"People are scared, says one federal worker. "Is WIRED hiring?" jokes another. Federal workers have grown accustomed to a specific kind of dread over the past year . As of July, more than 150,000 federal workers had resigned from their roles since president Donald Trump took office for the second time, according to . Tens of thousands were also fired. For the past few months, it seemed like this bloodletting was over--but that all changed on Friday. Thousands of employees at eight government agencies were subjected to RIFs, or reductions in force--the government's formal process of laying off federal workers. According to a court filing from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Friday, this latest round of firings has affected more than 4,000 federal employees. The court filing also claimed that the administration targeted the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services the hardest, hacking away at a combined 2,500 jobs across the two agencies and the entire Washington, DC, office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The Department of Education culled nearly its entire team handling special education, CNN reported on Tuesday . At the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, cuts ranged from a few dozen to several hundred jobs, according to the same filing. Who says their goal is to traumatize people?" says one IRS worker, referencing private speeches given by Russell Vought, the head of OMB and a key architect of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 who has been the public face of the job-cutting.

Can Ukraine restore its pre-war borders? Is Russia testing NATO with aerial incursions in Europe? Poland has briefly closed part of its airspace southeast of capital Warsaw, citing "unplanned military activity", as Russia launches a new wave of strikes against Ukraine. The deployment on Sunday of Polish and allied aircraft in the country's airspace comes as the transatlantic security bloc NATO announced that it is upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea in response to drone incursions in Denmark and reported drone sightings in Norway. In the latest incident, the Polish armed forces said it scrambled aircraft to ensure the security of its airspace after Russia launched strikes on Ukraine.

Can Ukraine restore its pre-war borders? Is Russia testing NATO with aerial incursions in Europe? Unidentified drones have flown over Denmark's military sites, including its biggest base, the latest in a slew of incursions near airports and critical infrastructure this week, which officials have called a "hybrid attack" and hinted at possible Russian involvement. "The Danish Defence can confirm that drones were observed at several of the Danish Defence's locations last night. Several capabilities were deployed," an army spokesperson said on Saturday, without specifying where the drones were observed.

Can Ukraine restore its pre-war borders? Is Russia testing NATO with aerial incursions in Europe? EU to develop'drone wall' amid regional airspace violations European Union defence ministers have agreed to develop a "drone wall" along their borders with Russia and Ukraine to detect, track and intercept violations of their airspace, according to the bloc's defence chief. Friday's announcement comes after rogue drones entered Polish airspace on September 10, rattling eastern EU members. Although Danish authorities have not concluded their investigations, Frederiksen stressed that Russia was currently the primary threat to European security. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the drone incidents in Poland and Denmark.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham reacts to a segment from the children's show'Tranformers' where two animated characters revealed that they are non-binary. During Friday's edition of "The Ingraham Angle," host Laura Ingraham spotlighted the children's show "Transformers: EarthSpark" for its decision to roll out non-binary characters that go by they/them and she/they pronouns. "As a parent, you often ask yourself, What do my kids need? A loving family, a roof over their heads, a life grounded in faith and freedom. But you probably ever thought what they really, really need is a non-binary robot. But that's exactly what Paramount thinks they need, because in Transformers: Earth Spark, that's what they're giving them," Ingraham began during Friday's show.

A massive Crimea oil reservoir fire broke out after the site was hit by a drone, according to video posted Saturday. A Ukrainian drone strike caused a massive fire to erupt at an oil depot in Crimea, a Russia-appointed official reported Saturday. Mikhail Razvozhayev, Russia's selected governor of Sevastopol, said that authorities had spotted two "enemy drones" that attacked the depot, with four tanks burned down as a result. Local forces were able to shoot down a third drone and disable a fourth through radio-electronic means. Razvozhayev assigned the fire the highest level of difficulty to extinguish, but he claimed the fire had at least been contained.

A collection of extremely rare Magic: The Gathering cards are expected to fetch as much as $180,000 when they are auctioned off on Friday, April 21. Included among the cards that are going up for auction is a complete 310-card set of "Legends," the third expansion pack sold by Magic: The Gathering, which was released in June 1994. The auction will also feature a factory-sealed unlimited starter deck, which is expected to sell for at least £10,000-12,000, or about $15,000 U.S. dollars. A starter deck is a random collection of 60 cards from a set. Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game produced by Wizards of the Coast.

April 14 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk is working on launching an artificial intelligence start-up that will rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, the Financial Times reported on Friday citing people familiar with his plans. Twitter-owner Musk is assembling a team of AI researchers and engineers, according to the FT report, and is also in discussions with some investors in SpaceX and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) about putting money into his new venture. Musk's plan for the firm comes weeks after a group of AI researchers and executives, including himself, called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's GPT-4, citing potential risks to society. Companies from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) are pushing to incorporate Generative AI, the technology behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, into their offerings. However, ChatGPT is facing pushback as regulators call for well-defined rules ahead of its mass adoption.

Google's parent Alphabet Inc is cutting about 12,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, it said in a staff memo Friday, as the technology sector reels from layoffs and companies stake their futures on artificial intelligence (AI). Alphabet's shares were up nearly 3 percent in pre-market trading. The cuts came at a delicate moment for the US company, which has long been the leader in key areas of AI research. Alphabet now faces a challenge from Microsoft Corp in a branch of tech that can, for instance, create virtually any content a user can think up and type in a text box. Microsoft this week said recession worries were forcing it to shed 10,000 jobs, less than 5 percent of its workforce, and it would focus on imbuing its products with more AI going forward – a point Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai echoed in the memo.

Elon Musk has unveiled a pig called Gertrude with a coin-sized computer chip in her brain to demonstrate his ambitious plans to create a working brain-to-machine interface. "It's kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires," the billionaire entrepreneur said on a webcast. His start-up Neuralink applied to launch human trials last year. The interface could allow people with neurological conditions to control phones or computers with their mind. Mr Musk argues such chips could eventually be used to help cure conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.