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“The Brutalist,” an epic drama loosely inspired by the life and work of architect Marcel Breuer, is one of the favorites for the Oscars.But the film has drawn scorn from design experts, who accuse it of glaring errors, and question whether its main character is even a Brutalist architect.Here are five things to know about the film, which is up for 10 Academy Awards including best picture:- Who was Marcel Breuer? -Director Brady Corbet has said his protagonist Laszlo Toth is an “amalgamation” of several famed architects, most notably Breuer.Like the fictional Toth, Breuer was born in Hungary, honed his skills at inter-war Germany’s influential Bauhaus school, and immigrated to America.Both designed iconic chairs before turning their focus to grand buildings. Born Jewish, each was commissioned to construct giant Christian buildings in remote parts of the United States that become their masterpieces.Corbet has said a book about Breuer’s work on Saint John’s Abbey, in rural Minnesota, was a key inspiration for the film. Breuer is also known for designing parts of Paris’s UNESCO headquarters, New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Pirelli Tire Building in Connecticut. – What is brutalism? -Brutalism is a polarizing design style that emerged in the 1950s post-war reconstruction of Europe.It is recognizable for its exposed, unembellished concrete, and giant, bold geometric forms.The term is believed to come from “beton brut,” French for raw concrete.Surprisingly, almost no Brutalist architecture appears in “The Brutalist” — until we glimpse Toth’s completed masterpiece at the end of the three-and-a-half-hour film.In a podcast episode entitled “Why The Brutalist is a Terrible Movie,” design critic Alexandra Lange said the filmmakers “say they read all these books on Brutalism, but absolutely none of that is used to any dramatic purpose or really seems to have been absorbed.”Victoria Young, a professor at the University of St Thomas, told AFP that the building we see at the end is not even Brutalist, but early modernist.”I’m like, ‘You’re kind of missing the whole timeline here,” she said.- What about the timeline? – Experts have pointed out other ways in which the film distorts history.In the film, Toth is a Holocaust survivor who struggles for work and queues for free bread on arrival in post-war America, before his talents are eventually spotted by a wealthy benefactor.In reality, Bauhaus alumni like Breuer and Walter Gropius crossed the Atlantic in the 1930s, before the war. They arrived as globally famous professionals, welcomed into prestigious posts at places like Harvard University.Modernist architecture was deeply established and fashionable in the United States long before the film’s setting.”As an architectural historian, my head is still spinning apart from watching that movie,” said Young.Toth is presented as a devoutly religious heroin addict. Breuer was sober and secular.- Any other controversies? -“The Brutalist” editor David Jancso said artificial intelligence was used to make renderings of Toth’s buildings and blueprints. (AI, which is both increasingly used and loathed by many in Hollywood, also sharpened up the actors’ Hungarian accents.)Corbet swiftly clarified the blueprint designs were hand-drawn.But he said the technology was used to create “intentionally… poor digital renderings circa 1980” for the movie’s epilogue.- Will it matter? -“The Brutalist” is a frontrunner for best picture. And the criticisms of it pale in comparison to the storm surrounding “Emilia Perez,” over its star’s offensive social media posts.Robert McCarter, architect and author of monograph “Breuer,” said the film’s occasional historical distortion “doesn’t bother me.””They’re just using his biography conveniently… I think it’s fine,” he told AFP.What of the monks who pray each day in Saint John’s Abbey, the movie’s supposed inspiration?Alan Reed admitted the supposed Brutalism of the film’s title reminds him of “Russian modern buildings… that look like gun parapets” or “a bunch of boxes piled up,” rather than his extraordinary church.Still, he said, his fellow monks are “quite excited” by the extra attention their home is receiving.

