Tech
Trump Admin’s Plans for $500 Million USIP Building May Violate Court Order, Say Former Workers
Last year, the Trump administration and members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) forcibly took over the US Institute of Peace (USIP), an independent nonprofit. Since then, the organization’s fired board and employees have been fighting to regain control of the USIP building in Washington, DC and for the reinstatement of their jobs in a drawn-out court battle.
Now, in a letter sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ), representatives for the USIP’s fired board and employees argue that the administration is violating a court-issued stay by making physical changes to the building and, to their understanding, moving ahead with new agreements. Specifically, the letter asks for information on whether the State Department has signed an agreement to use the building for the “Board of Peace,” a new international organization under the personal lifetime control of President Donald Trump that seeks to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.
“They’re acting under the stay as though they have a license to use the building, to use money, to treat the building any way they want,” says George Foote, counsel for former USIP leadership and staff. “A stay is not permission for the loser of a case to hijack the property of the winning party.”
On March 17, 2025 members of DOGE arrived at USIP and forced their way into the $500 million building; shortly after, the Trump administration fired most of the organization’s board. USIP, though created and funded by Congress, is an independent entity, not a federal agency. This did not stop Trump from issuing an executive order purporting to essentially close USIP.
In May, a court held that the administration’s takeover of USIP’s building and firing of its staff were unlawful; the next month, an appeals court issued a stay on that ruling. This returned the building to the administration’s control while a federal appeals case is ongoing.
In December, the Trump administration renamed the building the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, even affixing the president’s name to its edifice. But this, apparently, was only the beginning.
According to the letter, “USIP’s current acting president has recently signed a ten-year
memorandum of understanding (‘MOU’) with the State Department, under which hundreds of State Department employees will move into USIP’s building.” The letter alleges that under the terms of this agreement, USIP will be responsible for the building’s upkeep and security costs, and the State Department will be indemnified against responsibility for damage to USIP property. To accommodate an influx of new people, the letter alleges, “construction is already underway to modify working spaces in the USIP building.” These renovations, the letter argues, could cause “impose substantial, expensive, and unwarranted obstacles” should USIP ultimately win back control of the building in the final court case.
Which State Department staff would be housed at the USIP building is unclear, but a presentation given at the World Economic Forum by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has raised alarms on the part of USIP’sformer staff and board. Kushner used a slide deck to outline the plans for the new “Board of Peace” and the redevelopment of Gaza; an image of the USIP building was the final slide. The letter asks the government to “confirm whether the Administration has plans to house the ‘Board of Peace’ at the USIP headquarters building.”
“The government does not have a license to rename the USIP headquarters building or lease it out for 10 years. It certainly has no right to open the building to a new international organization like the proposed Board of Peace,” says Foote.
The letter also asks for confirmation of the funds that are in USIP’s endowment, which Foote says he is concerned may be used “to remodel the building for purposes of that State Department lease, therefore using our donor money for the benefit of the State Department.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tech
Top Newegg Promo Codes and Coupons for March 2026
Listen up, nerds. Newegg currently has promo codes and deals on gently used, refurbished, new and hard-to-find electronics, gaming products and more. Remaining one of the biggest online-only retailers in the US for the last 20 years, Newegg is a leading global online retailer for PC hardware, home appliances and all things tech, as well as providing help with businesses’ e-commerce needs. In the last decade, Newegg has expanded its online retail presence, selling everything from PC parts to refurbished vacuum cleaners. So, whether you’re wanting to build your own PC or just looking to upgrade your laptop, Newegg has something for every type of tech lover. Plus, WIRED has found several Newegg discount codes (and other deals) for new and existing customers. Don’t wait too long—save big money on those big (and small) tech purchases in 2026.
Get the Latest Newegg Deals in 2026
Newegg is continuously adding deals, so be sure to check back often for serious discounts on unmissable tech. Some of the best deals we’ve been eyeing include Gigabyte B650M Gaming Plus Wi-Fi gaming motherboard for $110 ($20 off), Xbox 3-month game pass ultimate cards for $96 ($24 off), and ASRock Challenger Radeon graphics card for $600 ($50 off).
One of the best ways to save big on fun tech purchases on Newegg is through Newegg combo deals. If you’re looking to build your own PC, when you buy the components to it on Newegg, you’ll save big. When you choose items from two or more categories, you’ll unlock combo savings, like processor, motherboard, and memory cards. Plus there’s AMD combo savings and Intel combo savings, with up to $15 off Intel processors.
Save 3% With Exclusive Newegg Promo Codes, Only at WIRED
We at WIRED know that one of the best ways to save on essential (often price) tech is buying through a trusted retailer like Newegg, and that’s why we have a WIRED-exclusive promo code, valid only on newegg.com only—not in Canada or Newegg Business. PCs can break or make your online experience, especially when it comes to gaming, so that’s why Newegg is offering 3% off gaming notebooks with our exclusive promo code only at WIRED. Even better, this deal is stackable, meaning it can be added on top of any other applicable coupon (but the max discount amount per order is $150).
