The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions on transgender Americans.
The sweeping proposals — the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children — include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid funding from being used on such procedures.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that could reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The move could ease regulations and expand medical research by shifting marijuana from a Schedule I drug, like heroin, to a Schedule III substance, similar to ketamine.
The change won’t legalize recreational use nationwide but may alter regulation and taxation. President Joe Biden’s Justice Department had also proposed reclassifying marijuana, but Trump’s order on Thursday could speed up the process.
Here’s the latest:
Trump expresses skepticism about extending Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies
“I don’t know why we have to extend,” the president said of whether lawmakers needed to extend subsidies for insurance plans purchased by millions of Americans on health markets.
Trump added that he thought the insurance plans available through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, were “unaffordable.”
He said he would prefer sending money directly to Americans for them to buy insurance.
“I want that money to go to the people directly and let the people buy their own health care,” said Trump.
Trump urges Ukraine to move quickly to seal peace deal with Russia
The president’s envoys are set to meet with a top adviser to President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in Miami to discuss an evolving U.S. peace agreement aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Asked about the coming talks, Trump once again expressed optimism that a deal could be within reach. The U.S. leader again pressed Ukraine to come to terms to an agreement.
“Well, we’re getting close to something, but I hope Ukraine moves quickly because Russia is there” Trump said. “Every time they take too much time, Russia changes their mind.”
GOP chair of Senate committee says he saw no ‘evidence of war crimes’ in boat strike investigation
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, whose committee has been conducting an investigation into a strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug boat, says that he has confidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign is operating on “sound legal advice.”
Wicker’s statement essentially concludes the Senate Armed Services Committee’s review of the Sept. 2 strike, ending it on contrasting conclusions from Republicans and Democrats.
A number of Democratic lawmakers have said the strike killed two people who were helpless and clinging to the wreckage of the boat, but Republicans have emerged backing the Trump administration’s decisions.
“I have seen no evidence of war crimes. The fact is that our military is asked to make incredibly difficult decisions,” Wicker said in a lengthy statement.
Such a switch typically requires an arduous process
That includes a public comment period that has drawn tens of thousands of reactions from across the U.S. The DEA was still in the review process when Trump took office in January.
Trump’s order is expected to speed the process along, though it was not immediately clear how long it might take.
Many states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults or allow it for medical purposes. But U.S. laws have remained stricter, potentially leaving people subject to federal prosecution.
Trump’s order also calls for expanded research and access to CBD, a legal and increasingly popular hemp-derived product whose benefits are debated by experts.
▶Read more about the executive order here
Trump moves to reclassify marijuana as less dangerous drug
Trump has signed an executive order that would reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug and open new avenues for medical research, a major shift in federal drug policy that inches closer to what many states have done.
The switch would move marijuana away from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. Cannabis would instead be a Schedule III substance, like ketamine and some anabolic steroids.
Reclassification by the Drug Enforcement Administration would not make it legal for recreational use by adults nationwide, but it could change how the drug is regulated and reduce a hefty tax burden on the cannabis industry.
Similarly, the Justice Department under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, proposed reclassifying marijuana to a Schedule III substance. Unlike Biden, Trump did not have open encouragement from across his party for the move. Some Republicans have spoken out in opposition to any changes and urged Trump to maintain current standards.
Trump’s handpicked board votes to rename Washington performing arts center the Trump-Kennedy Center
The president's handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center, the White House said.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, saying it was because of the “unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.”
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was named by Congress.
A name change won’t sit well with some Kennedy family members
Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy, referred to legislation introduced in Congress to rebrand the Kennedy Center as the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts as “insane” in a social media post in July.
“It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” she wrote. “Truly, what is this about? It’s always about something. ‘Let’s get rid of the Rose Garden. Let’s rename the Kennedy Center.’ What’s next?”
Trump earlier this year turned the Kennedy-era Rose Garden at the White House into a patio by removing the lawn and laying down paving stones.
Another Kennedy family member, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., serves in Trump’s Cabinet as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Illinois panel says it will hold federal government accountable for immigration crackdowns
An Illinois commission says it’ll document alleged harassment and abuse by federal agents amid an immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.
