President Donald Trump announced Friday that India has agreed to stop buying Russian oil.

Trump made the announcement during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“India is not going to be buying Russian oil anymore, and Hungary is sort of stuck, because they have one pipeline, it’s been there for years and years and years, and they’re inland — they don’t have sea,” he said.

Trump added, “But India will not be buying oil from Russia.”

.@POTUS: “India is not going to be buying Russian oil anymore, and Hungary is sort of stuck because they have one pipeline… and they’re inland — they don’t have sea… but India will not be buying oil from Russia.” pic.twitter.com/KXpUBejIvU

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 17, 2025

The move is part of Trump’s ongoing effort to isolate Russia economically as he pushes for a negotiated peace between Moscow and Kyiv.

The president said he and Zelenskyy also planned to discuss a deal for weapons that would allow Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Trump also said he is still confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin can be persuaded to end the conflict.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks,” Trump said.

Trump: “hopefully we’ll get the war over with without Tomahawks” pic.twitter.com/YCYDZdoBJa

— Azeb Wolde-Giorghis (@AzebWG) October 17, 2025

Trump said his upcoming meeting with Putin in Hungary will be a one-on-one session, but that the U.S. will remain in close contact with Zelenskyy throughout the process.

The president has made ending the war in Ukraine a top foreign policy goal since beginning his second term in January.

Friday’s statement signals a potential turning point as Trump leverages his position against Moscow amid a slew of foreign policy wins.

Trump has consistently said that peace in Eastern Europe requires economic pressure and direct engagement with world leaders.

The White House did not immediately release any details about the agreement with India.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Trump Announces That India Will Stop Purchasing Oil from Russia appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Qamishli, the largest city in Rojava, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Syria. Photo by Antonio Graceffo.

When you cross the border from Iraqi Kurdistan into the Kurdish autonomous region of Syria, called Rojava, formally the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the decline in economic development is immediately noticeable. Iraqi Kurdistan has statutory autonomy, supported by the United States, and today it has its own government and military forces.

The last few years of stability and peace, particularly since the defeat of ISIS, have created a stronger investment climate, and residents have seen their quality of life increase dramatically. On the Syrian side of the border, however, the people of Rojava, including Kurds, Christians, Arabs, and other minorities, continue to struggle with ongoing violence from multiple fronts: the Damascus government, Turkey, ISIS, and other extremist cells that still launch attacks on a regular basis.

Of all the problems faced by Rojava, the main issue is the conflict with the central government in Damascus. If that conflict were settled, Damascus would likely reject Turkish interference, and the two governments could potentially cooperate to stamp out extremism. However, the Damascus government excludes Kurdish representation, actively works against Kurdish interests, and sponsors attacks on people in the Kurdish region.

The country’s new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani or Abu Mohammad al-Golani, who seized power in a coup in December, rose to prominence through his ties to extremist movements. He had previously broken away from ISIS and founded the al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), which pledged allegiance directly to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda Central.

His government now includes members of various extremist factions, many of which formed a coalition under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, whose family had ruled Syria for more than five decades.

Since seizing power, the al-Sharaa government has been implicated in two large-scale massacres targeting religious minorities. The first, in early 2025, occurred in Alawite villages along Syria’s western coast, where Islamist militias aligned with the new regime reportedly killed more than a thousand civilians in a campaign of retribution.

Months later, in July 2025, security forces and HTS-affiliated fighters carried out another massacre in the southern Druze province of Suwayda. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations reported that dozens of Druze civilians, including women, were executed in their homes, schools, and hospitals, while other reports placed the death toll in the hundreds.

“We are living a temporary life,” says Rokken Hussein, a Kurdish woman weary after 12 years of continuous war. First came the Syrian civil war, then ISIS, and now the HTS government. “Under Assad we had political problems, but we were safe,” she recalls. Under every evolution that followed, including the current one, their physical safety has steadily deteriorated.

