Americas
Polygraph tests for federal workers, running’s secret ingredient, and a seaside Russian spy nest: Weekend Rundown
Federal workers under pressure as Trump agenda ramps up
All employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., received unsigned emails Friday night offering them a “voluntary separation incentive payment.” The move comes after President Donald Trump clarified in a Cabinet meeting last week that agency heads — not Elon Musk — are in charge of staffing decisions.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security started performing polygraph tests on employees in an attempt to learn who might be leaking information, according to four sources familiar with the matter. Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan have blamed lower-than-expected ICE arrest numbers on recent leaks revealing the cities where it planned to conduct operations.
Meanwhile, some federal workers — many of whom are veterans — spoke to NBC News about the serious mental health crises they’ve been grappling with amid the firings and buyout efforts.
“It’s not about the layoffs. It’s about a dehumanization of who we are and what we do,” said one Department of Defense employee who carries guilt over his vote for Trump.
Canada has a new prime minister
Former central banker Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister after the governing Liberal Party elected him its leader Sunday as the country deals with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threat, and a federal election looms.
Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January but remains prime minister until his successor is sworn in in the coming days. Carney won in a landslide, winning 85.9% of the vote.
Trump’s trade war and his talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians, who are booing the American anthem at NHL and NBA games. The surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered the Liberal Party’s chances in a parliamentary election expected to take place within days or weeks.
As Musk faces blowback, Teslas bear the brunt
As Elon Musk attempts to delve further into the corridors of American power, the tech mogul’s electric-car maker Tesla has come under fire — literally.
There have been at least 10 acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles, dealerships or charging stations in recent weeks, according to police and local reports, underscoring the backlash Musk has faced since taking on an unprecedented role in the federal government.
The attacks at Tesla dealerships also coincide with a decline in sales for the electric-car maker.
Recent data shows increasing sales growth of electric-battery vehicles in Europe, but new Tesla vehicle registrations in Europe are down 45% year over year for January, and are down in China as well.
From a run-down British seaside resort, Russian spies launched espionage plots
The Haydee Guesthouse, with its worn-out carpets and grandmotherly Victorian façade, makes for an unlikely base for Russian-backed high-stakes espionage.
But for years, the guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, a run-down resort town on Britain’s east coast, played host to a freelance spy ring orchestrating cross-continental honeytraps, kidnappings and murder plots targeting high-profile dissidents and sensitive military sites.
The details unfolded in British courts last week after three Bulgarians — members of a Russian ring operating from their base in the United Kingdom — were found guilty of conspiracy to spy.
Gabriela Gaberova, 30, a beautician tapped to carry out honeytraps; Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab assistant who was also found guilty of “possessing identity documents with improper intention”; and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter-decorator and Gaberova’s former partner, made up the ragtag group of amateur operatives who managed to carry out espionage operations for the Kremlin on what prosecutors described as “an industrial scale.”
‘Meet the Press’
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disputed the possibility of a recession as banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs say it’s becoming more likely.
Lutnick told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that President Donald Trump plans to “unleash America out to the world” and “grow our economy in a way we’ve never grown before.”
“If Donald Trump is bringing growth to America, I would never bet on recession, no chance,” the commerce secretary added.
Lutnick also promised grocery prices would start coming down in early April but warned there would be price increases on foreign goods because of the administration’s anticipated reciprocal tariffs.
Politics in brief
Shutdown deadline: Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a short-term funding bill to avert a shutdown at the end of this week, but it’s unclear whether it has the votes to pass either chamber.
Holdout on Ukraine: Trump has privately made clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv won’t be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing, according to two officials.
Trump pushback: With Congress on the sidelines, the most serious and forceful pushback Trump has faced has come from foreign leaders and American judges.
MAGA vs. billionaires: Old-guard Trump-world populists are starting to take swings at the plutocrats — namely billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk.
Who is Amy Gleason?: Mystery continues to surround the low-profile data analyst who was named acting administrator for the Department of Government Efficiency.
The household item turning runners into world record holders
Asked about the factors that helped him break the world record for the indoor 5,000 meters, Grant Fisher acknowledged one so surprisingly simple that it’s probably in your kitchen.
He is among the many professional runners in recent years to embrace baking soda — known within the sport by its scientific name, sodium bicarbonate, or simply “bicarb” — as a legal means of running faster times than ever.