The group held its first hearing Thursday and focused on the wide use of chemical agents by federal agents.
The meeting came as a Border Patrol commander who was the face of the Chicago operation before leading similar crackdowns in North Carolina and Louisiana returned to the nation’s third-largest city.
The commission, formed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, is the latest resistance effort by Democratic states who say the federal intervention is discriminatory and an overreach.
US finalizes loan on major African railway project to help carry critical minerals
The U.S. government this week finalized funding for one of its largest development projects in Africa by signing a $553 million loan to refurnish 1,300 kilometers of the Lobito Atlantic Railway between the Angolan port city of Lobito and its border town of Luau. Discussions of the project began under the Biden administration, and former President Joe Biden promoted it when he visited Angola in 2024.
The railway would soon be able to “carry 4.6 million metric tons of critical minerals and goods,” said Ben Black, chief executive officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. The U.S. is now seeking to reduce its reliance on China for critical-mineral products that are indispensable in a range of products such as electric cars, phones, fighter planes and missiles.
He said the project will forge stronger U.S.-Angola ties. The Wednesday announcement came on the same day that Congress drastically expanded the corporation’s lending cap to $205 billion, up from $60 billion, as part of a foreign policy strategy to counter China’s global influence while securing U.S. interests
Transgender advocates condemn new Trump restrictions on care
Advocates of transgender care for children are strongly condemning proposals from the Trump administration to cut off funding for gender-affirming treatments.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and other Trump officials announced the measures Thursday, referring to transgender care as “sex-rejecting procedures” and “malpractice.” It’s the latest example of the administration’s restrictions targeting transgender Americans.
Doctors who offer the care—including medication and surgery—said the changes would put lives at risk.
“The Trump Administration is forcing health care systems to choose between providing lifesaving care for LGBTQ+ young people and accepting crucial federal funding,” Dr. Jamila Perritt, a Washington-based OB/GYN and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen of The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization, called the changes a “one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government.”
House Democrats release more photos from Epstein estate
House Democrats released several dozen more photos Thursday from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, showing his associations with the rich and famous.
The photos released add to the anticipation as the Department of Justice faces a deadline to release many of its case files on the late financier by the end of the week.
The photos released Thursday were among more than 95,000 that the House Oversight Committee has received after issuing a subpoena for the photos that Epstein had in his possession before he died in a New York jail cell in 2019.
UN Security Council schedules emergency meeting at Venezuela’s request on US actions
Slovenia, which holds the council presidency this month, said the meeting will take place on Tuesday afternoon (3 p.m. EST).
Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada called for an emergency council meeting Wednesday to discuss “the ongoing U.S. aggression” against his country.
Venezuela has accused the U.S. of acting like a colonial power and violating its sovereignty by declaring that its territory and assets, including oil, belong to the United States.
“This means that the U.S. government is claiming the world’s largest oil reserves as its own, in what would be one of the greatest acts of plunder in human history,” Moncada said in a letter to the council requesting the emergency meeting.
Judge orders Trump administration reinstate federal workers fired during the shutdown and blocks the layoffs of more employees
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate roughly 300 federal workers it fired during the government shutdown, but she put the ruling on hold to allow the administration a chance to appeal.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled Wednesday the funding bill that ended the shutdown required the administration to reinstate employees it fired while the government was closed and refrain from firing any more workers until the end of January.
Labor unions said some employees were not being reinstated, and others were facing the threat of termination.
Illston, however, put her reinstatement order on hold until Tuesday. At a hearing on Wednesday, she said she wanted to avoid subjecting the affected employees to whiplash if an appeals court later put her ruling on hold and allowed the terminations.
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Her ruling also indefinitely blocked the firing of another 400 or so workers. That part of her order went into effect immediately.
Cases crumble in court after DOJ vowed to punish disrupters of Trump’s immigration crackdown
The Justice Department has launched a monthslong effort to prosecute people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployments.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has vowed such offenders will face “severe consequences.”
In a review of scores of criminal prosecutions brought by federal prosecutors, The Associated Press found that the Justice Department has struggled to deliver on Bondi’s pledge.
