You wont always get the chance to enjoy discounts from Surface Laptop deals because offers involving this line of devices from Microsoft rarely happen, but theres one from Best Buy right now if youre interested. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3, which originally sold for $800, is on sale with a $100 discount that brings its price down to $700. Were not sure how much time is remaining before it goes back to its regular price, so if you want to secure the savings, you need to hurry up with your purchase.The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 didnt receive a good score in our review of the device when it launched in late 2023, but with this discount from Best Buy and the arrival of Microsofts Copilot, it should be up for consideration for anyone who wants to buy a new Windows 11 laptop. Its got what it takes to support the powerful AI assistant with its 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and 8GB of RAM, and while its not going to challenge the performance of the best laptops, it will be more than enough to handle your daily workload.Things we liked about the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 include its attractive aesthetic with sleek lines and the elegance that weve come to expect from Microsofts Surface devices, and its small and light chassis housing a 12.4-inch PixelSense touchscreen that makes the laptop extremely portable. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 also ships with a 256GB SSD for ample storage space for your files, and its battery can last up to 15 hours from a full charge.RelatedMicrosofts devices always attract a lot of attention whenever they appear in laptop deals, and we dont think things will be any different with Best Buys offer for the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3. From its sticker price of $800, its down to only $700, but we dont know for how long. If youre interested in the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 as your next companion but you want to secure these savings with your purchase, you have to push forward with the transaction as soon as you can.Editors Recommendations

exclusiveMediaSenators Call for DOJ Probe of Xs Advertiser Pressure CampaignFive Democrats say Elon Musk may violate ethics and extortion rules if X uses threats to get companies back onto its platformSen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) at a rally outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month. Photo: Craig Hudson/ReutersFive Democratic senators have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Elon Musk is leveraging his influence in the Trump administration to bully advertisers into returning to X.The request, from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Chris Van Hollen, follows a Wall Street Journal report last month about the social-media platforms pressuring Interpublic Groupto spend more on X.Copyright 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8VideosMost Popular NewsMost PopularOPINIONFurther Reading

ATTACK OF THE BOTS Massive botnet that appeared overnight is delivering record-size DDoSes Eleven11bot infects video recorders, with the largest concentration of them in the US. Dan Goodin Mar 6, 2025 8:21 am | 9 Credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica Credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA newly discovered network botnet comprisingan estimated 30,000 webcams and video recorderswith the largest concentration in the UShas been delivering what is likely to be the biggest denial-of-service attack ever seen, a security researcher inside Nokia said.The botnet, tracked under the name Eleven11bot, first came to light in late February when researchers inside Nokias Deepfield Emergency Response Team observed large numbers of geographically dispersed IP addresses delivering hyper-volumetric attacks. Eleven11bot has been delivering large-scale attacks ever since.Volumetric DDoSes shut down services by consuming all available bandwidth either inside the targeted network or its connection to the Internet. This approach works differently than exhaustion DDoSes, which over-exert the computing resources of a server. Hypervolumetric attacks are volumetric DDoses that deliver staggering amounts of data, typically measured in the terabits per second.Johnny-come-lately botnet sets a new recordAt 30,000 devices, the Eleven11bot was already exceptionally large (although some botnets exceed well over 100,000 devices). Most of the IP addresses participating, Nokia researcher Jrme Meyer told me, had never been seen engaging in DDoS attacks.Besides a 30,000-node botnet seeming to appear overnight, another salient feature of Eleven11bot is the record-size volume of data it sends its targets. The largest one Nokia has seen from Eleven11bot so far occurred on February 27 and peaked at about 6.5 terabits per second. The previous record for a volumetric attack was reported in January at 5.6 Tbps."Eleven11bot has targeted diverse sectors, including communications service providers and gaming hosting infrastructure, leveraging a variety of attack vectors," Meyer wrote. While in some cases the attacks are based on the volume of data, others focus on flooding a connection with more data packets than a connection can handle, with numbers ranging from a "few hundred thousand to several hundred million packets per second." Service degradation caused in some attacks have lasted multiple days, with some remaining