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Those interested in how the SDA Church is organized will find the following article informative. https://spectrummagazine.org/views/union-or-division-how-global-growth-tests-mission-and-management/

The following study of SDA pastors will inform you, and perhap0s, surprise you. https://atoday.org/why-we-must-appreciate-our-pastors/

Sometimes satire has a bit of truth. This may be one such time. https://atoday.org/16-things-adventist-pastors-secretly-hate-about-their-congregations/

Bipartisan salute to Cheney Al Gore, Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Kamala Harris at former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral today. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images A bipartisan litany of former presidents, vice presidents and other D.C. notables gathered at Washington National Cathedral today for former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral. Cheney, President George W. Bush's vice president, died earlier this month at 84 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. Among those on hand: Former Presidents Joe Biden and George W. Bush; former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence and Al Gore; and Cheney's daughter, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. Notably absent: President Trump, a Cheney family nemesis who wasn't invited. Liz Cheney speaks during her father's funeral service. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images 🇺🇸 President Bush, Cheney's former boss, said: "At a rare public appearance in 2022, he offered a kind of parting reflection. He said, 'When you can look back on a lifetime in politics and government, and what you value most are the friendships, then I guess you've done all right.'" "A lot of us know that feeling, as we say an affectionate farewell to the 46th vice president of the United States. It's something to be cherished when a man of his caliber has been your colleague and friend. This son of Wyoming, this son of Marjorie and Richard Cheney of Casper, went far in this world, and in our own lives left a very fine mark. We are grateful for his good life. We honor his service. And we pray that somewhere up the trail, we will meet him again." Scenes from the service ... 📷 More photos.

Charlotte crackdown confusion A person is detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents at a Charlotte restaurant yesterday. Photo: Ryan Murphy/Getty Images Federal immigration officials say their Charlotte, N.C., crackdown is continuing while local leaders claim otherwise, Axios' Alexandria Sands reports. "Operation Charlotte's Web" is "not over and it is not ending anytime soon," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. That's after Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said earlier today that DHS' surge in the area was winding down. A sheriff's office spokesperson tells Axios they're standing by that statement. 🚔 Federal agents have made "around 370" arrests in and around Charlotte over the last five days, DHS says. 👮‍♀️ The agency says it's targeting dangerous lawbreakers, but hasn't revealed the criminal background or immigration status of many of those arrested. Immigration agents were also spotted in nearby Raleigh and Durham this week, Axios' Mary Helen Moore and Zachery Eanes report, though DHS did not announce a major operation there. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) said earlier this week of DHS' beefed-up presence: "They haven't sat down and explained to us why they're here, how long they're going to be here, what their purpose of being here is." "We don't know pretty much anything. They're operating in the shadows." Being there: The Charlotte operation is rattling the Latino community and weighing on the local economy. Immigrant-owned businesses have temporarily closed, construction sites have emptied, and school absences have surged. ⚜️ DHS is eyeing New Orleans for future operations — and activists there are preparing for agents' arrival, per Axios' Chelsea Brasted. Get the latest ...

Death toll reaches 33 in some of the deadliest Israeli strikes in Gaza since the ceasefire’s start DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — Israeli strikes in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis early Thursday killed five people, hospital officials said, bringing the death toll from airstrikes in the Palestinian territory over a roughly 12-hour period to 33, mostly women and children. The strikes have been some of the deadliest since Oct. 10 when a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect. https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-gaza-07ff40fa5efeed4a944050fec55b279b?

Ukraine would cede territory to Russia in draft of Trump peace plan obtained by AP WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the war in Ukraine would cede land to Russia and limit the size of Kyiv’s military, according to a draft obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-peace-plan-europe-witkoff-33545b140c5bfbbc5e9061a739802e54? Trump administration announces plan for new oil drilling off the coasts of California and Florida WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced on Thursday new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production. https://apnews.com/article/offshore-drilling-california-trump-newsom-oil-1e5b0c52b128daddb3a1f112acd44fd6? Judge orders Trump administration to end National Guard deployment in DC WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to end its monthslong deployment of National Guard troops to help police the nation’s capital. https://apnews.com/article/national-guard-dc-deployment-c1c2b13a7102632632267bf1262506ff?

CDC website changed to contradict scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website has been changed to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, spurring outrage among a number of public health and autism experts. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ For people in this New England mountain town, a health center’s closure leaves unanswered questions Trump and Republicans once more face a tough political fight over Obama-era health law

Trump says Democrats’ message to military is ‘seditious behavior’ punishable by death President Donald Trump on Thursday accused half a dozen Democratic lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” after the lawmakers — all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community — called on U.S. military members to uphold the Constitution and defy “illegal orders.” The video includes Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ U.S. employers added surprisingly solid 119,000 jobs in September, government says in delayed report Federal prosecutors dismiss charges against woman shot by Border Patrol agent in Chicago Federal immigration crackdown ends in Charlotte, North Carolina, sheriff says WATCH: Witnesses in Chicago record the sights and sounds of Trump’s immigration crackdown

