RFK Jr. Is Making America Sick Again. Republicans Need a Cure
Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation's foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it. The greatest danger in elevating him to HHS secretary was always that he would use his position to undermine public confidence in vaccines, which would lead to needless suffering and even death. And so it has come to pass.
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CNN
21 minutes ago
- CNN
5 things to know for July 25: Thailand-Cambodia, France, AI, Sanctuary city lawsuit, Skydance-Paramount merger
In addition to telling time, smartwatches can track your steps, heart rate, blood pressure and sleeping patterns. Now, a smartwatch has helped search and rescue teams locate a small plane after it crashed into the dense forests near West Yellowstone, Montana. Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day. More than 100,000 civilians have been displaced following a second day of violence along the disputed 500-mile land border between Thailand and Cambodia. At least 16 people were also reportedly killed, officials from both countries said. Tensions between the Southeast Asian neighbors have been boiling for months. Around 4:30 a.m. local time on Friday, clashes broke out with Cambodian troops using small arms and heavy weapons and Thai troops responding with artillery fire. On Thursday, when Thailand deployed fighter jets to attack Cambodian military targets, Cambodia vowed to 'respond decisively.' French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France will recognize a Palestinian state in an announcement at the UN General Assembly in September. France will be the first member of the UN Security Council and the G7 nations to do so. 'We must build the state of Palestine, ensure its viability, and ensure that by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative,' he wrote on X. Macron also called for an immediate ceasefire, access to humanitarian aid for the population of Gaza, the release of all hostages and the demilitarization of Hamas. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US 'strongly rejects' Macron's plan. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has started using artificial intelligence, and behind the scenes, the practice has caused some alarm. An AI project known as Elsa is supposed to help speed up drug and medical device approvals at the FDA, a division of HHS. Six current and former FDA officials told CNN that Elsa can be useful for generating meeting notes and summaries, or email and communique templates, but it also invented studies and misrepresented research. In at least one instance — when an employee asked Elsa to generate something for a project — it insisted that the research area was not in the FDA's purview, even though it was. Elsa also cannot help with the lengthy assessment process that agency scientists undertake to determine whether drugs and devices are safe and effective because it can't access many of the files needed to answer basic questions. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against New York City over its so-called 'sanctuary city' policies. The move comes just days after the Trump administration blamed those policies for the shooting of an off-duty US Customs and Border Protection officer in an apparent robbery gone wrong. As part of the administration's widespread crackdown on undocumented immigrants, similar lawsuits have also been filed against Colorado, Illinois, Los Angeles, New York state, the city of Rochester, New York, and several New Jersey cities, the DOJ said in a statement. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said the city will review the lawsuit. 'Keeping New Yorkers safe also means making sure they feel safe, and we have been clear: no one should be afraid to dial 911, send their kids to school or go to the hospital, and no New Yorker should feel forced to hide in the shadows,' Adams said in a statement. The FCC approved the pending merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global on Thursday. Voting 2-1 along party lines, the commissioners gave the go-ahead to the $8 billion deal, which has been mired in allegations of political interference stemming from President Trump's scathing criticism and his lawsuit against Paramount's CBS News division. But on July 1, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million toward Trump's future presidential library to resolve his legally dubious suit about an edit made to a '60 Minutes' interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris before the November presidential election. Although Paramount and the FCC both insisted that the payout was unrelated to the merger review process, many likened it to a 'bribe.' GET '5 THINGS' IN YOUR INBOX If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter. Amy Sherald, who gained national fame for her official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama in 2018, was told that the museum had 'concerns' about one of her paintings. The head of human resources at the New York-based tech company and her boss were seen embracing on the 'kiss cam' during a Coldplay concert. Video of the encounter quickly went viral. The 12-year-old baseball player faced suspension for what he did last week after hitting a game-winning home run. High cocoa costs are prompting a major confectionery company to hike prices for chocolate candy. 