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Oct. 4, 2025, 12:37 PM EDTBy Jo YurcabaStudents who attend Pentagon-operated schools on or near military bases are among those feeling the effects of the government shutdown, which started just after midnight Wednesday and will leave some federal employees without paychecks and national parks partially closed.The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, which operates 161 schools on or near military bases worldwide, has halted all extracurricular activities, including sports, for more than 67,000 students. Dylan McDonald, a 17-year-old senior and co-captain of his soccer team at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell Army base, fears he may have played the last game of his high school career after the government shutdown halted all extracurriculars. He and his mother worry that missing upcoming games, including next week’s district tournament, could hurt his chances of being recruited to play in college. “I put countless hours and blood, sweat and tears into this, and to not be able to finish properly based off of something that is uncontrollable to myself and my teammates and our families, yet still so directly affects us, is truly devastating,” Dylan said of the shutdown’s impact. To further complicate matters, missing the tournament could also cost him a spot at this year’s local all-district team, a roster of top players that he’s been a part of the past two seasons.Dylan McDonald said canceled soccer games means fewer opportunities for college recruiters to see him play.Courtesy Jennifer McDonaldDylan and his mother Jennifer McDonald are among the eight parents and students at DoDEA schools who told NBC News how the government shutdown is affecting them, describing cancellations of sports practices and games, as well as afterschool tutoring and student theater productions. Katie Fox, whose husband is a retired Marine, said her 15-year-old son’s homecoming dance at the DoDEA-operated Stuttgart High School in Germany was supposed to be this weekend. They already paid for tickets, his outfit and provided donations to help support the event. Then, due to the shutdown, it was postponed to later this month — assuming a funding bill is passed by then. She said she’s frustrated, because Congress could pass a targeted appropriations bill to allow for extracurricular activities to continue. “That’s my biggest frustration,” she said. “I know that there’s a solution, but it’s like we’re not being heard.”Katie Fox’s son, who is on the football team, already paid for homecoming tickets and an outfit, but the dance has been postponed.Courtesy Katie FoxFox added that student athletes at DoDEA schools abroad are especially affected when sports games are canceled, because, unlike in the U.S., they can only compete against other DoDEA schools, meaning there are typically fewer games overall. Maribel Jarzabek, whose husband is in the Air Force and based in Belgium, said her daughter Cassie, a junior at the DoDEA-operated SHAPE High School, only has six cross-country meets a year before the championship meet, compared to U.S. schools’ cross-country teams, which have around eight to 10 meets before the championships.This means that Cassie, who is favored to win this year’s DoDEA European championship in cross-country, her mom said, has fewer chances to impress college recruiters than students with longer seasons and more chances to compete. Cassie said she’s afraid the championships, which are scheduled for later this month, could also be affected, which could be devastating for her because they are the most important for recruiters. “As a military kid, we already have to deal with the pressures of moving every couple years and starting completely fresh, not having any friends,” Cassie said. “So this is just another thing added on to the adversity we already have to overcome. It just really hurts.” Cassie Jarzabek said the shutdown has canceled all of her cross-country practices just three weeks ahead of the championships.Courtesy Maribel JarzabekCrystal Noga — whose son Aiden Ward is a senior and a co-captain of Fort Campbell High School’s soccer team alongside Dylan McDonald — said that in the past, she has sent videos of her kids playing sports to their dad when he has been deployed overseas, and now some kids’ parents could be deprived of that, too. She said if the team is forced to forfeit their first district game against their rivals next week, she won’t have any other chances to see Aiden play soccer in high school. “Not only is it taken from them, it’s taken from me as a parent,” Noga said. “Once he leaves high school, that’s it. They’re thrown into the real world. So you’re taking away my last opportunity as well to see my kid be a kid.”Aiden Ward stopped playing football to dedicate more of his time to soccer, his mom Crystal Noga said.Courtesy Crystal NogaDylan McDonald, left, and Aiden Ward, right, had to end their soccer season early due to the shutdown.Courtesy Crystal NogaIn the meantime, team captains like Dylan, Aiden and Cassie have to organize practices for their teams on their own, and they have to emphasize that they are not mandatory, their parents said. At the same time, most of their parents are living on the paycheck they received this week until the government passes a spending bill.As Democrats and Republicans in Congress blame each other for the shutdown, the parents who spoke with NBC News all shared a similar sentiment: They don’t care which party is at fault — they want this fixed for their kids.“If you can’t come to an agreement, putting the burden on other people’s lives, whether it be their paycheck, whether it be sports, whether it be anything, is absolutely unjust,” Noga said. Jo YurcabaJo Yurcaba is a reporter for NBC Out.

- Latest News - October 4, 2025

The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, has paused all extracurricular activities, including sports and homecoming dances, at schools on military bases.