You Will Never Send Money Digitally Without a Private Company — If the GOP Gets Its Way Americans who want to transfer money online have options. They can go with services like Venmo and PayPal, make transfers from their personal bank, or do a transaction with stablecoins issued by cryptocurrency companies. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/17/money-transfer-cbdc-digital-currency/? How California Spent Natural Disaster Funds to Quell Student Protests for Palestine Cal Poly Humboldt students had been occupying a campus building in solidarity with Palestine for three days when then-university President Tom Jackson decided to bring the demonstration to an end. But he didn’t think the university could break the occupation, some two dozen members strong, on its own. In an email to the sheriff of the Humboldt Police Department on April 25, 2024, Jackson asked to tap a pool of policing cash clothed in the language of anarchist solidarity: the “law enforcement mutual aid system.” https://theintercept.com/2025/11/19/cal-poly-humboldt-university-palestine-wildfire-funds/? How Many People Has the U.S. Killed in Boat Strikes? Since September, the Trump administration has conducted an undeclared war in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing scores of civilians. The Intercept is chronicling all publicly declared U.S. attacks and providing a tracker with information on each strike. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/17/trump-boat-strikes-death-toll-caribbean-pacific/? Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades, but Some Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling On paper, the idea of banning congressional stock trades has all the ingredients for success: supermajority support in polls, bipartisan sponsors, and public backing from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/19/stock-trade-ban-cogress-mike-johnson/? War in Venezuela, Brought to You By the Same People Who Lied Us Into Iraq The United States is amassing power off Venezuela’s coast. Warships, Marine detachments, and surveillance aircraft are flowing into the Caribbean under the banner of “counter-narcotics operations.” Military officials have presented Donald Trump with various game plans for potential operations. The U.S. president is openly tying Nicolás Maduro to narco-terror networks and cartel structures, while dangling both “talks” and threatening the use of military force in the same breath. It’s all pushing toward the culmination of crowning Maduro and his government America’s next top “terrorists” — the magic movie-script label that means the bombs can start heating up. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/18/venezuela-iraq-war-new-york-times/? Don’t Let Larry Summers Back Into Polite Society Larry Summers is the archetype of the technocratic Democratic insider. A prodigy whose abilities in the academy propelled him to powerful roles in government, he has for decades enjoyed close relationships with nearly every important figure in left-of-center politics, including advising former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and (in an informal role) Joe Biden. His CV gives the impression of the sort of shrewd politico who might broker an epic compromise to save the day in an episode of “The West Wing.” https://theintercept.com/2025/11/18/larry-summers-jeffrey-epstein-emails/?

Pardoned Capitol Rioter Tried to Hush Child Sex Victim With Promise of Jan. 6 Reparation Money, Police Say A pardoned January 6 rioter has been charged with sex crimes against two children. Andrew Paul Johnson was arraigned in a Florida court in October on multiple charges, including molesting a child as young as 11 years old, joining a growing list of U.S. Capitol rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump who now face new legal trouble. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/17/pardoned-jan-6-child-abuse-molestation-andrew-paul-johnson/? Judge Rules Trump Can’t Cut UC Funding — but UC Leaders Are Still Negotiating a Settlement In a landmark ruling last Friday, a federal judge indefinitely barred the Trump administration from fining or cutting funds to the University of California system over the government’s bogus claims of antisemitism and discrimination. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/17/uc-trump-federal-funding-universities/?

ICE Barbie Accused of Secretly ‘Nuking’ Report on Major Reform The fate of FEMA is in the hands of Kristi Noem. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is reportedly facing accusations that her plans to gut FEMA will torch recommendations for major reform made by a panel that President Donald Trump enlisted to decide its fate.Trump, who had mulled over axing the agency altogether, set up the FEMA Review Council, which, after 10 months, decided that the agency should be more independent, according to The Washington Post. However, Noem, the council co-chair, wants to take it in a different direction. Noem, the council’s co-chair, is responsible for finalizing the report and sending it to the president, and her office is allegedly pushing different ideas. The report “got nuked,” said one former FEMA official told the Associated Press. According to five people familiar with the situation who spoke to the Post, Noem’s draft recommends keeping FEMA inside the Department of Homeland Security but stripping it of its direct disaster-relief functions, essentially transforming the agency into a grant-making shop. The original council draft did not recommend any of that. Noem’s office also reportedly wants to slash the federal government’s disaster cost share to 50 percent—an overhaul several council members strongly opposed. FEMA’s guidelines currently allow Washington to front about 75 percent of disaster costs, and in extreme cases, nearly 100 percent for a time. Council members want that structure preserved. A DHS spokesperson publicly denied that Noem was trying to alter the report. “Secretary Noem is the chairwoman of the council and has worked with committee members collaboratively on the reform report,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the Post. She said the council has “spent months working to provide recommendations to reshape and reform the bureaucratic mess that exists at FEMA.” The Daily Beast also approached for comment. But internally, tensions are reportedly spiking. After reviewing the council’s original 160-page submission—built from 13,000 public comments and consultations with rural and urban communities from Puerto Rico to Wyoming—Noem and her top adviser, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, allegedly chopped the document down to fewer than 20 pages. “It’s like Edward Scissorhands,” one person familiar with the situation said. “She wants to chop it up, and decentralize, and really drastically limit FEMA. Many members on the council are not happy with how she has put her thumb on the scale.” Some White House officials have already seen the unedited draft. And the concerns aren’t limited to page count. Noem’s revisions reportedly include cutting FEMA’s staff by half, restricting the agency to debris removal and emergency protective measures, and shoving nearly everything else—roads, bridges, buildings, parks—onto other federal agencies. She also reportedly floated relocating FEMA headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Texas, an idea that shocked council members and emergency management experts. The council’s actual recommendations took a very different tack: make FEMA easier to access for disaster survivors, accelerate aid dispersal, reform the National Flood Insurance Program, keep the Stafford Act cost share intact, and elevate the agency to Cabinet level. None of those ideas appear in Noem’s trimmed version. Trump’s final decision remains unclear, as he has heard mixed advice from first responders, Republican officials, and advisers wary of eliminating FEMA. In a statement to the Post, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson framed the council’s mission as ensuring “the federal role remains supplemental and appropriate to the scale of disaster,” adding that “Secretary Noem is working hard to implement the president’s vision.” At a National Emergency Management Association conference, Florida emergency management director Kevin Guthrie—another council member—was asked whether the report would reach the president unaltered. Former acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton recalled Guthrie’s answer. “[Guthrie] sighed,” Hamilton said. “He said he feels confident in the report that they will submit to the Secretary. And that’s where he stopped.” A FEMA spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “Secretary Noem is the Chairwoman of the council and has worked with committee members collaboratively on the reform report that will be completed in the coming weeks. The claims of her or other political staff altering the report are unequivocally false. “The FEMA Review council has spent months working to provide recommendations to reshape and reform the bureaucratic mess that exists at FEMA.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-kristie-noem-accused-of-secretly-nuking-report-on-major-reform/?

