cyberpunk007

A group of young tech industry workers between 19 to 25 years old have been recruited by Elon Musk to carry out the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency’s goals of cutting trillions from the federal government - and now have access to numerous sensitive systems.

Among them is a recent high school graduate and a Matt Gaetz defender who claims he quit a “seven-figure salary” to join DOGE and “save America.”

The group has little to no experience working in government, and yet some of them have been given central roles within Musk’s DOGE, including access to the U.S. Treasury’s internal payments system, according to WIRED.

Musk’s young crew have been unmasked as Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger and Ethan Shaotran, WIRED first reported. As their names were published, the group rushed to disable any trace of their social media profiles.

After the names of the engineers became public, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, said he was working with Musk over the alleged “threats” made against the DOGE workers.

“Don’t mess with @DOGE,” Musk stated. Marko Elez, 25

Elez is a former X and SpaceX engineer who now has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for dispersing almost all payments made by the federal government, according to WIRED.

The 25-year-old Rutgers University graduate can reportedly access and write code on the most sensitive systems within government — The Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, according to WIRED.

......

Members of Elon Musk’s secretive team reviewing federal agencies for cuts are refusing to reveal their full names to civil servants, federal employees say.

Several government workers who have been interviewed by Musk’s team about their work say the billionaire’s representatives declined to give their surnames and refused to answer any questions themselves, according to the New York Times. The lack of transparency surrounding the work of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is only adding to mounting anxiety within the federal workforce, the report says. Unmasked: Elon’s Secret DOGE Goon Squad—Every One Under 26 BEST PEOPLE Josh Fiallo A photo illustration of DOGE Akash Bobba, - 21 / Edward Coristine, - 19 / Luke Farritor - 23 / Gautier Cole Killian - 24 / Gavin Kliger - 25 / Ethan Shaotran 22

Musk’s aides described the meetings with civil servants as “one-way interviews,” according to the Times. Some federal workers who have been interviewed were reportedly asked what they are working on and which of their colleagues should be fired.

“My impression was not one of support or genuine understanding but of suspicion, and questioning,” one General Services Administration staffer wrote in a message to colleagues about the interview process, according to the report.

Trump and his allies have taken over what was previously the United States Digital Service, now renamed the United States DOGE Service, which is being run by Musk and his team with the aim of radically reducing government expenditure.

DOGE has already taken over the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency, which contains sensitive data including social security numbers. Musk Shuts Out Senior Government Workers in HR Takeover IT’S NOTHING PERSONNEL Emell Derra Adolphus Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s also gained access to the Treasury’s payment system which distributes trillions of dollars of government spending. Treasury officials say that any mistakes in managing these systems could lead to damaging consequences as severe as a federal default.

Musk has already targeted USAID, the federal agency that distributes foreign aid, for closure.

“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” he posted on X on Monday.

We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.

Could gone to some great parties.

Did that instead. https://t.co/0V35nacICW — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025

Musk, the world’s richest man, has brought about 40 people into government to carry out the work around the clock, even moving beds into offices near the White House to allow his team to sleep there and work on weekends, according to the Times.

The team includes several youngsters—including a teenager—none of whom have experience in government work. Some have previously worked or interned at Musk’s companies X or SpaceX.

Musk has previously lashed out at people online who identify members of the team, accusing people posting on X of undefined “crimes” for mentioning their names.

At least five people who have previously worked with Musk reportedly now have formal roles at the Office of Personnel Management, which runs the government’s personnel database, sources told the Times.

Last week, the agency sent emails to about two million federal workers inviting them to resign, using the same “Fork in the Road” subject line as an email previously used by Musk to fire employees in his takeover of Twitter in 2022.

Musk has also been seen visiting the General Services Administration, which manages billions of dollars worth of federal properties, with his son “X Æ A-12″ and a nanny, where he talked with the agency’s administrator about cutting half of its expenditure.

Members of the civil service have taken to using encrypted messaging apps to try and understand what is going on, expressing shock about the speed and breadth of Musk’s actions.

Please help. I tried chatgpt, google, duckduckgo, I can't find it. The background tune is definitely reminding me of some trance track from the 2000's era and I can't figure it out.

...or am I crazy?

Samsung wanted this to be their week, and it still mostly is with the launch of the Fold 6, Flip 6, and the Galaxy Watch Ultra. However, Google’s upcoming Pixel 9 launch is incredibly close, so the leaks for it are only going to ramp up. Today, a fresh report is here to keep things moving toward that mid-August Pixel 9 event.

A site called Dealabs says they’ve uncovered information for the entire Pixel 9 family, giving us the storage configurations, colors of each device, and potential Euro pricing. Since we see information like this regularly before a launch, I’m just going to assume they found a retailer who slipped up early, even if they won’t say it.

So what do we know now about the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold? Let’s break it all down.

The Pixel 9 is now rumored to come in 4 different colors (Obsidian, Porcelain, Cosmo, and Mojito) and with two storage amounts (128GB or 256GB). Those models should then be priced at €899 and €999, respectively.

For the Pixel 9 Pro, we could see the following:

• Storage options, prices: 128GB (€1099), 256GB (€1199), 512GB (€1329)

• Colors: Obsidian, Porcelain, Hazel, Pink – The 512GB model might only come in Obsidian and Hazel.

For the Pixel 9 Pro XL, we could see the following:

• Storage options, prices: 128GB (€1199), 256GB (€1299), 512GB (€1429), 1TB (€1689)

• Colors: Obsidian, Porcelain, Hazel, Pink – The 512GB model might only come in Obsidian, Porcelain, and Hazel. The 1TB model might only launch in Obsidian.

And finally, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold could come in the following:

• Storage options, prices: 256GB (€1899), 512GB (€2029)

• Colors: Obsidian, Porcelain

What should we take from this? A couple of things. A lot of this sounds reasonable and the colors are all colors we have seen Google use before. The new one is Pink, and this information does not match up correctly to that pink Pixel 9 we saw earlier. Today’s leak suggests the Pixel 9 Pro will be the only device in pink, yet again, that’s not what we’ve already seen – it was a regular Pixel 9 in pink.

The other thing to keep in mind is that retailers who drop this info early, tend to either use placeholders or they use weird estimates on pricing that fluctuate. These prices do look more specific than we often seen from early retailer leaks, so that gives them some more weight.

And finally, you can’t simply take Euro pricing and just switch the symbol to a dollar sign. In other words, don’t automatically switch to the Pixel 9 starting at $899 here. It could! But this is not a suggestion or confirmation of that happening just yet. If anything, drop $100 off to $799 to match what Euro pricing looked like compared to US pricing for the Pixel 8 series.

Other than that, any other thoughts from you?

Read the original post: Retailer Leaks Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Model Colors, Storage, Prices

Spotify is officially raising its Premium subscription rates in the US come July, following reports of the move in April. The platform is increasing its Individual plan from $11 to $12 monthly and its Duo plan from $15 to $17 monthly — the same jump as last year's $1 and $2 price hikes, respectively. However, its Family plan is going up by a whopping $3, increasing from $17 to $20 monthly. The only subscribers getting a break are students, who will continue to pay $6 monthly.

Spotify announced the price hikes less than a year after its previous one last July. Before that, Spotify hadn't raised its fees since launching a decade and a half ago. I guess it was too optimistic to hope the next increase would also take that long, especially with Spotify's continued focus (and money dump) on audiobooks.

Premium subscribers should receive an email from Spotify in the next month detailing the price hike and providing a link to cancel their plan if they would prefer to do so. Users currently on a trial period for Spotify will get one month at $11 after it ends before being moved up to a $12 monthly fee.