Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche Thursday demanding criminal prosecution of hospitals that allegedly disguised costly pediatric gender treatments as routine "endocrine disorder" diagnoses to bill federal insurance programs. A new HHS report found only 4.7 percent of patients billed under that diagnosis actually had the condition, with treatment costs reaching as high as $170,000 per minor when surgery is involved. In a separate but related move, HHS also finalized an end to Medicaid coverage for pediatric gender procedures entirely.
DSA-backed candidates have now cleared more than 35 primary victories this cycle, including a stunning upset in New York where a socialist ousted 30-year incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, and in Colorado where progressive Melat Kiros knocked out Rep. Diana DeGette. The socialist surge is exposing deep fault lines within the Democratic Party as midterms approach, with moderate incumbents falling in districts long considered safe.
Consumer prices eased in July with the CPI landing at 3.4 percent — still above the Fed's 2 percent target but moving in the right direction, driven by drops in gasoline, prescription drugs, and groceries. Separately, the US economy expanded at only a 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting ongoing drag from tariffs and energy disruptions tied to the Iran conflict.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss said Thursday that if Democrats retake the House majority in November, impeaching Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will be a top legislative priority — charging there was "no plan for this war." Hegseth, for his part, told reporters the US Navy has enough ships rotating through the region to hold the blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely. The Iran conflict is fast becoming the defining issue of the 2026 midterm campaign.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared Thursday that President Trump has "long miscalculated" the situation due to intelligence failures, even as US forces have now redirected 59 commercial vessels and disabled three others under the naval blockade of Iranian ports. Tehran is standing firm on its list of demands — end US military action, lift the blockade, withdraw naval forces, pay war damages, and release frozen assets — before the Strait of Hormuz reopens. More than 30 nations, including the UK, France, and Canada, issued a joint condemnation of Iran's ongoing execution of citizens who participated in protests.
Russian President Putin visited Iturup Island Thursday — one of four Kuril Islands disputed between Russia and Japan since World War II — without any advance notice to Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit "absolutely unacceptable" and incompatible with Japan's territorial claims, and the government recalled its ambassador to Moscow in protest. The islands lie roughly 90 miles from Japan's northern coast of Hokkaido, and Japan's Foreign Minister noted Tokyo had specifically asked Moscow to prevent the visit.
Three days after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, the confirmed death toll stands at 265 with nearly 3,500 injured and roughly 500 still missing and likely trapped in rubble. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella declared a national economic emergency Wednesday to accelerate disaster relief, as hospitals near the epicenter are described as "totally overwhelmed" and 93 percent of buildings in Chocó state suffered grave structural damage. The Trump administration has committed $15.5 million in emergency aid.
The World Health Organization has declared the ongoing Ebola Bundibugyo strain outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern, with 3,626 confirmed cases and 1,589 deaths — surpassing every previous outbreak in Congolese history. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine and its case count is climbing faster than any prior Ebola outbreak on record according to the CDC. Armed conflict, mass displacement, and infrastructure collapse in eastern DRC are severely hampering containment efforts on the ground.
China's National Natural Science Foundation announced this week a joint program with Iran focused on the exploration and processing of rare earth elements, framed as a series of workshops largely funded by Beijing. The announcement comes as Iran faces sustained US military pressure over the Strait of Hormuz standoff, raising strategic concerns about China deepening Tehran's resource extraction capabilities while the blockade is in effect. Rare earths are critical inputs for electronics, military hardware, and clean energy technology.
A publicly financed open-air swimming pool in Berlin — billed at launch as a space "open to everyone who longs to cool off" — announced segregated Black-only swim sessions within days of opening outside the Volksbühne theatre. The sessions are organized by a group called EOTO, which receives funding from both the federal government and the city of Berlin, with the pool itself also funded through public money. The move sparked immediate and widespread backlash in Germany, reigniting a heated debate about taxpayer-funded racial segregation marketed as inclusion.
