US President Donald Trump has announced Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump said their focus will be to dismantle government bureaucracy, cut excessive regulations, reduce wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies.
He added that the pair would pave the way to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.
Additionally, Trump named Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his pick for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth, a National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, has been vocal in criticizing diversity initiatives in the military.
Trump praised Hegseth as “tough” and “smart,” vowing that under his leadership, the US military would be restored to strength.
Hegseth’s controversial views on the military and his criticisms of the “woke” agenda have raised concerns within the Pentagon, as Trump signals plans to root out military personnel he deems disloyal.
The UN Security Council is now expected to vote next week on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, diplomats said on Friday, but veto-wielding China has made clear its opposition to authorising any use of force.
Eight people were killed and one child was injured on Friday when a house collapsed in Kabul following an earthquake in Afghanistan, the National Disaster Management Authority said.
Iran shot down a US warplane on Friday in the first such known incident of the five-week war, officials from both nations said, with one of the crew members rescued after ejecting and the other still missing, according to a US source.
A large-scale daytime Russian strike killed at least two people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced as an "Easter escalation", as Moscow shifts tactics to avoid Ukrainian air defences.