The United States deported 177 migrants from its military base in Guantanamo, Cuba to their homeland in Venezuela Thursday, the latest sign of cooperation between the long-feuding governments. Officials in Washington and Caracas confirmed that a plane left the US base and deposited the 177 people in Honduras, where they were picked up by the Venezuelan government. The deportees then left for Venezuela on a flag carrier Conviasa flight that arrived in Maiquetia late Thursday.Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello received the all-male group of deportees at the airport, telling them: “Welcome to the homeland.” “Those who returned, in theory, are all Venezuelans who were in Guantanamo,” Cabello told journalists, adding that another deportation flight was expected to arrive at the end of the week.The carefully choreographed operation would have seemed impossible just weeks ago when the United States accused President Nicolas Maduro of stealing an election. But since President Donald Trump entered office four weeks ago, relations have thawed, with the White House prioritizing immigration cooperation. Maduro said the handover was at the “direct request” of his government to that of Trump.”We have rescued 177 new migrants from Guantanamo,” he said at an official event.Trump envoy Richard Grenell traveled to Caracas on January 31 and met Maduro, who is the subject of a $25 million US bounty for his arrest. Grenell brokered the release of six US prisoners. A day later Trump announced Venezuela had agreed to accept illegal migrants deported from the United States. – ‘Recovered’ -Venezuela said it had “requested the repatriation of a group of compatriots who were unjustly taken to the Guantanamo naval base.””This request has been accepted and the citizens have been transferred to Honduras, from where they will be recovered,” the government said in a statement. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed they had transported “177 Venezuelan illegal aliens from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras today for pickup by the Venezuelan government.”Caracas broke off ties with Washington in January 2019 after The United States recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” following 2018 elections that were widely rejected as neither free nor fair. In October 2023, Maduro allowed US planes with deported migrants to fly into Venezuela but withdrew permission four months later. His government has been flying free or subsidized repatriation flights for Venezuelans wishing to return home. Venezuela is keen to end crippling US sanctions and to move beyond the controversy over elections last July that the United States and numerous other countries said were won by the opposition. The contested election results sparked protests in which at least 28 people were killed and about 200 injured, with 2,400 arrests.Human rights groups in the United States have sued to gain access to migrants held in Guantanamo after Trump ordered the base to prepare to receive some 30,000 people who entered the United States without papers.Guantanamo is synonymous with abuses against terror suspects held there after the September 11 attacks. The United States on Thursday deported another group of 135 migrants of various nationalities — including 65 children — to Costa Rica, from where they will be repatriated to their home countries, including China, Russia, Afghanistan, Ghana and Vietnam, the government in San Jose said.Costa Rica, along with Panama, is serving as a way station for migrants deported by Trump’s government. 

Mexico’s president warned the United States on Thursday her country would never tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty and vowed fresh legal action against US gunmakers after Washington designated cartels as terrorist organizations.The remarks were the latest in a series hitting back at the administration of President Donald Trump, which has ramped up pressure on its southern neighbor to curb illegal flows of drugs and migrants.Mexico is trying to avoid the sweeping 25-percent tariffs threatened by Trump by increasing cooperation in the fight against narcotics trafficked by the cartels in his sights.The eight Latin American drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations include Mexican gangs such as the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels — two of the country’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations.But the designation “cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told a news conference.”They can call them (the cartels) whatever they want, but with Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”In an interview broadcast late Thursday on the social media platform X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to allay those concerns.”In the case of Mexico, the preference always is to work in conjunction with our partners in Mexico, and we can provide them a lot of information about who they are and where they’re located,” he said, referring to the newly designated criminal gangs. Sheinbaum said Mexico would expand its legal action against US gun manufacturers, which her government accuses of negligence in the sale of weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers.The lawsuit could lead to a new charge of alleged “complicity” with terrorist groups, she said.- ‘Eligible for drone strikes’? -Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House last month saying that the cartels “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the designations “provide law enforcement additional tools to stop these groups.””Terrorist designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective way to curtail support for terrorist activities,” he said in a statement. While he did not mention it, the move has raised speculation about possible military action against the cartels.Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been given a prominent role in the Trump administration, suggested the designation “means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”On Wednesday, Sheinbaum confirmed that the United States had been operating drones spying on Mexican cartels as part of a collaboration that has existed for years.According to The New York Times, Washington has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico in search of fentanyl labs as part of Trump’s campaign against drug cartels.Military threats from the United States always generate resentment in Mexico, which lost half of its territory to the United States in the 19th century.Sheinbaum said that she would present to Congress a constitutional reform to protect “the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation” including against the violation of its territory by land, air or sea.On Thursday, Canada — also under threat of 25-percent tariffs from Trump over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States — joined the United States in labeling seven drug cartels as “terrorist entities.”The groups sanctioned by Canada included the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Michoacan Family, the United Cartels, MS-13, TdA and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. – Mexico adjusting strategy -Mexico says that between 200,000 and 750,000 weapons manufactured by US gunmakers are smuggled across the border from the United States every year, often being used in crime.The Latin American country tightly controls firearm sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally. Even so, drug-related violence has seen around 480,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.While she has ruled out declaring “war” on drug cartels, Sheinbaum has quietly dropped her predecessor’s “hugs not bullets” strategy, which prioritized tackling the root causes of criminal violence over security operations.Her government has announced a series of major drug seizures and deployed more troops to the border with the United States in return for Trump pausing tariffs for one month.Mexican authorities also announced the arrest this week of two prominent members of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the head of security for one of its warring factions.

