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The Food and Drug Administration Monday unveiled the details of a new policy designed to make it easier and quicker for patients with very rare diseases to get cutting-edge treatments.

The new guidance would enable the agency to approve new treatments for rare diseases based on evidence for a "plausible mechanism" for how the treatment would work. The policy aims to speed the use of state-of-the-art technologies like gene-editing to create treatments tailored to individual patients suffering from diseases that are so rare that it would be difficult if not impossible to conduct a traditional study first.

"For decades families heard the same thing: There are not enough patients. The approval will take too long. You just have to wait for the science to catch up with your child, " Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a briefing announcing the proposed new policy. "That ends today. Individualized medicine is no longer theoretical."

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Last month, Colleen Fagan was observing an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex in Portland, Maine, when federal agents scanned her face with a smartphone and appeared to record her car license plate number.

In a social media video she recorded, Fagan can be heard asking why the agent was taking her information. What the agent said next made the video go viral.

"Cause we have a nice little database," the masked agent said. "And now you're considered a domestic terrorist."

Fagan, who is a social worker, has now joined a federal class action lawsuit that argues the Department of Homeland Security and a number of its sub-agencies are violating the First Amendment and are taking actions "designed to chill, suppress, and control speech that they do not like."

"A federal agent called me a domestic terrorist just because I recorded agents operating in public in my community. But I have a right to do that, and so do others," Fagan said in a statement. "I want people to know how important it is to use our First Amendment rights to observe and document what is happening. Peaceful dissent is not a crime."

Though Fagan's video went viral, her full name had not been widely publicized until this lawsuit.

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Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran will hinge in part on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with the matter.

The president has not made a final determination on any strikes, as the administration prepares for Iran to send its latest proposal this week, ahead of what officials have described as a last-ditch round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.

Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran will hinge in part on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with the matter.

The president has not made a final determination on any strikes, as the administration prepares for Iran to send its latest proposal this week, ahead of what officials have described as a last-ditch round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.

Those talks will be led by Witkoff and Kushner, whose assessment on the likelihood of a deal will shape Trump’s calculus. If there is no deal, Trump has told advisers he is considering limited strikes to pressure Iran and, failing that, a far larger attack to force regime change.

A US official said on Monday that Witkoff was part of the group advising Trump on his decision about how to proceed with Iran and had been involved in all meetings related to the matter.

Trump has received multiple briefings on military options, the people said, including most recently on Wednesday in the White House Situation Room. He has also solicited views from a broad range of officials in the West Wing in recent weeks on what he should do with Iran.

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New Utah voting districts that give Democrats an improved shot at winning a US House seat can be used in this year’s election, a federal court ruled Monday while turning aside a Republican request to block the new map.

The ruling marked the second setback in recent days for Republicans, who also lost an appeal at Utah’s state supreme court.

A Utah judge imposed the new districts last November after striking down the congressional districts that the Republican-led legislature had adopted after the 2020 census. The judge ruled that the legislature had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters.

The ruling thrust Utah into a national redistricting battle being waged among states ahead of the midterm elections. Donald Trump has pressed Republican-led states such as Texas, Missouri and North Carolina to redraw their districts to give the GOP an advantage in the November elections, prompting Democratic-led states such as California and Virginia to respond with their own redistricting plans.

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The gold medal-winning U.S. women’s hockey team turned down Donald Trump’s invitation to his State of the Union address following his controversial comments about inviting them to the nation’s capital along with the men’s team.

A spokesperson for USA Hockey, which oversees both teams, told NBC News that the White House invited the American women to attend the president’s address but cited “timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments” as reasons for the players declining the offer.

“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal–winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement...They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment,” the spokesperson said.

The news arrives after the U.S. men’s team took home gold by defeating rival Canada by a score of 2-1 in overtime at the Winter Olympics, the exact same result that the American women achieved in their final just days prior.

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The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has barred U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco Charles Kushner from meeting with government officials. 

A French official told The Hill Monday that Kushner did not show up to the foreign ministry when he was summoned, a breach of diplomatic protocol.  As a result, Kushner is now denied meetings with French ministers.

“It’s not primarily a bilateral issue, it’s a questioMore...n of the basic expectations attached to the mission of an ambassador,” the official said. 

“We just wanted to underline that he will not be granted direct access to ministers and members of the government, but he can carry out his duties [and present himself at the French ministry of foreign affairs],” the person added.

Last week, the U.S. Embassy in France expressed concern over the death of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old French right-wing activist who was allegedly beaten on Feb. 12 by left-wing militants and died from brain injuries two days later.

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The U.S. Coast Guard launched an internal investigation after a swastika was found on a bathroom wall at a primary recruit training center in New Jersey.

The swastika— widely recognized as a symbol of the German Nazi Party and linked to the killing of millions of Jews — was found in the bathroom of the training center in Cape May, and the branch referred the matter to the Coast Guard Investigative Service for a probe, a Coast Guard spokesperson told The Hill on Monday.

The symbol was removed. 

It was found by a Coast Guard instructor, according to The Washington Post, which first reported on the investigation.

Following the symbol’s discovery, Adm. Kevin Lunday, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, traveled to Cape May, where he addressed nearly 900 recruits and staff to discuss the incident directly, “reinforce the Coast Guard’s strong standards and policies, and reaffirm the Service’s dedication to accountability through our core values,” according to the Coast Guard.

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Volunteer searchers fanned out looking for clues as the hunt for the missing 84-year-old mother of "Today" show cohost Savannah Guthrie entered its 22nd day.

Early on Feb. 22, volunteers gathered in the parking lot of a Tucson, Arizona, Hobby Lobby before beginning an informal search not far from Guthrie's house. The group recovered a backpack that was handed over to deputies.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department later said on Feb. 23 that the backpack found by volunteers does not appear to be a "viable lead," noting that it seems to be a different brand than the one the suspect wore in the doorbell surveillance footage that the FBI previously released. The backpack also "appears to have been outside for much longer than three weeks" and "contained identification of a minor within it," the sheriff's department said.

Authorities had no updates on the investigation as of the morning of Feb. 22, according to Angelica Carrillo, a sheriff's department spokesperson.

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