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This has become a central issue for healthcare workers in California, and a report from Cal Matters this week reveals why they have pushed back on how they’re being asked to use AI on the job. 

Former and current nurses at Kaiser revealed that their employer has started monitoring their performance closely with AI, evaluating them on how they responded to calls, and how long they spent on the phone with patients (which the company describes as “average handle time”). If their calls with patients crossed 15 minutes, nurses claimed they would be reprimanded or find that their monthly performance score was impacted. 

Nurses said they were typically supposed to follow a script and offer only a few pieces of advice. Many were concerned that Kaiser’s approach to performance management would negatively affect patient care by forcing nurses to limit the length and scope of calls. They also noted that certain conversations—talking to new parents, for example, or patients who needed a translator—necessitated more time. 

As one nurse told Cal Matters, citing a sensitive conversation with a patient that she felt required more care: “I had to ask myself: Am I going to get disciplined for going off script or saying more than what is necessary?”

According to Cal Matters, Kaiser also allegedly used AI to assess their tone or level of empathy. The tool was reportedly tested on nurses in 2024, but Kaiser stopped using it after nurses protested. Still, union representatives claimed that managers said they might eventually revive the program. 

When reached for comment, a Kaiser spokesperson said the company “uses AI responsibly and with human oversight, always prioritizing patient safety, privacy, and equity. AI tools are designed to support our clinicians and care teams, not to replace them. Medical decisions remain in the hands of our clinicians.”

The spokesperson also denied that nurses were disciplined for taking calls that lasted longer than 15 minutes. “Kaiser Permanente does not use Average Handle Time to assess call response performance or enforce call time metrics. Any tools used in contact center settings support our quality assurance efforts and have human review and oversight. At Kaiser Permanente, our nurses are supported and empowered to take the time needed to deliver compassionate care and fully address each patient’s care needs. Our focus is always on ensuring we provide high-quality care through the use of evidence-based practices to achieve the best possible outcomes for our members.”

It’s not just nurses in California who are coming up against these AI systems. In a 2024 survey by National Nurses United—the largest union of registered nurses in the nation—half of workers said their employers were using algorithmic systems to analyze patient records. A notable number of them said their assessment of patients did not always line up with AI-generated guidance, and very often, they could not change the AI recommendations to reflect their opinion.

Healthcare workers in other states have expressed similar concerns over how AI is being used for performance management and in other ways that could potentially harm patients. In New York, the nurses’ union has repeatedly expressed concerns about the incursion of AI into healthcare. One hospital in New York City has been explicit about its alleged plans to replace nurses with AI-powered software. The widespread adoption of AI has also raised alarm bells in Tennessee, where a major for-profit health system—HCA Healthcare—has a controversial partnership with Palantir.  

In other words, it’s not just office workers who are at risk of increased surveillance or likely to be impacted by AI’s growing role in performance management. 

As one nurse put it to Cal Matters: “I’m not against the use of AI as long as it’s beneficial to the patient. But in this particular use, it’s to increase productivity, improve efficiency, and cut costs. Kaiser is forgetting we aren’t just a call center for customer support. We’re nurses, and we’re there to take care of patients.”

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In the days since, the killing has galvanized thousands of protesters, led to calls from local leaders and Latino civil rights groups for independent investigations, and prompted promises of legal action from President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico.

Mr. Salgado Araujo was killed during a traffic stop by immigration agents who had been searching for a different person, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman. When agents tried to stop the vehicle, the encounter quickly escalated, and an agent shot Mr. Salgado Araujo in the abdomen. He died at a hospital hours later.

Homeland Security officials said Mr. Salgado Araujo had tried to use his vehicle as a weapon, though three men who witnessed the killing disputed that account and said the victim had never tried to run over a federal agent. No video of the shooting has emerged. The agents were not wearing body cameras, the spokeswoman has said.