ongoing as of the time this post went live. A graph showing times on the x axis and Tbps sizes on the y access. Between 6:00 and 6:45 (date unclear) the y axis records sizes ranging from less than 1 Tbps to a peak of 6.5 Tbps, which occurs between 6:38 and 6:45. Credit: Nokia A breakdown showed that the largest concentration of IP addresses, at 24.4 percent, was located in the US. Taiwan was next at 17.7 percent, and the UK at 6.5 percent. Pie chart showing percentages of IP addresses by country. Credit: Nokia In an online interview, Meyer made the following points:this botnet is much larger than what we're used to seeing in DDoS attacks (the only precedent I have in mind is an attack from 2022 right after the Ukraine invasion, at ~60k bots, but not public)the vast majority of its IPs were not involved in DDoS attacks prior to last weekmost of the IPs are security cameras (Censys thinks Hisilicon, I saw multiple sources talk to a Hikvision NVR too so that is a possibility but not my area of expertise)partly because the botnet is larger than average, the attack size is also larger than averageAccording to a post updated on Wednesday from security firm Greynoise, Eleven11bot is most likely a variant of Mirai, a family of malware for infecting webcams and other Internet-of-things devices. Mirai debuted in 2016, when tens of thousands of IoT devices infected by it delivered what at the time were record-setting DDoSes of about 1 Tbps and took down security news site KrebsOnSecurity for almost a week. Shortly after that, Mirai developers published their source code in a move that made it easy for copycats everywhere to deliver the same massive attacks. Greynoise said that the variant driving Eleven11bot is using a single new exploit to infect TVT-NVMS 9000 digital video recorders that run on HiSilicon chips.There have been conflicting reports on the number of devices comprising Eleven11bot. Following Nokia's report last Saturday of roughly 30,000 devices, the non-profit Shadowserver Foundation said Tuesday that the true size was more than 86,000. Then in Wednesday's update, Greynoise said that based on data from fellow security firm Censys, both numbers were inflated and the true number was likely fewer than 5,000.The upward revision from Shadowserver was likely the result of the belief that all infected devices displayed unique device information. That suspicion now appears to be incorrect. Instead, Meyer believes the information seen on infected devices is displayed on all such hardware, whether infected or not. Researchers from Greynoise and Censys weren't immediately available to explain how they arrived at the much lower estimate of fewer than 5,000.Meyer said that he has consistently observed as many as 20,000 to 30,000 IP addresses participating in follow-on attacks, although many attacks come from much smaller subsets. He said that he has since sent a list of all 30,000 or so IP addresses he has observed to Censys and plans to also send them to Shadowserver soon in hopes of getting consensus on the true size."I am still confident on the estimated count as this is what we keep seeing in attacks and after human review of the source IPs," he wrote.Mirai-based botnets employ various methods for infecting their targets. One common method is to attempt to log in to device administrator accounts using username/password pairs commonly set as defaults by manufacturers. Mirai botnets have also been known to exploit vulnerabilities that bypass security settings.In any case, anyone running any sort of IoT devices should position them behind a router or other form of firewall so they're not visible from outside a local network. Remote administration from outside the Internet should be enabled only when needed. Users should also ensure each device is protected by a strong unique password. Last, devices should be updated as soon as security patches become available.Dan GoodinSenior Security EditorDan GoodinSenior Security Editor Dan Goodin is Senior Security Editor at Ars Technica, where he oversees coverage of malware, computer espionage, botnets, hardware hacking, encryption, and passwords. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and following the independent music scene. Dan is based in San Francisco. Follow him at here on Mastodon and here on Bluesky. Contact him on Signal at DanArs.82. 9 Comments

There is a new application for laserslaboratory/AlamyLasers could become an important tool for detecting radioactive materials, such as those in covert nuclear weapons, from a greater distance than ever before.Conventional radioactivity sensing techniques involve waiting for particles produced during radioactive decay to hit a detector. The method can sense these particles from tens of metres away but not much further. Howard Milchberg at the University of Maryland and his colleagues have now shown that a laser-based method could be effective from as far

An image of the quasar 3C 186, taken by the Hubble Space TelescopeNASAs Goddard Space Flight CenterA rare collision between two supermassive black holes (SMBH) appears to have sent the resulting merger speeding through the universe, making it one of the fastest-moving black holes we have ever seen.Astronomers have long puzzled over how the gargantuan black holes at the centres of galaxies can grow to be so large. One possible route is for smaller but still extremely massive black holes to merge together, but there has been little direct evidence of this happening.

