The Secret Service said Thursday that it was suspending six agents involved in securing the site of a campaign rally where a gunman tried to assassinate then presidential candidate Donald Trump last summer.

The suspensions range from 10 to 42 days, without pay, the agency said in a statement that came days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting. It did not give timing for the suspensions or name the agents, citing privacy law. All six had been placed on restricted duty after the shooting while the agency conducted its internal review.

A young junior agent who was on Trump’s personal detail at the time received the longest suspension, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to discuss personnel matters. That agent is also the only member of Trump’s personal detail to receive a suspension, the person said.

The agency has come under intense scrutiny since a 20-year-old gunman was able to fire several shots at Trump as he spoke onstage at a campaign rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. It was the first assassination attempt since 1981 to wound a current or former president — a bullet grazed Trump’s ear. A volunteer firefighter in the crowd, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two other attendees were injured. The gunman was killed by the Secret Service.

The agency’s director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned shortly afterward.

Head Start off-limits to some immigrants

The Trump administration will restrict immigrants in the country illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday. The move is part of a broad effort to limit access to federal benefits for immigrants who lack legal status.

People in the country illegally are largely ineligible for federal public benefits such as food stamps, student loans and financial aid for higher education. But for decades they have been able to access some community-level programs such as Head Start and community health centers.

HHS said it will reclassify those programs as federal public benefits, excluding immigrants in the country illegally from accessing them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the changes were part of a larger effort to protect American citizens’ interests.

A spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, which administers Head Start, said that eligibility will be determined based on the child’s immigration status.

State Department to begin mass layoffs

The State Department formally notified employees Thursday that it was about to begin layoffs as part of a consolidation plan that department officials say will reduce bureaucratic bloat but that critics call a shortsighted blow to American diplomacy.

In an internal message sent to State Department workers Thursday, Michael J. Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, said the department would “soon” begin notifying U.S. employees who are losing their jobs.

Diplomats said senior department officials had told them to expect layoff notices as soon as Friday morning.

The layoffs are part of a reorganization plan unveiled in May by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called his department “bloated” and stifled by bureaucracy. Rubio said the changes would better align it with core American values and root out pockets of “radical political ideology.”

George Mason U hiring practices under review

The Trump administration on Thursday opened a civil rights investigation into the hiring practices at George Mason University, expanding a national campaign against diversity policies to Virginia’s largest public university.

The Education Department said it is responding to a complaint from multiple professors at George Mason who accuse the university of favoring those from underrepresented groups. The complaint takes aim at the university’s president, Gregory Washington, saying he issued guidance that favors faculty candidates based on diversity considerations rather than their credentials.

A statement from George Mason denied any allegations of discrimination and said the university “affirms its commitment to comply with all federal and state mandates.”

U.S. to sanction U.N. expert over Gaza

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the United States would impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a United Nations expert on the occupied Palestinian territories, for “efforts to prompt” the International Criminal Court to investigate American companies and Israeli officials.She is not a U.N. official, but was appointed as an unpaid independent expert to monitor human rights issues.

Rubio linked the sanctions decision to a broader U.S. effort to retaliate against the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister, last year, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’ military chief, Muhammad Deif, accusing him of crimes against humanity. Israel says it killed him in an airstrike, and Hamas has confirmed his death.

— From news services