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US State Department Orders Pause on Media Subscriptions

The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File photo
The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File photo
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US State Department Orders Pause on Media Subscriptions

The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File photo
The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File photo

The US State Department said on Thursday it has ordered a pause on all of its media subscriptions as part of government-wide efforts by the Trump administration to cut spending it deems as unnecessary.

President Donald Trump has put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of a government downsizing team, DOGE, that has swept through federal agencies searching for spending cuts as part of Trump's overhaul and shrinking of the US government.

"The Department has paused all non-mission critical contracts for media subscriptions that are not academic or professional journals," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

"Bureaus and posts can request an exemption with justification as to why the access is mission critical, how it aligns with the Secretary’s priorities, and how it impacts the safety, security, and welfare of the workforce." The State Department did not say how long the pause would last.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said all government spending must align with Trump's America First priorities.

The Washington Post, which first reported the order on media subscriptions on Wednesday, also cited a State Department memo that directed staff to prioritize the termination of contracts with the Economist, the New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, the Associated Press and Reuters.

The State Department did not respond to a query about the memo, which Reuters was unable to independently confirm.

A Reuters spokesperson said: "As a matter of policy, Reuters does not comment on commercial agreements."

New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said: "Public officials, just like private sector Americans, need reliable information to do their jobs. The government is obviously free to cancel any subscriptions it likes. But the main result of blacklisting independent news is that these agencies and offices will know far less about what’s happening in the world. It’s hard to imagine how that will serve the people of the United States."

A spokesperson for the Economist said on Thursday: “We know that diplomats around the world value our rigorous reporting, in-depth analysis and global perspective. At a time of rapid upheaval, we believe our fact-based journalism is more essential than ever.”

The other media companies mentioned in the memo reported by the Washington Post did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Reuters' parent company Thomson Reuters separately said last week that Trump and Musk had "inaccurately represented" its business with the US Department of Defense, after they publicly criticized a Pentagon contract with a division of the company to work on cyber threats.

Trump has long criticized media companies over their coverage of him and his policies.

The president said on Tuesday he will block the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its policy to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico despite an executive order he signed in January directing his administration to change the name to the Gulf of America.

In response, the AP said it will refer to the Gulf by its original name to ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to readers around the world, while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.

The White House in early February ordered the canceling of subscriptions to news outlet Politico after it became a target of criticism for receiving payments from the US Agency for International Development for subscriptions to its premium news service POLITICO Pro.

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World

Taiwan Says Chinese Aircraft Carrier Sailed Through Taiwan Strait 

Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong sails in Pacific Ocean waters, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Okinawa prefecture, Japan, April 5, 2023. (Reuters)
Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong sails in Pacific Ocean waters, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Okinawa prefecture, Japan, April 5, 2023. (Reuters)
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Taiwan Says Chinese Aircraft Carrier Sailed Through Taiwan Strait 

Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong sails in Pacific Ocean waters, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Okinawa prefecture, Japan, April 5, 2023. (Reuters)
Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong sails in Pacific Ocean waters, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Okinawa prefecture, Japan, April 5, 2023. (Reuters)

China's newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, Taiwan's defense ministry said, its first transit of the sensitive waterway since formally entering service last month.

Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory, reports almost daily Chinese military activity around the island in what Taipei views as an ongoing pressure campaign against the democratically elected government.

In a statement on Wednesday, Taiwan's defense ministry said the Fujian had transited the strait the previous day and that Taiwan's forces had monitored it.

The ministry showed a grainy, black-and-white picture of the carrier with no aircraft on its deck. It did not say where the picture was taken and offered no other details.

China's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China says it alone has sovereignty over the strait, a major maritime artery for freight traffic. Taiwan and the United States say it is an international waterway.

In September, the carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait and into the disputed South China Sea during trials.

The Fujian is China's third aircraft carrier, with a flat flight deck and electromagnetic catapults for take-offs that make it a potentially far more powerful naval weapon than China's first two Russian-designed carriers.

The Fujian will be able to carry significantly more and heavier armed jet fighters than the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which are smaller and rely on ramps to launch aircraft.

