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Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will make “rapid safety upgrades” to the air traffic control systems with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” Musk wrote Wednesday on the social platform X, which he owns.

“Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!” he added, likely referring to an outage of the FAA’s Notice to Air Mission system over the weekend.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN over the weekend that the system allows pilots to download flight details ahead of a trip and is required for planes to fly.

Shortly before Musk’s post on Wednesday, Duffy posted on X that he spoke with the DOGE team, who will “plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”

The Department of Transportation (DOT) did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for more details on what these upgrades could look like.

When asked about the upgrades, a White House spokesperson doubled down on DOGE’s mission.

“DOGE is fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to making government more accountable, efficient, and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars,” the spokesperson said. “Those leading this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities.”

“The ongoing operations of DOGE may be seen as disruptive by those entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, who resist change,” the spokesperson added. “While change can be uncomfortable, it is necessary and aligns with the mandate supported by more than 77 million American voters.”

Musk owns SpaceX, a leading aerospace company, along with electric vehicle maker Tesla and the social media company X.

His remarks come nearly a week after a deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport between a passenger plane and a military helicopter. All 67 people aboard the American Airlines plane and helicopter were killed.

The crash prompted scrutiny of the FAA, along with the Trump administration’s plans to reduce federal bureaucracy.

FAA employees were reportedly sent an offer to resign with eight months’ pay one day before the collision, but an official with the Office of Personnel Management later said controllers were not eligible for the offer, The Associated Press reported.

There is no evidence the efforts to reduce the federal workforce played a role in the collision, and a shortage of air traffic controllers had been an issue long before President Trump took office or began DOGE.

Thousands of federal workers have been offered the buyout as Trump, Musk and DOGE look to slash government spending and bureaucracy. On his first day in office, Trump issued a federal government hiring freeze that applies to much of the federal government, but air traffic controllers were not included in this freeze, the AP noted.

Musk made headlines this week after his team pushed for access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, and DOGE staff has been involved at the Small Business Administration and the Government Services Administration. Musk has also been a vocal proponent of gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) quickly slammed Duffy’s announcement of DOGE’s work.

“They have no relevant experience. Most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car. And you’re going to let them mess with airline safety that’s already deteriorated on your watch?” she wrote on X.

Some of the DOGE staff members are reportedly young adults, some of whom have reportedly not graduated from college.

Duffy clapped back, writing on X, “Madam Secretary, with all due respect, ‘experienced’ Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling. You need to sit this one out.” 

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the media is grossly overreacting to efforts to make the government more efficient. He said President Trump is doing exactly what he said on the campaign trail that he would do. We speak with Alex Nowrasteh at the CATO Institute.

Jim Acosta, the obnoxious “reporter” who recently quit his job at CNN, continues to thrive on Substack as host and sole proprietor of the Jim Acosta Show. This week, the #Resistance journalist was extremely proud of himself for coining a new catchphrase: “What the Musk?” For the less sophisticated, it’s a nifty play on the phrase “What the f—?” that replaces the profanity with “Musk,” which happens to be the surname of Elon Musk, the African-born entrepreneur and government efficiency czar that has aggravated liberals who adore bureaucrats and the status quo. Watch our video to find out how many times he said those magic words this week over the course of two excruciating episodes.

Acosta, who has the charisma of Hillary Clinton reading the names on her enemies list or attempting to joke about wiping her email server “with a cloth or something,” kept us giggling throughout with punchy zingers. “You know, Donald Trump is, is the king when it comes to passing the buck at times,” he said. “He’s not Harry Truman where ‘the buck stops here.’ In many ways, uh, the, the, uh, the sign on his desk says, ‘the buck is passed here.'” The esteemed journalist kept it casual, wearing what he described (inaccurately) as “kind of a, kind of a Mr. Rogers look” in his home office while his dog, Duke, whimpered outside the door. “Just don’t call me Mr. Acosta,” he warned, “because, really, nobody calls me that.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) joined the show and answered several questions, including “What the Musk?” Things got a little awkward when Acosta’s mic cut out, but the Democratic lawmaker thanked the host for his “incredibly important” journalism. Acosta went on to describe Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “renowned public health expert respected around the world” and spoke solemnly about the true meaning of democracy. “Our government, of the people, by the people, for the people, is not some rocket test, some, some science project for Elon Musk,” he said. “If you get a little frustrated, just say ‘what the Musk?’ uh, but don’t stop caring.”

