It was a busy Thursday from Europe to the United States this week, with a Republican victory for #healthcare reform, a new announcement from Prince Philip, a raging battle between French presidential hopefuls as well as a tone of defiance from the FBI director James Comey about his comments on Hillary Clinton's email use during the final weeks of the US election.

Republican health victory

The House managed to just approve a new bill to replace and repeal the major tenets of Obama's #Affordable Care Act in a sign of strength and endurance from a party that has shown lack of unity and disarray in recent months.

Thursday's victory helped position Republicans one step closer to fulfilling their election promise to redefine and reshape #US healthcare without using previously required insurance rules and regulations. The vote came in at 213-217 and strengthens the Republican mission to destroy Barack Obama's celebrated and ground-changing legislative achievements whilst he was in office.

The measures passed today in the House measure will confront less certainty and more animosity in the Senate, where the deep spending cuts will be dampened by Democratic pressure and input. And those tenets passed in the Senate will then be tested once again in the House where there is a conservative stewardship in the majority.

Prince Philip to cut down his royal duties.

Queen Elizabeth II's husband, #Prince Philip, will no longer live in the public eye after it was announced today that he won't carry out any further public engagements from this fall. The Queen however will continue her role as usual.

The news was greeted with open hearts and warm wishes by Royal followers across the world.

In Britain tributes flowed to the 96 year old Duke of Edinburgh. Great Britain's prime minister, #Theresa May, said that the Prince was always seen as a “steadfast support” to the Queen. Labour leader, #Jeremy Corbyn, who is a Republican and respects the royals, praised the Duke of Edinburgh's keen sense of duty to the public.

The Prince set up the global Duke of Edinburgh awards in 1956 to inspire youths to achieve more in their lives. The award is celebrated across 141 countries and this is seen as one of his biggest achievements.

FBI issues continue to simmer

FBI director #James Comey gave testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday and his comments ricocheted across the globe as many were surprised by his restless and irregular conduct. He seemed to bristle at questions from the critics and experts who faced him.

Journalists and politicians in America and across the world were seen questioning his very different handling of both the Russia interference election issue as well as the Hillary Clinton email and private server drama.

When he announced that the FBI was looking into her private email use as Secretary of State last October, the American public were shocked and many believed that this led to the outcome of the American election, with trump's shock win.

A French election

Talking of elections, Marine Le Pen, the right wing French presidential candidate, and her challenger, the popular and well-liked centrist #Emmanuel Macron, took to television on Wednesday night for a wild and willy debate. They dug into each other as they fought over public votes for the second round of the French electoral proceedings.

When Le Pen called out Macron over rumored – untrue rumors – about an offshore account that she incorrectly claimed he has in his name, he called out that she was being defamatory and filed a lawsuit against her the next day. The fact that prosecutors investigated the issue was seen a warning call to others.