Amid pushback, Musk threatens federal employees with sacking in the event that they fail to answer to electronic mail
Hi there and welcome to our rolling US politics protection:
The fallout from Musk’s demand for presidency employees to justify their work in a bullet-point listing continues.
The US Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM), which manages the federal workforce, walked again on an ultimatum issued by Elon Musk on the weekend that may have compelled its employees to resign if they didn’t submit the requested listing of their latest accomplishments.
It marks one of many first indicators of inside pushback to the Tesla billionaire’s marketing campaign to downsize the federal workforce.
The OPM introduced that responding to Musk’s electronic mail was not necessary and that failing to reply by midnight on Monday wouldn’t be thought-about a resignation, as Musk had warned.
Musk, nonetheless, continued to insist that employees might be anticipated to reply or they might lose their jobs.
“Subject to the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” Musk stated on Monday afternoon.
Earlier within the day Donald Trump had spoken in help of the demand
“By asking the question, tell us what you did this week, what he’s doing is saying, are you actually working?” the president stated.
However the ultimatum had already run into resistance with the FBI, the state division and the Pentagon among the many businesses instructing workers to not reply the message. Different division heads suggested employees to conform, whereas some advised employees to attend for additional steering earlier than responding.
Attorneys for federal employees stated in a lawsuit Musk had violated the legislation together with his weekend demand. An up to date lawsuit, which was filed in federal court docket in California and was supplied to the Related Press, is attempting to dam mass layoffs.
In different developments:
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Donald Trump stated Vladimir Putin would settle for European peacekeepers in Ukraine as a part of a possible deal to finish the three-year warfare. Trump was talking alongside French president Emmanuel Macron on the White Home because the leaders sought to clean over a transatlantic rift to attain peace.
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The Trump-Macron assembly got here because the US voted towards a United Nations decision condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, siding with nations similar to North Korea, Belarus and Sudan over European allies.
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Trump stated the US and Ukraine are “very close” to coming to phrases on a uncommon earth minerals settlement, in feedback made throughout a go to from French president Emmanuel Macron amid European considerations over the US place on Ukraine.
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A federal decide on Monday denied a request by the Related Press to instantly restore full entry to presidential occasions for the information company’s journalists, however stated the difficulty required extra exploration earlier than ruling. The Trump administration barred the outlet earlier this month for persevering with to confer with the Gulf of Mexico in its protection after the president renamed it the “Gulf of America”.
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A federal decide has blocked the federal government downsizing crew Doge from accessing delicate knowledge maintained by the US schooling division and the US workplace of personnel administration. US district decide Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland issued the short-term restraining order on the behest of a coalition of labour unions.
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A federal decide has prolonged protections for trans ladies in jail. The decide, who blocked the Federal Bureau of Prisons from finishing up Donald Trump’s govt order that may have transferred three incarcerated trans ladies into males’s amenities earlier this month, has prolonged protections for 9 further ladies.
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A federal decide blocked immigration brokers from conducting enforcement operations in homes of worship for some non secular teams, the Related Press reported. US district decide Theodore Chang discovered that the Trump administration coverage may violate their non secular freedom and must be blocked whereas a lawsuit difficult it performs out.
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Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has launched his marketing campaign for Ohio governor.
Key occasions
‘He believes he is the law’: anti-Maga conservatives view Trump as menace to structure
Joan E Greve
Michael Fanone, the previous police officer who defended the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, regarded out on the attendees of the Rules First summit and denounced Donald Trump within the strongest potential phrases for pardoning roughly 1,500 individuals who participated within the rebellion.
“He pardoned them because he wants people to know that if you commit crimes on his behalf, he’s got your back,” Fanone stated on Saturday. “They are operating under the assumption that, if they commit violent criminal acts on Donald Trump’s behalf, that he will pardon them for future violence.”
Fanone’s phrases appeared prescient later that afternoon, when he and three different officers have been confronted by Enrique Tarrio, the previous chief of the far-right Proud Boys group. Tarrio acquired a jail sentence of twenty-two years for seditious conspiracy and different expenses associated to his function within the rebellion, however Trump pardoned him final month. In a video that Tarrio shared on social media, he taunted Fanone and the opposite officers – Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan police division and former Capitol cops Aquilino Gonell and Harry Dunn – as “fucking cowards”.
You’ll be able to learn the complete report right here:
Norwegian Refugee Council to droop ’lifesaving’ help after US funding freeze
One in all Europe’s largest humanitarian organisations introduced on Tuesday that it must droop “lifesaving” US-funded help in 21 nations this week.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), stated in a press release that the disaster was triggered by the US authorities’s “continued failure to issue outstanding payments for completed and ongoing authorised work”,
Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of international help and referred to as for the closure of the USA Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAid), which distributes US humanitarian help globally, Agence France-Presse experiences.
The organisation stated it had $20 million in excellent requests to the USA, which had already been spent on “21 countries affected by wars, disasters, and displacement”.
The NRC stated the funding scenario had “created a liquidity crisis” that the organisation “can no longer absorb”, and that it must lay off help employees.
Suspended initiatives embody bakeries offering day by day bread to folks in Sudan, water and sanitation help in Sudan and the DRC, and emergency shelter and help for cyclone-affected households in Mozambique.
The NRC stated it could droop these programmes on 28 February, and referred to as on the US authorities to launch excellent funds and “lift all stop work orders to best ensure lifesaving assistance is able to continue”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio beforehand introduced waivers for lifesaving humanitarian programmes, however NRC stated “neither funding nor communication on when money will be transferred has since been received”.