Trump Shares Violent Call to Hang His Political Foes The president is taking his revenge to new heights. President Donald Trump called for the execution of his political enemies in a series of chilling online posts on Thursday. Trump, 79, suggested a group of Democrats should be punished by death after they urged U.S. service members and the intelligence community to refuse illegal orders. “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” he wrote on Truth Social. It came moments after he melted down over their video message to service members with a post and a series of reposts. “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” he wrote. He also reposted several supporters’ messages, including one that called for their hanging. “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!” the post reads. The Democrats’ video, released Tuesday, urges U.S. troops and intelligence officers to reject any unlawful commands. The group of prominent Democrats includes senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, as well as Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Jason Crow. In the video, they speak directly to U.S. service members and the intelligence community, reminding them that they took an oath to the U.S. Constitution and that they “can refuse illegal orders.” The group warned that the threats to the Constitution are not just coming from abroad but from home and urged them to “not give up the ship.” The six lawmakers do not specify exactly what would constitute an illegal order in the video, but Crow did address it on Fox News on Wednesday. “We are standing by our troops, our service members who are often put in very difficult positions, and Donald Trump has put them in very difficult positions and has alluded to putting them in even more difficult positions in the months and years ahead,” he said. “So we are reminding folks about what the uniform code of military justice says, what the Constitution says, what the law of war says.” Crow is a former Army Ranger who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and is also a Bronze Star recipient. He represents Colorado’s 6th congressional district and sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee. When asked about what specifically he was referring to when implying the president might demand something they wouldn’t want to uphold, Crow noted Trump’s comment suggesting protesters be shot in the legs during his first term, as well as suggesting he would send the military into American cities to go to war and alluding to sending troops to polling stations which is against the law. But Republicans and members of the Trump administration slammed the video. Stephen Miller fumed that Democrats were stoking “insurrection” and demanded the six lawmakers “resign in disgrace.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reacted to it with a post on X, simply writing: “Stage 4 TDS.” The six lawmakers released a joint statement slamming the president’s posts on Thursday, in which they vowed they would not cave to threats. “We are veterans and national security professionals who love this country and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” they said. “That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. No threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation.“ They said it is telling that the president “considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law.” They said that service members should know “we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also blasted the president on the Senate floor, where he said every American should condemn the president’s posts immediately. “Let’s be crystal clear: the president of the United States is calling for the execution of elected officials. This is an outright threat, and it’s deadly serious,” Schumer said. “Every time Donald Trump posts things like this, he makes political violence more likely. None of us should tolerate this kind of behavior.” The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-shares-violent-call-to-hang-his-political-foes/?

Orcas Find New Prey in the Arctic Killer whales are the ultimate marine predator. Even the great white shark is no match for the intelligence and power of an orca. They patrol every ocean on Earth, and no prey species is too large or too fierce for them. But until recently, they faced one limit: the high Arctic. Sea ice blocked narrow entries to both the east and west coasts of the North American Arctic, forming a barrier between these perfect predators and whole habitats rich in potential prey. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/orcas-find-new-prey-arctic?

Lawmaker who led Hope Florida probe aims to end public records delays TALLAHASSEE — State Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who led a probe into the Hope Florida initiative championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis, has filed a sweeping bill that takes aim at tactics used by the DeSantis administration to thwart public inquiries. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/20/lawmaker-who-led-hope-florida-probe-aims-to-end-public-records-delays/? Editorial: Dying reefs threaten Florida’s future Floridians are not used to hearing the word “extinct” applied to species that play significant roles in the state’s ecological and economic landscape. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/20/editorial-dying-reefs-threaten-floridas-future/?

