Editor’s Note: Join Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, April 6 at 8pmET/PT as he examines the long history of the conservative movement’s struggle to roll back government in “The War on Government: A Fareed Zakaria Special”.

When Donald Trump announced that he was creating the Department of Government Efficiency, I welcomed the initiative. Streamlining the federal government by having outsiders take a look was an excellent idea. And Elon Musk’s stated objective, to cut the budget by $2 trillion, while ambitious, would be a useful yardstick.

But DOGE began its work not by taking on the most logical targets if you were really looking for waste, fraud and abuse – places like Medicare and the Defense Department with their gigantic budgets. No, its first major target was a tiny agency most Americans had probably never heard of. The US Agency for International Development, whose total budget, around $40 billion, was less than 1% of federal spending. DOGE went after it with a brutality and glee that was stunning. Musk called it a “criminal organization.” Government officials who had spent years in foreign countries providing assistance to the poor were summarily fired and asked to return home. Medical and nutrition programs were cut off, with the likely consequence that, by some calculations, millions would get sick or starve.

What could explain this cruelty directed at people and programs that in budgetary terms were insignificant? DOGE seemed to understand the central challenge the right faces in its war on government. The real money is in the large programs that the public supports. So DOGE began its war by choosing a broadly unpopular item of government spending – on foreigners.

Musk and Trump delighted in listing all the fraud that they found, even though none of the projects they listed have shown any evidence of large-scale corruption. They were simply programs they knew many Americans would not want to fund – especially when they were mischaracterized.

DOGE did take on Social Security, but in a rather strange way. It claimed to find millions of dead people on its rolls. The implication was that these people were still getting payments. Actually,all they appear to have found were old personnel files in which dead people’s names had not been deleted – much like your rolodex or contact folder probably still has the names of people who are deceased. Almost none appear to be getting benefits. But again, it was a revealing strategy. Rather than talk seriously about changing Social Security – by means testing benefits or raising the retirement age – DOGE was promising that it could save billions by just cleaning up the personnel files.

Of course it’s possible to find savings in Washington. Former Vice President Al Gore’s Reinventing Government Commission saved the federal government around $140 billion dollars. But it worked in a manner that was almost the opposite of DOGE. It partnered with the agencies to identify redundancies, worked with Congress to change laws, and used a scalpel to trim fat. DOGE, on the other hand, has been doing mass firings without much consultation, so much so that its large-scale IRS firings could result in significantly lower tax revenues collected – which would raise the deficit.

DOGE has also been firing masses of workers. But the federal bureaucracy is small compared with other rich countries and is about the same size as it was 50 years ago.

It’s worth remembering where the money is. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other mandatory spending like veterans’ benefits – along with defense spending and interest payments – make up around 85% of the budget. Much of this is efficient check writing, which doesn’t require much bureaucracy. The Department of Defense could be massively reformed, as the Trump administration has begun to do a little bit. But why does it have four air forces – the Army’s, Navy’s, Marines’, and Air Force itself?

If DOGE approached the problem as one does in the private sector, it would recognize there are two components to any deficit – how much you spend and how much you take in, in this case through taxes. America’s bloated national debt has a great deal to do with a series of tax cuts that began in the Reagan administration. By one estimate from a progressive think tank, the Bush and Trump tax cuts alone have added $10 trillion to the debt and account for 57% of the increase in America’s debt-to-GDP ratio since 2001. Bear in mind, that compared to other rich countries, the United States still has close to the lowest tax revenues as a percent of its GDP.

In that context, the simplest way for DOGE to achieve maximum success would be to recommend that the Trump tax cuts be allowed to lapse as they will under law, which would then reduce the debt by about $4.5 trillion over the next 10 years, vastly more than any plan the GOP seems willing to go through with to cut spending. That would take America back to the tax rates under former President Barack Obama, when the stock market more than doubled, and America grew faster than almost every European country. And it would put the US on a much more stable debt trajectory.

But don’t hold your breath on that happening. Far more likely, DOGE will announce some new stunning finding, something like software duplication in the Environmental Protection Agency, which might save the federal government $100 million – or .001% of the 2025 budget.

It’s eaten with almost every meal, used to make sushi, made into sweets, fermented into alcohol and offered to the spirits at religious ceremonies.

Rice is everywhere in the diet of Japan – there are at least six ways in Japanese to describe the grain, from unhusked to ready to eat. It’s so popular that McDonald’s there added a burger bun made of rice to its menu.

But being so reliant on the staple leaves the country – the world’s fourth-biggest economy – vulnerable to the slightest supply glitch.

In recent years, a combination of bad weather, heatwaves and the threats of typhoons and earthquakes have sparked bouts of panic-buying in the nation of 124 million people.

The average price of a 60-kilogram bag rose to around $160 last year – up 55 per cent compared to two years ago, according to government figures.

The situation has become so dire that the government announced in February that it would release 210,000 tons of rice – more than a fifth of what it holds in its contingency reserve – for auction. The first bags of the reserve rice have now gone on sale in supermarkets.