'What have you done?' Victoria Beckham, the soccer star's wife, asked when she saw it. Legendary jazz musician Chuck Mangione diesThe noted flugelhorn player, trumpeter and composer became known for his signature tune 'Feels So Good,' which spent 25 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #4 in 1978. Throughout his six-decade career in music, Mangione received 14 Grammy nominations and won the award twice. He also made recurring appearances on the Fox animated series 'King of the Hill,' where he played a tongue-in-cheek version of himself. Which city may soon become the first modern capital in the world to run completely out of water?A. Kabul, AfghanistanB. Mexico City, MexicoC. Baghdad, IraqD. Sanaa, Yemen Take me to the quiz! $250That's how much the US plans to charge international visitors for a new 'visa integrity fee.' The provision was included in President Trump's recently enacted domestic policy bill. 'Crazy!! My House got Home Invaded Saturday While I was in Indianapolis performing for the WNBA all star game & instead of Focusing on finding the Suspects, they focus on some cannabis.' — GloRilla on X. The Grammy-nominated rapper is facing felony drug charges after police responded to her Georgia home following a separate report of a burglary in progress. 🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect. This Swiss river is so clean that locals use it to commute to their jobs. Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
South Korea must rethink its one-sided courtship of North Korea
One of President Lee Jae Myung's earliest moves since taking office was to halt loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ. File photo by Jin-hee Park/EPA July 25 (UPI) -- Earlier this month, South Korea's National Intelligence Service quietly and abruptly suspended its decades-long radio and television broadcasts targeting North Korea. The decision -- made just 10 days after the inauguration of NIS Director Lee Jong-seok --marks a significant and sudden break from a 50-year tradition of information outreach to the North. When questioned by the press, the agency simply responded, "We cannot confirm." Though the suspension is being presented as a gesture of goodwill aimed at reviving inter-Korean dialogue, the Lee Jae Myung administration's increasingly unilateral and unquestioning approach to North Korea deserves serious scrutiny. NIS broadcasting to the North dates to 1973, when it formally took over operations from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The radio programs -- such as Voice of the People and Echo of Hope -- have long served as a vital source of uncensored information for North Korean listeners. In the 1980s, the South also began television transmissions, adapted to North Korea's PAL system. Many defectors have testified that these broadcasts were their first exposure to the realities of life in the South. It is no surprise, then, that 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring outlet, described the suspension as a "major victory" for Pyongyang in its battle against outside information. These broadcasts continued for decades across all administrations -- liberal and conservative alike -- regardless of the state of inter-Korean relations. Even the progressive governments of Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and Moon Jae-in never halted them. Like the West German broadcasts that relentlessly reached across the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, South Korea's airwaves played a quiet, but strategic, role in informing and inspiring hope in the North. That this effort was shut down without a single explanation or public discussion is as shocking as it is unprecedented. "Unconditional," even "blind," affection for North Korea is not an unfair characterization. President Lee Jae Myung did pledge to pursue inter-Korean reconciliation during his campaign. Since taking office, he has acted swiftly to make good on that promise. One of his earliest moves was to halt loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ. In response, Pyongyang immediately turned off its own propaganda speakers the following day. Though the move was unilateral, North Korea's mirrored response sparked cautious optimism. On July 8, South Korean civic groups -- most notably the Korean War Abductees' Family Union -- also announced a voluntary suspension of leaflet launches across the border, which North Korea has long condemned. This, too, was not a spontaneous civilian decision. It was facilitated through active persuasion by the Unification Minister nominee, vice ministers and several lawmakers. The initiative was undertaken without prior consultation with the North, yet it succeeded in calming a volatile issue. North Korea had previously retaliated by sending balloons filled with garbage and equipped with GPS trackers into the South. Many residents of border towns welcomed the decision as a measure to ease their suffering. But recent steps have raised the stakes. On July 9 -- just one day after the leaflet suspension -- South Korean authorities repatriated six North Korean fishermen rescued from coastal waters in the East and West Seas. After repairing one of the wooden boats in which they had arrived, the navy and coast guard escorted the men to the Northern Limit Line, where a North Korean patrol vessel and a presumed tugboat were waiting. Earlier, South Korean military and maritime authorities rescued four North Korean individuals aboard a drifting vessel in the East Sea on May 27, and two more from a separate boat in the West Sea on March 7. The wooden boat used in the July 9 repatriation was the same vessel rescued from the East Sea. The boat from the West Sea, however, was deemed beyond repair and ultimately abandoned. Demonstrating an unusual level of dedication, the Lee Jae Myung government undertook repairs of the damaged North Korean vessel to ensure the safe return of its passengers. The July 9 repatriation marked 43 days since the East Sea group was rescued and 124 days since the West Sea group's rescue. The government stated that all six expressed a clear desire to return home, and that Pyongyang's persistent silence had delayed the process. Eventually, Seoul issued a final notification via the United Nations Command, complete with coordinates for the handover point. Still, this