☕ Elon Musk's emails to federal employees, explained.

It’s Monday.

What did you do last week at work?

That’s the question tens of thousands of workers were asked by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in an email late last week. Now, a battle is emerging after many agency heads urged workers not to respond. We’ll explain it all in today’s newsletter.

I’ve got 30 seconds

Some headlines from this morning:

Over the weekend, Russia launched one of the most intense drone attacks across Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying 267 missiles were launched across 13 regions. Ukraine’s Air Force reported roughly half were shot down by its air defence system. Today is the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Zelenskyy stating he is willing to resign from his position as leader in exchange for the end to the war, and Ukraine's admission into NATO.

The Vatican has confirmed Pope Francis is in a critical condition after suffering a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis", with a further statement issued yesterday noting blood tests this week showed "initial, mild" kidney failure. The 88-year-old is currently being treated for double pneumonia in a Rome hospital. Pope Francis has served in his role since 2013, when he was elected following the retirement of Benedict XVI.

The Beirut funeral of Hassan Nazrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah killed in an Israeli airstrike 5 months ago, has been attended by over 1 million people, pro-Hezbollah sources have said. Nazrallah was one of the founders of Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political party based in Lebanon, and led the organisation for over thirty years. Hezbollah leaders urged attendance at a stadium funeral. Some estimate the number of attendees was closer to 450,000, saying Hezbollah sources may have inflated the number to contradict the perception they are significantly weakened after their clash with Israel.

Timothée Chalamet and Demi Moore picked up best actor and actress respectively at the 31st Screen and Actors Guild awards (SAG) last night. SAG awards focus solely on screen talent, with no awards for directors or behind the scenes contributors. The awards were held in person after a period of uncertainty during the LA bushfires last month which caused the usual in-person nominations to be cancelled and announced online. The cast of Conclave took out the award for outstanding performance for a cast in a motion picture, while Kieran Culkin won an award for his supporting role in A Real Pain, adding to his Golden Globe, Bafta and Independent Spirit awards for the role.

I’ve got 1 minute

Germany is set to have a new government following elections over the weekend.

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, is expected to lead the next parliament as Chancellor.

Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called an early election when his coalition broke down, has conceded defeat.

The election also saw far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) secure about one-fifth of the vote, as more Germans expressed discontent with economic and migration policies.

Background

From 2021 to 2024, Scholz led a three-party coalition made up of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party.

The government was thrown into chaos in November when the Free Democratic Party withdrew support for the coalition, leaving Scholz without a functioning majority.

In response, Scholz called an early election.

The top issues

Voters identified three main issues heading into the election:

Economy: Germany has been affected by the same cost of living issues and high inflation as other Western economies.

Migration: Multiple attacks in recent years have led to a rise in anti-migration rhetoric.

Ukraine war: The German Government has spent €13.7 billion ($AU22.5 billion) on military aid for Ukraine since 2022.

AfD

In recent years, the anti-immigration and pro-nationalist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has seen a spike in popularity.

AfD polled around 10% at the previous federal election. The party’s popularity has grown amid dissatisfaction with high inflation, sluggish economic growth, and shifting attitudes about migration.

Germany’s domestic intelligence service has said the party should be treated as a potentially extremist group, a move upheld by regional courts.

Pre-election polling from German company Deltapoll showed men under 35 were the most likely demographic to support AfD.

About 17% of men under 35 said they would vote for AfD at the general election, compared to 6% of women.

American tech billionaire Elon Musk spoke at an AfD rally last month, calling the party the “best hope for the future of Germany”.

The results

Media and research companies conduct an exit poll to capture voter trends on polling day. While it’s not an official result, it is usually an accurate approximation of the final vote tally.

The exit polls in Germany show the CDU won the highest number of votes — about 29%.

AfD secured the second-highest number of votes, doubling its support from 10 to 20% compared to the previous election.

What happens now?

Merz is now likely to become Chancellor, a role which involves leading Germany’s Parliament, called the Bundestag.

The CDU is likely to form a coalition with the SPD. Mainstream German parties have an unofficial agreement to avoid co-operating with far-right politicians called the ‘firewall’.

Based on current projections, the centre-right and centre-left parties would have enough seats to form a coalition without AfD. Coalition negotiations could take months.

I’ve got 2 minutes

An email from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and a follow-up post by Elon Musk on X has confused federal government workers as he appeared to give them an ultimatum this weekend: account for the work they did last week, or face being removed from their positions.

This story has taken a lot of twists and turns. Let’s dive in.

Musk’s powers

Musk has been placed in charge of DOGE via the status of ‘Special Government Employee’. It is in this capacity that he has been issuing directives like the one seen over the weekend.

DOGE is a new non-governmental agency tasked with cutting government spending and regulations, including by reducing government headcount.

What happened?

A supportive post on social media from President Trump over the weekend read, “Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him be more aggressive.”

Musk tweeted shortly after, “All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week…Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” He then said he had complied with the President’s tweet.

The Office of Personnel and Budget sent an email to civil servants on Saturday afternoon asking recipients to respond with five bullet points summarising last week’s work by midnight on Monday. They did not mention that failure to respond would result in resignation.

The response

Whilst federal employees are uncertain and fear for their job safety, some department heads have expressed enthusiasm for the initiative. The interim US attorney general for Washington told his followers on X that he was happy to participate.

Others have urged their agency personnel not to comply with the email. Recently confirmed FBI boss Kash Patel was among them, asking employees to pause their responses and emphasizing the agency “[would] conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”

Experts have warned that forcing employees to resign for non-action runs afoul of federal law, which states all resignations should be voluntary.

Others have pointed out practical issues, such as employees who solely work on highly confidential information or diplomats/soldiers conducting missions in remote areas.

So, will they have to resign?

There seems to be no clear answer. There has been no clarification from the White House and no unified response from department heads.

If the resignation is enforced, legal response can be expected with civil service unions promising to challenge any action taken in line with Musk’s tweet.