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National

Elon Musk on Saturday said all federal employees will be required to send an email reporting what they accomplished in the last week — and failing to do so will be considered a resignation.

Why it matters: It's a page straight out of the playbook Musk used when he took over Twitter, making workers justify themselves to stay employed.

The difference is that these are Civil Service employees, many with union protection — to say nothing of a Congress increasingly ill at ease with the blowback over how they're being fired. 

Catch up quick: Musk posted his demand to X on Saturday afternoon.

"Consistent with President (Trump's) instructions, 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 wrote.

It follows a Trump post to Truth Social early Saturday morning, calling on Musk to get more aggressive with DOGE's government-slashing efforts. 

Zoom out: Musk's post appears to mark the start of the next phase of DOGE's efforts to slash the federal workforce, following tens of thousands of terminations of probationary employees in recent days. 

What they're saying: The president of the largest union for federal employees, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), was quick to blast Musk's demand.

"It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to the this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life," Everett Kelley said in a statement.

"AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country."

For the record: The White House did not immediately respond to an email for comment on Musk's post. 

Musk says federal employees must explain their work or lose jobs

He's taking a page straight out of the playbook he used three years ago at Twitter.

An Elon Musk post to X demanding federal employees send an email explaining what they accomplished in the prior week or lose their jobs.

An Elon Musk post to X. Credit: @ElonMusk / X

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2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

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Advocates, historians, and descendants of enslaved people are planning to join a 60-mile walk in Texas to bring attention to the Underground Railroad to Mexico — a lesser-known route that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.

Why it matters: The "Walking Southern Roads to Freedom," scheduled for March 3 to 9 in South Texas, is the latest development drawing attention to a largely forgotten episode of Black/Latino history amid a new surge of research and advocacy around the route.

Zoom in: Organizers say the walk will begin at La Sal del Rey, a salt lake in Hidalgo County, Texas, and pass many historic sites believed to be connected to the Underground Railroad to Mexico.

Faith leaders, descendants, artists from Philadelphia and Kansas City, and representatives from the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, Maryland, are expected to join the seven-day march.

The event will also include a stop in Mexico to commemorate country's role in the underground walk to freedom. The walk will end in the border town of McAllen, Texas.

The intrigue: The event is a culmination of research by Roseann Bacha-Garza, a program manager for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools in Edinburg, Texas.

She said the gathering will "increase awareness about the resilience and resolve of freedom seekers of African ancestry who participated in
underground railroad-like activities from south Texas to Mexico."

Bacha-Garza said the plans for the walk began after the school received a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom designation for the Jackson Ranch Church and Martin Jackson Cemetery in San Juan, Texas, from the U.S. National Park Service.

Those sites once served as a gateway to Mexico for enslaved people seeking freedom.

Zoom out: The Jackson ranch was located next to another owned by Silvia Hector Webber — dubbed by some historians as the "Harriet Tubman" of the Underground Railroad to Mexico — and her husband, John, who was white.

The Webbers built a ferry landing on their property to help enslaved escapees move along the Colorado River toward Mexico, says Ohio State history professor María Esther Hammack. 

Context: Historians have known for decades that some enslaved Black people in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Alabama escaped slavery by heading south.

Oral histories, archives of slave escape ads, and narratives of formerly enslaved people show that fleeing to Mexico had been a possibility leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

Abolitionists wrote about "colonies" of formerly enslaved Black people popping up in towns across northern Mexico — a country that had abolished slavery in the 1830s.

Yes, but: How many people fled south of the border remained a mystery, and historians debate just how well-organized the network was.

The Plano African American Museum in Plano, Texas, is opening an exhibit on March 6 called "Risking It All For Freedom: Women Who Crafted The Underground Railroad Into Mexico."

It is being partly organized by the descendants of Silvia Hector Webber.

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Texas 60-mile walk to highlight the Underground Railroad to Mexico

The seven-day walk seeks to bring attention to a lost episode of Black history

Photo collage of the Mexican flag, an archival drawing of a plantation, a photo of two boys at a wagon, an old map of Mexico, and a Mexican church

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

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Pope Francis was in critical condition after an "asthma-like respiratory crisis" the Vatican said on Saturday following its earlier update on his treatment for pneumonia in both his lungs.

