Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Friday, March 28, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas. We have some pressing stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening both nationally and around the world.
The federal agency responsible for protecting the health of our nation announces dramatic changes; the European Union along with a couple of our significant trading partners weigh their response to President Donald Trump’s substantial tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, and the Trump administration suffers a pair of consequential setbacks in court as they look to trim expenses in our federal government.
Also, an alleged top-level violent gang leader is arrested as our government’s crackdown on illegal immigrant criminals picks up steam, and in the Middle East, a strange turn of events in Gaza as a war-torn population takes to the streets to protest their leaders.
RFK Jr. Announces Mass Terminations, Major Restructuring at HHS
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has just announced a major overhaul of his department which includes the merging of divisions, the mass layoff of thousands of employees, and more.Kennedy says he’s making the changes in order to streamline HHS, improve the quality of service, and make the agency both more efficient and more effective. He says the transition will be painful, but that eventually, “we are going to do more with less.”
He went on to say his plan includes the consolidation of a number of redundant divisions, as well as an estimated 25 percent reduction in the current HHS workforce that will eventually leave the department with just over 60,000 employees.
Health officials say that the agency’s reorganization will whittle 28 divisions down to 15, saving nearly $2 billion a year. They say that the divisions which will be most affected by the employee layoffs are the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The agency says its reorganization will not affect key services such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Meanwhile, a number of people are criticizing the announcement. Critics include the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, which says that Kennedy is gutting the world’s best public health agency by firing thousands of experts who keep America safe and healthy.
Canada, EU, and Japan Weigh Response to Trump’s Tariffs on Imported Cars
The EU is contemplating its options and both Canada and Japan are considering retaliatory measures after a recent announcement by the White House that 25 percent tariffs on all imported automobiles will take effect beginning on April 3, the day after our nation is set to impose broad reciprocal tariffs on nations across the globe.Additionally, the White House says that a 25 percent tariff on all imported automobile parts will take effect by May 3. The president says that these new tariffs are designed to spur unprecedented growth in our nation’s automobile industry, which he says will “flourish like it’s never flourished before.”
A top EU official says that she regrets Trump’s decision. She says that the automobile industry is a driver of innovation, competition, and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, and that tariffs are taxes which are bad for business and worse for consumers, both in Europe and the United States.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling the new tariffs a “direct attack” on Canadian workers. He says they will hurt his nation, and that Canada will defend both its country and its companies by considering additional tariffs of their own against the U.S.
For his part, Japan’s prime minister says that all options are still on the table regarding his nation’s most effective response to the new tariffs. He says that Japan is making the largest amount of investment in the United States, and he wonders if it makes sense for our government to apply the same tariffs to all countries.
It’s worth noting that according to the White House, half of the roughly 16 million cars bought in the United States last year were imports. Additionally, around 50 percent of all parts used to assemble vehicles in America come from outside the United States.
Let’s circle back now to an intriguing story regarding government jobs. Thousands of federal workers were recently terminated, only to have their jobs reinstated by a court order.
Appeals Court Declines to Pause Ruling That Forced Reinstatement of Federal Workers
A federal appeals court in California has just declined a request by the Trump administration to pause an earlier ruling that has forced officials to reinstate nearly 18,000 government workers.Those employees were previously fired by six federal agencies, using guidance provided by the government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM). However, earlier this month, the court ordered their reinstatement, and the Trump administration appealed that ruling, arguing that the decision to fire the employees was made by the agencies themselves.
Two of the three judges who heard the appeal ruled that the government has not shown that it’s likely to succeed in the case and that it would suffer irreparable harm unless the reinstatement order is delayed.
In its decision, a panel of three judges found that the freeze on funding would cause states an array of harms, including leaving them unable to meet existing financial obligations and forcing them to take on additional debt.
The judges unanimously rejected the administration’s argument that the previous lower court decision was too broad. That ruling found that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) overstepped its authority when it issued a memo in January directing all federal agencies to pause $3 trillion in federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance, pending a review.
Top East Coast MS-13 Leader Arrested in Virginia
Officials say that they’ve just arrested a senior leader of the violent transnational MS-13 gang in Virginia, following a coordinated federal law enforcement operation. Authorities say the suspect is the gang’s East Coast leader and one of its top three operatives in the United States.MS-13 is a multi-national criminal gang largely composed of individuals from El Salvador or their descendants. It operates in more than 40 states, and was recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
According to officials, the arrest was carried out by a cross-agency task force consisting of federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel, created earlier this month under the Trump administration’s directive to target violent transnational gangs.
FBI Director Kash Patel says that the suspect’s arrest is what happens when “you let good cops be cops” and that thanks to the “brave leadership” of the Trump administration, we are returning our communities to safety.
For his part, President Donald Trump called the operation a “big deal,” and went on to congratulate the entire team, including Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, border czar Tom Homan, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Growing Crowds of Gazans Demonstrate Against Hamas
In a rare show of defiance, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are demonstrating against both their Hamas-led government and its war with Israel.Videos show some of the demonstrators chanting “Hamas, get out!” and holding signs saying “Stop the war” and “We refuse to die” as they march down a dusty street between war-shattered buildings near north Gaza’s border with Israel. However, other videos show supporters of the Hamas terrorist group dispersing the crowds.
According to one Israeli newspaper, nearly 3,000 people took part in one of the protests, which were held in several different cities throughout Gaza.
One protester says that the demonstrations began spontaneously, out of a “sense of despair” due to the population’s “inability to endure” the ongoing war. He points out that the protesters are not showing any support for Israel, which he says offers nothing but “killing, shelling, and blockade,” but that Hamas “bears direct responsibility,” as do all Arab and Palestinian leaders, for their current living conditions.
Another protester says he joined the demonstration to show he’s against the war, against Hamas, against Israel, and against the world’s lack of response to the suffering.
After a two-month-long cease-fire that included Israeli hostages being exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, fighting recently resumed in the Gaza Strip after negotiations for a second cease-fire and more hostage releases broke down.
In response, Israel cut off the delivery of food, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents. Meanwhile, Israel’s defense minister is urging others to join the protest and demand the removal of Hamas as the only way to end the war.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re gonna call it a wrap for the Friday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
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Finally, as we do each day on this program, we wrap everything up with a notable quote. This one comes to us from Rod Serling who said:
“Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete.”
Serling created, hosted, and wrote for the television series “The Twilight Zone.” He also fought in WWII, he was a boxer as well, and clearly, he opposed censorship.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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Enjoy the remainder of your day and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for the Saturday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another. Have an absolutely superb day. Bye for now.