👋 Good morning! Here's a crazy stat: There are currently 82 players on NBA rosters that were born after LeBron James made his NBA debut (Oct. 29, 2003). In today's edition: Lane Kiffin's decision, Thunder keep rolling, World Cup field, NFL supersonic flight, top 100 most valuable sports teams, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES ⚾️ MLB media deals: MLB has struck new three-year media deals with ESPN, NBC and Netflix that will run through 2028. Highlights include NBC getting "Sunday Night Baseball," ESPN landing MLB.TV and Netflix streaming the Home Run Derby. 🇫🇷 Football in France: The Saints will reportedly play a regular-season game in Paris in the next couple years, which will mark the league's first-ever game in France. 🎾 Fed makes the Hall: Roger Federer was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Truly shocking news, I know. ⚽️ NWSL awards: Kansas City Current striker Temwa Chaŵinga became the first player to win back-to-back MVPs, Racing Louisville's Bev Yanez was named Coach of the Year, Gotham FC defender Lilly Reale won Rookie of the Year, and more. 🏈 NFL QB headlines: Cincinnati's Joe Burrow (toe) was a full practice participant for the first time since Week 2; Atlanta's Michael Penix Jr. (knee) is out for the year with his fifth season-ending injury since 2018; Cleveland's Shedeur Sanders will make his first career start on Sunday.   🏈 COACHING CAROUSEL OLE MISS, LSU OR FLORIDA? (Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports) Lane Kiffin's decision looms over all of college football, and it could come sooner than expected as the Ole Miss head coach very publicly flirts with both LSU and Florida. From Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger: Kiffin and Ole Miss seem mired in a staredown, playing out publicly enough to make it wholly unprecedented in the sport. After all, how often has the family of a sitting SEC coach, in the middle of one of the greatest seasons in his school's history, visited not one, but two towns of conference rivals as he debates whether to accept their open head coaching jobs? That's what transpired on Sunday and Monday this week, when Kiffin's ex-wife and other extended relatives made trips to Gainesville and then Baton Rouge on planes that Florida and LSU sent to Oxford as part of their courtship of the coach. Just a week ago, during a visit with him in his office, Kiffin sounded like a man genuinely torn, internally struggling with a difficult decision: Remain at a place that's brought you so much happiness and success (54 wins, a more healthy lifestyle, reuniting with his kids), or leave for a historic powerhouse you dreamed of coaching as a child (Florida and/or LSU). On one side, there's this: "I'm happy every morning I wake up," he said. "I have two of the kids and their mom living here." And then there's the other side: Kiffin acknowledges that he never grew up believing this place — Ole Miss, tucked in a tiny town in north Mississippi — would be the "final chapter" of his career, that he'd pass on big gigs to remain at a program that hasn't historically competed for championships (zero trips to the SEC title game since its inception in 1992). Everyone's wondering. Everyone's asking. What Will Lane Do? WWLD? But no one truly knows, possibly not even Lane himself — known historically for his indecision about such moves. "He's as unpredictable as his play calls," says one industry insider, a nod to Kiffin's mastery as one of the sport's best in-game play-calling wizards. "That's what makes him so good at calling plays," says another. "You don't know what he's going to do next." Where it stands: Different reports this week have characterized the situation in slightly different ways, but the bottom line is the same: Ole Miss wants (perhaps needs) an answer from Kiffin as soon as possible, and preferably before next Friday's Egg Bowl, so it can figure out what's next if he leaves.   ⚽️ 42 DOWN, 6 TO GO 2026 WORLD CUP: WHO'S IN? (Pau Barrena/UEFA via Getty Images) The biggest World Cup ever kicks off in 203 days, and 42 of the record 48 participating countries have already clinched their spots. Who's in? Those 42 countries represent FIFA's six regional confederations in Europe (UEFA), Africa (CAF), Asia (AFC), South America (CONMEBOL), North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) and Oceania (OFC). UEFA (12): England, France, Croatia, Norway, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland CAF (9): Algeria, Cabo Verde (debut), Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia AFC (8): Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan (debut), South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan (debut) CONMEBOL (6): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay CONCACAF (6): United States, Mexico, Canada, Curaçao (debut), Haiti, Panama OFC (1): New Zealand What's next: The final six spots will be determined via two playoffs in March. In one playoff, 16 European teams will compete for four spots. In the other, six teams from the other confederations will battle for two. UEFA: Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland Intercontinental: Jamaica, Suriname, Iraq, DR Congo, Bolivia, New Caledonia World Cup power rankings: Spain and Argentina lead the pack   ✈️ GLOBAL AMBITIONS NFL KEEPING TABS ON SUPERSONIC FLIGHT The Concorde in flight. (Serge de Sazo/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) With dreams of permanent franchises in Europe, the NFL has quietly been monitoring the return of supersonic flight, WSJ's Andrew Beaton reports ($). The Concorde, reborn: The Concorde (1976-2003) revolutionized transatlantic travel by cutting flight times between the U.S. and Europe in half. Nearly 25 years after its final flight, commercial supersonic travel is nearing a return thanks to companies like Boom Supersonic. The NFL staged seven international games this season, and the goal is to eventually get to 16 per year. But if the league is serious about going global, the surest path is to make its teams global. London is the most obvious choice to land an international team, and commissioner Roger Goodell has even floated the idea of a four-team European division. (Maybe London, Paris, Madrid and Berlin?) One potential hang-up? Aircraft capacity. Boom's Overture plane is projected to carry 60 to 80 passengers, while NFL teams travel with close to 200 people. Speaking of global expansion… Bidding for NBA Europe franchises is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026 as the overseas league prepares for a 2027 launch. NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum shared more details on Wednesday at SBJ's Dealmakers conference.   📸 SNAPSHOTS THROUGH THE LENS (Kyle Phillips/AP Photo) Oklahoma City — The Thunder rolled to another win on Wednesday, beating the Kings, 113-99, to improve to 15-1. That matches last year's Cavaliers for the best 16-game start of the decade. Wild stat: The Thunder are just the second team in NBA history to start 15-1 or better while winning at least 10 games by 14+ points. The first? The 1996-97 Bulls, who went on to win 69 games and a title. Matteo Berrettini celebrates during his win. (Tullio Puglia/Getty Images) Bologna, Italy — The host nation overpowered Austria in Wednesday's Davis Cup quarterfinal to move one step closer to a historic three-peat, which no country has accomplished since the U.S. won five straight over 50 years ago (1968-72). Italian domination: It's been quite a run for the Azzurri, whose women won their second straight Billie Jean King Cup earlier this year. Freshman standout Koa Peat had his first career double-double. (Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) Storrs, Connecticut — No. 4 Arizona took down No. 3 UConn, 71-67, to improve to 5-0 with three wins over ranked teams. Freshman Koa Peat (16-12-3) and senior Jaden Bradley (21-3-2) led the way for the Wildcats. Meanwhile, in Chicago: No. 11 Alabama handed No. 8 Illinois its first loss of the season, winning 90-86 in the United Center (home of the Bulls) in the night's other ranked matchup. Ryan Leonard celebrates after scoring his second goal. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images) Washington, D.C. — The Capitals erupted for seven goals on just 21 shots in a 7-4 win over the Oilers. 20-year-old Ryan Leonard tallied his first career multi-goal game and veteran Tom Wilson moved into the top 10 of Washington's all-time goals leaderboard. Ovi's heating up: After scoring just three goals in his first 15 games, Alex Ovechkin has scored four in his last five, including this beautiful redirect in Wednesday's win.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: THURSDAY, NOV. 20 (Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images) 🏈 Bills at Texans Buffalo travels to Houston tonight (8:15pm ET, Prime) for a matchup that pits MVP candidate Josh Allen against the league's best defense. Allen, coming off a masterful six-TD performance, faces a Texans team that is allowing the fewest yards (258.1) and points per game (16.3). ⛳️ LPGA Tour Championship The season finale tees off today (8am, ESPN+; 3pm, Golf) at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples, Florida, where the top 60 golfers will be competing for a $4 million grand prize — the biggest in women's golf. Who to watch: World No. 1 and defending champion Jeeno Thitikul has won twice this year and finished inside the top seven in each of her last five starts. No. 2 Nelly Korda, who won seven times last year, has eight top-10 finishes but no victories this season. More to watch: 🏀 NBA: Hawks at Spurs (8pm, NBA) … Atlanta has won eight of its last 11 games. 🏀 NCAAM: Memphis at No. 1 Purdue (6pm, CBSSN); Bucknell at No. 14 St. John’s (7pm, TNT); Wake Forest at No. 15 Texas Tech (8:30pm, CBSSN); Rider at No. 2 Houston (9pm, TNT) 🎾 Davis Cup Finals: Czechia vs. Spain (4am, Tennis); Germany vs. Argentina (11am, Tennis) … The winners join Belgium and Italy in the semifinals. ⛳️ PGA: RSM Classic (8:30am, ESPN+; 12pm, Golf) … Georgia's Sea Island Golf Club hosts the season finale, where golfers are battling to get into the top 100 of the fall rankings to earn their full PGA Tour cards for 2026. ⚽️ Women's Champions League: PSG vs. Bayern Munich (3pm, CBSSN); Chelsea vs. Barcelona (3pm, Paramount+) … Two of four games to close out Matchday 4.   🏀 LONG RANGE NBA TRIVIA (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) LeBron James (2,561) passed Reggie Miller (2,560) on Tuesday for the sixth-most made three-pointers in NBA history. Question: Can you name the top five? Hint: Four are still active. Answer at the bottom.   📊 $554 BILLION CHART OF THE DAY (Lev Akabas/Sportico) The top 100 most valuable sports teams in the world are collectively worth $554 billion, according to Sportico's latest valuations. Included in the top 100: 32 NFL teams, 30 NBA teams, 14 MLB teams, 10 soccer clubs, 9 NHL teams and 5 F1 franchises.   Trivia answer: Stephen Curry (4,116 three-pointers), James Harden (3,222), Ray Allen (2,973), Damian Lillard (2,804), Klay Thompson (2,732)

