Elon Musk bids farewell sort of to Trump Cabinet, claims DOGE saved $160 billion - May 1, 2025

Enjoy your complimentary premium membership (No paywall)͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ 

View online | Unsubscribe (one-click)

- The top 25 stories read by CXOs! Editor's Pick DOGE is learning 'very fast,' says Booz Allen Hamilton CEO The cost-cutting agency’s efforts have already raised public interest in how the government works, says Booz Allen’s CEO. Continued here Work Elon Musk bids farewell sort of to Trump Cabinet, claims DOGE saved $160 billion The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service has estimated that DOGE-related "firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year," The New York Times reported. Work Social Agent's new app lets you book a photographer within 30 minutes | TechCrunch The company also plans to roll it out to New York City, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Scottsdale. In addition, plans are in place for future international expansion. Work Side Event submission deadline on May 2 for Sessions: AI | TechCrunch Make a lasting brand impact by reserving your exhibit booth at TC Sessions: AI. Secure your spot by the May 9 deadline — or before tables sell out. Showcase your brand to AI leaders, VCs, innovators, and visionaries and make valuable hot leads. It’s your chance to highlight your tech and connect with the people shaping the future of AI. Secure your table here before your competitor does. Work Court finds Apple, executive lied under oath in Epic Games trial Rogers also accuses Apple of withholding documentation of a June 2023 meeting including CEO Tim Cook about how they would comply with the 2021 court order. Rogers said that Apple hid the existence of the meeting from the court until 2025. Work Democrats rally at US Capitol to decry failure of Trumps first 100 days "We're going to focus on making life more affordable, making life easier for everyday Americans in these next 100 days and at every turn, until we flip the House and we flip the Senate and we put a check on the Trump administration's reckless economic policies," Aguilar said. Work Weight loss drugs can help employers cut health care costs, study says “When you consider the indirect costs of obesity, such as the treatment of comorbidities and absenteeism, the overall economic burden is striking,” Farheen Dam, Aon’s head of Health Solutions for North America, said in a statement. Approximately 40% of U.S. adults are considered obese. Work Trump Cuts Threaten Agency Running Meals on Wheels A tiny division responsible for overseeing services for people with disabilities and older Americans is being dismantled as part of an overhaul by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary. Work RFK Jr. is gutting minority health offices across HHS that are key to reducing health disparities "I actually think it's an efficiency argument to be able to have these minority health offices, because it allows you to identify and target some real problem areas and use taxpayer dollars in the most efficient way possible," said Boucher.  Work Sean 'Diddy' Combs's Path From Harlem to Stardom, and Now Federal Court As Puffy, Diddy or Love, the mogul found success and trouble. After years of accusations with few consequences, he’ll stand trial next month. Work Wildfires in Israel Force Towns Near Jerusalem to Evacuate The fires interrupted memorial day ceremonies, and Israel’s top firefighter called the blazes “one of the toughest events” he has faced. Work Cancer patients in England to be first in Europe to be offered immunotherapy jab “The government has the opportunity to build on this with the upcoming national cancer plan for England, which must provide investment and reform for the NHS in order to get more cutting-edge treatments and technologies to patients as quickly as possible.” Work Trump blames Biden for US economic shrinking amid his tariff war and attacks Fed chair over interest rates live I don't know. I haven't spoken to him. I really leave that to the lawyers and I take my advice from Pam [Bondi] and everybody that is very much involved. They know the laws and we follow the laws exactly. Work Microsoft beats Wall Street expectations for fourth quarter in a row amid AI boom Shares in Microsoft have fallen around 7% overall since January, a downturn in part caused by wider economic instability as well as China-based developers closing the gap in AI. The release in January of the DeepSeek AI app, a chatbot similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, caused a rapid selloff in Microsoft shares. Microsoft has since integrated DeepSeek’s technology into some of its products. Work Trump-Bezos call sets stage for tense earnings report from Amazon Bank of America analysts said in a note to clients this week that it sees the potential for Amazon to give a "wider guidance range" in its earnings report on Thursday, "though the impact may be bigger in the third quarter." Work Storm Leaves Thousands Without Power in Northeast, U.S. and Canada The storm system brought destructive winds to the state, knocking down trees and power lines. Work Google is funding electrician training to help meet the power demands of AI Investing in electrical training is Google's attempt to help change that. It would be nice if it was paired with a clearer explanation around what that AI will be doing with all that extra power — Google notes that there's a "causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth" — but skilled job training isn't a bad thing. Work Deadly Syria clashes continue for second day outside Damascus Syria’s minister of interior put out a statement on Wednesday saying “it will not hesitate to deal with these criminals and will strike with an iron fist anyone who seeks to destabilise Syria’s security and target its people”. Work Ministers to amend data bill amid artists concerns over AI and copyright The Lib Dem changes also call for transparency on what web crawlers have been used by AI companies, referring to the technology that