Trump cabinet latest updates: Controversial anti-vaccine skeptic RFK Jr tapped to be health department secretary – UK Times

What do an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, the Italian south shore of Staten Island, and the western tip of the Rockaways have in common?

They are all neighborhoods in New York City where Donald Trump won by astronomical margins in the presidential election.

Although the city (and Manhattan in particular) still overwhelmingly votes for the Democrats, Trump increased his share of the vote in the five boroughs more than almost anywhere else in the country.

Donald Trump has tapped long-time ally Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, prompting concern and disdain among lawmakers and social media users on both sides of the aisle.

Gaetz served as a representative from Florida until he resigned from the House on Wednesday following Trump’s announcement. The president-elect’s nomination of Gaetz comes after the 42-year-old and his associates were at the center of a sex trafficking investigation carried out by current Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Gaetz was ultimately never charged with a crime but remained the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation regarding, among other claims, allegations of sexual misconduct. However, the committee’s investigation is now over following Gaetz’s resignation, which Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said was effective immediately.

Hegseth’s most recent role was as a host on Fox and Friends morning show. That is where most of America knows him from, but he is also an author, husband, and dad and even found viral fame – though it landed him in legal hot water.

Hegseth is also a military veteran, earning the rank of major in the Army while serving in the Minnesota National Guard. He served in both the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. He earned numerous medals. After he left the military, he served as executive director of the political groups Vets for Freedom and Concerned Vets for America while he made appearances on TV as a political commentator.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee to be the next director of national intelligence, appeared on Fox News, saying that “of course, there’s going to be resistance to change from the swamp in Washington.”

Jones was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims over his repeated false claims that the 2012 massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax.

In September, a Texas judge ruled that Jones’ assets, including the Infowars properties, could be auctioned off in order to pay the penalties he owed.

Jones took to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday (14 November) to share his disgust, stating: “We are not going to be silenced.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that a second Trump administration would advise the nation to remove fluoride from public water supplies.

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy claimed.

He recently wrote that former President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, want to “Make America Healthy Again,” also sharing a link regarding a recent court ruling that found the mineral poses enough risk to be further regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Two years ago, as the Russian army was retreating back from north-east Ukraine, there were serious worries that Vladimir Putin would use tactical nuclear weapons to block the Ukrainian advance. In September, 2022, Liz Truss is reported to have spent her last days in No 10 pouring over maps of potential fall-out zones affecting this country.

Although Putin has rattled his nuclear sabres several times since, he’s confined himself to launching horrific sub-nuclear thermobaric bombs amid his swarms of rockets and drones striking Ukrainian cities.

Elon Musk met with Iran’s ambassador to the UN on Monday in New York, according to The New York Times.

Two Iranian officials said the meeting was intended to be a discussion about how to lower tensions between Iran and the US.

They told the paper that the meeting with Amir Saeid Iravani lasted for more than an hour and was conducted at a secret location.

The Iranian officials described the development as “positive” and “good news.”

Shares of vaccine makers Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax plummeted after Trump announced that he would nominate anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr to be health secretary, according to Bloomberg.

“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said in a statement announcing his pick.

Rates of routine vaccinations among children are dropping, the percentage of children who are exempted from vaccine requirements is at an all-time high and cases of measles are being reported across the country.

And it could soon get worse.

Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate who bowed out of the race to endorse Trump, does not have a medical background, but his anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defense group and focus on chronic disease and chemicals in food — and promotion of misinformation and conspiracy theories — have drawn him enormous scrutiny and endorsements.