The US health agency has updated its official website to reflect the vaccine skepticism of a senior Trump official, backpedaling on its own years of efforts to combat misinformation on the topic.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Wednesday revised its site with language that muddies its previous scientifically grounded position that immunizations do not cause the developmental disability autism.Years of research demonstrate that there is no causal link between vaccinations and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.But Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has long voiced anti-vaccine rhetoric and inaccurate claims connecting the two — and now has inserted his own views into official US advice.The CDC webpage on vaccines and autism had previously stated that studies show “no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder,” citing a body of high-quality research including a 2013 study from the agency itself.That text reflects medical and scientific consensus.But the changes rebuke it. The website now repeats unfounded information that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”The revised language accuses health authorities of having “ignored” research supporting a link and said the US health department “has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism.”The false theory linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism stems from a flawed study published in 1998, which was retracted for including falsified data. Its results have not been replicated and are refuted by subsequent research.- ‘Do not trust this agency’ -The CDC website edits were met with anger, fear and concern by career scientists and other public health figures who have spent years combatting such false information.”The weaponization of the voice of CDC is getting worse,” said Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the agency’s arm focused on immunization and respiratory diseases, who resigned earlier this year in protest.”This is a public health emergency,” he said on X, saying the site was “updated to cause chaos without scientific basis.” “DO NOT TRUST THIS AGENCY.”Susan Kressly, president of American Academy of Pediatrics, said “we call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations.”Pointing to “40 high-quality studies,” she said that “the conclusion is clear and unambiguous: There’s no link between vaccines and autism.”The anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense meanwhile praised the revisions. The organization’s CEO Mary Holland said “thank you, Bobby” on X.Kennedy is the founder and former chairman of the nonprofit.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday evoked the death penalty for Democratic lawmakers who urged the military to refuse illegal orders, calling them traitors and accusing them of sedition.The group of Democratic senators and representatives, who all have military or intelligence service backgrounds, made the comments in a video posted Tuesday on X.They did not specify which orders they were referring to, but Trump’s administration has come under fire for its employment of US forces both at home and abroad.”This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???,” Trump said on Truth Social. He then added in a later post: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”Trump also reposted a message from a user urging him to “hang them” and saying that the first US president, George Washington, would have done the same.The lawmakers behind the message included Senator Mark Kelly, a former member of the Navy and NASA astronaut, and Senator Elissa Slotkin, who served with the CIA in Iraq.The six accused the Trump administration of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.””Right now, the threats to our constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home,” they said, adding: “You can refuse illegal orders.”- ‘Not partisan’ -Inside the United States, Trump has ordered the National Guard into multiple US cities, in many cases against the wishes of local officials, in a bid to bring allegedly rampant unrest under control.Abroad, Trump has ordered strikes on a series of alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have left more than 80 people dead since early September.Experts say the strikes are illegal and amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers.A group of more than 300 former national security officials calling themselves the “Steady State” said in an open letter on Thursday that they strongly supported the six Democrats.They said the principle of military personnel refusing unlawful orders was “not controversial. It is not partisan. It is not new. And it is the bedrock of lawful civilian control of the military.”The White House and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Wednesday both slammed the message from the Democratic lawmakers.Hegseth described it as “Stage 4 TDS,” or “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — a term used by the right to mock the president’s opponents.Trump previously evoked the death penalty in 2023 in relation to his former top US military officer Mark Milley, who became an outspoken critic of the president.After Milley told journalist Bob Woodward that he had secretly called his Chinese counterpart amid tensions after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, Trump said “in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

New York’s incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “ready for whatever happens” when he meets US President Donald Trump in Washington Friday, stressing their shared desire to tackle the cost of living. Trump has previously threatened to deport Uganda-born Mamdani and falsely calls him a communist, but New York’s mayor-elect said Thursday he would “work with anyone to make life more affordable” for residents of the country’s largest city.The mayor-elect noted that tens of thousands of New Yorkers had voted for both Trump and Mamdani over the issue of cost of living, with rents and the cost of essentials higher there than in much of the United States. Democratic socialist Mamdani, elected earlier this month, has positioned himself as part of the resistance against a US president who has pushed the limits of his power, particularly targeting Democrat-run cities.”It’s more critical than ever, given the national crisis of affordability, one that New Yorkers know very well… and the specific challenge many cities are facing in balancing public safety and steps taken by this administration,” Mamdani said.He noted that it was customary for a newly elected New York mayor to meet the US president, and that his staff had reached out to the White House to set up the meeting.Mamdani said that he and Trump had “many disagreements” but that he would “pursue all avenues and meetings that can make our city affordable.”As the first mayoral candidate to surpass the one-million-vote mark in New York since 1969, Mamdani campaigned on pledges of affordable housing and childcare, as well as free rides on city buses and city-run grocery stores. Experts have questioned the financial feasibility of some of Mamdani’s pledges.Anti-immigrant Trump has derided Mamdani’s South Asian name, and threatened to cut federal funding for New York when the Muslim politician takes the reins of New York, which was Trump’s home for decades.Mamdani has not backed down from Trump, calling out the 79-year-old Republican during his victory rally earlier this month.White House meetings have been perilous affairs for leaders who have displeased Trump, with the US president notably attacking the presidents of Ukraine and South Africa during visits to the Oval Office.

