The Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is seen on February 03, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request,” quipped one journalist.
When CNN put in a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of Personnel Management for information related to security clearances for billionaire Elon Musk and other personnel at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency who have been allowed access to sensitive or classified government networks, the outlet got an unexpected response.
“Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team,” an OPM email address wrote back, according to Tuesday reporting from CNN. An OPM official told the outlet that the federal government’s human resources agency did not layoff the entire privacy team, but did not comment further on the matter.
“Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request,” quipped CBS News journalist Jim LaPorta reacting to the news on X.
According to CNN, OPM’s privacy team “is tasked with ensuring the agency’s data privacy practices meet legal requirements and protect the trust of the public.” Members of the agency’s communications staff and employees who handle FOIA requests were also terminated, per CNN, which cited two unnamed sources.
Federal agencies are required to furnish information requested via FOIA unless the information falls within an exemption.
These firings at OPM, which is the chief human resources agency of the federal government, constitute “a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates,” according to CNN, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the matter.”
OPM was one of the first federal agencies to be infiltrated by Musk’s associates at the Department of Government Efficiency and has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s purge of federal workers.
Last month, OPM sent out the now infamous “Fork in the Road” memo, which offered a widely decried deferred resignation program for nearly all federal employees. The message resembled—including the verbatim wording of the subject line—an email that Musk sent Twitter employees in 2022, when he took over the social media platform now known as X.
CNN’s coverage also noted that the move to fire members of OPM’s privacy and communication teams echoes Musk’s decision to fire the media relations department at Twitter.
On X, Washington Post video journalist Jorge Ribas wrote the word “‘transparency'” in response to CNN’s reporting about the FOIA request, in an apparent nod to Musk’s assertion that DOGE is attempting to be transparent in carrying out its operations.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
A Delta Air Lines plane sits on its roof after crashing upon landing at Toronto Pearson Airport on February 17, 2025. (Photo: Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images)
“Maybe in the DOGE boys’ video game simulations, it doesn’t matter if they lay off hundreds of staff from the FAA. In the real world, however, it will make flying less safe,” said Public Citizen’s Robert Weissman.
As the Trump administration began firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees amid a surge in plane crashes, a leading U.S. consumer advocacy group warned Monday that the slash-and-burn approach of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is making the “next air travel disaster more likely.”
While Musk recently said that DOGE will “aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” critics have countered that the Trump administration’s termination of FAA personnel, including critical air traffic control maintenance staff, poses major risks.
“Maybe in the DOGE boys’ video game simulations, it doesn’t matter if they lay off hundreds of staff from the FAA. In the real world, however, it will make flying less safe,” Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman said in a statement. “Just like having fewer people safeguarding the nation’s nuclear arsenal will make the risk of a nuclear accident much greater.”
Elon’s DOGE rampage will be a wake up call for what a decimated government really means. Cuts to FAA? Higher risk of plane crashes.Cuts to Forest Service? Higher fire risk. Cuts to the CDC? Higher pandemic risk. Cuts to the EPA? Higher toxic exposures risk — and on and on.
The Musk rampage through government is making it virtually certain that we will suffer through otherwise avoidable health, safety, and economic catastrophes. Cutting the Forest Service increases fire risk, cutting the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and blocking information-sharing risks worsening infectious disease outbreaks, cutting the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] guarantees Big Bank and predatory loan ripoffs, cutting [Food and Drug Administration] staff increases the risk for dangerous devices, drugs, and food additives, cutting the [Environmental Protection Agency] will increase the risk of mass toxic exposures, and on and on.
“If permitted to proceed, the mindless Musk-Trump governmental annihilation is going to touch every American community, imposing tragedy upon tragedy,” Weissman added.
In a Monday social media post, U.S. Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) said that “mass firings of FAA workers—at a time when they already have serious staffing problems—would be dangerous at any time,” but “Musk and Trump doing this weeks after the deadliest crash in years is stupid beyond belief.”
