📌 Musk Reined In, EU Defense To Increase, More

President Donald Trump told his cabinet that they, not Elon Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies.

The billionaire Tesla CEO and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will play an advisory role only, Trump said, according to a source. Musk was in the room and told the cabinet he was good with Trump's plan, the source said.

The meeting was convened following complaints about DOGE's blunt-force approach from agency heads to top White House officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles. The White House Office of Legislative Affairs has been inundated with calls from frustrated Republican members of Congress all over the country.

"It's very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it's also important to keep the best and most productive people," Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social. "We say the 'scalpel' rather than the ‘hatchet.’”

DOGE has cut over 100,000 employees from the 2.3 million federal workforce and created anxiety among workers. In some cases, the government scrambled to rehire critical staffers, such as in nuclear weapons security and bird flu research. Over 30 lawsuits were filed challenging DOGE's actions.

European leaders on Thursday backed plans to spend more on defense and continue to stand by Ukraine.

The European Union's defense summit in Brussels took place amid fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next and that Europe can no longer rely on the US to come to its aid.

EU leaders hailed the European Commission's proposals this week to give them fiscal flexibility on defense spending and to jointly borrow up to 150 billion euros ($160 billion) to lend to EU governments to spend on their militaries.

In a joint statement agreed by all 27 member states, the leaders called on their ministers to examine the proposals in detail urgently. The EU leaders voiced support for Ukraine, but in a statement without Hungary's nationalist leader Viktor Orban, a Trump ally, who is also cultivating ties with Moscow.

"We must ensure, with cool and wise heads, that US support is also guaranteed in the coming months and years, because Ukraine is also dependent on their support for its defense," Germany's outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

Google co-founder Larry Page is building a company named Dynatomics focused on applying AI to product manufacturing.

Page is reportedly working with a small group of engineers on AI that can create “highly optimized” designs for objects and then have a factory build them.

Chris Anderson, previously the CTO of Page-backed electric airplane startup Kittyhawk, is running the stealth effort.

Page isn’t the only entrepreneur exploring ways AI could improve manufacturing processes. Orbital Materials is creating an AI platform that can discover materials ranging from batteries to carbon dioxide-capturing cells.

PhysicsX provides simulation tools for engineers working on project areas like automotive, aerospace, and materials science. Elsewhere, Instrumental is leveraging vision-powered AI to detect factory anomalies.

For the second time this week, a privately operated spacecraft has touched down on the Moon — but this one landed badly.

The Athena lander, built by Texas startup Intuitive Machines, landed in the Mons Mouton region just 100 miles from the South Pole of the Moon. The spacecraft's internal sensors indicated that it may be horizontal and not vertical as intended.

Intuitive Machines’ first lander, Odysseus, landed on the Moon last year but tipped over after descending too quickly, breaking a leg. Unable to charge its solar panels, the spacecraft shut down.

Some have criticized the design choices made by Intuitive Machines for its spacecraft. Most lunar landers use squat designs to achieve great stability, but Athena is over 15 feet tall and just 5.1 feet wide.

One good sign is that the spacecraft is still generating power, although not enough for normal operations. The flight team is investigating which systems can be shut down to ensure the longest possible working life for the lander.

One of Athena’s payloads is NASA's Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1, which was designed to drill and analyze samples for signs of water. Intuitive Machines is working to check which payloads can be deployed, but it says the cargo is awake and communicating.

President Donald Trump suspended 25% tariffs that he imposed on most goods from Canada and Mexico.

His reversal whipsawed financial markets and fanned worries over inflation and a growth slowdown. The exemptions, covering the two largest US trading partners, expire on April 2, when Trump has proposed imposing a global regime of reciprocal tariffs on all US trading partners.

Trump had imposed a 25% levy on imports from both countries on Tuesday and had mentioned an exemption only for Mexico earlier on Thursday, but the amendment he signed Thursday afternoon covered Canada as well. The three countries are partners in a North American trade pact.

Trump also said that 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum would go into effect as scheduled on March 12. Canada and Mexico are both top exporters of metals to US markets, with Canada, in particular, accounting for most aluminum imports.

On Wednesday, Trump exempted automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico as of Tuesday, levies that economists saw as threatening to stoke inflation and stall growth across all three economies.

Economists have warned that the levies may rekindle inflation that has already proven difficult to bring fully to heel and slow demand and growth in its wake.

Support for Israel among Americans has fallen to its lowest in 25 years, reports a Gallup poll released Thursday.

The poll shows that 46% of respondents said they support Israel rather than Palestine in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the lowest rating in the 25 years that Gallup has been conducting the poll, with the previous low of 51% having been recorded twice: last year and in 2001.

Support for Palestinians has skyrocketed — 33% of respondents said they support Palestinians, up 6% from last year. Republicans lean toward supporting Israel, while more Democrats support Palestinians. Most of the Americans surveyed report favoring a two-state solution to the conflict, the poll said.

Gallup has been measuring opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1999. Overall, more Americans have supported establishing an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Currently, 55% are in favor and 31% opposed, while 14% do not have an opinion, the poll said.

An Alabama mother was left in disbelief when she gave birth to a baby girl twice the size of a newborn.

Pamela Mann, a delivery driver living in a small town southeast of Birmingham, welcomed her daughter, Paris Halo, to the world during a scheduled C-section at the Alabama Grand View Medical Center.

“The doctor pulls her out of me and all the nurses are like, ‘Oh God!’” Mann said. “I started freaking out because I had no idea what was happening.”

The medical team’s enthusiastic reaction was in response to her baby’s unusual size. Mann’s newborn, Paris Halo, weighed a whopping 13 pounds and four ounces when she was born at the Alabama Grand View Medical Center.

The news stunned the 31-year-old, who believed Paris had weighed the standard size for a newborn. The baby arrived 16 days before her scheduled due date. She skipped many clothing sizes and wears clothing made for a six-month-old.

The Guinness World Records says the heaviest baby on record weighed 22 pounds and was born in Italy in 1955.