Under the Trump administration, a government watchdog agency for a specialized sector of the financial markets has purged career officials, dialed back crypto enforcement and boosted industries in which the president’s family is heavily invested, a New York Times investigation found. trib.al/8CPnHzh

President Trump has bullied and wooed the Supreme Court justices ahead of rulings that will determine the fate of his agenda.

An Ebola virus outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo is suspected to have caused over 170 deaths and about 750 infections, according to the World Health Organization. Here is what to know.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com Here’s what Democrats can do now and in 2028 to improve their chances of presidential victory, according to the Nobel laureate Richard Thaler.

“We’ll vote for Talarico over Paxton.”

“The establishment Democrats live in their world — they collect a lot of money from wealthy people,” says @sanders.senate.gov. “We live in a different world.”

In a Congress that has seen resignations, untimely deaths and consistently poor attendance on both sides of the aisle, it is often unclear how a vote might shape up until moments before it happens. See how absences have affected recent votes in the House and Senate.

President Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. was close to reaching an agreement with Iran to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In Iran, the country’s leaders have cast the reported terms of a possible preliminary agreement as a victory.

The U.S. and Iran have signaled that they are moving closer to a peace deal. Here are the main issues at stake, and the positions each side has revealed at this point.

The region of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where Ebola broke out has made the virus difficult to contain. The area has been consumed by years of conflict that have displaced more than a million people and stripped health capacity. trib.al/gjQcXPO

Republicans in South Carolina today gave up on passing a new gerrymander before Tuesday, which is when in-person early voting starts under the current map. Dems say that’ll make a difference in court to try to stop a new map. www.postandcourier.com/politics/sc-...

When Stephen Colbert hosted the final episode of “The Late Show,” he told viewers that the next place they would most likely see him was on public-access TV in Michigan. The next day, he hosted an episode of “Only in Monroe,” which covers the happenings of a town about 40 miles southwest of Detroit.

A New York Times investigation found that autism clinics often prioritize billing opportunities in ways that may harm children and overcharge the government. Here are key takeaways from the investigation.

The White House has told the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national soccer team to isolate for three weeks in Belgium before it can enter the U.S. to take part in this year’s World Cup, citing the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo.

California is the country’s most expensive state for gasoline. Residents shared how higher fuel prices because of the war in Iran were affecting their lives and businesses.

More than three quarters of Americans, including 55 percent of Republicans, said President Trump’s policies had increased the cost of living in their community. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/u...

Trump's approval numbers have been abysmal in recent weeks among select pollsters. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

”The midterms are critical to the president’s agenda. MAGA moms are important to his midterm fortunes. And the moms are not happy,” our columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom writes.

After Bad Week, Trump Pushes Ahead on Politically Unpopular Ideas (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/u...

Adding pointless administrative burdens to deter legal immigration

Private equity investors have rushed into the business, buying up chains and opening new clinics. A focus on finances has led to overbilling, fraud and even harm. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/h...

This week's history quiz: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund “might be the most purely monarchical thing that he’s done yet in an already monarchical presidency,” David French says on “The Opinions.”

What’s the most effective way to tax the rich? “The boring truth is that Congress can accomplish a lot simply by raising the rates of the taxes already on the books,” Zachary Liscow writes.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said on Friday that she was resigning because her husband has a rare bone cancer. President Trump announced that her deputy, Aaron Lukas, would serve as acting director of national intelligence. nyti.ms/3PUvsmk

Breaking News: A judge dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador last year.

About that job market for college grads... www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

Yes, I want to be very clear about this: for a long time, my vibecession explanation was “right-wing propaganda machine.” That explanation was ALMOST CERTAINLY WRONG. Because Trump became president, the machine switched to pumping out optimism, and the inexplicable economic pessimism GOT WORSE.

Literally a K

Because this country likes to forget what it’s capable of, I take it as a duty to remind us. We sit at the brink of the largest decimation of Black political power since the fall of Reconstruction — a Second Redemption. And the end of Black political power means the end of democracy itself.

The DNC "autopsy" omits the biggest reason Democrats lost in 2024: inflation and anti-incumbent sentiment. In doing so, it fails to incentivize party actors to think about how they will overcome the same negative forces in 2030 and 2032 www.gelliottmorris.com/p/the-dnc-au...

"He gets people out that are not going to vote down-ballot, but when he's not on the ballot, are they going to come out? I think the answer is probably no. I mean some of these people, they may have never voted for a president before until President Trump."

The region of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where Ebola broke out has made the virus difficult to contain. Here's what to know.

Despite President Trump's seemingly unchecked power over the federal government and his own party, his national support is crumbling to record lows, a new Times/Siena poll suggests. On “The Daily,” we explain what the poll’s results mean for the midterms this fall.

The divisions are clear, but there’s more common ground than one might expect within the coalition, a Times/Siena poll shows. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/u...

The latest Paxton-Cornyn ad dustup is an ominous sign for the Texas GOP

The response to the new Ebola outbreak has been significantly hindered by the near-absence so far of the United States. Story by @stephanienolen.bsky.social & @apoorvanyt.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/4wEzlfA

A majority of Americans say President Trump is using his office for personal gain. (Economist / @today.yougov.com) More, via Opinion Today: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/260520-top...

The TL;DR on what happened today in Congress: The Senate abruptly adjourned until June 1 because Trump's demands for 1) a $1.8B slush fund to pay out J6 rioters and 2) $1B for his ballroom were too much for Republicans to swallow as they try to deliver Trump a $72B spending bill for ICE/CBP.

Wrote about Trump as cult...and other reasons for his remaining support. Is it worse if Trump has a cult-like following...or if normal partisanship in an anti-party political culture is a large part of got us into this mess? goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/trump-cult...

Breaking News: Senate Republicans abruptly delayed voting on a $72 billion immigration crackdown bill as they revolted over President Trump’s federal fund to pay people who claim to have been politically persecuted. The fund has been denounced by critics as a slush fund for supporters of Trump.

Few Americans approve of President Trump's handling of Iran. (@today.yougov.com) More, via Opinion Today: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/260520-top...

we are an in an era of anti-incumbent sentiment pretty much across the board. few escape voters' wrath

Americans oppose spending $1 billion on White House ballroom 68% to 21% www.gelliottmorris.com/p/americans-...

With two swing districts, the region from Scranton to Allentown could decide control of the House, and voters are expressing profound economic distress. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/u...

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado was censured for commuting the sentence of an election denier who tampered with voting machines.

The largest general science group in the U.S. called on Thursday for the Senate to hold a public hearing on the nomination of Jim O’Neill to head the National Science Foundation and questioned his credentials to run one of the top funders of basic research.

A month before the start of peak wildfire season in California, firefighters are already battling more than eight blazes in the southern part of the state. Here's what to know.