With a flat deck and electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft, the Fujian is expected to host a larger and wider range of planes than the other two carriers - including early-warning aircraft and, eventually, China's first carrier-capable stealth jet fighters.

China's President Xi Jinping attended its commissioning and flag presenting ceremony in the southern island province of Hainan last month and boarded the vessel for an inspection tour.

World

Alleged Bondi Gunman Charged with 15 Murders as Funerals of Victims Begin 

Police officers remove police tape from the scene of Sunday's shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney on December 17, 2025. (AFP)
Police officers remove police tape from the scene of Sunday's shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney on December 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Alleged Bondi Gunman Charged with 15 Murders as Funerals of Victims Begin 

Police officers remove police tape from the scene of Sunday's shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney on December 17, 2025. (AFP)
Police officers remove police tape from the scene of Sunday's shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney on December 17, 2025. (AFP)

A man who allegedly opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's famed Bondi Beach has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism, police said on Wednesday.

The alleged father-and-son perpetrators opened fire on the celebration at Sydney's famed Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing 15 in an attack that shook the nation and intensified fears of rising antisemitism and violent extremism.

Funerals of the Jewish victims of the attack began on Wednesday, amid anger over how the gunmen - one of whom was briefly investigated for links to extremists - were allowed access to powerful firearms.

Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, while his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram emerged from a coma on Tuesday afternoon after also being shot by police.

New South Wales Police said on Wednesday that a man had been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of wounding with attempt to murder, as well as a terror offence and other charges.

"Police will allege in court the man engaged in conduct that caused death, serious injury and endangered life to advance a religious cause and cause fear in the community," it said in a statement.

"Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS, a listed terrorist organization in Australia."

A court filing on Wednesday named Naveed Akram, who remains in a Sydney hospital under heavy police guard, as the man charged.

He will appear via video link before a local court on Monday morning.

The father and son had travelled to the southern Philippines, a region long plagued by militancy, weeks before the shooting that Australian police said appeared to be inspired by ISIS.

US President Donald Trump told a Hanukkah event at the White House late on Tuesday that he was thinking of the victims of the "horrific and antisemitic terrorist attack".

"We join in mourning all of those who were killed, and we're praying for the swift recovery of the wounded," he said.

STATE GOVERNMENT TO PASS GUN REFORMS

The leader of the Australian state of New South Wales said on Wednesday he will recall parliament next week to pass wide-ranging reforms of gun and protest laws, days after the country's deadliest mass shooting in three decades.

Chris Minns, the Premier of New South Wales state where the attack took place, told a news conference parliament would return on December 22 to hear "urgent" reforms, including capping the number of firearms allowed by a single person and making certain types of shotguns harder to access.

The state government will also look at reforms making it harder to hold large street protests after terror events, in order to prevent further tensions.

"We've got a monumental task in front of us. It's huge," he said.

"It's a huge responsibility to pull the community together. I think we need a summer of calm and togetherness, not division."

FUNERALS FOR JEWISH VICTIMS BEGIN

A funeral for Rabbi Eli Schlanger, an assistant rabbi at Chabad Bondi Synagogue and a father of five, was held on Wednesday. He was known for his work for Sydney’s Jewish community through Chabad, a global organization fostering Jewish identity and connection.

Schlanger would travel to prisons and meet with Jewish people living in Sydney's public housing communities, Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin said on Monday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing criticism that his center-left government did not do enough to prevent the spread of antisemitism in Australia during the two-year Israel-Gaza war.

"We will work with the Jewish community, we want to stamp out and eradicate antisemitism from our society," Albanese told reporters.

The government and intelligence services are also under pressure to explain why Sajid Akram was allowed to legally acquire the high-powered rifles and shotguns used in the attack.

The government has already promised sweeping reforms to gun laws.

Naveed Akram, meanwhile, was briefly investigated by Australia's domestic intelligence agency in 2019 over alleged links to ISIS, but there was no evidence at the time he posed a threat, Albanese said.

