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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Ignoring Musk: “The Trump administration has told federal agency leaders that they can ignore the public decree from Elon Musk to effectively fire employees who do not send in bullet-point summaries of their work last week, according to three people familiar with the matter, a break with the billionaire who has exerted significant power to slash the 2.3-million-person federal workforce.”
* The future of USAID: “The Trump administration said Sunday that it is eliminating 2,000 positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development and placing all but a fraction of other staffers worldwide on leave. It comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with pulling thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols rejected pleas that came in a lawsuit from employees to keep temporarily blocking the government’s plan.”
* German election results: “Provisional results confirmed that mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won Germany’s national election, while a far-right party surged to become the nation’s second-largest.”
* On a related note, Donald Trump seemed eager to congratulate himself for Merz’s victory, but given the relevant details, that really didn’t make any sense.
* In Ukraine: “[A]fter Trump’s false claims this week that Ukraine is led by a ‘dictator’ who started the war with Russia, even some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s harshest critics have rallied around him and feelings of unity have surged again.”
* In Maine: “The Education Department on Friday launched a probe into Maine’s transgender student sports participation policy after the president threatened the state’s federal funding at a meeting of governors at the White House.”
* At the FDA: “In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration hired experts in surgical robots and pioneers in artificial intelligence. It scooped up food chemists, lab-safety monitors and diabetes specialists who helped make needle pricks and test strips relics of the past. Trying to keep up with breakneck advances in medical technology and the demands of a public troubled by additives like food dyes, the agency enticed scores of midcareer specialists with remote roles and the chance to make a difference in their fields. In one weekend of mass firings across the F.D.A., much of that effort was gone.”
* At the NHTSA: “Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team is eliminating jobs at the vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving his company’s cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has cut a ‘modest’ amount of positions, according to a statement from the agency. Musk has accused NHTSA of holding back progress on self-driving technology with its investigations and recalls.”
* An ugly elections-have-consequences development: “President Trump has America’s wind-energy industry at a standstill. Developers are delaying some projects and writing down the value of investments. Plans are hanging in limbo.”
See you tomorrow.