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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan that would require placebo-controlled studies for all new vaccines, surprising some experts who noted that such testing already routinely takes place.In a statement, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that “all new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials” before approval, and called the move a “radical departure” from existing standards.Modern studies tend to use placebos. One exception has been the Covid booster shots, which have been authorized without human trials to target new strains of the virus as it has evolved. It’s…

Rep. Jason Crow on Signal chat leak and more Rep. Jason Crow says Signal group chat put lives of U.S. military personnel at risk 06:16 National security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House, according to multiple sources familiar with their departure.In March, Waltz came under scrutiny after he put together a Signal chat and mistakenly included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, disclosing discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. Goldberg published his account, and he initially omitted operational details, but after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,…

May Day was never just a celebration, a rally, or a march. It was also a day for workers to show their power. And it can be again. Ad Policy United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during a “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” event Saturday, March 8, 2025, at Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan.(Jose Juarez / AP) One hundred and thirty-five years ago today, the American Federation of Labor made a bold proclamation. On May 1, 1890—May Day—workers across the country would strike for a new, radical demand. This demand would affect workers across society, and across…

A six-day immigration sweep in Florida this month resulted in the arrests of more than 1,100 people, the Trump administration said on Thursday as it increasingly relies on local law enforcement to help speed deportations.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers worked alongside the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the state’s Department of Corrections as they swept through communities.ICE said the operation was one of the biggest in a single state in the agency’s history.“This is a model that’s going to be implemented throughout the country, allowing us to have a force multiplier that can come to the table,”…

A federal judge has strongly rebuked Apple, finding that the iPhone maker willfully violated a court injunction in an antitrust case filed by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had ordered Apple to lower the barriers protecting its previously exclusive payment system for in-app digital transactions and allow developers to display links to alternative options. On Wednesday, she found that Apple violated a 2021 injunction that, she wrote, sought to “restrain and prohibit the iPhone maker’s anticompetitive conduct” and pricing.”Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” Gonzalez Rogers wrote in Wednesday’s ruling, which…

President Trump took office 101 days ago after a campaign in which voters bought his argument that he could skillfully manage the economy and that his policy prescriptions could both bolster growth and eradicate inflation.So the news on Wednesday that the nation’s gross domestic product had contracted in the first three months of the year was a sharp political jolt as well as a blinking economic warning.It came at the end of a quarter in which stock prices were down sharply, Wall Street’s worst performance at the start of a new presidential term since Gerald R. Ford tried to steer…

When President Trump swept back into office, his dejected opponents watched as his return was greeted not with mass resistance but with a sense of resignation.Protesters stayed home. Corporations and executives rushed to curry favor. Even some Democrats made overtures to Mr. Trump, as he and his allies boasted that they had popular opinion on their side.But just over 100 days into his second term, seeds of dissent to Mr. Trump’s agenda, governing style and expansion of executive power have grown in fits and starts across the country. The opposition is sturdier than it once appeared.Demonstrations have increased in size…

Ukrainian and U.S. officials have signed a joint economic investment deal that includes granting the U.S. access to Ukrainian rare earths minerals, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.A Treasury Department press release said the two countries have agreed to establish a “United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund,” referring to it as an “economic partnership.” The statement did not include more detail about the agreement.Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economic development minister, confirmed that she signed the deal. In a series of posts on X written in Ukrainian, she described it as a 50/50 partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine that includes development of mineral, oil and…

Shalela Dowdy is one of the Black voters who sued Alabama to get a more accurate representation in Congress. She was photographed in Mobile in 2024. Emily Kask for NPR hide caption toggle caption Emily Kask for NPR MOBILE, Ala. — Shalela Dowdy is one of the Black voters who successfully sued Alabama to have a bigger voice in Congress. “It’s about fair representation,” she says sitting on a park bench beneath a sprawling canopy of live oak trees in downtown Mobile’s historic Bienville Square. “It’s about just making sure you have someone that cares about your community,” Dowdy says.…

Seated at the head of a large conference table inside the West Wing’s Roosevelt Room on Wednesday afternoon, Elon Musk, dressed in his signature T-shirt and blazer, ducked the question of whether his Department of Government Efficiency would meet his pledge of slashing $1 trillion from the federal budget.“I think it’s possible to do that, but it’s a long road to go, and, you know, it’s really difficult,” he said of the trillion-dollar goal. “It’s sort of, how much pain is, you know, are the cabinet and is Congress willing to take? Because it can be done, but it requires…