Public Citizen’s warning came on the same day that a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed and overturned on landing. The FAA said all 80 people aboard the flight were rescued. At least a dozen people were injured in the crash, three of them critically, according to the Toronto Star.
While the FAA firings were not a factor in Monday’s accident, the Toronto crash was the latest in a recent surge in air disasters. Last month, 67 people were killed when an American Airlines jet and an army helicopter collided at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. According to initial reports, only one air traffic controller was working both civilian and military flights when the crash occurred.
On January 31, seven people died when a medical transport jet crashed near Philadelphia, 10 people were killed in a February 6 Bering Air commuter flight crash in Alaska, and one person died when a private plane belonging to Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil crashed during landing in Arizona last Monday after its landing gear failed to properly deploy.
We condemn the decision to fire these safety inspectors. Everywhere I go I am asked, “is it safe to fly?” My response is yes because thousands of frontline workers ask that all day long. If federal workers can’t do their jobs, we can’t do ours. 1/2www.passnational.org/index.php/ne…
David Spero, national president of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, the union representing more than 11,000 FAA and Defense Department personnel who install, inspect, and maintain air traffic control systems, said in a statement Saturday that the Trump administration’s terminations “will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin.”
“This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing,” Spero added. “Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. And it is especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month.”
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte meets with US Vice President JD Vance. Source: NATO/Flickr
Statements by US Vice President Vance and Defense Secretary Hegseth on the Ukraine war and transatlantic relations have left European leaders in shock
“If American democracy can survive ten years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,” US Vice President JD Vance told European leaders at last week’s Munich Security Conference. His remarks came during a draining week for those leaders, as Trump officials announced peace talks with Russian authorities—without European or Ukrainian involvement—while signaling they expect Europe to handle peacekeeping and being paid for their support in minerals from Ukraine.
Speeches by Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threw European leaders into disarray, seen as not-so-subtle indications of a cooling in transatlantic relations. These interventions attacked everything from the EU’s efforts to regulate social media platforms to its approach to far-right parties in parliamentary life. In response, French President Emmanuel Macron called for an emergency summit of select regional powers on Monday, February 17 – just a day before US and Russian representatives are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia.
While Ukrainian officials and some European leaders have insisted they will not accept any deal that excludes Ukraine’s direct involvement, their stance appears to carry little weight.
At the same time, the new US administration has increased pressure on its European allies, demanding a ramping up of their defense budgets and taking on the responsibility of a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. This comes as no surprise: a number of US officials, including Donald Trump himself, have said Europe does not contribute enough to NATO and essentially freeloads off the US. Vance’s speech in Munich only reaffirmed this stance, ultimately reducing high-ranking figures to tears over the apparent breakup between allies.
While the focus of European reactions to recent US statements has been on Ukraine, many leaders have admitted that more is at stake. “Yes, it is about Ukraine – but it is also about us,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. Unfortunately, the conclusion she drew going further is upsetting: “We need an urgency mindset. We need a surge in defense. And we need both of them now.”
Unlike healthcare, education, or social programs—sectors where European governments are consistently told their budgets must remain limited—military spending is expected to face no such barriers. Many European countries have already embraced the shift, with Polish officials, for example, boasting about spending close to 5% of their GDP on defense and warning of looming “wider wars” to convince other states in the region to do the same.
Despite the apparent fracture in US-Europe relations, European leaders have shown no inclination to rethink their dependence on Washington. Instead, most have done exactly what the Trump presidency wants them to do and swiftly pledged to increase military spending. Some have even already expressed willingness to deploy troops for peacekeeping in Ukraine. What remains absent from their reactions is any consideration of a future less dictated by US interests and more aligned with the needs of the people living in Europe.
