UN says over 87% of Gaza Strip under Israeli military orders, militarized zones

Israeli displacement orders push 'about 2.1 million people into a fragmented area of the Strip where hardly any services are available,' says spokesperson

Merve Aydogan |21.07.2025 - TRT/AA

(Photo by Ali Jadallah)


HAMILTON, Canada

The UN said Monday that 87.7% of the Gaza Strip is within Israeli militarized zones, under displacement orders or in areas where the two overlap.

Citing Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a news conference that "87.7% of the Gaza is now under displacement orders or within displacement zones, squeezing about 2.1 million people into a fragmented area of the strip where hardly any services are available."

Emphasizing that more than 1.3 million people in Gaza are in need of shelter and household items, Dujarric said: "Harsh weather, humidity, overcrowding and frequent disassembly, a reassembly of tents and tarpaulins lead to shorter lifespan of shelter items."

He highlighted the "dire" situation in the enclave, where no shelter supplies have entered more than four months. "The fuel crisis continues."

"The limited quantity that have been allowed to enter Gaza in recent days are hardly sufficient," he said, adding that UN is prioritizing the use of available fuel for "most critical operations."

Dujarric also emphasized the "deeply concerning reports of severely malnourished people who are arriving in medical points and hospitals in extremely poor health" amid ongoing Israeli attacks.

"Yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported that more than a dozen people, including children, have reportedly died from hunger in the last 24 hours," he said, describing the situation on the ground as " nearly impossible."

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 86 people—including 76 children—have died from hunger and dehydration since October 2023. Gaza’s government media office warned the enclave is "on the brink of mass death" after over 140 days of a near-total closure of all crossings.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 59,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza. The relentless bombing has destroyed the enclave, nearly collapsed its health system, and created famine-like conditions.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on the enclave.

25 countries, EU condemn 'inhumane killing' of civilians in Gaza

'We strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,' says statement

Burak Bir |21.07.2025 - TRT/AA

Israeli attacks on Gaza continue (Photo by Ali Jadallah)

LONDON

More than two dozen countries, including the UK, Australia, and Japan along with the EU on Monday condemned Israel's 'inhumane killing' of civilians in the Gaza Strip, called for an immediate end to the war in the besieged enclave.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of 25 countries and the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib, said the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached "new depths."

"The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," it said.

"We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food."

Labelling the killing of over 800 Palestinians while seeking aid since the start of operations by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in late May as "horrifying," the statement noted that the Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is "unacceptable."

"Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law," read the statement, signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK as well as the EU commissioner.

Also condemning the detention of hostages, they called for their "immediate and unconditional release." Hamas took around 250 Israeli hostages in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Around 20 are still believed to be alive.

"We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively."

Calling on all parties to protect civilians and uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law, the statement said proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a "humanitarian city" are "completely unacceptable."

"Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law. We strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories."

The parties also reaffirmed their "complete support" to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.

WHO chief says Israeli forces attacked agency’s staff residence in Gaza

'WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff,' says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Burak Bir |22.07.2025 - TRT/AA



LONDON

Israeli forces attacked the staff residence of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Gaza three times on Monday along with its main warehouse and detained staff and family members, said the head of the UN agency.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement that the attacks occurred against the staff residence in Deir al Balah.

"The Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al-Mawasi amid active conflict," he said.

Tedros said that male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint, adding that two WHO staff and two family members were detained.

Three were later released, but one staff member remains in detention, he said, adding that 32 WHO staff and family members were evacuated to the WHO office once access became possible.

"WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff."

Expressing concern regarding the latest Israeli evacuation order in Deir al Balah, Tedros underlined that it has affected several WHO premises, compromising the agency's ability to operate in Gaza and pushing the health system further towards collapse.

"WHO’s main warehouse located in Deir al Balah is within the evacuation zone, and was damaged yesterday when an attack caused explosions and a fire inside," he recalled.

"WHO urgently calls on Member States to help ensure a sustained and regular flow of medical supplies into Gaza," he said, stressing that compromising WHO’s operations is crippling the entire health response in Gaza.

"A ceasefire is not just necessary, it is overdue,” he added.

UNRWA chief accuses Gaza Humanitarian Foundation of acting as ‘mercenaries’ in deadly aid attacks

‘The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap,’ says Philippe Lazzarini

Mohammad Sio |21.07.2025 - TRT/AA

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini

ISTANBUL

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Monday delivered a blistering condemnation of food distribution operations in Gaza, accusing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) of behaving like “mercenaries” and contributing to a catastrophic collapse of humanitarian norms.

In a statement, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini described the GHF’s role in aid deliveries as a “sadistic death trap,” saying civilians are being shot at while scrambling for food.

“Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a license to kill,” Lazzarini said. “A massive hunt of people, in total impunity.”

He said more than 1,000 starving civilians have been reported killed while attempting to access food since the end of May.

Lazzarini highlighted the dire conditions in Gaza, where hunger and exhaustion are overwhelming caretakers. “No one is spared,” he said, adding: “Caretakers in Gaza are also in need of care; including doctors, nurses, journalists and humanitarians are hungry.”

He noted: “The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap,” adding: “This cannot be our new norm; humanitarian assistance is not the job of mercenaries.”

He urged an end to the violence and the reinstatement of proper international aid mechanisms, emphasizing that the UN and its partners “have the expertise, experience, and available resources to provide safe, dignified, and at-scale assistance.”

“We have proven it time and again during the last ceasefire,” Lazzarini said. “This cannot be our new norm.”

The GHF is an American organization backed by Israel. Israel cut off supplies to Gaza in March, and the group started operating in Gaza in late May, bypassing the UN and other established NGOs, but has been criticized by Palestinians and international groups for the high numbers of casualties linked to its operations.

Earlier in the day, the Gaza Health Ministry said that 99 Palestinians were killed and over 650 injured while trying to get humanitarian aid in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed while seeking aid to 1,021, with over 6,511 others wounded since May 27.

Israel has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI

Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him



Resorting to polygraphs is "old-style KGB stuff"
(Image credit: Getty Images) 

By The Week US

JULY 21,  2025

FBI Director Kash Patel is determined to know who is talking trash about him, said Adam Goldman in The New York Times. In days past, the agency used lie-detector tests "to sniff out employees who might have betrayed their country," but under Patel, it's employing them to grill agents on whether they've said anything negative about him. It has even used the tests to hunt for the person who leaked Patel's request to be assigned a service weapon. This "alarming quest for fealty," FBI employees say, is "politically charged and highly inappropriate." Patel, who worked as an aide in the first Trump administration, was a leading critic of the agency before being confirmed to lead it—indeed, he claimed the agency was part of, in his words, a "Deep State plot" against President Trump, and he spread the conspiracy theory that Jan. 6 was a false-flag event. Since taking the helm in February, he has reassigned or forced out hundreds of experienced FBI officials, fueling a culture of fear and distrust.

Polygraph tests "are regarded as junk science, so it's a little insane" that the FBI still uses them at all, said Liz Wolfe in Reason. They detect stress, not lies, and they're not admissible in court. "But it's especially wild" for Patel to use them to determine loyalty to him personally. "Defending the laws of this country" is what these agents ought to be concerned with. Yet Patel has actually disbanded the squad investigating public corruption—because it was investigating wrongdoing by Trump administration figures. In fact, the FBI may be overdue for a house-cleaning, said Miranda Devine in the New York Post. A "bombshell new CIA review" shows that Deep State actors at the FBI in the late 2010s insisted on pushing highly suspect information to build "a false narrative of Trump-Russia collusion." That shows the agency was appallingly politicized.

Yet resorting to polygraphs is "old-style KGB stuff," said Tom Nichols in The Atlantic. Patel suspects agents "are laughing at him behind his back," and his solution amounts to "paranoid authoritarianism." Purging the FBI of veteran agents will only "corrode morale and potentially create more security risks" at a time when the country is in peril. Real spies and terrorists are out there "plotting the deaths of American citizens," and it should be the FBI's mission to find them. They're "waiting to be caught," but first, "Patel has to find out who snickered at him in the hallway. Priorities, after all."

Trump administration releases files on Martin Luther King Jr. against family's wishes

The Trump administration has published over 240,000 pages of FBI surveillance records on Martin Luther King Jr., defying objections from his family and civil rights groups. The files, sealed since 1977, detail FBI monitoring before King’s 1968 assassination. The National Archives received the documents after a court order.


Issued on: 22/07/2025 
By:FRANCE 24

The Stone of Hope statue is seen at the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial in Washington, DC on July 2, 2018 © Mandel Ngan, AFP

The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father’s assassination has been a “captivating public curiosity for decades.” But the pair emphasised the personal nature of the matter, urging that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.”

The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. It was not immediately clear Monday whether the documents would shed any new light on King's life, the Civil Rights Movement or his murder

Read more What remains of Martin Luther King Jr's dream, 60 years on?

“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief – a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met – an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,” they wrote. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

They also repeated the family's long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all.

Bernice King was 5-years old when her father was killed at the age of 39. Martin III was 10.

A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure “unprecedented” and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time. She praised President Donald Trump for pushing the issue.

Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy’s and MLK's 1968 assassinations.

The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April.

The announcement from Gabbard's office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King's children on various topics – including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was “grateful to President Trump” for his “transparency."

Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King.

Besides fulfilling Trump's order, the latest release means another alternative headline for the president as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration’s handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file.

Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement Monday.

Read moreTrump signs order to declassify JFK, RFK and MLK assassination files

Some civil rights activists were not so sparing.

“Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “It’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base.”

The King Center, founded by King's widow and now led by Bernice King, reacted separately from what Bernice said jointly with her brother. The King Center statement framed the release as a distraction – but from more than short-term political controversy.

“It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,” the King Center, linking those challenges to MLK's efforts. “This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace.”

The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order early.

Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents for new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. The group, along with King’s family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement.

It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover’s bureau wiretapped King’s telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to gather information, including evidence of King's extramarital affairs.

“He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” the King children said in their statement.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Citizenship: Trump order blocked again

After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship



The administration is essentially asserting that Trump should be allowed to override "the Constitution itself," an intolerable proposition.
(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

By The Week US

published 7 hours ago

A federal judge in New Hampshire has opened "a new front in the battle" over President Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship, said Adam Liptak in The New York Times. Two weeks ago Trump scored a major win when the Supreme Court curbed lower courts' power to block administration policies through nationwide injunctions. A Trump executive order ending the 157-year-old policy whereby any baby born in the U.S. becomes a citizen had been blocked by such an injunction. But in their ruling, the justices made clear that class action suits could still be used to seek nationwide injunctions. And now Judge Joseph Laplante has certified such a suit on behalf of all children born to parents who are unauthorized or here temporarily, and barred enforcement of Trump's order. The administration blasted Laplante as a "rogue judge" and filed an appeal.

Laplante is no "judge gone rogue," said Damon Root in Reason. He's a George W. Bush appointee whose "well-reasoned" ruling is notable for its "careful judicial adherence" to the Supreme Court's dictates. He said it was an easy call to determine that the group in question both met the criteria for a class action suit—which lets people facing a common issue band together as plaintiffs—and was entitled to relief. Whether Laplante's certification of the class action suit will hold up on appeal "remains to be seen," said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. "Sorry to spoil your summer plans, Justices," but the question may soon land before the Supreme Court.

The issue could become "a showdown" between Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito, said Benjamin Parker in The Bulwark. Both chose to limit the use of nationwide injunctions, but while Alito warned judges against letting class action suits achieve the same effect, Kavanaugh appeared to invite such suits. That hints at a split among the high court's conservatives over whether the court will ultimately green-light Trump's birthright citizenship order and its "brazen attack on the 14th Amendment." It must not, said the New York Daily News in an editorial. The administration is essentially asserting that Trump should be allowed to override "the Constitution itself," an intolerable proposition. And letting Trump's order go into effect would result in "catastrophic and cascading harms," making every individual born to temporary or undocumented residents "effectively stateless in their own country of birth." This sorry affair must end with the high court unequivocally ruling that "attempts to end birthright citizenship are unconstitutional on the merits, full stop."

‘Stop violating the law!’: Exasperated judge blasts Trump for blackout over public money

White House illegally took down website data showing how taxpayer data is spent, court finds

Alex Woodward
in New York
Monday 21 July 2025 

 Budget director confronted over Trump's lavish spending amid cuts


A federal judge gave Donald Trump’s administration some simple instructions when it comes to “violating” the law: Stop doing it.

In a ruling on Monday, District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C. found that the White House Office of Management and Budget illegally took down a public website showing how federal agencies spend taxpayer money.

“There is nothing unconstitutional about Congress requiring the Executive Branch to inform the public of how it is apportioning the public’s money,” Sullivan wrote in a 60-page opinion.

“Defendants are therefore required to stop violating the law!” added Sullivan — emphasis his.

The administration removed the website in March. OMB director Russell Vought told members of Congress that the office intentionally flouted the law by scraping the database due to the “sensitive” and “deliberative” nature of the information on it.


A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on July 21 ordered Donald Trump’s administration to ‘stop violating the law!’ in the latest legal blow to the president’s agenda (Reuters)

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A lawsuit from nonprofit watchdog groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Protect Democracy accused the administration of removing data to which they are statutorily entitled as part of their efforts to monitor government funding.

According to Sullivan, Trump and Vought relied on “an extravagant and unsupported theory of presidential power” to argue that the government’s appropriation of public funds does not need to be publicly disclosed.


Instead, they complained about the “extra work” required of them under law passed by Congress in 2022 and 2023, Sullivan wrote.

“This is a management issue; not a constitutional one,” he said.

