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Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, announced Wednesday that he will not be running for re-election in 2026.

Durbin, who has served in the Senate since 1996, shared the news in a video message posted to X. At 80 years old, he reflected on the weight of the decision.

“The decision of whether to run for re-election has not been easy,” Durbin stated.

“I truly love the job of being a United States Senator. But in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch. So, I am announcing today that I will not be seeking re-election at the end of my term.”

As the senior senator representing Illinois, a reliably Democratic state, Durbin’s departure is expected to ignite a crowded race to fill his seat. Both parties are likely to field contenders, though Republicans have only managed to win a Senate seat in the state twice since 1984.

With Republicans currently holding a 53-47 edge in the Senate, Democrats face a challenging path to regain control.

Durbin’s political career began with his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, where he served seven terms. He succeeded Paul Simon in the Senate in 1996.

One of Durbin’s early legislative achievements was championing the ban on smoking on commercial airplanes. This effort culminated in a bill signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and marked a turning point in national public health policy.

He was instrumental in passing the First Step Act in 2018, a bipartisan measure aimed at criminal justice reform. The law, signed by President Trump, reduced mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses, encouraged early release through rehabilitation, and improved prison conditions.

Durbin has also long supported immigration reform. He co-authored the DREAM Act, which aimed to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors. While the legislation did not pass, his advocacy was central to the creation of DACA, which grants temporary legal status and work permits to those individuals.

Throughout his tenure, Durbin pushed for tighter gun control laws and was a vocal backer of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

He also voted to convict President Trump during both Senate impeachment trials in 2020 and 2021, although Trump was acquitted in both instances.

Durbin’s decision to step down drew praise from his colleague, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.

“Dick Durbin is, and will always be, a giant of the United States Senate. He has dedicated his life to making our state—as well as our nation—stronger, and we are all better for it,” said Duckworth.

She also recounted her personal connection with Durbin, recalling how he visited her after she lost both legs in combat during the Iraq War.

“When Dick looked at me, he saw past the wounds, saw past the wheelchair,” she said. “He saw a soldier in search of her next mission. And he recognized well before I did that just because I would no longer be flying Black Hawks for the Army didn’t mean that I couldn’t find a new way to serve my nation.”

{Matzav.com}

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon launched a blistering critique of the Trump administration’s Justice Department during an interview Monday with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, warning that inaction against entrenched political enemies could spark a major backlash from the MAGA base. Bannon, a longtime Trump ally and one of the leading voices of the populist right, expressed frustration over what he sees as the administration’s failure to deliver on promises of accountability, particularly against high-profile figures tied to past controversies. “We’re not doing anything over at the Justice Department,” Bannon fumed. “I don’t see investigations, I don’t see indictments… The Deep State is winning right now.” Citing a recent National Intelligence Council assessment, leaks regarding Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and what he called political attacks on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Bannon painted a picture of a White House under siege — and a Justice Department asleep at the wheel. The conservative firebrand specifically warned against investigations reportedly targeting individuals within Hegseth’s orbit. “If the guys around Hegseth are being investigated, and there’s no movement on the Epstein Files, no indictments of [former CIA Director John] Brennan, nothing on the 51 intel officials who interfered with the election — it’s going to be a firestorm,” Bannon said. In a direct appeal to the Trump faithful, Bannon echoed the growing discontent among hardline supporters who expected a wave of prosecutions in the first hundred days of Trump’s return to power. “With all the hard work that went into getting him there, we’ve seen nothing,” he said. While acknowledging that some scrutiny of the Pentagon may be warranted, Bannon said that such actions should be directed by Defense Secretary Hegseth — not imposed by the Justice Department, which he accused of failing in its central mission: “taking down the Deep State.” “People, we are burning daylight!” he declared. “These people are playing smashmouth, they’re playing hardball, and the Deep State is winning right now!” Bannon closed with a plea for action and support for Trump as he wages what Bannon characterized as a lonely battle to reorient the federal government. “He’s one man, he’s got everything on his shoulders,” Bannon said. “He needs support. He needs help. He needs people who are willing to get in there and put their shoulders to the wheel.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly considering a move that would mark a major shift in national vaccination policy: removing the Covid-19 vaccine from the federal list of recommended childhood immunizations, according to two individuals briefed on the matter who spoke with POLITICO.

