Hi again all – once again, wishing everybody the best. This is a brief update for the morning of Wednesday, March 18th.
1. Cuba’s president said Tuesday it will resist if the U.S. follows through on threats to take control of the Caribbean nation, amid a humanitarian crisis caused by American economic warfare.
2. A UN report out Tuesday finds that the majority of the nearly 5 million children under 5 who died in 2024 could have been saved, and warns that recent aid cuts could result in more preventable deaths.
3. Half of all Americans with a credit card cannot pay off their credit card bills each month, according to analysis out Tuesday by the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers – meaning over a third of adults in the U.S. are trapped in worsening debt cycles caused by “industry-inflated interest rates and predatory fees.”
4. Though the bill is likely to fail without Democratic support, the Senate is expected over the coming days to debate Republican legislation which would disenfranchise millions of voters – fueled by disinformation about voting by people who are not U.S. citizens.
5. Elections results are in for Tuesday’s primaries in Illinois, which had seen record spending in campaign ads, and saw mixed results for candidates backed by AIPAC.
6. Idaho’s House on Monday passed what could become one of the nation’s harshest bathroom bans targeting transgender people, if it also clears the Republican-controlled Senate and is signed by the state’s Republican governor.
7. After the University of Florida suspended the school’s College Republicans over the weekend, following a post which showed two members giving Nazi salutes, the chapter filed a free speech lawsuit Monday against the school.
8. Texas has extended its application deadline for private school vouchers until March 31st, following a federal judge’s order on Tuesday, which called it “troubling” that no Islamic schools have been approved to participate in the program.
9. A report out today by insurance provider Insurify projects the average annual cost of home insurance will rise in 2026 for the fifth consecutive year, topping over $3,000 – with human-caused climate change being the primary driver.
10. Weather conditions are expected to worsen today in Nebraska, fueling what the state’s governor said were the largest wildfires in the state’s history.
The News Focus 