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Welcome to robot city The city of Odense, in Denmark, is best known as the site where King Canute, Denmarks last Viking king, was murdered during the 11th century. Today, Odense its also home to more than 150 robotics, automation, and drone companies. Its particularly renowned for collaborative robots, or cobotsthose designed to work alongside humans, often in an industrial setting. Odenses robotics success has its roots in the more traditional industry of shipbuilding. During the 90s, the Mrsk shipping company funded the creation of the Mrsk Mc-Kinney Mller Institute (MMMI), a center dedicated to autonomous systems that drew students keen to study robotics. But there are challenges to being based in a city that, though the third-largest in Denmark, is undeniably small on the global scale. Read the full story.Victoria Turk This story is from our latest print issue, which is all about how technology is changing our relationships with each otherand ourselves. If you havent already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. If youre interested in robotics, why not check out: + Will we ever trust robots? If most robots still need remote human operators to be safe and effective, why should we welcome them into our homes? Read the full story. + Why robots need to become lazier before they can be truly useful.+ AI models let robots carry out tasks in unfamiliar environments. Robot utility models sidestep the need to tweak the data used to train robots every time they try to do something in unfamiliar settings. Read the full story. + Whats next for robots in 2025, from humanoid bots to new developments in military applications.The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Google has started testing AI-only search results What could possibly go wrong? (Ars Technica)+ Its also rolling out more AI Overview result summaries. (The Verge)+ AI means the end of internet search as weve known it. (MIT Technology Review)2 Elon Musks DOGE is coming for consultantsDeloitte, Accenture and others will be told to justify the billions of dollars they receive from the US government. (FT $) + One federal agency has forbidden DOGE workers from entering its office. (WP $)+ Anti-Musk protestors set up camp inside a Portland Tesla store. (Reuters)3 The US military will use AI tools to plan maneuvers Thanks to a new deal with startup Scale AI. (WP $)+ Meanwhile, Europes defense sector is on the ascendancy. (FT $)+ We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Andurils vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)4 Global sea ice levels have fallen to a record low The north pole experienced a period of extreme heat last month. (The Guardian)+ The ice cores that will let us look 1.5 million years into the past. (MIT Technology Review)5 Where are all the EV chargers? Lack of charging infrastructure is still a major roadblock to wider adoption. So why havent we solved it? (IEEE Spectrum)+ Why EV charging needs more than Tesla. (MIT Technology Review)6 We need new tests to measure AI progressTraining models on questions they're later tested on is a poor metric. (The Atlantic $) + The way we measure progress in AI is terrible. (MIT Technology Review)7 American cities have a plan to combat extreme heatwavesData mapping projects are shedding new light on how to save lives. (Knowable Magazine) + A successful air monitoring program has come to an abrupt halt. (Wired $) 8 Chatbots need love tooNew research suggests models can tweak their behavior to appear more likeable. (Wired $) + The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)9 McDonalds is being given an AI makeover In a bid to reduce stress for customers and its workers alike. (WSJ $)10 How to stop doom scrolling Spoiler: those screen time reports arent helping. (Vox)+ How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)Quote of the day What happens when you get to a point where every video, audio, everything you read and see online can be fake? Wheres our shared sense of reality? Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, tells the Guardian why its essential to question the veracity of the media we come across online. The big story What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player November 2024 Africa is still early in the process of adopting AI technologies. But researchers say the continent is uniquely hospitable to it for several reasons, including a relatively young and increasingly well-educated population, a rapidly growing ecosystem of AI startups, and lots of potential consumers. However, ambitious efforts to develop AI tools that answer the needs of Africans face numerous hurdles. The biggest are inadequate funding and poor infrastructure. Limited internet access and a scarcity of domestic data centers also mean that developers might not be able to deploy cutting-edge AI capabilities. Complicating this further is a lack of overarching policies or strategies for harnessing AIs immense benefitsand regulating its downsides. Taken together, researchers worry, these issues will hold Africas AI sector back and hamper its efforts to pave its own pathway in the global AI race. Read the full story. Abdullahi Tsanni We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.)+ Are you a summer or winter? Warm or cool? If you dont know, its time to get your colors done.+ Why more women are choosing to explore the world on women-only trips.+ Whitetop the llama, who spends his days comforting ill kids, is a true hero + If you missed the great sourdough craze of 2020, fear nothere are some great tips to get you started.

