The Latest: September job numbers double expectations, while unemployment ticks up

And more than 87% of the September job gains were concentrated in two industries: health care and social assistance and leisure and hospitality.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in September, highest since October 2021 and up from 4.3% in August, the Labor Department said Thursday. The jobless rate rose partly because 470,000 people entered the labor market — either working or looking for work — in September and not all of them found jobs right away.

Here's the latest:

Leavitt praises Trump for inviting NYC mayor-elect Mamdani to White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the invitation “speaks volumes” about Trump.

The president during Zohran Mamdani’s successful run to lead United States biggest city, however, repeatedly threatened to limit federal funding if voters elected the Democratic Socialist.

“I think it’s very telling, but I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone, and talk to anyone, and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt said Trump did not mean that lawmakers saying troops shouldn’t follow ‘illegal orders’ should die

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that members of Congress who made a video saying military officials shouldn’t follow “illegal orders” shouldn’t be executed for sedition, despite Trump’s social media post saying that the video was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”

Asked if Trump meant that the Democratic lawmakers who are military veterans behind the video should be killed, Leavitt said, “No.”

Leavitt said that defying the military chain of command could create national security risks and lead to deaths.

“Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander in chief and through this command chain of command, through the Secretary of war, is lawful,” she said.

White House press secretary hasn’t seen Trump use AI

Trump’s social media account has featured videos of him created by artificial intelligence and he’s banking on AI investments to grow the economy. But the president doesn’t appear to be personally using AI.

When asked at Thursday’s news briefing if Trump personally uses AI, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I don’t think so.”

Leavitt added that she hasn’t “personally witnessed it.”

Trump recently talked up the economic benefits of AI bringing in foreign investment at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum. His account has posted AI videos of Trump playing soccer with Cristiano Ronaldo in the Oval Office, as well as Trump flying a jet plane and dropping what appeared to be feces on U.S. cities that contained people protesting him.

Appeals court halts release of hundreds of immigrants arrested in Chicago area

A federal appeal court has halted a Chicago judge’s order to release on bond hundreds of immigrants detained during an enforcement surge.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said last week that he would consider a list of more than 600 detainees after determining that the federal government violated a 2022 consent decree that outlines how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can make so-called warrantless arrests.

Without offering details, the federal government objected to dozens as apparent security risks while others had already been deported. That left roughly 400 people to be released as soon as Friday.

In pausing their release on Thursday, the appeals court said it would hear arguments on Dec. 2.

Detainees are being held at jails nationwide and would have been released on alternative forms of detention such as ankle monitoring after each paying a $1,500 bond.

Democratic leaders voice safety concerns after Trump social media posts

House Democratic leaders say they have contacted the House Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police to ensure the safety of lawmakers who were attacked on social media by President Donald Trump.

Trump had called for the lawmakers’ arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”

“We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against Members of Congress and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same,” said a joint statement from Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.

“Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed,” the Democratic leaders wrote.

Feds move to drop charges against Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol agent

Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges against Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ruiz, 21, marking a dramatic reversal in one of the most closely watched cases tied to the immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.

Prosecutors had accused Martinez and Ruiz of using their vehicles to strike and box in Border Patrol agent Charles Exum’s vehicle on Oct. 4 on city’s southwest side — a narrative refuted by the two’s lawyers. Exum then exited his car and opened fire at Martinez, who suffered seven gunshot wounds.

DHS has characterized people who have protested “Operation Midway Blitz ″ as violent rioters and vowed to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. But of the more than two dozen people arrested for impeding or assaulting federal officers or other protest-related offenses, none have gone to trial and charges have been dropped against at least nine of them.

Warner says Trump is undermining US spy agencies

The top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said President Donald Trump’s administration is undermining America’s intelligence community, leaving the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, cyber attacks and espionage.

Speaking Thursday on the Senate floor, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said that under Trump, the nation’s spy agencies have shed hundreds of jobs, rolled back cybersecurity defenses and shuttered departments focused on countering foreign disinformation. He noted that several spy agency veterans either departed or were fired by Trump, including the former head of the NSA.

China, Russia and other adversaries will look to capitalize on these changes amid escalating global tensions, Warner said.

“We are watching, in real time, an administration strip away the guardrails that have protected this country for generations,” Warner said.

Speaker Mike Johnson weighs in on Trump social media posts

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he did not interpret President Donald Trump’s social media posts about sedition as inciting violence against Democratic lawmakers.

“Somebody just showed me what the president posted on social media and he’s defining a crime,” Johnson said. “What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition. That is a factual statement. But obviously attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that.”

The Democratic lawmakers in a video called for service members to “refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws.”

