In the information age, data is gold — and Google has enough to make <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Midas-Greek-mythology">King Midas</a> blush.
But in this new <a href="https://www.promarket.org/2019/02/22/road-to-digital-serfdom-surveillance-capitalism-visible-hand/">economic paradigm</a>, all that data comes at a price: privacy lawsuits. To amass its wealth, Google's been caught collecting personal information from users even in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/04/01/1242019127/google-incognito-mode-settlement-search-history">incognito mode</a>, tracking <a href="https://apnews.com/article/828aefab64d4411bac257a07c1af0ecb">location data</a> even when location tracking is off, collecting <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/09/google-youtube-will-pay-record-170-million-alleged-violations-childrens-privacy-law">children's personal information</a> in violation of child safety laws, and selling <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-s-secret-project-nightingale-gathers-personal-health-data-on-millions-of-americans-11573496790?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAhFQaZZ-gi-FDkN4Xdk7s0sxOX177sd63MaqA9GxAJn3AB-5o8WIRW4gnkw4pk%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6840fa14&amp;gaa_sig=tP3QkkGIFJAKEBe_aq8co-9i2beA2m46BT4Z5ARpEOWOLA0l4SuiNsM4yJUJrvLYcG5LisdQJXOe2LGorUdm3g%3D%3D">millions of Americans' health data</a> to a healthcare conglomerate — and that's just a taste.
Now, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-takes-gamble-class-action-jury-trial-over-cell-phone-data-use-2025-06-04/">Reuters reports that</a> Google's going to trial in California after a class action lawsuit representing some 14 million state residents alleged the company gathered personal data from their phones even when they were off.
The suit alleges that Google enables Android phones to send and receive info "for Google's own purposes," draining users' cellular data as they do. While the California suit is unique for going to trial, it's just one of 50 separate state class action lawsuits being brought against the tech company. Altogether, there are billions of dollars on the line.
It's a big case with some major implications: can the companies that sell our phones — and in Google's case with Android, create the underlying operating system — decide whether or not we can ever turn them off?
Google's response is telling. Rather than deny that it had collected data on powered-off Androids, it's saying that Android users gave their consent to Google's "passive" data harvesting when they agreed to the company's <a href="https://www.darkreading.com/data-privacy/google-play-terms-of-service-push-privacy-to-the-limit">terms of service agreement</a>, which is required to use the phone.
Google is also challenging the core of the plaintiffs' argument — basically, that cell phone data doesn't count as personal property under California law. And if it isn't, then there's nothing wrong with Google taking it without permission.
Ultimately, there's a lot of money riding in how the state classifies that nebulous data.
George Zelcs, a lawyer representing the plantiffs, told Reuters that Android users aren't arguing against data collection when the phones are on and the apps are fired up. Instead, he notes that "these phone users unknowingly subsidize the same Google advertising business that earns over $200 billion a year."
Googles usual tactic when it's caught nabbing data — to settle out of court for millions or sometimes billions of dollars — probably won't fly here, as the timeline reaches all the way back to 2016. With millions of defendants and unfathomable quantities of data at play, any sort of settlement is likely to run in the "tens of billions," according to Reuters.
Time will tell whether that's less costly than if Google were to lose all that juicy data altogether.
More on law: <a href="https://futurism.com/character-ai-suicide-free-speech">A Mother Says an AI Startup's Chatbot Drove Her Son to Suicide. Its Response: the First Amendment Protects "Speech Allegedly Resulting in Suicide"</a>

Pocket Pal

Not cool.