Turkey also plays a significant role in the suffering of the people of Rojava. Ankara, the Turkish capital, does not want to see Syrian Kurds gain too much autonomy or economic development, viewing such progress as a threat that could inspire greater resistance among Kurds inside Turkey.

In addition to Kurds, Christians and other minorities in Rojava face attacks from extremist groups and ongoing clashes with the Damascus government’s army, while also being periodically bombed by Turkish forces.

Apart from the threats to their physical safety, residents of the region also suffer severe economic hardship. For the first forty-five minutes after crossing the border, one sees miles of unfinished apartment blocks and abandoned construction sites. According to Rokken Hussein, the reason is that commodity prices have risen so sharply that completing the projects is no longer profitable. Combined with a strong U.S. dollar and a plummeting Syrian lira, these conditions have disrupted every aspect of life in Rojava.

Qamishli, the largest city in Rojava, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Syria. Photo by Antonio Graceffo.

Rokken tells me, “Before the revolution, it was 45 lira to the dollar.” Now it is eleven hundred. Before the war, her father earned a salary of 20,000 lira per month, enough to support the family and even send three daughters to university. “He sent each of us 3,000 lira, and we were able to survive. Today, two cups of coffee cost 3,000.”

During this period of extreme inflation, wages have not kept pace. Most citizens now earn the equivalent of $100 or less per month. “It’s enough for one week,” she said, “and then what will you do the other three weeks?”

In local culture, it is customary for adult children to continue living with their parents, so a family may have four or five wage earners until the parents retire. Even so, with apartments renting for $50 to $300 a month, the cost of living remains high compared to wages. Products are expensive because almost nothing is produced in Rojava. Most goods are made in Turkey and imported through Iraq. Meanwhile, salaries in Iraqi Kurdistan are three to four times higher than in Syria.

The air quality is also terrible in the border area and in the de facto capital city of Qamishli. According to locals, this is because although Rojava has large oil reserves, it lacks the technology to refine the oil into standard-grade gasoline. As a result, cars run on low-quality fuel filled with impurities.

Qamishli, the largest city in Rojava, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Syria. Photo by Antonio Graceffo.

Rokken Hussein told me that she usually buys gasoline and lets it sit for several days before using it, allowing the sediment to settle at the bottom of the container. “One time, I just bought gas and used it. The next day, the car broke down,” she said. Using the dirty fuel that one time cost her $700 in repairs.

Electricity and water are also in short supply. In late 2024, Turkey launched airstrikes on infrastructure in northern Syria, damaging dams, power plants, and irrigation networks and leaving large areas without municipal electricity or water.

According to locals, Rojava once relied on hydroelectric plants, but those have been disabled. “When they destroyed one plant, the planes came back and blew up a second one shortly after,” says Rokken Hussein. Now there is no municipal electricity; neighborhoods and homes depend on generators, which require fuel, cost money, and worsen air pollution.

Water shortages stem largely from Turkish upstream control of the Euphrates and other rivers. Turkey has been accused of deliberately reducing water flows by dam operations, limiting how much water reaches northeastern Syria, and undermining local water access and agriculture.

Despite being rich in resources and producing a large surplus of grain that the country depends on, the Damascus government has blocked investment and neglected to develop Rojava. In addition to lacking other government services, the region has no state-run universities. Several institutes have been created by the local administration, but none are officially recognized. Consequently, students must travel to other parts of Syria to continue their education.

During the ISIS period, the government in Damascus required students from Rojava to attend universities located in ISIS-controlled areas. Students who graduated from high school and applied for university placements were sometimes assigned to study in Hasakah, then under ISIS control. “Many Arabs, Christians, Kurds, and Yazidis were afraid to go there because it was 2013 and ISIS was starting its recruiting,” explained one resident.

“Now people are still afraid to go, not only because of ISIS but because of the government. The government isn’t disciplined, some areas are controlled by groups outside its authority. If you go there and disappear, who will come asking for you?”

