Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moved fast and broke things in Washington — and now Donald Trump's administration is left to clean up the mess.
As the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/06/doge-staff-cuts-rehiring-federal-workers/">Washington Post reports</a>, federal employees who were fired rapidly by DOGE cuts are now being rehired to their old positions or asked to join different departments amid Musk's departure from government.
From the Food and Drug Administration to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to at least six other agencies, workers fired during the unelected billionaire's federal firing frenzy are being asked by officials from Donald Trump's administration to come back to work — but not everyone is interested in returning.
Workers of retirement age who were fired during DOGE's halcyon days have been reluctant to come back on board, leading the Trump administration to find workarounds to refill so many necessary positions. Folks who worked at the US Agency for International Development before it was kiboshed early in Musk's reign of terror were asked, for instance, if they wanted to come back to the government and work at the State Department.
"I was like, well, I definitely don’t want to work for this administration, but, yes, I need a job, so put my name down," one former USAID worker told the newspaper. "Why not? I have nothing to lose."
Over at the FDA, where <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/01/g-s1-57485/hhs-fda-layoffs-doge-cdc-nih">at least 3,500 people</a> lost their jobs as DOGE set its sights on the body that governs our food and drug safety, the vibes were somehow even worse.
"They wanted to show they were gutting the government, but there was no thought about what parts might be worth keeping," explained one fired and rehired FDA staffer. "Now it feels like it was all just a game to them."
Others still have returned only because they haven't yet found alternative employment. Another FDA employee who had been fired under DOGE's mandate was informed that she was expected to go back to work — and begrudgingly, she complied.
"Being back feels like a funeral," the second FDA worker said. "Morale is terrible. Everyone is stressed and feels the absence of our colleagues."
"I’m looking for another job," she added.
As federal employees return in fits and starts, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-musk-feud-leaves-doge-staffers-worried-futures/story?id=122573423">ABC reports</a> that DOGE staffers themselves are now worried about their futures as their departed leader feuds with the president — a laughable concern, given that they signed up to do such dirty work.
More on Elon and Trump: <a href="https://futurism.com/mars-society-expert-elon-musk-ruining">Elon Musk's "Hubris and Arrogance" Are Ruining Our Chances of Actually Getting to Mars, Says Leading Expert</a>

Just Desserts

"It was all just a game to them."

White House Realizing That Elon Musk's Incompetence Caused Huge Problems for the Government

Elon Musk and Donald Trump's nasty feud has had some unintended consequences for the meme coin that inspired the Department of Government Efficiency.
As <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/05/musk-spat-with-trump-and-exit-from-doge-bad-for-dogecoin.html">CNBC reports,</a> Dogecoin fell 10 percent on Thursday, the day that the Musk and Trump spat spilled over onto social media, and was down 22 percent week-over-week at its lowest point last night, when it was worth less than 17 cents per token (don't gasp too hard, but it's now soared back up to 18 cents.)
Given that it's a meme coin, Doge has never been worth all that much to begin with. At its <a href="https://blockchainmagazine.net/dogecoin-all-time-high-reflecting-the-meme-coins-historic-peak/">absolute peak in 2021</a>, the coin traded just under 75 cents thanks to <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-pro-doge-bitcoin">Musk's endorsement</a> — and despite regular peaks and valleys, it's never again surpassed that all-time high.
Despite its near-worthlessness, Dogecoin has been a useful metric for tracking the way Musk affects market. As CNBC notes, the meme coin <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/14/dogecoin-jumps-after-elon-musk-says-its-can-be-used-buy-tesla-merch.html">spiked 15 percent</a> in a day when Tesla began accepting it for merchandise in 2022, and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/27/dogecoin-surges-40percent-as-elon-musks-twitter-deal-approaches-close.html">jumped 35 percent</a> later that same year when Musk bought Twitter.
Just as Doge giveth, Doge seems to taketh away. The unelected billionaire has entirely squandered the gains he garnered for the meme coin when riding on Trump's coattails, first with the <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/11/13/business/dogecoin-surges-after-trump-announces-elon-musk-led-agency/">announcement of the agency's creation</a> and again when its <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/dogecoin-surges-13-as-doge-department-launches-official-gov-website/">official website was launched</a> just after the president's inauguration.
As <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/dogecoin-price-risks-66-drop-to-0-06-trump-musk-feud">Cointelegraph reports</a>, the coin could be poised to slip even further. Dogecoin's three-week Trump slump suggests, per the site's analysis, that it could fall to as little as six cents per coin if its bearish streak continues. Should it continue to fall, a massive selloff event may occur as itchy investors seek to rid themselves of the tarnished token.
Over on the everything app, Doge bros are, as usual, acting absolutely bonkers about the coin's chances of survival.
"Looks like yesterday was just another bear trap for Dogecoin," <a href="https://x.com/krisspax/status/1931006813417111861">one such investor tweeted</a> alongside a chart showing projected "euphoric" highs that almost certainly will not be attained. "Let's go!"
In another unrealistic prognostication that borders on tragic, one account shared a graphic explaining that if investors "<a href="https://x.com/IsDogeADollar/status/1931035104312234175">hold together, nobody will fall</a>."
"I'll keep reposting till we hit the Dollar," the delulu poster exclaimed.
In Washington, the fiery feud between Musk and Trump has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-donald-trump-28263ffbfc191602b3657618138ee585">shaken the status quo</a> — but for crypto types, it's just another weekend.
More on meme coins: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-meme-coin-tariffs">You’ll Never Guess What Happened to Trump’s Meme Coin After He Announced His Tariffs</a>

