Criminals posing as US immigration officers have carried out robberies, kidnappings and sexual assaults in several states, warns an FBI bulletin to law enforcement agencies issued last month.
wired.com/story/fbi-warn… Citing five 2025 incidents involving fake immigration officers, the bulletin says criminals are using ICE’s heightened profile to target vulnerable communities, making it harder to distinguish between lawful officers and imposters.
wired.com/story/fbi-warn…

Thirty years ago, an Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the theories of Carl Schmitt, the theorist tapped by the Nazis to justify Germany's slip from democracy to dictatorship. Those theories have been a roadmap for the billionaire ever since.
wired.com/story/the-real… Schmitt is remembered for two theories: his incisive Weimar-era critique of liberalism and his decision to join the Nazi party in the run-up to the Second World War.

In 1996, theologian Wolfgang Palaver introduced Thiel to these ideas at a conference.
wired.com/story/the-real…

In an industry once known for cushy perks, some founders are now asking staff to commit to a 72-hour weekly schedule. You’re either in or you’re out. wired.com/story/silicon-… Would you like to work nearly double the standard 40-hour week? It’s a question that many startups in the US are asking prospective employees—and to get the job, the answer needs to be an unequivocal yes. wired.com/story/silicon-…

Generative AI has put data centers under the spotlight, and surging electricity needs could increase risk of fires. wired.com/story/x-data-c… A recent, hours-long fire at a data center used by Elon Musk’s X may have begun after an electrical or mechanical issue in a power system, according to an official fire investigation. wired.com/story/x-data-c…

NEW: Metadata from the “raw” Epstein prison video shows approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds were removed from one of two stitched-together clips. The cut starts right at the “missing minute.”
wired.com/story/the-fbis… The nearly three-minute discrepancy may be related to the widely reported one-minute gap—between 11:58:58 pm and 12:00:00 am—that attorney general Pam Bondi has attributed to a nightly system reset.
wired.com/story/the-fbis…

BREAKING: Metadata shows the FBI’s ‘raw’ Jeffrey Epstein prison video was likely modified. wired.com/story/metadata… Metadata embedded in the video and analyzed by WIRED and independent video forensics experts shows that rather than being a direct export from the prison’s surveillance system, the footage was modified, likely using a Adobe Premiere Pro. wired.com/story/metadata…

Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding. wired.com/story/ice-dete… Content warning:

On March 16, a woman identifying herself as a detainee at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, called 911. Communication was strained: The dispatcher spoke no Spanish.

"I need help,” the woman said. "I need … ayuda."
wired.com/story/ice-dete…

NEW: The alleged shooter is a 57-year-old white male; according to his ministry's website, he “sought out militant Islamists in order to share the gospel and tell them that violence wasn't the answer.”
wired.com/story/shooting… UPDATE: In a 2023 sermon reviewed by WIRED and delivered by the alleged shooter in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he preached against abortion and called for different Christian churches to become “one.” wired.com/story/shooting…

SCOOP: Edward Coristine (“Big Balls”), Luke Farritor, and Ethan Shaotran were part of the original DOGE crew. They were brought in under short-term “special government employee” status. Supposed to be temporary. Spoiler: it’s not. wired.com/story/big-ball… As of May 31 (Coristine & Farritor) and April 10 (Shaotran), the trio officially became full-time federal employees. Their roles at the General Services Administration (GSA) are now permanent.

And they’re not exactly entry-level. wired.com/story/big-ball…

SCOOP: Elon Musk will not be fully exiting DOGE.

In fact, federal workers from at least six agencies tell WIRED that DOGE-style work is escalating in their departments, and Trump himself said in a press conference today that “Elon's really not leaving.”
wired.com/story/doge-elo… Members of Musk’s early DOGE team, including Luke Farritor and Gavin Kliger, have met with a number of departments and agencies in recent days, seemingly continuing business as usual, WIRED has learned.