She added, “We do not have close relations with this new government. Even if you tried to ask about someone, you wouldn’t be speaking to the government, but to one of these groups. So people disappear, and no one knows where they’ve gone. The situation is unstable, but people here are tired of it. During the time of ISIS, it was the same. Even I didn’t go to Damascus, because they could accuse me of supporting journalists who were against them. Now it’s the same. We cannot go to Damascus, even though it’s the capital of Syria and a beautiful city. It’s such a shame that we cannot go there.”

“I think the only friend we have is the Americans,” said Rokken Hussein. “Even during the time of ISIS, if we saw the Americans, we knew we were safe.” She explained that when people in Rojava saw American trucks driving through, they felt secure because they knew Turkey wouldn’t bomb them.

“The war against ISIS was our people dying on the ground and America supporting from the air,” she recalled. Speaking about the Americans’ role today, she added, “They are the middlemen between the U.S. and this new government.”

Antonio Graceffo reporting from Rojava, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Syria.

The post Exclusive: Syria’s Kurdish Region’s Ongoing Conflict with an Extremist Regime appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The anxiety level among federal contractors is starting to rise as the partial government shutdown enters its third week.

With lawmakers still far apart in how to at least temporarily fund the government, some contractors are implementing “austerity measures” to help reduce the impact on their bottom line.

Leidos, for example, has asked all indirect employees — those not directly related to a contract like bid and proposal managers, public affairs and even corporate vice presidents — to reduce the number of hours they work a week to 32 and use vacation to make up for the other eight hours.

“Given the uncertainty and prolonged nature of the shutdown, we have come to a point where prudence dictates some additional measures be taken to help our business navigate these choppy waters,” wrote Chris Cage, Leidos’s chief financial officer, in an email to the company, which Federal News Network obtained. “Assuming the shutdown continues, beginning Monday, Oct. 20, corporate indirect employees will be asked to temporarily adjust their work hours.”

A spokesman for Leidos confirmed the changed hours for some employees.

“We are taking steps to address interruptions due to the shutdown. Our aim in these situations always is to minimize the impact on our employees as we balance the needs and requirements of our customers,” said Brandon Ver Velde, a Leidos spokesman in an email to Federal News Network. “During the shutdown, some of our work for our federal customers has been paused, and some affected employees have been temporarily furloughed. We continue to work closely with our customers to address their needs during this time.”

At some companies, these austerity measures go even further to layoffs.

Sources say Peraton laid off indirect employees because of concerns about the shutdown and future federal spending.

The company submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice on Oct. 3 in Virginia saying that it would be laying off 92 people as of Dec. 5. It’s unclear if the layoffs were in direct response to the partial shutdown.

Peraton declined to comment on the layoffs and other austerity measures.

Layoffs are not piling up, so far

In Virginia, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority said they believe about 1,628 government contractor employees have been laid off in 2025 due to contract cancelations. The EDA also says they believe this would be an undercount because this is the aggregate of layoff events reporting through Virginia’s WARN Act.

In Maryland, no federal contractors have issued WARN Act notices since Oct. 1, but the Maryland Department of Labor’s monthly jobs report shows a steady decline in the state’s employment over the past few months, though it’s difficult to say how much of this decline can be tied to federal contractors.

Governor Wes Moore (D) has said there are 225,000 contractors in Maryland.

There also haven’t been any new WARN Act notices filed with the Washington, D.C. government since August.

In other federal contractor hotbeds such as Texas and California, there are few signs of the impact of the shutdown yet. For example, in California, RTX laid off two people on Oct. 10 and SAP America laid off 82 people on Oct. 6. But it’s unclear if these decisions are related to the shutdown or for other reasons.

Several contractors, including Deloitte, Accenture Federal, Maximus and General Dynamics-IT, declined to comment when asked about the impact of the partial government shutdown so far and what austerity measures, if any, they are taking.

An executive at one medium-sized systems integrator, who requested anonymity in order to speaker about internal finances, said the partial government shutdown has impacted one major contract so far.

“About half of the people on the contract have been impacted, but that is about 20% of our total workforce, or around 100 people,” said the executive. “We have been figuring out ways to keep them on board. It’s been a combination of two things, some are taking vacation and others are doing training. We haven’t had to lay anyone off yet.”