Google Going to Trial After Doing Something Super Sketchy to Android Users

We're less than a week away from Tesla's launch of a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.
The company's long-awaited ride-hailing service is set to kick off on June 12, albeit with some significant limitations. A mere "<a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-robotaxis-remote-controlled-human-employees">ten or 20 vehicles</a>," which will rely on human safety drivers, will ferry passengers on "day one," CEO Elon Musk revealed during the company's <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-earnings-brutal-elon-musk">disastrous earnings call</a> in April.
Tellingly, the carmaker is already desperately trying to steer the conversation, closely barring the public from accessing information about the robotaxi service pilot. As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-seeks-block-city-austin-releasing-records-robotaxi-trial-2025-06-06/">Reuters reports</a>, Tesla is trying to prevent the city from releasing public records related to the project, raising urgent questions surrounding Tesla's long-awaited foray into the autonomous ride-hailing space.
As Tesla reels from Musk's <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-too-late-save-tesla">incredibly damaging</a> leadership — or lack thereof — the stakes are incredibly high. Making matters even worse, the company's shares tanked on Thursday, following the mercurial CEO's ugly spat with the president breaking out into the public, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/05/tesla-shares-musk-trump.html">wiping out a record $152 billion</a> in market value. Vehicle sales have also <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-sales-falling-worldwide-norway">fallen off a cliff</a>, compounding a growing crisis.
In other words, an extraordinary amount is riding on Tesla's Hail Mary robotaxi launch.
To learn more, Reuters requested communications records between Tesla and Austin officials spanning the last two years. But as one public information officer from the city told the agency, "third parties" intervened, preventing them from releasing these cords to protect their "privacy or property interests."
A Tesla lawyer told Reuters that the EV maker was simply protecting "confidential, proprietary, competitively sensitive commercial, and/or trade secret information" and that releasing these records would "irreparably harm Tesla."
That degree of secrecy is certainly suspicious. Apart from protecting its IP, it feels plausible that Tesla is trying to prevent the public from exposing the EV maker's foray into the autonomous ride-hailing industry as half-baked and woefully behind the competition.
Literal insiders certainly seem to feel that way. In a <a href="https://youtu.be/jWC_-fj-slI?feature=shared">podcast interview</a> last month, Tesla's head of Autopilot and AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-executive-fsd">admitted</a> that "technically Waymo is already performing."
"We are lagging by maybe a couple of years," he added.
Musk has bet the company's entire fate on a future in which "hundreds of thousands, if not over a million, Teslas" are "doing self-driving in the US" in a matter of years.
But glaring shortcomings with the firm's driver assistance software remain. Federal regulators are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-tesla-full-self-driving-crash/?sref=YfHlo0rL">still investigating fatal crashes</a> involving the carmaker's misleadingly-named "Full Self-Driving" feature, casting its future as a fully autonomous taxi company in doubt.
Unperturbed, Musk has remained characteristically optimistic, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1927970940874354941">tweeting late last month</a> that "Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents."
"A month ahead of schedule," he added. "Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer."
More on the robotaxi launch: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-robotaxi-launch-mess">Tesla's Robotaxi Launch Is Already an Enormous Mess</a>

What Communications?

What are they hiding?

Tesla Seems Terrified These Messages About Its Robotaxi Rollout Will Be Released

The founder of the Mars Society has accused SpaceX CEO Elon Musk of derailing existing plans to explore and visit the Red Planet.
Robert Zubrin, who has coauthored hundreds of papers and laid out several blueprints as to how to settle on Mars, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2025-06-renowned-mars-expert-trump-musk.html">told Agence France-Presse</a> in an interview that Musk is "absolutely instrumental in opening up this opportunity to get humans to Mars, both through the development of Starship and also the inspiration that has caused."
But given the "hubris and arrogance" he has since bred — Zubrin went as far as to compare him to failed European dictator Napoleon Bonaparte — our future efforts to travel to the distant planet over 140 million miles away could be in peril.
For our effort to send humans to Mars "to succeed, it has to go beyond these — this initiative cannot be seen as a Musk hobbyhorse or a Trump hobbyhorse — it must be seen, at a minimum, as America's program, or preferably the Free World's program," Zubrin told AFP.
The publication of the interview comes in the wake of an <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-adviser-elon-musk-immigration">incredibly messy divorce</a> between Musk and president Donald Trump, though Zubrin made his comments before the relationship disintegrated. The two have been going at each other's throats and even <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa">threatening to cut off NASA's access to space</a>.
Musk's dreams of making humanity interplanetary by establishing a city on Mars appear to have slipped significantly on his list of priorities. The mercurial CEO was heavily criticized for abandoning his businesses in favor of overseeing a disastrous gutting of the US federal government, and is now racing to make Tesla investors happy as <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-sales-falling-worldwide-norway">sales continue to plummet worldwide</a>.
SpaceX has also <a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-failing-starship">encountered major headwind</a> in getting its Mars-bound Starship to not explode. The company's last three test flights ended in so-called "<a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-starship-explodes-debris">rapid unscheduled disassemblies</a>," highlighting growing technical difficulties and the enormous degree of complexity involved in launching and landing the most powerful rocket in the world.
While Musk has previously vowed to land Starships on Mars before the end of next year — he <a href="https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-launch-its-biggest-starship-yet-this-year-but-mars-in-2026-is-50-50">admitted</a> it was a "50-50 chance" late last month — his characteristically ambitious timelines are once again looking unrealistic at best.
"Progress is measured by the timeline to establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars," Musk said in a <a href="https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1928185351933239641">promotional video shared by SpaceX</a> on May 29. "Each launch is about learning more and more about what’s needed to make life multi-planetary and to improve Starship to the point where it can be taking, ultimately, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people to Mars."
But all the turbulence Musk has generated, in addition to the Trump administration's <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-budget-nasa-horrifying">brutal budget cut proposal to NASA</a>, likely will only hamper our efforts to visit Mars, Zubrin argued.
Complicating matters are fundamental disagreements about NASA's future direction. In a move largely seen as retribution, the Trump <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-elon-musk-jared-isaacman-nomination-nasa">administration pulled its nomination</a> for SpaceX space tourist and billionaire Jared Isaacman, who was hand-picked for the job by Musk.
"This combination of Trump and Musk is not going to persist forever," Zubrin told AFP, foreshadowing Thursday's drama. "And if this program is identified as their deal, it will be crushed as soon as opposing forces have sufficient power."
Most of all, Zubrin disagreed with Musk's stance that humanity will be saved by leaving the Earth behind and settling on Mars instead.
"We're not going to Mars out of despair," he told AFP. "We're going to Mars out of hope... to establish new branches of human civilization which will add their creative capacity to that of humanity as a whole."
"If we do the kind of program that I advocated... we will once again, as we did in Apollo, astonish the world with what free people can do," he added. "We'll make it clear that freedom, not authoritarianism, is the future of the human race."
More on Mars: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-elon-musk-jared-isaacman-nomination-nasa">Trump Just Kicked Elon Musk's Hand-Picked NASA Head to the Curb</a>

