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The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, faced the Senate finance committee in a tense and combative hearing on Thursday, during which lawmakers questioned his remarks expressing vaccine skepticism, claims that the scientific community is deeply politicized, and the ongoing turmoil plaguing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In a hearing lasting more than three hours and ostensibly about the Trump administration’s healthcare agenda, Kennedy defended his leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), claiming that his time at the agency will be focused on “unbiased, politics-free, transparent, evidence-based science in the public interest”.
What did the Democrats say during the hearing? Senators began by calling for Kennedy’s resignation. “Robert Kennedy’s primary interest is taking vaccines away from Americans,” the ranking member Ron Wyden said, while Raphael Warnock called Kennedy a “hazard to the health of the American people” and repeated his calls for him to step down or for Donald Trump to fire him.
Trump expected to order rebrand of Pentagon as ‘Department of War’
Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday authorizing the US Department of Defense to rebrand itself as the “department of war”, the White House said, as part of an attempt to formalize the name change without an act of Congress.
The order will designate “department of war” as a “secondary title”, an administration official said, as a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency.
But the order will instruct the rest of the executive branch to use the “department of war” name in internal and external communications, and allows the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and other officials to use “secretary of war” as official titles.
What did Trump say about the need for congressional approval? That the administration considered it a mere formality. “We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along, if we need that. I don’t think we even need that,” he said.
Macron says 26 nations ready to provide postwar military backing to Ukraine
Twenty-six nations have pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international force on land and sea and in the air, Emmanuel Macron said after a summit at which European leaders sought to pin down Donald Trump on the level of support he was willing to give Kyiv.
“The day the conflict stops, the security guarantees will be deployed,” the French president told a press conference at the Élysée Palace in Paris, standing alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After the summit, Macron told reporters: “We have today 26 countries who have formally committed – some others have not yet taken a position – to deploy a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea or in the air.”
What would the troops be doing? The troops would not be deployed “on the frontline” but aimed to “prevent any new major aggression”, Macron said.
In other news …
The US justice department has initiated a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud claims against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook as a lawsuit she filed against Donald Trump over her firing makes its way through court.
Trump hosted leaders from the biggest US tech companies at a lavish dinner last night, but without Elon Musk – a notable absence after the Tesla CEO and former Doge head’s constant presence at the White House earlier this year.
A British surgeon who froze his legs so they would require amputation to satisfy a sexual obsession before making nearly £500,000 in insurance claims has been jailed for 32 months.
The US has imposed sanctions against three Palestinian human rights groups that asked the international criminal court to investigate Israel over allegations of genocide in Gaza, according to the US treasury department.
Stat of the day: Minnesota man freed after 27 years in prison for murder he did not commit
A Minnesota man wrongly convicted of murder who spent nearly three decades in prison after being falsely implicated by a woman who has since confessed to the crime has been released. The state district court judge Marta Chou had vacated Bryan Hooper Sr’s first-degree murder conviction the day before.
Don’t miss this: Elegant, determined, a little unknowable – Giorgio Armani is gone but will never be forgotten
Giorgio Armani dressed all of us. Whether or not you ever had the money for a jacket with an Armani label, you wore a jacket he invented. He was the architect of how we dress now, reinventing power dressing and redefining what it meant to look modern.
Climate check: How cutting US air pollution could save 6,000 lives a year by 2030
Efforts to improve the climate could reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution in the US by about 6,000 people a year by 2030, according to a study. If action is not taken, the situation is predicted to worsen.
Last Thing: America’s most furious – and furriest – election
It has been the talk of Somerville, Massachusetts this summer – 73 pets are in the running to be “mayor”. Will it be the candidate who promises free kibble or the one who speaks gnomically of “CRIME”? The winner is announced later today …
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