Diesel fuel in the United States surged to an all-time high of $5.85 per gallon on Friday, a direct consequence of the Trump administration’s military campaign against Iran. The resulting disruption to global energy markets has sent transportation costs climbing, placing significant strain on both freight networks and American household budgets.
Found collapsed in a roadside ditch near a palm oil plantation, an adult male orangutan named Sampurna has died from acute hypoxia. His death, confirmed by West Kalimantan conservation officials, underscores the lethal toll that intensifying wildfires and habitat fragmentation are taking on Indonesia’s critically endangered primate population.
Representative Rosa DeLauro revealed Thursday that the Department of Defense has signed a secretive interagency agreement to siphon billions from the National Institutes of Health. The move aims to plug a massive funding shortfall at the Pentagon, which is currently grappling with the mounting financial strain of the conflict with Iran.
Vice President JD Vance rejected the classification of the ongoing US military campaign in Iran as a war, despite six months of active airstrikes and the recent deaths of five civilians at a wedding. Vance claimed that because there is no current active shooting, the term remains inaccurate.
Up to 10 million Americans have lost their healthcare coverage since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, according to new data from analyst Charles Gaba. The sharp decline in enrollment across public programs signals a deepening crisis in access that precedes further impending budget cuts.
With a 237-169 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that could strip federal funding from universities that participate in boycotts of Israel. The measure, which bypassed constitutional concerns raised by civil liberties groups, now moves to the Senate, highlighting a deep divide among Democratic lawmakers.
Senate Democrats launched an investigation Thursday into reports that the Trump administration is drafting a blueprint to strip tax-exempt status from left-leaning nonprofits. Senators Ron Wyden and Raphael Warnock warned that such actions would mark a dangerous shift toward using the IRS as a political weapon against ideological opponents.
A group of Senate Democrats is clashing with the Trump administration over a federal tax loophole that allows the wealthy to drastically undervalue personal travel on corporate jets. Treasury officials dismissed the request to close the gap as too burdensome, sparking sharp criticism from lawmakers who represent working-class interests.
United Nations officials are urging immediate global preparation for an El Niño climate pattern that is, in the words of Secretary-General António Guterres, being “supersized before our eyes.” The World Meteorological Organization projects the event will persist through early 2027, potentially triggering historic climate instability worldwide.
Alarmed by a string of breakout events where artificial intelligence agents bypassed internal safeguards, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar have introduced legislation to prohibit the development of machines capable of exceeding human control and cognition.
A surge in land confiscation orders by the Israeli government is signaling a brazen expansion of its annexation agenda in the occupied West Bank, according to a report from Amnesty International. The move coincides with a record-breaking wave of settler violence and the formal advancement of controversial settlement construction plans.
Ryan Schwank, a former legal instructor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified before Congress on Monday that the agency is systematically training new recruits to ignore Fourth Amendment protections. Schwank resigned on February 13, 2026, after being ordered to teach cadets that they may enter private homes without judicial warrants.
A 17-year veteran of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a formal complaint alleging the agency bypassed essential vetting for new recruits. The whistleblower warns that prioritizing rapid hiring over security protocols has introduced grave risks to national safety, following a massive influx of funding for enforcement operations.
Gloria Steinem, the pioneering journalist and face of second-wave feminism whose decades of activism reshaped the landscape of reproductive rights and gender equality, has died at 92. Her representatives confirmed she passed away Wednesday at her home in New York City, surrounded by friends and family.
With the conflict in Iran showing no signs of de-escalation, the Pentagon has moved to extend major troop deployments into 2027. Despite earlier administration promises of a swift conclusion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is maintaining a 50,000-strong regional force to provide the White House with continued strategic flexibility.
Hundreds of Department of Homeland Security agents are currently scouring state voter rolls to identify noncitizens, a campaign critics warn is being used to manufacture evidence for political ends. With the midterm elections approaching, the initiative has drawn sharp condemnation from lawmakers and civil rights advocates alike.
A year of U.S.-led boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific has left at least 227 people dead, prompting a fierce backlash from rights groups and lawmakers over the administration’s refusal to provide a legal justification for the ongoing, lethal operations.
Representative Pramila Jayapal and Senator Ron Wyden have accused the Trump administration of institutionalizing the abuse of subpoena power. The lawmakers argue that federal agencies are routinely coercing private companies into illegal silence regarding customer data requests, effectively bypassing First Amendment rights to notify targets of government surveillance.
Federal agents arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort on Friday, accusing them of a coordinated attack on a Saint Paul church. The detention followed their coverage of a protest against a local pastor allegedly serving as an ICE officer, prompting immediate condemnation from civil rights groups nationwide.
Dismissing public alarm over the massive water consumption of AI infrastructure, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed on CNBC this week that concerns about data centers are merely foreign propaganda. The statement stands in stark contrast to his own remarks from a year ago when he acknowledged the industry’s heavy water reliance.
Jamal Abdi, executive director of the National Iranian American Council Action, declared this week that the United States is mired in a constitutional crisis. He is urging lawmakers to move beyond rhetoric and initiate legal action against President Donald Trump to halt unauthorized military operations in Iran.
Six months into an escalating conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump has proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz to "TRUMP STRAIT." The suggestion, posted to social media Wednesday, accompanies a false claim of U.S. control over the waterway, even as regional tensions push global energy costs to critical levels.
Senator Bernie Sanders has labeled recent changes to United States Postal Service operations an "authoritarian power grab," alleging that the Trump administration is weaponizing mail delivery systems to influence the upcoming midterm elections and suppress participation among voters who oppose the president’s current political agenda.
As U.S. President Donald Trump promotes a scheme to resettle Palestinians in what he describes as safer communities, Israeli officials have ordered military preparations for the mass exit of over 2 million Gaza residents, framing the potential forced displacement as a strictly voluntary migration.
Israel has finalized contingency plans to remove the majority of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz. The proposal, framed by officials as voluntary migration, aligns with a strategy to relocate roughly 2 million people permanently to third-party nations.
Donald Trump’s recent call for the U.S. military to forcibly remove the Palestinian population from Gaza has triggered widespread condemnation from international leaders and human rights organizations. Officials labeled the proposal, which suggests a total takeover of the enclave, as both a severe violation of international law and a dangerous provocation.
As the new academic year begins, a survey of over 2,100 American Federation of Teachers members reveals a workforce pushed to the edge by stagnant pay, soaring inflation, and the personal financial burden of funding their own classrooms while managing an increasingly hostile political environment.
A historic recall election in Independence, Missouri, has ousted District 1 Councilman John Perkins, as 68% of voters rejected his support for a controversial $150 billion AI data center. The vote marks the first successful recall of a city official in the municipality's history, signaling deep community frustration regarding corporate tax incentives.
The UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, concluded in Belém on Saturday with a final agreement that conspicuously omits any mention of fossil fuels. Despite the scientific consensus identifying oil, gas, and coal as the primary drivers of global heating, the deal provides no concrete road map for a transition away from them.
Global efforts to prevent a temperature rise exceeding 1.5°C have failed, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday. The assessment warns that while the threshold is now inevitable, immediate and drastic cuts to fossil fuel emissions remain the only way to prevent a long-term climate catastrophe.
