The Week Magazine June 6, 2025

You and I are not paying enough in taxes. What??? Almost no one will speak this heresy aloud, particularly if they hold public office. But there’s no other rational conclusion to be drawn from the nation’s rapidly deteriorating fiscal condition. The “big, beautiful” budget bill that the House recently passed would add at least $3.8 trillion to the nation’s total debt, which has ballooned to an unimaginable $36.4 trillion. The debt has become so massive, Clive Crook says in Bloomberg, that all but a handful of deficit hawks have “just stopped thinking about it.” (See Talking Points, p.17.) But as we blithely sail into this uncharted red sea, we might spare a thought about where it may lead. For decades, Democrats and Republicans have jointly conspired to give Americans…

What happened President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” faced an uncertain path in the Senate this week, as some senators vowed to oppose the version that squeaked through the House, and Trump said he expected them to make “fairly significant” changes. House Speaker Mike Johnson won passage of the bill by a single vote, after days of wrangling with both moderates who balked at benefits cuts and fiscal hawks who demanded steeper reductions. The House bill makes permanent the 2017 tax cuts passed under Trump, which were set to expire, and spends $150 billion on border enforcement. It also cuts food stamps by $268 billion and chops some $700 billion from Medicaid, largely by imposing work requirements. Johnson likened getting it through his fractious caucus to “crossing over the Grand…

■ Across a 50-plus-year career teaching art history at New College of Florida in Sarasota, Cris Hassold came to call some of her students her children. When she died at 89, without a family of her own, 31 of her former students learned they would inherit a share of her $2.8 million estate. The gifts, ranged from $26,000 to $560,000, and the former students used the money to travel, pay debt, and even buy a new home. “We were her family,” said former pupil Ryan White. “She adopted us, and we adopted her.” ■ In April, biologists with California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife rescued an abandoned black bear cub from Los Padres National Forest. They sent the 2-month-old, weighing 3 pounds, to the Ramona Wildlife Center in San…

What happened President Trump’s friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin soured this week, after he called the Russian dictator “absolutely crazy” for unleashing his largest-ever missile and drone barrage on Ukrainian civilians. The Kremlin dismissed Trump’s comments as evidence of “emotional overload,” even as it continued its days-long bombardment of Ukraine with more than 1,300 drones and 90 missiles, killing at least 30 civilians and wounding more than 160. Frustrated that Putin was snubbing his efforts to negotiate peace, Trump warned that the Russian leader was “playing with fire,” and that continuing the war “will lead to the downfall of Russia.” The Kremlin claimed it would present its “peace memorandum” outlining its terms for a deal at an upcoming meeting with the Ukrainians. Trump said he’d determine in “about two…

What happened The Trump administration this week moved to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, and signaled that it could use similar leverage in a broader campaign against universities. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week revoked Harvard’s access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, alleging the university had failed to curb antisemitism on campus. Harvard quickly sued, and a federal judge temporarily paused Noem’s order, which would force the nearly 6,800 current foreign students to transfer or leave the U.S. The Trump administration this week also directed government agencies to cancel $100 million in remaining federal contracts with Harvard; the White House previously froze more than $3 billion in federal grants after Harvard refused to comply with a list of demands. On Truth Social,…

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim “were young and in love,” said Gil Preuss in Haaretz (Israel). Lischinsky, 30, had just bought Milgrim, 26, an engagement ring and planned to propose next week. But there will be no proposal, and no wedding. Last week, as the idealistic young couple left a peace event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., where both worked at the Israeli Embassy, they were murdered by Elias Rodriguez, 31, who first shot them in the back—then calmly reloaded and finished Milgrim off as she tried to crawl away. “I did it for Gaza,” Rodriguez told police. He clearly assumed his victims were Jews, making this a textbook case of “antisemitic terrorism.” (Lischinsky was born to a Jewish father and Christian mother and was both…