Trump Slump

It's not lookin' great, folks.

Elon and Trump’s Breakup Results In Hilarious Consequences For Dogecoin

A team of <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-nanoparticles-remote-control-brains-mice">nanoscientists</a> in the UK say they've created the "world's smallest violin," which many public figures could <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-groveling-trump-good-graces">probably use this week</a>.
Narrower than the width of a human hair, it boasts equal parts <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WorldsSmallestViolin">meme</a> and engineering potential, and serves as a cheeky proof of concept for a cutting-edge approach to designing structures at the smallest scales that humans can possibly tinker at.
But if you were hoping for some literal fiddling on a dust-speck-sized Stradivarius, think again. What the researchers have actually created is a microscopic image of a violin etched on to the surface a little chip, not a playable instrument.
That said, it's still an impressive achievement. The image is finely detailed and unmistakably a depiction of a violin, despite being just 35 microns —  that's one millionth of a meter — long, and 13 microns wide. Human hair is typically in the ballpark of 75 microns in diameter, for reference.
If you're still confused, the researchers insist that this isn't just some elaborate joke.
"Though creating the world's smallest violin may seem like fun and games, a lot of what we've learned in the process has actually laid the groundwork for the research we're now undertaking," said Kelly Morrison, head of the physics department at Loughborough University, in a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2025-06-physicists-world-smallest-violin-nanotechnology.html">statement</a> about the work.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-353386" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/06/smallestviolin-300x205.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="205" />
To begin their masquerade as luthiers, Morrison and her team coated a small chip with two layers of a gel called a resist, and then used a nano-sculpting machine to etch the violin design into the top layer. The machine, dubbed NanoFrazor, employs what's known as thermal scanning probe lithography to instantly — and very precisely — transform the resist gel into a gas by zapping it with a sharp, heated tip. 
From there, the underlayer was dissolved to form a violin-shaped mold. This was filled in with a thin layer of platinum, before acetone was finally applied to wash away everything but the shiny filling. And voilà: you have the "world's smallest violin" — quotes mandatory — recognizable only under a microscope and appearing to the naked eye as no more than a speck of dust on its chip canvas.
In all, it took Morrison and her colleagues three hours to create the image, but they spent several more months refining and performing experiments on it. 
It was all worth it. What they've demonstrated, beyond their sense of humor, is extreme precision — and more to the point, that these nanolithography systems could be used in more practical applications on the bleeding edge, like creating computer parts at the nanoscale.
"Our nanolithography system allows us to design experiments that probe materials in different ways — using light, magnetism, or electricity — and observe their responses," Morrison said. "Once we understand how materials behave, we can start applying that knowledge to develop new technologies, whether it's improving computing efficiency or finding new ways to harvest energy.
More on hard science: <a href="https://futurism.com/physicists-wrong-gravity">Physicists Say We Were Completely Wrong About How Gravity Works</a>

Second Fiddle

Yeah, this might be an issue.

There's a Huge Problem With Nanoscientists' "World's Smallest Violin"

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>