How to Redeem a Newegg Coupon
If you qualify, the best current Newegg promo code to save coins is their education discount, which gets you 8 to 10% off (up to $100) an entire order. Use this Newegg discount code, which will help you save once you have verified your status. Copy the code using the handy pop-up button below the coupon, and once you’ve found the must-have item, apply the Newegg edu promo code during checkout to get the discount. The coupon is available to students, faculty, and education staff with a valid .edu email address.
Enjoy Exclusive Discounts and Benefits With a Newegg+ Membership
Newegg has a free membership program that gives you access to exclusive deals. To get a Newegg+ account, you’ll need to register, or if you already have an account, opt in to the program. Once it’s on your dash, you’ll get perks like free shipping, exclusive early access and offers, member-only discount codes, extended warranties, easier returns, dedicated customer service, and more.
Members are also eligible to view and enter Newegg Shuffle events, which give customers a chance to purchase limited offers at great deals. During these events, there are 3 phases: product selection, winner notification, and purchase. There are no advanced sign-ups allowed, meaning you’ll have to keep an eye on the website (or app) if you want to participate in the next shuffle.
Get the Latest Newegg Student Offers
You need a lot of tech as a student, which can get very expensive. Newegg wants to make those purchases a little less painful by offering student and faculty discounts and pricing for 5% discounts and more. Along with student pricing and discounts, there’s also special financing available to help offset initial expenses that may be a financial barrier to getting this necessary tech. This Newegg discount is available to anyone with a .edu email account. All you need to do is use your .edu email and click the ‘Student Discount Available’ button on eligible products.
Stay Tuned for Newegg Coupons and Flash Discounts
Even if the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are only available in November, you can still save a significant amount on your order using special Newegg promo codes and their 24-hour flash deals. Newegg Shell Shocker coupons include steep discounts on everything from PC components to gaming gear and hard-to-find tech gadgets. Check out our favorite Newegg discounts to get up to 80% off. The best thing is, early shoppers have Newegg’s Price Protection, so if the price drops after you buy, you get a refund. Gear up now to make sure you score big on your favorite electronics this holiday season. Make sure you sign up for the Newegg newsletter to get special offers, coupon codes, and exclusive promotions.
Other Ways to Save at Newegg Without a Promotional Code
Along with the education promo code for students to save 8% to 10%, Newegg also has a rewards program called EggPoints where members earn points for qualifying purchases. For every 100 EggPoints spent, you get $1 to spend at Newegg.com. Newegg also has Shell Shocker deals, which change every day and feature limited-time, deeply discounted sales on specific products, from gaming laptops to graphic cards, processors and other components. So, be sure to check back often to not miss a product you’ve been eyeing going on clearance.
Save up to $300 Combo Savings When you Build Your Dream Setup With Newegg PC Builder
Ready to level up your WFH or GFH (gaming from home) set up? Newegg PC Builder can guide you through the process of installing your perfect custom setup—whether you’re crafting a powerhouse Newegg gaming PC or a budget-friendly workstation. Choose your components, check for compatibility, and let Newegg do the heavy lifting with versatile assembly and shipping options. And make sure to check if there is a Newegg Coupon available to save even more.
Don’t Miss These Newegg Sales and Seasonal Coupons
Like I said before, be sure to check Newegg often for their seasonal sales throughout 2026, like the ultimate-capitalism-extravaganza that is Black Friday (and now, Cyber Monday, too), where Newegg has major discounts on a wide range of electronics for the few days leading up to Black Friday (through Cyber Week). Along with these peak holiday sales, they also have their own sales, like their Anniversary sale and FantasTech sale, which is essentially their version of Amazon Prime Day, where thousands of deals run for several days. It’s a good bet that if you check Newegg around Back to School time and during Memorial and Labor Day, there will be tons of end-of-season sales, too. After Christmas, they usually clear out a substantial amount of inventory with huge discounts on computer-related products like monitors and hard drives.
Snag one of our Newegg promo codes above to save on your next tech purchase, some of which can be used on already discounted items.
Tech
US Takes Down Botnets Used in Record-Breaking Cyberattacks
The collection of millions of hacked computers known as Aisuru and Kimwolf have been used to launch some of the biggest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks ever seen. Now United States law enforcement agencies have wiped both of them off the internet along with two of the other hordes of hijacked computers—known as botnets—in a single broad takedown.
On Thursday, the US Department of Justice, working with the cybercrime-fighting agency within the US Department of Defense known as the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, announced that it had dismantled four massive botnets in a single operation, removing the command-and-control servers used to commandeer the hacker-run armies of compromised devices known by the names JackSkid, Mossad, Aisuru, and Kimwolf. Together, operators of the four botnets had amassed more than 3 million devices, the Justice Department said, and often sold access to those devices to other criminal hackers as well as using them to target victims with overwhelming floods of attack traffic to knock websites and internet services offline.
