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US President Donald Trump on Monday was expected to tout a tenuous relationship between autism risk and Tylenol use during pregnancy, as scientists urged research on the topic was not conclusive.Identifying the cause of autism — a complex condition connected to brain development that many experts believe occurs for predominantly genetic reasons — has been a pet cause of Trump’s controversial health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Earlier this year, Kennedy — well-known for his anti-vaccine views and penchant for conspiracy theories — vowed he would release findings regarding autism’s cause by September 2025.Trump teased the forthcoming announcement, scheduled for 4:00 pm local time (2000 GMT), as “one of the most important news conferences I’ll ever have.””I think we found an answer to autism, how about that?” he said, speaking to a huge crowd at the memorial of Charlie Kirk, the slain right-wing activist.The administration’s recent initiative to uncover autism’s roots has been widely criticized, not least due to reports that the health department hired vaccine skeptic and de-licensed physician David Geier to lead the charge.Kennedy has spent decades pushing discredited claims that link vaccines to autism.The Trump government’s expected focus on acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is likely to meet broad critique.The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are among the major medical groups who have identified Tylenol as among the safest options for pain relief and fever reduction during pregnancy. Doctors already warn against its long-term use.Another common over-the-counter pain reliever, ibuprofen, is generally considered unsafe for pregnant people, especially after the 20th week.Speaking to journalists Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt withheld concrete details of what was to come, but insisted that “everyone in this room needs to tone down the judgment before you even hear what people are going to say.”- ‘Nuanced and uncertain’ -US media reports have also indicated the announcement could include discussion of a potential treatment for autism, the drug leucovorin, which experts say needs far more research but has shown some promise in small-scale trials.A literature review published last month concluded there was reason to believe a possible link between Tylenol exposure and autism existed — but other studies have found an opposite result.Researchers behind the August report cautioned that more study is needed and that pregnant people should not stop taking medication without consulting their doctors.David Mandell, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told AFP that research suggests the possible risks posed by taking Tylenol while pregnant seem “to be lower than the risk of having an uncontrolled infection during pregnancy.”The professor of psychiatry also emphasized that digging into the interaction of genetic and environmental factors is an area of critical research, but that to take on those studies with rigor demands decades of study and funding.”They said it was going to happen by September. And so there’s an incredible pressure and urgency to come up with something,” he said of the administration’s push.That’s led to a “cherry-picked” justification of pre-formed conclusions rather than “an honest appraisal of the data,” he added.The Coalition of Autism Scientists called it “highly irresponsible and potentially dangerous to claim links between potential exposures and autism when the science is far more nuanced and uncertain.””Secretary Kennedy’s announcement will cause confusion and fear,” said the group in a statement.

The US Fed governor newly appointed by President Donald Trump argued Monday for significantly lower interest rates, signaling that concerns over inflation may be overblown.”I believe the appropriate Fed funds rate is in the mid-two percent area, almost two percentage points lower than current policy,” said Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran at the Economic Club of New York.In his first policy speech since joining the central bank, Miran warned that “leaving short-term interest rates roughly two percentage points too tight risks unnecessary layoffs and higher unemployment.”Last week, Miran was the sole dissenter to the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates by a quarter point, instead favoring a larger half-point reduction.On Monday, he laid out an argument on why the “neutral rate” of interest — the level that neither stimulates nor slows the economy — has dropped.This is due to immigration restrictions, tariffs and tax policy changes, he believes. In turn, interest rates should also be lower.He added that “with respect to tariffs, relatively small changes in some goods prices have led to what I view as unreasonable levels of concern.”Trump has frequently urged the Fed to slash rates this year, stepping up political pressure on the independent central bank.But underscoring policymakers’ different considerations, St Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem cautioned in a separate speech Monday of risks that above-target inflation could be more persistent than desirable.He said officials should “tread cautiously” in reducing rates.The central bank’s latest decision brought the benchmark lending rate to a range between 4.0 percent and 4.25 percent, and it flagged risks to employment in lowering levels.Miran, in explaining his thinking on the economy, said policy is “very restrictive.”His swift arrival to the Fed last week came as Trump has ramped up pressure for large rate cuts.The president has also moved to oust another Fed governor, who has mounted a legal challenge against her removal.Miran had been chairing the White House Council of Economic Advisers prior to joining the bank, and was sworn in just before the Fed’s rate-setting meeting started last Tuesday.His term expires January 31, and he has faced criticism for taking a leave of absence rather than resigning from his White House role while at the Fed.He reiterated Monday that he would step down from the Trump administration if he expected to remain for a longer Fed term.Miran also pledged to remain independent from politics, saying that he would “respectfully listen” if Trump urged for interest rate changes, but ultimately make up his mind based on his own analysis.He did not shy away from further dissents: “I’m not going to vote for something I don’t believe in, just for the sake of creating an illusion of consensus.”

