Time, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Hill and NBC News
RELATED:
Jeremy Faust / Inside Medicine:
Breaking News: RIFs in reverse.  Some CDC workers have been brought back, in latest whiplash.  —  This is breaking news.  We are in solidarity with CDC and other dedicated HHS federal employees affected by these terminations, professionals who work hard to keep us all safe.
STAT:   CDC battered by government shutdown firings, while some are rescinded
NPR:   Trump slashes mental health agency as shutdown drags on
Antonio María Delgado / Miami Herald:
He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years.  Moments after being released, ICE took him  —  On the morning of Oct. 3, 2025, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam walked out of Huntingdon State Correctional Institution, the Pennsylvania prison that had confined him for more than four decades.
Discussion: Raw Story
Naftali Bendavid / Washington Post:
Trump escalates his use of federal power to target Democratic states  —  Democrats see a pattern of inflicting pain on places that are politically unfriendly, while Trump has declared his intent to hurt liberal areas and policies.  —  Just now  —  President Donald Trump's move to cancel projects …
RELATED:
Politico:
Pentagon will pay military troops, Trump says, shifting $8B
Alexandra Marquez / NBC News:
Trump authorizes troop pay amid government shutdown
Darlene Superville / Associated Press:
Trump directs the Pentagon to use ‘all available funds’ to ensure troops are paid despite shutdown
Discussion: Boston Herald and twitchy.com
Don Moynihan / Can We Still Govern?:
Purge, Merge, and Surge  —  As Trump deploys a combination of ICE, National Guard troops and other paramilitary forces to multiple American cities, he is implementing a three-step plan.  The plan involves different parts of the national security state, immigration enforcement, and the military:
Megan Lebowitz / NBC News:
Vance says Trump is ‘looking at all his options’ as the president threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act  —  The Insurrection Act would allow the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically for law enforcement purposes.  —  WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance indicated in an interview …
Maanvi Singh / The Guardian:
‘Cavalier and aggressive’: why are border agents flooding into US cities?  —  Border agents have become a key force in Trump's migrant crackdown - operating far from their traditional rural range  —  Border patrol officers have become ubiquitous footsoldiers in Donald Trump's mass deportation plan …
Jason Wilson / The Guardian:
Maga figures back Bukele's call for Trump to crack down on US judges  —  Experts say El Salvador president's intervention comes as Trump is employing tactics used by autocrats abroad  —  Donald Trump is not known for taking advice, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.
RELATED:
Joyce Vance / Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance:
When they Bukele the Courts  —  When Kilmar Abrego Garcia was first deported to El Salvador …
Discussion: Raw Story
Financial Times:
Ukraine hit Russian energy sites with US help  —  Trump administration has supported Kyiv's operations since summer in co-ordinated push to weaken Moscow  —  Christopher Miller in Kyiv, Amy Mackinnon in Washington and Max Seddon in Riga  —  The US has for months been helping Ukraine mount …
Discussion: Politico, BBC and WTOP News
Zachary Schermele / USA Today:
Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says  —  The agency cut nearly everyone who works to administer federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, one staffer said.  —  WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone …
Jennifer Rankin / The Guardian:
European far right follows Trump in calling for antifa to be declared terrorists  —  Netherlands and Hungary move towards designation as draft resolution reportedly backed by 79 MEPs in 20 countries  —  Where Donald Trump leads, Europe's nationalists and far right follow.
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Is Trump “doing what he promised”?  |  Weekly roundup for October 12, 2025  —  I don't normally devote the lead slot in this weekly roundup just to disagreeing with someone's analysis, but I'm going to make an exception this week.  U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently shared …
Jason Wilson / The Guardian:
Meta AI adviser spreads disinformation about shootings, vaccines and trans people  —  Critics condemn Robby Starbuck, appointed in lawsuit settlement, for ‘peddling lies and pushing extremism’  —  A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent …
Jennifer Ludden / NPR:
“It feels terrible.”  Federal worker's family tightens their belts as shutdown drags on  —  In a way, Stephanie Rogers started preparing for the current moment months ago, when she and her two daughters moved in with her mother about half an hour south of Denver.  High prices for everything was certainly one reason.
Abbie VanSickle / New York Times:
Who Are the Louisiana Voters Behind a Major Supreme Court Challenge?  —  There is little information in court filings about the dozen plaintiffs who challenged the state's voting map as an illegal racial gerrymander.  —  One woman made national news when she protested the Covid-19 vaccine at her local City Council.
Discussion: NBC News and New York Sun
Faris Tanyos / CBS News:
Appeals court temporarily blocks deployment of National Guard troops in Chicago  —  A federal appeals court Saturday blocked the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area amid ongoing protests at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities that the Trump administration has vowed to crack down on.
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 More Items: 
New York Times:
A Memo in a Bunker, Intercepted Communications and Hamas's Oct. 7 Plans
Discussion: Breitbart and Commentary Magazine
David Frum / The Atlantic:
Trump's Dodgy Plan for TikTok
Discussion: Telegraph
Washington Post:
Zohran Mamdani's grand promises are a struggle bus
Discussion: Cafe Hayek
Anthony J. Rivera / Washington Post:
Signs popping up around D.C. note: ‘ICE kidnapping happened here’
Discussion: Raw Story
Daniel Dale / CNN:
Fact check: Trump's ‘$17 trillion’ investment figure is fiction
 Earlier Items: 
Bonny Chu / Fox News:
Biden undergoes radiation therapy for cancer, spokesperson says
Brad Reed / Common Dreams:
Trump's ‘Divorced From Reality’ Depiction of Portland Ridiculed by Local Officials
Discussion: NBC News
People:
Diane Keaton, Famed for Roles in Father of the Bride, First Wives Club and More, Dies at 79 (Exclusive)
Katelyn Burns / Burns Notice:
You Have to See This Mamdani Ad  —  I wasn't planning to post anything today.
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Netflix agrees to acquire WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash-and-stock deal, set to close after WBD splits into two companies in Q3 2026

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
The Chicago Tribune sues Perplexity for copyright infringement, alleging Perplexity's platforms lift Tribune content verbatim and divert traffic from the paper

David Pierce / The Verge:
Yahoo launches Game Breakdowns in beta, offering AI-generated game summaries, stats, and play recaps, all updated live, to Yahoo Fantasy Plus subscribers

 
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