Johnson called it a “wildly inappropriate thing for so-called leaders of Congress to do, to encourage troops to disobey orders.”

Federal immigration crackdown ends in Charlotte, North Carolina, sheriff says

A federal immigration crackdown based in North Carolina’s largest city that authorities said led to hundreds of arrests is now over, a local law enforcement agency said Thursday.

A news release from the sheriff’s office in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, said that federal officials have confirmed with Sheriff Garry McFadden that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation known as “Charlotte’s Web,” has officially concluded. No border agent operations will occur on Thursday, the news release said.

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn’t immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking a response about the sheriff’s release.

▶ Read more about immigration enforcement surge

Senate Democratic leader calls Trump’s threats ‘deadly serious’

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, is warning that President Donald Trump’s threats against Democratic lawmakers on social media could have deadly consequences.

“He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline,” Schumer said, adding that Trump’s execution threats could incite his followers to violence.

Schumer called on Republicans to denounce the president’s comments.

Trump and Republicans once more face a tough political fight over Obama-era health law

President Trump is once more targeting former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, picking a political fight before next year’s elections that is reminiscent of one he lost in his first term.

Back then, Trump and fellow Republicans tried but failed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a stinging defeat viewed as contributing to the party’s losses in 2018.

This time, Trump seems to be scaling back his ambition to repeal and replace the law. But he’s struggling to ease voters’ concerns over the high cost of living — combined with a looming deadline to extend expiring subsidies that help people pay for their “Obamacare” premiums — and it’s not clear how he plans to prevent history from repeating itself.

▶ Read more about Trump and health care

South African president says US now wants to reverse its boycott and join the G20 summit

The United States government has indicated that it’s had a “change of mind” and wants to participate at the Group of 20 summit in South Africa in a reverse of its boycott, the South African president said Thursday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the summit host country had received communication from the U.S. at “the 11th hour” and was now working on the logistics to accommodate the U.S.

President Trump had announced that his administration would boycott the two-day meeting of rich and developing nations in Johannesburg that opens Saturday. Trump has said the U.S. was boycotting over his claims that Ramaphosa’s government is violently persecuting a white minority.

▶ Read more about the G20 summit in South Africa

Vice President JD Vance offers condolences to the Cheney family

Vance was asked about the late former vice president as he appeared on stage at a Breitbart event in Washington on Thursday.

“Obviously there’s some political disagreements there but he was a guy who served his country. We certainly wish his family all the best in this moment of grieving,” Vance said.

Mamdani says he wants to ‘make the case’ for New Yorkers during upcoming meeting with Trump

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he hopes to “share the facts about the affordability crisis in the city” during a long-awaited meeting with President Trump this week.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mamdani acknowledged that he and Trump have differences but stressed that he’s willing to work with anyone to deliver on his central campaign theme of making the city a more affordable place to live.

“It behooves me to ensure that I leave no stone unturned in looking to make this city more affordable,” Mamdani said. “And this is a meeting where I look forward to speaking about the affordability agenda, public safety and economic security for each and every person who calls this city home.”

Trump has for months railed against Mamdani, incorrectly calling the incoming mayor a communist and lobbing threats to deport Mamdani and pull federal money from the city. Mamdani was born in Uganda but became a naturalized American citizen in 2018.

Mamdani is set to travel to Washington for a sit-down meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.

A bipartisan show of respect and remembrance is set for Dick Cheney’s funeral, absent Trump

Washington National Cathedral on Thursday hosts a bipartisan show of respect and remembrance for Dick Cheney, the consequential and polarizing vice president who in later years became an acidic scold of fellow Republican President Donald Trump.

Trump, who’s been publicly silent about Cheney’s death Nov. 3, was not invited to the 11 a.m. memorial service.

Two ex-presidents are coming: Republican George W. Bush, who is to eulogize the man who served him as vice president, and Democrat Joe Biden, who once called Cheney “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” but now honors his commitment to his family and to his values.

Daughter Liz Cheney, a former high-ranking House member whose Republican political career was shredded by Trump’s MAGA movement, will join Bush in addressing the gathering at the grand church known as “a spiritual home for the nation.”

▶ Read more about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral

September job gains still reflect a narrow base of hiring

The modest increase of 119,000 jobs reflects a rebound in hiring after a weak summer, but many industries are still shedding workers, including manufacturing, which President Trump has sought to bolster with his sweeping tariffs.

Nearly all the jobs added were gained in health care, restaurants, hotels, and state and local government. Health care and government are largely insulated from the ups and downs of the economy and so don’t necessarily reflect economic health.

