Closing out night one of the first-ever GOP midterm convention in Dallas, President Trump promised a $5,000 payment to every American adult if Republicans hold Congress in November. He called his second term "the greatest two years in the history of the presidency" and said he'll personally campaign in roughly 35 of the closest House and Senate races. He also predicted the Iran war ends "immediately after the election" and that oil prices will fall.
Sitting Democratic Sen. John Fetterman delivered a surprise video message to the Republican midterm convention backing his Pennsylvania colleague, Republican Sen. Dave McCormick. The move landed hours after an explosive report about Fetterman had national Democrats sharpening their knives. It's one of the strangest cross-party moments of the cycle, and it came on a stage built specifically to elect Republicans.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Missouri Republicans' emergency application to use a redrawn congressional map in November, leaving the state Supreme Court's ruling untouched. That means the 2022 map governs Missouri's midterm elections. It's a real setback for GOP redistricting math in a cycle where every seat is being counted twice.
Today marks one year since Charlie Kirk was killed, and a towering statue of the conservative activist is set to be unveiled in New York's Times Square, with the sculptor pressing ahead despite vandalism threats. Meanwhile at the Utah campus where he was shot, a Democratic student group is moving to block a planned memorial. Conservatives are also publicly weighing how much risk campus confrontation now carries.
A senior US official confirmed that Tuesday's Iranian ballistic missile barrage scored a direct hit on an A-10 Warthog and lightly damaged roughly eight F-15s at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Jordanian air defenses intercepted 18 of 20 incoming missiles and there were no US casualties. Separately, the IAEA board voted 23-3 to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, the first such referral in two decades.
The UK rolled out sanctions targeting Israeli settlements, banning West Bank settlement imports and moving against settlement expansion, with London's foreign secretary calling the occupation unlawful. Israeli officials responded furiously. US blowback is now looming over what has become one of the sharpest London-Jerusalem ruptures in years.
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff wrapped a Kyiv visit that followed a three-hour Kremlin sitdown with Vladimir Putin, describing the round as substantive and important, with next steps expected in the coming weeks. Both sides agreed to a three-day pause on strikes against each other's capitals to let negotiations proceed. Germany confirmed it is sending PAC-2 Patriot interceptors to Kyiv from national stocks, and territory in Donetsk and Luhansk remains the central sticking point.
NTSB investigators recovered both recorders from the Amazon Air Boeing 767 that overran a Miami International runway by about 1,300 feet, and flight data indicates the pilot may have attempted to go around shortly after touchdown. The jet, operated by 21 Air, went through the perimeter fence and struck a van carrying an airline cleaning crew and an SUV on Northwest 67th Avenue. Five people on the ground were killed; both pilots survived.
An observational study released Wednesday found that patients who regained weight after stopping GLP-1 obesity medications reported higher odds of suicidal thinking. Researchers were careful to note the design shows correlation, not causation. Still, with these drugs now in tens of millions of medicine cabinets, the off-ramp is getting as much scrutiny as the on-ramp.
A roughly 30-by-30-foot sinkhole swallowed the driveway of Nicolas Cage's Malibu beachfront home after the remnants of Hurricane Marie drove ten-foot waves onto the Southern California coast. Cage, who bought the 4,000-square-foot house for $10.5 million in 2024, wasn't home, and no injuries were reported. Neighboring properties were also hit and access to the gated community has been restricted.
