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The Trump administration announced highly contentious conclusions about the causes of autism on Monday, with a push for research purporting to find a possible “cure” for the condition.
After months of widely trumpeted investigations spearheaded by the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump announced that pregnant women should limit their use of acetaminophen, usually branded as Tylenol in the US or paracetamol elsewhere, which he claimed heightened the risk of autism in children when used by pregnant women, an assertion hotly contested by scientists internationally and contradicted by studies.
Speaking from the White House and flanked by Kennedy, the president said he had “waited for 20 years for this meeting” and added: “It’s not that everything’s 100% understood or known, but I think we’ve made a lot of strides.”
But he added: “Taking Tylenol is not good … All pregnant women should talk to their doctors about limiting the use of this medication while pregnant.”
Scientists in the US and UK reacted to the Tylenol link sceptically, with British physicians denouncing it as “fearmongering” that risked stigmatising parents of children with autism.
Alison Singer, the president and founder of the Autism Science Foundation, voiced scathing criticism of the administration’s approach – specifically its assertions on Tylenol, which she called “not scientifically based”.
“Any association between Tylenol and autism is based on very limited, conflicting and inconsistent science, and it’s premature to make this kind of unsubstantiated claim and risk undermining public health,” she said.
“It’s misleading to families who deserve clear, more factually based information.”
She also questioned the basis of the White House announcement. “We’re uncertain as to why this press conference is being held today. To our knowledge, there was no new data that were uncovered, no new studies published, no new presentations were made. There wasn’t a scientific conference or a medical conference,” Singer said.
Dr Monique Botha, an associate professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University in the UK, said: “There are many studies which refute a link, but the most important was a Swedish study of 2.4m births published in 2024 which used actual sibling data and found no relationship between exposure to paracetamol in utero and subsequent autism, ADHD or intellectual disability.
“The fearmongering will prevent women from accessing the appropriate care during pregnancy.”
Read more: Trump rails against Tylenol but autism claims not supported by science
Read more: Experts alarmed as Trump pushes unproven link between Tylenol and autism
Jimmy Kimmel will return to TV tonight after highly criticized suspension
Disney announced on Monday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return to broadcast on Tuesday, after a brief but highly criticized suspension that sparked a national debate on free speech and the muzzling tactics of the Trump administration.
Disney indefinitely suspended Kimmel’s late-night talkshow last Wednesday, under pressure from Donald Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission over comments Kimmel made about Maga and the killing of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
What has Disney, ABC’s owner, said about the decision? “Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” the company said. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Why has the decision been reversed? The Kimmel suspension became a flashpoint in a national debate on free speech. And crucially, unions, rights organizations, first amendment defenders, protesters who took to the streets and a long list of Hollywood celebrities stood by Kimmel.
France recognizes Palestine and calls for UN force in Gaza
Emmanuel Macron has announced France’s official recognition of a Palestinian state, setting out a plan for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force in postwar Gaza that is expected to find support in many countries but not in Israel or the US.
“The time has come to end the war in Gaza, the massacres and the death,” Macron said during a speech opening a special summit in the UN general assembly hall on Monday evening. France joined the UK, Canada and Australia in recognizing Palestine as a state. “The time has come to do justice for the Palestinian people and thus to recognise the state of Palestine in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
What is the latest on Israel’s attack on Gaza? The diplomatic scramble played out in New York as Israel intensified its assault on Gaza City on Monday, with reports of 37 Palestinians killed across the territory, including 30 in Gaza City. Israel launched an offensive in the city last week, ignoring international humanitarian concerns. More than 65,000 people have been killed in the Israeli military actions, according to Gaza health officials.
What happens next? Trump is expected to deliver an aggressive speech decrying “globalist institutions” today, which he will claim “have significantly decayed the world order”, a White House spokesperson said in a briefing.
How the billionaire class and wealthy landlords are conspiring against Zohran Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani’s campaign to be New York City mayor has terrified some traditional big-money Democratic donors and powerful real-estate tycoons by promising to freeze rent prices and slightly raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.
Some of New York’s wealthiest landlords and businesspeople gathered with Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, this month to “plot his path to City Hall”, with the city’s biggest developer warning that they must unite to stop Mamdani, according to the New York Times.
What are the polls saying? Despite super-wealthy donors plotting against him, Mamdani continues to hold a commanding lead over Cuomo. This week, a Marist poll found him winning 45% of the vote; Cuomo had 24%, the Republican Curtis Sliwa 17% and the embattled Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor, was at just 9%.
In other news …
European allies vowed on Monday to shoot down any Russian aircraft violating their airspace, after Nato allies accused Moscow of repeated incursions into the alliance’s territory in recent weeks.
A 4.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area early on Monday, waking up many people just before 3am. There were no reports of major damage.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in dozens of cities across Italy, in one of Europe’s largest nationwide protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Reports have emerged that Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist who covered Covid-19 in Wuhan in 2020, has been sentenced to jail for a second time, in a case condemned by the UN, human rights groups and media freedom watchdogs.
Stat of the day: economists warn of hit to growth from Trump’s H-1B visa fee of $100,000 – 60 times the previous cost
The president signed a proclamation on Friday introducing a $100,000 application fee for the H-1B visa for skilled workers, 60 times the current cost. The increase will represent a blow to big tech companies. Berenberg recently lowered its estimate for US economic growth, from 2% at the start of the year to 1.5%.
Don’t miss this: documents offer rare insight on Ice’s close relationship with Palantir
For years, little was known about the multibillion-dollar company, co-founded by Peter Thiel, that handles data for the US immigration enforcement agency. Now, the Guardian’s Johana Bhuiyan writes, a cache of emails, training documents and reports sheds light on how Palantir is, in the words of one source, “the corporate backbone of Ice”.
Climate check: residents in Belém, Brazil, evicted in rush for rental profits before Cop30
In the run-up to this year’s UN climate change conference in November, Belém in Brazil is increasingly enmeshed in anger and recriminations – over sky-high accommodation costs plus accusations that poorer countries are being sidelined. Former tenants have spoken of “painful” evictions as building owners turfed them out to convert apartments into short-term rentals.
Last Thing: the human stain remover – what an extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job
From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen and cleaned it all. If you start to see the world through its stains and messes, you cannot give back this special insight, writes Tom Lamont for the long read.
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