How Trump’s Transportation Department Is Loosening Safety Rules Meant to Protect the Public On its face, the rule proposed in July by the country’s pipeline-safety regulator seemed innocuous. The regulator, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation called the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, was proposing what looked like minor, bureaucratic changes to its process for issuing regulatory waivers. Between the lines, PHMSA watchers saw a much more consequential effort — one that would curtail the power of agency experts to impose conditions aimed at preventing catastrophic pipeline failures. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-dot-regulation-safety-rollback-sean-duffy? 7 rumored images of Trump with underage girls we've debunked After the House Oversight Committee released documents from Jeffrey Epstein's estate in late 2025, fake images of Trump spread online. https://www.snopes.com/collections/photo-trump-girls-rumors/? Endangered species The Trump administration moved on Wednesday to roll back Biden-era protections for endangered species and their habitats. The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service proposed restoring rules from the first Trump administration that stripped safeguards for plants and animals threatened by human development and a warming planet. The two agencies also proposed to strip the so-called "blanket rule," which extends endangered-level protections to species that are listed as "threatened" with extinction. Industry groups see this as a win, after complaining for years that environmental laws have become too restrictive for major energy, mining and development projects. Environmental groups decried the move as one that could be devastating for endangered species.

Gov. Greg Abbott Was Ordered to Release Some of His Emails With Elon Musk. Most Are Blacked Out. Months after fighting to keep secret the emails exchanged between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s companies, state officials released nearly 1,400 pages to The Texas Newsroom. https://www.propublica.org/article/greg-abbott-releases-elon-musk-emails-redacted? New York Moves Forward With a Brooklyn Flood Protection Plan That Falls Short of Other City Projects After a decade of planning, New York City broke ground in September on a $218 million plan to prevent flooding in the portside neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn, even though experts say it will provide inadequate protection from storms. The project also will provide less protection than other city flood prevention projects, including a new $3.5 billion upscale development on the edge of the neighborhood. https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-city-brooklyn-flood-storm-protection?

Young Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget. **This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.** The girl pleaded not to go. https://www.propublica.org/article/sexual-abuse-old-apostolic-lutheran-church-minnesota? Federal prosecutors move to dismiss charges against woman shot by Border Patrol agent in Chicago CHICAGO (AP) — Federal prosecutors moved Thursday to dismiss charges against a woman who was shot several times by a Border Patrol agent last month during the federal immigration crackdown in the Chicago area. https://apnews.com/article/chicago-immigration-crackdown-woman-shot-border-e58ca635feeb2ef8ddb0b4dea22e9726? Georgia police chief charged with using license plate readers to stalk and harass people BRASELTON, Ga. (AP) — A police chief in suburban Atlanta has been arrested on charges that he used the city’s automated license plate recognition cameras to stalk and harass multiple people. https://apnews.com/article/georgia-plate-readers-stalk-harass-chief-arrested-39adb6f89fc2074da61f2801fef3f180?

The following exhaustive article reports on a major developing issue in the heart of Adventism, Berrien Springs, which cannot be ignored. https://spectrummagazine.org/news/ground-zero-ron-kelly-and-conrad-vine-continue-to-break-things-in-berrien-springs/