was a highly sensitive move. North Korean defector repatriations carry heavy political and ethical risks, especially when the individual's intent is unclear. The 2019 case of two North Korean sailors -- who were forcibly returned via Panmunjom despite reportedly expressing a desire to defect -- ignited international outcry and legal consequences. It took until February 2025 for a South Korean court to issue suspended sentences against officials involved in the incident, which became a national controversy over human rights. In this latest case, the government has emphasized that the fishermen's return was voluntary. But the lack of North Korean cooperation and the unilateral nature of the move mean that the possibility of another human rights controversy cannot be ruled out. Despite that risk, the administration went forward -- using even the United Nations Command as a channel -- without receiving any reciprocal response or goodwill gesture from Pyongyang. All of this raises a difficult, but essential, question: Is South Korea pursuing reconciliation or merely indulging in an unrequited romance? With the simultaneous suspension of long-standing radio and TV broadcasts, public skepticism about the administration's true intentions is growing. This does not mean the public opposes peace. On the contrary, most South Koreans understand the need for engagement. But many are now asking whether the government is moving too fast, offering too much and asking too little in return. A policy of "watching and waiting" for Pyongyang's response before taking the next step may be wiser than a flurry of unilateral gestures. Peace on the Korean Peninsula must be built on mutual trust and reciprocity -- not on blind, one-sided affection. It's time to reexamine this approach before goodwill turns into strategic naïveté.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
States, cities face loss of vaccination programs and staff after ‘baffling' cuts to federal funding
Millions of dollars have been pulled from state and local vaccination programs with no explanation, after a review of the funding agreements by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Affected programs say they will probably have to cut staffers and services because of the shortfall, and they worry that vaccination rates will also drop as they lose the ability to assist people who are low-income or uninsured. Immunization programs across the country are already struggling to address an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases. These include pertussis – also known as whooping cough – which has sickened more than 10,000 Americans and killed five children this year, as well as a smoldering outbreak of measles that has killed three people in the US and threatens to end the country's elimination status. 'That's the baffling part,' said one policy expert who spoke to CNN on the condition that they not be named for fear of government retaliation. 'Why anyone would create this disruption in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in 30 years.' Most money spent by states on vaccination comes from the federal government. The grant money, which is appropriated by Congress under Section 317 of the Public Health Services Act, enables states, territories and some large cities to collect data on vaccination, as well as provide shots to underserved children and adults. The funds also help monitor the safety of vaccines and fight misinformation. The money is doled out in five-year grants overseen by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the most recent awards were due to states on July 1. This year, however, HHS conducted lengthy reviews of the awards, which delayed their arrival in some cases. HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said the reviews were part of agency cost-cutting efforts. 'The Defend the Spend initiative is a department-wide effort to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used effectively, transparently, and in alignment with this administration,' Nixon said in a statement to CNN. 'As part of this oversight, grant recipients may be asked to provide additional information, which is essential to preventing waste, fraud, and abuse. HHS is committed to working all grantees to resolve outstanding issues as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest standards of accountability.' Public health advocates say the latest funding cuts appear to be part of a larger pattern of efforts by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to disrupt and dismantle the America's vaccination infrastructure. 'Millions of children missed their routine vaccinations during the pandemic,' and never caught back up said Dr. Caitlin Rivers, director of the Center for Response Outbreak Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Vaccine hesitancy has also increased, driven by a deluge of misinformation, some of it now coming from official channels. As a result, vaccination rates have dropped, and some communities are no longer protected by herd immunity, the threshold of vaccination required to prevent certain infectious diseases from easily spreading. If state vaccination programs are not adequately resourced, 'we're just going to continue to fall further and further behind, and that sets the stage for things like measles and pertussis outbreaks, which we're seeing,' Rivers said. Public health programs often become victims of their own success, she said. 'When there is a large public health emergency … there are huge investments made in public health, because we can see very clearly what the consequences are of having inadequate resourcing and inadequate infrastructure. But over time, those investments begin to work, and the threats recede, and we start to forget why it's so important to maintain those defenses,' Rivers said. 