Bless his heart.

WATCH: Jim Acosta’s New Show on Substack Is Even Worse Than Expected

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Syrian Islamic State families at the al-Hol camp are waiting for the implementation of a decision made by the self-ruled administration allowing them to leave the camp. The camp administration says it is still waiting for a response from the Damascus government to begin the process. The families say they want to return, despite the destruction of their homes.

Click here for the full TV story in Kurdish.

Far-left lawmakers called for measure after Francois Bayrou invoked special constitutional powers

Fourteen gang members in Brooklyn involved in a feud that riddled the borough with bullets and blood were indicted for their roles in numerous shootings, law enforcement sources announced Wednesday. 

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the suspects were involved in a gang war connected to the 59 Brims and Bloodhound Brims street gangs, two sets of affiliated with the Bloods that ran roughshod over Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island.

The gang war was exacerbated by the shooting murder of 17-year-old Devonte Lewis in 2021 as he was leaving Urban Dove Charter School in Midwood.

Over the next several years, authorities said, the Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island communities saw no fewer than 19 separate shootings that left families and small children ducking for cover as bullets whizzed by their heads. This sparked a two-year investigation by the NYPD Gun Violence Suppression Division.

“These violent criminals showed zero regard for human life, and in many of these cases, they aren’t first-time offenders,” Tisch said. “Several of the defendants are shooting recidivists, people who have already proven they’re willing to pick up a gun and pull the trigger again and again.”

The gunmen — some of whom were as young as 15 years of age — had such disregard for human life, prosecutors said, that they fired near innocent bystanders and into apartment lobbies with children clearly inside. 

The recklessness even led gang leaders to admonish their own crews for pulling the triggers and failing to hit their targets, prosecutors noted.

On May 29, 2022, rival gang members were on Instagram live on West 25th Street and Mermaid Avenue when they were ambushed by a group of masked individuals who fired at them wildly. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office reported that one of the intended targets returned fire before running into the building at 2926 West 25th St., the alleged home of G-WAY.

No one was injured, but several pedestrians, including a family with a young child, had to duck for cover and narrowly avoided being hit by the crossfire. Yet the episode seemingly outraged a high-ranking member of the gang.

“One of the crew members says it’s ‘a bad drill.’ Now, a drill is often gang terminology for a shooting against a rival, and they say it’s a bad drill. Antoine Favorite says, ‘How was it a bad drill?’ He’s asking, how was it a bad drill because they shot at their rivals. He says, ‘Because nobody got hit,’” Gonzalez said.

In addition to the arrests and indictments, 18 illegal firearms were also recovered, including the murder weapon that fatally gunned down Davonte Lewis and an attachment that drastically increases the ammunition cap capacity of a handgun.

District Attorney Gonzalez says that he believes violent crime will continue to fall in the borough as a result of the apprehensions.

The defendants include:

Davonte Manson, 23, of Brooklyn Karon Evans, 21, of Brooklyn Timothy Briggs, 22, of Brooklyn Antoine Favorite, 20, of Brooklyn Jaquell Scales, 21, of Brooklyn Omogoriola Omotosho, 21, of Brooklyn Omarion Harvey, 21, of Brooklyn Logan Cadore, 20, of Brooklyn Jordan Thomas, 30, of Brooklyn Jermel Solise, 18, of Brooklyn Tashawn Ware, 19, of Brooklyn Ron Thomas, 22, of Brooklyn Rashiem Brown, 16, of Brooklyn Albiero Garcia, 15, of Brooklyn

Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 02-06-2025 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.

Three Columbia University encampment leaders are suing the school, alleging that its disciplinary actions against them caused “severe emotional and psychological harm.” One of their attorneys is James Carlson, a professional anarchist who stormed Hamilton Hall last spring and clashed with a facilities worker.