November 20, 2025 By Sam Sifton Good morning. There’s news today on the Epstein files, Israeli strikes in Gaza despite the cease-fire and a Japanese bear hunt. We’ll tell you about all of it, and more, below. But first let’s take a look at two local stories that have national implications. One’s about New York City’s police commissioner and the mayor she will serve. The other’s about what happens when wealthy people prop up our cultural institutions — and what happens when they die. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and New York City’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. Pool photo by Richard Drew The odd couple Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, said yesterday that Jessica Tisch, the city’s police commissioner, would stay in that job when he takes office on Jan. 1. It’s an unlikely partnership, my colleagues Maria Cramer and Emma G. Fitzsimmons wrote. “He’s a democratic socialist who wanted to defund the police,” Emma told me. “She’s pretty conservative on policing.” Tisch wants to hire 5,000 new police officers. Mamdani does not. He supports the elimination of bail for most misdemeanors. She has been sharply critical of changes to the bail laws. They come from very different backgrounds, too. Mamdani, 34, is the son of an academic and a filmmaker. Tisch, 44, is a billionaire heiress whose family gave a lot of money to Mamdani’s competition. (They both went to elite colleges, though: Bowdoin for him and Harvard for her.) And they have different views of the outside world. Tisch has marched in the city’s annual Israel Day parade. Mamdani has been a fierce critic of Israel. But they have pledged to work together even if there are genuine areas of disagreement, Emma said. Of course they have. Tisch wants to keep a powerful job that she loves. And Mamdani wants the police — and voters who support them — to see that he’s not the far-left caricature his critics have drawn. They made nice yesterday. “I have admired her work cracking down on corruption in the upper echelons of the police department, driving down crime in New York City and standing up for New Yorkers in the face of authoritarianism,” Mamdani said of Tisch. Tisch was no less polite. “It’s clear that we share broad and crucial priorities: the importance of public safety, the need to continue driving down crime and the need to maintain stability and order across the department,” she wrote in an email sent to officers. In an era of partisan rancor across the country, this was refreshing to see. If the partnership holds, it’s a reminder that people who disagree don’t have to be enemies, that the incoming mayor doesn’t have to throw out all the experienced hands, that focusing on consensus instead of division is an art — not fine art, but the art of the possible. They gave and gave Leonard Lauder, left, and Agnes Gund. Erin Baiano for The New York Times, Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times The deaths this year of Leonard Lauder and Agnes Gund have left a canyon-size hole in the cultural firmament of New York, Robin Pogrebin wrote yesterday. For half a century they were among the most important figures in the city’s arts philanthropy — giving institutions lots of money, giving them lots of art. They gave and they gave and they gave. Robin offered examples. “When the economy tanked in 2008, just a year after the Whitney Museum of American Art announced plans for a new building in downtown Manhattan,” she wrote, Lauder “swooped in with a $131 million donation, the largest in the museum’s history.” Gund, for her part, once battled her fellow board members at the Museum of Modern Art to bring living artists into the collection. She didn’t just speak up about it, Robin reported — she showed up with donations: among them, works by Nick Cave, Julie Mehretu and Kara Walker. “There are very few all-in-one philanthropists,” said Adam Weinberg, the former longtime director of the Whitney Museum. “Leonard and Aggie were those all-in-one philanthropists.” And then he told Robin something I think is important: “It takes three different board members to contribute what they could.” In the future it might be five or six because help is getting harder to come by. The federal government has gutted arts funding. Audiences have not returned to prepandemic levels. And private donations to museums and other nonprofit cultural institutions have plunged. (That trend is unlikely to reverse any time soon. Changes to the tax law will soon cap a deduction for high-income donors.) As a result, institutions have deferred construction projects. They’ve reduced or canceled programming. They’ve laid off employees. And there are precious few giants behind Lauder and Gund to help fill the gaps, in New York or elsewhere. “It’s a very scary time for the arts,” said one former administrator. Now, let’s look at what else is happening in the world. THE LATEST NEWS Epstein Files President Trump signed a bill directing the Justice Department to release the files from its Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The bill has major loopholes, and his signature does not guarantee the release of all the files. Comey Case A Trump-appointed prosecutor pursuing charges against James Comey admitted to a judge that the full grand jury did not see the final indictment that it had approved. Our reporters described the hearing, and the judge’s grilling, as “excruciatingly awkward.” More on Politics Dick Cheney’s funeral is today in Washington. Neither Trump nor Vice President JD Vance is expected to attend. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, has been traveling the world to encourage foreign investment in U.S. data centers. His sons stand to profit. War in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky may face a no-confidence vote after an investigation into a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme has implicated his closest allies. On social media, the country’s corruption investigators are releasing highlights of their findings with the drama of a Netflix series. Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones on western Ukraine, killing at least 25 people. A peace plan negotiated between the Trump administration and Russia to end the war in Ukraine would require Kyiv to significantly cut its army and cede territory. In Gaza During a cease-fire, Israel launched a series of strikes on Gaza, killing at least 25 people, according to the local health ministry. Israel said it struck because several militants had opened fire on its forces in southern Gaza without causing injuries. More International News Mount Semeru, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, erupted and spewed hot clouds of volcanic ash and debris that blanketed nearby villages. The number of sexual assaults reported on cruises is going up. But victims of crimes that take place on foreign ships in international waters face an uphill battle to get justice. Business Nvidia, which makes the computer chips that have powered the A.I. boom, reported another quarter of soaring profits. Imports to the U.S. fell by about 5 percent in August, in part because of Trump’s tariffs. The government shutdown delayed the release of the data. Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary, is stepping down from the board of OpenAI after documents released by Congress showed him corresponding with Jeffrey Epstein. MEET THE ‘ORTHOBROS’ Cornell Watson for The New York Times Orthodoxy is a demanding form of Christianity. Services are long. Churches often don’t have pews. There is a strict and complex fasting schedule. It’s no wonder Orthodoxy is the smallest branch of Christianity in the United States. But recently many parishes have seen a surge in attendance — especially among conservative young men, my colleague Ruth Graham reports. Priests are swapping stories about it. The converts say they are drawn to the faith because its requirements aren’t easy and because meeting the challenge gives them a sense of purpose. The newcomers were often introduced to Orthodoxy by influencers who promote traditional ideas of masculinity. Josh Elkins, a student at North Carolina State University, told The Times, “The Orthodox Church is the only church that really coaches men hard and says, ‘This is what you need to do.’” Related: Our religion reporters talk about how they cover Christianity in the United States. THE MORNING QUIZ This question comes from a recent edition of the newsletter. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.) Sailors from the Marshall Islands have for millenniums navigated by what technique? They identify the odors of palm-tree species unique to certain atolls. They listen for bird calls, which change pitch according to direction. They follow pods of sperm whales, whose migratory patterns they pass down through generations. They feel the waves that bounce off the region’s atolls. OPINIONS The New York Times Algorithms should connect you with the best of human creativity — not rot your brain, Jack Conte, the chief executive of Patreon, says in this video. Here is a column by Jamelle Bouie on Trump’s pervasive corruption. The Times Sale: Our best rate for readers of The Morning. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS A bear-safety workshop in the mountainous town of Chizu in Japan. Kentaro Takahashi for The New York Times A hunt: Bears have been attacking people in Japan. Local residents are fighting back. A mystery: An airline pilot from New Jersey died last year after eating a hamburger. Now doctors know why — he had developed a grave meat allergy from a tick bite. Sorry, Kim Kardashian: NASA released photos of a comet and debunked a viral conspiracy theory spread by some celebrities that an alien invasion was imminent. Identical twins: Alice and Ellen Kessler were sisters from Germany whose tightly choreographed song-and-dance routines wowed audiences around the world. They decided to end their lives together at the age of 89. TODAY’S NUMBER 62,000 — That’s how many deaths regular lung cancer screenings could prevent over a five-year period, or four times as many lives as are being saved today. SPORTS Soccer: Haiti qualified this week to compete in the men’s World Cup for the first time since 1974, but travel bans imposed by the United States government mean many fans will not be able to travel from home to attend their nation’s games in the U.S. next summer. M.L.B.: The league landed new media deals with NBC, Netflix and ESPN as it restructures its TV future. N.F.L.: The Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders will make his first N.F.L. start on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders. RECIPE OF THE DAY Ryan Liebe for The New York Times There are days, and this is already shaping up to be one of them, when all I want to have for dinner is a wide, bubbling cast-iron skillet filled with spinach and corn dip. I like the sweet pop of the corn (of course I use frozen — it’s November) against the creamy cheeses and silken spinach, especially if I counter it with extra jalapeños and a healthy spray of lime juice. Melt everything into submission, broil the top and serve with a fresh baguette or a bag of scooper-size corn chips. Dip for dinner! THE GRAND FINALE Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in “Wicked: For Good.” Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures “Wicked: For Good,” the second half of the screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, opens in theaters tonight. Our critic Manohla Dargis liked it well enough. “From its director to its cast,” she wrote, “the movie is a testament to diversity (species included) as a common good as well as to love, friendship and solidarity.” Which might be just the thing to take you into the weekend. More on culture The Grand Ole Opry turns 100 this year. (I was there when it was a spry 75, to see Ricky Skaggs.) The Times took a close look and listen at how the show defined the culture — and was reshaped by it — decade by decade. The internet and its algorithms haven’t killed college radio. If anything, my colleagues on the Styles desk report, they’ve made it more interesting and more vital — a place to explore the tastes of others and to hear the new (or new to you). A record executive summed up the appeal, putting readers into a metaphorical car, turning a metaphorical knob on the radio in search of a late-night station. “If you don’t have your ear glued to the left of the dial,” he told us, “you’re probably missing out.” Late night hosts are preparing for the release of the Epstein files. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Lisa Knight for The New York Times Book a flight to Tokyo. The dollar is still strong against the yen, and we have a timely new guide to the city. Embrace your inner Jetson with a robot vacuum recommended by the vroomers at Wirecutter. Install a home beverage station. Kombucha on tap! GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were bighead and bigheaded. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with me and The Times. See you tomorrow. — Sam Correction: A chart in yesterday’s newsletter showing immigrant attitudes toward President Trump’s border policy listed results from a different question in the survey. The story has been updated here. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

