My 14-year-old son Ryu has a terminal rare disease. We were to travel from Texas to the District of Columbia on May 12 to attend a Senate hearing on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) budget. There, Ryu had hoped to meet our Senator, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to shake his hand, and to tell him a little about what it’s like to live with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).    The hearing was canceled because then-FDA Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary left his post. The FDA continuing to block access to rare disease treatments remains a problem that he created, but President Donald Trump has the opportunity to change that by appointing a new FDA leader willing to listen to rare disease families and open treatment doors for my son and other adults and children with rare diseases.  Makary did neither. DMD killed my beloved brothers Angelo and Antonio in their early twenties. It is a fatal genetic condition that progressively destroys muscles throughout the body. My son now faces my brothers’ fate. In the 1990s, Angelo agreed to experimental spinal surgery to treat his DMD. Although he knew chances of survival were slim, he allowed doctors to put a metal rod in his spine, and thankfully, he lived several more years. Angelo did not hesitate, as he felt the treatment would help researchers understand more about this vicious disease. That choice was his alone. No agency in far-off Washington, D.C., blocked him from taking his leap of faith and contributing to a possible cure.  Unlike when my brothers were alive, there are now therapies that can slow the progression of Duchenne and extend lives. Many patients are living higher-quality lives because of these advances. Last summer, our family was looking into enrolling Ryu in a program for a DMD treatment called Elevidys. Today, we cannot even consider this treatment that could preserve Ryu’s muscle function, because the FDA has effectively made that decision for us by restricting treatment to ambulatory patients. They blocked the only gene therapy treatment for children who, like Ryu, are already in a wheelchair.  Makary once spoke about removing barriers and increasing regulatory flexibility for patients facing devastating illnesses, and for a moment, it seemed the system might work for us.  Instead, we saw increased delays made by bureaucrats who don’t deteriorate medically while we wait.  Today, Ryu’s arms are too weak to raise his hand to answer questions at school, even though he knows the answers. At night, he relies on breathing support because DMD has weakened the muscles that control his lungs. Despite this, he still laughs, argues, and dreams about his lifelong goal of becoming a Navy SEAL. Washington is full of government officials unaware of what Ryu and other rare disease patients go through every day. My job is to educate them, because their influence over FDA policy matters.  Last month, I invited Makary to my home to see firsthand what life is like for a child whose muscles are slowly wasting away. I now extend that invitation to acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, and whomever the president permanently appoints to lead the agency.  As Ryu told me recently as he was using a machine to help him cough up mucus his lungs are too weak to handle, “Mom, this sucks. But you telling my story makes this a lot easier.”  The next FDA leaders have power over the life of my son. That’s why we wanted to come to Washington—to put a face to FDA treatment delays.We are seeking partners from inside the halls of government—or as Ryu would call them, “heroes.” It is up to the president and the U.S. Senate to ensure the next FDA appointee finally puts patients first.  Angelo chose faith over fear, and Ryu deserves that same choice. My brother made his decision for children he never even met, including the nephew born after he died. Can our government demonstrate the same resolve and courage as Angelo? The FDA now has an opportunity to reset its relationship with rare disease families and help rather than obstruct. The new Commissioner must do the right thing and utilize existing protocols that accelerate treatment approvals for rare disease families and kids like Ryu. And listen.  It is too important an opportunity to squander.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

A teenage stabbing victim bled to death on the street in Southampton after British police arrested and cuffed him rather than his alleged Sikh attacker, after the suspect claimed he’d been racially abused, according to court testimony. Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student at the University of Southampton, was walking home from a night out in December 2025, chatting with some friends on Snapchat, when he was encountered by Vickrum Digwa, 23. After a brief exchange, Digwa stabbed Nowak with an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial shastar blade, according to court testimony reported by BBC. A post-mortem examination showed Nowak had four stab wounds, BBC reported. Nowak tried to escape over a fence, but was “aggressively pursued” by Digwa, jurors were told. However, when Hampshire Constabulary police officers arrived at the scene, they arrested the dying Nowak rather than Digwa after the suspect claimed he’d been “racially abused and attacked by a drunken man,” prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said, ITV News reported. Nowak was handcuffed and police administered first aid before he fell unconscious, according to Lobbenberg. He died a short time later at the scene. “Put simply,” the prosecutor told jurors, “Henry drowned in his own blood, with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimeters into him.” Lobbenberg acknowledged that Sikh males are allowed to carry a knife as part of their religious obligation. Digwa did have a small ceremonial knife called a kirpan in his possession. However, the knife used to stab Nowak was an “extremely large knife” openly displayed over Digwa’s clothing, ITV News reported. The prosecutor challenged Digwa’s claim that Nowak was drunk, saying the student had drunk less than the law’s drink-drive limit. As for Digwa’s allegation of racial abuse, the fatal altercation had been recorded on Nowak’s phone, which was found in Digwa’s pocket. The Daily Mail reported: Mr. Nowak can be heard saying “Hello car” and singing to himself before yawning, with the footage then cutting to show Digwa walking away from him.Mr. Nowak is then heard saying: “Innit bad man, what bad man. You’re a bad man, say