A US judge on Thursday denied a union bid to temporarily halt the firing of thousands of federal employees on probationary status, handing President Donald Trump another legal win in his plan to slash the government workforce.District Judge Christopher Cooper said he lacked the jurisdiction to handle the complaint, one of several filed in courts in recent days in an effort to pause the mass sackings.The judge’s decision comes as around 6,700 workers at the 100,000-strong Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who were on probation were being laid off.”The anxiety was running through the floor, like I personally felt anxious because I was one of (the) last people to get that email,” an IRS probationary worker who was laid off Thursday told AFP.A former IRS official said most of the IRS employees being let go were part of the US tax agency’s enforcement teams, less than two months before the US income tax filing deadline of April 15. A number of IRS employees posted messages on LinkedIn saying they had been abruptly terminated and were seeking other opportunities.The National Treasury Employees Union and four other unions that represent federal employees had asked Cooper to issue a temporary restraining order preventing termination of their members who are probationary employees.Cooper, an appointee of former president Barack Obama, said his court lacks jurisdiction to hear their claims and they should instead be brought before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, a body that adjudicates federal labor disputes.”Federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent — no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people,” the judge said.- Managers had ‘no idea’ -The probationary worker who spoke to AFP, on condition of anonymity to freely discuss his former employer, said that managers at the agency had “no idea” the layoffs were coming.”I think DOGE has been very careful to make it seem like the agencies themselves are making the decisions, when I can tell, our managers yesterday were just as shocked as we were,” he said. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a free-ranging entity run by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a top Trump ally and donor.On Thursday, the laid-off IRS worker said staff at his agency were “a little resigned, a little defeated, including our managers… some of them were, seemed like they were on the verge of tears.”The worker had been a revenue agent on a team that oversaw tax collection for corporations and wealthy individuals.”I think Republicans have really kind of twisted the narrative in the press to say that the IRS has hired a bunch of people to go after middle- or working-class folks, when really a lot of the people that were hired were hired to go after large corporations and high net worth individuals,” he said. – ‘Cruel’ -In his opinion, Cooper said the federal government employs 220,000 probationary employees and he noted that workers with that status at the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service and other agencies have already been sacked.On Wednesday, another federal judge declined a request to temporarily block DOGE from firing federal employees.Fourteen Democratic-ruled states had filed suit last week contesting Musk’s legal authority but District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied their emergency request to pause his actions.Musk’s cost-cutting spree has been met with legal pushback on a number of fronts and a mixed bag of rulings.A judge last week lifted a freeze he had temporarily imposed on a mass buyout plan offered by the Trump administration to federal workers.According to the White House, more than 75,000 federal employees signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.The fired IRS worker said he had felt “between a rock and a hard place” when he received the buyout offer, facing either quitting his job or being fired anyway.”For all of this to happen in such a cruel fashion, just it doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

A study published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that people can transmit bird flu to their domestic cats, with fatal consequences.Two household case studies from Michigan in May 2024 were published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, as fears grow that the virus could mutate and cause a human pandemic. Since then, it has also emerged that cats can be infected by pet food contaminated with the virus — and it can spread between “big cat” species in shelters. Both case studies involved pet owners who worked at or near dairy cattle farms affected by bird flu, and both resulted in deaths of infected felines.In the first case, a five-year-old indoor female cat rapidly developed a loss of appetite, poor grooming habits, disorientation, lethargy, and neurological deterioration. Her condition worsened quickly, requiring emergency care at the Michigan State University (MSU) Veterinary Medical Center. Despite intervention, her symptoms progressed, and she was euthanized within four days. Postmortem testing confirmed she had contracted bird flu.Two other cats lived in the same household. One exhibited mild symptoms, which the owners attributed to allergies, and they ceased communication with public health officials. Among the household members, the farm worker declined testing, while an adult and two adolescents tested negative for bird flu.