The big picture: The 88-year-old pontiff was admitted to Rome's Agostino Gemelli Hospital earlier this month with bronchitis symptoms and his treatment was changed after doctors found he had a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract.

What they're saying: "Today's blood tests also revealed thrombocytopenia, associated with anemia, which required the administration of blood transfusions," the Vatican said Saturday.

"The Holy Father remains alert and spent the day in an armchair, although he is more uncomfortable than yesterday. At the moment, the prognosis remains guarded."

Catch up quick: The Vatican said the earlier polymicrobial infection arose "in the context of bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis" and which required antibiotics, "makes the therapeutic treatment more complex."

A follow-up chest X-ray Tuesday afternoon "demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia that required further pharmacological therapy," said the Vatican of the pope, who has a history of respiratory health issues.

"The Holy Father remains alert and spent the day in an armchair, although he is more uncomfortable than yesterday," the Vatican said Saturday. "At the moment, the prognosis remains guarded."

Go deeper: Pope jabs Vance, criticizes Trump admin for mass deportations

Editor's note: This story has been updated with the pope's latest condition.

Axios' Lauren Floyd contributed reporting.

Pope Francis critical after "respiratory crisis," Vatican says

The Vatican had already said he was facing a "complex" situation from a respiratory tract infection.

Pope Francis greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of the Pilgrimage Episcopal Conference of Scandinavia, on February 3, 2025 at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican. 

Pope Francis greets people at the end of an audience at the Vatican earlier this month. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images

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The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

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Companies are scrambling to rejigger, recast or just kill their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies to avoid the wrath of the White House.

Why it matters: Firms are on a tightrope with legal risks on either side — stick with DEI and face a Trump DOJ investigation or lawsuit; or abandon it, and face the potential for lawsuits from employees and job applicants. 

Either way companies run the risk of angering customers and staff.

Where it stands: Corporate America's DEI anxiety intensified after February 5, when newly sworn-in attorney general Pam Bondi issued a memo directing the DOJ Civil Rights division "to investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector."

By March 1, the division should report "the most egregious and discriminatory DEI" practitioners, per the memo.

That followed an executive order Trump signed the day after taking office that directed agencies to make lists of companies to target.

What they're saying: Since the Bondi memo came out, "I have been on the phone with companies almost nonstop," says Jonathan Segal, an employment attorney at Duane Morris.

And there's been a flurry of news about several firms including Accenture, Booz Allen, Goldman Sachs and Disney, pulling back or scrapping DEI altogether.

Zoom in: The disappearing policies mostly involve explicitly targeting certain underrepresented groups in hiring. Lawyers say some of these practices were always dicey under federal anti-discrimination laws.

Hiring targets: Specifically, where firms set goals to employ a certain share of Black people or women or folks in other minority groups. McDonald's and Meta recently set aside aspirational representation goals.

Set asides: Along those lines, firms should avoid saying they want to hire from a certain racial or ethnic group for a certain position, or consider race or gender when deciding between candidates, Segal says.

Diverse slates: The same reasoning is leading companies to pull back on these policies, which direct recruiters to find certain kinds of candidates in the interview process. Meta recently scrapped this.

Between the lines: DEI policies that are viewed as less risky are changing, too, including employee resource groups, or ERGs, where people from the same background can connect. 

How companies are changing DEI in the Trump era

Firms face legal risks whether they stick with DEI or abandon it.

Axios

Saturday's top stories

Musk says federal employees must explain their work or lose jobs

Texas 60-mile walk to highlight the Underground Railroad to Mexico

Pope Francis critical after "respiratory crisis," Vatican says

How companies are changing DEI in the Trump era

Trump ousts top U.S. Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown and other leaders

Tracking Trump: Zelensky friction, the power grab and IVF access

Hamas releases six hostages as part of Gaza ceasefire deal

Office-to-apartment conversions keep rising

Supreme Court delays Trump's firing of agency head

Time is running out to get a Real ID ahead of May 7 deadline