The Houston shooting has dragged ICE and the tactics used by immigration agents back into the national spotlight. Federal officials are defending their actions as part of highly focused operations, but Latino community leaders and immigration lawyers argue the incident follows a string of violent confrontations that have accompanied the surge in arrests. These clashes, they say, show federal agents are continuing to use their most aggressive tactics.

Federal immigration agents have shot at more than 20 people since September, nearly all of them in their cars. Some of the shootings have been fatal.

The Trump administration is continuing to push for more deportations. A Republican-led package signed by President Trump last month has funded $31 billion for ICE activities, such as supporting local and state authorities that have signed cooperation partnerships with the agency, known as 287(g) agreements. For jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate, the funding package has earmarked another $350 million to expand enforcement operations.

In a period of five days at the end of June, ICE officers arrested more than 10,000 people, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. After a brief lull during the July 4 holiday weekend, arrests picked back up by Tuesday, the day Mr. Salgado Araujo was shot. From Tuesday through Thursday, ICE officers across the United States arrested more than 6,000 people, internal records show, a pace of about 2,000 arrests a day.

The effect of the push is being seen across the country.

In Chicago, immigrant rights groups and Hispanic community organizers in a news conference on Thursday had counted at least 70 people taken in three days, many around courthouses. Many of the immigrants apprehended had been charged with minor traffic violations or had been trying to make their appearances before immigration judges. Calls to one legal aid center alone had more than doubled to 1,700 in that time, organizers said.

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Representative Sylvia Garcia spoke during a news conference on the case of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on Friday. Credit…Ronaldo Schemidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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New York City loves an exclusive. And on just four evenings every year, Manhattan is treated to an iconic sunset display: Manhattanhenge.

On these special days, the sun’s light lines up perfectly with Manhattan’s East-West grid streets as it drops towards the horizon, causing it to appear centered among the corridors of skyscrapers.

The phenomenon is one of New York City’s most anticipated astronomical spectacles. It happens on two days in late May and two days in mid-July—although just one of the July dates will reveal the entire sun framed between skyscrapers. Here’s everything you need to know about the coming Manhattanhenge.

Where Did “Manhattanhenge” Come From?

Astrophysicist and television personality Neil deGrasse Tyson claims to have coined the term Manhattanhenge. The monicker is an apparent nod to Stonehenge, an ancient British monument which may have acted as a solar calendar and was the likely site of ancient rituals celebrating the solstice.

But unlike its namesake, Manhattanhenge has no celestial function. Instead, it is a happy accident of the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, which rotated Manhattan’s street grid about 29 degrees east of true north , to follow the island’s natural orientation.

More than two centuries and many skyscrapers later, that decision is what makes Manhattanhenge possible.

Although we’re taught that the sun rises due east and sets due west, that’s only completely true twice a year, during the spring and fall equinoxes. For the rest of the year, the points at which the sun rises and sets slowly migrate along the horizon as the Earth orbits around the star. Twice each year, those points more or less align with Manhattan’s street grid.

How to See Manhattanhenge

Manhattanhenge will occur on Saturday, July 11 and on Sunday, July 12. On Saturday, viewers will see the entire glowing orb of the sun perfectly framed by buildings on either side at around 8:20 P.M. EDT. On Sunday, viewers will see just half the sun framed in such a way, at about 8:21 P.M. EDT.

For the best view of Manhattanhenge, head to one of Manhattan’s wide east-west streets that has an unobstructed view of the New Jersey horizon. The American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium recommends 14^th, 23^rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th Streets. Of these options, 34th and 42nd offer especially striking views depending on where you are along the street, as the sun can be framed by the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. It’s best to arrive at least 20 to 30 minutes early: the alignment lasts only a few minutes, and the best viewing spots fill up quickly. A partly cloudy forecast isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker. As long as the western horizon remains mostly clear and any clouds stay high overhead, you still have a good chance of catching the alignment. The moment may be brief, but it offers a rare reminder that even in the middle of one of the world’s busiest cities, the cosmos can stop you in your tracks.