America is one of the world's biggest food importers. It depends on other countries for over half of its fruit and seafood. Now, President Donald Trump is implementing tariffs on many of these countries, which could drive prices up. Let's take a look at where America imports food from and what's at stake as tariffs go into effect.Show more

2025-03-06T14:32:17Z Read in app Mustafa Suleyman will report directly to Satya Nadella Ethan Miller This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.Happy almost Friday! If you're indulging in a Thirsty Thursday Do people still call it that? don't be surprised if happy hour looks a bit gray. While millennials and Gen Zers are cutting back on booze, the number of boomers tipping one (or a few) back is rising.In today's big story, Microsoft is rethinking how it evaluates employees and handles underperformers.What's on deck:Markets: The jobs report is tomorrow, but don't expect a DOGE-sized drop in numbers. Here's why.Tech: Meta's got a list of ex-employees it won't rehire.Business: Lulu Cheng Meservey's brash PR tactics annoy some of her peers, but her big-name clients can't get enough of it.But first, HR is going to join us for this one.If this was forwarded to you, The big storyUnder review Microsoft; Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI Microsoft's performance review is on a PIP.The tech giant is rethinking how it evaluates employees, according to Business Insider's Ashley Stewart, who spoke to several people with knowledge of the plans.The result could be Microsoft taking a tougher stance on employees deemed low performers. Evidence of that came earlier this year when Microsoft made hundreds of performance-based cuts in January and February.In many ways, it's a blast from the past for Microsoft, which once had a reputation for conducting tough reviews. The arrival of Satya Nadella as CEO more than a decade ago changed that, with the company taking a softer stance. Some even called Microsoft a "country club."Microsoft's current process for managing out low performers can take months of documentation. One high-level manager told Ashley the average time to exit a low performer after a manager notified HR was about seven months. That process can be further delayed if an employee takes a leave of absence, which can reset the clock.But with the AI race heating up, Microsoft wants to move faster and more efficiently. Like its peers Meta, Amazon, and Google, that's meant taking a deeper look at its performance review and management process. Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI Microsoft's potential pivot also shows where AI's had the most impact thus far.Since ChatGPT's arrival a few years ago, there's been plenty of speculation about all the jobs that were at risk of being automated away by AI.The reality, though, is the tech isn't advanced enough to replace most roles completely. Efficiencies can be achieved that allow a company to cut some headcount, but AI hasn't completely wiped out jobs in most cases.In fact, the industry AI is disrupting the most is the one building it: tech.It's not just a matter of AI automating people's jobs. (Although those are looking dicey for software engineers.) The massive bets tech giants are making on AI are forcing them to recalibrate their entire operations to be as streamlined as possible, and those changes don't come easy.Perhaps the shift was always coming. The rise of interest rates and the maturation of these companies might have naturally led to a stage of buckling down.But spending billions on tech that hasn't fully panned out from a business perspective certainly didn't slow things down.News briefAlito says he's 'stunned' the Supreme Court ruled against Trump over USAID's funding.Outgoing Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen lost $11 million in bonus and stock payments when he resigned from the grocery chain.Trump told Congress that Musk runs DOGE and the lawyers noticed.Instagram says it's 'doubling down' on DMs. This chart shows just how much.Add the teachers' union to the list of investors worried about Tesla's sliding stock.Media leaders tell BI how they're tackling a crisis that's bigger than Trump.Tripledot Studios in a $900 million deal, sources say.3 things in markets ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images 1. Federal workers' layoff pains will be mostly invisible in Friday's jobs report. DOGE's February firings won't be reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics report because of the cuts' timing. And even though the job losses will appear in a more distant report, they probably won't make a big dent overall.2. Are we on the verge of a "Trumpcession"? Wall Street exec Jeffrey Solomon is part of a small but growing group of forecasters using the dreaded R-word: recession. In an interview with CNBC, Solomon said a trade war could impact supply chains and prompt business leaders to pump the brakes on dealmaking. Some signs already point to an economic slowdown, and Solomon isn't alone in waving the red flag.3. Brevan Howard is telling investors the "true risk" is not getting in on crypto. For years, institutions have kept their distance from digital assets. Brevan Howard's CEO told BI the tipping point for institutional investors is on the horizon, thanks to the boost provided by President Trump and crypto czar David Sacks. The firm, whose digital assets unit was up more than 52% in 2024, wants to be the go-to place for crypto-curious institutions.3 things in tech Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI 1. Meta keeps "block" lists of ex-employees. Hiring managers at Meta sometimes pursue laid-off workers for rehire. They express interest, set up a screening call and then ghost. That's because some ex-employees are on lists that deem them "ineligible for rehire," even if they have a written track record of exceeding managers' expectations. BI's story elicited a reaction from former Google HR chief Laszlo Bock.2. Google Search is going AI Mode. The tech giant said it plans to test a new "AI Mode" feature for Search that aims to answer users' queries with "a wider and more diverse" set of AI-powered results. Instead of AI Overviews, which respond to queries with a direct answer at the top of the results page, the new AI Mode takes things a step further by generating an entire page.3. Big events for big ratings. TV networks have been struggling with maintaining their audiences for years. But BI's Peter Kafka picked up on a pattern to get more eyes: streaming must-watch live sports and awards shows. The most recent Oscars, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics got bumps in viewers, and streaming was part of their equation.3 things in business Michelle Rohn for BI 1. Meet the PR pitbull adored by Sam Altman and Bari Weiss. Lulu Cheng Meservey is one of Silicon Valley's most sought-after communications gurus, known for her unusually aggressive "going direct" strategy. Less enchanted are her PR peers, who aren't sold on her style of bucking convention, tweeting madly, and playing offense with the press. Still, Cheng Meservey won the admiration of startup founders by showing them how she thinks.2. A new DOGE staffer was connected to a fertility clinic and has ties to the pronatalist movement. Miles Collins, whose association with DOGE was first reported by BI, is a startup founder who employees say has been working at the Department of Labor. Collins was connected to a California fertility clinic that's now facing lawsuits accusing it of mistreating employees, although the company has denied wrongdoing. Collins is also the brother of a prominent pronatalist, a movement that Elon Musk has also spoken in favor of.3. A tariff breather for car companies. President Donald Trump is giving the Big Three automakers Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors a one-month pause on his recent tariffs to avoid an "economic disadvantage." But there won't be another break when Trump's second round of trade-related tariffs takes effect on April 2, and additional tariffs on steel and aluminum are coming this month.In other newsA once-hot startup got a $1.5 billion loan. More than $500 million went to a high school dropout's 'sham' hedge fund, judge rules.Instagram cofounder explains how the work of a software engineer will change in the next three years.Are you worth $10 million? $100 million? Chances are you live in the US.Elon Musk says the Post Office and Amtrak should be privatized.Where you can cash in on Florida's cooling housing market.RFK Jr. says vitamin A could help treat measles. Here's what doctors think.Millennial moms want more kids they just can't afford it.Where to hide right now as tariffs hit markets.While the US and China compete for AI dominance, Russia's leading model lags behind.Crypto insiders say Trump's love for bitcoin is more than a fling even though he may be making an 'unforced error.'What's happening todayMacy's, Costco, and Kroger report earnings.The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have been rampaging through the federal government. But before he was letting his DOGE team accidentally fire nuclear safety workers and declaring that he loved Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man, he supported Barack Obama. That is, Musk is a complicated, mercurial man. To better understand him, seven Vox writers tell us what theyve learned that helps them make sense of the billionaire.Per his biographer Ashlee Vance, Musk earned about $250 million, or $180 million after taxes, selling PayPal to eBay. He then turned around and threw the money into new ventures: $100 million to SpaceX, $70 million to Tesla, $10 million to SolarCity. Short of building an actual money-crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune, Vance writes. The gambles worked out, of course, but easily could have bankrupted him. The appetite for danger extends to his personal life. At one of his birthday parties, Musk both had a knife thrower hurl blades at him as he was blindfolded, and made himself face off against a 350-pound champion sumo wrestler.Dylan MatthewsA hint from 2018In hindsight, Musks 2018 feud with a British cave explorer might have foreshadowed the darkening of his politics. That year, 12 boys and their soccer coach became trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Elon Musk offered to aid the Thai governments rescue effort by contributing a mini-submarine. But authorities deemed Musks offer impractical and turned it down. An international team ultimately rescued the boys. And in a subsequent interview, a British cave explorer whod assisted in that effort, Vern Urnsworth, said that Musks offer had absolutely no chance of working and that mogul had no conception of what the cave passage was like.Musk replied by calling Unsworth a pedo and saying he would bet money that the British diver was a predator, a claim for which the billionaire had no evidence whatsoever.This incident revealed that Musk is exceptionally sensitive to personal slights and willing to tell defamatory lies about those who affront