Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent messages to all members of Congress terminating their positions, stating “Your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment.” All Democratic and independent members of Congress, as well as two Republicans, found themselves locked out of their offices after everything inside had been confiscated.   read more

While airstrikes against the rebels haven't been carried out by the U.S., the attacks have included U.S.-made weaponry sold to the Saudis. It includes 1,300 cluster bombs the Saudis obtained in a deal with U.S. defense contractor Textron Defense Systems, which made $640.8 million from a Pentagon-approved sale. The U.S. also provides intelligence personnel to help with targeting support, refuels Saudi jets with air tankers and provides search-and-rescue support for downed Saudi pilots.   read more

Of the nearly 16,000 ambulance services in the U.S. used to transport Medicare patients, one in five were found to have one or more questionable bills. The inspector general found that $30 million was spent transporting patients for whom a corresponding covered service could not be found. Another $24 million was spent on service to places, such as doctors’ offices, to which ambulance rides are not covered. Not surprisingly, the IG also found signs of overbilling via inflated mileage charges.   read more

De Sousa expressed surprise that it took Portuguese authorities as long as it did to detain her. “The interesting part of it is the timing,” De Sousa said. “Why now? When I came into Portugal I did not get detained. I have been here for several months and the Italians never asked Portugal to surrender me to Italy. When was it put into their system at the airport? Someone in Italy seemed to know I was traveling.”   read more

Hospitals also came under fire during the Iraq War under the George W. Bush administration. U.S. planes bombed a Baghdad maternity hospital in 2003, killing several people and injuring 27. Nor were hospitals safe under Bill Clinton’s watch. NATO forces bombed a hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1999, killing four. Technical problems were blamed for the attack. Also that year in Nis, Serbia, NATO dropped cluster bombs on an outdoor market and neighboring hospital, killing three in the hospital.   read more

It’s one thing to make the EPA mad at you. But get the IRS riled up, and you’ve got real trouble. That’s the position in which Volkswagen may find itself in the latest chapter of its emission-testing cheating saga. The automaker certified its diesel-powered cars as being eligible for a clean energy tax credit for buyers in 2009 and 2010 and some 60,000 Volkswagen owners claimed a $1,300 credit on their taxes. Now some senators want the federal government’s money back.   read more

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland called the new panel “a waste of taxpayer money and Congress’ time, much in the same way that time and money have been squandered by the Select Committee on Benghazi.” Rep. Gwen Moore said, “We know that fetal tissue procurement ... provides life-saving research for diseases like Parkinson’s, ALS... This is just another pathway to deny a woman a right to a safe and legal abortion.” Planned Parenthood officials called the committee addition a “five-ring circus.”   read more

Ohio tried to obtain sodium thiopental from another country but was stopped by the FDA. Nebraska has been looking for drugs in India. Other states have opted for execution methods that were long ago discarded. If lethal injection is not available, Tennessee intends to use the electric chair, while Utah has approved firing squads once again. Oklahoma and Louisiana are considering the use of nitrogen gas, either in a chamber or delivered through a mask.   read more

Sales of full-calorie soda have dropped 25% in the past two decades after a sharp increase from the 1960s to the 1990s. Americans are increasingly turning to other beverages, such as water, to quench their thirst. The sales drop has been fueled by increased concern about obesity, particularly among children. “The drop in soda consumption represents the single largest change in the American diet in the last decade,” wrote the New York Times’ Margot Sanger-Katz.   read more

In 2014, Rubinstein was made the U.S. Special Envoy for Syria, dealing with the opposition to the Assad regime. He replaced Robert Ford, who had taken a harsh approach toward Assad. Rubinstein’s approach with the insurgents was slightly different. Anti-ISIS forces sought his support for battling the extremist group before it took over Mosul. Rubinstein turned them away. Rebel officials started referring to Rubinstein as “the complaint box,” saying he listens to all and never responds.   read more

Unlike many Foreign Service officers, Alsup did not go immediately to work for the State Department after college. She worked for the aerospace division of Ling-Temco-Vought, and she opened a franchised art store in her hometown of St. Petersburg. Alsup went overseas in 2005 for her first assignment to The Gambia. Since 2012, she has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana.   read more

“The U.K. and U.S. are both insisting that the wording for any mandate about autonomous weapons should discuss only emerging technologies," said Noel Sharkey. Such a development would undermine the intent of the agreement, and result in autonomous weapons systems becoming a part of modern warfare. “If there is not a pre-emptive ban on the high-level autonomous weapons then once the genie is out of the bottle it will be extremely difficult to get it back in,” said the U.N.'s Christof Heyns.   read more

The United States has lost nearly 60 rural hospitals over the past five years, leaving communities across the country looking for health care services and enduring the fallout from the closures. One rural hospital lobbyist says there are no simple answers for stopping this trend. “If it were just one silver bullet, it would have been easier to attack it legislatively and figure it out,” said chief NRHA lobbyist Maggie Elehwany. “But it’s really death by a thousand different knives.”   read more

U.S. officials using the Global Forecast System (GFS) warned for two days that Joaquin would strike the East Coast around the Mid-Atlantic region. Instead, it remained out at sea—which is what the European Center for Medium-Range Forecasts forecast. “Eventually, the GFS model forecast shifted to the correct solution, but the European model had the correct forecast about 24 hours before the GFS, emerging victorious,” Jason Samenow wrote at The Washington Post.   read more

It’s no contest when comparing the grammar skills of Democrats and Republican. Republican supporters made more than twice as many mistakes as Democratic supporters. For every 100 words written, the average Democratic supporter made 4.2 mistakes, while the average Republican backer made 8.7 errors. Among the candidates, supporters of Democrat Lincoln Chafee had the lowest rate of mistakes (3.1 per 100 words), while those backing Donald Trump had the highest rate of mistakes (12.6).   read more

Scott’s early State Dept. postings included Croatia, Israel, and Switzerland. He stepped away from the diplomatic world for a bit in 1994 as a national security fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. When he returned to active duty with the Foreign Service in 1996, it was as a political counselor at the embassy in Moscow. In 1999, Scott was moved to a similar role at the embassy in Budapest, Hungary.   read more

Oxfam singled out the U.S., Iran, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey for “fueling violence and violations of war in Syria through arms and ammunition transfers to parties to the conflict.” Along with the U.K. and Kuwait, the U.S. also was criticized for its “less than generous” offers “to welcome the most vulnerable refugees.” Oxfam claims the U.S. has resettled only 8% of its “fair share” of refugees. Since 2011, only 1,500 Syrian refugees have been admitted into the country.   read more