- Unpasteurized milk connection -Days later, a second case involving a six-month-old male Maine Coon was brought to the university. The cat exhibited symptoms including anorexia, lethargy, facial swelling, and limited movement, and died within 24 hours. This cat lived with another feline that remained unaffected.The Maine Coon’s owner regularly transported unpasteurized milk from various Michigan farms, including those confirmed to have infected dairy cattle. The owner reported handling raw milk without protective gear, frequently getting splashed in the face, eyes, and clothing, and failing to change work clothes before entering the home. Notably, the sick cat frequently rolled in the owner’s contaminated work clothes, whereas the unaffected cat did not.The owner also experienced eye irritation before the cat fell ill but declined testing for bird flu.”Farmworkers are encouraged to consider removing clothing and footwear and to rinse off any animal byproduct residue (including milk and feces) before entering households,” the CDC researchers advised.Since the US outbreak began in 2024, 69 human cases of bird flu have been officially reported in the US, though the true number may be significantly higher due to limited testing among farm workers. One person has died.Experts warn that as the virus continues to circulate widely among mammals and birds, it could eventually mix with seasonal influenza, potentially mutating into a strain capable of efficient human-to-human transmission.Newly confirmed US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants the government to pivot away from infectious disease research and cast doubt on whether germs actually cause illness.He has also for decades questioned the use of vaccines — seen as key to containing bird flu if it does become a pandemic — and has promoted the consumption of raw milk, a known vector for bird flu.

Is NASA still Moonbound, or will the next giant leap mean skipping straight to Mars?Speculation is mounting that the Trump administration may scale back or cancel NASA’s Artemis missions following the departure of a key official and Boeing’s plans to lay off hundreds of employees working on its lunar rocket.Late Wednesday, NASA abruptly announced the retirement of longtime associate administrator Jim Free, effective Saturday.No reason was given for Free’s departure after his 30-year rise to NASA’s top civil-service position. However, he was a strong advocate for Artemis, which aims to return crews to the Moon, establish a sustained presence, and use that experience to prepare for a Mars mission.Though Artemis was conceived in President Donald Trump’s first term, he has openly mused about bypassing the Moon and heading straight to Mars — a notion gaining traction as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and SpaceX’s owner, becomes a key ally and advisor.Musk’s SpaceX, founded to make humanity a multiplanetary species, is betting heavily on its prototype Starship rocket for a future Mars mission.Trump has also tapped private astronaut and e-payments billionaire Jared Isaacman, a close Musk ally who has flown to space twice with SpaceX, as his next NASA chief.Boeing this month told employees it could 400 jobs from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket program to “align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectation.””This will require 60-day notices of involuntary layoff be issued to impacted employees in coming weeks, in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act,” the aerospace giant told AFP.Boeing “saw the writing on the wall,” Keith Cowing, a former NASA scientist and founder of NASA Watch, told AFP. To date, SLS has flown just one mission — 2022’s uncrewed Artemis 1 — and has proven exceedingly costly. It’s “likely to fly only one or two missions, or they’ll cancel it outright,” Cowing added.- Reform or scrap? -Skepticism about the exceedingly expensive SLS and the Orion crew capsule — whose heat shield issues delayed future Artemis missions — is widespread among space watchers. Still, many advocate reform, not repeal.”We need to stick with the plan we have now,” Free said at an American Astronautical Society meeting in October.”That doesn’t mean we can’t perform better… but we need to keep this destination of the Moon from a human spaceflight perspective. If we lose that, I believe we will fall apart and wander, and other people in this world will pass us by.”Space policy analyst Laura Forczyk noted Free had been in line to become NASA’s interim administrator before being passed over in favor of another official, Janet Petro.She warned that eliminating the Moon would remove a crucial testbed for technologies needed to ensure a safe Mars journey.While Musk has called Artemis a “jobs-maximizing program” and said “something entirely new is needed,” the initiative enjoys strong congressional backing. It supports tens of thousands of jobs in states including Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, with support from key Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz.Abandoning the Moon would also leave China unchallenged to plant its flag on the lunar south pole with a planned 2030 crewed mission.Forczyk believes Artemis is more likely to be reformed than scrapped, with SLS potentially limited to one or two flights before private companies — such as SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin — assume key roles.”However, the Trump administration is unpredictable, and we really cannot get in the minds of Donald Trump or Musk,” she told AFP.Another looming uncertainty has been how Trump’s broader effort to downsize the federal government could affect NASA.A NASA spokeswoman told AFP on Thursday that about five percent of the workforce had accepted a “deferred resignation” offer allowing them to remain on administrative leave while continuing to receive pay until September.

