USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them  —  In a statement, an Agriculture Department spokesperson told NBC News that officials are “working to swiftly rectify the situation.”  —  The United States Department of Agriculture on Tuesday acknowledged that …

Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies  —  The action is likely to face court challenges and test a once-fringe legal theory.  —  President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House …

Trump says Ukraine ‘should never have started it’ in comments about war with Russia  —  Trump made the remark while deriding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country was invaded by Russia in February 2022.  —  President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Ukraine was responsible …

DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract.  It Was Actually $8 Million.  —  The biggest single line item on the website of Elon Musk's cost-cutting team appears to include an error.  —  The Department of Government Efficiency, the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk …

Senior U.S. prosecutor resigns, citing demands to open probe into Biden-era contract  —  The top federal prosecutor who supervised criminal cases at the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney's office resigned on Tuesday, citing what she described as an improper demand by officials appointed …

Democrats aim to maximize GOP pain in passing Trump agenda  —  Democrats on Capitol Hill have little power to prevent GOP leaders from moving President Trump's ambitious policy agenda through Congress this year.  But they're going out of their way to make the process as painful as possible for vulnerable Republicans.

Struggle Over Americans' Personal Data Plays Out Across the Government  —  Employees from Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency are gaining access to vast amounts of information held by federal agencies, even as lawsuits try to stop them.

Not Even DOGE Employees Know Who's Legally Running DOGE  —  Despite all appearances, the White House insists that Elon Musk is not in charge of DOGE.  US Doge Service employees can't get a straight answer about who is.  —  President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have repeatedly affirmed Musk's leadership …

Brazil Charges Bolsonaro With Attempting a Coup  —  Brazil's attorney general charged the former president Jair Bolsonaro with trying to overturn the 2022 elections.  —  Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's former president, was charged Tuesday with overseeing a vast scheme to try to undermine …

Vance's Munich Disgrace  —  In April 1928, Joseph Goebbels, later the Third Reich's chief propagandist, wrote a newspaper essay addressing the question of why the National Socialists, despite being an “anti-parliamentarian party,” would nonetheless compete in that May's parliamentary elections.

Judge halts firing of intel agency personnel involved with DEI  —  The order may amount to only a temporary reprieve.  —  A federal judge has temporarily blocked the CIA and the Office of Director of National Intelligence from firing 11 people whose jobs were eliminated to comply …

Trump says AP will be curtailed at the White House until it changes its style to Gulf of America  —  President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will continue to restrict The Associated Press' access to his events and news conferences until the news outlet goes along with his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico in its reports.

Musk Ally Demands Admin Access to System That Lets Government Text the Public  —  A worker at the General Services Administration told colleagues in a Slack message Tuesday that they have resigned in protest after Elon Musk ally Thomas Shedd requested “admin/root access to all components …

Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims  —  The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.  Over the past few days …

U.S. weighs destroying $500 million in stockpiled covid tests  —  The government is reviewing proposals to shut down the program that ships free covid tests to American households and has been considering destroying 160 million tests.

Trump's Kennedy Center Cancels Pride Concert That Would Have Featured Gay Men's Chorus of Washington  —  The Kennedy Center canceled a concert planned for May 21 that was to feature the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC, performing alongside the National Symphony Orchestra.

11-Year-Old Texas Girl Bullied Over Family's Immigration Status Takes Her Own Life  —  Students also threatened to call ICE to deport the girl's family  —  Jocelynn Rojo Carranza took her life after experiencing months of relentless bullying from her sixth grade classmates …

Postmaster general to step down, asks for replacement  —  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a former prominent Trump fundraiser who was appointed during the president's first term, announced Tuesday he would be stepping down.  —  In a release, the U.S. Postal Service said DeJoy had notified …

Moving on from 18F.  —  note: This post gets into the last few weeks of American politics.  If that's not your cup of tea, or if that's a stressful topic for you, please feel free to skip this one.  (Also, it's a bit long.  Sorry about that.)  —  Last week, I finished my tenure as a designer at 18F.

Inside Trump's Million-Dollar Dinners With Healthcare Executives  —  Donald Trump hosted meals with dozens of the corporate leaders during the presidential transition, in a lucrative moneymaking venture  —  First came the pharmaceutical executives.  —  Then the insurance companies and the hospital leaders.

Musk and DOGE Might Soon Have Access to the Most Lucrative Defense-Contract Database of All  —  Ex-officials warn Zeteo that the USXports database is a means for Musk to undercut competitors to SpaceX in the defense sector.  —  ∙ Paid  —  Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency …

State Dept. orders cancellation of news subscriptions around the world  —  Embassies and consulates were told to terminate subscriptions to the New York Times, the Associated Press and others.  —  The State Department has ordered the cancellation of all news subscriptions deemed …

Kennedy Library closes abruptly  —  “The sudden dismissal of federal employees at the JFK Library forced the museum to close today,” a statement from the foundation read.  —  The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum closed abruptly Tuesday afternoon amid a flurry of mass firings at federal agencies across the government.

Kennedy says panel will examine childhood vaccine schedule after promising not to change it  —  To earn the vote he needed to become the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation's current vaccination schedule.