him. If you are willing to declare a rescuer of children a pedophile because he disparaged your mini-submarine, then how might you respond to a Democratic president barring your company from an electric vehicle summit?In any case, now that he is a political crusader, Musk has scaled up his production of incendiary and baseless accusations. He has accused British politicians of abetting rape genocide, merely because they favored investigating child sex abuse rings on a local level rather than a national one. He has absurdly argued that the Democratic Party imported illegal immigrants in 2024 in a plot to steal the US election. And he has alleged that the US government paid the media outlet Reuters millions of dollars to engage in large scale social deception though in reality, the first Trump administration had contracted with the data company Thomson Reuters Special Services to combat cyber attacks that use social deception tactics.Musk has long been a thin-skinned liar. That was once a problem for British cave divers; now, its a problem for the world.Eric LevitzDont underestimate the obsession with the woke mind virusThere has been much speculation about what drove Musk to throw himself into politics to such an extent his wealth, going to Mars, etc. but I think his obsession with defeating what he calls the woke mind virus really is quite important. Like many, he was radicalized fairly recently by the countrys leftward shift on identity issues (he has cited distrust of doctors prescribing gender-affirming care for his trans daughter, who he has since fallen out with) and his behavior suggests he truly came to believe reversing that shift is one of the major causes of his life.This is what he tried to do in his Twitter takeover and, in a sense, its what hes trying to do at DOGE by attacking progressive institutions like nonprofit groups, universities, the media, and the deep state. And unlike many of Trumps first-term advisers, Musk has both the boldness to disregard legal caution and the ability to figure out how to actually make things happen nobody expected him to effectively seize levers of power inside government that let his team engineer mass layoffs of civil servants and block spending, but he did it. He is a wrecking ball against those who stand in Trumps way.Andrew ProkopElons got the blinders on badIn the decade and a half that Ive been covering Elon Musk and his companies, its been remarkable to see just how much this mans worldview has become trapped in an echo chamber. Things got much worse when he bought it. Im talking about Twitter, now X, and Im left wondering on a daily basis if Musk seeks out information beyond what he sees in his feed or feedback beyond what shows up in his mentions. This is deep brain rot territory, and whats happening on X seems to be, to some degree, informing Musks plan to dismantle the federal government workforce. By all accounts, Musks behavior is a realization of the right-wing mob mentality hes cultivated on his social media platform, a feedback loop thats increasingly out of touch with whats happening to the lives of everyday Americans. People used to say what happens on Twitter only matters to other people on Twitter. Now, thanks to Musk and his mob, its shaping the future of the United States.Adam Clark EstesA champion of masculine energyMusk and his allies are transforming DEI critiques into a defense of traditional masculinity where caution and consideration are being recast as weakness and the mark of losers. Under this framework, prioritizing diversity is framed as the culprit for why we are failing today.When Metas Mark Zuckerberg said companies need more masculine energy because corporate culture has become culturally neutered, he was voicing a growing Republican sentiment. Recent survey data shows that 79 percent of Republican men and a striking 67 percent of Republican women now believe society has become too soft and feminine a massive spike since 2011. This new rhetoric isnt about improving equality efforts its about reframing caution as timidity. What began as pushback on specific diversity initiatives is evolving into a broader ideology in which questioning Musk-style risk-taking isnt just bureaucratic its feminized. As this attitude increasingly permeates businesses and government, prudence is becoming the fastest route to dismissal.Rachel CohenLooking to benefit his own bottom lineWhile DOGE takes a chainsaw to the federal workforce, Musk is using his power to interfere with investigations and regulatory battles affecting his companies, while directing billions in lucrative contracts toward his businesses.His social media site X pressured ad giant Interpublic into buying more ads on X, while warning of federal interference in a planned $13 billion merger with its rival Omnicom Group, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Musks rocket company SpaceX wants to land lucrative grants for Mars missions, while its subsidiary Starlink is aiming to take over Verizons contract to overhaul the FAAs communications systems.A probe into Musks brain-computer interface company Neuralink is up in the air after those FDA investigators were fired (some have been asked to return). New emissions rules and tariffs could benefit Tesla over its competitors. And while the car companys sales in Europe have plummeted amid growing protests, a kneecapped Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can no longer investigate hundreds of complaints into Tesla.Similarly, firings at the National Labor Relations Board have prevented