Five things to know to start your Friday

The United States IRS fired 6000 staff

On Thursday, an IRS leader broke down in tears while telling employees that about 6,000 workers would lose their jobs. This cut would reduce the tax agency’s staff by about 6% during the busy tax season when many Americans are filing their returns.

These job cuts are part of President Trump’s larger effort to reduce the size of government. The cuts are affecting many types of government workers, including bank regulators, forest workers, and rocket scientists. Elon Musk, who gave the most money to Trump’s campaign, is leading this effort to shrink the government.

During a meeting at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Argentina’s President Javier Milei gave Musk a chainsaw. Milei is known for using chainsaws to show how he plans to make big cuts to government spending.

“This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Musk said, lifting up the chainsaw on stage as a symbol of the major job cuts happening across government agencies.

Presidential panels have gulped N21bn in the last seven years

Since taking office about 20 months ago, President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima have set up at least 42 different committees to manage their government’s programs, according to The Punch newspaper. These committees work in many different areas like education, farming, healthcare, security, technology, and government worker management.

However, looking at the money involved, running the main presidential committees has cost N21.17 billion since 2018. The government has been spending about N3 billion each year on these committees for the past seven years. For 2025, they plan to spend even more – N3.73 billion – on these committees.

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Trump told Republican governors their futures depend on him

President Trump met with Republican governors and told them their success in future elections depends on supporting his plans. He suggested that if they back his policies, they might avoid losing votes in upcoming elections.

“We’re going to fight very hard, because the better I do, the better you do,” Trump said. “It makes your races a lot easier if we do well, and we’re going to keep doing well.”

The meeting in Washington on Thursday gave Trump a chance to remind these state leaders about his goals. This is important because there are big governor elections coming up soon in Virginia and New Jersey, and in 36 other states in 2026. Also in 2026, every seat in the House of Representatives will be up for election, along with one-third of Senate seats. Republicans currently have slim control of both chambers of Congress.

South Korea cancelled its nuclear plans after impeaching Yoon

South Korea has reduced its nuclear power plans following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment. Yoon had been a strong supporter of nuclear energy, but now the opposition party has more say in the country’s long-term energy decisions.

According to a government plan released Friday, South Korea now plans to build new nuclear power plants that will produce 3.5 gigawatts of electricity by 2038. This is less than the 4.9 gigawatts they planned for in June. They will slightly increase their renewable energy sources like solar and wind power from 120 to 122 gigawatts.

The country has cancelled plans to build one of three large nuclear reactors (each would have produced 1.4 gigawatts of power). This change comes from the Democratic Party’s push to use more renewable energy instead. South Korea still plans to build a smaller nuclear reactor by 2036 that will produce 700 megawatts of power, while greatly reducing how much coal and natural gas they use.

FAAC said NNPCL is withholding N13.7tn in federation account revenue

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has held back N13.763 trillion that should have gone to the Federal Government.

This information comes from documents shared after the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee meeting in January 2025. The money was kept between 2012 and 2024, seriously affecting the Federation Account, which is the main pool of money used to fund federal, state, and local governments across Nigeria.

Records from the Federation Accounts department show a growing gap between what NNPCL should have paid and what it actually put into the Federation Account. The oil company reported it should have paid N27.28 trillion from domestic oil sales during this time. However, it only paid N13.524 trillion into the Federation Account, keeping back N13.763 trillion, which has created money problems for the government.

The report also showed that N4.026 trillion was claimed for fuel subsidies, which has been an ongoing issue in Nigeria’s oil industry.