Elon Musk, who has bragged of putting US federal agencies “into the woodchipper” as he slashes government spending, paraded a chainsaw on stage before American conservatives celebrating President Donald Trump’s return to power Thursday.Argentina’s President Javier Milei — who has used a chainsaw as a symbol of his own push to restore fiscal discipline — handed Musk the power tool before a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).The world’s richest person, who was clad in sunglasses, a baseball cap and a large necklace, paraded it up and down the stage before laying it to one side and declaring he was “living the meme.””We’re trying to get good things done. But also, like, you know, have a good time doing it, and… a sense of humor,” Musk said of his cost-cutting efforts, which so far have seen him gut the agency responsible for delivering US aid to the poorest countries in the world and fire thousands of federal workers.Later he again picked up the chainsaw — which had the words “Long live freedom, damn it” written along its blade — to carry it off stage at a center on the outskirts of the capital Washington.Musk was not the only one in a celebratory mood at CPAC, as conservatives revelled in Trump’s return one month ago. Vice President JD Vance said he had been having “a hell of a lot of fun” in the weeks since the Republican billionaire took back the White House. “The president keeps us on a pretty breakneck pace,” he told the fired up crowd, adding: “It’s been a hell of a lot of fun the past month.”The Republican president has issued a blizzard of executive orders in the short time since his inauguration.They have targeted a slew of right-wing priorities such as cutting government spending, tightening immigration restrictions and ending programs meant to combat racism and inequality in the workplace.”Everybody’s happier,” Gabriel Garcia, who was attending CPAC after previously being placed under house arrest over his involvement in the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.”We got Trump back in office,” the 44-year-old told AFP jubilantly.- All about Trump -The annual conservative conference has become ever-more focused on celebrating Trump himself.Among his allies expected to attend were White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and House Speaker Mike Johnson.Trump himself is set to address the conference on Saturday.He gave a somber speech at the event in 2024, when he was running for president, describing the United States as a “nightmare” under Joe Biden.As well as Milei, several right-wing and far-right leaders from around the world will also speak at the convention, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.Conservative party leaders present at the convention range from France’s Jordan Bardella, Britain’s Nigel Farage to former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki.Many are seeking inspiration back home following Trump’s successful comeback. Former British prime minister Liz Truss gave a speech on the main stage on Thursday in which she said “patriotic Brits… look across the Atlantic with envy.””We want a Trump revolution in Britain,” she said, lauding his ally Elon Musk. “We want Elon and his nerd-army of Musk-rats examining the British deep state.”We want to be part of the second American revolution.” 