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Following the publication of an initial tranche of documents over the weekend, Tuesday’s release included a number of fully redacted files—similar to earlier disclosures that drew sharp criticism for the extent of their redactions. Nearly all of the files made public Tuesday contain at least some redactions, primarily of names and email addresses.

Unnamed victim alleges Trump raped her

Among the newly released materials is an FBI case file (EFTA00020518) dated October 2020 that contains an allegation of rape involving Trump. The document does not identify the source of the allegation, as names and other identifying details have been redacted.

The file references an account from a limousine driver, whose name has been redacted, who reported a “very concerning” phone conversation involving Trump while driving him to an airport in 1995. According to the document, Trump repeatedly said the name “Jeffrey” during the call and made references to “abusing some girl.”

The document further states that an unnamed individual alleged that “he raped me,” referring to Trump, and that “Donald J. Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein.” The statement continues: “Some girl with a funny name took me into a fancy hotel or building, that’s how it happened.”

Trump traveled on ‘at least eight’ Epstein flights

The release also includes an internal email stating that Trump traveled on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously had been reported” between 1993 and 1996. According to the email, Trump flew at least eight times during that period, including on one occasion when he was listed as traveling alone with Epstein and a 20-year-old passenger whose name has been redacted.

The email, sent by the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 7, 2020, says Trump flew “at least eight times” during the three-year time period, including when “we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case,” in reference to Ghislaine Maxwell, an accomplice of Epstein who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking underage girls.

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Donald Trump alongside his wife, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000.Davidoff Studios – Getty Images

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We have not been talking that much about climate change lately, but that doesn’t mean it has stopped happening. Europe is in the midst of an extraordinary heat wave. The world is staring down the barrel of a powerful El Niño.

And climate politics is in almost total disarray. Donald Trump has gutted the Inflation Reduction Act. His administration is accelerating fossil fuel production and kneecapping green energy.

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Archival clip of Donald Trump: Wind — it doesn’t work, I will tell you, aside from ruining our fields and our valleys and killing all the birds and being very weak and expensive.

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But here’s the possibility, a bit of optimism: The advances in green technology make a new climate politics possible — one that doesn’t just talk about sacrifice and disaster prevention but presents decarbonization and green energy as a way station on the path to somewhere better.

Clean energy abundance, a new form of energetic wealth, the possibility of the left actually offering a future of more and better — not less and worse — was a hard case to make even a few years ago. But now we cannot only imagine it, we can see it, touch it, live in it. It is here.

So how do we talk about it? How do we make it happen?

Bill McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, the co-founder of the climate action group 350.org, as well as Third Act, which is organizing people over 60 on climate change. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker. He writes the Substack, The Crucial Years, and his most recent book is “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.”

Ezra Klein: Bill McKibben, welcome back to the show.

Bill McKibben: Very good to be back with you.

You have a line that people still think of clean energy like Whole Foods energy — it’s virtuous, pricey, a bit of a flex — when, in fact, you say it has become the “Costco of energy.”

Tell me about that.

Cheap, available on the shelf in bulk, ready to go.

The stuff that we spent my whole lifetime calling alternative energy from the sun and the wind is now the obvious, common sense, straightforward way to produce power. Sometime earlier this decade, we passed some invisible line where it became cheaper to produce energy from the sun and the wind than from setting stuff on fire.

That’s a big line, by the way. Darwin said fire and language were the two things that marked our species. But now we live on a planet where the cheapest way to make energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun.

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Advancements in renewable energy are paving the way for a new climate politics. The environmentalist Bill McKibben articulates some of the possibilities in this new era of energy abundance. CreditCredit…The New York Times

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The evacuation of a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan and the surrounding area was ordered on Tuesday after the building showed signs of potential collapse that may have been caused by overload, experts say.

The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) said in a statement on Tuesday that it received a call to the building just before 8 A.M. EDT. When the FDNY arrived at 235 East 42nd Street, near Grand Central Terminal, it found at least two steel columns buckling on the 21st and 22nd floors and sagging flooring between the 21st and 26th floors.