The government built its rice reserve in 1995, two years after an unexpected cool summer crippled rice harvests forcing it to import overseas grains.

It dipped into the store following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in which 20,000 people died or went missing, and again following the deadly Kumamoto earthquake in 2016.

Other countries across Asia where rice is a staple, such as India, Vietnam and Thailand also hold rice stockpiles to shield their populations against shortages and price rises – which can spill into politics, like a recent surge in egg prices in the United States.

China also has a strategic reserve of the country’s favorite meat, pork, to deal with emergencies and stabilize prices when necessary.

In Japan, the first batch of 150,000 tons of rice went under the hammer last month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“Prices now are exceptionally high,” Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Taku Eto said ahead of the auction.

“But I urge everyone not to worry,” he added, saying that he expected the injection of rice into the market would mean prices “eventually come down.”

Eto also attributed the recent price hikes to a supply chain issue, saying that there was sufficient rice in the system, only that it has failed to reach the shelves in supermarkets, without specifying why.

But, in a country that is particular about its rice – with various prefectures competing against one another for the title of best rice in the country – some said they would rather sit this batch out, skeptical of the grain’s quality.

Uchibori said she stocked up on supplies in early March after reading about prices going up and hoped what she had would last until prices ease.

“But it doesn’t look like it will go back to its original price,” she said.

Yuko Takiguchi, 53, a part time worker, said she would pass on the auctioned rice unless it became significantly cheaper.

She said she wouldn’t mind forking out more for quality rice as the price of flour had also gone up, driving up costs for other staples such as bread, udon and pasta.

“I prefer rice as a staple food since it is more filling. Also, since I have school-age children, rice is essential for their lunch boxes,” she said.

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian American teenager and wounded two others in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to Palestinian officials.

Ramallah Gov. Laila Ghannam said a 14-year-old Palestinian American boy was shot dead by Israeli troops in the village of Turmusaya. Two other Palestinian American boys, ages 14 and 15, were injured in the incident, according to Turmusaya Mayor Lafi Shalabi.

The Israeli military said its soldiers opened fire during a counterterrorism operation in Turmusaya when they saw three “terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving.”

The soldiers killed one and hit the other two, the military said.

The military shared a blurry video purportedly showing the incident, in which three barely visible figures appear. It said it would continue operating in the West Bank “to protect the residents in the area.”

The injured boys were shot in the abdomen, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

One severely injured boy and another with minor wounds were taken to a hospital in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said.

The killing or detention of American citizens in occupied Palestinian territories by Israelis and concerns about a lack of accountability date back years. In 2003, American activist Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer while trying to block it from razing Palestinian homes in Gaza. Nine years later, an Israeli civil court ruled her death an accident.

In February last year, Florida-born US citizen Mohammed Khdour, 17, was killed by Israeli forces who shot him in the head while he was in his car. The teenager was taking the car out during a study break, snacking on chocolate waffles, posing for Instagram.

Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank have intensified since late January following the launch of an expanded military campaign there almost immediately after the Gaza ceasefire began. Since then, roughly 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes.

The Israeli military says it is targeting Palestinian militant groups who have mounted attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, but Palestinians and human rights groups say the expanded assault is increasingly indiscriminate – killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in a manner consistent with collective punishment. In late February, Israel deployed tanks to the occupied West Bank for the first time in two decades.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Rats don’t always have the best reputations, but one named Ronin with a super sense of smell is working to change that.

Ronin and his landmine-sniffing rat pack are making a name for rodents everywhere by saving innocent civilians from hidden explosives.

The African giant pouched rat recently set a new world record for the most landmines detected by a rat. Between August 2021 and February 2025, Ronin uncovered 109 landmines and 15 other pieces of unexploded ordnance in a region close to Siem Reap in Cambodia, according to Guinness World Records.

“Ronin’s achievements are a testament to the incredible potential of rats,” his main handler Phanny told the Guinness publication.

Landmines are a major issue in former conflict zones. The explosive weapons, hidden in the ground, are designed to injure or kill anyone who passes over them. In Cambodia alone, they have caused more than 65,000 deaths and injuries since the fall of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor.

Their use is controversial because of their indiscriminate nature and the threat they pose for decades after a conflict has ended, killing and maiming and hampering land development in war-ravaged areas.

They are also notoriously difficult and dangerous to detect. That’s where rats come in; their high intelligence, speed and keen sense of smell make them adept at identifying explosives. They are also too light to trigger landmines.

It’s crucial work. An estimated 110 million landmines are still buried in over 60 countries around the world, said landmine detection nonprofit APOPO. In 2023, landmines caused 5,757 casualties globally — 37% of which involved children, according to the 2024 Landmine Monitor.

Ronin is one of more than 100 rats trained by APOPO to detect the scent of the explosive chemicals and point landmines out to their handlers.

The rats are highly versatile and have also been trained to detect tuberculosis in medical settings, helping to prevent the spread of infectious disease.

