Human Race: Musk goes to Washington

Does private businessman Elon Musk enjoy too much power on Capitol Hill? That’s the question swirling around President Donald Trump’s pick to ferret out fraud and waste in government. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, leads the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and is now classified as a “special government employee.” He has space in the White House complex, where DOGE teams disperse to federal agencies to gather information and make recommendations.

DOGE’s work was evident at the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Feb. 10. There, federal officers turned away agency employees who showed up for work after a court temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have pulled all but a fraction of workers off the job worldwide, part of the president’s effort to freeze funding and essentially shut down a $43 billion foreign aid agency that Musk has called a “radical-left ­political psy op” and blamed for a “crazy waste of money.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., tore into Musk for overreach, saying “we don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in contrast, said he’s grateful for Musk’s effort to end wasteful spending. “He is working around the clock to root this out and end it. And it’s exactly what President Trump was elected to do.” —Kim Henderson

New budget chief

The U.S. Senate voted 53-47 along party lines to confirm Russell Vought as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 6. Vought, a former WORLD Opinions columnist who also served as OMB director during the first Trump administration, previously worked for the House Republican Conference and Heritage Action for America and was a contributor to Project 2025. In 2021, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, an organization with a mission to “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought said his main objective upon his return to OMB would be making government work for everyday taxpayers. Among Vought’s first directives after his confirmation was to order the one-week closure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which he criticized as a “woke & ­weaponized agency.” —Josh Schumacher

New Head of HUD

The U.S. Senate confirmed a Baptist pastor and former member of the Texas House of Representatives as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Develop­ment in a 55-44 vote Feb. 5. Scott Turner, an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, also formerly served as chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute and chief visionary officer at housing developer JPI. Turner had a role in the first Trump administration as executive director of a council that promoted revitalization of urban neighborhoods, including through Opportunity Zones. In his confirmation hearing, Turner said he plans to address record levels of homelessness and affordable housing shortages by streamlining Section 8 housing vouchers and easing building regulations. —Elizabeth Russell

Smuggler arraigned

For his alleged role in the drowning of a pregnant migrant, Colombian national Jhader Uribe-Tobar was extradited from Canada to the United States and arraigned on Feb. 6. According to U.S. authorities, a 33-year-old Mexican woman, Ana Vasquez-Flores, contacted Uribe-Tobar on TikTok through a relative. Uribe-Tobar, 36, allegedly charged $2,500 to smuggle Vasquez-Flores from Canada into New York via the Great Chazy River. At her smuggler’s direction, officials say, Vasquez-Flores waded into the frigid water in an attempted crossing on Dec. 11, 2023, and drowned. Police found her body three days later. If convicted in his trial at a U.S. District Court in New York, Uribe-Tobar could spend up to life in prison. —Bekah McCallum

VP impeached

The Philippine House of Representatives impeached Vice President Sara Duterte on Feb. 5 for charges including an alleged assassination plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and a failure to counter Chinese threats in the region. A conviction would exclude Duterte from holding future presidential office and undermine a politician many view as a personal ally of China. Duterte’s father, Rodrigo Duterte, served as president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 and fostered ties with Russia and China while clashing with U.S. leaders. Sara Duterte didn’t immediately say whether she would consider resigning before her trial later this year to forestall a possible conviction. —Grace Snell

Whippet lawsuit

The family of Margaret Caldwell filed a class-action lawsuit Feb. 6 in hopes of removing nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas or whippets, from the store shelves of seven Florida smoke shops. Caldwell, 29, died behind one of the shops in November after telling her family the gas that she used for years to get high must not be dangerous because it was legal and easy to buy. The lawsuit says product makers exploit the law by labeling the gas canisters as a baking product meant to make whipped cream and not for inhalation. Reported intentional exposure to nitrous oxide has doubled in the United States in the last decade. —Amy Lewis

Misconduct report

Seventeen women claim they were sexually abused by Mike Bickle, the influential founder of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, according to an independent investigation released Feb. 3. The report came more than a year after the 24-7 prayer ministry severed ties with Bickle over accusations of inappropriate conduct. The investigation claims he used his position to groom women decades younger than him, including four who were teenagers at the time. IHOPKC leaders repeatedly failed to address abuse allegations, according to the report, conducted by the investigative firm Firefly but overseen by Tikkun Global, a Messianic Jewish network connected with the ministry. Bickle did not participate in the investigation. He previously admitted to inappropriate behavior but denied “more intense sexual activities.” —Mary Jackson