Since the beginning of the war three years ago, activists have urged Europe to reject NATO’s warmongering and prioritize peace in Ukraine alongside social justice at home. Instead, the coming surge in military budgets will almost certainly coincide with cuts to public services, further fueling the rise of the far-right—a political force that Trump officials, including Vance and Elon Musk, have (more or less) openly backed during interventions in Europe. From this perspective, unlike the conservative circles who “survived ten years of ’s scolding,” Europe’s liberal elite is unlikely to emerge from its current crisis unscathed. Whether their refusal to acknowledge the failure of their anti-people policies will push the entire region into the hands of parties like Brothers of Italy and Alternative for Germany remains to be seen.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
The illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat is seen in this March 30, 2024 photo. (Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Netanyahu government is operating on steroids to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise,” said one group.
Israeli authorities are planning to expand a Jewish-only settlement in the West Bank by nearly 1,000 homes, a Tel Aviv-based peace group said Sunday as Israeli soldiers and settlers escalated attacks on Palestinians in the illegally occupied territory.
Peace Now said Israel’s Civil Administration has issued a new tender for the construction of 974 new housing units in Efrat, a Jewish-only colony located about 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem between Bethlehem and Hebron. The planned expansion will increase Efrat’s population of approximately 11,800 residents by 40% and geographically isolate Palestinian communities in the southern West Bank.
Emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to power, far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet have vowed to annex the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 in violation of international law.
On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that “the goal for 2025 is to demolish more than the Palestinians build in the West Bank,” according to Al Jazeera. This, following the largest Israeli seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank in decades last year.
“The Netanyahu government is operating on steroids to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise,” said Peace Now, referring to the longtime Israeli practice of violating international law by colonizing and annexing Palestinian land to establish what one legal scholar has described as “de facto possession with the aim of attaining de jure possession.”
Peace Now continued: “It is now clear that military action alone will not bring a solution to the conflict or security to Israel, and that ultimately we will have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians. The Netanyahu government is harming Israeli interests and torpedoing the only solution that can bring us security and peace.”
In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement Monday that “the ongoing de facto annexation of the illegally occupied West Bank through the expansion of racially segregated illegal settlements is just one aspect of the far-right Israeli government’s ethnic cleansing of the entirety of historic Palestine and of its relentless efforts to block justice for the Palestinian people.”
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the Israel-based peace group Ir Amim, told Al Jazeera that “since the start of 2025, Israeli authorities have demolished 27 structures in East Jerusalem, including 18 residential units, in what appears to be a systematic effort to remove Palestinians from their homes while simultaneously expanding Israeli settlements.”
The Israeli settlement population has increased exponentially from around 1,500 colonists in 1970 to roughly 140,000 at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993—under which Israel agreed to halt new settlement activity—to more than 500,000 today. Last July, the International Court of Justice, which is also weighing a genocide case concerning Israel’s annihilation of the Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is an illegal form of apartheid that must end “as rapidly as possible.”
News of the Efrat expansion came as Israeli soldiers and settlers escalated attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank over the weekend. Occupation forces carried out raids in the towns of al-Issawiya and Salfit, near East Jerusalem, as well as the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah. Israeli troops also continued their siege and assault on Jenin and the Nur Shams refugee camp, where two young women, one of them pregnant, were shot dead last week.
Armed Israeli settlers from the Mikne Avraham colony also invaded al-Minya, south of Bethlehem, wounding 16 Palestinians including a pregnant woman who was attacked with clubs and rocks, according toMiddle East Eye. The Israeli newspaper Haaretzreported Saturday that settlers sicced dogs on al-Minya residents, wounding two people.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 876 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Since launching “Operation Iron Wall” on January 21, Israeli forces have killed at least 53 Palestinians across the West Bank. The Israeli offensive has forced around 40,000 people from their homes in what experts say is the largest displacement in the West Bank since more than 200,000 Palestinians were expelled during the 1967 conquest and occupation.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei (C) attends Donald Trump’s inauguration as the next President of the United States in the rotunda of the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Shawn Thew – Pool/Getty Images)
“Look where you brought us with your madness! You turned Argentina into a casino where the croupier is the president himself,” one opposition politician said.
Argentina’s far-right libertarian President Javier Milei faces legal challenges and calls for impeachment after a cryptocurrency he touted on social media over the weekend rapidly rose and then tanked in value.