An analysis of 166 federal criminal cases brought since May against people in four Democratic-led cities at the epicenter of demonstrations found that aggressive charging decisions and rhetoric painting defendants as domestic terrorists have frequently failed to hold up in court.
▶Read key findings and more from the AP investigation
Trump special envoy Witkoff to host Gaza talks with officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey
A State Department official says Trump’s special envoy for peace negotiations Steve Witkoff will meet Friday with officials from key Arab and Muslim nations to discuss the next phase in the president’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Witkoff and senior officials from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar in Miami will review implementation of Phase 2 of the plan, which has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, and calls for the territory to be overseen by a Trump-led Board of Peace and policed by an international security force, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview a meeting that has not yet been publicly announced.
Neither the board nor the force have yet been stood up and Israel has expressed concerns about the potential participation of various countries, including Turkey. The meeting is set for just a day before Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner host Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev for another round of discussion on U.S. proposals to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Democrats won’t publish autopsy of 2024 election after all, DNC Chairman says
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin has decided not to publish a formal autopsy of the party’s 2024 election defeat that returned Trump to power and gave Republicans complete control in Washington.
Martin, elected chairman after Trump’s election, had ordered a thorough review of what went wrong for the party and what could be done. He says the results are in but there’s no value in publicly disclosing findings that could lead to more infighting and backward recriminations ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“Does this help us win?” Martin said in a statement. “If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”
Martin’s decision was first reported by The New York Times. A DNC aide said hundreds of Democrats in all 50 states were interviewed, and the findings are being shared across the party and integrated into 2026 campaign plans.
US threatens South Africa with ‘severe consequences’ after raid on refugee processing center
South African immigration authorities raided a U.S. facility that was evaluating white Afrikaners for possible entry into the United States and detained several of its workers, including, briefly, two American officials. South African authorities claimed that Kenyan nationals employed by an outside group were traveling on visas that did not permit them to work there.
The U.S. State Department’s statement said the facility had been operating lawfully, and the brief detention of two U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service personnel during the raid was unacceptable. One of their passport data pages was posted — and later deleted — from a South African government official’s social media account.
“This can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate U.S. government personnel in South Africa on official business,” the statement said. “Failure by the South African government to hold those responsible accountable will result in severe consequences.”
Rural schools hit by Trump’s grant cuts have few options
Many rural school districts around the United States are having a hard time making up for federal grant money that’s been cut by the Trump administration.
Federal dollars make up roughly 10% of education spending nationally. The percentage is significantly higher in rural districts, which aren’t able to raise as much money on property taxes.
The administration has withheld or discontinued millions of dollars for programs supporting mental health, academic enrichment and teacher development. Administration officials say the grants don’t focus on academics and they prop up diversity or inclusion efforts that run counter to White House priorities.
▶ Read more about how Trump’s education cuts are impacting rural populations
Wisconsin judge on trial for helping immigrant does not testify
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, who is accused of helping a Mexican immigrant evade federal authorities, is not taking the stand. Her attorneys presented less than an hour’s worth of witnesses in her defense, and jurors were likely to get the case later Thursday after closing arguments.
The highly unusual obstruction and concealment charges against a sitting judge are an extraordinary consequence of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Dugan’s supporters say Trump is looking to make an example of her to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests.
Prosecutors have tried to show that Dugan intentionally interfered with a federal immigration task force’s efforts to arrest 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz as he left her courtroom. A defense lawyer told the jury that she had no intention of obstructing agents, and was following a draft courthouse policy saying court personnel should refer agents looking to make courthouse arrests to supervisors.
▶ Read more about developments at the judge’s trial
Wisconsin judge on trial for helping immigrant does not testify
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, who is accused of helping a Mexican immigrant evade federal authorities, is not taking the stand. Her attorneys presented less than an hour’s worth of witnesses in her defense, and jurors were likely to get the case later Thursday after closing arguments.
The highly unusual obstruction and concealment charges against a sitting judge are an extraordinary consequence of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Dugan’s supporters say Trump is looking to make an example of her to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests.
