Society

Elon Musk has told multiple people that he has been sleeping at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headquarters in Washington, DC, WIRED has learned, as he works to exercise control over the federal government. DOGE is based out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, just steps from the White House. At an exclusive black-tie…

This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A sudden pause in federal assistance is sowing disarray and outrage across the country, throwing into doubt a wide range of programs that help protect Americans from disasters, provide access to clean drinking water and affordable energy and help…

Brandon Russell, arguably one of the most influential figures in the American neofascist revival of the past decade, is on trial this week over an alleged plot to knock out Baltimore’s power grid and trigger a race war. The 29-year-old cofounder of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi guerrilla organization that was responsible for five homicides…

Elon Musk is only one week into his role in President Donald Trump’s new administration, but the US federal government is already rolling out the Twitter playbook to manage its spending and personnel. Just like Musk did when he took over the social media platform, Trump’s team is attempting to drastically reduce the number of…

Centibillionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of the former US Digital Service—now the United States DOGE Service—has been widely publicized and sanctioned by one of President Donald Trump’s many executive orders. But WIRED reporting shows that Musk’s influence extends even further, and into an even more consequential government agency. Sources within the federal government tell WIRED that…

The volunteer cartographers who power the maps on platforms like Facebook, Lyft, and Strava have been intensely debating over the past week about whether to honor US president Donald Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. When should they update? Will the change affect all of the gulf, or just…

Disney+, if you didn’t know, isn’t just for kids. With its ownership of the Lucasfilm brand and the Marvel titles, the streaming service offers plenty of grown-up content in its bid to compete with Netflix and Amazon—and we’re not just talking movies. Since launching the service, Disney has used the name recognition of Star Wars…

California loves its electric cars. More than 2.1 million battery-powered vehicles are driving around the state, and last fall, over a quarter of new cars sold there were electric. Lawmakers are trying to ensure the future holds even more. In December, California received special permission from the US government to enact regulations that would require…

In the five years since its launch, Bookshop.org has amassed quite the loyal following. The online retailer shares its sales revenue with bookstores around the US, and has become a popular destination for online customers who would rather help keep their local bookstore in business than send money to big retailers like Amazon. Until now,…

A powerful new open-source artificial intelligence model created by Chinese startup DeepSeek has shaken Silicon Valley over the past few days. Packed with cutting-edge capabilities and developed on a seemingly tiny budget, DeepSeek’s R1 is prompting talk of an impending upheaval in the tech industry. To some people, DeepSeek’s rise signals that the US has…