The U.S. Senate’s health committee on Wednesday approved Susan Monarez to be President Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, taking her one step closer to confirmation. The committee voted 12-11 for advancing her nomination to the full Senate. The vote went along party lines, with Democrats in opposition. Monarez, 50, is poised to become the first CDC director to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon. She holds a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin, and a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, escalating its campaign to defend Israel against what U.S. officials describe as a dangerous and deeply biased assault on its legitimacy. The move follows longtime criticism over Albanese’s controversial public statements and her recent campaign of letters warning that institutions supporting Israel could face criminal liability for “aiding and abetting genocide.” The U.S. government has firmly rejected those accusations as baseless and defamatory. “This is a campaign of political and economic warfare against our closest ally,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We will always stand by Israel in its right to self-defense. Ms.

A 60-year-old resident of the Levi Yitzchak neighborhood of Kfar Chabad woke up on Wednesday before dawn to a noise in his yard. When he went outside to check what was happening, he was brutally attacked by an Arab who had entered the yard. The attacker fled the scene, leaving the man seriously injured. Security forces were called and the police are conducting a manhunt. Moti Dorov, the brother of the injured man, wrote on his Facebook account, “Today at 4 a.m., a terrorist arrived in the yard of my brother’s house in Kfar Chabad and looked for a victim. My brother heard the dogs barking, went out to check what the reason was, and saw the terrorist leaving the yard. My brother followed him to ask what he was doing in the yard,and the terrorist started attacking my brother.

President Joe Biden’s former White House physician is refusing answer questions as part of the House Republican investigation into Biden’s health in office. Dr. Kevin O’Connor invoked doctor-client privilege and his rights under the Fifth Amendment during an appearance Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee, his attorneys said. Republicans are conducting a sweeping investigation into Biden’s actions in office and questioning whether the Democrat’s use of an autopen in office may have been invalid. They have also claimed that some policies carried out by the White House autopen may be invalid if it is proven that Biden was mentally incapacitated for some part of his term.

In a series of behind-closed-doors fundraisers recorded in 2024 and obtained exclusively by CNN, President Donald Trump is heard describing aggressive foreign policy threats, hardline domestic crackdowns, and eyebrow-raising fundraising tactics — offering a glimpse into the unfiltered rhetoric he reserved for high-dollar donors. According to the audio, Trump told one private gathering that he had warned Russian President Vladimir Putin he would “bomb Moscow” if Russia invaded Ukraine. “With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the [expletive] out of Moscow,’” Trump said.

Iran planned to shower Israel with thousands of ballistic missiles in the coming years. Even after Israel destroyed thousands of its missiles and launchers, the Islamic Republic still boasts that it can cause serious damage to Israel and/or the US if it chooses to do so. “Our armed forces are at the height of their readiness,” said Major General Ebrahim Jabbari of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), speaking to the semi-official Mehr News Agency. “The warehouses, underground missile bases, and facilities we have are so enormous that we have yet to demonstrate the majority of our defense capabilities and effective missiles.” “In case of a war with Israel and the U.S., our facilities will not run out even if we launch missiles at them every day for two years,” he added.

Elon Musk’s plan to create a new political party puts him in the company of a long line of business and political titans looking to upend the two-party system that has dominated U.S. politics since almost the beginning. From the Anti-Masonic Party in the early 1800s to last year’s ill-fated No Labels, nascent political parties have been a near-constant feature of U.S. politics. Some are impactful, others ephemeral, but few endure for long. Though the Republican and Democratic parties have had a lock on political power since the Civil War, they have remade themselves over and over, often when faced with the prospect of losing voters to third parties.

Staff and children at Camp Yeka in western Ukraine were forced to take shelter overnight as drone sirens sounded overhead, triggering emergency safety protocols. The camp, which serves Jewish children from across the country—many from areas still affected by war—temporarily suspended activities as staff guided campers to bomb shelters. All individuals were reported safe. The alert marked a disruption in what has otherwise been a summer of respite and community for the campers. Located in a region previously considered more stable, Camp Yeka has implemented safety procedures to respond to the evolving security situation in Ukraine. Despite the incident, camp programming has resumed, and operations continue as planned.

Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company to top $4 trillion in value on Wednesday after two-year investor frenzy. Nvidia shares rose 2.5%, or $3.97, in early trading Wednesday, topping $164 each. At the beginning of 2023, Nvidia shares were around $14 each. The poster child of the AI boom, Nvidia has grown into the most valuable company in the world, surpassing Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet. The stock’s movement carries more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes than every company except Apple. Two years ago, Nvidia’s market value was below $600 billion. In its most recent quarter, Nvidia overcame tariff-driven turbulence to deliver another quarter of robust growth amid feverish demand for its high-powered AI chips.

Crews used backhoes and their bare hands Wednesday to dig through piles of debris that stretched for miles in the search for more than 160 people believed to be missing in the flash floods that laid waste to state’s Hill Country. Over 100 bodies have been recovered, but the large number of missing suggested that the full extent of the catastrophe was still unclear five days after the disaster. “We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Gov. Greg Abbott told a news conference Tuesday.