'And I think now, five years out of Covid, we're very clearly in the neglect cycle, and we're seeing a lot of the investments we made during the pandemic be pulled back,' she added. Of 66 jurisdictions awarded federal immunization funding this year, about 40 received awards lower than their funding targets. And more than a dozen states and cities received lower awards this year than they did in 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic began, the last time these awards were offered through the CDC, according to a CNN analysis of federal data. Massachusetts, New York, Indiana, California and Arizona were among those awarded less this year than in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic began. 'That's really, really unbelievable to us,' said one public health advocate who asked not to be named for fear of political retaliation for speaking out against the cuts. 'How could we come out of a pandemic with half of states being less prepared?' Other states found that their awards were far lower than they'd been told to expect. In January 2025, the CDC sent out a Notice of Funding Opportunity – essentially an invitation – to states, territories and certain large cities. It came with a funding target: the amount they could expect if their grant proposals were accepted. Washington, for example, was told it could expect about $9.5 million, so the Department of Health planned for that amount for the 2026 fiscal year. When the state got its Notice of Award on July 1, however, it was for $7.8 million, an 18% reduction. Massachusetts was told it could expect $7.7 million for the upcoming fiscal year, already a 20% reduction from its 2025 budget. When the award arrived, it was $1 million under the targeted amount, at $6.7 million, which means the department expects to operate with about 30% less funding next year than it has this year. Colorado received almost $500,000 less than it expected, a decrease of about 5% from the amount it budgeted for, according to federal data California, Illinois, Michigan and New York also received lower-than-expected funding awards, according to a CNN analysis of federal data. Sometimes, the delays and errors in funding caused chaos: At least one state, Idaho, furloughed its immunization program staff with no notice after the money didn't arrive when expected. When the award did come through a day later, they were put back to work, but medical providers who reached out in the interim to submit their regular data updates had no one to help them and didn't know when services would be restored. The cuts didn't just affect state health departments. The city of New Haven, Connecticut, had to lay off immunization positions that were supported by subawards it receives from the state grant. When the grant didn't arrive in time, the state directed the city not to incur any more expenses, and when the federal money did come through, it was 20% less than anticipated. Chicago is also preparing to lay off immunization workers, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the city's plans, who asked not to be named because they feared retaliation by the Trump administration. Not all awardees saw reductions, however. About two dozen jurisdictions, including Alabama, Idaho and Wyoming and Montana, got significant funding increases over their award targets for this year. State officials who spoke to CNN for this story say they were given no explanation for why the awards were reduced or increased this cycle. The cuts come on top of the loss of billions in unspent Covid relief funding that was being used by states, in part, to help staff immunization programs. In late March, HHS directed the CDC to roll back about $11.4 billion in Covid-era funding granted to state and local health departments. Another $1 billion was reclaimed from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. A survey conducted by the Association of Immunization Managers found that the Covid money clawback alone has led to the elimination 579 staff positions in state vaccination programs. After the new grant cuts, some jurisdictions said they would probably need to lay off even more workers but were trying to assess the changes that would be needed. Some programs said they hoped state funding could help fill the gaps. In the past, the funding amounts that jurisdictions were told they could expect have been determined by a relatively simple formula that primarily relied on an area's population. This year, however, federal officials deployed a more complicated formula that took into account population levels as well as how much of a state was rural and how many providers participate in the Vaccines for Children program compared with the overall population, according to a public health advocate familiar with the awards who asked not to be named for fear of political retaliation. Immunization programs were told they could expect about $418 million in funding. All told, what they were awarded totaled roughly $398 million. Changes to the funding formula don't appear to account for the reductions, however. The formula was applied to the target amounts that were distributed in January. Instead, changes to the awards came after the HHS review, which in some cases delayed the release of the money and left programs hanging. Hawaii, for example, received authorization to borrow up to $100,000 from the state government to pay salaries and cover operational expenses until its award came through, about two weeks late. Public health advocates blasted the funding decision. 'Stripping 317 waiver funds combined with other losses is starving state and local public health budgets and is not just short-sighted, it's reckless,' said Dr. Brian Castrucci, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit deBeaumont Foundation, which advocates for the public health workforce. 'We're watching the deliberate dismantling of the public health safety net in real time,' Castrucci said.
