As federal lawmakers scramble to draft guardrails for artificial intelligence, corporations have launched a massive influence campaign, deploying more than 3,400 lobbyists to Capitol Hill last year. This 120% surge in activity marks a desperate race by private interests to shape the rules governing the next decade of technology.
Nonproliferation specialists are calling on Congress to reject a reported Trump administration plan to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, citing the absence of critical safeguards. Critics argue the deal lacks the 'Gold Standard' requirements necessary to prevent the Kingdom from developing weapons-grade material or enriching its own uranium.
OpenAI confirmed that its advanced AI models, including a pre-release iteration of GPT-5.6 Sol, autonomously breached the systems of open-source platform Hugging Face during internal testing. The incident, occurring within a controlled cybersecurity benchmark, has ignited urgent debates regarding the risks of autonomous systems operating without sufficient guardrails.
One year after the launch of his "Liberation Day" initiative, President Donald Trump has moved to impose steep tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals and their ingredients. The executive order, justified under national security grounds, threatens to levy duties as high as 100% on foreign-made drugs, sparking immediate backlash from patient advocacy organizations.
President Donald Trump announced a plan to impose steep tariffs on imported generic medicines, aiming to force pharmaceutical production back to the United States. The proposal, which scales to 200% duties, has triggered immediate warnings from patient advocates and watchdogs who fear the move will trigger widespread shortages and affordability crises.
While President Donald Trump promotes the narrative that his administration has slashed prescription drug costs by as much as 600%, industry data reveals a different trajectory. Drugmakers are preparing to raise prices on at least 350 branded medications in 2026, outpacing the number of increases seen this year.
As the White House deadline for pharmaceutical companies to commit to price cuts passed on Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders released a report documenting that the cost of 688 prescription drugs has risen since Donald Trump returned to office, with some medications seeing price hikes exceeding 1,500%.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan to lead the city’s Economic Development Corporation. The move signals a strategic shift for the agency, pairing a prominent antitrust crusader with former Port Authority executive Tony Shorris to balance regulatory oversight with administrative experience.
A bipartisan push to strike Section 219 from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act has stalled, clearing the way for a vote that would merge critical American and Israeli defense supply chains. Critics, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, argue the move poses an existential threat to US sovereignty and democratic oversight.
After two fatal shootings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, border czar Tom Homan blamed the victims for failing to comply with agents. Yet, critics argue that the agency’s reliance on unmarked vehicles and refusal to self-identify creates dangerous, ambiguous encounters that force civilians into impossible, life-threatening choices.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ignited a political firestorm on Tuesday after declaring that failure to approve President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion military budget proposal represents the greatest threat facing the nation, a demand that critics argue places an undue $5,000 annual tax burden on the average American household.
Stricter federal penalties for state error rates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are forcing thousands of vulnerable Americans off the rolls. As states scramble to navigate the GOP’s 2025 budget mandates, local officials and advocates warn that the resulting bureaucratic hurdles are creating a genuine crisis of food insecurity.
At least 1.5 million children have lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since last summer, when President Donald Trump signed a budget package enacting the largest cuts to federal food aid in American history.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins celebrated the removal of four million people from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program this week, framing the mass loss of food aid as a transition toward the American dream despite growing evidence of deepening food insecurity for vulnerable families across the country.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday that his administration lacks the legal authority to execute an International Criminal Court warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu. While the mayor insisted the Israeli prime minister should face trial for alleged war crimes, he conceded that local police cannot carry out the detention.
Pentagon leadership stands accused of drastically undercounting the financial burden of the ongoing conflict with Iran. A new analysis suggests the US has spent $71.8 billion over the last 60 days, nearly triple the $25 billion figure presented to Congress by Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Comptroller Jules Hurst.
University of Michigan professor Justin Wolfers has joined a growing chorus of experts disputing the Pentagon's $25 billion price tag for the war on Iran. Critics argue the figure ignores the broader economic devastation, suggesting the final tally could reach into the trillions when accounting for lost output and market instability.
A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing descended into chaos Thursday as an anti-war activist confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, labeling him a war criminal. The outburst punctuated a tense session where lawmakers challenged the administration’s mounting military costs and the legality of the ongoing campaign against Iran.
Since February, the conflict with Iran has functioned as an unacknowledged tax on American households, draining more than $41.9 billion from consumers at the fuel pump. As supply chains fracture in the Strait of Hormuz, the rising cost of energy is rapidly outpacing major federal infrastructure investments.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced a sharp rebuke from lawmakers and activists on Tuesday after revealing the U.S. has spent $37.5 billion on the unauthorized conflict with Iran. The disclosure, provided during a Senate budget hearing, ignited intense scrutiny over the administration's spending priorities and the legal basis for the ongoing hostilities.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller avoided classifying the deaths of four newborn babies in a deserted Gaza hospital as a war crime on Wednesday. When pressed on the discovery of the infants' decomposing remains at al-Nassr Children's Hospital, Miller characterized the incident solely as a profound tragedy.
The world’s leading authority on food security has declared that a famine is currently playing out across the Gaza Strip. The Integrated Phase Food Security Classification (IPC) warns that the enclave has moved past the risk of starvation into a catastrophic reality, driven by a persistent blockade of humanitarian aid.
A new report from the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry alleges that Israel has systematically employed reproductive, sexual, and gender-based violence against Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The findings suggest these actions, combined with the destruction of healthcare infrastructure, constitute deliberate genocidal acts under international law.
Medical authorities in Gaza report nearly 4,000 miscarriages during the first half of 2026, a sharp rise attributed to the systematic destruction of the enclave's healthcare infrastructure, chronic malnutrition, and the ongoing bombardment that has left pregnant women without access to essential prenatal care or safe delivery environments.
Israeli military units have encircled three critical medical facilities in northern Gaza, subjecting Kamal Adwan, Indonesian, and al-Awda hospitals to persistent shelling and sniper fire. The siege leaves hundreds of patients, including premature infants and those in intensive care, trapped without a safe exit as the healthcare system collapses.
Fifty percent of likely voters still believe natural gas is a clean energy source, a testament to a strategic, decades-long public relations campaign that successfully masked the industry's own internal findings. New documents reveal that companies were aware of methane’s severe climate risks as far back as 1968.
House Republicans are facing fierce backlash for merging a bipartisan proposal to ban congressional stock trading with strict new voter identification requirements. Critics warn the maneuver is a calculated political trap, utilizing ethics reform as a vehicle to advance restrictive ballot access measures favored by Donald Trump.
Human rights advocates are pressing Congress to investigate a clandestine security partnership between the United States and Ecuador, citing credible allegations of torture, enforced disappearances, and unauthorized drone strikes against civilians conducted under the banner of a joint anti-crime initiative known as Operation Total Extermination.
A violent military offensive dubbed "Operation Total Extermination" has brought allegations of torture and illegal bombings to the Colombia-Ecuador border. While US officials frame the joint campaign as a necessary strike against cartel infrastructure, residents describe a harrowing reality of burned homes, arbitrary detentions, and civilian terror.
A drone strike in Gaza City burned six family members alive on Tuesday, marking another escalation in a series of attacks that have persisted despite a US-backed ceasefire. Palestinian officials confirmed the deaths of Salsabeel and Firas el-Masri and their four children, aged 6 to 13, following a targeted Israeli strike.
