The Daily Populous

Thursday July 23rd, 2026 evening edition

image for Pritzker announces $2.5B in medical debt erased; more than half in Cook Co.

(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker met with Cook County health officials Tuesday to announce a combined $2.6 billion in erased medical debt.

The legislation that created the Medical Debt Relief Program for the state – based on the Cook County program – was signed into law in July 2024.

The state partnered with nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, formerly known as RIP Medical Debt, committing to provide $10 million in grants to pay off debts.

Allison Sesso, CEO of Undue Medical Debt, described the act of erasing debt as taking advantage of the market system.

Erik Mikaitis, CEO of Cook County Health, noted the debt relief may help to strengthen the financial footing for Illinois families.

Separately, the study suggested that such relief negatively affects the repayment of other medical bills.

Cook County officials also announced they plan to continue the program, despite no longer getting federal stimulus funds from the 2021 American Rescue Plan. »

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

Authored by apnews.com

It’s an admission that lawyers for the research professors say is proof that the agencies illegally cancelled nearly $2 billion in grants.

And that’s a major development in a lawsuit filed by UC researchers against the Trump administration to permanently get their grants back.

Those allegations were also the subject of a demand from the White House for UCLA to pay $1.2 billion or experience an additional cascade of research freezes. »

Trump ties Saudi civilian nuclear deal to normalization with Israel

Authored by ynetnews.com

President Donald Trump said Thursday that a planned civilian nuclear agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia will move forward only if Riyadh joins the Abraham Accords and normalizes relations with Israel.

Trump said the agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia concerns only peaceful nuclear use and will not include uranium enrichment.

Trump’s latest statement appeared to rule out such a possibility by explicitly stating that the agreement would not permit enrichment. »

Russia’s Crown-Jewel Su-57 May Have Crashed Outside Moscow

Authored by united24media.com
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A Russian military aircraft crashed near Zvenigorod in the Moscow region, with preliminary reports suggesting it may have been a Su-57, Russia’s only operational fifth-generation fighter, Russian media Astra reported on July 23.

No official confirmation of the aircraft type, crew condition, or cause of the crash has yet been released.

⚡️BREAKING: A 🇷🇺Russian Su-57 5th-generation multirole fighter crashed near the village of Lutino in the Moscow region during a training flight. »

Dr. Phil reveals the White House had him review UFO files to see how the public would react to them

Authored by the-independent.com
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And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls.

TV personality Dr. Phil claims the Trump administration tapped him to review government files about UFOs before their release to the public.

open image in gallery Dr. Phil claims the Trump administration tapped him to review UFO files before their release to the public ( AFP/Getty ). »