Today’s Big Story

More Government Cuts

Internal White House document details layoff plans across U.S. agencies

The cuts just keep on coming. Drastic reductions at the Health and Human Services Department announced Thursday will shrink and reshape the agency substantially. The layoffs of 10,000 workers together with previous buyouts and early retirements leave the department with about 62,000 employees, down from more than 82,000 before Trump took office. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be among the hardest hit.

Experts are saying that the cost-cutting measures could significantly slow drug research and delay FDA approvals. HHS’s new priority will be to end “America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins,” the agency said.

Meanwhile, federal officials are preparing for agencies to cut between 8% and 50% of their employees as part of a Trump administration push to shrink the federal government, according to an internal White House document obtained by the Washington Post that contains closely held draft plans for reshaping the 2.3-million-person bureaucracy.

The details are compiled from plans that President Donald Trump ordered agencies to submit. According to the Post, the numbers, which have not been released to the public, “show what could be next for the efforts that Trump says will make government more accountable, but that have also upended agency functions and triggered restraining orders from the courts.” The document indicates that broad staff cuts are likely to have a significant impact on the scope of the government’s work. For example, the document lists the Department of Housing and Urban Development as cutting half of its roughly 8,300-person staff, while the Interior Department would shed nearly one in four of the workers it had when Trump took office and the IRS would cut nearly one in three.

Elon Musk, whom Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, said on Thursday he would finish most of the work to cut $1 trillion in federal spending when his tenure ends in as soon as 64 days. Musk told Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” that he was confident DOGE could find $1 trillion in savings, slimming current total federal spending levels of about $7 trillion down to $6 trillion. You may not’ve realized but Musk has officially been designated by the White House as a “special government employee,” which caps his work at 130 days. That means his period leading the DOGE operation could finish as soon as the end of May.

The Group Chat Angering Everyone

Everyone from the president and security officials to military pilots are venting their frustrations

President Trump expressed frustration with national security adviser Michael Waltz on Thursday over his fumbling of a Signal group chat created to coordinate among senior national security officials. Trump's annoyance with Waltz comes as a chorus of allies have called for the White House to fire the national security adviser as a fall guy for the group chat fiasco.

Of course, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is under close scrutiny, too, as Republican lawmakers criticize his role in the group chat episode. The intelligence breach was bad enough, military fighter pilots said. But Hegseth’s refusal to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information about when American fighter pilots would attack sites in Yemen, they said, was even worse. And going forward, they can no longer be certain that the Pentagon is focused on their safety when they strap into cockpits.

What’s more, U.S. security officials’ private contact information and passwords have been found online within days of the Signal scandal. Mashable’s Amanda Yeo added, “If I had a nickel for every time a breach of tech security involving the Trump administration was revealed this week, I'd have two nickels … which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.”

The Trouble With Dining Alone

It’s tough to make reservations for one. Plus, the lack of company is taking its toll.

Living in Japan, it’s all too common. In fact, many eateries are equipped to cater to solo diners. But in America, it’s considered a little sad. Even as Americans are spending more time on their own, many find eating out alone to be rife with awkwardness and judgment. And many restaurateurs, who already run their businesses on thin profit margins, worry that tables for one will cost them.

Reservations for solo dining in the United States have risen by 64% since 2019, according to data from OpenTable, and 21% from 2022 to 2023, according to Resy. Actually, the increase in eating alone is probably even greater, given that many people simply walk in. And even the menu can feel exclusionary: The shareable small plates that dominate many menus make it expensive and “difficult to eat a balanced and well-proportioned meal alone,” one diner told the New York Times.

Of course, this time spent alone isn’t always great. Our increasing isolation is what’s leading to Americans’ epidemic of unhappiness. “The extent to which one shares meals,” says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Oxford and co-editor of the World Happiness Report tells Vox, “is an extraordinary proxy for measuring people’s social connections and their social capital. It underpins people’s social support. It drives prosocial behaviors, and all of that, in turn, leads it to be a very strong indicator—predictor—for people’s life satisfaction.”

A Weekend Pairing

‘The Studio’ + a Dirty Martini

What does it mean for a television show to be cinematic? It certainly doesn’t have to mean that the series in question is about the movie business, though that happens to be the case with The Studio, the new Apple TV+ comedy starring Seth Rogen and co-created by Rogen and his longtime creative partner, Evan Goldberg.

In the first episode, Rogen’s Matt Remick becomes the new president of the venerable century-old Continental Studios when its previous head, industry legend and Matt’s onetime mentor Patty Leigh (played by Catherine O’Hara), is forced out of the job. Matt got into the business out of a love for classic cinema—he’s forever dropping references to everything from Goodfellas to Fight Club. But the realities of the 21st-century box office mean that his workdays revolve around meetings about acquiring the rights to the Kool-Aid brand name for a franchise that will star Ice Cube as the voice of an animated pitcher of red liquid. The show is quick, stylish and filled with talented actors. What’s not to like?

BOXABL Is Building Houses the Way We Build Everything Else

What if they built houses like cars?

Solitude is strength.