Civilian agencies more likely to stop contracts

The executive said the company will keep these employees on board through October, but if the government doesn’t reopen by November, then they will have to reconsider their plans.

“We do expect to see lower revenues for October because our contract is a time and materials type so it will be lower. We want to preserve our workforce as much as possible so we are doing our absolute best to avoid layoffs or leave without pay,” the executive said.

This executive’s experience is common among vendors. Stephanie Kostro, the president of the Professional Services Council, said while the initial impact of the partial shutdown varies among vendors, the concerns about the long-term problems are becoming top of mind for many leaders.

“There are a lot of contractors out there who are still working under contract because they’ve got fiscal 2025 appropriations, and those haven’t run out yet. That’s what makes a shutdown in October different than, say, a shutdown in December or January, because you do have prior year funds that can carry you through that only last so long,” Kostro said in an interview. “That also assumes that these contractors haven’t gotten stop work orders from their contracting officers. Now, we have seen lots of stop work orders come out specifically and predominantly from civilian agencies.”

Kostro added that several PSC members started planning for a possible shutdown in August and September, developing possible plans of actions to include encouraging employees to take vacation time.

“We are at that point in a shutdown, that if you’ve gotten a stop work order, or if you were depending on new contracts coming out and they haven’t been delivered yet or signed yet, that you might actually start having to furlough people,” she said. “We have seen that, including a little bit in the defense space. We’ve seen more stop work orders in, say, Health and Human Services or Veterans Affairs, but we are seeing some in the national security space, and furloughing employees is something that folks are doing at a last resort.”

The longer the partial shutdown continues, the more likely vendors will be impacted.

Data from Deltek looking at IT software, for example, shows a large number of contracts and task orders expiring both by the end of October and by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

“Given that most procurement activities are impacted by the shutdown in varying degrees, the question remains of the impact of these expiring contracts/task orders on agency operations?” said John Slye, a federal market analyst at Deltek. “Most software providers supporting an agency are invested in the agency’s ongoing success. Therefore, I have a hard time envisioning a software provider turning off their software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering under the current situation. The provider may have to take some action to ensure that doesn’t happen, and that impacts their operations and financials, of course. What I see as the more likely impact is the time and effort it will take to get all of these agreements updated, etc. once the shutdown is resolved. Overcoming that backlog will take considerable effort and time, which is one of the well-known impacts of these shutdowns. And this impacts both the agencies and their suppliers.”

And of course, even if the partial shutdown ends anytime soon, contractors have to deal with the fact the government will not pay them for the lost time.

Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) along with Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) introduced legislation in both chambers to guarantee back pay for contractors, but it’s unlikely Congress will pass the bill. The Fair Pay for Federal Contractors Act of 2025, which includes 106 House co-sponsors, but only one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), would adjust the price of contracts to compensate federal contractors for providing back pay to employees who were affected by the lapse in appropriations.

“A number of the defense contractors, because there was such a plus up on the big bill…that passed this year, I don’t think the DoD contractors have felt it as much. But the truth is, yes, contractors don’t get that back pay, and I am very concerned,” Warner said during a press briefing today. “That’s one of the reasons why we got to get this shutdown done. Let’s get in a room, do a negotiation and reach agreements that we don’t hit the health care cliff and we get the government back opening.”

PSC’s Kostro added that her organization and several employee unions support the legislation, but it’s clear it will be an uphill battle to get the legislation passed.

Lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to get the bill passed in 2019 and 2023.

“We continue to push for it because we think, as we always highlight, that government contractors are partners to their government customers. If there’s a law that supports federal employees because the shutdown was no fault of theirs, that same courtesy should be extended to federal contractors, the shutdown is no fault of theirs, either,” Kostro said. “In an ideal world, everybody would be back at work and getting paid for the work that they do, and we keep that as a touch down as we go forward.”

The post Vendors starting to take shutdown-related austerity measures first appeared on Federal News Network.