On September 5, 1793, 231 years ago, France plunged into the Reign of Terror. A year of fear, guillotines, and political purges that swallowed revolutionaries and royals alike. It was the dark aftermath of a movement that had promised liberty but delivered blood. History doesn’t repeat itself exactly, but it does remind us how quickly power can turn ruthless.

Now, here’s what’s happening in today’s world.

Bipartisan Firestorm on Capitol Hill

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran headlong into bipartisan fire during a tense Senate Finance Committee hearing today. Democrats and Republicans alike lined up to question his sweeping shake-ups at the CDC and his controversial stance on vaccines. What was unusual wasn’t the criticism. It was that both sides of the aisle delivered it with equal force, signaling how deeply unsettled lawmakers are by his moves.

At the center of the uproar is Kennedy’s decision to wipe out the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, removing all 17 members in one swoop. The fallout was immediate: three senior CDC officials resigned in protest, warning that the agency’s credibility was at risk. Kennedy brushed it off as overdue house-cleaning, insisting the CDC’s failures during the COVID-19 pandemic justified drastic action. But his critics said the purge undermined science and public trust, raising concerns about whether politics is driving health decisions.

Lawmakers also zeroed in on Kennedy’s policy shifts. He has canceled roughly $500 million in research for mRNA vaccines and rolled back recommendations on COVID shots for children and pregnant women. Supporters call it a long-needed course correction, but opponents fear it’s a dangerous retreat from proven tools at a time when public confidence in vaccines is already shaky. Even Republicans who helped confirm Kennedy, like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, pressed him hard, accusing him of weakening the nation’s health defenses.

For Kennedy, the hearing underscored the political risks of his approach. He came into office promising bold reform, but today’s rare bipartisan scolding suggests he may have overplayed his hand. The fight over the CDC’s direction isn’t just about personnel or policy. It’s about whether the nation’s top health agency will be trusted to guide Americans through the next public health crisis.

Rapid Fire

💊 The U.S. carried out a strike on a Venezuelan boat, killing 11 people. Trump said they were “narcoterrorists” from Tren de Aragua, a gang that began in Venezuelan prisons and expanded into an international crime network. Trump framed it as the opening move in a larger campaign, and the Pentagon says more operations are on the way. By labeling cartels as terrorist organizations, Washington gains legal cover for military strikes abroad that once would’ve been unthinkable.

Venezuela is treating it like an act of war. Maduro blasted the attack as “criminal,” deployed troops to the coast and the Colombian border, and urged civilians to join militias. With U.S. destroyers already in the region, the strike has raised tensions even higher. The bigger worry is precedent: if Washington keeps using the terror label, it could justify military campaigns inside other countries’ borders, testing alliances, regional stability, and the limits of international law.

🦠 The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared its sixteenth Ebola outbreak, this time in Kasai Province. As of September 4, officials report 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths, including four health workers. The outbreak is centered in the Bulape and Mweka health zones, where patients are showing classic Ebola symptoms like fever and vomiting. For a country that has faced this virus again and again, the news is grim but sadly familiar.

The deaths of frontline health workers make the challenge even tougher. Their loss weakens the very system needed to stop the spread. Congo has built up years of experience battling Ebola, but each flare-up comes with its own complications, different regions, different communities, and always the risk of things spiraling fast. International health monitors are already on alert, because with Ebola, hesitation can be just as deadly as the disease itself.

🙏 A Moroccan court has sentenced feminist and LGBTQ activist Ibtissam Lachgar to two and a half years in prison for “offending Islam,” a verdict that’s already sparking international backlash. The charge stems from a selfie she posted online wearing a shirt with the phrase “Allah is Lesbian.” The court also fined her $5,000, making the case one of the country’s most high-profile blasphemy prosecutions in years.

Lachgar, who co-founded a Moroccan feminist movement and has been fighting cancer during the trial, has long been a target of authorities for her outspoken activism. Rights groups say the ruling is a major blow to free expression and a warning shot to other LGBTQ and women’s rights advocates in the country. It also underscores Morocco’s tightening grip on dissent, where laws against blasphemy and insulting the monarchy continue to collide with modern activism. For Lachgar, the sentence is personal and punishing. For Morocco, it’s a reminder of the widening gulf between its legal codes and the global push for human rights.

World Watch

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has rolled out one of the most sweeping annexation proposals ever put on the table. On Wednesday, he unveiled detailed maps showing plans to extend Israeli sovereignty over 82 percent of the West Bank, framing the move as a way to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state” once and for all. Smotrich said the mapping work has already been carried out by the Defense Ministry’s Settlement Administration and urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to take what he called a “historic decision.”

The announcement follows his earlier push for thousands of new housing units in the contested E1 corridor, a stretch of land that, if annexed, would effectively carve the West Bank in two. Smotrich left no ambiguity about his intent: “There will never, and can never be, a Palestinian state in our land.” The timing is as pointed as the rhetoric. Several Western nations are preparing to formally recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly. His plan signals a dramatic escalation, not just in settlement expansion, but in Israel’s outright rejection of a two-state solution.

Today in What the Hell

A painting missing for nearly 85 years just turned up in Argentina and not in a museum. Authorities recovered Portrait of a Lady, a 17th-century work by Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi, that Nazis stole from Dutch-Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker during World War II. The discovery wasn’t the result of some dramatic raid. It popped up in a real estate listing, hanging on the wall like any old family heirloom.

The trail led to the daughter of a senior SS officer who fled to Argentina after the war. She’s now under house arrest as prosecutors dig into how the painting ended up in her possession. For art historians and families still chasing thousands of looted works, it’s a reminder that these stories are far from finished. Nearly a century later, lost art keeps surfacing in the most ordinary places and each find adds a piece back to history stolen in the Holocaust.

That’s all folks

From Capitol Hill showdowns to battlefields in Gaza and courtrooms in Rabat, today’s stories all point to power being tested, and contested, in very different ways. Some fights are about territory, others about rights or institutions, but the throughline is the same: who gets to decide, and at what cost. We’ll keep cutting through the noise so you don’t miss the big picture.