Covid.gov, the government website where you could previously find information about covid, now redirects to a page that pushes the conspiracy theory that the virus originated from a lab. Navigating to the website reveals a prominent banner with the words “Lab Leak” and a photo of Donald Trump, as spotted earlier by Wired’s Andrew Couts.

Covidtests.gov, where you could order free covid tests, also redirects to the new webpage.

President Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum extending a freeze on hiring federal civilian employees into mid-July as his administration looks to slash the size and scope of the government.

The memorandum states that no civilian government role that is currently vacant will be filled, and no new positions will be created unless stipulated by the administration.

Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at the left’s sudden flip-flopping on the Supreme Court, and cover more media misses.

Suddenly, the Supreme Court Is Good

The Nation’s Elie Mystal writes that Trump has been “racking up some wins at the Supreme Court and the answer for why is simple: John Roberts is a feckless coward.”

“He’s like a cop in Uvalde, cowering outside waiting for the shooting to stop, instead of doing his job,” Mystal said in a post on X sharing his column about the Court’s “rubber stamp rulings.”

An appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump can fire two board members of independent agencies handling labor issues from their respective posts in the federal government.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed to lift orders blocking the Trump administration from removing Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris and National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday refused to pause a judge's ruling requiring the Trump administration to reinstate 25,000 workers at 18 federal agencies who lost their jobs as part of the Republican president's purge of the federal workforce.

A panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there was no reason to pause the decision because the judge in Baltimore, Maryland is expected to decide next week whether to extend it further, in a lawsuit brought by 19 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C....

In the wake of the crises of the decade so far — the pandemic, extreme weather and natural disasters, among others — Americans have increasingly expressed their doubts about institutions, the government especially.

“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.

I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.

Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.

“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”

Ten Senate Democrats voted Friday to help Republicans break a 60-vote filibuster and advance a Trump-backed government funding bill that paves the way for Congress to avoid a midnight shutdown deadline.

The Senate passed a House-approved government funding bill that averts a government shutdown that was set to be triggered at the end of the day Friday.

The Senate voted 54 to 46 to pass the bill. The approval of the bill follows several Democrats voting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to keep the funding bill moving forward despite blowback from other members of their party.

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen voted in favor of the bill. All other Democrats voted against it...

Senators voted Friday to pass legislation to prevent cuts to the District of Columbia’s local budget after city officials warned the District faced a $1 billion hit under a stopgap government funding bill approved by the Senate moments earlier.

The bill, which allows D.C. to continue operating at its adopted fiscal 2025 budget, passed by voice vote.