News & Current Events

Record rainfall in Chiba Prefecture on August 13–14, 2026 killed eight people, prompted Self-Defense Force evacuations of roughly 4,000 people stranded near Soga Station, and left up to 7,000 travelers temporarily inside Narita Airport terminals overnight. Chiba City recorded more than 360 mm of rain in 24 hours, a new observation record, prompting Japan's Meteorological Agency to formally name the event 'Reiwa 8 August Chiba Heavy Rain.' All evacuation orders in the prefecture were lifted by 10:00 on August 15, and power outages had narrowed to approximately 120 premises in a single city ward.

A 2-1 Ninth Circuit panel reversed a district court's quashing of a DOJ administrative subpoena to QueerDoc, PLLC, finding the agency complied with HIPAA and that political opposition to gender-affirming care alone does not establish bad faith. The court remanded the case for the district court to evaluate whether the subpoena's 15 document categories — covering patient records, billing, personnel files, and communications for an unspecified number of patients — are overbroad or unduly burdensome. This is the first federal appellate ruling to uphold any such subpoena; district courts in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have quashed comparable DOJ subpoenas, and a Third Circuit appeal remains pending, though no binding intercircuit conflict is yet established.

The Trump administration filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on August 13, 2026, seeking to stay a court injunction that bars above-ground construction of a proposed 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, with Chief Justice Roberts setting an August 18 response deadline. The D.C. Circuit had affirmed the injunction, ruling that neither the President nor the National Park Service had congressional authorization to demolish and replace a major structure, while allowing underground construction to continue. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled, and the injunction was set to take full effect on August 21 absent court action.