Road to Mars 20-Something

"We're not going to Mars out of despair. We're going to Mars out of hope."

Elon Musk's "Hubris and Arrogance" Are Ruining Our Chances of Actually Getting to Mars, Says Leading Expert

Amazon drivers have a hard gig. They've struggled for years against <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/business/economy/amazon-delivery-drivers-labor-nlrb.html">long hours with limited breaks</a>, unreasonable <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/business/why-amazon-drivers-are-on-strike">delivery quotas</a>, and <a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/more-15000-amazon-contract-drivers-file-legal-claims/14940058/">wage theft</a> — not to mention repressive <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/corporate-union-busting/">union-busting efforts</a> to make sure none of that changes.
Those are the conditions that led the Teamsters to launch the <a href="https://teamster.org/2024/12/teamsters-launch-largest-strike-against-amazon-in-american-history/">largest labor strike</a> against Amazon in US history just days before Christmas of last year.
But as calls grow to stop treating its workers like robots, Amazon has decided to cut out the middle man — and just use actual robots instead.
That seems to be the goal, at least, behind a new robotics facility meant to test humanoid robots in a real-world delivery environment, a development <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-prepares-test-humanoid-robots-delivering-packages">first reported by The Information</a>.
Dubbed a "humanoid park," an anonymous source described the site as an <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/680258/amazon-training-package-delivery-humanoid-robots">indoor obstacle course</a> located at an Amazon facility in San Francisco. The retail giant is seemingly testing bipedal bots to work with its fleet of <a href="https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/amazon-rivian-electric-delivery-vans-evd700/">Rivian electric vans</a> to deliver packages to homes, which were reportedly part of the simulated delivery habitat.
At the core of it all — as with just about anything these days — is a nebulous commitment to AI.
"Amazon has no choice but to build software that will allow it to communicate with and leverage robots," <a href="https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2025/6/5/amazon-gears-up-to-leverage-humanoid-robots-for-package-deliveries-with-rivian-electric-vans">harped Brittain Ladd</a>, a former Amazon executive. "The primary impact of AI is that it accelerates velocity across an enterprise or an ecosystem. This means that Amazon has to be able to work 24/7 365 days per year to meet the increased demand AI will generate."
How AI will actually factor into the robotics program is unclear. The company has also recently formed a new hardware research unit, focused on shoehorning "agentic AI" into <a href="https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/07/22/is-micro-fulfillment-the-next-big-thing-in-retail/">warehouse robots</a>.
Ladd, the bigwig responsible for the company's harebrained "<a href="https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/07/22/is-micro-fulfillment-the-next-big-thing-in-retail/">micro-fulfillment</a>" concept, calls AI-powered humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles a "must have for Amazon."
But the robots aren't ready to take over just yet.
"Will Amazon be able to leverage humanoid robots to make package deliveries anytime soon? No," says Ladd. "A lot of work has to be done first. Is it likely that by 2030 the company will be utilizing robots in conjunction with Rivian vans? Yes, that’s certainly possible."
In the meantime, the tech company is developing screen-embedded eyeglasses — again crammed with generative AI, apparently — to squeeze a little bit more out of delivery workers. Or, as an Amazon official <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-developing-driver-eyeglasses-shave-seconds-off-deliveries-sources-say-2024-11-11/">told Reuters</a>, "making it easier for Amazon drivers to find the right delivery spot."
That migraine-inducing system is getting an "experimental deployment" after Amazon inked a <a href="https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/amazon-continues-ar-smart-glasses-journey/">$36.5 million partnership</a> with Finnish augmented reality company IXI.
With all that extra time saved navigating deliveries, maybe Amazon can finally let its workers stop <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonDSPDrivers/comments/1hjpirw/175_stops_401_packages_two_bottles_of_pee_i_feel/">peeing in bottles</a>.
More on robotics: <a href="https://futurism.com/engineers-elderly-robot-assistant">Engineers Reveal Robot That Takes Care of Old People So You Don’t Have to</a>

