A 2023 law championed by Republicans requires the CDC have a director confirmed by the Senate. For months, though, it's had only acting directors--and the White House won't say when that will change. As the agency rotates through a cast of leaders, it's unclear when--or if--the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will get a permanent director under Donald Trump's second term as president. Following Jim O'Neill's departure as acting CDC director last week, National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya will now lead both agencies temporarily. It's the latest in a series of shakeups at Trump's CDC, which has lost about a quarter of its staff to mass layoffs carried out by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. last year.

House Democrats are demanding answers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and urging it to halt rumored changes they say could undermine its mission. One of the US government's top scientific research labs is taking steps that could drive away foreign scientists, a shift lawmakers and sources tell WIRED could cost the country valuable expertise and damage the agency's credibility. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) helps determine the frameworks underpinning everything from cybersecurity to semiconductor manufacturing. Some of NIST's recent work includes establishing guidelines for securing AI systems and identifying health concerns with air purifiers and firefighting gloves. Many of the agency's thousands of employees, postdoctoral scientists, contractors, and guest researchers are brought in from around the world for their specialized expertise.

In hacker spaces and at their homes, creative protesters are laser-cutting and 3D-printing tools to resist an occupation. As the US government's immigration crackdown expands across the country, anxious residents have mobilized to look out for each other. One way they're doing that is by finding ways to build the tools they need to be resilient against the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents empowered to kill with impunity . All over the country, makers are 3D-printing thousands of whistles to help people on the ground alert others to nearby ICE activity. But the whistles are far from the only tools being used to respond to the surge of federal agents.

Rubio says US and Europe'belong together' despite tensions Marco Rubio has assured European leaders the US does not plan to abandon the transatlantic alliance, saying its destiny will always be intertwined with the continent's. The US secretary of state told the Munich Security Conference: We do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history. He criticised European immigration, trade and climate policies, but the overall tenor of the closely-watched speech was markedly different to Vice-President JD Vance's at the same event last year, during which he scolded continental leaders. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was very much reassured by Rubio's remarks. Rubio, the Trump administration's most senior diplomat, said it was neither our goal nor our wish to end the transatlantic partnership, adding: For us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.

As prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi battle regulators in court, Senate Democrats are urging the CFTC to avoid weighing in, escalating a broader fight over the burgeoning industry. Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, is leading the group of lawmakers urging the CFTC to stay out of state prediction market lawsuits. A group of 23 Democratic US senators sent a letter Friday to the top federal regulator overseeing prediction markets, urging the agency to avoid weighing in on pending court cases over the legality of offerings on the platforms tied to "sports, war, and other prohibited events." Prediction markets, which sell contracts tied to the outcome of real-world developments, have exploded in popularity over the past year, attracting an increasingly mainstream fanbase eager to wager on everything from geopolitical conflicts to fashion choices to the Super Bowl. As they expanded, the platforms have become a magnet for ethical and legal controversies.

The Download: an exclusive chat with Jim O'Neill, and the surprising truth about heists Over the past year, Jim O'Neill has become one of the most powerful people in public health. As the US deputy health secretary, he holds two roles at the top of the country's federal health and science agencies. He oversees a department with a budget of over a trillion dollars. And he signed the decision memorandum on the US's deeply controversial new vaccine schedule. In an exclusive interview with earlier this month, O'Neill described his plans to increase human healthspan through longevity-focused research supported by ARPA-H, a federal agency dedicated to biomedical breakthroughs. Fellow longevity enthusiasts said they hope he will bring attention and funding to their cause.

The US economy is growing - so where are all the jobs? When 42-year-old Jacob Trigg lost his job as a project manager in the tech industry he didn't think it would take too long to find a new one - he always had before. But more than 2,000 job applications later he is still hunting, trying to make ends meet with jobs in package delivery and landscaping. It's a huge surprise because I've always been able to get a job very easily, said Trigg, who lives in Texas. It wasn't even on my radar to be prepared for more than six months of unemployment.

In this episode of, our hosts dive into WIRED's scoop about a secret Trump administration campaign extending right into your backyard. This week, hosts Brian Barrett, Leah Feiger, and Zoë Schiffer discuss WIRED's big scoop on ICE's startling plans to expand to nearly every state in the US. Plus, a WIRED writer lets the viral AI assistant OpenClaw run his life for a week to give listeners a peek of what AI agents can and can't do. ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . I want to continue a conversation that we started yesterday in Slack after work hours for some of us. And this is about the men's short program-- But very specifically want to pick up on the conversation where Zoë had very strong feelings about the results of men's figure skating. I feel like we need to back up because you and Leah authentically care about the Olympics so much and I think just know more about sports than I do. I deeply have never engaged with sports ever, just as a whole rule, as a category. It doesn't exist in my life. Say the lines, say the lines, Zoë, or I'm going to read them verbatim from slack. Wait, I don't even know what you're talking about. I was merely surprised when I watched because the Americans went, I thought, wow, that guy basically fell over and was clumping around the ice, and then Japan went, and they were sailing around like little swans, and then when the gold medal came, it went to the Americans. I couldn't believe what had happened. No one else seemed outraged. For a little backup for our non-ice skating Olympic fans, I was always referring to Ilia Malinin, who a number of publications and sports experts say might actually be one of the greatest figure skaters of all time.

What is the US critical minerals stockpile? Has the Trump administration overplayed its spin? United States aviation authorities have announced that the airspace over El Paso, Texas, has been reopened after initially closing the airspace due to an alleged drone incursion from a Mexican cartel. Wednesday's announcement walked back an earlier statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), abruptly pausing air traffic over the southern border city for 10 days. By late morning, though, the FAA announced that flights would resume in and out of the area as normal, prompting questions about the legitimacy of the drone claims. "The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted.

A "QuitGPT" campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions Backlash against ICE is fueling a broader movement against AI companies' ties to President Trump. In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month and offers more access to advanced models, to speed up his work. But he grew frustrated with the chatbot's coding abilities and its gushing, meandering replies. Then he came across a post on Reddit about a campaign called QuitGPT . The campaign urged ChatGPT users to cancel their subscriptions, flagging a substantial contribution by OpenAI president Greg Brockman to President Donald Trump's super PAC MAGA Inc. It also pointed out that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, uses a résumé screening tool powered by ChatGPT-4.