MAN PRAISED AS HERO TO UNDERGO SURGERY

Albanese said Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, the man who tackled one of the shooters to disarm his rifle and suffered gunshot wounds, was due to undergo surgery on Wednesday.

Al-Ahmed's uncle, Mohammed al-Ahmed in Syria, said his nephew left his hometown in Syria's northwest province of Idlib nearly 20 years ago to seek work in Australia.

"We learned through social media. I called his father and he told me that it was Ahmed. Ahmed is a hero, we're proud of him. Syria in general is proud of him," the uncle told Reuters.

The family of 22-year-old police officer Jack Hibbert, who was shot twice on Sunday and had been on the force for just four months, said in a statement on Wednesday he had lost vision in one eye and faced a "long and challenging recovery" ahead.

"In the face of a violent and tragic incident, he responded with courage, instinct, and selflessness, continuing to protect and help others whilst injured, until he was physically no longer able to," the family said.

New South Wales Premier Minns said 23 people were still in several Sydney hospitals.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR AMONG VICTIMS

Other shooting victims included a Holocaust survivor, a husband and wife who first approached the gunmen before they started firing, and a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and media reports.

Matilda's father told a Bondi vigil on Tuesday night he did not want his daughter's legacy to be forgotten.

"We came here from Ukraine ... and I thought that Matilda is the most Australian name that can ever exist. So just remember the name, remember her," local media reported him as saying.

In Bondi on Wednesday, swimmers gathered on Sydney's most popular beach and held a minute's silence. A New Year's Eve party due to be held on the beach was cancelled by organizers.

"This week has obviously been very profound, and this morning, I definitely feel a sense of the community getting together, and a sense of everyone sitting together," Archie Kalaf, a 24-year-old Bondi man, told Reuters. "Everyone's grieving, everyone's understanding and processing it in their own way."

World

Iran FM in Russia for Nuclear Talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets with Russian legislators in Moscow. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets with Russian legislators in Moscow. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
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Iran FM in Russia for Nuclear Talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets with Russian legislators in Moscow. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets with Russian legislators in Moscow. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Moscow on Tuesday amid a crisis in his country’s relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and ongoing disagreements with the West over a nuclear deal.

Ahead of Araghchi’s arrival, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Iranian state media that the IAEA needed to be neutral in dealing with Iran.

“The IAEA did not condemn the (US and Israeli) strikes on Iran (in June) even though the agency had a mandate to monitor the bombed sites – these were the sites in question. This omission was a blatant violation of all the rules and norms,” Lavrov said.

“This is why IAEA’s actions did not exactly please anyone in Iran, to say the least, which is more than understandable,” he noted.

Iran passed a law in July to suspend its cooperation with the IAEA, denying UN inspectors access into the country. The suspension came after US and Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22.

The FM said Russia supported Iran at various stages of the negotiations with the IAEA.

President Vladimir Putin “discussed the current situation with our Iranian friends at various levels. We shared with our Iranian friends our opinion on how to deal with this situation, how to restore relations with the IAEA and with Western countries and on what terms, if they are interested in this. But the final decision remains, of course, with the leadership of Iran,” Lavrov added.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi had been calling on Iran to allow inspectors access to three key nuclear facilities that enrich uranium and were hit by the US and Israeli airstrikes in June.

But head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said the IAEA has no right to demand inspections of the targeted sites.

In a related development, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held telephone talks with Grossi on Monday over the Iranian nuclear file.

Abdelatty underscored the importance of continuing efforts aimed at building confidence and paving the way for sustained cooperation between Iran and the IAEA.

In an interview with Radio France International (RFI) on Monday, Grossi said: “Contact with Iran remains in place. We haven’t yet been able to restore cooperation to the required level, but I believe it is critically important.”

He said dialogue with Iran continues through behind-the-scenes negotiations and confidential contacts.

Last month, Kamal Kharrazi, a top foreign affairs advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei, said Tehran was ready to consider a Russian and Chinese plan to resume cooperation with IAEA.

In Russia, Araghchi met with Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the lower house of parliament, and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).

He said Russian-Iranian ties are developing across all areas of cooperation.

Araghchi and Lavrov are set to meet on Wednesday.