Delivery Partner

"Humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles are a must have for Amazon."

Amazon Testing Humanoid Robots to Ride in Vans, Hand-Deliver Packages

Researchers say they've taken a major step toward finding a cure for HIV.
As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/05/breakthrough-in-search-for-hiv-cure-leaves-researchers-overwhelmed">The Guardian reports</a>, scientists at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne found a way to make the HIV virus visible, potentially laying the groundwork for ways to banish it from the body altogether.
As detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the team developed a way to send messenger RNA into cells, to root out the hiding virus by fully enveloping it in a bubble of formulated fat called lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). The genetic molecules then instruct the cells to make the virus visible.
Author and Doherty Institute research fellow Paula Cevaal told the Guardian that it was "previously thought impossible" to deliver mRNA into HIV-containing white blood cells. But thanks to a new type of LNPs, dubbed LNP X, the team found a way for these cells to accept the mRNA.
"Our hope is that this new nanoparticle design could be a new pathway to an HIV cure," she added.
The human immunodeficiency virus attacks the human body's immune system and can lead to deadly AIDS if left untreated. Despite decades of research, there's still no effective cure for the disease; though a <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/first-woman-cured-hiv">handful of patients have been fully cured of HIV</a>, the treatments remain brutally complex and expensive.
While the number of people in the United States living with HIV has decreased since 2018, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/hiv-diagnoses-deaths-and-prevalence-2025.html">over 39,000 new patients</a> were diagnosed in 2023.
The latest research came with such surprising findings that the team didn't believe it at first.
"We were overwhelmed by how [much of a] night and day difference it was — from not working before, and then all of a sudden it was working. And all of us were just sitting gasping like, 'wow,'" Cevaal told the Guardian.
While it's a promising step in the right direction, scientists still have to figure out whether making the hidden virus visible will cause the body's immune system to deal with it. Other possibilities include developing new ways to combine their findings with other gene therapies to ultimately cure HIV.
Before the latest technique can be used in humans, it would also have to be put through its paces, from animal experiments to human safety trials, a process that could easily take many years.
And Cevaal appears to be realistic about those chances.
"In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don’t make it into the clinic — that is the unfortunate truth; I don’t want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality," she told the Guardian. "But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus."
"So from that point of view, we’re very hopeful that we are also able to see this type of response in an animal, and that we could eventually do this in humans," she added.
Beyond HIV, the researchers are hoping their LNP-based mRNA delivery method could be applied to other diseases as well, including certain types of cancer.
More on HIV: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/conservatives-prep-insurance-uconstitutional">Religious Conservatives Trying to End Insurance Coverage of Incredibly Effective Anti-HIV Drug</a>

Reveal Yourself

Treatments

"And all of us were just sitting gasping like, 'wow.'"