If implemented, this change would take the Covid vaccine off the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s official childhood immunization schedule — a guide that many pediatricians use to determine which shots to administer and when. It would be the most consequential alteration Kennedy has pursued so far in his efforts to challenge mainstream vaccine protocols.

Kennedy, who has long voiced skepticism about vaccinations, has raised doubts about the necessity and safety of administering the Covid shot to children. He’s repeatedly pointed to research suggesting that healthy minors face a negligible risk of death from the virus.

This potential policy reversal wouldn’t ban the vaccine for children outright, but it would amount to a dramatic override of the CDC’s prior guidance. Just three years ago, the agency — backed by an independent advisory committee — recommended including the vaccine in the standard childhood schedule.

Such a change would likely have ripple effects. Many healthcare providers, insurers, and local governments rely on the CDC’s recommendations to shape their own rules, including determining insurance coverage and school vaccine requirements. Although, at present, no state mandates the Covid shot for school enrollment.

Sources familiar with internal talks say the discussions are still ongoing, and the details of the policy shift could evolve. These individuals were granted anonymity to speak freely about the deliberations.

“No final decision has been made,” said Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, in response to questions regarding the Covid vaccine’s inclusion on the CDC schedule.

Nevertheless, according to those close to the matter, Kennedy has been urging the department to take the vaccine off the list, insisting the scientific justification for its inclusion — especially so early in life — is weak.

Numerous studies show that most children who contract Covid recover quickly and face little risk of severe outcomes. Many European nations have likewise backed away from recommending additional annual Covid shots for healthy young people.

Kennedy and those aligned with him also believe that removing the vaccine from the CDC’s schedule could energize supporters of his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign — especially those who remain skeptical of the government’s pandemic response. Kennedy has criticized the CDC’s advisory panels, claiming they are overly influenced by pharmaceutical interests, despite existing safeguards against conflicts of interest.

His supporters argue that the move may not trigger widespread backlash, given that many parents have already opted not to vaccinate their children against Covid.

CDC data show only 13 percent of children have received the most recent version of the vaccine. As pandemic policies became increasingly polarized under President Donald Trump’s leadership, many states steered clear of mandating the vaccine.

In fact, 22 states have passed laws preventing schools from requiring Covid vaccinations for students, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. In February, Trump signed an executive order warning that any educational institution enforcing such a requirement could lose federal funding.

Even so, if finalized, Kennedy’s plan would probably face significant criticism from health professionals and those who oppose his anti-vaccine stance, who fear that such a move could further erode public trust in immunization programs.

“It’s like in Jurassic Park, when the Tyrannosaurus rex keeps checking where in the fence is a weakness,” said Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “He could do a lot of harm. I think he will do a lot of harm unless somebody stops him.”

During his confirmation process, Kennedy pledged not to tamper with the vaccine schedule to secure the support of Senator Bill Cassidy, a key Republican vote and a physician by profession. However, after assuming leadership of HHS, Kennedy signaled his intention to revisit areas he described as “taboo or insufficiently scrutinized” — including the childhood immunization list.

The Covid vaccine was added to the CDC’s schedule in 2022, following a unanimous vote by an outside expert panel. At the time, CDC officials argued that including it would help normalize the shot and ensure Americans kept up with their immunizations.

While statistically, children are less vulnerable to Covid than older age groups, the CDC still reports over 1,800 pediatric deaths and hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations attributed to the virus.

For Kennedy, challenging this inclusion would be a hallmark moment in his ongoing campaign against the Covid vaccine. As head of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group, Kennedy has promoted conspiracy theories and cast doubt on the vaccine’s safety, while launching multiple initiatives aimed at preventing its rollout during the Trump administration.