And the team appears to be actively recruiting.
wired.com/story/doge-elo…

NEW: Tulsi Gabbard, now the US director of national intelligence, used the same easily cracked password for different online accounts including a personal Gmail account and Dropbox over a period of years, leaked records reviewed by WIRED reveal. wired.com/story/tulsi-ga… The password associated includes the word “shraddha,” which appears to have personal significance to Gabbard: This year, WSJ reported that she had been initiated into the Science of Identity Foundation, which ex-members have accused of being a cult. wired.com/story/tulsi-ga…

DOGE is knitting together data from the Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration, and IRS that could create a surveillance tool of unprecedented scope. wired.com/story/doge-col… The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations.
wired.com/story/doge-col…

American police are spending hundreds of thousands on Massive Blue’s unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected traffickers. Massive Blue calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.”

🔗 wired.com/story/massive-…

SCOOP: DOGE is getting audited.
wired.com/story/gao-audi… The audit covers DOGE’s handling of data at several Cabinet-level agencies, including:
–the Departments of Labor, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services
–the Treasury
–the Social Security Administration
–the US DOGE Service (USDS) itself
wired.com/story/gao-audi…

Dozens of federal employees tell WIRED that Trump's federal return to office order has resulted in chaos (including bad Wi-Fi and no toilet paper), with productivity plummeting and public services suffering. wired.com/story/federal-… One effect of all this, many federal employees tell WIRED, is that they are travelling long distances in order to spend all of their time in virtual meetings.

A Treasury employee says they spend most of their time at the office on video calls as well. wired.com/story/federal-…

SCOOP: Elon Musk’s DOGE has plans to stage a “hackathon” next week in Washington, DC. The goal is to create a single “mega API”—a bridge that lets software systems talk to one another—for accessing IRS data, sources tell WIRED.
wired.com/story/doge-hac… DOGE ops have repeatedly referred to the company Palantir as a possible partner in the project, sources tell WIRED.

Read more:
wired.com/story/doge-hac…

SCOOP: Shortly after senior Trump officials discussed the bombing of Yemen in a Signal group chat that just happened to include the Atlantic's editor in chief, a subset of the group feasted at a secret dinner featuring Trump where guests were asked to pay $1 million apiece to join. wired.com/story/trump-of… The date was Saturday, March 15. President Donald Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago estate attending a “candlelight” dinner that wasn’t on his public calendar. On the lawn outside, luxury cars were on display: a Rolls Royce was parked near a Bugatti and Lamborghini.

A Letter from WIRED's Editor: Ever since Elon Musk dove headfirst into backing Donald Trump’s presidential bid last year—to the tune of $280 million in contributions—WIRED has been tracking the billionaire’s political exploits and growing sphere of influence within the GOP and the Trump administration more specifically. We’ve been sourcing up, talking to people within and around federal agencies, as well as experts in disciplines including cybersecurity, AI, medicine, and more, about Musk’s potential impact. What would Musk do, we wanted to understand, once Trump took back the White House on January 20? How would our government—and our country —change with Trump at the steering wheel and Musk riding shotgun?

If you’ve been wondering what Elon Musk and his lackeys are up to since taking control of the US government, look no further. Our latest story names six 19- to 24-year-olds working with his DOGE organization, which now has access to sensitive federal systems. wired.com/story/elon-mus… We’ve also been tracking more former Musk employees who have infiltrated the Government Services Administration: wired.com/story/elon-mus…

From 2022 to 2024, a teen who used the name Torswats made or orchestrated more than 375 hoax calls about mass shootings and bomb threats at schools, as well as places of worship and politicians' homes.

The hunt for the worst school swatter in US history: wired.com/school-swattin… TW: Graphic content

Torswats triggered lockdowns, evacuations, and panic across the United States, and wrote online that he hoped to cause tens of millions of dollars in damage and wasted police resources.

wired.com/school-swattin…

EXCLUSIVE: An analysis of 3.6 billion coordinates reveals the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers, moving from nuclear bases to brothels, a WIRED analysis with @BR_Presse and @netzpolitik_org reveals. wired.trib.al/B3fHoSG The findings provide vivid examples of the significant risks the unregulated sale of phone location data by US data firms and how they can pose a risk to the integrity of its military and the safety of its service members and their families overseas. wired.com/story/phone-da…