"Gasping": Scientists Make Breakthrough Toward Full Cure for HIV

As Elon Musk and Donald Trump's bromance experiences a rapid but <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-musk-bromance-exploded">totally predictable disassembly</a>, Musk's archnemesis Steve Bannon is calling on the president to investigate the world's richest man's dubious immigration history.
"They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately," Bannon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/steve-bannon-trump-elon-musk.html">told the </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/steve-bannon-trump-elon-musk.html">New York Times</a> on Thursday. He also declared that Musk should be investigated for his <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-traveling-box-drugs">alleged drug habit</a>.
Bannon was a former chief strategist to Trump. He no longer holds the role in an official capacity, but remains an informal adviser and an influential voice on the American far right.
Musk and Trump traded blows on their respective personal social media playgrounds this week, not long after Musk suddenly announced that his time as a "special government employee" was over. 
Once out of the White House, it didn't take long for things to escalate from Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-war">blasting</a> the president's newly proposed spending bill, to Trump <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-calls-terminating-elon-musk-government-contracts">threatening to cancel</a> Elon's billions of dollars worth of government contracts, to Musk clapping back by saying he'd <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa">cut off</a> NASA's invaluable access to his spacecraft. Musk also really went off the rails by <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-trump-epstein-files">shouting from the rooftops of X</a> that Trump is in the unreleased Epstein files, and then agreeing that the president <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930719235770359903">should be impeached</a>.
We can only imagine the pure schadenfreude bliss that Bannon must be experiencing right now. He's made no secret of his contempt for Musk, who he's previously called a "<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/steve-bannon-elon-musk-toddler-visa-b2670982.html">toddler</a>," and "<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/steve-bannon-maga-elon-musk-war-b2671686.html">not tough enough</a>," and a "parasitic illegal alien." 
Some of that is probably his <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/bannon-musk-parasitic-illegal-alien">jealousy speaking</a>: Musk had replaced Bannon as the president's golden boy, a role he lost when Trump kicked Bannon kicked to the curb for stealing the limelight during his first term in office. 
Bannon, an <a href="https://www.aclunc.org/docs/sorting_through_the_bigot-s_bag_of_tricks.pdf">alleged white supremacist</a>, has always been skeptical of Musk's sudden realignment with the MAGA movement, and has constantly chided the Silicon-Valley-liberal turned Texas-based-technocrat for not being conservative — or <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5061472-steve-bannon-elon-musk-visas/">racist</a> — enough.
So you can bet he's making the most of Musk's downfall, capitalizing on his dubious personal immigration history. Despite his constant slandering of immigrants, the South Africa-born businessman was likely at one point <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-was-illegal-immigrant">an "illegal" immigrant too</a>, overstaying on a student visa even though he'd dropped out of school to work on his startup. His brother, Kimbal, has <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-hates-illegal-immigrants-brother">admitted</a> to both of them working illegally.
Bannon, on top of calling for Musk's deportation, has recommended nationalizing Musk's businesses, too.
"President Trump tonight should sign an executive order calling for the Defense Production Act to be called and seize SpaceX tonight before midnight," Bannon said Thursday on an episode of his War Room podcast, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-launches-furious-retaliation-against-steve-bannon-for-urging-donald-trump-to-punish-him/">as quoted by the Daily Beast</a>.
But he faces a fearsome keyboard warrior in Musk, who retaliated in a <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930823510290743608">slur-bedazzled tweet</a>: "Bannon is peak r*tard." Then he doubled down, clarifying that Bannon was, in fact, a "communist r*tard."
There's clearly no love being lost between the two. Trump, for his part, is doing his best Don Draper impression. "I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem," he said Friday, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-elon-musk-news-06-06-25#cmbkouhpt00053b6mu8yab0bc">per CNN.</a>
More on Elon Musk: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa">Elon Musk Declares That He's "Immediately" Cutting Off NASA's Access to Space</a>

Musk-O-Drama

"He should be deported from the country immediately."

Trump Adviser Urges Immigration Investigation Into Elon Musk's Past as "Illegal Alien"

