Elon Musk's rapid attempt to defund and depopulate the federal government has thrown US politics into chaos while the billionaire's so-called "department of government efficiency" seizes control of operations at key agencies. Carrying out this hostile takeover are a team of staffers made up of wealthy executives, far-right ideologues and young engineers that have come to make up Doge. At government institutions such as the treasury department, General Services Administration and United States Agency for International Development, Musk's allies have gained access to computer systems, including the sensitive personal data and payment information of tens of millions of Americans. His team is working to shut down USAid, the world's largest single supplier of humanitarian aid, and members have been spotted at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Education and National Institutes of Health. To undertake this unprecedented and potentially illegal gutting of public funding, Musk has assembled loyalists who largely lack government experience and who range from tech elites to Maga diehards, according to a review of the people publicly associated with Doge.

Since declaring his support for Donald Trump in July of last year and subsequently spending more than 250m on his re-election effort, Elon Musk has rapidly accumulated political influence and positioned himself at the heart of the new administration. Now as prominent as the president himself, Musk has begun to make use of that power, making decisions that could affect the health of millions of people, gaining access to highly sensitive personal data, and attacking anyone who opposes him. Musk, the world's richest man and an unelected official, has achieved an astonishing level of power over the federal government. Over the weekend, workers with Musk's "department of government efficiency" (Doge) clashed with civil servants over demands for unfettered access to the computer systems of major US government agencies in a breakneck series of confrontations. When the dust settled, several top officials who opposed the takeover had been pushed out, and Musk's allies had gained control. Musk, with the backing of Trump, is now working to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid) – the world's largest single supplier of humanitarian aid.

It may be a new year, but the hacks, scams, and dangerous people lurking online haven't gone anywhere. Just a day before the ball dropped, the United States Treasury Department said it had been hacked. Officials believe the attackers are an as-yet-unidentified Advanced Persistent Threat group linked to China's government that exploited flaws in remote tech support software made by BeyondTrust to carry out what the Treasury Department described as a "major" breach. The company told the Treasury on December 8 that the attackers stole an authentication key, which ultimately allowed them to access department computers. While the Treasury says the attackers were only able to steal "certain unclassified documents," new details have already begun to emerge, which we'll get into more below.

President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP During an appearance last week at the Economic Club of Chicago, Donald Trump refused to say whether he had talked with Russian leader Vladimir Putin since his presidency ended almost four years ago. The issue arose because in his new book, journalist Bob Woodward, citing a single source, reported that Trump had chatted with Putin up to seven times following his departure from the White House. Asked about this revelation, Trump said he doesn't disclose his conversations with foreign leaders--though he recently boasted he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--but he added, "If I did, it's a smart thing." Then the news cycle and the world moved on. Once again, Trump escaped scrutiny of his bizarre and troubling relationship with Putin.

In an Intelligence Committee hearing with representatives from Google, Apple, and Meta on Wednesday, senators stressed that foreign influence is far from a solved problem. Top officials from Google, Apple, and Meta testified Wednesday before the United States Senate Intelligence Committee about each of their company's ongoing efforts to identify and disrupt foreign influence campaigns ahead of the country's November elections . The hearing, chaired by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, served largely to impress upon the companies the need for more extensive safeguards against the disinformation campaigns being funded by foreign entities with an eye on influencing US politics. "This is really our effort to try to urge you guys to do more. To alert the public that this has not gone away," Warner said.

After 48 hours of armchair doomsaying and grand predictions of the chaos to come, Silicon Valley's nightmare was over. Yesterday evening, the Treasury Department managed to curtail the worst of the latest tech implosion: If you kept your money with the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank, you would in fact be getting it back. When the bank--a major lender to the world of venture capital, and a crucial resource for about half of American VC-backed start-ups--suddenly collapsed after a run on deposits late last week, the losses looked staggering. By Friday, more than $200 billion were in limbo--the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Start-ups that had parked their money with SVB were suddenly unable to pay for basic expenses, and on Twitter, some founders described last-ditch efforts to meet payroll for the coming week.

Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg says China is an adversary, not a competitor, amid growing concerns over rising threats on "Your World." The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions Thursday on a China-based network that sells aerospace components to Iran for manufacturing drones. The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company manufactures the Shahed-136 drones and exports them to Russia, which has increasingly used them to bombard Ukraine in recent months. "Iran is directly implicated in the Ukrainian civilian casualties that result from Russia's use of Iranian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle), in Ukraine," said Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a statement on Thursday. "The United States will continue to target global Iranian procurement networks that supply Russia with deadly UAVs for use in its illegal war in Ukraine."

The House Oversight Committee is stepping up oversight of the Biden administration with eight expected hearings being held over the next three days. "We have eight hearings this week!" The first hearings kick off Wednesday on COVID origins, advances in artificial intelligence, the border crisis and the depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The border hearing will feature testimony from chief border patrol agents and the COVID origins investigation will showcase the former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director and health and science experts. Thursday, the committee will examine the role of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government's largest employer, and also "waste, fraud and abuse" in pandemic spending.

The Internal Revenue Service is dropping a controversial facial recognition system that requires people to upload video selfies when creating new IRS online accounts. This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's parent company, Condé Nast. "The IRS announced it will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts," the agency said on Monday. "The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season. During the transition, the IRS will quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition."

The Treasury Department is reconsidering the Internal Revenue Service's use of ID.me for access to its website, according to Bloomberg. A department official said the agencies are exploring alternatives to the controversial facial recognition software, though that official didn't specifically cite the privacy concerns around ID.me for the decision. "The IRS is consistently looking for ways to make the filing process more secure," Treasury Department spokesperson Alexandra LaManna told Bloomberg. "We believe in the importance of protecting the privacy of taxpayers, while also ensuring criminals are not able to gain access to taxpayer accounts." Citing a "lack of funding for IRS modernization," LaManna also said it's been "impossible" for the agency to develop its own in-house identification solution, and noted US taxpayers aren't required to file their taxes online.