Tis Life

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) takes to the Senate Floor to recap the mountain of circumstantial evidence laid bear by courageous survivors and journalists connecting Trump, Epstein, and Russia.

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

The Trump administration says it is working to restore specialized suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ youth through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by the end of the year, nearly a year after shutting them down. However, the implementation is being complicated byTrump administration’s exclusionary policies regarding transgender Americans. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the move. In a statement to The Advocate, an HHS spokesperson said SAMHSA is "working with the 988 Network Administrator Vibrant Emotional Health to reactivate Press 3 operations by the end of the year." The spokesperson described the effort as part of Congress’s fiscal year 2026 directive to restore the services. In a Tuesday correspondence to a bipartisan group of lawmakers obtained earlier by The Advocate, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said on behalf of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that it is evaluating how to restore the 988 Lifeline's specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth, commonly known as the "Press 3" option, following Congress’s direction in fiscal year 2026 funding legislation. The letter was addressed to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, and copied to Reps. Sharice Davids of Kansas, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. Rep. Michael Lawler, a New York Republican, was also copied on the letter.

But the agency also said any restoration would need to comply with President Donald Trump's Executive Order 14168, which requires federal agencies to recognize only two sexes and rejects federal recognition of transgender identities. "SAMHSA is currently assessing the most appropriate approach to implementing this congressional directive for the 'Press 3' option within the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, while ensuring compliance with Executive Order 14168," Christopher Carroll, SAMHSA's principal deputy assistant secretary for mental health and substance use, wrote. He noted that the law specifically requires LGBTQ+ youth cultural competency training for counselors and the establishment of a system that routes LGBTQ+ youth to specialized providers. The announcement marks a notable reversal from the administration's position last year.

“Congress could not have been clearer: the Trump Administration must restore the 988 Lifeline’s ‘Press 3’ option, the specialized crisis services for LGBTQ+ youth. Yet in response to concerns I raised, the Administration acknowledged Congress directed the restoration of these lifesaving services but said it is still determining how to do so in compliance with President Trump’s executive order targeting so-called ‘gender ideology,'" Krishnamoorthi said in a statement responding to the SAMHSA letter. "Executive orders cannot override federal law, and Congress already settled this question: the Trump Administration must restore these services, including for transgender young people."

In June 2025, SAMHSA announced it would eliminate the LGBTQ+ youth specialized services, arguing it would "no longer silo" LGBTQ+ callers into a dedicated subnetwork and instead would serve all callers through the broader 988 system. The administration simultaneously proposed eliminating the program's dedicated $33.1 million funding stream while maintaining funding for the national suicide hotline. The shutdown took effect July 17, 2025, ending the "Press 3" option and other pathways that connected LGBTQ+ young people directly with counselors trained to address the unique challenges LGBTQ+ youth often face during a mental health crisis.

PHOENIX—A 26,000-pound box truck loaded with Doritos and Frito-Lay chips rolls out of a distribution center, bound for a Walmart store about 4 miles away. It looks like any other truck, but there is no one at the wheel.

This is one of the 35 driverless trucks PepsiCo is running on Arizona roads, marking it as the first major U.S. consumer-goods company to disclose the real-life, large-scale use of autonomous trucks on public roads. They’re traversing busy highways and local streets as they transport PepsiCo products between bottling plants, storage facilities and stores like Walmart and Dollar General.

At least nine autonomous-truck companies are operating in Southern and South-Central states, especially Texas, but many still have human monitors at the wheel, or are being used only in limited tests. PepsiCo’s operation, using trucks outfitted with sensors and computers from an autonomous-truck company called Gatik, is a step beyond, on par with the technical hurdles being cleared by much smaller, lighter driverless passenger taxis from Waymo, Tesla and other companies.

Countries which Trump has threatened or invaded