A bill introduced Thursday in the U.S. House would bar federal officials from enforcing settlement agreements that direct payments to third parties, unless those payments directly remedy harm or pay for services in the case.

The post EXCLUSIVE–Rep. Gooden Moves to Shut Down Federal Slush Fund for Left-Wing Groups appeared first on Breitbart.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris relaunched her social media accounts Thursday morning, over a year after voters rejected her at the ballot box. Harris announced in a video posted to several social media platforms early Thursday that “Kamala HQ” — the former social media hub for her 2024 presidential campaign — would rebrand as “Headquarters,” […]

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) on Tuesday became the first major medical organization to oppose gender transition for minors when it recommended “that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.” The ASPS represents “more than 11,000 physician members worldwide,” which is more than the number of surgeons the American Board of Plastic Surgery has certified since 1937.

In support of this recommendation, the ASPS cited “recent publications reporting very low/low certainty of evidence regarding mental health outcomes,” “emerging concerns about potential long-term harms and the irreversible nature of surgical interventions,” and “insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio.”

ASPS previously joined with other mainstream medical organizations in supporting gender transition surgeries for minors. However, it moderated its stance two years ago. “In August 2024, ASPS communicated to members that the Society had not endorsed any external organization’s clinical practice guidelines or recommendations for the treatment of children or adolescents with gender dysphoria,” ASPS described, citing the “considerable uncertainty” over such treatments.

Since then, “ASPS’s understanding has continued to evolve in light of additional comprehensive evidence reviews,” the statement explained, including the United Kingdom’s Cass Review and the 2025 review by the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services. “In some areas,” the statement summarized, these reviews “have contributed to a clearer understanding of potential harms, while also highlighting limitations of the available evidence, including gaps in documenting long-term physical, psychological, and psychosocial outcomes.”

Indeed, “available evidence” was a fundamental theme of the ASPS’s new position statement. “Available evidence suggests that a substantial proportion of children with prepubertal onset gender dysphoria experience resolution or significant reduction of distress by the time they reach adulthood, absent medical or surgical intervention,” they wrote. “Evidence regarding adolescent-onset presentation, which has become increasingly common since the mid-2010s, is more limited but similarly does not allow for confident prediction of long-term trajectories.”

“Importantly, clinicians, even those with extensive experience, currently lack reliable methods to distinguish those whose distress will persist from those whose distress will remit,” the ASPS noted. “The HHS report underscores that this uncertainty has significant ethical implications: when the likelihood of spontaneous resolution is unknown and when irreversible interventions carry known and plausible risks, adhering to the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence (i.e., promoting health and well-being while avoiding harm) requires a precautionary approach.”

Despite the fact that “many plastic surgical clinical recommendations and standards rely on lower levels of evidence compared to those of other medical specialties,” they wrote, “ethical decision-making in medicine does not depend on evidence quality alone, but on the relationship between evidence uncertainty, anticipated benefit, potential harm, and patient vulnerability.”

The statement committed to an “ongoing review of emerging evidence and to revisiting this position as higher-quality data become available. Should the evidence base evolve to demonstrate clear benefit with acceptable risk, ASPS will reassess its recommendations accordingly.” Naturally, the medical organization committed itself to its new evidence-based position so long as this is the position warranted by the evidence.

In reaching this decision, the statement appealed to the ASPS Code of Ethics, which pledges “full respect for human dignity.” The language of human dignity reflects a view of human nature informed by a biblical worldview, which undergirds human dignity with the fact that “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). A modern, naturalistic conception of humanity, which posits evolutionary origins, has nothing on which to base a concept of human dignity, unless it borrows from the West’s Christian heritage, the very heritage it rejects.

The ASPS statement also responded to various rationales offered for gender transition surgeries on minors. In response to appeals to “patient values and preferences,” it questioned “whether fully informed patients and their caregivers would endorse” a “framework that places a higher value on achieving more favorable aesthetic effects in adolescence and places a lower value on avoiding potential harm from early pubertal suppression.”

In response to appeals to “emerging adolescent autonomy,” the statement argued that “patient autonomy is more properly defined as the right of a patient to accept or refuse appropriate treatment; it does not create an obligation for a physician to provide interventions in the absence of a favorable risk–benefit profile, particularly in adolescent populations where decision-making capabilities are still developing.”