The use of a bicarbonate “system” sold by Maurten, a Swedish company, has become so widespread that at track and field’s world championships in 2023, two-thirds of all medalists from 800 to 10,000 meters were using it. At the Olympics last summer, more than two-thirds of all running medalists were using it — “and in some cases, all the finalists were using it,” the company told NBC News.
In case you missed it
The Secret Service shot an armed man near the White House shortly after midnight Sunday, the agency said.After brush fires erupted in New York on Saturday, officials said a large one on Long Island was 22% contained as of Sunday afternoon.At least eight people were injured after a customer rammed into a CarMax store in California, and police are saying it’s being investigated as an intentional act.Pope Francis has shown a “gradual, slight improvement” after more than three weeks in the hospital, the Vatican said.A 14-year-old suspect was taken into custody on murder charges following a shootout with New Jersey police officers that left one dead and a second hospitalized, according to authorities.For a month, seven people held Sam Nordquist captive in a small hotel room, torturing him to death, authorities say. How did it go on in secret?The leader of Germany’s AfD party is part of a growing group of powerful women leading Europe’s ascendant far-right parties.
Americas
Nationwide protests planned after arrest of former Columbia University activist by immigration authorities
Nationwide protests are planned this weekend after Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student activist, was arrested by immigration authorities, fueling tensions between the Trump administration and student movements over immigration policy.
Khalil, 30, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the middle of the night last weekend, prompting outrage in recent days. Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, helped lead pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University last spring.
Protests calling for his release will be held in cities including New York City, Boston, Phoenix, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Miami and Indianapolis on Saturday and Sunday.
Several dozen protestors gathered in Times Square on Saturday afternoon, wearing traditional Palestinian scarfs, known as kuffiyehs, and waving Palestinian flags.
“Release Mahmoud right now!” the protestors shouted.
Grant Miner, the former president of a union representing thousands of Columbia student workers who were fired and expelled this week, addressed the crowd. He described Mahmoud’s detention as “a campaign of fear.”
“We must stand up together to tell Trump and his billionaire buddies that we’re not going to stand for this intimidation and the backsliding of civil rights in this country,” he said.
To justify Khalil’s arrest, the Trump administration cited an obscure foreign-policy clause that allows the federal government to deport foreign nationals whom it deems national security threats. The Department of Homeland Security alleges that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expelling Khalil, a legal permanent resident, from the country as he challenges his deportation.
Khalil filed an amended petition and complaint in federal district court in Manhattan on Thursday, stating he was the target of “retaliatory detention and attempted removal of a student protestor because of his constitutionally protected speech.” Khalil finished his classes at Columbia in December 2024 and was expected to graduate in the spring, according to the filing.
Immigration authorities are holding the 30-year-old in Louisiana and his lawyers have petitioned for him to be returned to New York City. His wife, an American, is eight months pregnant.
“I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby,” she said in a statement through Khalil’s defense counsel on Monday. “I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world.”
Trump administration targets campus protesters
Khalil’s arrest marks the first attempt to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to deport international students who protested in support of Palestinians on campuses across the country last spring.
On Tuesday, a doctoral student from India whom DHS accused of supporting Hamas self-deported to Canada. And on Friday, another Palestinian student who took part in Columbia’s protests last year, identified by DHS as Leqaa Kordia, was arrested for allegedly overstaying her student visa.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Friday. “When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
DHS agents also raided two Columbia dormitories on Thursday evening, but made no arrests, according to a statement by the university. Commenting on the raids on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department was “looking at whether Columbia’s handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes.”
Civil rights groups and protesters have denounced the federal government’s actions at Columbia as an infringement on free speech. Protesters staged demonstrations this week at both the university and inside Trump Tower, located in Manhattan.
Columbia’s international students have expressed fear, with several telling NBC News on Friday that they are increasingly hesitant to criticize the Trump administration due to fears of repercussions.
The university’s journalism school said its staff and students are “witnessing and experiencing an alarming chill.”
“One does not have to agree with the political opinions of any particular individual to understand that these threats cut to the core of what it means to live in a pluralistic democracy,” the journalism school said in a statement issued Friday. “The use of deportation to suppress foreign critics runs parallel to an aggressive campaign to use libel laws in novel — even outlandish ways — to silence or intimidate the independent press.”
Columbia University in the glaring spotlight
The arrests are part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to “root out” what it calls “anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.” And perhaps no other college campus in the country drew more attention for its pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year than Columbia.
