A surprising coalition of GOP senators holds all the megabill leverage  —  An ideologically diverse clutch of Republicans have found rare alignment — and significant leverage.  —  The Senate's deficit hawks might be raising the loudest hue and cry over the GOP's “big, beautiful bill.”

An astonishing raid deep inside Russia rewrites the rules of war  —  Ukraine's high-risk strikes damage over 40 top-secret strategic bombers  —  Shortly after noon on June 1st, Russian social media began flashing, alerting the world to Ukraine's most audacious operation on Russian territory to date.

Trump Arrest of Immigrant Triggers Shock and Regret in Small MAGA Town  —  Ming Li Hui, who goes by the name of “Carol,” has lived for 20 years in the town of Kennett, Missouri, after coming here from Hong Kong.  She has been raising a family there and works as a waitress …

Supreme Court Turns Down Challenge to Ban on Semiautomatic Rifles  —  The case from Maryland was the court's latest opportunity to apply its recently announced history-based test for assessing the constitutionality of gun control laws.  —  The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear …

What we know about the suspect and victims in the Boulder, Colorado, attack  —  Eight people calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza were injured at an outdoor mall in Boulder, Colorado, by a man who police say used a makeshift flamethrower and hurled an incendiary device into a crowd.

The Law Firms That Appeased Trump—and Angered Their Clients  —  After firms struck deals to avoid punitive executive orders, some big clients decided to take their business elsewhere  —  At a recent luncheon at Cipriani in Midtown Manhattan, a top lawyer for Citadel delivered a message …

Trump and his crew are nuts  —  According to a jaw-dropping New York Times report, during the 2024 campaign, Elon Musk “told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use.”  He allegedly took a smorgasbord of drugs …

“Out Of His Depth,” “Sold His Soul,” “Clueless”: NIH Staffers Speak Out About Director Bhattacharya  —  Jay Bhattacharya's stint as director of the National Institutes of Health is off to a rocky start.  At his first town hall last month, the former Stanford University health economist …

Exclusive: China's global favorability rising, views of the U.S. turn negative  —  U.S. trade policy is making China great again — at the United States' expense, per an analysis from Morning Consult that looks at global favorability ratings, and finds China's rising while America's falls.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to lift judge's order blocking federal overhaul  —  WASHINGTON −The Trump administration on June 2 asked the Supreme Court to let it carry out large-scale staffing cuts and agency restructuring while the president's authority to make such sweeping …

A Fiery Brief Fueled by Conservatives Helped Put Trump's Tariffs in Peril  —  A coalition including leading figures on the right said the president's program did violence to the Constitution.  One judge cited it eight times.  —  A powerful sign that President Trump's tariff-driven trade war …

Hating New York  —  MAGA and MAGA-adjacent types are very good at finding things and people to hate.  They hate immigrants (unless they're white South Africans), LGBTQ people and wokeness.  They hate universities and are doing their best to destroy American science.  The New York Times reports that they hate Europe.

Secret Syrian intelligence files show missing US journalist was imprisoned by Assad regime  —  Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images  —  Top secret intelligence files uncovered by the BBC confirm for the first time that missing American journalist Austin Tice …

ICE Barbie's List of ‘Sanctuary’ Cities Yanked After Furious Backlash  —  WALKING IT BACK  —  The pro-Trump National Sheriffs' Association had called the list “arbitrary” and a betrayal.  —  Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security has taken down a list of dozens of “sanctuary” …

Arizona's Water Is Vanishing Before AI Gets a Crack at It  —  Actual farms, not the data center variety, are sucking up groundwater more quickly than surface water from reservoirs such as Lake Mead and Lake Powell.  —  While we worry about the growing threat of robots guzzling up America's groundwater …

Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland's presidential election  —  Conservative Karol Nawrocki won Poland's weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count on Monday.  Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%.

Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America  —  The reactionary blogger's call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke.  Now the right is ready to bend the knee.  —  In the spring and summer of 2008, when Donald Trump was still a registered Democrat, an anonymous blogger known …

Trump always chickens out on foreign policy too  —  Despite his rhetoric about fire and fury, the president is nervous about the use of force  —  Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free  —  Your guide to what Trump's second term means for Washington, business and the world

Trump's Truth posts mix wild conspiracies with market-moving policies  —  President Trump's Truth Social account is full of jarring juxtapositions: major trade policy announcements and presidential nominations broken up by bizarre conspiracies and personal boasts.

Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare again.  Sort of.  —  They're not branding it an Obamacare repeal this time around, but congressional Republicans are pursuing cuts to programs that are part of the 15-year-old health-care law.  —  Congressional Republicans are pursuing changes …

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent insists US will ‘never default’ on its debt  —  Trump administration official seeks to assuage growing investor concern over the country's public finances  —  Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free  —  Your guide to what Trump's second term means for Washington, business and the world

Ukraine, Russia conclude talks in Istanbul, a 1,200-for-1,200 prisoner exchange is in the works, Zelensky says  —  Editor's note: The story is being updated.  —  The Ukrainian and Russian delegations concluded peace talks in Istanbul on June 2, agreeing on a new prisoners of war (POWs) exchange but failing to reach a ceasefire.

Mike Johnson's bogus attack on CBO's score of the 2017 tax bill  —  The House speaker says the CBO missed by $1 trillion, but even the CBO couldn't predict a pandemic. … — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), interviewed on Fox News, May 29  —  The CBO is a nonpartisan agency …

Tesla Takedown takes down Musk  —  🚙 💨 This edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers.  If you appreciate our fiercely independent coverage of American politics, please support our work by clicking the button and signing up for a paid subscription.  🚙 💨

Still more on stablecoins  —  Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.  —  Good morning.  On Friday, President Donald Trump announced he would double steel tariffs to 50 per cent, just days after endorsing the merger of US Steel and Nippon Steel.