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Covid shot limits, GOP horse-trading and Israeli pressure campaign

 
Today's HEALTH CARE story

New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sick

What happened
The Trump administration's new Food and Drug Administration leaders said yesterday they plan to limit Covid-19 booster shots to people 65 and older plus younger people with at least one health condition that puts them at high risk for serious infection. Drugmakers will have to test their vaccines again among younger healthy people before approval is expanded, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary (pictured above) and vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad said yesterday in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine laying out their new policy. 

Who said what
Makary and Prasad are among the "outspoken critics of the government's handling of Covid shots" who Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought in to lead health agencies, The Associated Press said. Their vaccine plan is a "stark break from the previous federal policy recommending an annual Covid shot for all Americans six months and older," and it's unclear if all "people who want a vaccine this fall will be able to get one."

Prasad called the new policy a "reasonable compromise" that preserves Covid boosters for high-risk people and puts the U.S. in line with other developed countries. Dropping the "one-size-fits-all" approach was "welcomed by some independent public health experts," NPR said, but critics said the new limits "bypass the usual input from independent outside advisers" and create unnecessary barriers and misleading messaging "given the overwhelming evidence that Covid vaccines are safe and effective."

This "doesn't preserve people's choice to get vaccinated," University of Iowa's Dr. Denise Jamieson, an adviser to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The New York Times. Kennedy "had made it clear that he would never take vaccines away from anyone," University of Minnesota infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm told NPR. "This violates that in every way possible."

What next?
The CDC, not the FDA, is "charged with developing recommendations for which populations should get the shots," The Washington Post, and its vaccine advisory committee has a June 25 meeting to develop guidelines for the fall. An independent FDA advisory panel is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the composition of this fall's Covid boosters.

 
 
Today's POLITICS story

Trump twists House GOP arms on megabill

What happened
President Donald Trump visited House Republicans yesterday to pressure holdouts on his multitrillion-dollar tax and spending bill, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants to vote on as soon as today.

Who said what
Trump was "brought in to seal the deal" at a "pivotal moment" as "negotiations are slogging along" on his 1,116-page package of tax cuts, $350 billion boost to military and anti-immigration spending and "cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs," The Associated Press said. His entreaties and arm-twisting "appeared to do little to resolve the rifts that have plagued the measure for weeks," The New York Times said, but Johnson's subsequent "behind-the-scenes negotiations" with restive factions "appeared to have yielded some progress."

The bill's fate could determine whether Trump "regains the momentum he had early in his second administration or sees his agenda stall," The Washington Post said. The "economic and political stakes are enormous," The Wall Street Journal said. If the bill passes, Trump "could take credit for delivering tax cuts ahead of the midterms," but if it falters, voters "could instead be focused on the economic fallout from his trade agenda."

Nonpartisan analysts say the bill could "add $3 trillion to $5 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt," Reuters said. According to a new Congressional Budget Office estimate, it would also "lead to increased assets for the richest Americans, while reducing them for the lowest-income households," Politico said.

What next?
The House Rules Committee is meeting overnight to finalize the package for a floor vote. If the House passes the legislation, it goes to the Senate.

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL Story

Israel's Western allies pull back amid Gaza escalation

What happened
Britain said yesterday it was suspending talks with Israel on expanding their free-trade agreement due to the "egregious policies" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Gaza and the West Bank. The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said a "huge majority" of EU members supported reconsidering the bloc's trade deal with Israel. The United Nations today said no food aid had reached its Gaza warehouses despite Netanyahu allowing in a few dozen trucks after an 11-week blockade of humanitarian aid.

Who said what
Yesterday's "steps by London and Brussels" signaled the "shifting attitudes among longtime supporters of Israel" as Netanyahu escalates the assault on Gaza, The Washington Post said. The announcements followed a "rare public reprimand" on Monday from Britain, France and Canada, The New York Times said. The three countries threatened "concrete actions" unless Israel ended its "wholly disproportionate" and "egregious actions" in Gaza. 

Netanyahu called the warning a "huge prize" for Hamas. But British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the U.K. Parliament yesterday that "opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas." He called Israel's aid blockade "cruel and indefensible" and said "the world is judging" Netanyahu's government. Israeli opposition lawmaker Yair Golan told Israeli public radio yesterday that unless it starts "behaving like a sane country" again, "Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state."

What next?
The "mounting pressure from Israel's allies including the U.S." has left Netanyahu "with a dilemma," The Wall Street Journal said: "End the end the conflict and risk the collapse of his government, or plow on and sacrifice international support."

 
 

It's not all bad

Chimpanzees in Uganda have been filmed using medicinal plants to treat their wounds and even care for each other — behavior that shows empathy, according to the Oxford-led research team. Many of the plants the chimps chewed and applied to injuries were found to have antibacterial properties. The findings may aid human medicine and deepen our knowledge of nature's resources. "I think that we have to start treating these animals more like our teachers," said lead researcher Elodie Freymann.

 
 
Under the radar

The influx of thousands of Nazis to Argentina after World War II remains an "extremely uncomfortable period" in the country's history, said The Spectator. And Argentina has not been good at "reckoning" with it — until President Javier Milei recently "changed tack." 

Milei has released online 1,850 documents from the national archives containing details of "prominent Nazi criminals who escaped to Argentina," said the Buenos Aires Herald. These include Adolf Eichmann, one of the principal architects of the Holocaust, and Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor known as the "Angel of Death."

The Nazis may be "long dead," but their "hunters insist their work is not done," said The Times of London. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles wants to "expose" the "ratlines" — networks, individuals and institutions that helped Nazis flee Europe and start new lives. After meeting with representatives of the center earlier this year, Milei pledged to "lift the shroud" on "assistance" previous governments had "provided to war criminals."

The newly published documents confirm that "at one point, Argentina became a haven for Nazis," Defense Minister Luis Petri told cable news network DNews.

For example, Mengele, "notorious" for his inhumane experiments on prisoners, arrived in the South American country in 1949 and lived under "various aliases," said The Times of Israel. But the opened archives show he filed a request to travel to West Germany in 1959 using his real name, meaning "several countries likely had more accurate information on Mengele than previously thought," historian Bogdan Musial said to German public broadcaster MDR.

 
 
On this day

May 21, 1832

The Democratic Party held its first national convention in Baltimore. President Andrew Jackson's renomination was considered a foregone conclusion so the main purpose of the 1832 convention was for delegates to pick a vice-presidential nominee — they chose Martin Van Buren of New York. The most recent Democratic Convention was held in Chicago last year and nominated Kamala Harris.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

The Trump administration's attacks on federal workers — "We want to put them in trauma," one top official said — is taking its toll "as federal workers tell of panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts," The Washington Post says on Wednesday's front page. "ICE tactics draw growing resistance," The Boston Globe says. "ICE's new tactics may be letting perps walk," USA Today says. "Migrants stay on job despite crackdown," says The Wall Street Journal. "U.S. embraces climate denial in science cuts," throttling "ability to respond to crisis," The New York Times says. "Firms restarts oil drill off the coast," says the Los Angeles Times.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Iffy grounds for divorce

A woman in Greece divorced her husband of 12 years after ChatGPT "interpreted the remains of his coffee mug as signs of infidelity," according to TechSpot. When asked to read his coffee grounds, the AI chatbot claimed the man was "fantasizing about an affair with a younger woman whose name began with E." His wife filed for divorce three days later. Tasseography divination traditionally looks at foam patterns, the swirl and the saucer, not just leftover grounds.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images; Andrew Harnik / Getty Images; Kristian Buus / In Pictures via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images