Trump news at a glance: How Robert F Kennedy Jr is cancelling medical science
That war appeared to enter a new phase in the aftermath of a recent supreme court decision that empowered health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent vaccine sceptic, and other agency leaders, to implement mass firings – effectively greenlighting the politicization of science.
Kennedy abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting of a key health care advisory panel, the US Preventive Services Task Force, earlier this month. That, combined with his recent removal of a panel of more than a dozen vaccine advisers, signals that his dismantling of science-based policymaking is likely far from over.
'Do you enjoy getting sick from preventable diseases?' Arwa Madhawi asks in her Week in Patriarchy column. 'Do you have a hankering to make once-declining viruses great again? If so, why not pop over to the US where the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and his anti-vaccine cronies are making a valiant effort to overturn decades of progress in modern medicine.'
Measles cases are at their highest rate in 33 years in the US, and while not entirely to blame, Trump's officials don't seem bothered. RFK Jr has downplayed the numbers. Kennedy has announced that the federal CDC will stop recommending Covid-19 booster shots for healthy children and pregnant women. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement: 'It is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability'. Leading medical associations are suing the Trump administration as a result.
Two new surveys, published as a research letter in Jama Network Open, have found that only 35% to 40% of US pregnant women and parents of young children say they intend to fully vaccinate their child. That means the majority of pregnant women and parents don't plan to accept all recommended kids' vaccines.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday it is eliminating its office of research and development (ORD) and cutting thousands of staff. One union leader said the moves 'will devastate public health' by removing 'the heart and brain of the EPA'. The ORD's work underpins the EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health.
The agency is replacing it with a new office of applied science and environmental solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science 'more than ever before'. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin – inevitably, a close Trump ally – said the changes would ensure the agency 'is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment, while powering the Great American Comeback'.
Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee, called the elimination of the research office 'a travesty'. 'The Trump administration is firing hardworking scientists while employing political appointees whose job it is to lie incessantly to Congress and to the American people. The obliteration of ORD will have generational impacts on Americans' health and safety.'
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Ten more hostages will be released from Gaza 'very shortly', Donald Trump said at the White House. The news comes as the president continues to push for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
'We're going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly,' Trump said during a dinner with Republican senators. The current Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposal includes terms calling for the return of 10 hostages, and the remains of 18 others. In exchange, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
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The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil's 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country's former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a murderous military coup. In support of the far-right Bolsonaro, Trump has also placed tariffs on Brazil – appalling millions of Brazilians who want to see their former leader held to account.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won the presidency from Bolsonaro, denounced what he called 'another arbitrary and completely groundless measure from the US government'. While the Bolsonaros have hailed Trump's actions, they also appear to have grasped how the announcement of tariffs has backfired, allowing Lula to pose as a nationalist defender of Brazilian interests and paint the Bolsonaro clan as self-serving 'traitors'. Even influential rightwing voices in Brazil have criticised Trump's meddling in one of the world's most populous democracies.
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The White House is trying to drive out the Federal Reserve chair who is refusing to do the president's bidding and cut interests rates, as the Fed waits to see how prices respond to Trump's tariffs. Critics warn deposing Jerome Powell would be a costly bid to pass the buck, Callum Jones writes.
In post-2024 election polling, defense of democracy was a top issue for Democrats but way down the list for those who voted for Donald Trump: their top concerns were inflation and the economy. Democrats lost the popular vote. If they are to win back voters who abandoned them in the last election, their messaging needs to change, writes Joan C Williams.
Catching up? Here's what happened on 18 July.
