Thursday

ah nuts, I appear to have lost everything I wrote. I must have accidentally closed the tab. 

The most important part - the judge postponed everyone’s being placed on administrative leave by another week. 

We were thanked for our last ditch Hail Mary yesterday and told it won’t matter because the law that Congress passed creating us didn’t have enough “shalls” in it which meant it was really more just “guidance.” HUH? 

At the meeting, the head of the initiative accepted that USAID will cease to be. I think the final straw for him was Customs and Border Patrol being given our space. 

In addition to not being able to put us on admin leave for another week, the overlords can’t yank back all the overseas employees yet. They also have to explain how they are protecting our overseas employees. 

One of the lawsuits describes how we left USAID employees in danger in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were on admin leave. They therefore didn’t get messages saying the protests had become riots. The people at USAID who would have helped evacuate them had already been put on leave. When they got back to the US they were told they could not telework and therefore had to take out expensive leases in Washington DC, and then were told they were not allowed to come into the office and were going to be fired. 

Russia’s largest steel mill was hit with a massive drone strike. This steel mill produces about 20% of the country’s steel. The plant is a key asset of Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin, the third richest Russian on Forbes’ 2023 list. 

Russian Railways is refusing to accept oil cargo. Between this, sanctions, and drone strikes, there could be fuel shortages soon.