A flying piece of cosmic rock or an alien threat? Comet 3I/ATLAS is hurtling through our solar system and captivating scientists and internet users alike, even prompting Kim Kardashian to ask NASA for answers.Questions on whether the comet could actually be an alien spacecraft are coming from sources as varied as the reality TV star, a member of US Congress and a Harvard researcher, as well as from prominent conspiracy theorists.But that theory has been shot down by NASA, which released new images of the comet on Wednesday after the speculation gained traction online.”It’s amazing to see how people are really engaged in the discussion,” said Thomas Puzia, an astrophysicist who led the team at the Chilean observatory that made the discovery.But, “it’s very dangerous and to a certain degree misleading to put speculations ahead of scientific process,” he told AFP in a thinly veiled criticism of another researcher who has been insisting for weeks that the extraterrestrial spacecraft hypothesis cannot be ruled out.”The facts, all of them without exception, point to a normal object that is coming from the interstellar space to us,” he said.He added the comet was “very exceptional in its nature, but it’s nothing that we cannot explain with physics.”- Seeking signs of life –Since its detection in July, the comet has generated intense speculation — unsurprisingly so, given it is only the third interstellar object foreign to our solar system ever discovered to be passing through.The first was the Oumuamua comet, which sparked similar ripples of excitement and debate in 2017.Even then, Harvard Professor Avi Loeb supported the theory that Oumuamua could be a spacecraft, a controversial position he later defended in a book. He has now accused his scientific peers of lacking open-mindedness when it comes to Comet 3I/ATLAS.”Obviously, it could be natural,” he told AFP. “But I said: we have to consider the possibility that it’s technological because if it is then the implications for humanity will be huge.”NASA, however, did not agree.”We want very much to find signs of life in the universe… but 3I/ATLAS is a comet,” said Amit Kshatriya, a senior NASA official, at a press conference on Wednesday.The debate risked overshadowing the very real wonder that 3I/ATLAS represents, according to Puzia who said it offered “an unprecedented insight into an extrasolar system, potentially billions of years older than our own solar system.”- ‘Goosebumps’ -If there is one thing everyone agrees on, it is that 3I/ATLAS is anything but ordinary.The comet holds many mysteries, particularly regarding its origin and exact composition, which scientists hope to unravel through close observation in the coming weeks as it gets closer to Earth.This small, solid body composed of rock and ice from the far reaches of space could help us better understand how “planets might form” or even “how life might form around other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy in different times of the evolutionary history of the galaxy,” according to Puzia.NASA scientist Tom Statler described having “goosebumps” when thinking about the comet’s origins.”We can’t say this for sure, but the likelihood is it came from a solar system older than our own solar system itself,” he said. “It’s a window into the deep past, and so deep in the past that it predates even the formation of our Earth and our Sun.”Unlike the two interstellar objects detected previously and only briefly studied, astronomers have had months to observe 3I/ATLAS.And they hope this is just the beginning, thanks to improving technology for observation and detection.”We should be finding many, many more of them every year,” Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University told AFP.