Among those efforts was a threat in 2022 to sue the Food and Drug Administration if it went ahead with authorizing the vaccine for children under the age of five. In a letter at the time, the organization wrote it would “seek to hold you accountable for recklessly endangering this population with a product that has little, no, or even negative net efficacy but which may put them, without warning, at risk of many adverse health consequences.”

Despite the pushback, the FDA approved the vaccine for young children a few months later, and the CDC quickly followed by recommending it and incorporating it into the national immunization schedule.

{Matzav.com}

FDA Commissioner: “I don’t think we appreciated the potential risks to human health and child health when they were first introduced… the studies have caught up with the introduction of these petroleum-based chemical food dyes and the data doesn’t look good… we are erring on the safe side and moving to remove these from the U.S. food supply.”

President Trump accuses Zelenskyy of prolonging ‘killing field’ after Ukrainian leader pushes back on ceding Crimea to Russia.

Last night, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was given a warm welcome at Mar-a-Lago.

The IDF has released footage of the elimination of Hussein Ali Nasr, the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, who was working to rebuild Hezbollah’s terror capabilities.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent leveled harsh criticism at the operations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday even as he tried to reassure nervous investors that the United States would maintain its global leadership role. “America first does not mean America alone,” he said in a speech to the Institute of International Finance. “To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.” Although Bessent said the IMF and the World Bank are “falling short,” he stopped short of calling for the U.S. to withdraw from the institutions as some conservatives have advocated. It was the latest example of how Bessent, a former hedge fund manager who keeps a close eye on the financial markets, has tried to calm the economic turmoil as President Donald Trump tries to rewire international trade through aggressive tariffs. After Bessent’s remarks, reporters asked him about a Wall Street Journal article that said the huge U.S. tariffs that the Republican president has levied on China could be cut in half, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Bessent said: “I’d be surprised if that discussion is happening.” However, he said he expects “there’d have to be a de-escalation” from Washington and Beijing’s trade confrontation. Trump had said on Tuesday that the 145% tariffs on China could “come down substantially.” And then on Wednesday, he told reporters that “everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing” and “everyone’s going to be happy.” Bessent’s speech in Washington represented a broadside against the IMF and the World Bank, which provide loans and other financial support around the world. He said the Trump administration “will leverage U.S. leadership and influence at these institutions and push them to accomplish their important mandates.” Some of Bessent’s criticisms echoed the Trump administration’s efforts to root out progressive ideology from federal institutions. Bessent said the IMF “has suffered from mission creep” and “devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender and social issues.” He said there were similar problems at the World Bank, which he said “should no longer expect blank checks for vapid, buzzword-centric marketing accompanied by half-hearted commitments to reform.” One of the problems, Bessent said, is that China is still treated like a developing country, which gives it more favorable treatment from global institutions. With China as the second-largest economy in the world, he said, “it’s an adult economy.” Despite growing friction between Beijing and Washington, Bessent said “there is an opportunity for a big deal here.” Bessent wants the U.S. to boost manufacturing while China increases consumption, making its economy less reliant on flooding the globe with cheap exports. “If they want to rebalance, let’s do it together,” he said. “This is an incredible opportunity.” Beijing said Wednesday that “exerting pressure is not the right way to deal with China and simply will not work.” (AP)

Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated that he suspects that the Trump administration has canceled his travel visa to the United States.

Petro, who had earlier relented to pressure from President Trump to accept deported migrants, made this assertion during a Cabinet meeting in Bogota, where he explained why he would be unable to attend the spring meetings organized by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, DC.

“I can no longer go because I believe they took away my visa,” Petro remarked.

“I didn’t need to have one, but anyway, I’ve already seen Donald Duck several times, so I’ll go see other things,” the Colombian president continued, taking a jab at Trump.

The U.S. State Department, however, declined to verify or reject Petro’s statement, citing the confidentiality of visa-related information.