The Belgian nonprofit’s team of landmine-sniffing rats can search an area the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes – something that could take a deminer with a metal detector up to four days.

Ronin, who is 5 years old and was born in Tanzania, is much larger than your average pet rat. He is more than 2 feet long – about the length of a cat – and weighs 2.6 pounds, according to APOPO.

Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, where Ronin was deployed has one of the highest landmine densities in the world following decades of conflict in the 20th century, including heavy bombing by the US during the Vietnam War.

The US dropped 2.7 million tons of ordnance – including cluster bombs and submunitions – in a four-year carpet-bombing campaign in Cambodia. Up to a quarter of the cluster bombs failed to explode, meaning they stayed active and dangerous but out of sight, according to a 2019 report by the US Congressional Research Service.

Despite years of demining efforts, there are still an estimated 4 to 6 million unexploded landmines in Cambodia, according to APOPO.

Ronin claims the world record from Magawa, another rat trained by APOPO who identified 71 landmines and 38 pieces of unexploded ordnance during his five-years of service. Magawa passed peacefully in January 2022.

Millennials will soon have their first video-gamer saint when Carlo Acutis is canonized later this month, but auctioning off relics purported to be tied to “God’s influencer” online is a no-go, according to an Italian archbishop.

The statement comes after an anonymous vendor tried to sell strands of Acutis’ hair online. Bids reached $2,200 before the lot was removed after Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino – who leads the diocese of Assisi where Acutis’ body is being kept and where the supposed relics were being auctioned off – called the police.

Relics, from strands of hair to bone fragments, have long been important devotional items for the Catholic faithful, and the Church encourages praying in front of relics of saints and saints-to-be, but canon law prohibits their sale, according to Sorrentino.

They can be given away by their owner or by bishops, while significant relics, such as hearts and organs, cannot be given away without permission from the Vatican. But this can never be for financial compensation, Sorrentino said in a video posted on the diocese website.

“After we verified the auction on the internet, we decided to file a complaint. What can the idol of money lead to… I fear that Satan has a hand in it,” he said.

Sorrentino filed a complaint with the police in Perugia, which is investigating the sale of the purported relics. “We have asked for their seizure,” Sorrentino said on the diocese website. “We do not know whether the relics are real or false, but even if it were all invented, if there was deception, we would be in the presence of not only a scam, but also an insult to religious sentiment.”

“The business of relics trading is prevalent, Sorrentino added. “On the internet there is a market of relics that concern various saints, such as our Francis (of Assisi), with a price list. Something (that is) impossible to accept,” he said.

Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, is widely recognized as a model of Christian life for young believers and who Sorrentino said will be a sort of “patron saint of the internet” once he is canonized.

That ceremony will take place in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on April 27.

Erik Prince, founder of the controversial security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, joined in law enforcement operations on Saturday in Guayaquil, one of Ecuador’s most violent cities, according to local officials.

The operations saw 10 houses raided and 40 people detained, Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said.

“Since early this morning, the security block together with the American Erik Prince, a security expert, and the Ministers of Defense, Gian Carlo Loffredo and the Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg, were deployed in territory in Guayaquil, especially in the suburbs, attacking criminals and outlining strategies to strengthen the great actions of our law enforcement forces in the field of operations,” Ecuador’s Defense Ministry posted on X Saturday morning.

Prince also said in a video posted by Ecuador’s Defense Ministry that he was in the country “providing the law enforcement and the military the tools and the tactics to effectively combat the narco-gangs.”

The aim, Prince continued, is to “put the narcos on their back heels and make them truly afraid of being caught.”

His visit to the South American nation comes weeks after Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced a “strategic alliance” with Prince to fight organized crime.

‘A historic chapter for security’ in Ecuador

Ecuador’s Defense Ministry called Prince’s participation on Saturday a “historic chapter for security” for the nation.

The country’s Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said Prince and his team are currently providing training and advice to Ecuador’s security forces – but added that their scope of action could be expanded. “They may not be limited to just those actions,” Loffredo said.

Prince has been in the country for a “few days,” and work is ongoing to develop a new plan to combat Ecuador’s gangs, he also said.

In recent years, Ecuador – which is sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, top producers of cocaine – has become caught up in the drug trade and the violence that always follows it. Its efficient transport and export system has been used by cartels to move and ship their goods overseas — the bricks of cocaine hidden in boxes of bananas and other goods that then head to the United States, Europe and the rest of the world.

Noboa’s efforts however will be heavily dependent on next week’s presidential runoff vote. He’s set off to face leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who has positioned herself as equally tough on crime but opposes the presence of any foreign force in the country.

In the same video posted by the defense ministry, Prince called on Ecuadorians to vote for Noboa, warning that otherwise Ecuador risked “looking just like Venezuela, a narco-state with massive drug processing with all the criminality and socialism and despair that comes with that.”

“I hope Ecuador chooses law and order and we are here to help to combat the gangs and to provide the tools for the government to restore law and order, peace and prosperity,” he added.