--:-- Shumita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, February 24th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shumita Basu: 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?"
--:-- Shumita Basu: 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.
--:-- Shumita Basu: 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.
--:-- Shumita Basu: 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.
--:-- Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen: 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 to this authority is illegal. And the actions he's taking are illegal.
--:-- Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen: And we need to shut down this illegal operation.
--:-- Senator John Curtis: 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.
--:-- Senator John Curtis: We can do both.
--:-- [Audio clip of Elon Musk speaking on X]
--:-- Shumita Basu: In response to criticisms, Musk posted on X on Sunday that the email is a, quote, very basic pulse check to see who doesn't check their inbox.
--:-- Shumita Basu: 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.
--:-- Shumita Basu: That figure includes around 1,600 USAID 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.
--:-- Sidney Kerman: A lot of farmers live like month to month in terms of their budget. And so if they're expected to pay for $150,000 tractor out of pocket because we promised that we would pay them, but we don't have enough people to, like, get the work done, then that's going to be devastating for them.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In some instances, the Trump administration has had to backtrack on firings. For example, Musk's team recently fired roughly 1 newly hired National Park Service employees who staff entrances maintain the parks and rescue hikers who are hurt or lost.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Some parks and national monuments announced they would have to reduce hours due to lack of staffing. There's been widespread public outcry, and now, according to the AP, at least 50 jobs are being restored.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And separately, in a memo put out last week, the Park Service is being authorized to hire up to 7,700 seasonal workers. That's about a 20 percent increase in seasonal positions.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Termination letters are also being rescinded for some workers who oversaw America's nuclear weapons, though officials said last week they were struggling to get in touch with some former employees to let them know that they are in fact needed in their jobs.
--:-- Shumita Basu: As for the legality of what's happening, it's unclear how today's email deadline will play out. The largest federal workers union posted on social media that they do not believe Musk has the authority to carry out today's threat of firing employees who don't respond to his email.
--:-- Shumita Basu: But the last time unions tried to intervene, they lost. Last week, a federal judge ruled that he didn't have the authority to block the administration's downsizing attempts, saying this is an employment dispute that must follow a different legal process.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: I decided to go there to see where things were at right now in terms of numbers, because I had heard from locals that they had seen troops, active duty military in town.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: They were eating at restaurants and buying condoms at Walgreens. And people were really wondering, well, what are they here to do?
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: The reason locals are asking that question is the border has been incredibly quiet lately. Historically, when we've had troop deployments to the border, they've been for a very set, specific amount of time to respond to a crisis.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: In this case, the crisis, if you will, had largely abated when these troops arrived. Agents that patrol this part of the border say they're apprehending fewer than 50 people a day.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: That's a major drop from 2023, when agents were stopping closer to 5,000 people a day. What I think very few people knew or understood is that starting around mid-2024, the numbers of people who were crossing the U.S.-Mexico border had been dropping precipitously and sort of continually month after month.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: And there's a lot of reasons for that. One reason is because Mexico has been cracking down more heavily on migrant caravans trying to cross through Mexico into the U.S.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: The other big reason is because under President Biden, the asylum rules changed. Then when Trump took office, he declared an emergency and effectively closed off the border.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: What that means is that border crossings are way down. In fact, Border Patrol chief Mike Banks told CBS News last week that unlawful crossings at the southern border are down 94 percent from the same period last year.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: Things are so quiet that many Texas migrant shelters are close to empty. In one county along the border, a local sheriff told the Post they are back to quote getting cats out of trees and helping little old ladies with their groceries.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: At the same time, the number of troops at the border has surged. Between America's deployment of troops and Mexico's deployment of 10 more, there are roughly one soldier or officer for every migrant trying to cross each month.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: Now, locals told me they are happy to have active duty troops in town. They're good for the economy. At least two hotels are sold out. Some stores are offering discounts for them.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: But other than that, locals say there doesn't seem to be very much for them to do. U.S. Northern Command, which is in charge of the deployment, told the Post that troops are reinforcing border barriers and helping with intelligence on cartel activity.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: And there are limits to how they can be used. They can't put their hands on migrants. They can't technically arrest anyone, but they can call a Border Patrol agent and say, hey, I've got five people moving through the brush in this section.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: And that's really, I think, the large extent of what they're doing.
