Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday, defending the White House's $87.6 billion supplemental war spending request — the largest wartime ask since Afghanistan. The package includes $21 billion in munitions replenishment, $1.4 billion for a Central African Ebola outbreak, and $500 million for D.C. construction. Democrats pushed back hard, with Sen. Patty Murray calling it an attempt to "secure tens of billions for unrelated Pentagon priorities."
Andrew Arrabaca, 43, an Army veteran, was arrested Monday after pouring gasoline and setting off an incendiary device outside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, injuring two federal employees and a civilian immigrant attending a hearing. He also fired an airsoft rifle at the entrance and arrived carrying axes, a machete, knives, and additional devices — telling investigators he was "OK if he hurt or killed people going in and out of the building." The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating.
The FDA and CDC are investigating a Cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell locations across Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and West Virginia — 1,644 cases and 94 hospitalizations so far, no deaths. Supplier Taylor Farms de Mexico has voluntarily recalled all iceberg lettuce distributed to 27 states between June 29 and July 16. Epidemiological and traceback data continues to point to the Taylor Farms supply chain despite a preliminary lab result later classified as a false positive.
Second Lady Usha Vance gave birth to baby boy Alec Neel Vance on July 19 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, making her the first woman to give birth while her husband served as Vice President since Ellen Colfax in April 1870. JD and Usha now have four children — sons Ewan, Vivek, and Alec, and daughter Mirabel. President Trump congratulated the family over the weekend.
US Central Command confirmed the 10th consecutive night of strikes on Iran on Monday, hitting targets near Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Shiraz, and Isfahan. Iran retaliated by striking Kuwait's desalination and power plants — infrastructure supplying 90 percent of the country's drinking water — for the second straight day, while Iranian forces set two tankers ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz. The White House says the campaign will continue at the President's discretion while diplomatic channels technically remain open.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visited the White House Tuesday in the first such visit by a Lebanese head of state since 2009, presenting a plan to disarm Hezbollah and pressing Trump for Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon. A U.S.-backed framework agreement from late June set the terms, and the State Department announced "pilot zone" operations have begun in three Lebanese villages — Lebanese army troops moving in on Hezbollah weapons as Israeli forces conduct a phased pullback.
British prosecutors charged 28-year-old Joshua Kerry of Rotherham with the murder of Ann Widdecombe, the 78-year-old former Conservative MP and Brexit Party figurehead found dead July 9 at her rural home in southwest England. Kerry appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London Tuesday, with police still investigating whether the attack carried a political or terrorist motive.
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory published the first complete molecular map of how influenza A rewires human cells during active infection, revealing a two-pronged attack: the virus hijacks host proteins to build its own surface structures while simultaneously dismantling the cell's natural antiviral defenses in a single coordinated strike. Published in Nature Microbiology, the findings open entirely new antiviral drug targets beyond what current flu vaccines and treatments address.
MIT researchers resolved a decade-long debate about why solid-state batteries keep failing: lithium dendrites fracture ceramic electrolytes by building hydrostatic pressure inside nanoscale cracks — a physical problem, not the electron-leakage mechanism scientists had assumed. The Nature study points to three engineering solutions including tougher electrolyte materials and protective anode coatings, with direct implications for next-generation EV and consumer device batteries.
Paleontologists from Montana State University and the University of Alberta confirmed a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth remains embedded in the nose of an Edmontosaurus skull recovered from Montana's Hell Creek Formation — likely the clearest fossil evidence of a face-to-face T. rex attack ever found. The tooth's orientation shows the hadrosaur met its attacker head-on, overturning the long-held assumption that T. rex primarily struck prey from the side or rear. Predator-tooth-in-prey-bone specimens are extraordinarily rare in the fossil record.
