To all those who celebrate, I hope you had a suitably standardized National Metric Day (not that one). It is also World Mental Health Day, International Stage Management Day, and National PrEP Day. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Today’s update includes the start of layoffs in the federal government, MIT rejecting the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, and the end of Nobel week.
The government is still shut down. The Senate failed to pass a funding bill on Thursday and has adjourned for the weekend. The next vote will be on Tuesday.
OMB Director Russ Vought indicated this afternoon that the threatened mass layoffs of federal workers has now begun.
By all accounts, it has been a very chaotic day. At least 4,100 people have been laid off today with at least a quarter of them at HHS.
The President held a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. The headlines were, of course, the ceasefire agreement and the continuing shutdown. But HHS Director RFK Jr. and the President also weighed in on HHS’s efforts to determine the cause of autism. Gold Standard Science™.
The President of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, released a statement this morning stating that the institute will not be signing the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. The Chronicle has some reporting around how UVa is considering the compact.
While most of the reporting we’ve seen has focused on universities, Science has a piece on how an independent research institute - the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) - has been affected by changing funding landscape.
Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute laid off 10% of its workforce this week due to the “shifting federal funding priorities that are shaping the research landscape”.
The Washington Post has an extensive piece on the Administration’s pick for Surgeon General, Casey Means.
The President announced via social media that the US will be imposing a 100% tariff on imports from China as well as export controls on “critical software”. The Wall Street Journal has more details.
University of California set a record this week, claiming five newly minted Nobel laureates. This year’s Peace Prize winner - María Corina Machado – dedicated the prize to the President. I’m not sure what we’re all doing here, but ok.
The preview image is from Unsplash.