Billionaire Elon Musk and president Donald Trump are seething on their respective social media platforms following a major escalation of long-simmering resentment between the two.
The <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-shreds-musk">gloves came off this week</a> as the two enormous egos started taking public swings at each other. Trump threw particular gasoline on the fire when he <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-calls-terminating-elon-musk-government-contracts">threatened</a> that Musk's "governmental subsidies and contracts" would be terminated, posing an existential risk to Musk's business empire.
In return, Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa">vowed to cut off</a> the United States' access to space by decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft — only to change his mind hours later.
As the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-elon-musk-feud/card/trump-is-considering-getting-rid-of-his-tesla-pfJQHCsXjMjIK9OynTki">Wall Street Journal reported</a> this morning, Trump is considering selling the flashy red Tesla Model S that he got as part of Musk's <a href="https://futurism.com/trumps-attempt-help-tesla-backfire">dumbfounding car salesman event</a> that took place in front of the White House earlier this year.
As the spat unfolds, a clear dynamic is emerging: Musk is realizing that he's made a terrible mistake, and is groveling to get back in Trump's good graces — an eventuality that doesn't seem to interest Trump very much as he lets Musk blow in the wind.
Sources <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/no-plans-trump-call-with-musk-friday-white-house-source-says-2025-06-06/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&amp;taid=6842d399144f89000160e71a&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=bluesky">told Reuters</a> that Trump is "not interested in talking to Elon Musk" following their escalating feud, even though <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jun/06/donald-trump-elon-musk-feud-steve-bannon-jeffery-epstein-us-politics-live-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&amp;page=with%3Ablock-6842dc728f08edac2d869859#block-6842dc728f08edac2d869859">Trump says</a> the billionaire has been trying to get in touch to bury the hatchet.
"I'm not even thinking about Elon," Trump added smugly. "He's got a problem, the poor guy's got a problem."
Before coming to his senses, Musk lobbed insults at Trump that may be legitimately unforgivable to the two-time president.
On Thursday, he even <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-trump-epstein-files">accused</a> Trump of being "in the Epstein files," referring to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. "That is the real reason they have not been made public."
"Mark this post for the future," he tweeted in a <a class="underline hover:text-the-byte hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930706186266890457">follow-up</a>. "The truth will come out."
One interesting data point: many Republicans are elated at the breakup.
"He's a complete joke," one House Republican <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/04/elon-musk-house-republicans-donald-trump">vented to Axios</a>. "He had no idea what the f*ck he was doing, whatsoever."
"Nobody really wanted him here," the lawmaker added. "We couldn't wait to get rid of him."
Meanwhile, Trump's former advisor and fellow felon, Steve Bannon, is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-elon-musk-feud/card/steve-bannon-urges-trump-to-seize-spacex-and-deport-elon-musk-7GV6PBKSIhqveB3VeYKX">seemingly trying to exploit</a> the shattered bromance to get the government to seize control over Musk's SpaceX and have him deported.
Investors in Musk's EV maker Tesla are not impressed, indicating that <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-musk-returns">neither his close relationship with Trump</a> nor his dramatic about-face is good for business. The epic temper tantrum wiped out a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/05/tesla-shares-musk-trump.html">staggering $152 billion</a> in market cap, sending the company's shares plummeting on Thursday, the company's <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-elon-musk-feud/card/tesla-s-biggest-one-day-market-cap-decline-VYx5DPmJi4QUxz0y2FDt">biggest hit ever</a>.
It's a dramatic explosion of a close and <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887889037354008729">off-puttingly personal</a> relationship. Just last week, Musk showed up to his farewell party at the White House <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-black-eye-drug-claims">with a black eye</a>.
"He’s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced," Trump <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/30/trump-musk-white-house-farewell">said</a> at the time. "He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it."
Less than a week later, Trump's tone took a stunning turn.
"Elon and I had a great relationship," Trump <a href="https://youtu.be/f39oHo6vFLg">told reporters</a> from the Oval Office. "I don’t know if we will anymore."
"Whatever," an incensed Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930660788739698878">tweeted</a> in response.
More on the bromance: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-musk-bromance-exploded">The Trump-Musk Bromance Has Exploded Into a Million Spite-Fueled Pieces</a>

Timeout Corner

"I'm not even thinking about Elon."

Musk Is Suddenly Groveling to Get Back in Trump's Good Graces as He Realizes He's Made a Terrible Mistake

