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Musk demotion, tariff backpedaling and a firing squad revival

 
Today's NATIONAL story

Trump tells Cabinet they are in charge of layoffs, not Musk

What happened
President Donald Trump said he told his Cabinet secretaries yesterday that they were in charge of staffing decisions and policies at their agencies, not Elon Musk and his DOGE team. Trump's comments, after a closed-door Cabinet meeting that Musk attended, followed mounting "complaints about DOGE's blunt-force approach from agency heads" and "frustrated Republican members of Congress all over the country, some of whom have faced anger from constituents at home," Reuters said.

Who said what
Trump's message marked his "first significant move to narrow Musk's mandate," publicly relegating the world's richest person and his DOGE staff to an "advisory role," Politico said. But the message was mixed. Cabinet secretaries should "go first, keep all the people you want, everybody that you need," Trump told reporters, recounting his guidance. But "we're gonna be watching them. And Elon and the group are gonna be watching them. And if they can cut, it's better. And if they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting."

Musk has "wielded unprecedented authority in implementing mass firings, canceling billions of dollars in contracts and programs and gaining access to sensitive computer systems," Reuters said. But "initial court rulings have undercut Musk and the president's ability to direct firings," The Washington Post said, and Trump's new messaging "signals a tactical shift, as his administration seeks to guard against possible legal challenges in its next round of federal workforce cuts."

DOGE has already cut more than 100,000 federal workers, though "scores" are "being recalled back to work across the federal agencies" after their firings were deemed counterproductive or dangerous, The Associated Press said. 

What next?
Trump said on social media it was "important to keep the best and most productive people" in government, and jobs should be cut with a "scalpel" rather than a "hatchet." Meanwhile, the administration is reportedly preparing to cut roughly 80,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs and 45,000 from the IRS — half its workforce — and to close at least a dozen consulates abroad, possibly more. Newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon is also widely expected to dismantle her department on Trump's orders.

 
 
Today's GLOBAL TRADE story

Trump eases Mexico, Canada tariffs again

What happened
President Donald Trump yesterday suspended some of the 25% tariffs he imposed on Mexican and Canadian imports two days earlier. The one-month pause applies to imports that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact he signed in his first term. Trump gave automakers a similar monthlong reprieve on Wednesday.

Who said what
Trump's "on-again, off-again tariff threats have roiled financial markets, lowered consumer confidence and enveloped many businesses in an uncertain atmosphere that could delay hiring and investment," The Associated Press said. Yesterday's pause did not calm the jittery markets — the S&P 500 dropped another 1.8%, leaving it "below where it was before Trump was elected."

The suspension "effectively abandons many of the tariffs" Trump just imposed on America's top two trading partners, The New York Times said, but it wasn't clear exactly how many. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said "practically all of the trade" between the U.S. and Mexico was now duty-free again, while the White House said about half of Mexican imports and 38% of Canadian imports were compliant with the trade deal. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would "continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future." U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Trudeau a "numbskull."

What next?
Canada said it would keep its 25% retaliatory tariffs in place regardless of Trump's pause, but not implement a second wave of taxes on U.S. imports. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would maintain his province's 25% surcharge on electricity exported to the U.S. until Trump "removes the threat of tariffs for good," and, along with other provinces, keep U.S. alcohol off Canadian shelves.

 
 
Today's Capital Punishment Story

South Carolina to execute prisoner by firing squad

What happened
South Carolina is scheduled to execute double murderer Brad Sigmon by firing squad this evening, barring a last-minute intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Henry McMaster (R). Sigmon, 67, would be the first U.S. death row prisoner killed by firing squad since 2010 and the fourth since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.

Who said what
South Carolina added firing squad as an execution option in 2021. Sigmon opted to be shot because it seemed the best choice, given his "monstrous" alternatives, said his lawyer Gerald "Bo" King. The state's "ancient electric chair" would "cook him alive," and South Carolina's shield law means he would not know what lethal cocktail would be injected into his veins.