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The Independent
a minute ago
- The Independent
In temples and churches, sensory rooms remove barriers for neurodivergent worshipers
From organ blasts and incense to forced hugs and hand shakes, for folks who struggle to process sensory input, houses of worship can quickly feel anything but holy. That was the case for Lark Losardo's son Percy, who in 2017 began attending Catholic Mass with his family at age 7. Percy, who is autistic, was often overwhelmed by the Brooklyn church's open space, noise and crowds. At first, when he needed to move around or stim (engage in repetitive actions to self-regulate), he'd leave the service with a parent. Eventually, in part because of the barriers to attending as a family, they stopped coming altogether. Then, in 2020, the Losardos moved to Maplewood, New Jersey. After watching online services at a nearby Catholic parish called St. Joseph's during the pandemic, Lark Losardo learned in 2024 that the parish was opening a sensory room equipped with regulation tools, including a weighted blanket, touch pillow, ear defenders and sound machine. Thanks to that room, today Percy is back in the pews, using the room to regroup whenever needed. "It speaks volumes,' Lark Losardo told Religion News Service. 'Not everyone needs this space, but just having it there sends a very clear message.' ___ This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ Across the U.S., families like Percy's who once thought worship was off-limits are returning to faith communities thanks to a small but growing number of sensory rooms in religious settings. Located in underutilized classrooms, storage spaces and former nurseries, these rooms vary in size and appearance, but are all designed to offer a calm, predictable environment that can help with nervous system regulation. Disability advocates say the rooms signal that a community prioritizes the needs of neurodivergent and disabled members. At St. Joseph's, the Rev. Jim Worth said the new sensory room, which opened in December, isa natural extension of the parish's faith values. To him, the room is evidence that inclusion — a principle Worth linked to Catholic social teaching — isn't just given lip service. 'When you put intentionality behind something, it makes a world of difference,' said Worth. On a 60-degree day in late March, the church, located on a quiet residential street, had a front stoop featuring three signs: one quoting Martin Luther King Jr., another quoting Pope Francis, and a third welcoming anyone in the community to visit the Still Waters Sensory Room. Named after the biblical Psalm 23 passage — 'he leads me beside still waters' — the sensory room was converted from an unused confessional. It was designed by Together We Bloom, a Maplewood-based nonprofit that helps make events and spaces more accessible. The room's dark indigo walls match the comfortable chair glider and beanbag, each contributing to the soothing atmosphere. The total cost of the room was under $2,000 and was largely paid for by church funds, plus some donations. 'This sensory room has really changed everything for us,' said Pavitra Makam, a St. Joseph's parishioner and mother of two neurodivergent kids. 'Being able to worship together has been the biggest thing for our family.' Jay Perkins, who has been in the sensory room business since 2009, said it's often parents in need of a safe, supportive space for their kids who are spearheading the movement to build sensory rooms. When his daughter began exhibiting signs of aggression at age 4, places like libraries (too quiet), playgrounds (too loud) and trampoline parks (too crowded) were inaccessible. That applied to his Episcopal church, too. 'There are so few places where special-needs kids with sensory integration disorders can enjoy it,' said Perkins. The lack of accessible spaces for his family inspired Perkins to begin building the kinds of rooms his daughter would thrive in. In 2018 he officially launched his company, The Sensory Room, which builds high-end, durable sensory rooms from start to finish and trains people on how to use them. 'It's catching on,' said Perkins, whose company built roughly a dozen rooms in 2022 and 80 in 2023. Though The Sensory Room specializes in schools, Perkin's company has also built rooms for a Broadway theater and an airport, and three in evangelical churches. Most of his custom rooms, he told RNS, start in the $20,000 range. One of those projects was the $35,000 transformation of a storage room into a state-of-the-art sensory room at Encounter Church, an evangelical congregation about 30 minutes from Dallas. Completed in February 2024, the renovation included interactive tactile and texture panels, bubble tubes, mirrors, new carpet, paint and electrical work, and an LED-star ceiling complete with a digital shooting star. According to the Rev. Chris Binion, who co-founded the church with his wife, Tracy, the decision to create the room was prompted by the Holy Spirit. 'I was in a season of prayer and fasting, and I felt like the Lord asked me how to take care of his 'littles,'' Binion told RNS. He felt God was urging him to support kids with 'diverse needs,'including autism. 'We decided through the direction of the Holy Spirit to say yes, and move forward in this kingdom assignment." It's not just churches that are revamping spaces to focus on sensory integration. Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in Atlanta, has adapted two of its rooms to help folks process sensory input. A former cry room just off the main sanctuary was altered to become the Shalom Sanctuary, a small space with a large window facing the main worship space equipped with fidget toys, beanbags and headphones. The synagogue also received a $10,000 grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta to improve the accessibility of a classroom. That renovation is almost complete, and the room, which features a wall of sensory engagement toys, flexible furniture and alternative seating (think large rubber balls), will be especially helpful for children who need sensory breaks during religious classes or events such as the annual Purim carnival, according to Rabbi Rachael Klein Miller, associate rabbi at the synagogue. 'Something important in Judaism is the idea that we are all created 'b'tzelem Elohim,' in the image of God,' said Klein Miller. 