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Category: Politics

What chaos at the CDC could mean for the rest of the world

What chaos at the CDC could mean for the rest of the world

By Michael Toole, Burnet Institute Ever since Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr was appointed United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been under pressure to abandon its traditional evidence-based approach to public health in America and across the world. That pressure came to a head last week with the sacking of recently appointed CDC director Susan Monarez. According to her lawyers, the longtime government scientist, who had been in the…

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Trump’s immigration policy threatens key sectors of California’s economy, long reliant on immigrant workers

Trump’s immigration policy threatens key sectors of California’s economy, long reliant on immigrant workers

CNBC reports: From citrus farms in the Central Valley to construction sites where homes and businesses are being rebuilt after devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades, California relies heavily on immigrant workers and entrepreneurs. As the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration enforcement, industries key to the state’s $4 trillion economy like agriculture, construction and hospitality could be among those hardest hit by the loss of California’s immigrant workforce, according to new research. At stake are billions of dollars that…

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Trump’s troop deployments are targeting Democrats more than crime

Trump’s troop deployments are targeting Democrats more than crime

The New York Times reports: When Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, dispatched his National Guard troops to Washington to support President Trump’s crackdown on crime, Democrats and other critics wondered why he didn’t keep them within state lines. Memphis, after all, has long been one of the most dangerous cities in the country, with a murder rate about twice as high as the nation’s capital, according to F.B.I. statistics. Nashville has a higher rate of violent crime than Washington as…

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India was the economic alternative to China — until Trump ended that

India was the economic alternative to China — until Trump ended that

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s 50 percent tariffs landed like a declaration of economic war on India, undercutting enormous investments made by American companies to hedge their dependency on China. India’s hard work to present itself to the world as the best alternative to Chinese factories — what business executives and big money financiers have embraced as part of the China Plus One strategy — has been left in tatters. Now, less than a week since the tariffs…

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Climate.gov got shut down by the Trump regime. Its creators plan to bring it back to life

Climate.gov got shut down by the Trump regime. Its creators plan to bring it back to life

The Guardian reports: Earlier this summer, access to climate.gov – one of the most widely used portals of climate information on the internet – was thwarted by the Trump administration, and its production team was fired in the process. The website offered years’ worth of accessibly written material on climate science. The site is technically still online but has been intentionally buried by the team of political appointees who now run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, a team…

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Trump family hauls in $5 billion fortune after crypto launch

Trump family hauls in $5 billion fortune after crypto launch

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump family notched as much as $5 billion in paper wealth on Monday after its flagship crypto venture opened trading of a new digital currency. The launch is akin to an initial public offering, in which the cryptocurrency, called WLFI, can now be bought and sold on the open market like a listed company’s shares. Beforehand, people who had privately bought WLFI from the Trump venture, World Liberty Financial, hadn’t been able to exchange…

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The idiocy of King Donald

The idiocy of King Donald

HuffPost reports: Exactly 10 days after taking the presidential oath of office early this year, Donald Trump nearly drowned dozens, potentially hundreds, of his own citizens in California’s Central Valley. Trump, unilaterally, decided he would solve Los Angeles’ wildfire problem by “opening up” taps to let billions of gallons of water being stored in two reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada foothills flow into Southern California. “Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons…

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With the prospect of Zohran Mamdani becoming their mayor, the plutocrats are panicking

With the prospect of Zohran Mamdani becoming their mayor, the plutocrats are panicking

The New York Times reports: August in the Hamptons: Ocean breezes. Oversubscribed Tracy Anderson classes. Parking woes. And this year, with a New York City mayoral election looming in the fall, a freakout that the most sumptuous of summer staples hasn’t soothed. “Even overpriced lobster salad can’t seem to make people out here feel better,” said Robert Zimmerman, a veteran political fund-raiser who has yet to back anyone in the race. “Everyone’s talking about it all the time,” said the…

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RFK Jr says he’ll ‘fix’ a vaccine program — by canceling compensation for people with vaccine injuries

RFK Jr says he’ll ‘fix’ a vaccine program — by canceling compensation for people with vaccine injuries

