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.
NYT's David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt: A war that was intended to demonstrate the reach of American power has now done the opposite. It is a lesson in unintended consequences. read more
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reportedly overseen nearly $800,000 in federal funding for a research project involving a Russian laboratory with ties to the Siberian facility at the center of a suspected plague outbreak. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that experts are questioning what really caused the lab worker's death. "Something is not adding up about this situation," said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University. "You don't quarantine 200 people for one plague case," she added. "You don't close multiple hospital units in response to one infection." read more
Let them eat road salt.