The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has laid off about 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy, including employees at a power grid office, the nuclear security administration and the loans office, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Democratic lawmakers also said the layoffs include workers at national labs and hydroelectric plants, and Cold War legacy nuclear sites that pose safety risks. The DOE has about 14,000 federal employees and 95,000 contractors.

U.S. troops in the West African country of Chad are ‘accounted for’ after multiple reports of gunfire and five alleged deaths, Fox News Digital has learned.  Various videos have been posted on social media which show rifles and even what appears to be truck-mounted heavy weapons being fired indiscriminately at civilians, after results of the country’s Presidential elections earlier this week were announced. 

Turkey suspended an arms treaty that imposed limits on conventional military equipment in Europe, joining NATO allies who did the same after Russia withdrew from the agreement last year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree suspending Turkey’s obligations under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was originally concluded during the Cold War, from April 8.

Henry Kissinger—revered and reviled—savored the hot soup of conflict.

Yet in his century of celebrated and criticized years of orchestrating foreign policy to contain Russia and what he avidly argued were America’s other belligerents, Kissinger’s first face-to-face with absolute power perhaps best illustrates his guarantee that “it’s not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.”

The death of Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and one of most divisive political figures in U.S. history, brought a mixture of tributes and contempt for his legacy from people around the world.

Kissinger, who was 100, died at his home in Connecticut, his consulting firm, Kissinger Associates Inc., confirmed. A public memorial service will be held in New York at a date yet to be announced.

At a dinner recently with friends, Henry Kissinger was, at the invitation of his host as usual, holding forth on various world crises when he was asked what gave him reason for optimism. He replied that he had confidence in the wisdom of the American people, though at the current moment he worried about a dearth of U.S. leadership.

Homo sapiens have existed on the planet for about 300,000 years, or more than 109 million days. The most dangerous of all those days — the day when our species likely came closer than any other to wiping itself off the face of the Earth — came 60 years ago today, on October 27, 1962. And the person who likely did more than anyone else to prevent that dangerous day from becoming an existential catastrophe was a quiet Soviet naval officer named Vasili Arkhipov.

Today the risk of nuclear war is at its highest level since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Unless the brutal war in Ukraine is ended soon, with a cease-fire and a political and diplomatic resolution providing for Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, escalation may well lead to nuclear conflict—accidental or not.

Amid escalating tensions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and China over its claim to Taiwan, the Biden administration has placed competition at the heart of its foreign policy initiative.

Nation building and wars on terror are history, at least for the moment, after the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. And with Congress largely aligned on the need for greater defense spending, America appears set on bolstering its military capabilities, with the Department of Defense (DoD) budget increasing by 4% for fiscal year 2023.