Milei first promoted the $LIBRA coin from his personal account on X Friday night, which then skyrocketed in value to $5 apiece, according to Reuters. Within hours, however, the coin’s value plummeted to under $1. Milei deleted his initial tweet five hours after he first posted it, The New York Times reported, writing in a new post that he was “not familiar with the details of the project.”
“We just witnessed one of the fastest and largest destructions of wealth in retail trading history,” noted The Kobeissi Letter, which tracks capital markets, in a social media post. “Argentina’s memecoin, $LIBRA, erased -$4.5 billion of retail capital in seven hours. Truly destructive.”
In the first 40 minutes after Milei first tweeted boosting the coin, its value rose by more than 2,000%, CoinDesk reported. However, it then began to fall as early investors sold their shares, eventually plummeting 95% from a maximum value of $4.4 billion.
Crypto experts warned the $LIBRA coin, which was developed by KIP Protocol and Hayden Davis, could be a “rug pull,” a scam in which a crypto developer launches and inflates a coin only to pull out and leave investors hanging.
“Milei’s participation in the crime of crypto fraud is extremely serious,” the Lower House bloc of the Peronist Unión por la Patria, a center-left opposition group, wrote on social media Saturday. “It’s a scandal without precedent. Our bloc of national deputies has decided to move forward with presenting an impeachment request against the president of the nation.”
Opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro further called Milei’s actions a “scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale” and “requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president.”
On Sunday, Socialist Party lawmaker Esteban Paulón also called for impeachment proceedings.
“If as a president of a country you propose something for private benefit there is an obvious conflict of interest.”
On Monday, Argentina’s benchmark S&P Merval had fallen by 4%, according to Reuters. The incident sparked more than 100 legal complaints, which were assigned to Federal Judge Maria Servini on Monday.
One case was brought by a coalition of lawyers involved in the Right to the City Observatory think tank as well as economist and former Argentine Central Bank President Claudio Lozano. The group accused Milei of fraud, dereliction of duty, and criminal association, according to theBuenos Aires Herald.
An official statement from the president’s office on Saturday said that Milei had met twice with the developers of $LIBRA and had decided to promote the coin “as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who want to launch a project in Argentina to create jobs and obtain investments.”
“Not having been part of any instance of the development of the cryptocurrency, after the repercussions that the launch of the project had and to avoid any speculation and not give it further dissemination, he decided to delete the post,” the statement continued, adding that the president had asked the Anti-Corruption Office to investigate whether he or anyone else in the government engaged in “improper conduct.”
However, the lawyers challenged Milei’s account, according to the Buenos Aires Herald:
In their report, the lawyers dispute Milei’s subsequent claims that he was not aware of the project’s details. They highlight that the president made his post just three minutes after $LIBRA was launched, timing that indicates he knew it was coming before it was announced. They also argue that, as an economist, it is unlikely that he did not understand the details of the project he was sharing.
In a post addressed to Milei directly, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner heavily criticized the current president for painting himself as an expert yet claiming innocence of the scheme.
“Weren’t you the ‘best president in history’? Weren’t you the ‘genius of the economy’? From self-proclaimed ‘global leader’ to CRYPTO SCAMMER,” de Kirchner wrote.
“Look where you brought us with your madness! You turned Argentina into a casino where the croupier is the president himself,” she continued. “THAT IS YOUR MARKET FREEDOM… that of the casino. Your mask has fallen off.”
While experts say impeachment efforts are unlikely to succeed, the incident could harm Milei in the upcoming midterm elections.
“It is extremely serious if confirmed, especially in terms of a president’s powers to promote something private,” left-wing Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told Reuters. “If as a president of a country you propose something for private benefit there is an obvious conflict of interest.”
The scandal drew comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump, who also launched a meme coin shortly before taking office, the value of which also first rose and then fell dramatically. Milei has expressed support for Trump in the past, while Elon Musk has taken inspiration from Milei’s chainsaw-wielding approach to government for his ideologically-driven anti-government effort Department of Government Efficiency.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