--:-- Aurelis Hernandez: Hernandez also reports this quiet period for the border could change. There are some 300,000 people in Mexico waiting and watching to see if and how U.S. policy will shift in the next few months.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Now to Germany, where citizens went to the polls this weekend and voted for sweeping change as concerns over a stagnating economy, an immigration crisis, and deteriorating international alliances led leaders to call for a snap election.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The center-right Christian Democratic Union led exit polling Sunday with a commanding 28 percent of the vote, making party leader Friedrich Merz the likely next chancellor of Germany.
--:-- Shumita Basu: He declared victory on Sunday. Perhaps the more surprising result, however, is the rise of the far-right party called Alternative for Germany, or AFD.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The AFD, which was once considered a fringe movement, doubled its support from the last elections four years ago to about 20 percent.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It's the party's largest election victory in its 12-year history, though it was lower than many in the party were hoping, especially after receiving endorsements from Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance.
--:-- [Audio clip of Elon Musk speaking at an AFD rally]
--:-- Shumita Basu: Here is Musk during an AFD rally he joined virtually about a month before the election.
--:-- Elon Musk: It's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.
--:-- [Audio clip of Vice President J.D. Vance speaking in Munich]
--:-- Shumita Basu: And here's Vice President Vance a few weeks ago speaking in Munich, chiding European leaders for excluding far-right parties from power.
--:-- Vice President J.D. Vance: It is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. There's no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don't.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The firewall he's referring to is an agreement between mainstream German political parties to not work with the far right for fears of allowing extreme political parties to take over, as the Nazi party did decades ago.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Merz, for his part, has already said he will not work with the AFD. That means despite their electoral success, they will likely be shut out of whatever coalition government forms.
--:-- Shumita Basu: As for the future of Germany, there is still a lot that's not known. Merz has vowed to crack down on immigration, cut taxes, and be a voice of strong leadership in Europe, Europe particularly on the issue of Ukraine which is about to enter its third year of war.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The same night Merz's party declared victory, Russia launched the largest drone attack against Ukraine of the conflict.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And despite his long championing of U ties, Merz has been critical of Trump and pledged to help Europe achieve, quote, real independence from the U.S.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Six hostages were freed by Hamas over the weekend, but on Sunday, both sides of the ceasefire agreement accused the other of violating it, and Israel delayed the expected release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the prisoners won't be freed until Hamas agrees to releasing future hostages without, quote, humiliating ceremonies.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Reuters reports that's in reference to recent handovers of hostages that UN officials said went against international law because they were not respectful.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Hamas has made hostages appear on stages and coffins containing remains have been passed through crowds. Hamas denies humiliating hostages and says any ceasefire talks are now dependent on the release of those prisoners.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Meanwhile, CNN reports Israel is expanding its operations in the occupied West Bank, sending tanks in for the first time in decades.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In domestic news, it's been less than a month since an American Airlines plane collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board both aircraft.
--:-- Shumita Basu: One of the victims, Kia Duggins, was a young lawyer traveling back to D.C. after visiting family in Wichita. Her boyfriend, Adrian Ma, is a host for NPR's Planet Money.
--:-- Shumita Basu: He recently returned to the air after taking a little time off and spoke in an emotional interview about the crash, his grief, and what he wants the world to know about who his girlfriend was.
--:-- Adrian Ma: Kia was a person who was really committed to making the world a better place and just as committed to experiencing and spreading joy.
--:-- Adrian Ma: And it's the combination of those two things that I think is one of the many reasons that I fell in love with her.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And finally, American alpine skier Michaela Schifrin collected her 100th World Cup title over the weekend, topping the podium in slalom in Italy.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The win came just a few months after a bad crash on the slopes left her with a puncture wound in her abdomen.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The Athletic has a story about Schifrin's journey to becoming the winningest alpine skier ever, and the team of mostly women she's assembled over the past few years to do it.
--:-- Shumita Basu: From her coaches to physical therapists, The Athletic reports Schifrin was intentional about putting women at the forefront of her team and how the results speak for themselves with dominance on the mountain.
--:-- Shumita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Bloomberg Businessweek asks if Trump supporter Dr. Phil's TV network can make it in a saturated news marketplace.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