Graduate students Aidan Parisi, Brandon Murphy, and Catherine Curran-Groome filed the suit on Monday. They seek “damage and other relief” from Columbia, alleging that the school’s decision to suspend them and remove them from campus brought “severe emotional and psychological harm, including anxiety, depression, and trauma for which they are each seeking treatment.” Their attorney, Carlson, accused Columbia of “repeatedly siccing the police on the plaintiffs to violently arrest them for peaceful protest” and of going “far out of its way to unjustly punish and silence these students.”

Carlson, however, was a driving force behind violent anti-Israel activism on campus, having joined the group of Columbia students who stormed and occupied Hamilton Hall in April 2024. Inside the building, he clashed with a 45-year-old custodian, who spoke of getting “swarmed by an angry mob with rope and duct tape and masks and gloves.” Parisi and Curran-Groome themselves guarded the perimeter of the illegal encampment they organized on Columbia’s lawn, at times forcefully expelling students who attempted to enter what they called an “anti-Zionist space,” video footage reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon shows.

The lawsuit—and Carlson’s role in it—reflects the professional support student radicals at Columbia enjoy as they engage in illegal demonstrations.

Carlson, the son of the late prominent advertising executives Richard Tarlow and Sandy Carlson Tarlow, purchased a $2.3 million townhouse in Brooklyn’s Park Slope in 2019 and lists its address on his active New York attorney registration. Though a felony conviction would lead to Carlson’s disbarment, the Manhattan district attorney’s office reduced Carlson’s charge from felony burglary to misdemeanor criminal trespassing last year, meaning Carlson faces little risk of losing his law license, the Free Beacon reported.

The suit also attempts to use Columbia’s lax disciplinary approach against the school.

While most student protesters at Columbia—including those who stormed Hamilton Hall—returned to class in good standing last year, Parisi, Murphy, and Curran-Groome remain suspended. As a result, their suit says Columbia “singled out the plaintiffs for unwarranted scrutiny and harassment.”

In their suit, Parisi, Murphy, and Curran-Groome accuse Columbia of “negligent infliction of emotional distress,” arguing that the school pursued disciplinary action against them “with the presumption that the plaintiffs would be suspended or expelled, evicted without notice, lose their healthcare, meal plans, and other benefits, get doxed, threatened, and assaulted, and suffer widespread and compounding harms to their careers, livelihoods, reputations, family relationships, and mental health.”

At the same time, the suit openly discusses the students’ participation in the illegal encampment that plagued Columbia’s campus last spring as well as the “Palestinian Resistance 101” event that saw a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization advocate for violence against Jews.

As the encampment unfolded, Parisi emerged as one of its public faces, routinely posting photos and videos that showed him leading student radicals in chants like, “Columbia, we see you, you imprison children too.” Those posts came after Columbia suspended him and ordered him to leave campus, an order Parisi defied.

The suit nonetheless accuses a Columbia professor, Shai Davidai, of “doxxing” Parisi by sharing a Free Beacon article on the student’s suspension. The article, according to the suit, intended to invite “harm and harassment” to Parisi by including his “social media and student status at the Columbia School of Social Work.” Parisi’s X account remains public, and the student gave on-the-record interviews to media outlets like CBS News and the New York Times about his suspension.

The Times identified Parisi as “a suspended student from the School of Social Work.” It also noted that Parisi was “still fighting his eviction” from campus housing because it “would mean finding housing that would accept his emotional support rabbit.”

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(NewsNation) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is defending the actions being taken by the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency amid complaints from Democrats over whether the newly formed agency is wielding too much power.

The agency, more commonly known as DOGE, has been active since President Donald Trump took office and signed an executive order creating DOGE just more than two weeks ago. After Musk vowed to cut $2 trillion from federal government spending, the tech billionaire has come under fire from Democrats questioning Musk’s authority to act.

Asked if Musk and DOGE had been given powers that fall under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution that grants Congress various enumerated powers and the right to pass laws necessary to carry out those powers, Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, defended the agency.

Johnson told reporters that the executive branch of the government has the right to evaluate how agencies within the branch operate. He said by pausing the work of federal agencies that are now under evaluation, DOGE ensures that American tax dollars are being used wisely.