Construction companies added 19,000 jobs last month, likely fueled by the data center building boom. Factories, however, cut workers for the fifth straight month and have shed 94,000 jobs compared with a year ago. Transportation and warehousing firms slashed 25,300 jobs in another hit to lower-income workers.

Solid job gain could make Federal Reserve interest rate cut less likely

Many Fed officials were already leaning against reducing their key rate for the third time this year at their meeting next month.

The case for reducing borrowing costs has largely been based on the fear that the job market could be rapidly deteriorating. Yet in September, employers added 119,000 jobs, a modest increase but a clear improvement after a summer slowdown that saw employers shed jobs in June and August.

The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.4% from 4.3% but that largely occurred for what economists call a “good” reason — more Americans came off the sidelines to look for work, and not all immediately found jobs. That’s considered a more reassuring reason for the increase than a sharp rise in layoffs.

Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to take leave from committee post after indictment

Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, said in a statement that the Florida representative will take leave from her role as ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.

The move comes after the Justice Department announced Wednesday that she had been indicted on charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to support her 2021 campaign.

Stephenson said Cherfilus-McCormick “is entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence,” but that House rules require her to step aside from the committee “while this matter is ongoing.”

Multicultural New Orleans awaits arrival of ‘Swamp Sweep’ immigration crackdown

New Orleans, the laid-back city known as the Big Easy and the birthplace of jazz, where lavish parades, bead-throwing debauchery and Creole cuisine attract tourists from around the globe, is about to become the next staging ground for the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

Operation “Swamp Sweep,” an expansive, monthslong immigration crackdown, is expected to launch in southeast Louisiana Dec. 1, but Democrat-run New Orleans is anticipating the arrival of as many as 250 federal troops as soon as Friday, all with the backing of the state’s Republican governor.

Gov. Jeff Landry has sought to align New Orleans with federal immigration enforcement efforts through legislation and legal challenges, and the Border Patrol deployment is just the latest drive to ramp up that pressure. And with the New Orleans Police Department being released from a federal reform pact Wednesday, its officers have lost a legal mechanism that has long-shielded them from having to participate in immigration enforcement.

▶ Read more about the immigration crackdown in New Orleans

US employers added surprisingly solid 119,000 jobs in September, government says in delayed report

The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in August, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The increase in payrolls was more than double the 50,000 economists had forecast. But Labor Department revisions showed the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August instead of gaining 22,000 as originally reported.

During the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, investors, businesses, policymakers and the Federal Reserve were groping in the dark for clues about the health of the American job market because federal workers had been furloughed and couldn’t collect the data.

The report comes at a time of considerable uncertainty about the economy. The job market has been strained by the lingering effects of high interest rates and uncertainty around President Trump’s erratic campaign to slap taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. But economic growth at midyear was resilient.

▶ Read more about the U.S. jobs report

Americans like democracy, but don’t believe it or US institutions are working well, poll finds

About half of U.S. adults believe democracy is functioning “very” or “moderately” poorly in the United States, while only around one-quarter think it’s doing “very” or “moderately” well, according to a new poll, marking a sharp decline from several decades ago when majorities thought democracy was generally working the way it should.

The Kettering Foundation-Gallup survey found that about two-thirds of Americans “strongly agree” or “agree” that democracy is the best form of government. Very few disagree, with about one-third saying they don’t have an opinion. But alongside the widespread disappointment in how democracy is working, few believe the country’s leaders are committed to democratic governance or think government decisions reflect the will of the people.

Few U.S. adults doubt their fellow Americans’ commitment to strong democracy, according to the poll, but they’re less certain about their political leadership. More than 4 in 10 Americans don’t believe their leaders are committed to having a strong democracy, while about 3 in 10 say they’re not sure.

▶ Read more about the poll on democracy in the U.S.

Labor Department said Wednesday that it won’t won’t release a full jobs report for October

That’s because it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate during the government shutdown.

Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data — including the number of jobs that employers created last month — along with the full November jobs report Dec. 16, a couple of weeks late.

That puts an even more intense focus on September jobs numbers released Thursday. They are the last full measurement of hiring and unemployment that Fed policymakers will see before they meet Dec. 9-10 to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate for the third time this year.

Chief US economist at Santander bank is more optimistic about September hiring than most peers

Stephen Stanley forecasts that employers added 75,000 jobs.

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is expected to reduce the number of people looking for work, which means the economy can create fewer jobs without sending the unemployment rate higher.

In the past, Stanley wrote in a commentary Wednesday, the “breakeven’’ point for monthly job creation was seen as somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000; but as fewer immigrants seek work, he says, the job market can remain stable even if employers add just 50,000 jobs a month, maybe fewer.