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President Trump's administration for now must stop firing workers during the government shutdown, a federal judge ordered on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco said the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and were being carried out without much thought.

"It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost," she said. "It's a human cost that cannot be tolerated."

She granted a temporary restraining order blocking the job cuts, saying she believed the evidence would ultimately show the cuts were illegal and in excess of authority.

The judge's decision came after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.

The layoff notices are part of an effort by the Trump administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues. Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said earlier Wednesday that the number of layoffs could reach more than 10,000.

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The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to a trio of researchers Monday for their work on how cycles of technological innovation feed economic growth.

Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University, Peter Howitt of Brown University and Philippe Aghion of the College of France and the London School of Economics will split the prize money of 11 million Swedish kroner, or about $1.2 million.

All three men were born outside the United States, but each received his doctorate from a university in the U.S.

Mokyr pioneered a theory of how technological change and improvement has helped to fuel two centuries of growth and higher living standards. Howitt and Aghion followed up with a theory on how creative destruction allows one technological advance to give way to another, so what's a breakthrough in one generation is obsolete by the next.

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President Trump announced Friday he will raise tariffs on China in response to a move from Beijing to tighten its control over certain critical minerals and rare earth elements.

Trump announced on Truth Social that he would impose a tariff of 100 percent on Chinese goods beginning Nov. 1 or sooner. Those tariffs will supersede existing duties already in place on Chinese goods.

The president said his administration would also place export controls “on any and all critical software.”

“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” Trump posted.

China announced this week that foreign entities must obtain a license in order to export any products containing more than 0.1 percent of rare earths that are either sourced in China or manufactured using the country’s extraction process. China controls roughly 70 percent of the world’s rare metals and earths.

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The Supreme Court said President Donald Trump must allow Lisa Cook to remain on the Federal Reserve for now, rejecting his bid to immediately fire her from the central bank, which has broad influence over the economy through its interest rate decisions.

Rather than grant Trump’s emergency request for her to be fired, the high court said it would hear oral arguments on the issue in January.

The justices are already set to consider a similar case on the Federal Trade Commission, which raises the issue of whether Congress or the courts can protect leaders of independent agencies from removal by the president.

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The time has come to ban the “revolving door” between the White House and the Federal Reserve, two academics argued last year. Doing so would be “critical to reducing the incentives for officials to act in the short-term political interests of the president”, they wrote.

Eight months ago, the two writers – Dan Katz and Stephen Miran – joined the Trump administration in senior roles. On Tuesday, Miran, the chair of the US council of economic advisers, walked into the Fed as a governor.

Strolling through the revolving door himself, Miran pledged during his confirmation hearing to preserve the Fed’s independence, but made clear he would not resign from the White House, just take unpaid leave.

Having expressed concern last year about the Fed’s vulnerability to the short-term political interests of the president, Miran was rushed into his new seat on the central bank’s board of governors hours before its latest meeting – as Donald Trump continued to push to have another voting member removed.

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Inflation rose slightly in August as companies continued to push the cost of tariffs on to consumers.

The newest update to the consumer price index (CPI), which measures a basket of goods and services, showed that prices increased 2.9% over the last year – the highest since January. Core CPI, which excludes energy and food costs, stayed stable at 3.1% after going up in July.

Despite this slight uptick in inflation, Wall Street remains optimistic that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at the central bank’s board meeting next week. The Fed is under intense pressure from Donald Trump to cut rates, but the decision looks likely to be led by fears that the US jobs market is weakening.

Investors are anticipating a quarter-point rate cut. Rates currently stand at a range of 4.25% to 5.5%.

US stocks shot up on Wednesday after the producer price index, which tracks wholesale prices, showed a slight dip in August after a steep rise in July, making investors hopeful that inflation – while still rising – is going up at a slow pace.

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