Why We’re All Winning Bigly In Trump’s War With MTG—and We Won’t Tire of Winning I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is a loathsome, self-serving narcissist. But if she can make life even one iota more unpleasant for the current President of the United States, then I say go for it, mean girl. Go for it all the live long day. Something cray-cray’s going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Sorry, I should clarify—a totally different kind of cray-cray than the one with which she made her political bones is going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene. A quick reminder about who this woman is: The Georgia Congresswoman began her political journey by stalking a teenage high school shooting survivor around Washington D.C. (and later referred to him as “Little Hitler” on her Twitter page). She went to the mats over her theory regarding Jewish space lasers controlling the weather. She spoke at a Nick Fuentes event. She publicly supported executing prominent Democrats. And finally, and hilariously, she once referred to the Gestapo as the “Gazpacho.” So that’s who she was. The question today swirling around political circles, however, is who is she now? Because the Marjorie Taylor Greene of the last few weeks seems to be an altogether separate political animal. How fitting that such a prominent member of the Face-Eating Leopard Party has now changed her spots. This new MTG is stalking the talk show circuit repenting of her former ways and offering to be a bridge to bring this divided nation together. Does anybody believe this sh-t even for a second? To be clear, I think Greene is probably telling the truth that she’s offended by the Epstein stuff. I think she’s sincere that she thinks healthcare costs are out of control. I believe that she regrets her involvement with QAnon. But the most salient point about Marjorie Taylor Greene is one she made herself: “I haven’t changed,” she said on a recent episode of The View. I agree. I don’t think she’s changed at all. She was an attention whore then and she’s an attention whore now. The difference now is that she sees a viable path forward for herself that allows her to escape the SS Trumptanic before it sinks. To be clear; she was in steerage. Now she’s trying to move herself on up, Jack Dawson style, to first class. God help us if she gets there. Consider: we’ve already heard some noises about Marjorie Taylor Greene running for president in 2028. But how can she do that if she doesn’t carve out a distinct lane for herself? JD Vance is the heir apparent. Donald Trump Jr. is the hair apparent. And all the other MAGA politicians will be tripping over themselves to be the Trumpiest Trumpster of all once Trump finally admits he cannot run for office again. If she’s right, there will be a wide-open lane for somebody like her in the next presidential cycle, an “America First” warrior who supported the president’s agenda but made a break with him over populist kitchen table issues. That’s a lane that comfortably accommodates good Republicans who find ICE agents running around Home Depot a little distasteful, but still don’t want to have to accommodate themselves to other people’s pronouns. If the pig is MAGA, Marjorie is the lipstick. For somebody I’ve long considered an idiot of the highest order, I have to admit it’s kind of genius. Trump acolytes like Greene have spent the last decade studying at their master’s feet. Now that the act is growing threadbare, she’s putting those lessons to use. Rather than wait for the ringmaster to shuffle out of the ring, she’s trying to kick him right into the lion’s jaws. And it might work. What does Marjorie Taylor Greene do with more power? What sort of mischief would a Senator Greene get up to? Or, I can’t believe I’m actually writing these words: a POTUS Greene? You might think I’m nuts for suggesting such an unlikely scenario, but if the Donald Trump era has taught us anything, it’s that when it comes to Republican politics, once you think you’ve reached the bottom of the barrel, you find you’ve barely scratched the surface. One thing I can say for certain: Jewish space laser manufacturers will be screeeeewed. In the meantime, the obstacle currently blocking her path to victory is the man who made her a star. Again, I’m not necessarily counting her out in that fight. Trump knows that MJT doesn’t give a single, solitary fuck. He’s got the power, but her microphone is pretty big. Maybe not big enough to bring him down, but certainly large enough to make things uncomfortable for the man she continues to praise even as she buries him.Marjorie Taylor Greene might be the one American politician who can challenge her idol in this way. Her Trumpian bona fides are unassailable. She’s exactly the right mix of racist, dumb, and crazy that Trump fans love. Plus, she’s untainted by the Epstein scandal – hell, she might be the only Republican left who can say the same. It’s entirely possible Trump’s goose is already cooked—the clearly believes that’s the case. Which is why she’s so hard at work putting away the space lasers and sharpening the good knives; the congresswoman from Georgia is getting ready to feast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/there-are-no-winners-in-trumps-feud-with-marjorie-taylor-greeneunless-you-count-well-everyone-else/?

Scientists Freak Out as RFK Jr.’s CDC Makes Jaw-Dropping Vaccine U-Turn Experts at the CDC were blindsided by an update to the language linking vaccinations to autism. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were left reeling after discovering that the agency has quietly rewritten long-standing vaccine language to give oxygen to a debunked autism claim. The CDC website, for many years, stated that studies have shown there is ”no link” between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder.” The new vaccine skeptic line claims “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” and alleges health authorities have supposedly “ignored” research suggesting a link. Even the header “Vaccines do not cause autism” has an asterisk by it. The header remains only because of an agreement with Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Top, what the CDC webpage said before the change. On the bottom, revisions made on Wednesday. CDC The CDC is part of the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services, run by vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. More than 25 peer-reviewed studies have found no association between autism and the MMR shot—the same vaccine anti-vaxxers have obsessed over since a 1998 paper claimed a link before being retracted. And a Danish study of more than 1.2 million children published this year reported no connection between aluminum in vaccines and any neurodevelopmental harm, including autism. Inside the CDC, the reaction to Wednesday’s change was immediate and panicked. Five agency officials told The Washington Post that the scientists responsible for vaccine-safety communications had no warning and no role in the changes. They spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation—another striking sign of the pressure inside an agency now overseen by vaccine skeptic and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. To many who fled the CDC this year, the episode simply confirmed their worst fears. The revisions show that the “CDC cannot currently be trusted as a scientific voice,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the former head of the unit overseeing respiratory viruses and immunizations. Daskalakis, who resigned in August alongside two other senior leaders over what they described as political interference, added, “The weaponization of the CDC voice by validating false claims on official websites confirms what we have been saying.” The false claim that childhood vaccines cause autism originated with a now-retracted 1998 paper, and it has been dismantled repeatedly through dozens of studies involving hundreds of thousands of children across multiple countries. Yet it remains central to anti-vaccine activism—much of it propelled by Kennedy and, at times, by President Donald Trump. The newly posted language left former officials stunned. “My question is, how language that misrepresents decades of research ended up on a CDC website,” said Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s former chief medical officer and a physician, who also resigned in August. “Public health communication must be accurate, evidence-based, and free from political distortion. Anything less erodes trust and puts lives at risk.” The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, insists the update is rooted in scientific rigor, not politics. “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science,” spokesperson Andrew Nixon said. Anti-vaccine activists quickly claimed victory. Children’s Health Defense, the group formerly led by Kennedy, applauded the shift. “The CDC is beginning to acknowledge the truth about this condition that affects millions, disavowing the bold, long-running lie that ‘vaccines do not cause autism,’” the group said on X. Kennedy has long tied vaccines to autism and has pushed to overhaul national immunization policy. Trump, for his part, has suggested—without evidence—that autism may be linked to pregnant women taking Tylenol. https://www.thedailybeast.com/scientists-freak-out-as-rfk-jrs-cdc-starts-pushing-bogus-vaccine-claim/?

Sex Trafficking Victims Fear Trump’s ‘Nazi Streak’ Aide is Sabotaging Justice Lawyer warns secret intervention from a Trump aide with a self-described “Nazi streak” could derail the case. The victims of a notorious alleged sex trafficker are warning their attempt to hold him accountable has been put in jeopardy by a top Trump official. Lawyer Paul Ingrassia—who is a White House official despite a scandal-hit political history that includes making far-right comments and describing himself as having a “Nazi streak”—intervened in an investigation into misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, 38, and his brother Tristan, 37, according to ProPublica. Ingrassia, who represented the Tate brothers before his role in the White House, directed senior Department of Homeland Security officials in February to return electronic devices seized from the Tates upon their arrival in the United States from Romania, where they live. The devices had been confiscated by Customs and Border Protection from the MAGA-supporting British-American influencers, who have faced multiple investigations in Romania, the U.S., and the U.K., for human trafficking and rape. But Ingrassia reportedly made a behind-the-scenes White House push to have them returned, amid frustration from career agents, per ProPublica. Matthew Jury, managing partner at law firm McCue Jury & Partners, which represents alleged British victims of Tate, told the Daily Beast the revelations strengthened their long-held concerns about U.S. interference in the case. “This only validates our concerns that the U.S. Government interfered with Romania’s due process,” Jury said. “However, it prompts a new question: whether the White House’s seemingly relentless willingness to support the Tates will influence the U.K. government in fulfilling its own obligations to hold Tate to account. “Do trade deals trump justice? Given inaction, Tate’s alleged U.K. victims deserve to know what steps the British authorities are taking to secure the Tates’ extradition and prosecution in an English criminal court.” Jury represents four British women who are suing Tate at London’s High Court over alleged sexual violence and coercive control. A judge has brought the 16-day trial forward to start on June 22, 2026. The women turned to civil action after the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided in 2019 not to bring criminal charges on their allegations, according to Jury. Separately, British prosecutors have authorised 21 criminal charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate, 37, including rape and human trafficking, and secured an extradition order from Romanian courts. But Romania has ruled the brothers will only be sent to Britain once domestic criminal proceedings conclude, the CPS told Reuters in May. The Daily Beast contacted the White House, DHS, the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, and the U.K. Home Office and CPS. The CPS declined to comment. The Tate brothers deny all wrongdoing. https://www.thedailybeast.com/fears-meddling-trump-nazi-paul-ingrassia-could-halt-andrew-tate-sex-trafficking-trial/?