Senate anticipated to vote on Robert F Kennedy Jr’s bid to be well being secretary
The Senate is anticipated to vote in the present day on the affirmation of Robert F Kennedy Jr – a distinguished lawyer and vocal vaccine critic – because the nation’s well being secretary, controlling $1.7tn in spending for vaccines, meals security and medical health insurance packages for roughly half the nation.
Regardless of a number of Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on vaccines, Kennedy is anticipated to win affirmation.
Writing for CBS Information, Kaia Hubbard famous that “Kennedy’s path to affirmation was as soon as thought of among the many most fragile of president Trump’s nominees,” however the Senate has cleared the ultimate hurdle to a vote on his appointment 53 to 47 alongside occasion traces.
Final week Republican Sen Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana, regardless of having expressed doubts about Kennedy Jr’s votes on vaccines, supported the appointment on the committee stage, and Republican Sen Susan Collins from Maine, who has expressed some disquiet about Trump nominations, additionally vowed to assist Kennedy Jr.
In the course of the pandemic, Kennedy Jr, 71, devoted a lot of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode belief in vaccines in addition to the federal government companies that promote them. He has stated he’s “uniquely positioned” to revive belief in public well being companies.
Key occasions
Peace push ‘not a betrayal’ of Ukraine, US defence secretary Hegseth insists

Jakub Krupa
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has been chatting with reporters earlier than in the present day’s Nato defence ministers assembly in Brussels, the place he denied that Donald Trump’s peace push with Vladimir Putin was a “betrayal” of Ukraine.
Hegeseth stated that the Russian aggression on Ukraine was “a manufacturing unit reset for Nato,” and a second of “realisation that this alliance must be strong, sturdy, and actual.”
“That’s the reason president Trump has known as for elevated defence spending throughout the board for Nato, for European international locations to recognise that is an pressing, actual risk to the continent and this aggression must be a get up name,” he stated.
He stated that standing as much as Russian aggression is “an necessary European accountability.”
Confronted by reporters with options that the speedy push to peace and talks with the Russian president who annexed Crimea in 2014 and invaded Ukraine in 2022 could possibly be seen as amounting to a betrayal of Ukraine, Hegseth insisted “That’s your language, not mine. Definitely not a betrayal.”
“There isn’t any betrayal; there’s a recognition that the entire world and the US is invested in peace, in a negotiated peace,” he says.
Jakub Krupa is following developments with Ukraine on our Europe reside weblog right here: Trump-Putin name ‘not a betrayal’ of Ukraine, insists US’s Hegseth as he heads for Nato showdown
Denver Public Colleges turned the primary US faculty district Wednesday to sue the Trump administration difficult its coverage permitting ICE immigration brokers in colleges.
Colorado’s largest public faculty district argued within the federal lawsuit that the coverage has pressured colleges to divert very important instructional sources and brought on attendance to plummet, Related Press reviews.
“DPS is hindered in fulfilling its mission of offering training and life companies to the scholars who’re refraining from attending DPS colleges for concern of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS faculty grounds,” the lawsuit states.
Senate anticipated to vote on Robert F Kennedy Jr’s bid to be well being secretary
The Senate is anticipated to vote in the present day on the affirmation of Robert F Kennedy Jr – a distinguished lawyer and vocal vaccine critic – because the nation’s well being secretary, controlling $1.7tn in spending for vaccines, meals security and medical health insurance packages for roughly half the nation.
Regardless of a number of Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on vaccines, Kennedy is anticipated to win affirmation.
Writing for CBS Information, Kaia Hubbard famous that “Kennedy’s path to affirmation was as soon as thought of among the many most fragile of president Trump’s nominees,” however the Senate has cleared the ultimate hurdle to a vote on his appointment 53 to 47 alongside occasion traces.
Final week Republican Sen Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana, regardless of having expressed doubts about Kennedy Jr’s votes on vaccines, supported the appointment on the committee stage, and Republican Sen Susan Collins from Maine, who has expressed some disquiet about Trump nominations, additionally vowed to assist Kennedy Jr.
In the course of the pandemic, Kennedy Jr, 71, devoted a lot of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode belief in vaccines in addition to the federal government companies that promote them. He has stated he’s “uniquely positioned” to revive belief in public well being companies.
75,000 federal employees join Trump’s buyout as decide clears path for workforce cuts
About 75,000 federal employees accepted the provide to give up in return for being paid till 30 September, based on McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the workplace of personnel administration, Related Press reviews.
She stated the deferred resignation program “gives beneficiant advantages so federal employees can plan for his or her futures,” and it was now closed to extra employees.
A federal decide on Wednesday eliminated a key authorized hurdle stalling president Donald Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce. The Boston-based decide’s order within the problem filed by a gaggle of labor unions was a major authorized victory for the Republican president after a string of courtroom setbacks.
American Federation of Authorities Workers Nationwide president Everett Kelley stated in a press release that the union’s legal professionals are assessing the following steps.
At the moment’s ruling is a setback within the combat for dignity and equity for public servants. Nevertheless it’s not the tip of that combat. Importantly, this determination didn’t deal with the underlying lawfulness of this system.
She stated the union continues to keep up that it’s unlawful to power residents to decide, in a number of quick days, with out enough info, about “whether or not to uproot their households and go away their careers for what quantities to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk.”
In a “factsheet” issued by the White Home earlier this week, the Trump administration claimed that “excluding active-duty army and Postal Service staff, the federal workforce exceeds 2.4 million” individuals, and that “solely 6% of federal employees report back to work in-person on a full-time foundation.”
Welcome and opening abstract …
Welcome to the Guardian’s rolling protection of the second Donald Trump administration and US politics. Listed here are the headlines …
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Donald Trump’s buyout program for federal staff can proceed, a federal decide dominated on Wednesday. The transfer paves a path ahead for the about 75,000 authorities employees who’ve volunteered to resign below the president’s plan to shrink the federal workforce
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Robert F Kennedy Jr is about to face a vote on his affirmation as secretary of well being and human companies early within the Senate, as does Howard Lutnick to be secretary of commerce
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Elon Musk’s so-called Doge “effectivity” company web site has added information from a controversial rightwing thinktank
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Social media platform X –owned by Musk – can pay Trump $10m to settle a lawsuit the president filed after he was banned from the platform following the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, based on a report
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The US legal professional common introduced on Wednesday that the Trump administration is suing New York state over its immigration insurance policies, accusing state officers of selecting “to prioritize unlawful aliens over Americans”
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Trump stated he’s prepared to just accept Russia’s longstanding objection to Ukraine becoming a member of Nato. “They’ve been saying that for a very long time, that Ukraine can not go into Nato, and I’m OK with that”
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Tulsi Gabbard has been sworn in as Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence
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The White Home has once more barred an Related Press reporter from the Oval Workplace for the company refusing to undertake the title “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico
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