Prosecutors have tried to show that Dugan intentionally interfered with a federal immigration task force’s efforts to arrest 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz as he left her courtroom. A defense lawyer told the jury that she had no intention of obstructing agents, and was following a draft courthouse policy saying court personnel should refer agents looking to make courthouse arrests to supervisors.
▶ Read more about developments at the judge’s trial
Trump administration to announce sweeping restrictions on transgender care for youth
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is set to unveil a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors.
The sweeping proposals will include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid funding from being used on such procedures. The same funding restrictions would apply to a smaller health program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to a federal notice posted Thursday morning.
The rules, which are not yet final, build on other Trump administration actions targeting transgender Americans but mark the most significant actions it has taken against gender-affirming care for children so far.
US announces new sanctions on Iran’s alleged shadow fleet
The U.S. Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on 29 additional ships it says are involved in the shipping of Iranian petroleum products.
Authorities say the vessels are a part of Iran’s “shadow fleet,” which U.S. officials say is used to sell oil to raise money for Iran’s government and its support for extremist groups.
Since January, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on more than 180 ships linked by authorities to the Iranian oil and gas trade. The newest round of sanctions, announced on Thursday, also applies to the shipping companies that operate the tankers.
The sanctions prohibit the designated groups from holding assets in the U.S. or doing any business with U.S. businesses or individuals.
Senate Democrats call for judiciary hearing on legality of Trump’s boat strike campaign
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee say there needs to be a public hearing on the legality of Trump’s campaign to destroy vessels alleged to be carrying drugs, which has killed at least 99 people in 26 known strikes.
“These strikes are extrajudicial killings and shocking violations of fundamental principles of due process and the right to life under U.S. and international law,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Republican chair of the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Senators have been able to review a legal opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that puts forward a legal argument to justify the strikes, but the document has not been made public.
US hits 2 more ICC judges with sanctions over Israel prosecutions
The two International Criminal Court judges have been involved in cases investigating Israeli officials for possible war crimes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that he had designated judges Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia for penalties that can include a freezing of assets in U.S. jurisdictions and a ban on travel to the United States.
The pair are the latest in a series of ICC judges and staff targeted by the Trump administration for approving or advancing criminal complaints about both Israel and the United States, neither of which are members of the court.
“The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations,” Rubio said in a statement. “We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction.”
Democrats call for immediate vote on tax credit extension
House Democrats took to the Capitol steps on Thursday and demanded that House Speaker Mike Johnson schedule an immediate vote on their bill to extend an enhanced health care subsidy that expires at the end of the year.
They are not expected to get that vote until January as lawmakers break for the holiday recess. Nevertheless, the moment gave Democrats a chance to tout their success in securing a vote after four Republicans signed onto their effort.
“Under no circumstances should the House of Representative adjourn until we successfully extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit for tens of millions of Americans,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. “The American people deserve a vote today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year. Today.”
KFF, a health research organization, has projected that a large majority of enrollees in the Affordable Care Act marketplace will see on average a roughly 114% increase in their premiums next year unless the subsidy is extended.
Trump’s ‘warrior dividend’ of $1,776 to US troops will come from congressionally approved housing money
Trump in his White House address suggested the payments to 1.45 million members of the military are a Christmas bonus made possible by tariff revenues.
But that’s not really the case.
The Pentagon is distributing the checks — totaling about $2.6 billion — as one-time housing supplements, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to describe the payments.
That money will come from the $2.9 billion Congress provided to the Defense Department to augment existing housing allowances, as part of the tax cut extensions and expansions Trump signed into law in July.
GOP senators to Trump: Just say no (to marijuana reclassification)
More than 20 Republican senators have signed onto a letter urging Trump to keep marijuana a Schedule I drug as he prepares to potentially loosen regulations on it.
Led by North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, they say marijuana continues to be dangerous and that allowing it to be used more widely will “undermine your strong efforts to Make America Great Again.”
“The only winners from rescheduling will be bad actors such as Communist China, while Americans will be left paying the bill,” the letter reads. The senators cited marijuana’s impact on physical and mental health, as well as road and workplace safety.
Signers on the letter include members of leadership such as Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming and stalwart Trump allies such as Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee. The letter was first reported by Punchbowl News.
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