Episode 45

Elon Musk and President Trump have said that DOGE's mission is to root out waste and abuse. The White House claims the agency has uncovered fraud and released a "wall of receipts" to show its findings. As Weijia Jiang reports, roughly $14 billion worth of federal program cuts identified were all approved spending. State and city leaders are pushing to quickly rebuild more than 15,000 structures that burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires, but some experts are questioning whether rebuilding in areas with an elevated risk is the right thing to do. Mark Strassmann reports. A federal judge said the Department of Government Efficiency's access to sensitive government agencies' data appears to be "unchecked authority of an unelected individual," but allowed the access to continue. At Mar-a-Lago, President Trump defended Elon Musk but went on the offense against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Russia's invasion. Nancy Cordes has more. New video of the runway crash of a Delta regional jet in Toronto gives the clearest view of the hard landing that caused the plane to roll. The NTSB is assisting with the investigation into whether the weather, mechanical failure or pilot error played a role. Captain Laura Einsetler, a commercial airline pilot with three decades of flying experience, gives her take.llegal crossings along the southern border continue to decrease and are now at the lowest level they've been in nearly five years, according to new monthly data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Omar Villafranca has more on what's behind the dramatic drop. How do you measure America's standing in the world -- by the strength of its economy or the welfare of its citizens? A bipartisan group of scholars crunched nearly 30 years of data and found where America stands in the world may leave some unsure. New York Times senior writer David Leonhardt joins to discuss the findings.