“That is a long overdue, much-welcomed development,” Johnson said. “That’s what the American people demand and deserve.”

Johnson said that Congress views DOGE’s evaluation of agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education and other federal offices as an “active, engaged, committed” exercise in what the executive branch was designed to do. Johnson said that DOGE has “broad discretion” on how federal funding is used.

“(DOGE) is using that authority right in a way that hasn’t been used in a long time,” the House speaker said. “So it looks radical. It’s not. This is not a usurpation of authority in any way. It’s not a power grab. I think they’re doing what we’ve all expected and hope and asked that they would do.”

Democrats gathered Tuesday for what was characterized as a “Nobody Elected Elon” rally outside of the U.S. Treasury, ABC News reported. The group accused Musk of abuse of power. Musk was appointed a “special government employee,” which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said that Musk is “seizing power that belongs to the American people.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, plan to introduce legislation that would block “unlawful meddling” in the Treasury Department’s payment systems, ABC News reported.

This week’s rally comes as DOGE took control of the finances of the U.S. Agency for International Aid, had employees locked out of their workplaces and accessed classified information, NewsNation reported this week. Meanwhile, federal lawmakers were told by a U.S. Treasury official that DOGE will only have “read-only” authority over the government’s payment system.

Two large unions representing current and retired government employees filed a lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying DOGE broke privacy laws by entering the agency’s payment system, according to The Associated Press.

Johnson told reporters that he expects more legal challenges to come over DOGE activity. Johnson called the nation’s $36 trillion debt load “a serious threat” to the future and security of the nation and said that action needed to be taken.

“We’ve got to spend money better, and if this executive branch and this White House is going to take the initiative to dig in and expose it, we applaud it,” Johnson said.

Elon Musk, the African-born immigrant entrepreneur President Donald Trump authorized to rein in spending, vowed on Wednesday to end the federal government’s “wasteful expenditure” of nearly $8.5 million last year on premium subscriptions to Politico, the Beltway news blog located many, many floors beneath the Washington Free Beacon.

“Not an efficient use of taxpayer funds,” Musk wrote in response to an X user who revealed that the Food and Drug Administration has spent more than $500,000 on Politico Pro subscriptions for 37 employees. “This wasteful expenditure will be deleted.”

Politico Pro is an allegedly premium service advertised as a “customizable policy intelligence platform to monitor policy developments, act on the news, and lead the conversation.” It caters to corporate leaders and “policy professionals,” including “consultants who rely on our customizable policy reporting and breaking news alerts and lobbyists who develop outreach strategies.” Annual subscriptions typically cost between $12,000 and $15,000 and allow for up to three users. Politico also operates E&E News, a premium service focused on energy and the environment with “annual plans that start from the upper 4-figure range.”

According to USASpending.gov, a government database that tracks federal expenditures, the U.S. government has spent $26 million on Politico subscriptions since 2021, including $8.4 million in 2024. Federal payments to the media outlet appear to have increased significantly after President Joe Biden took office. Government agencies spent $6.5 million on Politico subscriptions from 2017-2020, according to the database. Whether or not these federal payments influenced the outlet’s coverage of the Biden administration has not yet been proven. Two former Politico reporters, Tara Palmeri and Marc Caputo, recently slammed their “cowardly editors” for spiking stories related to Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop during the 2020 campaign.

In what may or may not have been a coincidence, Politico staff did not receive paychecks for the latest pay period on Tuesday, prompting management to send a series of company-wide emails blaming a “technical error.” Employees were eventually paid Wednesday morning, which is when Musk started posting about the “wasteful” spending on Politico subscriptions. Fox News reports that some Politico staffers are feeling anxious about how Musk’s efforts to reduce government waste could impact their financial stability. Many are still suffering from trauma after the Trump administration took away Politico‘s special cubbies at the Pentagon.

In addition to being a higher-quality publication located on a much, much higher floor, the Free Beacon does not accept subscription revenue from federal agencies funded by hardworking American taxpayers.

Read more: Weird Politico Reporter Offers ‘Condolences for Working at the Free Beacon’

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