On today’s show: The Hill reports on how Elon Musk’s weekend email asking federal employees to describe their accomplishments led a number of agencies to push back. Soldiers are arriving at the border — but hardly any migrants are crossing. The Washington Post’s Arelis Hernández reports from the town of Del Rio. The conservative Christian Democratic Union won elections in Germany on Sunday, likely making its leader, Friedrich Merz, the next chancellor. Reuters reports on how the far-right Alternative for Germany party also saw big gains. Plus, Israel says it will delay the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, how one man found out his partner was on the American Airlines flight that collided with an army helicopter, and American skier Mikaela Shiffrin wins her 100th World Cup title with a women-led team guiding her.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Monday, February 24th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, American troops deployed to the border find a relatively quiet scene. What Germany's election means for Europe and the Western-led global order. And skier Michaela Schifrin claims a historic 100th World Cup win.
But first, over the weekend, about 2.3 million federal employees received an email with the subject line, What did you do last week? The email instructed federal workers to list what they have accomplished at work in the past five days. Elon Musk, the head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, said anyone who doesn't respond by the end of the day today is effectively resigning.
Reuters reports that workers at the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Education and Commerce, as well as at the IRS and National Institutes of Health, were told not to respond, pending further guidance. ABC News reports some officials in the White House were even caught off guard.
And the move is raising more questions about the extent of Elon Musk's authority and whether firing government employees in this way is even legal. Here's Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen speaking on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday.
You've got Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to the federal government and important services. And there's no Article 4 in the Constitution that gives Elon Musk that authority. And the way that he's been sort of, quote, delegated authority is illegal. And the actions he's taking are illegal. And we need to shut down this illegal operation.
Republicans have been critical, too. Here's Senator John Curtis on CBS.
If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.
In response to criticisms, Musk posted on X on Sunday that the email is a, quote, This email is the latest in Musk's efforts to drastically reduce government staffing levels. More than 200,000 workers across more than a dozen agencies have already had their jobs eliminated. That figure includes around 1,600 U.S.
AID jobs cut as of yesterday, as well as 75,000 federal workers who voluntarily resigned, though it remains unclear whether they'll receive the buyouts they've been promised. Many federal employees say this firing spree has been personally devastating and doesn't seem to be in the interest of reducing fraud or waste, as Musk has claimed.
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