hoovers up data from the internet to be used by AI models. Work Iran executes man accused of helping Israel kill Revolutionary Guards colonel The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that Iran expected the next round of negotiations with the US to be held in Rome on Saturday, adding that Iran also anticipated having a meeting on Friday with France, Germany and the UK to discuss the talks. Work Trump administration to cancel $1bn in Biden-era school mental health grants Donald Trump’s administration has cut billions of dollars in federal grants deemed to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and has threatened to cut billions more from schools and colleges over diversity practices. The administration says any policy that treats people differently because of their race amounts to discrimination, and it argues that DEI has often been used to discriminate against white and Asian American students. Work Supio, an AI-powered legal analysis platform, lands $60M | TechCrunch “AI has created a major inflection point for the legal industry as a whole,” Zhou said. “Every firm across every sub-vertical of law is thinking about how they need to reinvent themselves for the AI era. If Excel transformed finance 30 years ago, AI will do the same for legal knowledge workers.” Work US economy shrinks as firms import more ahead of tariffs Leading stock indexes in the US, which had recovered from steep losses as Trump rolled back on some of his plans, opened lower after the figures were published but ended the day roughly flat. Work Amazon to spend $4 billion on small town delivery expansion A growing share of Amazon deliveries are being made by its delivery service partner program, which is made up of thousands of contracted third-party companies, as well as legions of Flex gig workers. Amazon has also recently expanded another program, launched in 2023, that enlists mom-and-pop shops in rural towns to make deliveries on the company's behalf. Work Lammy confirms UK and France in talks over Palestine recognition Lammy showed his frustration with the Israeli leadership’s 60-day ban on aid into Gaza but he proposed no new measures. “The blockade of necessary aid into Gaza is horrendous, the suffering is dire, the need is huge, the loss of life is extreme,” he said. Work Metas quarterly earnings beat Wall Street expectations as its AI investments rise by billions "Meta's earnings call comes at a precarious time where the company's future is literally being debated in court - the results of which could fundamentally alter the social media landscape," said Forrester VP's research director, Mike Proulx. "Meta is smart to direct more resources into improving Threads and Facebook since those could be the only two apps the company is left with. It's also notable that Meta just laid off a number of employees in its Reality Labs division, which has been a continued and growing leaky bucket for Meta." Work Perinatal factors could play a role in heart health across the life span Why were heart death rates so high in these countries? Population size didn’t make the difference, the researchers concluded after adjusting for those numbers in their statistical analysis. The reason might instead be higher exposure rates in geographies where plastic production is booming but manufacturing restrictions are looser than in other nations.  — Liz Cooney Work Gruve.ai promises software-like margins for AI tech consulting, disrupting decades-old Industry | TechCrunch But unlike most tech consultancies, Gruve won’t bill its clients when the solution is first implemented. Their “services are available on demand, the same way electricity is provided or the same way cloud computing is provided,” Chaddha said. For example, if Gruve has implemented AI for security, the company will only charge the client upon a security breach detected and analyzed by the installed AI. Work AI sales tax startup Kintsugi has doubled its valuation in 6 months | TechCrunch Currently, SaaS companies comprise 45% of Kintsugi’s customer base, making 5.5 million transactions valued at $7.7 billion. However, the partnership with its 47-year-old investor, Vertex, is likely to help the startup get customers across different sectors. Work Trump trade advisor Navarro brushes off GDP drop: We really like where were at now "I got to say just one thing about today's news, that's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life," Navarro said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" after the Commerce Department reported that GDP fell at a 0.3% annualized pace in the first quarter of 2025. Work Snap is seemingly rethinking that 'simplified' app The latest earnings report revealed that Snap lost one million users in North America in Q1, down to 99 million from 100 million in the previous quarter. Despite this, the global Snapchat community grew to 460 million in Q1, an increase of 7 million daily active users quarter-over-quarter. Work Trump temporarily eases car tariffs following automaker complaints The average price for a new vehicle in the US was $47,462 last month, according to The Associated Press. One noted analyst predicted that the original 25 percent tariffs could add $4,711 to the cost of a vehicle, while also boosting the cost of ownership and maintenance. Work Kardashian jewel heist: Grandpa robber partly driven by taste for easy money, court hears Haris Aït-Khedache, 39, a bus driver, was called as a character witness for his father. He said of his father's role in the robbery: "He made a mistake. He found himself in a situation where he didn't have the choice, I think." He said his father had said that the victims "must have been traumatised" and that he "regrets the repercussions of this". Work Starmer and Blair poles apart, an open goal at PMQs. Did KemiKaze score? | John Crace All the while, Victoria Starmer looked on impassively from the visitor’s gallery. She gave nothing away. Not even a smile at her husband’s jokes. She’s a tough audience. Also watching on was the erstwhile pop singer, Chesney Hawkes. At least