1A

A growing number of states are looking at implementing a wealth tax to fund social services.

California is among them, with a billionaire tax set to be included on its November ballot. And this month, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, and Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a proposed tax on luxury second homes in the city. In March, Washington passed its first ever income tax – which has already been met with a legal challenge.

All this comes as the wealth gap in the U.S. grows to its widest point in three decades – and only looks set to keep increasing. In this installment of “If You Can Keep It,” we look at how tax codes have contributed to a growing inequality in the country, how to fix it, and what this wealth gap means for the health of our democracy.

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President Donald Trump is giving Iran a short window to unify behind an offer for peace in the Middle East after negotiations between Tehran and Washington recently broke down — or the ceasefire he extended Tuesday ends.

Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is leaving the agency amidst accusations of misconduct. She’s now the third cabinet member to leave during the second Trump administration.

Elsewhere, Virginia voters approved a new congressional map on Tuesday that could help Democrats pick up seats in the House during the midterms later this year. But a state judge blocked the map from being certified just a day after its passage.

And, in global news, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Islamabad, Pakistan, tonight for another round of peace talks with the U.S.

A top Trump administration envoy floated the idea to FIFA this week to replace Iran with Italy at this summer’s World Cup. The swap was likely suggested as an effort to repair ties between President Donald Trump and Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni amid rumors they’ve fallen out over the presidents attack on Pope Leo XIV.

The Trump administration is reportedly in talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo to send as many as eleven hundred Afghan refugees there, including more than 400 children.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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Just a few decades ago, human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV, was a death sentence for those who contracted it.

However, over the past 35 years, more effective medication and widespread access to AIDS drug assistance programs have helped those with the virus live longer and healthier lives.

But in the coming months, tens of thousands of people living with HIV in the U.S. could lose access to that medication. That’s because states around the country are trying to save money by making cuts to programs that pay for HIV meds and care.

In March, more than 16,000 people lost coverage when Florida slashed ADAP eligibility overnight. Weeks later, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law allocating $31 million to keep thousands of those who lost coverage on their meds.

But that money is only slated to last through June. And this isn’t just a problem happening in Florida. Some 23 states and Washington, D.C. have implemented or are considering implementing cuts to their own HIV medication and care programs to help balance their budgets.

We sit down with a panel of experts to discuss.

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More than 70 million Americans live with a disability. That’s roughly one in four adults. And any of us can join that number at any point in our lives. Through an injury, illness, or simply getting older.

Disabled people are one of the largest minorities in this country. Yet there’s one part of their lives that almost never gets discussed: sex.

Today, that silence is being challenged – by disabled people themselves – online, in film and television, and in conversations happening in bedrooms and doctors’ offices across the country.

In February, we brought you 1A’s first sex week – about sex across our lifespans. And you told us you wanted more about sex and disability.

How do we express our needs in the bedroom, especially when the sex we want doesn’t match common ideas of what sex – and the people who have it – can look like?

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Towns across the U.S. are now grappling with what it means to have ICE detention centers in their backyard — even communities that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump and support his deportation efforts.

Last week, hundreds of protestors showed up outside a Maryland courtroom while a federal judge temporarily blocked the construction of a detention center in the state. That pause will remain in place as a lawsuit from the the state’s attorney general plays out. And last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro blocked ICE’s access to water and sewage systems in two different counties where warehouses were bought. Local leaders argue these warehouses would overwhelm city resources.

So, what are conditions like in these facilities? And what does the future hold for this new wave of detention centers?

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Most of us would agree that access to foreign intelligence is important to national security. But whose private data gets swept up in the process?

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was first established in 1978 following Watergate. It’s a key U.S. surveillance tool. Section 702 was added to the act in 2008 allowing the government to collect the communications of more than 300,000 foreign nationals outside of the U.S. without a warrant every year. And the Trump administration would like to keep it that way even though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worry that the act violates American citizens’ right to privacy.

That section was set to expire today. But last Friday, the House voted to extend the expiration to April 30th. That’s after House Speaker Mike Johnson failed to corral his party’s support behind a long-term extension. The Senate also passed that short-term extension.

So, as its future hangs in the balance, what’s at risk if we lose this tool? And what are the dangers of failing to reform it?

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We start with the U.S.-Israel war with Iran — a war that President Donald Trump said would end in two to three weeks. Now, in its seventh week, the Pentagon is sending 10,000 more troops to the Middle East to pressure Iran into making a peace deal.

On Sunday, Trump posted a long rant on Truth Social calling Pope Leo XIV “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy.” Then, later that night, Trump posted an AI-generated photo that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ.

Rep. Eric Swalwell was a front-runner for the seat of California governor just weeks ago. Now, he’s out of the race and out of Congress after numerous sexual assault allegations were leveled against him.

And, in global news, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz completely open to commercial vessels. This move is expected to lessen severity of the growing global energy crisis and bring the possibility of a peace agreement between Iran and the U.S. closer to becoming a reality.

New reporting from Axios indicates that U.S. and Iranian negotiators made progress in new peace talks on Tuesday. On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said a second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran will be held in Islamabad. But no date has been announced yet.

And it’s the dawn of a new era in Hungary this week. For the first time in 16 years, Viktor Orbán will no longer lead the nation from Budapest, having lost the election for his position as prime minister to conservative rival Peter Magyar.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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For over 75 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has bolstered American power and shaped the world order as we know it. But under President Donald Trump, its future is uncertain.

The United States has spent the better part of a year telling its allies they’re on their own. Trump has threatened to annex Greenland – the sovereign territory of NATO ally, Denmark. He skipped the Munich Security Conference. And he launched the war in Iran without consulting NATO allies.

Now, the president is asking for help securing the Strait of Hormuz. And European countries are saying no.

How is the war in Iran testing the alliance? And how would a U.S. withdrawal from NATO reshape global power dynamics?

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Imagine you’re in a bookstore and you wander over to the fiction section. There, you find two shelves: one for human-written novels… and one for novels written by AI.

That future may not be as far off as you think. Roughly 4 million books were published in the U.S. in 2025. That’s a more than a 32 percent increase from 2024, according to the trade magazine Publisher’s Weekly.

It’s unclear how many of those books were written by AI, in part because software used to detect it can be ineffective. And the literary waters were made even murkier by the fact that at least 3 million of those 4 million books were self-published. That makes it even more difficult to know if they were written by human hands (er, minds).

That’s not to say the self-published portion of the industry is the only part where this tech is showing up. Hachette, one the largest publishers in the U.S., canceled one of its novels, “SHY GIRL,” after allegations that its author used AI to write it.

All this is marking a turning point for the publishing industry. How can authors ethically use this technology? And do readers really need new AI-authored books in a market already saturated with options?

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It’s that time of the year again. Have you finished filing your return?

Doing taxes this season has been particularly fraught – for both taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service. It’s been a year since DOGE slashed federal funding and cut droves of federal employees. Those departures hit the IRS hard. Its leadership has largely turned over.

Also, Republicans in Congress took back billions of dollars the agency had received to improve its systems. Then, they gave the IRS even more tax code changes to enforce.

Can the IRS handle it all? And what do taxes – and a functional tax agency – have to do with the strength of U.S. democracy? We sit down with a panel of experts to find out.

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