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Termination notices sent by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team to U.S. Agency for International Development staff were so rife with errors that corrected versions are being issued to avoid affecting pensions and pay, according to five sources familiar with the issue. The Department of Government Efficiency “did this so quickly that they screwed lots of stuff up,” said a U.S. official, who requested anonymity, as did all of those who spoke to Reuters. The State Department, which is assuming some of USAID’s functions under the Trump administration’s plan to cut U.S. foreign aid, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. USAID’s human resources staff, most of whom have been on paid administrative leave and face termination, have been brought back to the office to send out accurate notices, said the U.S. official and a person familiar with the matter. “My letter was completely wrong,” one USAID worker told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “The only thing correct was my name.” It is not the first time that inaccurate termination notices have upended the lives of USAID workers since U.S. President Donald Trump and Musk began in February to dismember America’s main conduit of foreign aid. A first round set April 21 as the final employment day for most personnel and May 30 for those tapped to help shutter the agency. Those dates were reset to July 1 or September 2 in the notices sent to some 3,500 USAID workers last Friday, two sources and workers said. Other errors included inaccurate start dates, lengths of service and salaries, according to the person familiar with the matter, the U.S. official, two former senior USAID officials, a congressional aide and four workers who received notices. Unless fixed, those mistakes could result in reduced or canceled pensions or inaccurate severance pay, the sources said. Several of the sources pointed to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s retirement website that says federal workers’ annual pension annuity is based on their lengths of service and three highest average annual salaries. Reuters could not learn how many USAID personnel were issued faulty notices last Friday. SOME STAFF RECEIVED THREE INACCURATE NOTICES Several workers told Reuters that they and other colleagues received a third termination letter on Monday night still containing inaccurate information on promotions, tenure and other data. One worker said the total federal service listed in their notice on Friday was short by three years and by six years in the notice they received on Monday. “I actually have federal service dating to June 2008,” said the worker. “There doesn’t seem to be any logic to the RIF (reduction in force) process.” “We’ve got people who have served for 25 years and their notices are showing they served for only three,” said the U.S. official. “It affects their severance. It affects their future ability to retire.” Trump assigned Musk, a major contributor to his 2024 election campaign whose companies have federal contracts worth billions of dollars, and DOGE to ferret out waste and fraud across the U.S. government. According to its website, the only official window into its operations, DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $140 billion as of April 2 through a series of actions including massive workforce cuts, asset sales, and contract cancellations. Its savings total is unverifiable and its calculations have contained errors and corrections. Musk has said DOGE will correct mistakes when it finds them. Since February, most USAID staff have been put on administrative leave, hundreds of contractors were fired and more than 5,000 programs terminated, disrupting global humanitarian aid operations on which millions depend. Some termination notices sent on Friday to USAID personnel did not account for requests to waive the July 1 termination date, including from overseas staff whose children still would be in school, according to three sources. Others had applied for waivers because they need more time to pack their homes and relocate to the U.S., the sources said. “Some people have the wrong dates. Others have the wrong information,” said the person with knowledge of the matter, adding that people given the wrong termination date “can’t return home” unless their notices are reissued with the correct date. The person said that the error-filled notices were sent under the supervision of USAID acting administrators Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE operative, and Kenneth Jackson, who have been overseeing the agency’s dismantlement. They report to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Trump tapped as acting USAID administrator. Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle, Reuters
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E-Commerce
One of the world’s most iconic and controversial maps just got a major redesign. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York has unveiled the final version of an updated map of its subway system, marking the first time the map has had a full redesign since 1979. It’s a visually bold, user-centric design that, according to the MTA, will make it easier for people to understand where they’re going and how to use the system. The new maps are expected to be installed in train cars and stations over the next few weeks. The map features bright, color-coded lines for each train line, which criss-cross a stylized map of the city in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal orientations. More abstract than the previous geographically representative map, the new map prioritizes visual clarity and accessible design over pure accuracy. With single-lined black text on a largely white background and black dots representing stations on bright colored route lines, the new map was designed to be easily read by people with varying levels of vision and color perception. Our approach was to make this map inclusive to all, said MTA chief customer officer Shanifah Rieara at a recent press conference unveiling the new design. [Image: MTA] A big part of the inclusivity is managed by simplifying the geography of the map, using abstracted forms to represent the boroughs and straight lines to represent subway routes that are in fact much more sinuous. It’s an approach that was unveiled in the now-famous 1972 subway map designed by Massimo Vignelli and the design firm Unimark International. It was a minimalist design that became a source of controversy, and one literal debate. In 1978, Vignelli was pitted on stage against John Tauranac, then chair of the MTA’s Subway Map committee, who wanted the system to have a more geographically representative map. Tauranac’s approach won out, and the so-called spaghetti version of the map with winding routes and geographically accurate depictions became the map that has been used from 1979 until now. Though the printed map is being put into service as of this week, this design was first piloted back in 2021, and builds on Work & Co’s live, interactive digital map of the system that has a similar Vignelli-inspired aesthetic. When the pilot design was first launched, an MTA official told Fast Company a final version of the map was expected within months. Four years later, the printed maps are finished. Part of the long gestation has to do with the way the MTA vetted the design, conducting rider surveys to learn more about how people use the map, and the ways some maps make using the system more difficult. Based on this feedback, the map’s design evolved. [Photo: Marc A. Hermann/MTA] The biggest changes relate to some of the most challenging parts of riding a complicated, multi-lined subway system: the transfer. Steven Flamm, manager of mapping for MTA’s Creative Services department, says the map’s design was tweaked to improve the way the map visually explains how to transfer train lines, whether on the other side of a platform, through a tunnel, or across a street. You’ll see a different treatment for hubs and complexes that make it more obvious, so people know they can get their trains in that station, says Flamm. The MTA sees the new map as a mix of the Vignelli design’s minimalist simplicity and a more geographically accurate approach from the Tauranac version that helps people to navigate the system more easily. Design-minded riders may see more of the Vignelli in this new map, but that doesn’t mean the Tauranac version in use for the last four decades has disappeared, according to MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber. The real superfans out there will recognize the colors that were established in the famous Tauranac map, he said.
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E-Commerce
As the weekend deadline for TikTok to find a buyer approaches, bidders for the short-video social media site are piling up. Amazon and, separately, a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely are the latest to throw their hats into the ring for TikTok. The site faces an April 5 deadline to reach a deal to find a non-Chinese buyer under threat of being banned from the United States. U.S. officials have raised security concerns over the app’s ties to China, which TikTok and owner ByteDance have denied. Trump administration officials are meeting on Wednesday to discuss the various options for TikTok. Startup Zoop, which is run by Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to bid for TikTok, the two told Reuters Wednesday. A U.S. administration official confirmed Amazon had sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Amazon declined to comment, while TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shares of Amazon rose about 2% following news of the last-minute TikTok bid. Amazon has long harbored ambitions for an in-house social media network that could help it sell more goods and appeal to a younger audience. It bought live video site Twitch in 2014 for nearly $1 billion and book review site Goodreads in 2013 as part of its efforts to build a viable social network. Amazon also developed and tested a TikTok-like short-form video and photo feed called Inspire that it shuttered earlier this year. Trump said last month his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of the platform, without identifying them. Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance’s non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok’s U.S. business, Reuters reported last week. U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is also in talks to add outside funding to buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of ByteDance, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. White House-led talks entail plans to spin off a U.S. entity for TikTok and dilute Chinese ownership in the new business to below a 20% threshold required by U.S. law, Reuters reported last month. The New York Times first reported Amazon’s involvement on Wednesday. Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously, the Times reported. The future of the app used by nearly half of all Americans has been up in the air since a 2024 law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, required ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19. Washington officials have said TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government, and Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on Americans. Dawn Chmielewski, Anna Tong and Greg Bensinger, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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