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One of the key features of tech billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's "Department of Government Efficiency" task force is to fire thousands of federal workers — something Ramaswamy has even gone so far as to say can be good for them.

This is an issue on which Democrats should plant a clear flag, and fight for a group of people who for decades have lacked a voice, wrote Bryan Williams for Salon.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts took an "unmistakable" "swipe" this week at Vice-president-elect J.D. Vance, a Washington Post columnist opined Wednesday.

Roberts on New Year's Eve published his year-end report that one expert argued appeared to be more of a tongue-lashing at critics of the high court than a reasoned report. Roberts' report included a stern warning to reject “dangerous," "open disregard” for federal court rulings from both sides of the political spectrum. He also warned about the threat of violence and intimidation that judges across the country face, and of officials who defy their rulings.

Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he has evidence that the Cybertruck explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas that killed one person and injured more than half a dozen others was an intentional terrorist act.

That incident, which was captured in footage by hotel guests, occurred in the valet area. The immediate reaction of many people was to call it on-the-nose symbolism for Musk's controversial relationship with President-elect Donald Trump — but it may not have been a coincidence at all.

Tech billionaires have run many facets of the economy as we know it into the ground — and now President-elect Donald Trump is putting them in charge of doing the same to the government, wrote Jason Linkins for The New Republic.

This comes amid mounting criticism of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as their "Department of Government Efficiency" initiative takes shape as a plan to slash government services and purge the federal workforce — and it comes as Trump is reportedly considering a scheme to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, a constitutionally-guaranteed service essential to basic American life.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday evening called the deadly vehicle attack in New Orleans "despicable" but urged Americans not to jump to any conclusions, even as he said the suspect shared just before the attack he was inspired by ISIS.

Biden's remarks came after the death toll climbed to 15 in what authorities were investigating as a terrorist attack in the city's famed French Quarter. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas, drove into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, authorities said.

Three people have died and more than 20 were injured when a cache of illegal fireworks exploded in Hawaii, according to a report.

First responders were called to Aliamanu in Honolulu County just after the clock struck midnight, marking the start of New Year's Day, the Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday. Paramedics found 22 patients, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said, according to the report.

President-elect Donald Trump once again toyed with the idea on Tuesday of not just implementing large-scale tariffs on foreign imports, but using them to replace the income tax system outright.

"The Tariffs, and Tariffs alone, created this vast wealth for our Country," wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform. "Then we switched over to Income Tax. We were never so wealthy as during this period. Tariffs will pay off our debt and, MAKE AMERICA WEALTHY AGAIN!"

Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich sounded off an urgent warning in a lengthy post to Facebook for the New Year: President-elect Donald Trump and his ally, tech billionaire Elon Musk, will propagandize the meaning of "economic growth" into meaning whatever benefits them personally, even if American workers suffer as a result.

All of this comes as Musk, along with fellow right-wing billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, heads up Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" task force, which seeks to cut an all-but-impossible amount of government spending on a broad variety of programs and services that benefit millions of Americans.

A 1,100-pound piece of rocket debris plummeted to the Earth this week and smashed into a village in Kenya, officials in that country said on New Year's Day.

A metallic ring measuring about 8 feet "fell from the skies" and landed in Mukuku Village in Makueni County on Monday, the Kenya Space Agency said in a statement. Agency officials raced to the scene Tuesday morning to secure the area and retrieve the space debris, which is now in the agency's custody for investigation.

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to hold a rally in Washington, D.C., just a day before he's set to be inaugurated.

Trump plans to hold the event at 3 p.m. on Jan. 19 at Capital One Arena, where the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals play, multiple sources familiar with the planning told CBS News. The arena can hold about 20,000 people.

Americans must respond to the suspected terrorist attack in New Orleans by "defiantly proceeding with their lives," national security expert Juliette Kayyem wrote for The Atlantic.

Authorities have identified the man who killed 10 during New Year's festivities in a vehicle-ramming attack as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old military veteran born in Texas. He reportedly had an ISIS flag on the truck used in the attack — and officials are treating the matter as terrorism, postponing the Sugar Bowl college game.

President-elect Donald Trump slammed "criminals coming in" from other countries after a driver plowed into dozens of people in New Orleans, killing 10 and wounding dozens of others. But Trump's statement, issued Wednesday morning, appeared to have been made before authorities identified the suspect as a 42-year-old Texas military veteran — a fact not lost on even the right-wing Fox News network.

Around 3 a.m. Wednesday, a pickup truck intentionally mowed down a crowd of New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street in the city's French Quarter. The suspect, identified as Shamsud Din Jabbar, drove a Ford F-150 Lightning truck in the attack that was apparently rented via the Turo app, the owner of the truck told ABC7.

A Tesla Cybertruck pulled up to the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and exploded on New Year's Day, killing one person inside the vehicle, and authorities now say they're investigating the blast as a possible act of terror.

Video of the Cybertruck exploding into flames in the valet area quickly spread on the internet. The footage was captured both from guests checking into the lobby and at least one person who saw smoke from the window of a nearby hotel.