The email sent on Saturday afternoon with the subject line: “What did you do last week?” asked the millions of Federal employees to report by Monday midnight (11:59) what work they accomplished last week in five bullet points or get fired.

And, in quick blowback, Trump's own appointees like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel resisted, asking their employees not to respond to the email, setting the stage for a showdown of Musk Vs. all others.

On Monday, at the behest of Trump, Musk the lord of all he surveys doubled down on his threat, "Subject to the discretion of the President, they (employees) will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination." Indicating, Musk and Trump will stay the course!

WASHINGTON, Feb 25: An email from the DOGE boss Musk has rattled millions of US Federal workforce. Those receiving the email even included Secret Service agents, Federal judges and air traffic controllers to diplomats. There are over two million Fed workers.

The email sent through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was apparently at the behest of Trump who asked Musk to get more “aggressive” in cleaning up the administration.

When Trump took over as the President, his aide SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was assigned the mission of reducing Government spending by clearing out all dead wood from the Federal departments and agencies and enhancing administrative efficiency. He heads the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The email sent on Saturday afternoon with the subject line: “What did you do last week?” asked the employees to report by Monday midnight (11:59) what work they accomplished last week in five bullet points or get fired.

The resistance

The heads of the Pentagon, FBI, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, National Intelligence and Department of Justice and some others asked their staff not to respond to the email, setting the stage for a showdon between Musk and all others. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration also reacted same way.

However, some others like Health and Human Services, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Transportation, Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service told their employees to reply to the email.

And Trump stayed the course on Monday. He said "don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon.”

Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Monday that those emails are being sent “in a friendly manner”. Trump defended the email plan saying he “thought it was great” and “there was a lot of genius in sending it”

“We have to find out where these people are. Who are they? And we said, ‘If you don’t respond, we assume you’re not around, and you’re not getting paid anymore, too.’”

And Musk stated on Monday, "Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

Unions, partymen oppose

More than 100 House Democrats sent a letter to 24 Federal agency calling it an "ill conceived email stunt.”

Even some Republicans have voiced opposition to Trump’s plan.

Musk’s ‘justify-your-job’ email has created chaos across departments of the Federal administration.

Musk had said, “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks.” “In other words, there is outright fraud.”

He said the objective is to expose waste, fraud and abuse in the Federal Government. The move is meant to spot “outright fraud” from people on the payroll who aren’t working at all."

Musk had earlier posted on X, "All Federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week... Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Musk email followed President Donald Trump's post on his social media network, Truth Social, that DOGE should get more aggressive in its attempts to downsize and reshape the 2.3 millions-strong Federal workforce.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union representing Federal employees, said it will challenge any "unlawful terminations."

Labour unions said the email directive does not follow proper Government procedures.

The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.

Many of the victims were charred beyond recognition, making identification difficult. Three hundred nineteen body parts have been sent for DNA matching with relatives to determine the identities.

• The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
• The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
• The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)

A comment on social media on Kanimozhi's answer on the question of national language read: "Daughter of Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi. Delivered the Birthday Present to her Father!!" (Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924) (Today's headlines )

Trump said, "Elon is not really leaving" and will be "back and forth" to the White House because DOGE is his "baby." "I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.”

Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.

PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.

Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people. (Today's headlines )

"Coming from a system like in England, empowering," she says she never had an idea of this sort of experience... being asked to “socialise with middle-aged men” who financed the event...humiliating...

Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.

Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.

As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.

The committee headed by justice Kurian Joseph will study Centre-State relations and make proposals to ensure foolproof separation of powers.

"It's a big victory not just for Tamil Nadu but for all Indian States. DMK will continue to struggle for and win State autonomy and Federal polity," Chief Minister MK Stalin said.

Of 2.08 km in length, it features 99 spans and a 72.5-metre vertical lift span that rises up to a height of 17 metres, facilitating smooth movement of ships while ensuring seamless train services to the holy town of Rameswaram on Pamban island.

ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!

What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America! (Today's headlines )

PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).

In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.

THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.

The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.

Suddenly these colonial clerks feel this effortless, little rule will tremendously enhance security and convenience for the railway passengers manifold. More stations will be covered in the next 77 years! (Also See: New Delhi station stampede... What went wrong?)

ANALYSIS: "The standard operating procedure for deportations by aircraft used by ICE that is effective from 2012 provides for the use of restraints," says the Government. That means, it is taken for granted the US will set the standard for deportations. For another, the Government is more interested in comparing with what happened in 2012 under a different Government to justify its own compliance! No surprise, others are trampling upon us. (How we conduct ourselves inside decides, inherently, how we are treated outside) Thirdly, the Government blamed the gangs doing the business of human trafficking for the illegal migration. For all the crimes taking place in the country, let us blame the criminals! Funny! We will never move an inch forward! The mindset defines what we are.

Meanwhile, a UN-returned Congress leader Shashi Tharoor sounded like a layman when he said, "If they are citizens of India we have an obligation to take them back." Who said 'No'?. He should know that is not the issue now. Who will identify an undocumented person, and how?

The function was held indoors from 12 pm (10:30 pm IST) at the rotunda of the US Capitol building because of unusually intense cold and snow. Delivering his inaugural address, Trump remarked, “The golden age of America begins right now," and just hours later signed a slew of executive orders to redeem the election pledges.