“Visa records are confidential under US law; therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases,” a spokesperson from the State Department told The Post.

Earlier this year, Trump had warned of potential visa sanctions, heightened inspections for travelers, and emergency tariffs up to 50% on Colombia after a confrontation over the deportation of migrants.

Initially, Petro, a former leftist guerrilla leader, had resisted accepting deported Colombian migrants, criticizing the Trump administration for treating them as if they were “criminals.” However, after Trump’s threat, the Colombian president quickly changed his stance and even offered the U.S. his presidential plane to help transport the deported migrants back to Colombia.

“Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at the time, referring to the dispute.

{Matzav.com}

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and his party’s top leader on the Judiciary Committee, announced Wednesday that he won’t seek a sixth term in 2026. “I know in my heart it’s time to pass the torch,” the veteran senator said in a social media post Wednesday.

POTUS: “We’re going to have a fair deal with China. It’s going to be fair… we’re going to have a country that you can be proud of, not a laughingstock all over the world…”

Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from Miami: “As long as there are hostages who are not receiving food, no humanitarian aid will be brought into Gaza”

Last night at Yale University, Hundreds of pro-terrorists protesters set up a new encampment and were chanting “we will honor all our martyrs” among other pro-terrorist chants.

In a summary of activities in Lebanon over the past week, the IDF says it killed nine Hezbollah operatives and struck over 40 sites belonging to the terror group.

President Trump appears to be discussing changes to the north lawn at the White House, including a place for a new flagpole.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announces the military is bringing back 8,700+ troops fired over the COVID vaccine: “Over 8,700 service members were separated for not taking an experimental vaccine… we’re welcoming them back. We’ve sent letters out.”

Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin with his wife and infant children and spent his later years educating young people to keep the events alive in memory, has died. He was 100. Klaus Hillenbrand, a close friend who wrote a book about Frankenstein, confirmed the death on Tuesday. He said Frankenstein died on Monday. The foundation that oversees Berlin’s Holocaust memorial also confirmed that he died Monday in Stockholm. Frankenstein was born in 1924 in Flatow in what is now Poland but was then part of Germany. Three years after the Nazis came to power, in 1936, he was no longer allowed to attend the town’s public school because he was Jewish. With the help of an uncle, his mother sent him to Berlin where he could continue his school education, and he later trained as a bricklayer at the Jewish community’s vocational school. He stayed at the Jewish Auerbach’sche Orphanage where he met Leonie Rosner, who would later become his wife. In an interview with The Associated Press in 2018, Frankenstein described how he witnessed Kristallnacht — the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9, 1938, when Nazis, among them many ordinary Germans, terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. They killed at least 91 people and vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses. They also burned more than 1,400 synagogues, according to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps. Frankenstein, who was then 14, climbed on the roof of the orphanage and saw fire lighting up the city. “Then we knew: the synagogues were burning,” he said. “The next morning, when I had to go to school, there was sparkling, broken glass everywhere on the streets.” Starting in 1941, Frankenstein had to do forced labor in Berlin, repeatedly threatened by the danger of being deported by the Nazis. In 1943, five weeks after their son Peter-Uri was born, he went into hiding with his wife, Leonie, as the Nazis were deporting thousands of Jews from Berlin to Auschwitz. “We had promised ourselves not to do what Hitler wanted,” Frankenstein told the AP. “So we went into hiding.” Together with their baby, the couple spent 25 months in hiding in Berlin. A second son, Michael, was born in 1944, during their time on the run. They stayed with friends or in bombed-out buildings. Up to 7,000 Berlin Jews had gone into hiding, but only 1,700 of them were able to survive. The others were either arrested, died of illness or perished in air raids. In 1945, when Berlin was liberated by the Soviet Red Army, Frankenstein’s children were among the youngest of a total of only 25 Jewish children who had survived in Berlin. Before the Holocaust, Berlin had the biggest Jewish community in Germany. In 1933, the year the Nazis came to power, around 160,500 Jews lived in Berlin. By the end of World War II in 1945 their numbers had diminished to about 7,000 through emigration and extermination. All in all, some 6 million European Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. After the collapse of the Nazis’ Third Reich, the Frankensteins immigrated to what was then Palestine and later became Israel. Eleven years later, in 1956, they moved to Sweden, where they settled for good. Later in […]

Apple and Meta were both hit with massive fines on Wednesday, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, for breaching the European Union’s newly established competition regulations aimed at limiting the dominance of Big Tech.

