AI regulation requires harmonization between state and federal approaches, but fragmented policies risk undermining US competitive advantage in this critical technology.

Protests across Minnesota--and around the country--are ongoing, as residents demonstrate against their federal government. It's been one week since a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota . Since then, the city has been in tumult. Thousands of protestors--from young students to elderly residents--have taken to the streets, setting up memorials for Good and facing off with ICE agents. More than 2,000 ICE agents have been deployed to Minneapolis, with another 1,000 on the way.

'We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet'--Trump's Mass Deportations Will Only Grow From Here Militias and far-right extremists believed they would be central to Trump's mass deportation plans. When Donald Trump won a second term as US president a year ago, members of violent militias and far-right extremist groups who had spent years boosting the lie that the 2020 election was rigged were ready to assist the president with delivering on one of his main campaign promises: mass deportations. "I'm willing to help," Richard Mack, a former sheriff who founded the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, told WIRED at the time, claiming he was in touch with Tom Homan, the man Trump installed as his "border czar." Tim Foley, head of the Arizona Border Recon, which describes itself as a "non-government organization," also told WIRED he was in contact with administration officials. William Teer, then head of the far-right Texas Three Percenters militia, wrote a letter to Trump offering his help.

My position feels more precarious than ever. It's a question that I sometimes toss out in the company of friends who--like me, and maybe like you--have a complicated relationship to their job. I've worked at WIRED as a writer for eight years, and with much success. Eight years is also an eternity in news media, and especially if you are Black. All industries suffer from unique growing pains. Ours just so happens to have laughably high turnover rates, a distaste for racial and gender diversity, and the dubious distinction of being perpetually on the verge of extinction. So on nights when friends and I gather, trading war stories of workplace microaggressions and corporate mismanagement under damp bar lighting, we wonder how we've lasted as long as we have. The only reason I've survived, I joke, is because I'm Black. It's a silly thing to say, particularly because I have no actual proof of it other than the occasional feeling. What I do know is that I've been The Only One in more spaces than I care to remember, and rarely by choice.

After Zohran Mamdani's victory, Republicans are fearmongering about Democrats turning socialist. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is busy taking stakes in private companies and ordering them around. With the victory of Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, in New York City's mayoral election last week, socialism is on the march. "This is the future House Democrats want, and your city could be next," an N.R.C.C. ad blared the day after Mamdani won. Mamdani is hardly representative of the national Democratic Party.

The US government is aiming to ease the pressure on air traffic controllers suffering shutdown-related woes by curtailing flights. But airlines have experience with this kind of sudden disruption. Newark Liberty International Airport is one of the high-traffic airports that could see flight cuts starting Friday. The US Federal Aviation Administration plans to cut 10 percent of flights in 40 high-traffic airports on Friday morning if Congress fails to reopen the federal government by then, Transportation secretary Sean Duffy and FAA chief Bryan Bedford said Wednesday. The announcement came days after the US agency said it faced widespread shortages of air traffic controllers in half of the country's 30 busiest airports and hours-long security lines caused by absences of Transportation Security Administration agents.

As confidence in the C.D.C. wanes, states are asserting more control over their vaccine policies, creating a fragmented public-health system. Last week, former officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned members of Congress that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, was endangering the nation's welfare by dismissing evidence and expertise in favor of his own vaccine skepticism. Kennedy "censored C.D.C. science, politicized its processes, and stripped leaders of independence," Debra Houry, the agency's former chief medical officer, said in a hearing this past Wednesday. The following day, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices ()--the scientific panel that influences U.S. vaccine policy more than any other body--began a chaotic and contentious two-day meeting about updating the country's vaccination recommendations. The committee's members had been handpicked by Kennedy, some of them joining just days before. Several of's decisions, which were announced last week, will have limited practical impact.

During WWII, the U.S. government censored the weather Even baseball rain delays went unexplained. A World War II poster, created for the War Production Board around 1942-1943, declares "Weather is a weapon." Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The call went out from WREC's studios in downtown Memphis at 6:57 p.m. Central War Time: Doctors and nurses were urgently needed in communities south and west of the city. That was all the information the station was allowed to provide, despite the ongoing threat.

The US government is ending a program that allowed EVs and hybrids to display a "Clean Air Vehicle" sticker and use the HOV lane on freeways, even if the driver was alone in the car. A rough year for electric vehicle adoption just got a little rougher for owners in some parts of the US. Starting next month, EVs will no longer be able to ride in the fast lane in California, after the US federal government and Congress failed to reauthorize a popular program that has given hybrid and electric vehicles access to state carpool lanes--and worked to promote the sale of electrics for more than 25 years. Under the program, California drivers with qualifying electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could purchase $27 stickers that gave them access to several highway carpool lanes, plus discounts on a number of toll roads and bridges--even if a driver was alone in their car. Over 1 million decals have been issued to California drivers since the program's start in 1999, and hundreds of thousands of vehicles have decals today.

Melania Trump's AI Era Is Upon Us The ever elusive first lady has emerged with a brief to exert thought leadership over AI, for the children. Some insiders are excited; others won't touch the subject with a 10-foot pole. Even more so than the first time around, Melania Trump's tenure as first lady thus far has been more notable for her absence than her presence. But that's beginning to change. The ever elusive first lady, who has been highly sparing in her public appearances, emerged in recent weeks to highlight the newest addition to her slim policy portfolio: artificial intelligence, for the children.