that’s who he said he was. How were the rest of us supposed to know? Work Trumps loyal footsoldiers doff their Maga caps at cabinet love-in The president was asked by a reporter on Wednesday if he had spoken with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, about the tariffs that have sparked a potentially costly trade war between the countries, and have led to predictions of empty shelves before the end of the year as imports dry up. Work NIH cancels participation in Safe to Sleep campaign that decreased infant deaths Ismael M. Belkoura is a reporter covering health in Washington, D.C. for Medill News Service. He is a graduate student at Northwestern University specializing in politics, policy and foreign affairs, and graduated from the University of North Texas in 2024 with a B.A. in Digital and Print Journalism. Work Lack of access to antibiotics for drug-resistant infections often blamed on poor care, study says The findings, which were published in The Lancet, underscored potentially significant gaps in care that may otherwise have made it possible to access the available antibiotics, according to Jennifer Cohn, a senior author of the study and the global access director at the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership, a nonprofit health organization. Work Pharmalittle: We're reading about Makary rejecting a reorganization, pharma lobbying against PBMs, and more The FDA does not plan a reorganization of the agency but will consolidate offices that handle travel and IT Work The rise of retail investors in secondaries, and why delayed IPOs will become the norm Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University. Work Help shape the All Stage agenda by voting | TechCrunch Pitching VCs? There’s a fine line between a compelling story and a costly misstep. Hyuk-Jeen Suh of SkyRiver Ventures pulls back the curtain on the mistakes that stall fundraising — and the smart, scrappy hacks that actually work. If you want to land your next round, don’t miss this one. Work $210 discount and 50% off on the second for Sessions AI | TechCrunch Want to put your startup in front of the AI crowd? Now’s the time. Exhibit at TC Sessions: AI — but hurry, tables are nearly gone. Reserve by May 9 to connect with the VCs, founders, and tech leaders shaping what’s next. Grab your table here before your competitor does. Work Kristi Noem says Kilmar brego Garca would be deported immediately if sent back to US Earlier this month, J Harvie Wilkinson, a Ronald Reagan-appointee and conservative appellate judge, called the Trump administration's claims in Ábrego García's case "shocking", saying: "This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear." Work King Charles says cancer diagnosis made him one of the statistics A royal source said there was no update on the king's condition or treatment, but that it continued in a "very positive direction", reflected in his "very full" national and international diary. They described the words and subject of the message as "deeply personal" for the king. Work Downing Street forces Tony Blair to row back from net zero strategy criticism “My concern is that people might take away a message from that report that we should do adaptation instead of mitigation, and that is absolutely the wrong message,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Work Pfizer CEO thinks pharma tariffs won't be applied equally There are currently only two medications on the market to help people stop smoking — the more effective of which can come with unpleasant side effects like nausea that make people less likely to stick with the treatment. Work Novartis to buy kidney-focused biotech built around Nobel-winning discovery for $800 million Jason Mast is a general assignment reporter at STAT focused on the science behind new medicines and the systems and people that decide whether that science ever reaches patients. You can reach Jason on Signal at JasonMast.05. Work Collins and fellow GOP senators speak out in opposition to Trump's cuts to biomedical research “Proposed funding cuts, the firing of essential federal scientists,  and policy uncertainties threaten to undermine the foundation for our nation’s global leadership,” she said Wednesday at the hearing, titled “Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation.” Work Imagine Duttons implausible cuts to migration were actually possible. Now see the dire economic consequences There is also the prospect that the net outflow of Australian citizens (assumed for this analysis) could reverse if the US president's trade war smashes the world's biggest economy. Work Blairs net zero intervention invites scrutiny of his institutes donors "He needs to work on his timing but the point is right - energy security and reducing bills are the goals of UK energy policy because they benefit working people. Everything else is subsidiary to that." Work Meta is a mulling ads and a 'premium' version of its AI assistant, Mark Zuckerberg says Later in the call, Meta’s CFO Susan Li shared that the company has also been testing its Llama model to power Threads’ recommendations and that the addition of the large language model has led to a 4 percent increase in time spent. “It remains early here, but a big focus this year will be on exploring how we can deploy this for other content types, including photos and videos,” she said. Work Doctors didn't catch AI's mistakes. What does that mean for human-in-the-loop? For example, care technology company WellSky is careful to make sure it’s “keeping a human in the loop and not developing any unintended consequences around clinical decision support” that the company might “[end] up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for, quite frankly,” CEO Bill Miller said at last year’s Oracle Health Summit. TradeBriefs Publications are read by over 100,000 Industry Executives About Us  |  Advertise  |  Privacy Policy Unsubscribe (one-click) You are receiving this mail because of your subscription with TradeBriefs. Our mailing address is 3110 Thomas Ave, Dallas, TX 75204, USA