At least 30 people have been killed in a Russian glide bomb attack on two civilian buses in the eastern front line city of Kramatorsk, rescue officials say. read more
Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end who played on the Bears' 1963 NFL championship team and coached the team to its only Super Bowl championship after the 1985 season, has died. He was 86. He died about 9 a.m. Friday surrounded by family and friends, a family spokesperson said. A statement issued by the family said that "while the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach and leader of the Chicago Bears' Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family. Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever." As a player, a coach and a larger-than-life personality who invigorated a generation of Bears fans, Ditka left an indelible mark on the Chicago sporting landscape " from the playing field to sports talk to pop culture " that few can match.
The federal budget deficit rose to nearly $2 trillion for the past fiscal year, spurred in part by ballooning interest payments and tariff refunds, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday. The gap between the revenue the federal government collects and the amount it spends widened by $218 billion, or 12%, in the last fiscal year, which ended September 30. The US debt hit a record $40 trillion in August, a grim milestone that will have consequences for Americans, businesses and the government for years to come. Yet the "big, beautiful bill" that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans enacted last year is expected to add trillions more to the national debt over a decade as its generous tax breaks outweigh the package's spending cuts.
The Republicans' "One Big Beautiful Bill" ushered in such significant budget cuts that one rural West Virginia town is experiencing a hunger crisis. Dunlow, West Virginia, has been hit particularly hard by cuts to two programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and federal food-purchasing cuts. The GOP's budget bill mandated new eligibility and work-reporting requirements that have been particularly difficult in rural coal country, where jobs and training programs are scarce. While Trump claimed he'd bring back coal jobs during the 2024 campaign, he hasn't delivered. So, those who counted on those jobs are still struggling. Then Congress cut whatever safety net was left. read more
An ICE officer shot a man in New York City on Thursday as the man's 5-year-old child was in the car, officials said, prompting anger from protesters and the city's mayor who called it "an outrage." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that the shooting happened at around 4 p.m. during a "targeted enforcement operation" as federal officers were seeking a "criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic" who had a prior conviction for grand larceny. "During the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon and the criminal illegal alien was injured," the department said, without naming the victim. At least one ICE agent fired seven rounds, and the man was struck in the neck, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Thursday night, as protesters shouted nearby.
Let them eat road salt.