that agency from ruling on investigations into Musks companies. The list of Musks conflicts of interest only continues to grow.Avishay ArtsyThe stakes are different nowA recurring theme in stories about Elon Musk: people tell him that something is impossible or too dangerous, and then he does it anyway. Sometimes its an embarrassing failure, sure, but about half the time he seems to manage to pull it off, and in the private sector the successes more than pay for the failures. The story of SpaceX in particular is full of naysayers who stood by in awe as the rockets, against their expectations, really worked. The problem is that in government, Musk has moved from a world where doing the impossible half the time is an incredible achievement to a world where failing to do the impossible the other half of the time will mean catastrophic numbers of people die. If the cancellations of PEPFAR grants, malaria programs, and childhood vaccinations worldwide arent reversed, Musks latest gamble will show up on global mortality charts as a million extra deaths every year. Kelsey PiperThis story originally appeared in Today, Explained, Voxs flagship daily newsletter. Sign up here for future editions.See More:

Since the start of 2025, over 27 million egg-laying hens 9 percent of the entire national flock have died from the bird flu or have been (horrifically) killed to slow the spread.Its led to egg shortages and price spikes, with a carton of a dozen eggs today costing double what it did in early 2022, when this latest bird flu outbreak began.Because of its impact on grocery bills, the mass killing of egg-laying hens has received far more attention than the more routine cruelties in the egg industry. But each year, whether theres a bird flu outbreak or not, far more chickens are brutally killed for an entirely different purpose. The egg industry hatches around 650 million birds annually, but because half of them the males cant lay eggs, egg companies kill them the day theyre born. Theyre typically shredded alive or gassed with carbon dioxide. Undercover investigations into hatcheries by animal rights groups have revealed this dark but little-known side of the business. Even for the already cruel factory farm industry, its created an image problem for egg producers. But heres the good news: Technology to end this grisly practice is finally coming to the US. Known as in-ovo sexing (in-ovo is Latin for in the egg), the technology detects the sex of a chicken while still in the egg so that companies can dispose of them before they hatch to avoid the shredding and gassing. There are two main ways to do it: using hyperspectral imaging to see inside the egg without puncturing it, or making a tiny hole in the egg and extracting fluid for rapid analysis. And the technology hardly raises the cost of production, at just a few pennies per carton.A Respeggt in-ovo sexing machine, which makes a tiny hole in the egg and extracts fluid for rapid analysis. RespeggtA Cheggy machine, by Agri Advanced Technologies, which uses hyperspectral imaging to see inside the egg without puncturing it. Agri Advanced TechnologiesOver the last few years, in-ovo sexing has swept the European egg industry, covering approximately 20 percent of the continents egg supply as of April 2024, according to an analysis by Innovate Animal Ag, a nonprofit that advocates for technological solutions to animal welfare problems. The shift was spurred by a mix of technological advancements, pressure from animal welfare groups and consumers, and several country-level laws that ban killing male chicks.In the next few years, the technology might soon be embraced by the US egg industry. Last December, the nations largest egg hatchery, located in Iowa, hatched its first set of in-ovo sexed chicks using a machine from the German company Agri Advanced Technologies that can scan more than 20,000 eggs per hour. Eggs from those hens will be sold by NestFresh Eggs, an upmarket company that sells pasture-raised and free-range eggs, and will hit grocery store shelves this summer. Agri Advanced Technologies has also installed an in-ovo sexing machine at a hatchery in Texas.Weeks later, another European in-ovo sexing company called Respeggt announced plans to install a machine at a large hatchery in Nebraska, which will be operational this spring and will supply to the premium egg company Kipster. Respeggt is in negotiations to install more of its machines at US hatcheries. And last month, Walmart, Americas biggest grocery retailer, asked its egg suppliers to work on in-ovo sexing technology. Another free-range and pasture-raised egg producer, Happy Egg, has committed to use in-ovo sexing technology but hasnt yet started. The grisly practice of mass killing male chicks may not end altogether anytime soon, as only a handful of high-end egg producers have adopted or committed to in-ovo sexing so far, and none of the big players have. But its often the premium companies that are the first movers in improving animal welfare and, later, large companies follow. It will be interesting how [the biggest egg] producers, like Cal-Maine, for example, or Rose Acreswill behave, what they will do, said Agri Advanced Technologies managing director Jrg Hurlin. Robert Yaman, CEO and founder of Innovate Animal Ag, said egg companies understand this is the direction the egg market is headed. When we have conversations with folks in the industry, I think there is a real sense that this is inevitable, he said. This is the future.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: