MOTHER JONES – Politics | Politics & Government

On Friday, Omar Cárdenas Martínez called a relative from the Bluebonnet detention center in Texas to say that he had just been given a notice. Cárdenas had arrived there earlier this week, after being transferred from another US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, Prairieland, about three hours away in Alvarado. The document stated that Cárdenas was going to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely invoked law from 1798 that the Trump administration has been using to deprive Venezuelans it accuses of gang membership of due process. Cárdenas told Jaime, a pseudonym for the relative, who lives in the United States and fears potential retaliation, that he believed he was going to be removed from the country on Friday. According to Jaime, who broke down in despair during parts of the call with Mother Jones, Cárdenas said that he could see bags that held detainees’ personal… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

On April 11, the Trump administration sent Harvard University a sweeping set of demands—among them that the university report international students to the federal government for violation of student conduct policies—ostensibly to curb antisemitism on campus. Three days later, Harvard president Alan Garber announced that the school would “continue to follow the law”; Harvard, he said, would not comply with Trump’s demands. The administration promptly froze $2.2 billion in federal funding to the university. The backlash didn’t stop there. On Tuesday, Trump proposed revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status for “pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting Sickness,” following similar threats leveled at other prominent universities. And on Wednesday, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem sent Harvard yet another letter: On top of actualizing earlier threats to withdraw federal funds—$2.7 million dollars in her agency’s grants, she announced, would be paused—Noem now threatened to revoke Harvard’s eligibility to host any international students, describing… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

As of Friday, Covid.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 resource launched in 2022, is no longer providing information and resources about Covid—and Covidtests.gov, the website used to order free Covid tests from the government, isn’t, either. Both now redirect to a White House page promoting the “lab leak theory,” which contends that the virus originated from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. The website, touting the “true origins of Covid-19,” depicts President Donald Trump strolling out from between the words “Lab” and “Leak.” The change was shared widely by Trump supporters, including by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec on X: Posobiec, a frequent amplifier of Russian intelligence–backed website Southfront, white nationalist ideas and anti-vaccination misinformation, commented, “This is amazing.”  The new site centers blame on the HHS, NIH, the World Health Organization, and, of course, China.  The page does more than seek to refute evidence against the lab… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

The publisher of CHEST, a prestigious, peer-reviewed medical journal focused on respiratory health, received a letter from the Trump administration seeking information about how its editors handle scientific controversies and “competing viewpoints.” Some medical professionals see the missive as an attempt to stifle academic freedom. “It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates,” reads the letter, signed by Ed Martin Jr., acting US attorney for DC. Some journals, the letter vaguely claims, “have a position for which they are advocating” due to “advertisement” or “sponsorship.” “The public has certain expectations and you have certain responsibilities.” (The letter was first posted online by Dr. Eric Reinhart, a Chicago-based clinician, and first reported by MedPage Today.) Some medical professionals see the missive as an attempt to stifle academic freedom. It’s unclear why… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

While his anti-vaccine allies swooned and scientists cringed, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used his first-ever press conference this week, in response to new data showing an apparent increase in the number of autistic kids, to promote a variety of debunked, half-true, and deeply ableist ideas about autism. He painted the condition as a terrifying “disease” that “destroys,” as he put it, children and their families. Kennedy made it clear he planned to use his powerful role as the person in charge of a massive federal agency devoted to protecting public health to promote the idea that autism is caused by “environmental factors,” a still-speculative thesis that’s clearly a short walk towards advancing his real aim: blaming vaccines.  Kennedy has spent the last 20 years promoting anti-vaccine rhetoric, falsely and repeatedly claiming that vaccines are linked to autism. Yet as the press conference made clear, Kennedy knows startlingly… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.