Buckling steel columns are a well-known issue among the engineering community, says Gregoy Deierlein, a professor of structural engineering at Stanford University. Deierlein wouldn’t speculate on what specifically may have caused the buckling in this case. But he says it’s not uncommon for columns to become damaged or weakened. That, in turn, can lead floors above the weak points to sag as the column bends, he says.

“Imagine if you’re standing on the floor and you look over—the portion of the floor supported by that column would have dropped a little bit, so it’s going to look like a sagging floor,” Deierlein says.

When buildings like this skyscraper are constructed, engineers erect columns designed to support not just the weight of the building itself but also a certain amount of “live load” per square foot. That extra load includes the people using the building and any other contents. Deierlein says that sometimes the live load limit can be exceeded during renovations because construction materials may be stockpiled inside a building while work is ongoing.

“That could be a very concentrated live load, which could be enough load to overcome the column strength,” he says. “Then the question is, is the column strength enough for what it should have been designed for? Or it could have been a combination of the column wasn’t quite strong enough for what it was designed for, and then you add a lot of load to it.”

While several stories were being added to the building as part of the renovation, Magued Iskaner, a professor in the civil, urban and environmental engineering department at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, says he would be “very surprised” if this wasn’t taken into account during the planning stages.

“One of the most common reasons for increase of load is that the load gets transferred from one area of a building to a new area,” he adds. “All of these people could have done these things correctly, but the presumed capacity of a column is off simply because there was a latent defect that nobody knew about.”

The most likely point of failure for load-bearing infrastructure is at the joints which connect components, says Doug Holmes, an engineering professor at Boston University. Those connections are “where a significant amount of shearing forces are exerted—think a bolt shearing off—and in the buckling of columns. But, of course, if there is corrosion or wear or damage, any of the components along the load path can be a source of failure.”

The 37-story tower, which formerly served as the New York City headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, is in the middle of a $75 million conversion from offices into a luxury apartment project, with some 1,600 units planned.

The conversion from offices to residential is a joint project by David Werner Real Estate Investments and MetroLoft. In a comment reported by the New York Times, MetroLoft said: “The safety of everyone at and surrounding the building is our number one priority.”

In an update sent to Scientific American on Wednesday, a MetroLoft spokesperson said a team had worked with the Department of Buildings (DOB) to stabilize the affected columns, and the DOB had confirmed the structure’s stability. They added that the issue had only affected 30 units and the building was at no time under threat of collapse.

“We are in the process of addressing the issue and will fully rebuild this portion of the building in tandem with ongoing construction,” the spokesperson said. “We remain on schedule, and this work will not delay delivery of the building as it is such a small portion of the project. We are working around the clock so that operations can resume and life in the area can return to normal.”

Gensler, the architecture firm leading the project, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Engineers from the DOB have also been deployed to the scene, and the FDNY is reportedly using drones to further examine the building.

The New York Times and other outlets report that emergency beams and other supporting structures are being installed in an effort take pressure off the affected columns. Deierlein says that these measures are needed in the short term—at least until the cause of the damage can be ascertained. But a permanent replacement of the columns “is not an easy thing in an existing building like this.”

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“The FIRST Freedom Fuel Network gas station has LANDED in Philadelphia, lowering the price at the pump to $3.47 for our 47th President,” the White House announced on X on Tuesday. “President Trump is leading the charge to lower gas prices this summer – putting more money in your pocket.” 

By comparison, the average regular gas price as of Thursday was $3.84 per gallon nationwide and $3.99 per gallon in Pennsylvania, according to AAA.

President Donald Trump first announced the opening of the gas stations in a Truth Social post last week, in which he said a “VERY smart Retailer, located throughout the Northeast” was behind them and was opening up the stations “because they love the U.S.A.”

So far, the “Freedom Fuel Network” has launched 25 stations, adorned with decals of the American flag and advertising cheap gas. Twenty are located in Pennsylvania and another five in New Jersey, according to the network’s website. 