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon is urging the president to nationalize Elon Musk's SpaceX and deport the billionaire.
Bannon, a far-right white nationalist commentator who served as Trump's chief strategist during his first term, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-elon-musk-feud/card/steve-bannon-urges-trump-to-seize-spacex-and-deport-elon-musk-7GV6PBKSIhqveB3VeYKX">insisted that Trump</a> should sign an executive order invoking a Korean War-era national security mobilization law called the Defense Production Act to assume control over Musk's space firm, as well as its Starlink satellite constellation.
"The US government should seize it," Bannon said on his podcast.
The news comes after Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-calls-terminating-elon-musk-government-contracts">escalated</a> his highly public <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-trump-epstein-files">flame war</a> with president Donald Trump on Thursday, vowing that "SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," a move that would've<a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa"> effectively cut off NASA's access to space</a>.
However, mere hours later, Musk <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930796810928599163">reversed course</a>, agreeing to "cool off."
While it seems quite unlikely that Trump would actually go for Bannon's outrageous plan, the reality TV star's infamous unpredictability and willingness to throw his allies under the bus leaves practically any eventuality open.
Bannon has experienced those traits firsthand, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42636667">getting the boot</a> after just a few months in Trump's first White House — much like Musk. Still, he's a loyalist who's kept Trump's ear: he <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-bannon-released-prison/">spent four months</a> in prison last year after being found in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena related to the January 6 insurrection.
While fulminating in a cell, the far-right commentator clearly built up plenty of resentment, watching Musk cozy up to Trump, who once <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/steve-bannon-pardoned-by-trump">pardoned him</a> for defrauding investors of Trump's border wall but has kept him at a moderate arm's length since kicking him out of the White House.
In January, he swore that he would "take down" Musk.
"I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day," Bannon <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/5081681-steve-bannon-says-he-will-take-down-the-truly-evil-elon-musk/">said at the time</a>. "He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down."
"He should go back to South Africa," Bannon, who has advised Trump to implement sweeping — and incredibly racist — visa and refugee bans, added. "Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on Earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?"
But now that Musk and Trump have had a massive falling out, Bannon is seeing a golden opportunity to get back in the good graces of the president.
"The president treated him almost like a son," Bannon <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5336511-steve-bannon-elon-musk-donald-trump-feud/">told Politico</a> on Thursday. "He invited his family to Christmas dinner. He let him sleep over. He let him walk in and out of meetings."
"The president went to the max informality to welcome this guy," he said.
Bannon made his personal displeasure with Musk's presence in the White House very clear.
"We’re going to go to f*cking war, and I’m going to rip your f*cking face off," he told Politico.
Bannon added that he's hoping White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, the architect of Trump's disastrous tariff war, will use the Defense Production Act to "seize both SpaceX and Starlink and put them under government management until that time that all investigations into Musk are complete."
It goes without saying that Musk wouldn't sit idly by if Trump were to take Bannon's suggestion to heart. The billionaire founded SpaceX 23 years ago, and oversaw the development of its workhorse Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, pioneering reusable rocket propulsion and human spaceflight.
Case in point, Musk fired back with a <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930878107856376215">fusillade</a> of <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930802248139096196">tweets</a> attacking Bannon with wildly derogatory language about the mentally disabled.
More on the spat: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa">Elon Musk Declares That He's "Immediately" Cutting Off NASA's Access to Space</a>

My Falcons Now

"The US government should seize it."

Trump Advisor Calls on Trump to Nationalize SpaceX Immediately

Parents are increasingly disinterested in reading to their kids — and it's majorly hurting the young ones' literacy skills down the line.
In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jun/02/gen-z-parents-reading-kids">interviews with The Guardian</a>, childhood literacy experts expressed concerns about <a href="https://www.krtv.com/donate/give-a-book/literacy-statistics-highlight-importance-of-if-you-give-a-child-a-book-campaign">shrinking rates of at-home reading,</a> which occurs as the prevalence of so-called "screen time," or time using tablets or smartphones, <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/kids-screen-time-rose-during-the-pandemic-and-stayed-high-thats-a-problem/2023/02">balloons ever higher</a>.
Spencer Russell, a Texas-based former elementary school teacher turned literacy coach and influencer, told the website that gen Z-aged parents, or those born after 1997, particularly seem to have difficulty reading to their kids — perhaps because they were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/27/anxious-generation-jonathan-haidt">raised on such screens</a> themselves.
"I don’t think we can divorce the role of technology influencing gen Z parents and their kids with the decline in reading out loud," he explained. "Screen time is replacing one-on-one, quality interactions between parent and child."
"We see children who can sit still and focus for hours on YouTube or Miss Rachel,"  he continued, "but when you sit them down with a book, they move, wiggle, or scream and run away."
It's well known that too much screen time can <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10353947/">harm a child's cognitive development</a>, and that effect may well be compounded by dropping rates in at-home reading. A <a href="https://corporate.harpercollins.co.uk/press-releases/new-research-reveals-that-parents-are-losing-the-love-of-reading-aloud/">recent HarperCollins survey</a>, which found less than half of parents surveyed said that reading to their kids was "fun," may help explain that downward trend.
The impacts of replacing reading with screen time has long-term educational impacts, too.
"Books are a really rich source of learning new words, and if kids don’t have that experience reading at home, they’re likely to come to school knowing less vocabulary," Dawna Duff, a speech language pathology associate professor at SUNY Binghamton University in New York State, told the Guardian.
According to a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30908424/">2019 study</a>, parents who read one single picture book per day with their kids provide them access to a whopping 78,000 new words per year. In the five years before those children enter school, that number jumps to a whopping 1.4 million words.
Parents who don't read to their kids are, in essence, taking all those words away — and with <a href="https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/child-illiteracy/">jarring studies</a> suggesting up to two-thirds of American 4th graders <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/two-thirds-of-american-kids-cant-read-fluently/">lack the skills to read fluently</a>, it seems highly unlikely that the two are unrelated.
A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10353947/">specialist in vocabulary education</a>, Duff told the Guardian that learning words early "makes a big difference in how successful you’re going to be throughout school" — and emphasized that parents needn't be perfectionists when trying to teach their kids new words when reading at home.
"You shouldn’t feel like you need to read every word on the page," she said, "or even any words on the page."
Ultimately, any type of reading at home appears to be more helpful than not, and tailoring reading time to kids' specific interest is, per Duff, the best way to go about it.
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"We know one of the most helpful ways to read books is by having a conversation with children about what they’re interested in," she continued. "Follow their lead."
Add all this to the disastrous situation in classrooms, where fed-up teachers are confronting a <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-destroying-generation-students">deluge of AI slop from students who can barely read</a>, and you have all the makings of an educational and intellectual crisis.
More on reading: <a href="https://futurism.com/business-insider-ai-reading-list">Business Insider Did Something So Stupid With AI That We’re Reeling</a>
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Reading Pain-bow

