There have been plenty of fires blazing in the background as Signalgate dominates the airwaves this week.
Here are four stories you may have missed amid the fallout of that war plans group chat:
1. The Trump administration continues to disappear pro-Palestinian college students with no other justification. On Tuesday, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar from Turkey, was abducted in broad daylight by masked ICE agents and later transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana. Ozturk had previously co-authored an op-ed for her student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later refused to explain why she was arrested or had her visa revoked.
2. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to fire 10,000 employees in a wave of massive DOGE-induced cuts. According to the Wall Street Journal, the cuts will include:
– 3,500 full-time employees from the Food and Drug Administration—or about 19% of the agency’s workforce.
– 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—or about 18% of its workforce.
– 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health—or about 6% of its workforce
– 300 employees from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—or about 4% of its workforce.
“We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said.
3. Trump withdrew Representative Elise Stefanik’s nomination for U.N. Ambassador to help the Republicans maintain their tiny House majority. Stefanik—one of MAGA’s favorite congressional attack dogs—is likely to return to defend her New York district seat, which Democrats view as vulnerable.
4. Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian Oscar-winning director of No Other Land, was blindfolded and brutally beaten by Israel Defense Force soldiers after they detained him for allegedly “hurling rocks” as Israeli settlers attempted to kill him on Monday night. Ballal recounted that he heard the IDF guards mention the word “Oscar” while beating him. “I realized they were attacking me specifically,” he said after being released to a hospital in the West Bank. “When they say ‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”
The post Four News Stories You Missed Amid War Plans Group Chat Fiasco appeared first on New Republic.