The Freedom Fuel Network is a private company, a White House official confirms to TIME, and owns all 25 locations.

“The Administration is not involved in the company, nor has the Administration given the company any funding,” a White House official tells TIME. “There is no other entity or person subsidizing the lower gasoline costs.”

Few other details have been made public about the initiative, including about who’s behind the venture and how the business is operating behind the lower prices. 

“The President has called for companies to lower their prices at the pump; this company responded to the President’s call for action,” the White House official says. “They are simply reducing their margin to make prices at the pump more affordable for drivers in Philadelphia and New Jersey. This retailer is taking the lead; others should follow.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the first location, opened on Tuesday, was converted from a previous Sunoco station in Dresher, Pennsylvania. Patrick De Hann, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a tech company that helps people find cheaper gas, told the outlet that the pricing model of Freedom Fuel could not be profitable. 

“Stations selling at this price- it’s not sustainable,” De Haan said. “Generally, when losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”

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Customers pump gas at a Freedom Fuel Network station in Dresher, Pennsylvania, on July 8, 2026.Joe Lamberti—Getty Images

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Homeland security officials said Mr. Araujo had tried to use his vehicle as a weapon, though no video or other evidence for that claim has emerged.

Federal agents had surveilled an address connected to one of the two Guatemalans weeks before and had seen two white vans at the property, the spokeswoman said in a statement. When they returned to the address on Tuesday, she said, “they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target,” and initiated the traffic stop.

The agents were not wearing body cameras, according to the spokeswoman. Before trying to stop the van, the agents had looked into its owner and learned it was Mr. Araujo, who did not have legal status in the United States, according to the two people familiar with the case.

The shooting is part of a growing number of similar violent interactions involving civilians and immigration agents. More than 20 people have been shot at since September, nearly all of them in their cars. Some cases have been fatal. The shooting also comes as the Trump administration has ramped up its deportation campaign.

The killing of Mr. Araujo has incited outrage in Texas and beyond. Mr. Araujo’s sons said during a news briefing on Wednesday that they believed their father tried to get away because he was being chased by unmarked cars. Ronaldo Salgado, his oldest son, and a growing number of elected officials and immigration activists have demanded an independent inquiry.

“This is outrageous to me, and this is ridiculous to hear that no one in that van was a target of any sort of investigation,” Mr. Salgado said in response to the news that his father was not being sought by federal agents.

Federal authorities had said earlier that agents with ICE stopped a vehicle around 6:50 a.m. on Tuesday and tried to arrest Mr. Araujo, whom they described as an “illegal alien.” ICE alleged that Mr. Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to run over the agent, who then fired at him.

The other passengers in Mr. Araujo’s vehicle, according to a person familiar with the case, were Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, the victim’s younger brother.

Dominga Aguilar Salgado, who is married to a third Araujo brother, said the family has not talked to Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, who remains in immigration detention in Conroe, Texas, outside Houston.

“Imagine, one of them died, and the other is in a detention center,” Ms. Salgado said. “The family is going through a lot. He saw what really happened.”

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Hundreds of community members held a rally and candlelight vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who was killed after an encounter with federal agents in Houston. Credit…Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

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Less time sleeping may mean more time sitting down—and more weight gained, according to a new study.

The research, published in Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, found that getting just 90 minutes less sleep each night for six weeks led study participants to sit around more and gain weight.

This study included 95 people who typically slept seven or eight hours each night. After the six weeks of sleep deprivation, however, the participants had gained about a pound, on average, and their sedentary time had increased by an average of 17 minutes. Men and postmenopausal women became the most sedentary, spending an average of 30 extra minutes sitting each day.

This isn’t the first time researchers have connected sleep to weight, and particularly to obesity. In fact, not getting enough shut-eye is linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems, and more sedentary people are also at higher risk for chronic diseases. But many previous studies exploring sleep and weight have been conducted in labs—meaning they often take place over just a few days—and have involved far more drastic reductions in sleep, such as allowing participants a mere four hours of sleep over three days.