According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Sigmon will be strapped to a metal chair (pictured above), a target will be placed over his heart and a hood over his head, and three volunteer prison employees with loaded rifles will shoot him from 15 feet away. It will be "gruesome and barbaric," Randy Gardner, whose brother Ronnie was executed by firing squad in Utah in 2010, told The Associated Press. The "brutality" makes it "probably the most honest of the methods" of state execution, Methodist pastor Hilary Taylor, Sigmon's spiritual adviser, said to South Carolina's The State.

What next?
"As lethal injection drugs have become harder to obtain, states with the death penalty have looked to expand their execution methods to firing squads and nitrogen gas," USA Today said. Utah has long offered firing squads as an execution option, and Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma have also adopted it more recently. South Carolina added the method after having to pause executions for a decade when it ran out of lethal injection chemicals in 2013.

 
 

It's not all bad

James Harrison, an Australian whose rare blood saved more than 2 million babies, has died at age 88, but his lifesaving legacy will continue for generations. A lifetime of blood donations from the "man with the golden arm" helped create Anti-D, a treatment preventing deadly complications in newborns, and scientists are working to replicate his antibody in the lab, ensuring that more lives will be saved in the future.

 
 
Under the radar

In 2021, El Salvador caught the world's attention by becoming the first country to make cryptocurrency legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar. Last December, as the price of bitcoin surpassed $100,000 for the first time, President Nayib Bukele posted on social media that the Central American nation's crypto holdings had more than doubled in value. But to secure a $1.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the country has had to roll back its controversial bitcoin policies. 

Salvadoran businesses are now free to decide whether to accept bitcoin, and taxes are no longer payable in the cryptocurrency. "The potential risks of the bitcoin project will be diminished significantly, in line with fund policies," said the IMF. Effectively, bitcoin's days as legal tender in El Salvador are over. 

Bukele's embrace of bitcoin was part of a larger attempt to "rebrand the tiny and impoverished" nation as a "surfing and cryptocurrency paradise," said the Financial Times. El Salvador is still a "focal point for the global bitcoin community," said Forbes. But a local journalist characterized the current mood among crypto enthusiasts as "somewhat subdued."

Bitcoin's "demotion may be more of a blessing than a concession," however, as crypto has brought El Salvador "more costs than benefits," said The Economist. Overall, the policy has cost $375 million, according to estimates by rating agency Moody's. 

Bukele's "obsession with cryptocurrency has done little to ease El Salvador's economic woes," said The Economist. He's "just the latest crypto-utopian to see his wild ideas dissolve on contact with reality."

 
 
On this day

March 7, 1876

Inventor Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. patent for the telephone. He is best known for his telephone invention but was responsible for many other breakthroughs in audio communications and technology. There are currently over 18 billion mobile devices worldwide, according to Statista. 

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Elon Musk "targets sensitive trove of workers' earnings" as "DOGE is driving cuts at Social Security," The Washington Post says on Friday's front page, but Donald Trump's "Cabinet is told to lead on firings," with Musk "still" playing a "significant role." "Tesla's fortunes fall while Musk rises in politics," The Wall Street Journal says. Meanwhile, "Trump pares tariffs as stocks plunge." Auto parts "suppliers could take 'enormous' tariffs hit," the Detroit Free Press says. "Trans athletes lose support" from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, The New York Times says. "Newsom's words on trans athletes bring backlash," the San Francisco Chronicle says. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Vitamin P

As part of a Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program, 250 residents of Windham County, Vermont, are collecting their pee and donating it to farmers for use as fertilizer. Annually, the program receives about 12,000 gallons of urine, which is pasteurized before being sprayed onto farmland. Using nutrient-rich urine as fertilizer dates back to ancient Rome and China, and scientists recently determined it can "more than double the yield of crops like kale and spinach compared to no fertilizer," said the BBC.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images; South Carolina Department of Corrections / AP; Illustration by Marian Femenias-Moratinos / Getty Images