This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.
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Here’s what The Lever published this week:
LEVER DEEP DIVEHow ICE Is Outsourcing Mass Deportations. One of the world’s largest private security firms is poised to rake in millions from the Trump administration’s historic deportation spending blitz.
LEVER SCOOPS
How Google Ruined Your Phone. Google has sabotaged its phones’ open-source technology in order to stamp out its competitors and intensify surveillance of its customers.
Big Tech Taps Natural Gas For Its Coal Country “AI Revolution.” The nation’s biggest fossil fuel, technology, and financial firms joined Trump this week as he announced $90 billion of private investment in artificial intelligence and energy infrastructure, including natural gas.
Buckle Up: Delta’s Expanded Surge Pricing Could Signal Higher Fares. Airline ticket prices are rising faster than inflation, and now Delta is scaling up its artificial intelligence-powered dynamic pricing to further gouge its customers.
Trump’s Allies Could Profit Off Privatizing Weather Forecasting Agencies. Businesses linked to Trump’s cabinet stand to benefit from privatizing weather monitoring agencies — leaving Americans to pay for lifesaving weather forecasts themselves.
Rail Barons Push For Robots To Conduct Track Inspections. The rail industry wants to replace human track inspectors with robotic ones, despite data showing most derailments are caused by conditions that are undetectable to computers.
LEVER PODCASTS
Why They’re Protecting Jeffrey Epstein’s Secrets. Journalist Julie K. Brown broke open the cover-up of Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme — and she says the government is still hiding the truth.
Eight Absurd Handouts Hiding In Trump’s Tax Bill. A vanity sculpture garden? A tax break for online bookies? Incentives for Wall Street to fire you? What actually passed in Trump’s sprawling “Big Beautiful Bill.”
BONUS: How Trump’s Tax Bill Enriches Elite Dems And Hurts GOP Voters. Our extended conversation with David Dayen about the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
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LEVER DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:
🔥 Trump sets lifesaving aid on fire. So much for preventing government waste. After months of warnings from federal workers were ignored, 500 metric tons worth of emergency, high-nutrition biscuits intended for global disaster relief are instead marked for incineration, The Atlantic reports. Thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency, which all but eliminated the U.S. Agency for International Development, routine foreign aid expenses — including deliveries — now require approval from the very top. Yet employees’ requests to distribute the biscuits were ignored, and now they're nearing expiration, leading the Trump administration to order their incineration.
❤️🩹 Bigger is not always better. A new report is exposing UnitedHealth Group’s sprawling expansion to become the largest health care conglomerate in the world. In just 10 years, the firm increased its holdings from 219 subsidiaries in 2013 to nearly 2,700 by 2023, helping drive $400.3 billion in revenue last year alone. More than 90,000 doctors, or 10 percent of all U.S. physicians, contract with UnitedHealth Group, and the firm controls 15 percent of all U.S. health insurance plans. Meanwhile, the company has faced legal suits and investigations into allegations that it inappropriately denies patients’ claims. UnitedHealth Group is currently leveraging the murder of one of its executives to launch a legal war against doctors, journalists, and others critical of its monopolistic profiteering.
🤖 Grok joins the army after Nazi breakdown. Elon Musk’s company xAI was just awarded a new $200 million federal contract to share its artificial intelligence technology with the Department of Defense, just days after the platform’s AI chatbot, known as Grok, had to be rebooted after it went full Nazi. Like, actually white supremacist. The DOD also awarded new multimillion-dollar contracts to Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI to develop AI tools for the military. De-Nazified (for now), Grok is also now available for use in Teslas.
WE LOVE TO SEE IT
A taste of this week’s good news:
- Free Pre-K takes big steps nationwide.
- The gloves are off for masked ICE raids.
- States invest in wildlife crossings
- One agency reverses course on mass layoffs.
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LEVER IN THE NEWS
CNN — David Sirota joined the New York Politics show to discuss the Democratic establishment’s pushback on NYC’s Democratic Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.
The Nation — The publication referenced our podcast with Julie K. Brown, discussing her reporting on Jeffrey Epstein’s legal cover-up.
Your Call — Luke Goldstein joined the Bay Area public radio program on KALW to discuss his reporting on the crypto legislation moving through Congress.
More To The Story — Sirota joined Mother Jones’ podcast to discuss the political response to climate disasters, the reconciliation bill, and New York’s mayoral race.
- This podcast was also published on Reveal.
Jacobin — The publication referenced our reporting on the “corruption bomb” headed to the Supreme Court that could further dismantle campaign finance regulation.
Travel Noire — The travel industry publication referenced our reporting on airplanes’ partnership with ICE to share your personal travel data.
Tone Madison — The Wisconsin-based newsroom referenced our reporting on the contractors eliminating mail communications in jail, and the Florida mogul getting rich off the industry.
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