you’re a bad man, go on.”Digwa replied: “I am a bad man,” to which Mr. Nowak replied: “Are you a b…,” before the footage cuts off. Digwa was charged with murder, while his mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was charged with assisting the offender by allegedly removing the knife from the scene. The two have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Turning Point UK called for the firing of the police officers involved, posting on X that “@HantsPolice must sack the police officers responsible and apologize for their disgraceful behavior believing false allegations of racism over a man who had been violently stabbed.” Henry Novak, 18, was stabbed to death with a 21cm Sikh ceremonial blade by Vickrum Digwa, 23, while on a night out in Southampton.When Hampshire Constabulary police officers arrived they handcuffed Henry whilst he bled to death as Digwa accused him of being racist.As Digwa… pic.twitter.com/mFVJ86yrG0— Turning Point UK (@TPointUK) May 15, 2026

An Easter greeting from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins represents an “outbreak of Christian nationalism,” according to litigants suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Seven employees at the agency, along with the National Federation of Federal Employees, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, based in San Francisco. The National Federation of Federal Employees represents 110,000 federal employees. They took umbrage at an Easter email to all department employees from Rollins that said, “Happy Easter – He is Risen indeed! Today we celebrate the greatest story ever told, the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind.” They claim the greeting violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The plaintiffs are being represented by Democracy Forward, an organization chaired by former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias, as well as Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. A USDA spokesperson told the Daily Signal, “While we do not comment on pending litigation, we will keep the plaintiffs in our prayers during this process.” The complaint says the plaintiffs are a group of “multifaith and nonreligious USDA employees.” “Secretary Rollins’s practice and policy of subjecting agency employees to proselytizing messages conveys the expectation that USDA employees share in the Secretary’s religious beliefs, even when doing so would betray an employee’s own beliefs,” the lawsuit says. “It is exactly the sort of government-sponsored religious coercion, religious sermonizing, and denominational preference that the Establishment Clause prohibits.” The complaint filed in court doesn’t use the often undefined phrase “Christian nationalism,” but litigants and representatives eagerly sounded the alarm elsewhere. “Every agency feels like it’s the epicenter for a new outbreak of Christian Nationalism,” said National Federation of Federal Employees National President Randy Erwin in a public statement. “We just want to do our jobs without having to fend off proselytizing and preaching.” Similarly, in a public statement on the case, Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman seemed equally agitated. “Christian nationalism is a divisive perversion of faith that is about who gets to properly belong in the country and who doesn’t,” she said.

As National Police Week concludes, Democrat lawmakers who previously backed the “defund the police” movement are having to navigate their past positions on law enforcement as well as their recent support for sanctuary policies and the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats in closely contested House and Senate races, including James Talarico in Texas, Graham Platner in Maine, and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, have backed off or clarified past statements on police. “I spent over a decade as a cop in Colorado, and I personally experienced how Denver Democrats and leftist extremists pushed anti-police policies that handcuffed officers, prioritized criminals over victims, and drove Denver homicides and fentanyl death rates to record highs,” Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., told the Daily Signal in a statement. “Now Democrats in Congress have taken it even further—causing the two longest government shutdowns in American history to intentionally withhold funding from the very agencies that keep Americans safe,” he added. On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution supporting law enforcement officers while condemning policies that could put officers at risk. However, 173 Democrats voted against the resolution sponsored by Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, with 29 members in support, three voting present, and seven not voting. Nunn said this “shouldn’t be controversial.” “But from the ‘defund the police’ radicalism to sanctuary city policies that prevent cooperation with federal law enforcement, too many politicians have put ideology ahead of public safety,” Nunn said on the House floor. Here’s what four Democrats in battleground races have said in the past about law enforcement. 1. Talarico Donations to ‘Police Reform’ Talarico, the Texas Senate nominee, in 2020 donated $2,500 to the Austin Justice Coalition, which supported cutting the state capital’s police budget. He posted on Twitter that year: “After the murders of George Floyd and Javier Ambler, our campaign proudly donated to a well-respected civil rights organization in our community that champions educational equity, economic opportunity, and police reform.” He also said in 2019 that having police officers in schools would lead to a “culture of violence.” The Talarico campaign noted that his first bill as a state representative was naming a portion U.S. Highway 79 after fallen Hutto police officer Sgt. Chris Kelley.  Talarico campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said it’s a “flat out lie” to says Talarico wants to defund the police.  “James opposes defunding the police, and has a proven track record voting to send billions of dollars to support law enforcement,” Ennis said in an email statement to the Daily Signal. “While John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and the billionaires who prop them up play politics with school shootings by presenting a false choice between funding law enforcement and funding mental health resources for kids, James will continue standing up against both political parties to fix this broken, corrupt political system.” 