New York’s top official proposed a package of oversight “guardrails” Thursday against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, over claims he was pandering to Donald Trump after the president moved to drop corruption charges against him.Governor Kathy Hochul said she was “deeply troubled” by the corruption charges against Adams, and the subsequent push by Trump to drop them, prompting what she called “allegations of a quid pro quo with the Trump administration.”But she declined to use her powers to remove Adams. Instead, she announced a new inspector to scrutinize the mayor and created a fund for other city officials to sue the federal government on touchstone issues affecting the city like immigration if Adams failed to.The measures would require approval from both the city council and the state legislature, and Hochul stressed that the threat of removing Adams was not off the table.”After careful consideration, I have determined that I will not commence removal proceedings at this time,” she said.”The Trump administration has said it is already trying to use the legal jeopardy facing our mayor, as leverage to squeeze and punish our cities.”Adams was charged in September 2024 with bribery and campaign finance offenses that included allegations he took sweeteners from Turkish nationals to open their consulate without a proper fire inspection.But Trump has moved to drop the prosecution against Adams, insisting it impaired the city’s ability to participate in his deportation campaign against undocumented migrants.On Wednesday, a judge heard a Trump official’s case for dropping the prosecution, but has yet to issue a ruling, meaning the prosecution is ongoing.”While there is no legal basis for limiting New Yorkers’ power by limiting the authority of my office, I have told the governor… I am willing to work with her to ensure faith in our government is strong,” Adams said after Hochul’s intervention. Critics have suggested that Trump, a Republican, has only sought to discontinue the prosecution against Adams because the mayor has declined to criticize Trump and indicated he will participate in the immigration crackdown.New York is currently a sanctuary city, meaning local police and authorities do not assist immigration agents in their pursuit of undocumented migrants.But Adams has indicated Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could be allowed to operate in New York City’s largest prison complex, Rikers Island.Hochul denied her move amounted to a power grab.

US President Donald Trump was joined by golfer Tiger Woods for an event marking Black History Month Thursday — even as his crackdown on diversity programs has barred similar celebrations in some government departments.”Welcome to the White House, and we proudly celebrate Black History Month,” Trump told a cheering crowd of mainly Black guests at the event, which has become an annual tradition.Trump thanked Black voters for their support in the 2024 presidential election, saying he had “more votes from black Americans than any Republican president ever.” When he talked about the possibility of running for a third term — which he is barred from doing under the US constitution — there were cheers of “four more years.”Woods, who was also at the White House for talks with Trump on repairing the golf world’s divide between the PGA and Saudi-backed LIV Golf, spoke only briefly to say it was an “honor to be with you.” The crowd, meanwhile, booed Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla when Trump introduced him, with attendees saying it was because of opposition to the pharma giant’s Covid vaccine.The glitzy event came as Trump’s administration continues a crackdown launched since his inauguration a month ago on so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.At the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has banned the use of resources to mark months celebrating people of various ethnic backgrounds, including Black History Month.Trump said in a joint interview with Elon Musk with Fox New’s Sean Hannity earlier this week that diversity programs were a “sick trap,” adding: “We’ve destroyed that, it’s gone.”White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said hours before the Black History Month event that the United States had been “plagued and crippled” by what he called “illegal discrimination” through DEI policies.Civil rights groups have sued Trump over his executive orders shutting down the schemes, which are meant to combat systemic inequalities faced by people of color, women and LGBTQ people.Conservatives say they discriminate against white people, and white men in particular.

The world’s richest man Elon Musk got into a heated row Thursday with a Danish astronaut who criticized the tech billionaire’s claim that former president Joe Biden intentionally abandoned two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station.Andreas “Andy” Mogensen had shared on X a Fox News clip featuring Musk and his boss, US President Donald Trump, where Musk claimed NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were left stranded on the orbital outpost for “political reasons” by Biden, and that the new administration was now coming to the rescue.”What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media,” wrote the 48-year-old European Space Agency astronaut, who has flown to the ISS twice, including aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule during a 2023 mission.Musk responded by calling Mogensen “fully retarded,” adding that “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago” and that he had made such an offer to the Biden administration, without elaborating on what that offer entailed.Wilmore and Williams flew to the ISS in June aboard a Boeing Starliner for what was meant to be an eight-day test mission to certify the new spaceship. But thruster problems led NASA to decide that Starliner should return without its crew, and the agency tasked SpaceX with bringing the veteran astronauts home.NASA then announced the pair would return on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission’s spaceship, which launched in September with a crew of two instead of four in order to accommodate them. The voyage home was initially scheduled for February but later shifted to March due to delays by SpaceX in preparing the spacecraft for Crew-10, whose crew will replace Crew-9’s.If there was an alternate rescue plan that could have been executed sooner, Musk has not revealed it.”Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla,” Mogensen replied to Musk’s missive.”You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”