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Oct. 3, 2025, 6:49 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 3, 2025, 6:53 PM EDTBy Natasha Korecki and Monica AlbaA federal workers’ union has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for altering U.S. Department of Education employees’ out-of-office email messages to include partisan language about a government shutdown without their consent.The American Federation of Government Employees, which is represented by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group in the matter, accused the administration of going to “unprecedented lengths” to use government infrastructure to “shift the public debate in its favor.””This whole-of-government approach to partisan messaging is unprecedented, and it makes a mockery of statutory prohibitions like the Hatch Act,” the complaint states. “Especially pernicious, however, are the Administration’s efforts to co-opt the voices of rank-and-file employees in the nonpartisan civil service to take part in political messaging.”The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.The lawsuit comes after furloughed employees discovered their out-of-office replies had been manipulated to include language blaming a government shutdown on Democrats.On Thursday, five employees who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages said they were surprised to learn that the wording was altered from how they originally had composed them. All of them are civil servants, not political appointees.“The Trump-Vance administration is losing the blame game for the shutdown, so they’re using every tactic to try to fool the American people, including taking advantage of furloughed civil servants,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward said in a statement.“Posting messages without consent to broadcast messages on behalf of a partisan agenda is a blatant violation of First Amendment rights,” she added. “Even for an administration that has repeatedly demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the Constitution and rule of law, this is beyond outrageous. The court must act immediately to stop this flagrant unlawfulness.”The altered email messages included language saying:Thank you for contacting me. On September 10, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse of appropriations, I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.On Thursday, Madi Biedermann, the deputy assistant secretary for communications for the Department of Education, said of the out-of-office responses: “The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government. Where’s the lie?”Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement Friday that employees’ First Amendment rights were violated after “suffering financially by going without a salary due to this politically motivated government shutdown.”This isn’t the first lawsuit related to the shutdown and federal workers. Earlier this week, AFGE, along with another union representing state and local employees, filed one against the Trump administration over potential mass firings previously telegraphed by the White House.“The cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this Court,” the complaint said.Legal concerns have been raised about the president’s ability to lay off what the White House indicated could be “thousands” of people during a government shutdown, but administration officials believe it is within the president’s authority to approve “reductions in force.”“Issuing RIFs is an excepted activity to fulfill the President’s constitutional authority to supervise and control the Executive Branch, similar to conducting foreign policy,” said Rachel Cauley, a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.Natasha KoreckiNatasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Monica AlbaMonica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 4, 2025

Education Department employees found their nonpartisan out-of-office messages were automatically changed to ones criticizing Democrats for the shutdown.