At the same time, ASPS did not fully endorse the patchwork of state laws that have been passed by lawmakers seeking to protect minors from the harmful effects of gender transition procedures. “The regulation of medical care is best achieved through professional self-regulation, rather than criminal law or punitive legislative approaches,” the statement argued. However, it advised members “to remain aware of state laws concerning transgender and gender-diverse individuals that may impact their practices.”

This last statement underscored the overall nature of the ASPS statement as “a position statement, rather than a clinical practice guideline.” This choice was both because “ASPS has not undertaken a formal guideline development process” and because of “the current state of the evidence and variability in legal and regulatory environments.”

The statement by ASPS is significant because its members are the physicians called upon to carry out gender transition surgeries, which are the most invasive, permanent, and harmful type of gender transition procedures.

Its new position statement reflects a small but subtle change to the consensus pro-transgender medical organizations reached in response to conservative pushback. These organizations often claimed that gender transition surgeries on minors were vanishingly rare because they were almost never advisable — but they flatly repudiated any governmental attempt to ban the procedures they claimed never happened.

When the Biden White House told the press, “We believe these [gender transition] surgeries should be limited to adults,” left-wing activists raised such a furor that the White House retreated to a milder claim, “Gender-affirming surgeries are typically reserved for adults, and we believe they should be.”

In response to the ASPS decision, the American Medical Association — long infamous as one of the most vehement medical organizations in favor of gender transition procedures for minors — told National Review, “the AMA agrees with ASPS that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.”

While National Review did not interpret this as a reversal of the AMA’s previous pro-transgender position, other news outlets were less careful; one claimed that the AMA “has reversed course on its position concerning transgender surgical procedures for minors.”

In reality, the AMA statement leaves the door open to an undefined number of gender transition surgeries on minors — a stance identical to that taken by the Biden White House to satisfy left-wing activists. But perhaps the real fault lies with the AMA for claiming it “agree[d]” with ASPS, when in fact it does not.

Regardless of the AMA’s obfuscation, Trump administration officials celebrated the change in ASPS’s position, which is attributable in part to the HHS evidence review. HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy commended ASPS “for standing up to the overmedicalization lobby and defending sound science,” as well as “helping protect future generations of American children from irreversible harm.”

Meanwhile, Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill called it “another victory for biological truth,” as ASPS “has set the scientific and medical standard for all provider groups to follow.”

Originally published in The Washington Stand

The post American Society of Plastic Surgeons Recommends Against Transgender Surgery for Minors appeared first on The Daily Signal.

'Complete annihilation is essential'

Major Democrat donor Brad Karp stepped down Wednesday from his role as chairman of Paul Weiss after newly released emails revealed close ties to Jeffrey Epstein. While the firm did not provide a reason for his departure, Karp said in a statement that “recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on […]

'She will not serve as ambassador until these matters have been clarified'

'You'll be discriminated against'

'All he was doing was helping her'

William Palmer was found dead just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning after allegedly being shot by a woman he picked up on the side of the road during the cold of night.

The post Man Gives Woman a Ride on Cold Night and She Shoots Him Dead appeared first on Breitbart.

Republicans are beginning to sound the alarm about the 2026 midterm elections, and not without reason. The concern was crystallized by a Texas state Senate race in a district President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in 2024 but which recently shifted 14 points toward Democrats–a staggering 31-point swing.

That race is not an anomaly. Republicans closely tracking special elections from Texas to Mississippi to Georgia are seeing the same troubling pattern: deep-red districts drifting, sometimes sharply, toward Democrats. These are not battlegrounds. They are places Republicans typically take for granted.

The warning signs extend beyond individual races. Betting markets currently give Republicans a 63% chance of retaining control of the Senate, compared with 37% for Democrats. That may sound reassuring, but it represents the weakest outlook Republicans have faced this cycle. The numbers are converging, and Democratic optimism is rising accordingly.

The House picture is even bleaker. Markets suggest a 78% chance Democrats will win the House, with just 22% betting on Republicans holding the majority.

Polling data reinforces the concern. A recent Harvard-Harris survey shows Democrats ahead by four points on the generic congressional ballot–a historically bad position for Republicans at this stage. In the Senate, several GOP seats are vulnerable. In Maine, betting markets now list Susan Collins as the underdog. In North Carolina, the open seat being vacated by Thom Tillis appears to lean Democratic. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown could plausibly pull off another victory.

