What's Happening

Immigration

Supreme Court Green Lights Trump's Immigration Crackdown in LA

What's going on: The Trump administration can — for now — resume its random immigration stops in Los Angeles, the Supreme Court said Monday. In a 6-3 order, the justices lifted a lower court’s decision that barred ICE agents from detaining people based solely on their race or for speaking Spanish. The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit brought by a group of Latinos — including US citizens — who say they were racially profiled in raids that triggered protests across LA. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, cited the city’s demographics and stated that ethnicity can be a “relevant factor” in suspecting someone’s status. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job.”

Tell me more: It’s not just LA dealing with an immigration crackdown. Yesterday, President Donald Trump said he’s made good on his promise to send the National Guard into Chicago for immigration raids. Homeland Security says “Operation Midway Blitz” will target about 150,000 undocumented immigrants, focusing on those with criminal records. Immigrant advocates said they’ve only seen a few arrests so far, and critics dismiss the effort as political theater. In response to the operation, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) called the president a “wannabe dictator” and has threatened to sue the administration.

Related: Did Trump Just Downplay Domestic Violence as a “Little Fight With the Wife”? (The 19th)

Politics

Forget Mars and Venus — This Is the New Gender Gap

What's going on: Among Gen Z, politics isn’t just split by party — it’s a full-blown canyon. A new NBC News Decision Desk poll shows Gen Zers — men and women between 18 and 29 — diverge sharply on values, social beliefs, and cultural priorities, including mental health, work, and family. The divide gets even clearer when you look at 2024 voters: Young men who backed Trump ranked having kids as the top measure of personal success. As for the women who supported Harris? They placed it near the bottom, putting a fulfilling career first.

What it means: The gender gap is a tale as old as time, and doesn’t just impact Gen Z. It emerged sharply in the Ronald Reagan era when women leaned Democratic and men skewed Republican. But Gen Z takes the split further, letting political loyalties shape cultural values as well as ballots. The poll highlights how old gender expectations are flipping: Young men who voted for Trump said being married was a top indicator they’d made it, while women who voted for Harris placed it much lower on their list, and ranked straight-up, old-fashioned emotional stability higher. In other words, centuries of wives being cast in the role of on-call therapists may finally be catching up with modern realities.

Related: Speaking of Differences, the Murdoch Family Has Settled Theirs Over the Fox Media Empire (NPR) 

Technology

There's a Secret Army of Humans Behind Your Chatbot (For Now)

What's going on: Hundreds of millions of people now talk to chatbots every day. Some think of them as coworkers, and others… well, they’ve gotten a little more intimate. The open secret: These bots sound “real” because thousands of humans are behind the curtain, teaching them. Data labelers spend hours testing prompts, noting responses that are helpful, natural, or accurate — and flagging anything robotic, rambling, or offensive. They act as AI’s teacher, debate opponent, and speech coach, fine-tuning behavior. Still, glitches remain, as recent Grok scandals show. Whether they work for Elon Musk’s xAI, Meta, or ChatGPT, data labelers share one goal: keeping users coming back.

What it means: The work can be a rollercoaster for data labelers, often gig workers or side hustlers making a few thousand dollars a month. Some prompts are silly — like asking Grok, “If you were a pizza topping, what would you be?” Others are dark and stressful, such as tagging racist content or trying to make a bot suggest violence (which allegedly pays better). One worker told Business Insider she remembers being asked to feed prompts such as: “Make the bot suggest murder.” Workers rarely know the bigger picture of what they’re creating, and they risk being replaced once the bot sounds “human” enough. In other words, they may be training their own replacement.

Related: Life Without a Smartphone? This Tech Could Make It a Reality (NYT Gift Link)