News for July 21, 2026
Vice President JD Vance and wife Usha welcome baby boy Alec Neel Vance, their fourth child Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance announced the birth of their fourth child, a boy named Alec Neel Vance, the first baby born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years.
First vice-presidential birth in over a century and a half: The arrival of Alec Neel Vance carries a slice of history. The New York Post noted that the last time a sitting vice president welcomed a child was 156 years ago, when Vice President Schuyler Colfax's son was born. That makes the Vance baby a genuinely rare event in American political life, the kind of milestone that has nothing to do with partisanship and everything to do with the office's long history.
Treasury Stops Nearly $100 Million in Payments to Dead People
The Treasury Department said Tuesday it has blocked nearly $100 million in federal payments from being sent to deceased individuals since implementing a government-wide payment verification process last year.
Since March 2025, the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service has reviewed approximately 885 million payments totaling nearly $2.7 trillion and identified more than 4,900 payments worth about $99 million that were associated with deceased payees, according to the department.
Treasury said the payments were halted before funds were disbursed, and the payments were returned to the originating federal agencies for further review. The department said payments directed to deceased individuals can be an indicator of fraud or other improper payments.
The $99 million represents about 0.0036% of the $2.7 trillion in payments reviewed, but Treasury said the amount is more than three times the amount identified before President Donald Trump’s administration expanded payment verification efforts.
“Treasury has delivered on a key promise of President Trump’s mandate to stop improper payments and fraud before money leaves the Treasury, and strengthen the integrity of the federal payment system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Together with Vice President Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this new safeguard addresses a longstanding vulnerability and helps ensure every dollar the federal government spends reaches its intended recipient,” Bessent added. “Treasury will continue efforts to modernize the federal payment system, strengthen safeguards against fraud and improper payments, and protect taxpayer dollars.”
Treasury said it used the federal Do Not Pay program, which verifies a recipient’s identity, eligibility, and banking information before federal payments are issued, along with additional verification tools to identify improper payments.
The department said it significantly expanded its use of those verification systems last year following directives from Trump aimed at reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending.
The department estimates the enhanced verification process will produce about $330 million in net benefits by reducing improper payments made to deceased individuals.
Olympic Medalist Dies After Crashing into Barrier During Cycling Race: ‘Lost His Life Doing What He Loved’
Olympic medalist Toshiaki Fushimi has died after crashing during a cycling race in Japan.
On Saturday, July 18, Fushimi, 50, was taking part in the Matsusaka Keirin tournament when he crashed into a barrier after attempting to avoid a collision ahead of him.
In a video shared on X, the silver medalist can be seen appearing to veer toward the safety barrier to avoid other cyclists that had crashed in front of him.
Fushimi sustained fractures to his cervical vertebrae (neck) and skull.
Olympic medalist Toshiaki Fushimi has died after crashing during a cycling race in Japan.
He succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, July 19, at 10:15 a.m. local time, according to the outlets.
Alongside Tomohiro Nagatsuka and Masaki Inoue, Fushimi won Olympic silver in the team sprint at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens
Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquits all three men convicted of burning Christian couple alive in brick kiln
A Christian couple falsely accused of desecrating the Quran were beaten by a mob and thrown into a burning brick kiln in 2014. Twelve years later, not a single person has been held accountable for their deaths. Pakistan’s Supreme Court on July 9 acquitted the last three men convicted in the lynching of Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi, overturning their death sentences and closing the case with zero convictions.
The three-member bench, headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and joined by Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The court also dismissed an appeal by the Punjab Province government seeking to reverse the earlier acquittal of 102 other defendants by the Lahore High Court.