A Trump administration transfer to droop funding to the World Well being Group has frozen $46 million for its operations in Gaza, a high WHO official stated on Tuesday.
Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO consultant for Occupied Palestinian Territories, stated the freezing would go away six areas underfunded, together with Emergency Medical Groups (EMT) operations, rehabilitation of well being amenities, coordination with associate organisations and medical evacuations.
Kremlin says Russia has uncommon earth metals the US wants and is open to cooperation
The Kremlin stated on Tuesday that Russia had numerous uncommon earth metallic deposits and that it was open to doing offers to develop them after President Vladimir Putin held out the potential of such collaboration with the USA.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated:
The Individuals want uncommon earth metals. We’ve numerous them.
We’ve our personal plans to develop strategic sources, however there are fairly broad prospects for cooperation right here.
Putin advised state TV on Monday that Russia was open to joint initiatives with American companions – together with authorities and the non-public sector – below a future Russia-US financial deal, Reuters experiences.
US president Donald Trump has pledged that “major economic development transactions with Russia” would happen.
Peskov stated there was nonetheless numerous work to be achieved to normalise relations between Moscow and Washington earlier than any financial offers may very well be struck.
“Next on the agenda is the issue of resolving the Ukrainian crisis”, he stated. “And then, especially since the Americans themselves have also spoken about it, it will be time to consider possible projects related to trade, economic and investment cooperation.”
Peskov added: “When there comes, let’s say, a moment of political will, we will be open to this (cooperation on rare earth metals),”
Former protection secretary Chuck Hagel and different former US nationwide safety officers on Tuesday warned that China was outpacing the US in crucial know-how fields and urged Congress to extend funding for federal scientific analysis.
The attraction comes per week after the Nationwide Science Basis (NSF), which funds science analysis, fired 170 folks in response to President Donald Trump’s order to scale back the federal workforce.
An NSF spokesman declined to touch upon experiences that lots of extra layoffs have been potential and that the company’s finances may very well be slashed by billions.
The ex-officials need Congress to offer no less than $16 billion authorised for the NSF within the fiscal yr 2025, in response to a letter seen by Reuters which was addressed to Trump, Senate Majority Chief John Thune, and Mike Johnson, speaker of the US Home of Representatives.
“China is making significant strategic investments in basic and applied research and positioning the country to outpace us in critical areas that could determine the outcome of future conflicts,” the letter stated. “This is a race that we cannot afford to lose.”
Amid pushback, Musk threatens federal employees with sacking in the event that they fail to answer to electronic mail
Hi there and welcome to our rolling US politics protection:
The fallout from Musk’s demand for presidency employees to justify their work in a bullet-point listing continues.
The US Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM), which manages the federal workforce, walked again on an ultimatum issued by Elon Musk on the weekend that may have compelled its employees to resign if they didn’t submit the requested listing of their latest accomplishments.
It marks one of many first indicators of inside pushback to the Tesla billionaire’s marketing campaign to downsize the federal workforce.
The OPM introduced that responding to Musk’s electronic mail was not necessary and that failing to reply by midnight on Monday wouldn’t be thought-about a resignation, as Musk had warned.
Musk, nonetheless, continued to insist that employees might be anticipated to reply or they might lose their jobs.
“Subject to the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” Musk stated on Monday afternoon.
Earlier within the day Donald Trump had spoken in help of the demand
“By asking the question, tell us what you did this week, what he’s doing is saying, are you actually working?” the president stated.
However the ultimatum had already run into resistance with the FBI, the state division and the Pentagon among the many businesses instructing workers to not reply the message. Different division heads suggested employees to conform, whereas some advised employees to attend for additional steering earlier than responding.
Attorneys for federal employees stated in a lawsuit Musk had violated the legislation together with his weekend demand. An up to date lawsuit, which was filed in federal court docket in California and was supplied to the Related Press, is attempting to dam mass layoffs.
In different developments:
-
Donald Trump stated Vladimir Putin would settle for European peacekeepers in Ukraine as a part of a possible deal to finish the three-year warfare. Trump was talking alongside French president Emmanuel Macron on the White Home because the leaders sought to clean over a transatlantic rift to attain peace.
-
The Trump-Macron assembly got here because the US voted towards a United Nations decision condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, siding with nations similar to North Korea, Belarus and Sudan over European allies.
-
Trump stated the US and Ukraine are “very close” to coming to phrases on a uncommon earth minerals settlement, in feedback made throughout a go to from French president Emmanuel Macron amid European considerations over the US place on Ukraine.
-
A federal decide on Monday denied a request by the Related Press to instantly restore full entry to presidential occasions for the information company’s journalists, however stated the difficulty required extra exploration earlier than ruling. The Trump administration barred the outlet earlier this month for persevering with to confer with the Gulf of Mexico in its protection after the president renamed it the “Gulf of America”.
-
A federal decide has blocked the federal government downsizing crew Doge from accessing delicate knowledge maintained by the US schooling division and the US workplace of personnel administration. US district decide Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland issued the short-term restraining order on the behest of a coalition of labour unions.
-
A federal decide has prolonged protections for trans ladies in jail. The decide, who blocked the Federal Bureau of Prisons from finishing up Donald Trump’s govt order that may have transferred three incarcerated trans ladies into males’s amenities earlier this month, has prolonged protections for 9 further ladies.
-
A federal decide blocked immigration brokers from conducting enforcement operations in homes of worship for some non secular teams, the Related Press reported. US district decide Theodore Chang discovered that the Trump administration coverage may violate their non secular freedom and must be blocked whereas a lawsuit difficult it performs out.
-
Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has launched his marketing campaign for Ohio governor.