Department of Education. (Associated Press Archives)

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. It marks a setback to one of Trump’s campaign promises.

Meanwhile, House Republicans stayed up all night to pass their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package, with Speaker Mike Johnson defying the skeptics and unifying his ranks to muscle Trump’s priority bill to approval.

With last-minute concessions and stark warnings from Trump, the Republican holdouts largely dropped their opposition to salvage the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that’s central to the GOP agenda.

Here’s the latest:

Republican tax bill guts clean energy tax credits that Democrats approved three years ago in climate law

The big tax breaks package passed by House Republicans early Thursday would gut clean energy tax credits that Democrats approved three years ago while supporting increased mining, drilling and other traditional energy production.

The bill, which now heads to the Senate, repeals or phases out more quickly clean energy tax credits passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act during former President Joe Biden’s term. Biden’s climate law has been considered monumental for the clean energy transition, but the House bill effectively renders moot much of the law’s incentives for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

Clean energy advocates said the bill walks back the largest government investment in clean energy in history.

Netanyahu links shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers to antisemitism and Oct. 7 attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the shooting of two of his country’s embassy staff in Washington, D.C. was a “horrific” act of antisemitic violence.

“Yaron and Sarah weren’t the victims of a random crime,” Netanyahu said. “The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone — he wanted to kill Jews.”

In a video released by his office Thursday, speaking in English, he said the two staffers were planning to get engaged during a trip to Jerusalem next week.

Netanyahu said the suspect shouted “Free Palestine” as he was taken away, drawing a direct line between the shooting and the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. “This is exactly the same chant we heard on October 7th.”

Netanyahu concluded the video by saying, “I especially want to thank President Trump and the American people for their forthright stand with Israel and with the Jewish people.”

Leavitt says Trump signs every legal document

In response to questions about former President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen to sign some documents, Leavitt said that Trump signs “any document that has legal implications.”

“He signs pretty much every document that is needed for the president’s signature, with the exception of maybe some letters to children,” she said.

But one of Trump’s most controversial acts, invoking the 18th-centruy wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, was something that Trump later claimed he didn’t sign.

“I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,” Trump told reporters in March.