'And much of that is connected to the golden rule of treating people the way we want to be treated and finding space for everybody in the community.' According to Rebecca Barlow, a regional disability specialist in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adding a sensory room to a house of worship doesn't automatically make it accessible to those with sensory needs. 'It's just one piece of a bigger machine that you're trying to build,' said Barlow, disability specialist for the Desert Ridge Stake in Mesa, Arizona. The first step to building that machine, Barlow said, is asking disabled individuals and their families what it would take to make church feasible for them. When she first became a disability specialist roughly five years ago, feedback was invaluable. 'The biggest thing was listening. The parents of these children know what they need,' said Barlow, who is the parent of a child with autism. Based on the families' input, she created a sensory room in her meeting house with new donated items. Knowing it would be used by kids who could become aggressive, she removed hard chairs and chalkboard lips that could pose safety risks. She also filled the room with the usual sensory items, added light-blocking curtains and included a night-light that projected a calming light pattern. Still, it took more than that to get families back in the door. "We, as parents of disabled children, often can become jaded, and we lack trust that our children are going to be cared for in a manner appropriate to how special they are,' said Barlow. To build trust with families, church leaders invited some members of the ward to serve as one-on-one aides for each child with a disability. The aides were trained in the homes of their assigned families and eventually accompanied the kids in the sensory room during church meetings. Barlow also introduced the kids to the sensory room ahead of time via pictures and tours, and ward members, too, received basic training on understanding disabilities and how to use the sensory room. In the few years since that sensory room opened, the model has gained traction. Barlow says the seven wards in her stake now each have their own disability specialists and sensory rooms, and she routinely takes calls from LDS church members across the country and the globe seeking to set up sensory rooms of their own. 'It feels like we're seeing a cultural shift toward understanding and accepting and integrating people with disabilities,' said Barlow. 'If we want to follow Christ, if we want to emulate him, if we want to be his disciples … they need to be foremost in our mind.'
Reuters
32 minutes ago
- Reuters
Sarepta falls after gene therapy maker pauses Elevidys shipments in US
July 22 (Reuters) - Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT.O), opens new tab fell nearly 7% on Tuesday after the company agreed to comply with the U.S. health regulator's request to pause all shipments of its gene therapy Elevidys in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday asked Sarepta to voluntarily halt shipments of the gene therapy, but the company refused to do so and said it would continue making the treatment available to ambulatory patients. But Sarepta has now voluntarily and temporarily paused all shipments of the therapy, effective end of Tuesday. The company said the decision would allow it to respond to requests from the FDA and maintain a positive relationship with the agency. "Though Sarepta claims its pause in shipments was voluntary, we think the company moved preemptively — bracing for an inevitable FDA mandate to pull the drug," said H.C. Wainwright analyst Mitchell Kapoor. Shares of Sarepta fell 6.9% to $12.40 in early trading on Tuesday. "Sarepta's decision to comply was a capitulation after recognizing that the fight with the FDA was not winnable and that the agency would have strong-armed Sarepta into removing Elevidys with a formal demand," Kapoor added. Investor concerns regarding the use of the company's treatments have been heightened after the company on Friday disclosed that another patient who had received its experimental gene therapy died from acute liver failure, marking the third death this year. The company's shares have plummeted 89% so far this year. On Monday, Children's Hospital Los Angeles said it had paused usage of Elevidys in all patients with muscular dystrophy. The FDA's initial request had likely heightened the pressure on physicians to pause treatments, which could also have been a driving factor in Sarepta's decision, William Blair analyst Sami Corwin said.
The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Coca-Cola to launch Coke with cane sugar after Trump claims credit
Coca-Cola has laid out plans to launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Donald Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup. The announcement came Tuesday in Coca-Cola's earnings report. It confirmed a 16 July post on Trump's Truth Social platform in which the president said Coca-Cola 'agreed' to use 'REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States'. 'This will be a very good move by them – You'll see,' Trump's post said. 'It's just better!' The drink maker's Mexican Coke is made with cane sugar and already sold in the US. Tuesday's announcement from Coca-Cola came as food and drink companies have rolled out plans to make changes amid US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's Make America healthy again (Maha) campaign. However, experts say that drinks made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup aren't healthier. Eva Greenthal, senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, previously told CNN: 'Excess consumption of sugar from any source harms health. To make the US food supply healthier, the Trump administration should focus on less sugar, not different sugar.' Coca-Cola chairperson and chief executive officer James Quincey said Tuesday's announcement was meant to 'reflect consumer interest in differentiated experiences'. 'We appreciate the president's enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand,' Quincey said in a conference call with investors. 'This addition is designed to complement our strong core portfolio and offer more choice across occasions and preferences.' The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
