The U.S. Department of Justice has suffered another setback in its efforts to subpoena providers of gender-affirming care for transgender youth in order to obtain patient information and details about the treatments they were provided. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cyrus Chung in Denver on Monday recommended that an administrative subpoena the Justice Department served on Children’s Hospital Colorado in July be quashed because it was issued for the improper purpose of pressuring the pediatric hospital into ending transgender care. "The Executive Branch cannot engage in new lawmaking on its own and, thus, until and unless Congress creates a statute justifying it, a purpose of investigating the legal activity of gender-affirming care — let alone ending it — cannot ground a legitimate investigation," he wrote. Chung said he was joining a "chorus" of judges nationally who have blocked the Justice Department's efforts to subpoena providers of gender-affirming care, after at least five other judges in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington state ruled against it in similar cases.

Austin Peay State University will pay one of its professors $500,000 after initially firing him for a social media post made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.

If you made a million dollars robbing a bank, and were caught by the police, would you get away with merely promising never to do it again? Forget about how you would probably have to spend time in jail: Would you be able to keep the million dollars? Unfortunately for you, intrepid bank robber, you are not a corporation with a phalanx of lobbyists and a law enforcement adversary that doesn’t want to crimp your style. On Monday, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division issued a holiday news dump, settling with algorithmic price-setting company RealPage, which was accused of colluding with landlords to raise rents. None of the nearly dozen states that have sued RealPage agreed to the settlement, and for good reason: It does not ask for any disgorgement (a fancy term for giving back ill-gotten gains), nor does it include an admission of guilt. The settlement superficially adds restrictions to RealPage’s use of nonpublic information to raise prices. But again, this is the bank robber promising not to do it again, rather than returning the loot. And RealPage has already explored new horizons in creative price-setting maneuvers. In fact, RealPage’s attorney said that the settlement “bless[es] the legality of RealPage’s prior and planned product changes.”

State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

A new book explores the long-festering neo-Nazi subculture of Southern California — and its accelerating creep across the country.

A treatment that blocks an age-related protein restored cartilage in aging and injured joints by reprogramming existing cells rather than using stem cells. Researchers at Stanford Medicine report that blocking a protein linked to aging can restore cartilage that naturally wears away in the knees of older mice. In the study, the injectable treatment not only rebuilt cartilage but also stopped arthritis from developing after knee injuries similar to ACL tears, which are common among athletes and active adults. A pill-based version of the same therapy is already being tested in clinical trials aimed at treating muscle weakness associated with aging. Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally. Together, these findings point to the possibility that cartilage lost through aging or arthritis could one day be restored using a localized injection or an oral medication, potentially eliminating the need for knee or hip replacement surgery.

The new U.S. guidelines recommend all children get vaccines for 11 diseases, compared with the 18, including Covid, previously on the schedule.

A Chicago-based McDonald’s is facing a class-action lawsuit over the McRib sandwich, accusing the corporation of misleading customers with claims that it contains actual pork rib meat. The lawsuit, filed on Dec. 23, 2025 in U.S. District Court in Chicago and viewed by Global News, said that McDonald’s has “cultivated a sense of anticipation around the McRib, leveraging its scarcity to drive sales across its many locations.”

An apartment in Trois-Rivières, about two hours east of Montreal, has been nicknamed the "ice castle" after a tenant left the property and turned off the heat.

Not one but two letters were sent from the Pentagon to a Toronto-based sex toy store, found inside the boxes of returned adult items that had somehow made their way to a U.S naval base in Bahrain. The letters were received over the span of about a month over the summer, Bonjibon co-founder Grace Bennett recalled, amusedly. “We didn’t even know it (the product) was going to Bahrain until it came back to us months later, and it just kind of unraveled this whole … hilarious moment,” the 34-year-old said in an interview with CTV News Toronto. The online sexual wellness store shipped worldwide when they first launched in 2019, but Bennett says they now mostly service Canada, the United States, South America, Europe and Asia due to various laws and regulations about what items can be imported to countries—including Bahrain.

A stolen Cinnamon Capuchin monkey that caused chaos inside a business in Tennessee has been captured and is on his back home, authorities say. Hamblen County Animal Control told NBC affiliate 10News that the monkey, whose name is Chester, was recovered after spending several hours loose in Morristown, Tenn.

Amid a wave of hype for OpenAI's chatbot, the newly reported death shows stark risks

To reform S.F.’s 548-page city charter, Mayor Daniel Lurie and Board President Rafael Mandelman formed a 28-member working group.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was dissolved Monday by its board of directors, ending its 58 years as the primary funder for PBS, NPR and local TV and radio stations. The board of CPB, which was created by Congress to oversee the federal government’s investments in public broadcasting, didn’t have much choice. Trump and Republicans in Congress last year stripped the organization of its $1.1 billion in federal funding, which represented the full amount it was set to receive over two years. Trump’s White House claimed NPR and PBS shouldn’t get federal money because they produce “woke propaganda.” But both are reputable news sources, and the reality is Trump simply wants to shut them down because they don’t report on him in flattering ways. Public radio stations are also a lifeline to rural communities, where plenty of Trump’s supporters are now being hurt by the loss in services. The effort to defund CPB was led by Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought, who has been downright gleeful about haphazardly slashing billions from federal programs. In a statement, CPB board members said the combination of lost federal funding and sustained political attacks “made it impossible” for it to continue operating.

A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacist websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

Sen. Mark Kelly and other members of Congress on the video reminded members of the U.S. military that they can refuse to follow illegal orders.

By framing the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro in euphemistic terms, the media is falling in line with Trump.

This is not filling me with confidence.

The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has reopened a question the oil market has largely sidelined for years: What changes if Venezuela’s oil industry begins to normalize under U.S. influence? In comments today, President Donald Trump says the sanctions on Venezuelan oil remain in place, but he also said that the U.S. intends to be “very involved” in Venezuela’s oil sector, which he says requires billions of dollars fix the “badly broken” oil infrastructure. The administration frames this as a reclamation project, suggesting companies will be ‘reimbursed’ through direct access to the crude. While Venezuela currently produces just 1% of global supply, the Wood Mackenzie estimate of $15–20 billion to add 500,000 barrels per day highlights the capital intensity of its extra-heavy crude. However, in the context of global energy, this could be a bargain: it is roughly 25% cheaper per barrel of capacity than current deepwater projects in Guyana or Brazil as a rehabilitation of existing fields rather than a new discovery. Whatever happens, the process will be lengthy. Near term, oil prices will continue to be driven by OPEC+ policy, Russian exports, and global demand, not changes in Caracas. Where the impact could show up first is downstream, the industry term for companies that process oil.

How Juan Guaidó sucked a weary nation dry, and primed it for the current U.S.-led assault