Add those together and Democrats can plausibly reach 50 Senate seats before even stretching into traditionally Republican territory. Alaska, Iowa and even Texas–long-shot targets in normal years–could come into play if conditions worsen.

So what, if anything, can Republicans do to reverse course?

There is some mildly encouraging news buried in the same Harvard-Harris poll. It reveals a striking disconnect between economic reality and public perception. Fifty-six percent of Americans believe the economy is shrinking. It is not. Sixty-six percent think inflation is above 3%. It is not. Only 38% believe the economy is on the right track, even as Americans split roughly 50-50 on whether the economy is strong or weak.

That gap is political opportunity–but only if Republicans address it. The administration has failed to effectively communicate economic fundamentals, allowing misinformation and anxiety to fill the void.

Compounding the problem are the administration’s least popular economic messages: tariffs and inflation. The two are closely linked in voters’ minds. Trump’s repeated public pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates fuels inflation concerns, while his frequent rhetoric around tariffs reminds businesses–and voters–of higher costs and uncertainty.

If the president simply stopped emphasizing tariffs so aggressively, or eased off the public campaign against the Fed, perceptions around inflation might improve. Messaging matters, especially when economic confidence is fragile.

But the larger political battle is unfolding elsewhere.

If you want to understand why Democrats are encouraging chaos in cities like Minneapolis, look no further than immigration. It is Trump’s strongest issue, and Democrats know it. Fifty-one percent of Americans approve of Trump’s response to anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests. Forty-seven percent approve of his crime policies. Deporting criminal illegal immigrants is supported by 73% of Americans. Sixty-seven percent oppose sanctuary city policies. Sixty percent believe Democrats are encouraging resistance to ICE, and 57% oppose that behavior.

Americans are divided on whether enforcement should target only criminal illegal immigrants or extend more broadly. But the overwhelming consensus is clear: Targeting criminal illegal immigrants is popular. That is precisely why Democrats are attempting to blur the distinction–forcing ICE and Border Patrol into broader enforcement actions that can be portrayed as indiscriminate.

From a political standpoint, this is a trap Republicans must avoid. Trotting out administration officials to declare that everyone will be rounded up and deported from Home Depot may satisfy some activists, but it is terrible politics. Right or wrong, it alienates persuadable voters.

To its credit, the Trump administration has begun adjusting its approach. Border czar Tom Homan’s message to Minneapolis–“Give us your criminals”–is exactly right. From a public relations standpoint, targeting criminal illegal immigrants is an 80-20 issue, with Republicans firmly on the side of the 80.

Democrats are attempting to reframe immigration enforcement as tyranny, to convince Americans that indiscriminate crackdowns are imminent. The strategy is to escalate protests, inflame media coverage, and erode Trump’s standing on his strongest issue.

But this is not 2020. Attempts to recreate a “BLM summer” dynamic by demanding solidarity with criminal illegal immigrants are unlikely to resonate. The racial reckoning of 2020 carried emotional weight rooted in America’s history. The claim that criminal illegal immigrants are victims of systemic oppression does not.

Immigration remains Trump’s winning issue. If Republicans can discipline their messaging, close the information gap on the economy, and take control of the immigration narrative, the party still has a path forward.

If not, the warning signs flashing in special elections today may become the reality of November 2026.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. 

The post Warning Signs for Republicans in 2026 appeared first on The Daily Signal.

a dangerous place

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the federal government will commit whatever resources are necessary in the search for Nancy Guthrie. “I spoke with Savannah Guthrie, and let her know […]

The post Trump Gives the Guthrie Family Everything He Can as Search Continues: 'We Are Deploying All Resources' appeared first on The Western Journal.

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The post WarRoom Battleground EP 941: The Most Important Traditionalist Group In The Catholic Church Prepares To Go Back Into Schism appeared first on Stephen K Bannon's War Room.

It appears President Donald Trump and his administration is ready to “just do it” when it comes to apparel conglomerate Nike. And by “it,” we mean investigate Nike for “systemic […]

The post Woke-ism Finally Blows up in Nike's Face as Trump's Administration Comes Calling appeared first on The Western Journal.