RFK Jr. testifies at Senate; Harvard funding freeze : NPR
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The secretary of health and social services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to testify in the Senate this morning. The hearing occurs a week after putting pressure on Susan Monarez to resign from her post as director of centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When she refused, the White House dismissed her. Three senior CDC officials then resigned to protest. Here are three things to know before the hearing.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate finance committee.
Images Eric Lee / Bloomberg / Getty
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Images Eric Lee / Bloomberg / Getty
- 🎧 The hearing technically concerns the president’s health care agenda in 2026. However, Selena Simmons-Duffin de NPR says First That’s not all she expects to get out of the meeting. If a Democratic senator asks the questions, she says he could hammer Kennedy on what happened last week at the CDC and on vaccine policy. Kennedy replaced a key vaccination consulting committee with people who should modify recommendations on a number of vaccines later this month. If the Republicans have the microphone, they could focus on the Make America Healthy agenda. Simmons-Duffin says that Kennedy is likely to focus on his Maha efforts and what he describes as the epidemic of chronic illness.
A senatorial committee will hold a confirmation hearing this morning to the candidate of President Trump to complete a vacant seat on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve. The president also hopes to complete a second seat on the board of directors by removing the governor of the Fed, Lisa Cook. She filed a complaint to challenge the president’s actions.
- 🎧 Trump’s desire to shake the Fed goes beyond a long-standing drop in interest rates. It is also a question of knowing who can control the decision -making processes, explains Scott Offley of NPR. If Trump succeeds in filling two other seats, four of the seven Fed governors would be his people named. The president appointed the White House economic advisor Stephen Miran, to fill a vacancy. Miran co-wrote a newspaper last year by arguing that the president should have greater control on the Fed governors’ council.
A federal judge in Boston held yesterday that the Trump administration illegally freezed more than $ 2 billion in research funds for Harvard University. The administration said that the frost was in response to anti -Semitism on the school campus. Harvard then filed a complaint. The decision of judge Allison D. Burroughs said that the administration had implemented the frost without taking into account any of the measures that the university had already taken to solve the problem.
- 🎧 The judge proposed several arguments on the way in which the freezing of funding goes against the lawsaid Cory Turner of NPR. She said that the research that the frost financed, which included studies for Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and autism had no clear connection with anti -Semitism on the campus. She also declared that the frost had violated the rights of the first amendment of the university because if the administration said that it was doing this to combat anti -Semitism, Trump criticized school to be a “liberal disorder”. The judge was also difficult for Harvard, saying that he should have done a better job to fight against anti -Semitism. Turner says that the decision strengthens Harvard’s negotiation position, but we still don’t know how this affair will take place.
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A man passes in front of a Google logo on the Google campus in Warsaw on February 13, 2025.
Sergi Gapon / AFP via Getty Images
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Sergi Gapon / AFP via Getty Images
In a major antitrust case, a judge ruled this week against the break of Google, but prevented it from concluding exclusive offers to make its search engine on phones and other devices. The Ministry of Justice brought a complaint against Google in 2020 and four years later, the American district judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Doj. The phase of the “remedies” of the trial began in April 2025, the two parties facing what Google should pay for its monopoly. The DoJ has urged Chrome spin-off and the sharing of Google’s research data, saying that it would help prevent unfair benefits on other markets, including artificial intelligence. Here’s how AI is part of this case:
- 🖥️ demand from Google to dismiss its research index database could help small competitors build their own search engines. AI developers could use information to help train language models such as chatbots.
- 🖥️ The DoJ argued that Google AI products could help strengthen its monopoly in online research, but Google disagreed with the concept, saying that competition in AI race is healthy.
- 🖥️ In Mehta’s decision, he says that IA space companies are already better placed to compete with Google, both financially and technologically, than any traditional research company for decades.
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Beirut, Lebanon. August 11, 2025. Kenzi Madhoun, six, of Gaza poses for a portrait outside the medical center of the American University of Beirut. She arrived in Beirut with her father, Adam Madhoun, to start treatment after being injured in Gaza on October 21, 2023. She is part of nearly 35 children that the Ghassan Abu Sittah children’s fund brought with their Palestine guards in Lebanon for medical and psychological support before returning home. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sanchez for NPR
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Diego Ibarra Sanchez for NPR
Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s mission is to heal the injuries of the children of the war in Gaza. Over the years, Abu-Sittah, a reconstructive and plastic surgeon, has treated the wounded in several countries and conflicts. But it was Gaza where he felt a particular call to help. Abu-Sittah entered the territory two days after October 7, 2023, when the activists led by Hamas led a surprise attack against the communities of southern Israel, resulting in Israeli reprisals. In November, the hospital where he worked lacked anesthesia, taking him to leave after having realized that he could help more effectively from the outside of the enclave. He went to Lebanon, where he said that expertise in war management by war is unprecedented. He started to bring children injured there for complex reconstructive surgery. Since the start of his quest, social activist Darine Dandachly and his team have formed a partnership with him through a children’s fund on his behalf to help children injured more. Goats and soda spoke with Abu-Sittah about its objectives. Learn more about the work that Additah does, see photos of the impact he has and listen to what he had to say.
3 things to know before leaving
Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, is preparing to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange during the morning negotiations on April 03, 2025. Wednesday, Newsmax continued Fox, saying that he illegally used his power to crush the rival conservative networks.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images / Getty Images North America
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Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images / Getty Images North America
- Yesterday, Newsmax filed a complaint against Fox News and his parent company, saying that the conservative media giant embarked on antitrust practices to hinder the growth of the smallest competitor in cable information.
- Jasveen Sangha, a drug dealer from North Hollywood, known as “Ketamine Queen”, is now risking up to 65 years in federal prison after pleading guilty of having provided the drug that caused the death of death of death Friends Actor Matthew Perry. (via leais)
- The next series of COVVI-19 vaccines has been approved for the fall, but the FDA has changed that can receive them. To answer some of your burning questions in the photos, Consider this NPR Tapped in an expert on the subject.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