2. Vasquez: ‘Not Just About Defunding Police’ Democrat Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, said in 2020 he wanted “transformational reform” of the local police in Las Cruces. Vasquez, while serving on the city council in Las Cruces, responded to a constituent in 2020 who demanded at least a 50% reduction in the police budget, Fox News reported. “I wholeheartedly and absolutely support police reform and the #blacklivesmatter movement, and will not be stopping short of transformational reform that brings justice to our city and to people of color in our community. You can count on my support,” he replied. Vasquez also responded, “I agree,” to a separate message calling for “defunding the police department and moving those funds to strengthening social programs.” Vasquez told Fox News in a 2022 statement, “I oppose defunding the police,” adding that as a council member, “I repeatedly voted to increase funding for the police.” Vasquez was one of the 29 House Democrats voting this week in favor of the Nunn resolution supporting law enforcement. In 2020, he used a pseudonym at an anti-police rally, asserting, “It’s not just about defunding police, it’s about defunding a system that privileges white people over everyone else,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. Neither Vasquez’s congressional office nor the Vasquez campaign responded to inquiries from the Daily Signal on Thursday and Friday for this story. 3. Platner on Police ‘as a Whole’ Democrat Graham Platner, who is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, wrote on Reddit in 2021 that “Cops are bastards,” and said misconduct was a problem for “the profession as a whole.” Platner told CNN last September: “I have an immense amount of friends who are police officers. They’re not all bastards because they’re literally buddies of mine.” The Platner campaign did not respond to inquiries from the Daily Signal on Thursday and Friday for this story. 4. El-Sayed: ‘Standing Armies’ Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed deleted old social media posts supporting the defund the police movement from 2020 and 2021. Fox News reported that the posts included statements such as, “The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people.” He also wrote, “When we make a choice to invest in policing in a majority Black community, rather than to invest in public schools, that choice is influenced by systemic racism.” A campaign spokesperson told Fox News last November that El-Sayed worked with law enforcement as Wayne County’s health officer. The spokesperson said, “He learned and grew through the process—and has earned endorsements from a sitting sheriff, a former sheriff, and a Detroit police commissioner.” El-Sayed was also reportedly on the board of Michigan United in 2020, which described law enforcement as a “racist and broken social infrastructure that leads to one innocent death after another.” El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to inquiries on Thursday and Friday from the Daily Signal for this story.

This summer, Big Tech titans will be put in the hot seat on Capitol Hill. On Friday, Axios reported that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has invited the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet, TikTok, and Snap for a June oversight hearing. The CEOs in question are Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, and Snap’s Evan Spiegel. The June 23 hearing will be called “Examining Tech Industry Practices and the Implications for Users and Families: Is This Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment?” per a committee spokesperson. BREAKING: Chairman @ChuckGrassley has invited the CEOs of @Meta, @Google, TikTok and @Snapchat to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 23.The American people deserve answers. https://t.co/L7ZweVziEP— Senate Judiciary Republicans (@SenJudiciaryGOP) May 15, 2026 The hearing will be the first of its kind since 2024, when the committee grilled the CEOs of X, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Discord on children’s online safety. The committee’s current ranking member, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is a critic of Big Tech and chaired the committee at the time of the 2024 hearing. Durbin has called for repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online service providers and social media companies from being sued for what their users post.  Sen. DURBIN: Two things we can do to stand up to Big Tech. Repeal Section 230. Let every American family access courts to enforce the protection of their children. We will see things happen dramatically if we do those two things. pic.twitter.com/Kc65ypp24O— Senate Judiciary Democrats (@JudiciaryDems) May 14, 2026 The Democrat is also a critic of the rapid increase in data center construction, which he claims has led to a rise in energy costs. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are also on the committee, and co-authored the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill to regulate social media that passed the Senate in 2024 but did not get a vote on the House floor. Blackburn said in a statement on X of the upcoming hearing, “If these CEOs do not accept this invitation, we must force Big Tech’s hand. They’ve testified in courtrooms, and now they need to testify before Congress. The tide is turning, and accountability is coming.” Related PostsNRSC Hits Democrat ‘Pro-Crime Agenda’ in Police Week Attack AdsFIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Amid Police Week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is targeting Democrat Senate candidates with a series of ads accusing them of being anti-law enforcement. The NRSC has produced eight new ads targeting Democrat Senate candidates in battleground states: former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Graham Platner of Maine, Sen. Jon…Tensions Between CIA and Congress FlareTensions have flared between Capitol Hill Republicans and the intelligence community after the Central Intelligence Agency harshly criticized a committee for subpoenaing an agent and denied reports of a cover-up of declassified material. On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., heard the testimony of subpoenaed…Congress to Probe CAIRWhile it remains unclear whether the Council on American‑Islamic Relations will testify, a House Judiciary subcommittee is set to hold a hearing Tuesday examining how CAIR and similar organizations are promoting Sharia law and other efforts lawmakers say are “incompatible with Western civilization” in the United States. “Sharia law has no place in the United…