Monday, Dec 15th
Last update10:21:52 AM GMT
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at the Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday.
The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit.
Brad Bondi, the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, overwhelmingly lost his bid to lead the D.C. Bar Association in a race with record turnout, the organization announced Monday.
Bondi, who is global co-chair of the law firm Paul Hastings’s investigations and white-collar defense practice, earned just 3,490 votes, or 9.1 percent, in the D.C. Bar’s presidential election. His opponent, employment lawyer Diane Seltzer, won 34,982 votes, or 90.9 percent.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of a committee that advises the federal government on vaccine safety and will replace them with new members, a move that the Trump administration's critics warned would create public distrust around the government's role in promoting public health.
At issue is the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy, and clinical need of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States.
“Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” Kennedy Jr., who has a history of controversial views on vaccines, said on June 9 in announcing the overhaul. “The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”
Procter & Gamble will cut up to 7,000 jobs, or approximately 6% of its global workforce, in the next two years as the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers wrestles with tariff-related costs and customers who have grown anxious about the economy.
The job cuts, announced at the Deutsche Bank consumer conference in Paris on Thursday, make up about 15% of its current non-manufacturing workforce, said chief financial officer Andre Schulten.
“This restructuring program is an important step toward ensuring our ability to deliver our long-term algorithm over the coming two to three years,” Schulten said. “It does not, however, remove the near-term challenges that we currently face.”
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he could be “on the hook” for hundreds of millions of dollars for having accepted a luxury jet from the Qatari government.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued that Hegseth’s formal acceptance of the Boeing 747 jetliner last month — a move made so the Air Force can upgrade its security measures so it may eventually be used as Air Force One — violates the Constitution Emoluments Clause. The rule bars federal officials from accepting financial benefits from foreign governments without congressional approval.
“I write now to urge and advise you to promptly mitigate these violations—and your own personal legal exposure—by either returning the plane to the Qatari government or promptly seeking Congress’s consent to accept it,” Raskin wrote.
The Pentagon announced on May 21 it officially accepted the 13-year-old luxury jet previously used by the Qatari royal family, a supposed “free,” gift that could be used to supplement the aging Air Force One fleet, according to President Trump.
The Supreme Court on May 30 said the Trump administration can revoke for now the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States.
Two of the court’s three liberal justices – Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor – dissented.
Jackson wrote that the court "plainly botched" its assessment of whether the government or the 532,000 migrants would suffer the greater harm if their legal status ends while the administration's mass termination of that status is being litigated.
Jackson said the majority undervalued "the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending."
Russia on Thursday accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, saying it’s a stab in the back by its longtime Slavic Balkan ally.
“Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the ‘neutrality’ declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv,” the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR, said in a statement.
The statement alleged that the export of the Serbian arms to Ukraine are going through NATO intermediaries, “primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria. Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose.”
Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic told the state RTS television that he has recently discussed the issue of the arm exports to Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that it was agreed that the two countries form a “working group” to establish how Serbian-made weapons reach the Ukrainian frontlines.
In a series of departures announced in a matter of weeks, the agency’s entire top rung is set to turn over as Brian Quintenz, President Trump’s nominee for CFTC chair, prepares to take the reins.
Commissioners Summer Mersinger and Christy Goldsmith Romero both plan to depart by the end of the week, while fellow Commissioner Kristin Johnson has said she will leave “later this year.”
Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham has promised to remain at the agency until Quintenz is confirmed, at which time she too will depart. The commission, which typically has five members, has been short one person since former Chair Rostin Behnam stepped down in January.
The relatively low-profile agency is expected to play a key role in regulating the digital asset market alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The bodies of five skiers have been found in the mountains near Switzerland’s luxury resort of Zermatt, police said.
A helicopter was sent to survey the area around the Rimpfischhorn after climbers alerted authorities to abandoned skis near the summit on Saturday.
“The bodies of five people were quickly found,” Swiss police said, adding that authorities had opened an investigation and were working on identifying the victims.
The Rimpfischhorn is a 4,199-metre (13,776-foot) mountain that lies east of Zermatt, near the Italian border, and is popular with backcountry skiers.
The aviation firm Air Zermatt said it flew a rescue mission to the site on Saturday afternoon where it found the bodies of the victims.
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