Federal workers who were fired and rehired are stuck in employment limbo. Global travel is plunged into chaos as London’s Heathrow Airport is forced to shut. And a look inside one American farm devastated by bird flu.
Here’s what to know today.
Fired, rehired and baffled: Confusion reigns for thousands of reinstated federal workers
Thousands of federal workers are experiencing whiplash after firings directed by Elon Musk and the Trump administration, only to be later rehired following court orders. As the administration appeals those rulings, some 24,000 probationary federal workers are still in limbo. In interviews, federal employees said they received notifications about rehiring through different communication channels, causing further confusion on what guidance to follow.
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One probationary employee at the Center for Disease Prevention said her reinstatement notice was sent to a now-defunct work email account that she can no longer access. The administration has acknowledged that the logistical hurdles of restoring employees to “full duty status” would impose “substantial burdens” on various agencies but it has not revealed a blanket solution to the re-onboarding process.
“They have already broken my confidence and trust … It’s so confusing and so chaotic,” said one Federal Emergency Management employee who was fired, rehired and then placed on leave.
London’s Heathrow Airport closes after electrical fire, causing travel chaos
London’s Heathrow Airport closed overnight and is expected to remain shuttered for the rest of the day, after a fire at a nearby electricity substation caused power outages at the major transportation center.
Fight tracking site FlightRadar24 estimates that at least 1,351 flights will be affected. Major airlines have warned of travel disruption for the next 24 hours and beyond, with several flagship carriers cancelling today’s flights to the U.K.
The transit hub is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and has been ranked as fourth busiest in the world, with a record 83.9 million passengers last year and a predicted 84.2 million passengers in 2025.
Follow live updates here.
How bird flu has devastated one American farm
It started in early January, when temperatures were plunging into the single digits in southern Illinois; water lines running to Kakadoodle Farm’s three coops kept freezing overnight. Marty Thomas thought the roughly 30 birds that died that weekend must have frozen to death.
Instead, it was the bird flu. Within weeks, the farm’s 3,000 hens would be dead. Now, Marty and his wife, Marikate, can’t begin to restock the cavernous, empty coop until at least June.
As avian influenza ravages farms and drives up the prices of eggs nationwide, national reporter Suzy Khimm visits Kakadoodle Farms, about 45 miles from the southern end of Chicago, for a look at how the virus decimated one family farm and has left their business on life support.
The scholars targeted for deportation by the Trump administration
President Trump took office promising the largest mass deportation effort of undocumented immigrants in American history. But recent deportation attempts by the Department of Homeland Security of foreign-born academics could signal the Trump administration is moving the agency’s goals in a new direction.
Graduate student Badar Khan Suri was teaching at Georgetown University when he was arrested outside his home. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Brown University medical school professor, was held at an airport before being deported to Lebanon. Mahmoud Khalil, a U.S. resident and Columbia University graduate student was detained after participating in Palestinian protests on campus. According to court filings, all individuals maintained valid documentation to live and study in the U.S.
DHS justified removing all three scholars from the country using an obscure provision of a Cold War-era law that gives the secretary of state deportation authority. Still, some legal experts say the reasoning is less about squashing domestic terror threats and more about silencing those in opposition to Trump’s foreign policy.
More politics news:
- U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ripped the DOJ’s ‘woefully insufficient’ response to questions about Alien Enemies Act case.
- A detained Georgetown University grad student never made pro-Hamas statements, his attorney said.
Read All About It
- George Glezmann, an American who spent more than two years detained by the Taliban, was released from captivity.
- A former NFL and Michigan college football coach allegedly stole intimate photos from over 3,000 student accounts.
- The founder of Pirate’s Booty tried to take over a Long Island town, declaring himself mayor and attempting to fire everyone.
- Three people face federal charges for Tesla arson attacks after Molotov cocktails were used to set fire to cars and charging stations.
- A maintenance technician said he flagged safety issues with the free-fall ride at a Florida amusement park before a teen plunged to his death in 2022.
Staff Pick: Women’s sports bars expected to quadruple across the U.S. in 2025
When you walk into The 99ers Sports Bar in Denver, Colorado, the staff, and all the patrons, will start clapping for you. Co-owners Miranda Spencer and Annie Weaver said they started the tradition because they’re both “pretty goofy” and also because they want their bar to feel like a community.
Their bar is one of six in the United States dedicated to showing women’s sports. This year, that number is expected to quadruple, to about two dozen by the end of the year with new venues in cities like New York, Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
The women’s sports bar boom coincides with a surge in interest in and viewership of women’s college and professional sports. Last year, for example, the NCAA women’s basketball championship between South Carolina and Iowa was the most watched basketball game — including men’s, women’s, pro and college basketball — since 2019.
We talked to some of the bar owners about what inspired them to open their businesses, and how they want their bars to be different than traditional sports bars.
—Brooke Sopelsa, NBC OUT managing editor, and Jo Yurcaba, NBC OUT reporter
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
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