The judge ordered OMB to restore the database and publicly disclose the information on it, including any apportionment information from the time the database was taken offline.


“The law is clear that the federal government must make its appropriations decisions public,” according to Adina Rosenbaum, Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney and counsel on the case. “So this case turned on a straightforward point: The administration must follow the law.”


open image in galleryWhite House Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought has been ordered to restore public data that disclosed how federal agencies are using taxpayer funds (AP)

Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel at CREW, said the decision “reaffirms Congress’s constitutional authority to require public disclosure of how taxpayer dollars are spent.”


“Americans have a right to know how taxpayer money is being spent,” he added. “Ensuring public access to this information serves as a critical check on the executive branch’s abuse and misuse of federal funds.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly taken a beating in federal court, with dozens of court orders across the country striking down key elements of his agenda as unconstitutional, or, in one case, confounding a judge who compared his sweeping executive actions to a “gumbo” giving him “heartburn.”

The president, whose critics have accused him of mounting a constitutional crisis in his defiance of the courts, has resisted court orders nearly one-third of the time.

In an analysis of 165 court orders filed against the Trump administration, The Washington Post found the president has been accused of defying decisions in at least 57 cases.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision stemming from legal challenges striking down his executive order that seeks to redefine birthright citizenship could significantly diminish judicial authority.

The high court’s decision could effectively prevent judges — who are facing an avalanche of legal questions challenging the constitutionality of the president’s agenda — from issuing nationwide injunctions, making it extraordinarily difficult to unwind the president’s actions if they are later found to be illegal.

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Vought, meanwhile, argues that the appropriations process should be “less bipartisan.”

“There is no voter in the country that went to the polls and said, ‘I’m voting for a bipartisan appropriations process,’” he told a Christian Science Monitor event last week. “That may be the view of something that appropriators want to maintain.”

Vought, a former Heritage Foundation policy director and co-author of Project 2025, had recently ushered through legislation to revoke $9 billion in previously approved federal funding to gut global aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds National Public Radio and PBS.

He told reporters last week that another round of cuts is likely coming soon.

RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX

Trump accuses Obama, Biden, Clinton of orchestrating 'crime of the century' in 2016 Russia probe

‘Irrefutable EVIDENCE,’ US president declares, calling case ‘major threat to our Country’

Asiye Latife Yilmaz |22.07.2025 - TRT/AA



ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton of orchestrating the “crime of the century” by fabricating the Russia interference investigation to undermine his 2016 election win.

“Obama himself manufactured the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, and numerous others participated in this, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

“Irrefutable EVIDENCE. A major threat to our country!!!” he added.

Trump’s remarks come as the US Department of Justice received a criminal referral from former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, alleging a “treasonous conspiracy” by senior Obama-era officials to undermine Trump’s 2016 election win and question the democratic process.

Obama and his national security officials laid "the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against" Trump following his 2016 win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by allegedly fabricating intelligence to imply that Russia had sought to interfere in the election, Gabbard said in a statement on Friday.

Obama-era officials reportedly provided misleading information to media outlets such as The Washington Post, alleging that Russia had used cyber tactics to interfere with or influence the outcome of the election, Gabbard claimed.

Following the document release, Trump also posted a video on Truth Social compiling Democratic leaders saying: “No one is above the law,” ending with an AI-generated clip of Obama’s arrest in the Oval Office.

Trump's Labor Department proposes more than 60 rule changes in a push to deregulate workplaces

The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations adopted under previous presidential administrations

Cathy Bussewitz
Tuesday 22 July 2025

The Independent

The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations, ranging from minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities to standards governing exposure to harmful substances.

If approved, the wide-ranging changes unveiled this month also would affect working conditions at constructions sites and in mines, and limit the government's ability to penalize employers if workers are injured or killed while engaging in inherently risky activities such as movie stunts or animal training.

The Labor Department says the goal is to reduce costly, burdensome rules imposed under previous administrations, and to deliver on President Donald Trump's commitment to restore American prosperity through deregulation.

“The Department of Labor is proud to lead the way by eliminating unnecessary regulations that stifle growth and limit opportunity,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement, which boasted the “most ambitious proposal to slash red tape of any department across the federal government.”

Critics say the proposals would put workers at greater risk of harm, with women and members of minority groups bearing a disproportionate impact.

"People are at very great risk of dying on the job already,” Rebecca Reindel, the AFL-CIO union's occupational safety and health director, said. “This is something that is only going to make the problem worse.”

The proposed changes have several stages to get through before they can take effect, including a public comment period for each one.