For weeks last spring, student activists staged daily protests, occupied a university building and established an encampment of several dozen tents on university lawns, inspiring similar setups on college campuses across the country. Fueled by outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza, students pushed for their universities to divest from companies linked to the Israeli government. The activism sparked intense debates on campuses, with some students expressing concerns over antisemitism.
In the week before the arrests, the Trump administration singled out Columbia, announcing that it would cancel approximately $400 million in federal grants to the university. The administration cited “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
The move marked an unprecedented intervention by the federal government into the affairs of a private university.
Columbia responded by pledging to work with the federal government to restore its funding.
“We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff,” a university spokesperson told NBC News last week.
On Thursday, the university said it suspended or expelled some of the students who participated and temporarily revoked the diplomas of some graduates.
“I’m not surprised that the university is choosing to throw its students and workers under the bus for grant money,” Miner told NBC News. “We know exactly how much now it costs, to buy Columbia’s morals.”
Jackie and Shadow, the Big Bear bald eagle couple whose parenting journey has been livestreamed to the world, appear to be missing one of the three eaglets that hatched this season.
Video of the nest posted to social media Thursday afternoon showed three baby birds in the nest being fed by their parents.
But as of Friday, only two eaglets appeared to be in Jackie and Shadow’s nest, according to the Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest Cam.
It’s not clear what happened to the third eaglet, but Friends of Big Bear Valley said late on Friday that it was possible the remains of the missing chick may have been observed in the nest bowl.
“We are waiting for more clear visuals to confirm,” read the statement,” adding that the view into the nest bowl is partially obstructed by snow.
“We know that both the possibility and the uncertainty are hard to hear,” the organization said in an update. “We share these feelings with all of you.”
At daybreak on Saturday, an eagle could be seen feeding just two eaglets a dead frog.
Jackie laid three eggs at the end of January, according to Big Bear, and all three hatched last week.
The first hatched March 3, the second on March 4, and the third a few days later.
It is unclear which of the three birds is missing.
At least three people have died as a powerful system of storms sweeps across the a wide swathe of the central and southern of the United States, with another three killed in vehicle crashes as blinding winds whipped through Texas and Oklahoma.
From the southern Plains to the Midwest an estimated 138 million people are at risk of severe weather, with tornado warnings issued in parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee.
The storm system has left buildings in ruins, wrecked power supplies, and intensified more than 100 wildfires.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said on X that a tornado had caused two deaths in the Bakersfield area in Ozark County, with reports of multiple injuries. It posted pictures of wrecked and ruined buildings, and a smashed up car on the roadside.
Another person died in Butler County, on Missouri’s border with Arkansas, after a mobile home was hit by extreme weather on Friday night, the county’s rescue services told NBC News.
Butler County Emergency Management said the number of fatalities there may rise, with the search and rescue operations at the site ongoing.
In the Texas Panhandle, three people were killed by car crashes caused by a a dust storm on Friday, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Cindy Barkley. She said that the crashes were in the Amarillo area, and blamed high winds and low visibility.
Millions remain at risk as the storm carves a path through the region.
More than 300,000 customers are without power across the Midwest and South, according to PowerOutage.us, an organization that aggregates live power outage data.
Nearly half a dozen tornadoes were reported in Missouri alone.
Tornadoes were reported to have ripped down trees and power lines in the state, according to the National Weather Service, and NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis reported that businesses were damaged and tractor-trailers were overturned.
Tornadoes were also reported in Arkansas and Mississippi. The reports are unconfirmed; storm survey teams typically determine later whether tornadoes actually occurred. The weather service for Jackson, Mississippi, shared a photo on X of what was said to be a large wedge tornado north of Cruger.
Footage circulating on social media and verified by NBC News showed the mangled remains of a fuel station outside a 10Box store in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
Other photos posted by the Missouri Highway Patrol showed storm damage in Rolla, Missouri, around 95 miles southwest of St. Louis, and to a bus barn in Dixon.
Strong nighttime tornadoes at EF2 on the tornado strength scale, defined by sustained winds of 113 to 157 mph, are possible from southern Iowa to Jackson, Mississippi.
The worst of the system is also threatening damaging winds and hail into Saturday. Hail the size of baseballs was reported in Christian County, Missouri, on Friday night, the weather service said.