Aisuru and Kimwolf, a distinct but Aisuru-related botnet, had together comprised more than a million devices, according to DDoS defense firm Cloudflare, with Aisuru infecting a variety of devices ranging from DVRs to network appliances to webcams, and its Kimwolf offshoot infecting Android devices including smart TVs and set-top boxes. Cloudflare says the two botnets, working in conjunction, carried out a cyberattack against a Cloudflare customer last November that reached more than 30 terabits of data per second, nearly three times the size of the previous biggest such attack.
No arrests were immediately announced along with the takedowns, but a Justice Department statement noted that the US government was collaborating with Canadian and German authorities, “which targeted individuals who operated these botnets.”
“The United States is steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding critical internet infrastructure and fighting the cybercriminals who jeopardize its security, wherever they might live,” US attorney Michael J. Heyman wrote in a statement.
Of the four botnets taken out in the operation, Aisuru had gained the most notoriety, thanks to a series of record-breaking or near-record cyberattacks it carried out last fall. The botnet, whose use was rented out like many such “booter” services offering their brute-force disruptive capabilities to anyone willing to pay, has been most visibly against gaming services like Minecraft and independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs. Krebs, who has extensively investigated the botnet underground and Aisuru in particular, came under repeated attack from the botnet last year.
Then in November, Cloudflare absorbed a recording-breaking combined attack from Aisuru and Kimwolf that lasted only 35 seconds but reached 31.4 terabits per second, a volume of attack traffic close to triple the size of any seen before. (The company hasn’t revealed which of its customers was hit with that attack.)
In a report on the state of the DDoS ecosystem, Cloudflare described the maximum attack traffic of the combined Aisuru and Kimwolf botnets as equivalent to “the combined populations of the UK, Germany, and Spain all simultaneously typing a website address and then hitting ‘enter’ at the same second.” The botnet was capable, Cloudflare’s analysts wrote, of “launching DDoS attacks that can cripple critical infrastructure, crash most legacy cloud-based DDoS protection solutions, and even disrupt the connectivity of entire nations.”
In fact, all four botnets disrupted by the US operation were variants of Mirai, an internet-of-things botnet that first appeared in 2016, broke records at the time for the size of the cyberattacks it enabled, and eventually was used in an attack on the domain-name service provider Dyn that took down 175,000 websites simultaneously for much of the United States. Mirai’s code base has since served as the starting point for a decade of other internet-of-things botnets.
Tech
‘Uncanny Valley’: Nvidia’s ‘Super Bowl of AI,’ Tesla Disappoints, and Meta’s VR Metaverse ‘Shutdown’
This week on Uncanny Valley, hosts Brian Barrett and Zoë Schiffer discuss the highlights from Nvidia’s annual developer conference, and why Tesla recently got in trouble with some of its most loyal fans online. Plus, Meta’s initial decision to shut down Horizon Worlds VR on the Quest headset signals the end of the metaverse dream. (Meta has since reversed course, saying it will keep the platform on limited support for the “foreseeable future.”)
Articles mentioned in this episode:
You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett and Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer. Write to us at [email protected].
How to Listen
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: Brian, hello. Very exciting to have another way to talk to you when I’m not pinging you on Slack every five seconds.
Brian Barrett: It’s great, because Slack doesn’t have the voice part.
Zoë Schiffer: It doesn’t.
Brian Barrett: I will say: very sad that Leah won’t be a part of that journey today.
Zoë Schiffer: I know. It is really sad, but when the Leah’s away, the mice will play, and we will be talking about topics that Leah hates, so just wait.
Brian Barrett: And to be clear, she’ll be back next week. She’s just sick.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah.
Brian Barrett: It’s allergy season.
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Zoë Schiffer, WIRED’s director of business and industry.
Brian Barrett: I’m Brian Barrett, executive editor.
Zoë Schiffer: This week on the show, we’re diving into Nvidia’s annual developer conference, why some Tesla influencers are fleeing the brand, and why Meta has finally shut down Horizon Worlds on Meta Quest. So to start us off, this week, Nvidia had its annual developer conference in San Jose. This is the big event in the AI industry. Some people even call it the Super Bowl of AI. Developers go, CEOs, researchers, WIRED reporters—and we’re all waiting to hear what CEO Jensen Huang is going to tell us about the future of the company.
Brian Barrett: One thing that’s interesting about the Nvidia conference too, is I feel like so much of it is business facing. It’s not a lot of stuff that you, as an AI consumer or someone who plays around with Claude, wouldn’t necessarily connect with. One thing, with a grain of salt, because this is someone who stands to make this money, but Jensen did say the revenue opportunity for artificial intelligence chips just at Nvidia might reach at least a trillion dollars through 2027.
Zoë Schiffer: Pocket change.
Brian Barrett: Pocket change, I mean, really, for Nvidia at this point. One thing that was really interesting: He introduced a new product. I always like when there’s an actual product tied to this rather than the promise of a product. A while ago, Nvidia struck a licensing deal with a company called Groq, not to be confused with the occasionally—
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