Apple was penalized $570 million by EU antitrust authorities for preventing developers from directing users to less expensive alternatives outside its App Store.

Meanwhile, Meta faced a $230 million fine for coercing users of Facebook and Instagram into choosing between viewing ads or paying to avoid them, according to the European Commission.

These fines are the first to be issued to Big Tech giants under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, a landmark law introduced in 2022.

The penalties came after a lengthy investigation by the European Commission to determine whether the two companies were adhering to the new rules, which are designed to make it easier for smaller competitors to enter markets that are currently dominated by large players.

Apple has already promised to appeal the decision.

“Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free,” said an Apple spokesperson in a statement.

Meta also condemned the fine, calling it unjust.

“The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” a Meta spokesperson stated.

“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model, effectively imposing a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” the spokesperson added.

The sanctions were expected to be announced in March, but EU officials reportedly delayed them due to President Trump’s ongoing trade tensions.

{Matzav.com}

Adelynn Campbell’s last plane trip ended with a panic attack that she got through largely with the help of a kind flight attendant. That was last year — before 67 people died in January when an American Airlines jet collided with a helicopter over Washington, D.C., in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in almost a quarter century. Now, Campbell is even more hesitant to book a flight. “It’s definitely spiked my concern about getting on a plane and it’s making the whole situation a little more stressful than it used to be,” said Campbell, 30, who manages a coffee shop in San Diego. Being at least a little nervous about flying is understandable. As Mel Brooks once said: “If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets.” But for some people it causes deep anxiety that could require professional help. Here’s a look at air travel anxiety and ways to cope with it. More people seem to be nervous about flying The evidence is anecdotal, but psychologists and flight attendants say they’ve seen and heard increased worries — and not only in people who already had anxieties about flying. “Even people who didn’t have a fear of flying are talking about it, given recent events,” said Jennifer Dragonette, a California-based psychologist who treats people with air travel anxieties. U.S. air travel was down in March and early April compared with last year, according to TSA statistics. Airlines have attributed the decline to economic uncertainty, a decline in government and corporate travel and — yes — concern about recent aviation incidents. FAA officials recently acknowledged they weren’t doing enough to ensure air safety. Recent polling by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that fewer Americans report feeling safe about flying this year. Flight attendants who work planes out of the Washington, D.C., airport were particularly rattled by the January collision, said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants union. Some asked for time off to process their emotions, and at least one flight attendant left the job, she said. What is fear of flying? Fear of flying — sometimes called aerophobia — goes beyond just being nervous about a flight. It is an intense form of anxiety that centers on certain aspects of air travel. Many aerophobes get most rattled during take-off and landing, or when they think about being locked in a plane. Some research has suggested it affects about 25 million U.S. adults. Psychologists say it often surfaces in adulthood, developing in people who didn’t mind flying as kids but grew more rattled as they aged. In many cases, it starts when people are in their 20s or 30s, at a time they are experiencing big life changes and new responsibilities — like getting married or becoming a parent — and they start to think that “everything counts,” said David Carbonell, a Chicago-based psychologist who authored a workbook to help people cope with flying fears. A bad flight with heavy turbulence or some other problem may trigger an anxiety that persists, he said. Campbell, who has other forms of anxiety, developed a fear of flying a few years ago. She is transgender, and said travel can be stressful because of concerns about how she’ll be treated by airport security or in other interactions. Aerophobia can be complicated, Carbonell […]