Widespread tornado, severe weather risk
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency on Friday as the state prepared for the front’s unstable air overnight. The declaration will allow state resources to reach local governments quicker, his office said.
“I urge all Missourians to stay alert, monitor weather forecasts, and follow official warnings,” he said.
Florissant, Missouri, Mayor Timothy Lowery told KSDK that “we’ve got a lot of damage” in the city, including to many houses. A tree also fell on landmark restaurant Hendel’s, the station reported.
“So, tonight’s been, I’ll say a very horrible night here in the city of Florissant,” Lowery said.
Police in St. Louis warned late Friday that there were reports of vehicles getting trapped in high water, and urged people to “Turn around don’t drown!”
Tornado watches were issued for parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee until at least 3 a.m. CT, with some watches extended until 5 a.m.
A tornado outbreak across the central Gulf Coast states into the Tennessee Valley was also likely late Saturday. Significant tornadoes were possible in eastern Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in Alabama.
Strong winds and fires in Texas, Oklahoma
In Texas, blowing dust blinded drivers with deadly consequences, officials said.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Cindy Barkley said Friday that there were three fatal crashes in the Amarillo area due to high winds and low visibility. The number of deaths was not immediately clear.
One person died and two others were injured in a crash between three semis and four other vehicles in Palmer County, said Cesar Marquez, city manager and fire chief in Bovina. It was not clear if the crash was included in the three in the Amarillo area.
There was “so much blowing dirt we were getting shocked every time we got near something,” Marquez said.
Parts of northern Texas saw gusts as strong as 62 mph, according to National Weather Service data.
Potter County Fire-Rescue reported four roads were restricted or closed after separate incidents in which big-rigs had “flipped.” The county in the Texas Panhandle includes the northern half of Amarillo.
“Visibility is poor at best and zero in places,” the agency said on social media. “If you don’t have to be out, please stay where you are.”
The dust was not the only concern. The same system whipped up wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma on Friday as the low pressure system moved east.
The largest of the state’s six active wildfires, the Windmill Fire in Roberts County, grew from 500 to 18,000 acres in less than a day, according to Texas A&M Forest Service. The blaze was 50% contained Friday night.
The Rest Area Fire in Gray County marched across 4,500 acres on Friday, but its expansion stopped by early evening, Texas A&M Forest Service said. Firefighters had achieved 30% containment by the end of the day, it said.
Texas A&M Forest Service said on Thursday conditions may be right for a Southern Great Plains Wildfire Outbreak, a dangerous weather formula based in part on low humidity and gusty wind, though such an outbreak was not officially declared by Friday afternoon.
Multiple fires were burning in Oklahoma on Friday night.
Gov. Kevin Stitt urged residents covered by mandatory evacuations in Mannford, a city in the northeastern portion of the state were wildfire raged Friday night, to “leave now.”
Mandatory evacuations were also in effect for parts of Norman, where multiple wildfires were burning, according to the Norman Police Department.
Mandatory evacuations in the city of Stillwater were expanding late Friday, with locations including a Walmart and multiple hotels, and cover “several square miles.”
The winds have apparently also helped fuel multiple structure fires in the city, and firefighting reinforcements are en route, it said in a statement.
The National Weather Service office in Norman said earlier that “a dangerous wildfire outbreak” was underway, later identifying blazes near Chickasha, Chandler, Camargo and Leedey; and near Lake Carl Blackwell, where residents were urged to evacuate. There was also one in Lincoln County, where evacuations were ordered north of the town of Meridian.
Weather system to shift east
The low pressure system is affecting the southern and northern reaches of the nation’s midsection as it pushes eastward, promising upheaval into the eastern U.S. through the end of the weekend.
As it moves into the Eastern Seaboard on Sunday, the tornado threat will shift to Virginia and Carolinas.
On the northern side of the front, including the upper Midwest and the northern Plains, blizzard conditions were forecast for the weekend, with 8 inches of snow possible in some regions.
The new week was expected to bring even more winter storm action when at least two more low pressure systems march eastward, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center said.
The first of the two would likely form a solid, counterclockwise winter storm, a process the weather service calls cyclogenesis, it said. It will likely bring snow to the interior, including the Midwest and Great Lakes, with a second storm likely to bring a fresh wave of snow, rain and thunderstorms to a stretch of the nation from the Rocky Mountains to the Upper Midwest mid- to late-week ahead of the first day of astronomical spring on Thursday.