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Oct. 4, 2025, 12:00 PM EDTBy Natasha Korecki, Jonathan Allen and Carol E. LeeFormer President Barack Obama has stepped up his criticisms of the Trump administration in recent weeks, weighing in more forcefully and frequently than he did at the start of the president’s second term.It is an intensification that Democrats welcome at a moment when they lack party leadership, even as some say his trademark caution is still getting the better of him.In the last three weeks, Obama called President Donald Trump’s news conference linking Tylenol and autism “violence against the truth,” and he attacked the administration in the wake of comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s initial late-night ouster for taking “cancel culture” to a “new and dangerous level.” After Charlie Kirk’s killing, Obama aggressively called out Trump’s rhetoric, saying the president was further dividing the country. And before the government shutdown, he clapped at Republicans, saying they would “rather shut down the government than help millions of Americans afford health care.”Obama’s headline-grabbing comments come after private conversations over the summer with allies about whether he should speak out more and how he should approach high-stakes White House actions as they unfold, according to two people familiar with the discussions. According to one of the sources, the former president recognizes the gravity of a moment when Trump is seen as stretching the limits of the Constitution, and one former aide said he is cognizant that there is a dearth of party leadership.It’s unclear, however, whether Obama will sustain this pace.A former Obama White House official with knowledge of his team’s thinking said before Obama sat for a series of paid speaking events in recent weeks, his team mulled how to best take advantage of the appearances. At the same time, a flurry of high-profile events transpired, including the Kirk shooting, Kimmel being pulled off the air and the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.“I’m aware there are discussions of ‘Should we be out there more? How are we calibrating?’ Of course they’re asking that, that’s responsible because he’s trying to be thoughtful. It’s fair to say they’re constantly asking themselves, ‘How do we meet this moment?’” the former official said.But that person noted that some of Obama’s newsmaking moments emerged from public appearances that had been on the books for months. “To take that shot is intentional,” the person said of Obama’s rhetoric against Trump. “Don’t get me wrong — that is definitely a choice. But I can’t overstate the extent to which the realities of the opportunities you have on the calendar inputs into your strategy. They reinforce each other.”Obama’s role in the country’s current political discourse has been a topic of conversation — and at times a source of deep frustration — among Democrats since he left office more than eight years ago. While it’s still not enough for some, his cadence in recent weeks is a sharp change from Trump’s first term, when he subscribed to post-presidential norms of not talking about a successor.But this time is arguably unlike any other. Eight months into Trump’s presidency, the Democratic Party remains leaderless, creating a void that Obama is best suited to fill.“The party itself is in the wilderness and I think the last person who can speak with credibility on behalf of Democrats is Obama,” said Ami Copeland, a Democratic strategist who previously served as Obama’s deputy national finance director. “People don’t want to hear from Biden about anything right now. Clinton is still kind of tainted, I think. And the last person who really led a successful campaign that moves the big-tent party is him.”Copeland characterized Obama’s recent public statements as likely coming from a sense of duty.“He still feels a responsibility to not just the party, but more importantly, to the country. I don’t even see that as a partisan comment. That is just [an] ‘I care about the country and babies’ comment,” Copeland said, referencing Obama’s retort on Tylenol. In response to a request for comment on Obama’s recent remarks, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “Barack Hussein Obama is the architect of modern political division in America — famously demeaning millions of patriotic Americans who opposed his liberal agenda as ‘bitter’ for ‘cling[ing] to guns or religion.’””If he cares about unity in America, he would tell his own party to stop their destructive behavior,” she added.Even as many Democrats point to Obama’s impact, they acknowledge they need to look beyond him if they’re ever to move forward with a new generation of leadership.But for now, they point to Obama’s popularity as giving his words more weight. A Gallup poll in February showed Obama had the highest approval rating among presidents who were still living. A Marquette University Law School poll released last week showed Trump with net minus-15% favorability while Obama enjoyed net 17% favorability. Obama’s discussions on whether to weigh in more publicly on developments out of the Trump administration have included exploring ideas of how, when and in what format, according to the people familiar with the discussions. They characterized the approach as a work in progress, meaning he’s made his views on Trump clear over the past decade, but as the administration rolls out new actions, he’s sought to ensure his approach has an impact.This summer, the former president was called out for clinging to a reserved posture.In June, a headline in The Atlantic asked, “Where is Barack Obama?” and thrashed the former president, casting him as all but sitting on his heels as democracy burned.“No matter how brazen Trump becomes, the most effective communicator in the Democratic Party continues to opt for minimal communication,” the piece stated. “His ‘audacity of hope’ presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.”Less than two weeks later, Obama made news at a public event where he warned that the United States was “dangerously close” to slipping into an autocracy. At the time, news pieces found it notable that Obama appeared publicly to speak against Trump at all. But even at that event, no audio or video was allowed, and Obama was cautious and circumspect. He did not mention Trump by name.“Democracy is not self-executing. It requires people, judges, people in the Justice Department, and people throughout the government who take an oath to uphold the Constitution,” Obama said in those remarks. “It requires them to take that oath seriously. When that isn’t happening, we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy. It is consistent with autocracies.”Aides have long said they want to avoid a “dilution” factor with the 44th president, so that he’s not so frequently weighing in on issues that his words lose their impact.In July, Obama’s office did issue a rebuke of Trump after the president accused him of committing “treason” and rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections.“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” his office said at the time.To some Democrats, Obama is falling short at a critical time.“Obama has a singular role in impacting the national debate that he is not in any way maxing out right now, at a time when he is most needed,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.Green held up Obama’s signaling of support for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s effort to match Texas in redrawing its maps mid-decade as the kind of “trickle down” messaging he should take part in to help guide other Democrats.“He has an unmatched ability to cut through the noise and focus in on the Republicans’ most effective arguments, and then completely debunk them, oftentimes with humor that has been devastating for some Republican candidates on the receiving end during campaign season,” Green said. “But we need him to use that same prowess in this moment to help save the country.”As president in 2011, Obama showed no reticence in ripping into Trump for promoting the false claim that Obama had been born outside the U.S. At that year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Obama mercilessly mocked Trump, who was in the audience, for having little experience in making consequential executive decisions and for peddling conspiracy theories.“Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama said. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”Trump was visibly irritated during the remarks, and some of his allies say the moment likely factored into his decision to seek the presidency in 2016.To be sure, Obama has for years served as a Trump critic, particularly when shifting to his familiar role as a closer in critical races on the campaign trail for other Democrats. He’s trotted out punchy one-liners, including at the Democratic National Convention when he memorably needled Trump over an obsession with crowd size, then gestured with his hands in a way that made clear he also was referencing Trump’s manhood.In August, it was Obama who acted as the party elder and congratulated Texas Democrats in a video address for standing up to Republicans by leaving their state to deny the GOP a quorum before a redistricting vote. Obama has kept up his advocacy for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, led by his friend and former attorney general Eric Holder.“President Obama has been sounding the alarm about the threat of gerrymandering for a long time. He was integral to the formation of the NDRC and has made our mission a priority in his post-presidency,” NDRC President John Bisognano said in a statement.The recent recalibration of Obama’s comments is in part due to the increasing pace and scale of Trump’s actions, two former aides said.“When I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents ‘vermin,’ enemies who need to be ‘targeted,’ that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and something that we’re going to have to grapple with, all of us,” Obama said at a Sept. 17 public appearance before the Jefferson Educational Society, a nonprofit think tank.Before that, he stood out among Democrats for having called New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani in June, even as many of his peers in the party tiptoed around the democratic socialist’s primary win.“He picks and chooses his spots wisely. Sometimes you can watch for so long,” a person who frequently speaks to the former president said. “You won’t see him shadowing this president. He didn’t do it the first four years. There was a lot of crazy then. More crazy now. He’s not going to be a president who spends his time throwing shade on another president, but he’ll certainly lean in when he sees injustices.”While being interviewed onstage in London by British Nigerian historian David Olusoga, Obama last month described Trump’s claims about the link between Tylenol and autism as “violence against the truth.”“We have the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office, making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproved. … That undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant,” he said. “That’s why, by the way, it is important for those who believe in the truth and believe in science to also examine truth when it is inconvenient for us.”John Anzalone, who acted as a chief pollster to Obama as well as to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and former President Joe Biden said Democrats are so far in the desert they’re craving a dominant voice to step forward.“More Obama,” Anzalone said, “just like ‘more cowbell,’” referencing a famous “Saturday Night Live” skit.Anzalone argued this moment is unlike others in history, as there is no major oppositional voice breaking through in the same way that then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich could act as a foil to President Bill Clinton when the Republicans were in the minority, for instance.If “he feels more comfortable ratcheting it up, you’re going to see a lot of people cheering, because we feel that it’s kind of leaderless and rudderless,” Anzalone said of Obama. “There’s an audience for President Obama and people do listen, but we also kind of understand that there’s a certain calculus when you’re a former president about what, how often and how loud you speak, and you’ve got to respect that.”Anzalone noted, however, that as much as Democrats want to hear from Obama early and often, new leaders need to emerge, and the party as a whole must find a way to break through to voters moving forward.“It’s good to hear from President Obama but there’s limits to what even he can do fixing the problems of the terrible branding,” Anzalone said. “Individual candidates are going to have to do that. Leaders are going to have to do that.”Natasha KoreckiNatasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Jonathan AllenJonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News. Carol E. LeeCarol E. Lee is the Washington managing editor.