The Guardian reports: While unrest and new vaccine restrictions have kept US health agencies in headlines, there’s one vaccine program in particular that Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently vowed to “fix”, which experts say could further upend the vaccine industry and prevent people experiencing rare side effects from vaccines from getting financial help. While some changes to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which compensates people who suffer…

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Members of Congress demand answers after firefighter arrests in Washington State

Members of Congress demand answers after firefighter arrests in Washington State

The Seattle Times reports: Fifty members of Congress, including several Washington Democrats, are calling on the Department of Homeland Security for answers after two crew members fighting the Bear Gulch fire were arrested by immigration officials. Two people fighting the fire on the Olympic Peninsula were arrested by federal law enforcement Wednesday, as depicted in photos and videos. The two firefighters entered the U.S. illegally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday in a news release. The 9,200-acre wildfire is…

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As Trump rattles the world, China reaps the rewards

As Trump rattles the world, China reaps the rewards

The Wall Street Journal reports: The leaders of three of the world’s four most powerful nations will meet in China this weekend to discuss how to react to the upending of the international order wrought by the fourth: the U.S. under President Trump. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is currently being wooed by Washington, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country—long cultivated by the U.S. as a centerpiece of its aspirations…

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A decades long effort to forge closer ties with India got blown up by Trump in a few months

A decades long effort to forge closer ties with India got blown up by Trump in a few months

Kapil Komireddi writes: For three decades, successive American presidents have invested enormous diplomatic capital to cultivate a friendship with India. Bill Clinton, who laid the foundations of the modern U.S.-India partnership, called the two democracies “natural allies.” George W. Bush described them as “brothers in the cause of human liberty.” Barack Obama and Joe Biden both cast the relationship as one of the defining global compacts of this century. To Washington, India was a vast emerging market, a potential counterweight…

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U.S.-Israeli Gaza plan calls for ‘voluntary’ exodus with remaining Palestinians placed in concentration camps

U.S.-Israeli Gaza plan calls for ‘voluntary’ exodus with remaining Palestinians placed in concentration camps

The Cradle reports: A postwar plan for Gaza circulating within President Donald Trump’s White House envisions demolishing the strip, confiscating all public land within it, paying small amounts to remove the entire population of more than 2 million Palestinians, and building “a gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub” on its ruins, The Washington Post reported on 31 August. A 38-page prospectus seen by The Post envisions placing Gaza in a trust controlled by Israeli and American investors….

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Trump risks losing a ‘pillar’ of his trade strategy and having to refund a big chunk of $159 billion from tariff revenues

Trump risks losing a ‘pillar’ of his trade strategy and having to refund a big chunk of $159 billion from tariff revenues

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products. Now a federal appeals court has thrown a roadblock in his path. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that Trump went too far when he declared national emergencies to justify imposing sweeping import taxes on almost every country on earth. The ruling largely upheld a May decision by a specialized federal trade…

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Former CDC scientist warns: RFK Jr. appears to believe in eugenics. ‘Wake up… This is where fascism lives’

Former CDC scientist warns: RFK Jr. appears to believe in eugenics. ‘Wake up… This is where fascism lives’

The Daily Beast reports: A scientist who resigned from the CDC this week is warning that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has shown signs he believes in “eugenics.” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, told MSNBC Saturday morning that America needs to “wake up” to the secretary’s rhetoric. “I really hear the echoes of the word, ‘superior genetics,’” Daskalakis said. “He referred to very high members…

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Trump drives scientists, spies and soldiers out of government

Trump drives scientists, spies and soldiers out of government

Axios reports: Centuries’ worth of experience walked out of key government agencies this summer, including high-level departures from the CDC, Pentagon and intelligence community just in the past week. Why it matters: President Trump and his allies believe the “Deep State,” scientific establishment and federal bureaucracy were overdue for a purge. They’re ushering in a government in which the officials maintaining nuclear weapons, monitoring medical trials or guarding state secrets have shorter resumes and smaller staffs — likely for many years to come. Driving…

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