Here's a look at some of the rollbacks under consideration:

No minimum wage for home health care workers

Home health care workers help elderly or medically fragile people by preparing meals, administering medications, assisting with toilet use, accompanying clients to doctor appointments and performing other tasks. Under one of the Labor Department's proposals, an estimated 3.7 million workers employed by home care agencies could be paid below the federal minimum wage — currently $7.25 per hour — and made ineligible for overtime pay if they aren't covered by corresponding state laws.

The proposed rule would reverse changes made in 2013 under former President Barack Obama and revert to a regulatory framework from 1975. The Labor Department says that by lowering labor and compliance costs, its revisions might expand the home care market and help keep frail individuals in their homes for longer.

Judy Conti, director of government affairs at the National Employment Law Project, said her organization plans to work hard to defeat the proposal. Home health workers are subject to injuries from lifting clients, and "before those (2013) regulations, it was very common for home care workers to work 50, 60 and maybe even more hours a week, without getting any overtime pay,” Conti said.

Others endorse the proposal, including the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative nonprofit based in Virginia. Women often bear the brunt of family caregiving responsibilities, so making home care more affordable would help women balance work and personal responsibilities, the group's president, Carrie Lukas, said.

“We’re pleased to see the Trump administration moving forward on rolling back some of what we saw as counterproductive micromanaging of relationships that were making it hard for people to get the care they need,” Lukas said.

Samantha Sanders, director of government affairs and advocacy at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, said the repeal would not constitute a win for women.

“Saying we actually don’t think they need those protections would be pretty devastating to a workforce that performs really essential work and is very heavily dominated by women, and women of color in particular,” Sanders said.

Protections for migrant farm workers

Last year, the Labor Department finalized rules that provided protections to migrant farmworkers who held H-2A visas. The current administration says most of those rules placed unnecessary and costly requirements on employers.

Under the new proposal, the Labor Department would rescind a requirement for most employer-provided transportation to have seat belts for those agriculture workers.

The department is also proposing to reverse a 2024 rule that protected migrant farmworkers from retaliation for activities such as filing a complaint, testifying or participating in an investigation, hearing or proceeding.

“There’s a long history of retaliation against workers who speak up against abuses in farm work. And with H-2A it’s even worse because the employer can just not renew your visa,” said Lori Johnson, senior attorney at Farmworker Justice.

Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, applauded the deregulation efforts, saying farmers were hit with thousands of pages of regulations pertaining to migrant farmworkers in recent years.

“Can you imagine a farmer and his or her spouse trying to navigate 3,000 new pages of regulation in 18 months and then be liable for every one of them?" he asked.

Adequate lighting for construction spaces

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, wants to rescind a requirement for employers to provide adequate lighting at construction sites, saying the regulation doesn't substantially reduce a significant risk.

OSHA said if employers fail to correct lighting deficiencies at construction worksites, the agency can issue citations under its “general duty clause.” The clause requires employers to provide a place of employment free from recognized hazards which are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Worker advocates think getting rid of a specific construction site requirement is a bad idea. “There have been many fatalities where workers fall through a hole in the floor, where there’s not adequate lighting,” Reindel said. “It’s a very obvious thing that employers should address, but unfortunately it’s one of those things where we need a standard, and it’s violated all the time.”

Mine safety

Several proposals could impact safety procedures for mines. For example, employers have to submit plans for ventilation and preventing roof collapses in coal mines for review by the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration. Currently, MSHA district managers can require mine operators to take additional steps to improve those plans.

The Labor Department wants to end that authority, saying the current regulations give the district manager the ability to draft and create laws without soliciting comments or action by Congress.

Similarly, the department is proposing to strip district managers of their ability to require changes to mine health and safety training programs.

Limiting OSHA’s reach

The general duty clause allows OSHA to punish employers for unsafe working conditions when there's no specific standard in place to cover a situation.

An OSHA proposal would exclude the agency from applying the clause to prohibit, restrict or penalize employers for “inherently risky professional activities that are intrinsic to professional, athletic, or entertainment occupations.”

A preliminary analysis identified athletes, actors, dancers, musicians, other entertainers and journalists as among the types of workers the limitation would apply to.

“It is simply not plausible to assert that Congress, when passing the Occupational Safety and Health Act, silently intended to authorize the Department of Labor to eliminate familiar sports and entertainment practices, such as punt returns in the NFL, speeding in NASCAR, or the whale show at SeaWorld,” the proposed rule reads.

Debbie Berkowitz, who served as OSHA chief of staff during the Obama administration, said she thinks limiting the agency's enforcement authority would be a mistake.

“Once you start taking that threat away, you could return to where they’ll throw safety to the wind, because there are other production pressures they have," Berkowitz said.