- Latest News - October 4, 2025

Former President Barack Obama has stepped up his criticisms of the Trump administration in recent weeks, weighing in more forcefully and frequently than he did at the start of the.

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Oct. 4, 2025, 9:48 AM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonIsrael airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local authorities said, hours after President Donald Trump called to halt the bombing, saying that Hamas was ready for peace.Israeli fire killed six people across Gaza, Reuters reported, citing officials, while the Israel Defense Forces said a large part of the enclave remains a dangerous combat zone. One strike killed four people in a house in Gaza City while another killed two others in Khan Younis, authorities said. The attacks came after Hamas said Friday it has agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, and expressed willingness to negotiate through mediators on Trump’s 20-point plan for peace.Trump later said that Israel “must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza,” writing on Truth Social that Hamas was “ready for a lasting PEACE.” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Saturday that Israel was preparing “to immediately implement the first phase of Trump’s plan for the immediate release of all hostages.”Residents of Gaza, which has been largely destroyed in the nearly two-year-old war and faces a serious humanitarian crisis, responded to the developments with optimism.“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta told Reuters.Hamas agrees to release all Israeli hostages, alive and dead07:10But attacks have continued on the enclave, and the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it continued to surround Gaza City, and that “attempting to return to it poses a significant risk.”“The area north of Wadi Gaza is still considered a dangerous combat zone,” Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a post on X, referring to a river valley that is considered an informal divider between the northern and southern halves of Gaza.Israeli strikes killed at least 66 people and injured over 250 in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Saturday, adding that the total death toll in the enclave had passed 67,000 after the addition of more than 700 people whose data had been verified.Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, does not say how many of those killed were civilians versus combatants, but the United Nations and other independent experts consider its figures to be reliable.It was unclear how many of the most recent deaths took place after Trump’s announcement. The Ministry of Health reported two deaths of children due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 459, including 154 children, it said. The U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, called on Israel to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to resume through the U.N.The potential breakthrough with Hamas provides “a rare window of hope” to address the suffering of more than 2 million people “with unspeakable needs,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted. Of the 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, Israel believes 20 are still alive. Under the plan proposed by Trump, Hamas would have three days to release them.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. Reuters contributed.

- Latest News - October 4, 2025

Israel airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local authorities said, hours after President Donald Trump called to halt the bombing, saying that Hamas was ready for peace

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