Short sleep-restriction studies don’t reflect the effects of chronic behavior that leads to these issues, says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, the study’s senior author and a professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She argues that a six-week experiment conducted outside the lab and involving milder sleep restrictions is a more accurate representation of the realities of chronic mild sleep deprivation, which roughly 30 percent of adults experience, according to the authors.

“It’s a more naturalistic experiment; it more closely aligns with what we see, and it provides a message that’s directly applicable to what people actually feel,” she says.

In separate studies involving the same participants, she and her team have found that a decrease in sleep can raise the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart problems among certain groups.

The study stands out because it shows that lack of sleep is both associated with excess weight and that it causes weight gain, says Jean-Philippe Chaput, a senior scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, who studies sleep health and obesity and was not involved in this research.

“It shows what we already know in a more robust study design,” Chaput says.

One pound of weight gain over six weeks may not seem like a lot, Chaput adds, but it could become more significant if participants kept the same habits for many more months or years.

St-Onge hopes to focus her future research on potential interventions and the positive impact of getting enough sleep, she says.

“It’s easy to say that if you restrict your sleep, you have bad health outcomes. But the goal in life is not to do something bad to see if it has bad outcomes,” she says. “The goal in life is to do something good and then determine if it has healthful outcomes. So I think we should do a lot more of that now that we know that short sleep is not good.”

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Sulukhana Boonyarithsripong/Getty Images

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NEED TO KNOW

• Michael Thompson, 56, was found guilty of raping and murdering his estranged wife, Kimberley Thompson, 43, after a six-week trial

• Prosecutors said he suffocated Kimberley before staging the scene to make it appear she had died by suicide and posting to her social media accounts

• Jurors also convicted Thompson of two counts of perverting the course of justice. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week

A man has been found guilty of raping and murdering his estranged wife after prosecutors said he killed her and then staged the scene to make it appear she had died by suicide.

Michael Thompson, 56, was convicted Wednesday of the rape and murder of Kimberley Thompson, 43, following a six-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court in England, according to a Northamptonshire Police press release and the BBC.

Jurors also found Thompson guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice for attempting to cover up both the rape and the murder, according to the press release.

Prosecutors alleged Thompson raped and suffocated Kimberley sometime between midnight and 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2025, at the Northampton home the couple still shared despite having separated two years earlier, according to the press release.

The couple had been married for 19 years but were in the process of divorcing. The court heard Kimberley had started a new relationship, was planning to move out of the home and had requested about £65,000 as part of their divorce settlement, according to the BBC and Northamptonshire Police.

Following the murder, Thompson staged Kimberley’s bedroom to make it appear she had taken her own life, posted messages on her social media accounts and called East Midlands Ambulance Service at about 5:30 a.m., according to the Northamptonshire Police press release.

Authorities were initially told Kimberley had consumed alcohol and tablets before she was found unresponsive, the BBC reported. But a post-mortem examination found no alcohol in her system and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine, according to the outlet.

Kimberley’s family and friends told investigators they did not believe she had died by suicide and described a history of domestic abuse during her marriage, prompting police to launch a murder investigation on Aug. 12, according to Northamptonshire Police and the BBC.

“It became clear throughout our investigation that Kim had been subjected to domestic abuse for much of her relationship with Thompson, with manipulation, coercive control and physical violence the norm,” Detective Chief Inspector Torie Harrison, who led the investigation, said in a statement.

“Over the years Thompson stripped Kim’s confidence away but in the time since their separation, friends and family began to see the old Kim re-emerging with a renewed enthusiasm for life.”

Harrison said Thompson “brutally rape[d] and murder[ed]” Kimberley before taking time to stage her death “in order to make people believe she had committed suicide.”

The detective also said the investigation revealed Kimberley had contacted a domestic abuse support service in 2013 but later withdrew her complaint because she feared what would happen if she reported the abuse, according to the press release.

Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced next week, per the BBC.

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Kimberley Thompson Credit: Northamptonshire Police

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