Fired HHS employees allege terminations were based on ‘error-ridden’ personnel records
Agency personnel files listed incorrect performance ratings that were used to determine which employees would be laid off, according to a new lawsuit.
Today's Liberal News
Dear James: I’m Not Very Punk Rock
Editor’s Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you? Are you beset by existential worries? Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers’ questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com.
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Dear James,
I’m not very punk rock. Not even a little. I’m well into middle age and experiencing my first taste of the many small indignities sure to come.
A Spectacular Eruption of Mount Etna
Marco Restivo / Reuters
Volcanic ash and steam rise from Mount Etna, as seen from Milo, Italy, on June 2, 2025.Fabrizio Villa / Getty
A volcanic plume rises from the southeast crater of Mount Etna on June 2, 2025, seen from Catania, Italy.Marco Restivo / Reuters
Plumes of volcanic ash rise from Mount Etna, as seen from Milo, Italy, on June 2, 2025.Salvatore Allegra / Anadolu / Getty
A cloud of ash and gas rises as Etna erupts again, seen in Nicolosi, near Catania, on June 2, 2025.
One Number That Shows Things Are Changing Deep Inside the Republican Mind
More now say they trust the national news.
Palantir: Peter Thiel’s Data-Mining Firm Helps DOGE Build Master Database to Surveil, Track Immigrants
The Trump administration has tapped Palantir — the notorious data-mining firm co-founded by billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel — to compile information on people in the United States for a “master database,” creating an easy way to cross-reference sensitive data from tax records, immigration records and more. Palantir also has a $30 million contract with ICE to provide almost real-time visibility into immigrants’ movements as the agency seeks to arrest 3,000 people a day.
“Detention Facilitates Deportation”: Trump’s Budget Bill Would Massively Increase ICE Jail Capacity
President Donald Trump is pushing Republican senators to back his “big, beautiful bill,” which includes new funding to carry out his mass deportation agenda by hiring additional ICE officers and adding detention space. ICE has already signed new agreements with jails around the country for additional capacity, and confirmed nine deaths in custody since Trump took office. “It really feels like a paradigm-shifting moment,” says Detention Watch Network executive director Silky Shah.
ICE Raids on Restaurants, Farmworkers, Students Spark Community Resistance Across Country
Protests over ICE raids are continuing across the United States as agents arrest immigrants at courthouses, from their workplaces, on the way to school and more. Immigration and human rights advocate Adriana Jasso with Unión del Barrio describes protests that met a massive raid in San Diego at a popular restaurant, the targeting of farmworkers, and how her organization has been conducting ICE patrols to alert the community.
“Panic, Terror, Chaos, Trauma”: SCOTUS Ruling Lets Trump Strip Protections for 500K+ Immigrants
As the Trump administration vows to escalate its targeting of immigrants to 3,000 arrests a day, and the Supreme Court rules it can proceed with stripping some 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela of their legal status, we get an update from Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “It is the biggest mass delegalization in modern history of people who followed every single rule that the U.S. government asked of them,” says Jozef.
A New Tool Shows If Your City Is Building New Housing With 30-Mile Commutes
One poll shows Americans are more concerned about traffic than crime.
There’s a Strange Reason Your Graduation Photos Are So Expensive
It’s the product of a multimillion-dollar business built to cash in on your proud moment.
FDA chief wary of federal recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines
The Food and Drug Administration commissioner repeatedly said patients should rely on guidance from their doctors.
Dr. Oz on the future of Medicaid, Trump’s megabill and AI avatar health care
The Conversation with Dasha Burns launches with Mehmet Oz as its first guest.
‘They’re the backbone’: Trump’s targeting of legal immigrants threatens health sector
Federal policy changes are having spillover effects on everything from disease outbreak mitigation to long-term care
New Covid shot recommendations appear to contradict Kennedy
An update to the CDC’s website shows that children “may” get the Covid vaccine if their parents and doctors want them to.
Is Aziz Ansari Sorry?
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Your Opinions on Her Wardrobe Are Probably Unwelcome
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
What Role Does HR Play in the #MeToo Era?
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Trump’s contract-cutting blitz rattles a once-flourishing DC industry
The General Services Administration, which oversees government contracting, is leading a review of more than 20,000 consulting agreements for what is “non-essential.
Trump’s chaotic economy is causing headaches for Democrats in New Jersey’s governor race
The crowded contest in the Garden State shows how hard it is to address pocketbook issues.
Warren Buffett shocks shareholders by announcing his intention to retire at the end of the year
Earlier, Buffett warned Saturday about the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
‘Anything can happen’: Trump doesn’t seem fazed by recession worries
Trump has blamed shaky economic numbers on his predecessor.
Democrats look to Trump’s poor economic numbers with anxious optimism
Following its latest round of focus groups, Navigator Research is urging Democrats to proactively push their own economic policies.
The Trump Administration Targets Congress—Again
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For the second time in less than a month, the Trump administration has used law enforcement to directly target Congress. And for the second time in less than a month, Congress is showing that it doesn’t have the desire or ability to defend itself.
Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces
Relying on its own resources, Ukraine has just carried out what might be the most complex, elaborately planned, and cost-effective military operation of its current war with Russia. Yesterday, the Ukrainians used drones to attack, almost simultaneously, at least four Russian airfields separated by thousands of miles.
The Boulder Attack Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere
Terrorism doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It depends on the oxygen of rhetoric for sustenance and encouragement. Nearly two years after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, the cumulative effect of calls to “Globalize the intifada” and “End Zionists” perhaps inevitably led to the horrific attack yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, where a man yelled “Free Palestine” as he threw an incendiary device at a Jewish gathering in support of the hostages.
Words matter.
The Deadly Virus of Anti-Semitic Terrorism
Yesterday’s violent attack in Boulder, Colorado, at a weekly Jewish-community gathering to support the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, left eight people hospitalized. One of the victims is a Holocaust survivor, according to a local rabbi. Jewish leaders nationwide are demanding greater government action to protect the community, which is still reeling just two weeks after the killing in Washington, D.C.