"Screen time is replacing one-on-one, quality interactions between parent and child."

Are Children Losing the Ability to Read?

Billionaire Elon Musk has countered president Donald Trump's threat to "terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," in spectacular fashion: by threatening to cut off the United States' access to outer space.
"In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930718684819112251">tweeted</a>.
But it didn't take him long to blink. A few hours later — and after the publication of this story — Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930796810928599163">reversed course</a>, agreeing to "cool off" and saying that "we won't decommission Dragon."
That's not surprising. As executives at SpaceX no doubt desperately tried to explain to him after the dustup, the company would be in terrible danger without all the money it gets from NASA.
And if Musk were to make good on his threat, the United States' space program could experience a setback of epic proportions. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has <a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-better-shuttle-soyuz-astronaut">quickly become</a> the de facto method for NASA astronauts to travel to the International Space Station.
In other words, the threat could prevent American astronauts from visiting the space station — especially considering that the only other American option, Boeing's Starliner, is likely <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-planning-another-test-flight-boeing-starliner">still years away</a> from becoming a viable alternative, if ever.
It was a significant escalation in a major falling out between the world's most powerful man and its richest one. The pair have been openly feuding about Trump's so-called "big, beautiful bill," culminating in threats and personal attacks.
The collateral damage of the feud could be enormous, particularly for the US space program.
Ars Technica's Eric Berger <a href="https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1930697811307409500">suggested</a> that Trump ripping up Musk's government contracts "would both end the International Space Station and simultaneously provide no way to safely deorbit it."
"This just gets better and better," Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930698593100599462">replied</a> in a laughing emoji-laden tweet. "Go ahead, make my day…"
The news comes after the Trump administration abruptly <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://futurism.com/trump-elon-musk-jared-isaacman-nomination-nasa">pulled its nominee</a> for the NASA administrator role, Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman, who was hand-picked by Musk, has been to space twice with the help of SpaceX.
The news <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/elon-musk-trump-tax-spending-republicans-5b779d6b">greatly angered</a> Musk, causing him to go on a crusade against Trump's tax bill.
Musk's latest threats to decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft could put the Trump administration and NASA in an extremely unfortunate position. Apart from Boeing's much-maligned Starliner, which has yet to complete a successful crewed mission to the ISS, the only alternative to send astronauts to the space station is Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.
While the station's days are already numbered — NASA recently awarded SpaceX a contract to decommission the orbital lab in 2030 — continuing operations could prove extremely difficult without Dragon.
But whether Musk will make good on his threat remains to be seen, especially considering the billionaire has a lengthy track record of <a href="https://futurism.com/video-elon-musk-promising-self-driving-cars">making empty promises</a>.
Apart from vowing to decommission Dragon, Musk also attempted to smear Trump's name by <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930703865801810022">arguing</a> that he's "in the Epstein files."
"This is the real reason they have not been made public," he tweeted. "Have a nice day, DJT!"
Musk is clearly out for blood, even <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930719235770359903">officially calling</a> for Trump to be impeached and replaced by his vice president JD Vance.
Who will emerge victorious is anybody's guess. If there's one certainty, it won't be NASA. The agency is expected to be <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-budget-nasa-horrifying">hit by brutal cuts</a> that could lay waste to dozens of space missions.
More on Musk: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-calls-terminating-elon-musk-government-contracts">"He Just Went CRAZY": Trump Threatens to Terminate Elon Musk's Government Contracts</a>