RFK Jr defends downsizing well being division as a part of Trump price range plan
Well being secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr described the downsizing of his division as vital cost-cutting measures as he defended his spending plans beneath Donald Trump’s price range proposal.
The plans embody an $18bn minimize to Nationwide Institutes of Well being funding and $3.6bn from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Kennedy, showing earlier than the Home appropriations committee this morning, argued the proposed cuts would save taxpayers $1.8bn per 12 months and make the division extra environment friendly. He stated in his opening assertion:
Our reductions have targeted on aligning HHS staffing ranges to mirror the dimensions of HHS previous to the Covid-19 pandemic, which noticed round a 15% enhance within the variety of workers.
Requested about Elon Musk’s involvement within the cuts and firings at his division, Kennedy stated:
In the end, we executed the choices, however Elon Musk gave us assist in attempting and determining the place there was fraud and abuse within the division. However it was as much as me to make the choice, and there are various situations the place I pushed again.
Key occasions
President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are set to fulfill on the White Home on Might 21, following Trump’s allegations – denied by South Africa – that white farmers are going through “genocide” within the nation.
The assembly, introduced Wednesday by the South African authorities, comes shortly after the US granted refugee standing to 59 white South Africans, a part of what the Trump administration describes as a broader resettlement effort for minority Afrikaner farmers it says are being persecuted.
South African officers reject the allegations, saying white residents are usually not being focused.
Ramaphosa will likely be within the US from Monday by way of Thursday, with the White Home go to scheduled for Wednesday. His workplace stated the journey goals to “reset the strategic relationship” between the 2 nations.
Trump, Putin to skip Ukraine’s peace talks that Russian chief proposed, Reuters experiences
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin won’t attend what would be the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years, scheduled for Thursday, Reuters experiences.
As a substitute, the Kremlin will ship a staff of technocrats.
The Russian president had proposed the talks in Istanbul “with none preconditions” however, as of late Wednesday, confirmed he would ship presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky and deputy protection minister, Alexander Fomin, to steer the Russian delegation.
A US official later stated the US president wouldn’t attend, regardless of earlier feedback suggesting he was contemplating the journey.
Missouri lawmakers have authorized a referendum in search of to repeal an abortion-rights amendment handed by voters six months in the past.
The newly proposed constitutional modification would return to voters in November 2026, or sooner, if Republican governor Mike Kehoe calls a particular election earlier than then.
Republican senators used a sequence of uncommon procedural strikes to chop off dialogue by opposing Democrats earlier than passing the proposed abortion-rights revision by a 21-11 vote. The measure handed the Republican-led Home final month.
Instantly after vote, protestors erupted with chants of “Cease the ban!” and have been ushered out of the Senate chamber.
Director of nationwide intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the 2 highest-ranking officers on the Nationwide Intelligence Council, simply weeks after the council launched an evaluation that contradicted President Donald Trump’s justification for utilizing the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members with out due course of.
Gabbard fired Mike Collins, the appearing chair, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, on Tuesday, CNN reported.
The dismissals come after the NIC authored an assessment that discovered it unlikely that Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, helps the legal actions of Tren de Aragua within the US.
The most recent spherical of intelligence firings comes as Gabbard and her staff intention to eradicate what they view as bias and inefficiency throughout the intelligence group. On X, Gabbard’s deputy chief of employees, Alexa Henning, stated the NIC officers, whom she known as “Biden holdovers”, have been eliminated for “politicizing intelligence.”
Indian educational held over pro-Palestinian views launched from Ice jail
The Georgetown educational Badar Khan Suri was launched from Ice detention hours after after a Virginia federal decide’s order on Wednesday.
Khan Suri was amongst several individuals legally studying within the US who’ve been focused by the Trump administration for his or her pro-Palestinian activism. He has spent two months in detention.
US district decide Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, stated that the ruling was efficient instantly with no situations and no bond. She added that Khan Suri’s launch was “within the public curiosity to disrupt the chilling impact on protected speech” in the course of the listening to. The decide defined in her ruling how the federal government didn’t submit adequate proof on a number of of its claims.
A big crowd of demonstrators exterior the courthouse reportedly cheered upon listening to the information of the ruling.
Badar Khan Suri will go house to his household in Virginia whereas he awaits the result of his petition in opposition to the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the primary modification and different constitutional rights.
He’s additionally going through deportation proceedings in an immigration courtroom in Texas.
Learn the total story by Marina Dunbar:
Elon Musk exhibits he nonetheless has the White Home’s ear on Trump’s Center East journey
Over the course of an eight-minute interview, Elon Musk touted his quite a few companies and imaginative and prescient of a “Star Trek future” whereas telling the gang that his Tesla Optimus robots had carried out a dance for Donald Trump and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, to the tune of YMCA. He additionally introduced that Starlink, his satellite tv for pc web firm, had struck a deal to be used in Saudi Arabia for maritime and aviation utilization; trying to the close to future, he expressed his need to deliver Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis to the nation.
“We couldn’t be extra appreciative of getting a lifetime accomplice and a pal such as you, Elon, to the Kingdom,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of communications and IT, Abdullah Alswaha, instructed Musk.
Though Musk has pivoted away from his position as de facto chief of the so-called “division of presidency effectivity” and moved out of the White Home, the Saudi summit confirmed how he’s nonetheless retaining his proximity to the US president and worldwide affect. As Musk returns to his companies as his main focus, he’s nonetheless primed to reap the rewards of his connections and political sway over Trump.
