US Elections
fromAxios
3 hours ago"We're fighting wars": Trump bets his presidency on the Pentagon
Trump's budget prioritizes military spending, significantly cutting non-defense programs amid declining approval ratings and rising gas prices.
"We need at least a 15-percent increase in state operating assistance in order for the Upstate systems to address their structural budget deficits. What that means is we need that 15-percent increase so that we are not faced with having to reduce service. We're not faced with having to increase fares."
The Scottish fire and rescue service confirmed that, while standard city-based fire engines were on the scene within minutes of the first 999 call, the nearest available high-reach appliance which adds vital additional capacity to tackle a large blaze came from Coatbridge, an 11-mile (18km), 26-minute drive away in light traffic.
We're seeing the highest numbers that the city has ever seen. It peaked under the Adams administration so a lot of this is inherited by the Mamdani administration. No young person in New York City should ever be faced with the question of where they're going to be sleeping at night.
But as the city's Department of Public Health follows Mayor Daniel Lurie's directions to make cuts, they wanted to make one thing clear: safety in the city's medical facilities requires more than just the presence of security personnel. It requires widespread training in de-escalation, working with patients with complex needs, and crisis response, they said. These programs are on the chopping block.
Severe cuts to critical federal revenues continue to wreak havoc on Santa Clara County's finances, forcing county officials to slash 365 positions from the budget halfway through the fiscal year. While the county routinely opens its budget mid-year to make revisions, it's been years since the county made changes of this magnitude, with most of the eliminated positions coming from health care.
So those are the lyrics to the "A Closer Look" music sting. Citing budget cuts, Seth Meyers joked that from now on, all jokes would be punctuated by a guy saying "rim shot," and all "A Closer Look" segments would have a guy singing the tune rather than the intro recorded by union musicians. Turns out the words are "Time for a Closer Look." Great art it ain't. RIP the Late Night live band, amirite?
The apartment where the Austrian composer Franz Schubert died, the residence of Blue Danube writer Johann Strauss, as well as the house where Joseph Haydn lived are to be closed temporarily owing to cost-saving measures, the director of Vienna's museums announced on Wednesday. The closures are part of broader austerity measures that will also see the price of public transport in the Austrian capital rise by almost 30% for some tickets. We all have to economise, said Matti Bunzl, the head of public body the Wien Museum that oversees several historical sites in the Austrian capital.
NASA is quietly ending financial support for independent planetary science advisory groups, according to a letter posted to the agency's website on January 16. The affected groups have historically offered feedback to the space agency on science efforts ranging from the exploration of Mars and ocean worlds to the storage of extraterrestrial samples, and more. According to the letter, signed by Louise Prockter, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, funding to support these Analysis and Assessment Groups will end toward the end of April 2026.
These staff reductions, combined with some temporary salary reductions and other cost-cutting measures, will reduce the Met's expenses by $15m for the remaining six months of the Met's fiscal year, and by another $25m in the Met's following fiscal year.
"in a deficit every year ... if we continue on the same trends that we have been in the last two or three years," said Kara Flath, Lane's vice president of finance and operations.
Since 2010, 27 states have slashed budgets and 31 have cut staff at their own public health and environmental agencies that partner with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), increasing the risk of industrial accidents and potentially exposing already vulnerable communities to levels of pollution not seen in decades, the report found. Collectively, states cut about $1.4 billion from their environmental agencies, or about 33 percent of the nation's spending on state-level environmental regulation, since 2010.
Meta is planning budget cuts and considering job cuts as part of that across its metaverse unit, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company is considering budget cuts of up to 30% within its Reality Labs division, which could impact employees working on its virtual spaces platform, Horizon Worlds, according to the person Business Insider spoke to.