Starlink diplomacy
Musk’s Starlink announcement comes after a spate of nations have agreed to permit the satellite tv for pc communications service to function inside their borders. A number of nations which have authorized Starlink did so after US state division officers talked about the corporate by identify or pushed for elevated satellite tv for pc companies in negotiations over Trump’s sweeping tariffs, in line with inside memos obtained by the Washington Post.
Issues over whether or not Musk and the Trump administration are leveraging their energy to drive nations into adopting Starlink has prompted requires a state division inspector common investigation into whether or not there’s undue affect at play in these agreements. On Wednesday, a gaggle of Democratic senators issued a letter requesting a broad overview of the state division’s alleged efforts to help Starlink.
Learn the total evaluation by The Guardian’s Nick Robins-Early right here:
US prosecutors cost detained Harvard scientist from Russia with smuggling offense
A Russian-born researcher at Harvard College who has been held for weeks in an immigration detention heart in Louisiana has been criminally charged with trying to smuggle frog embryo samples into the USA, Reuters experiences.
Federal prosecutors in Boston introduced the smuggling cost in opposition to Kseniia Petrova, 31, hours after a federal decide in Vermont heard arguments in a lawsuit she filed that argues the Trump administration has been unlawfully detaining her.
The Trump administration intends to deport Petrova again to Russia, a rustic she fled in 2022, regardless of her concern that she will likely be arrested there over her protest of Russia’s battle in Ukraine, the New York Instances reports.
A few dozen labor unions have filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration in an effort to overturn sweeping cuts to the nation’s occupational well being company.
The swimsuit was introduced by the United Mine Staff of America, the American Federation of Academics, Nationwide Nurses United and 10 different unions.
The case facilities on the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being, which was massively downsized this 12 months following layoffs that eradicated about 850 of its 1,000 workers, in line with the Related Press.
At a Congressional listening to on Wednesday, Robert F Kennedy Jr stated he’s reversing the firing of about 330 Niosh employees. However the lawsuit seeks to reinstate all Niosh employees and features, arguing that the cuts flouted specific directives from Congress and are unlawful.
Johana Bhuiyan
Republicans have suggest prohibiting US states from regulating AI for 10 years.
Republicans in US Congress try to bar states from having the ability to introduce or implement legal guidelines that might create guardrails for artificial intelligence or automated decision-making methods for 10 years.
A provision within the proposed budgetary invoice now earlier than the Home of Representatives would prohibit any state or native governing physique from pursuing “any legislation or regulation regulating synthetic intelligence fashions, synthetic intelligence methods, or automated determination methods” until the aim of the legislation is to “take away authorized impediments to, or facilitate the deployment or operation of” these methods.
The availability was a last-minute addition by Home Republicans to the invoice simply two nights earlier than it was as a result of be marked up on Tuesday. The Home power and commerce committee voted to advance the reconciliation package deal on Wednesday morning.
The invoice defines AI methods and fashions broadly, with something from facial recognition methods to generative AI qualifying. The proposed legislation would additionally apply to methods that use algorithms or AI to make selections together with for hiring, housing and whether or not somebody qualifies for public advantages.
Many of those automated decision-making methods have lately come beneath hearth. The deregulatory proposal comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by a number of state attorneys common in opposition to the property administration software program RealPage, which the lawsuit alleges colluded with landlords to boost rents primarily based on the corporate’s algorithmic suggestions. One other firm, SafeRent, lately settled a class-action lawsuit filed by Black and Hispanic renters who say they have been denied residences primarily based on an opaque rating the corporate gave them.
Learn the total story right here:
Harvard to allocate $250m of its personal funds to help analysis impacted by the Trump administration
Harvard College introduced that it’s going to allocate $250 million of its personal funds to help researchers after the Trump administration froze practically $3 billion in federal grants and contracts in current weeks, the Harvard Crimson reports.
The elite Ivy League establishment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has develop into a frequent goal of President Donald Trump, who has launched an aggressive marketing campaign to reshape non-public faculties and universities throughout the nation. He accuses them of selling anti-American, Marxist, and “radical left” ideologies.
“We perceive the uncertainty that these occasions have introduced and the burden our group faces,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote. “We’re right here to help you.”
Nonetheless, Garber acknowledged that the college wouldn’t be capable to totally take in the price of the suspended or canceled federal awards. He warned that the funding freeze might disrupt long-running tasks, delay scientific progress, and drive unpopular selections throughout Harvard’s faculties, in line with the student-run outlet.
“Whereas there’ll undoubtedly be tough selections and sacrifices forward, we all know that, collectively, we are going to chart a path ahead to maintain and advance Harvard’s very important analysis mission,” he wrote.
Robert F Kennedy Jr stated that the “central focus” of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) and the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) will likely be on learning ultra-processed meals, sugars and meals components.
“The central focus of NIH, goes to be – and FDA – ultra-processed meals, and sugars, and the ten,000 components which might be in our meals,” Kennedy stated throughout a Senate committee on well being, training, labor & pensions listening to.
Amongst these interrupting Robert F Kennedy’s testimony on the Senate listening to have been Aids activists, protesting mass terminations and cuts on the Division of Well being and Human Companies. The reductions have gutted applications that target youngster help companies and worldwide HIV therapy initiatives.
In a press release, Asia Russell of Well being Hole stated:
Kennedy and Trump are massacring America’s world and home HIV responses … Folks will die on account of their mindless selections. Congress has an obligation to intervene now and reject Kennedy’s lethal price range proposal, and work urgently to reinstate what he’s demolishing.
All federal specialists on HIV prevention in youngsters abroad have been fired last month as a part of the discount in drive. At the very least $759m worth of federal grants for HIV research have been cancelled up to now.