Washington’s new envoy to the United Nations vowed Monday to “defend every inch of NATO territory” as he addressed an emergency meeting over an incursion by Russian fighter jets into Estonia’s air space.NATO scrambled jets after three Russian MiG-31 fighters on Friday breached Estonian airspace for some 12 minutes, triggering complaints of a dangerous new provocation and a denial from Moscow.Estonia,  a NATO member, called for a meeting of the UN’s top body,  the Security Council, “in response to Russia’s brazen violation of Estonian airspace”, and talks with other NATO allies.”As we said nine days ago, the United States stands by our NATO Allies in the face of these airspace violations. And I want to take this first opportunity to repeat, and to emphasize, the United States and our Allies will defend every inch of NATO territory,” said US Ambassador Mike Waltz.The incursion came after fellow NATO member Poland said earlier this month Russian drones had repeatedly violated its airspace during an attack on Ukraine, in what Warsaw called an “act of aggression.”US President Donald Trump on Sunday joined the condemnation of the latest airspace violation, vowing to defend Poland and the Baltic states in case of escalation from Russia.Asked whether he would help defend the EU members if Russia intensifies hostilities, Trump told reporters: “Yeah, I would.”Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has blown hot and cold, with the Kremlin leader pressing his invasion of Ukraine and the US president urging peace but showing little concrete sign of pressuring Moscow.Trump said Thursday at the close of a state visit to Britain that Putin had “really let me down” by continuing the war, now in its fourth year.”At a time when President Trump and the United States has been focused, and spent an enormous amount of time and effort to end this horrific war between Russia and Ukraine, we expect Russia to seek ways to de-escalate — not risk expansion,” Waltz added in his maiden speech to the Council.Western powers have warned that Russia is playing with fire with its repeated ventures into NATO airspace, whose members have a mutual defense assistance pact.In the incident in Estonian airspace, Italian F-35 fighters attached to NATO’s air defense support mission in the Baltic states, along with Swedish and Finnish aircraft, were scrambled to intercept the Russian jets and warn them off.

Google faced a fresh federal court test on Monday as US government lawyers asked a judge to order the breakup of the search engine giant’s ad technology business.The lawsuit is Google’s second such test this year after the California-based tech juggernaut saw a similar government demand to split up its empire rejected by a judge earlier this month.Monday’s case focuses specifically on Google’s ad tech “stack” — the tools that website publishers use to sell ads and that advertisers use to buy them.In a landmark decision earlier this year, Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that Google maintained an illegal grip on this market.This week’s trial is set to determine what penalties and changes Google must implement to undo its monopoly.For the US government, Google should be ordered to spin off a piece of its ad tech operations, commit to changing its business practices and undergo close court supervision for the coming years.”The law requires the court to put its thumb on the scale” and end Google’s “profound and persistent harms” to potential rivals, said DOJ lawyer Julia Tarver Wood in her opening arguments.Specifically, the DOJ is asking that Google relinquish its dominating ad exchange operations, the software where publishers sell their ad inventory to advertisers and ad agencies through a real-time bidding auction system.In her opening statement, Google’s lawyer Karen Dunne called the DOJ’s proposals “radical and reckless,” a “swing for the fences” and said “caution was key” when Judge Brinkema made her decision on the fate of Google’s ad tech business.Dunne added that the government’s fix was technically unfeasible, would be highly disruptive to the industry and would “fail as a practical matter.”She not surprisingly turned to the recent decision in the similar case involving Google’s search business in which a different judge decided that splitting up the company’s business would be “messy and highly risky.”Instead, Google was required to share data with rivals as part of its remedies and undergo some court-ruled oversight.The US government had pushed for Chrome’s divestment, arguing the browser serves as a crucial gateway to the internet that brings in a third of all Google web searches.Google’s Dunne said the same caution should apply, with a forced divestiture far too radical a step, as she set forth the company’s commitments to change its business practices in order to satisfy the judge.The DOJ insisted these fixes fell short of what was needed and would see the tech giant swiftly regain its monopoly over the sector.In a similar case in Europe, the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust enforcer, earlier this month fined Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.47 billion) over its control of the ad tech market.Brussels ordered behavioral changes, drawing criticism that it was going easy on Google as it had previously indicated that a divestiture may be necessary.This US trial is expected to last about a week, with a decision by Judge Brinkema not expected for months.These cases are part of a broader bipartisan government campaign against the world’s largest technology companies. The US currently has five pending antitrust cases against Silicon Valley’s tech giants.

US President Donald Trump was expected Monday to deliver what the White House called “an announcement” about autism, having long voiced concern about the condition’s prevalence and potential causes.It was widely anticipated that Trump along with federal health officials will raise concerns surrounding acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, and possible complications of using it during pregnancy.Identifying the cause of autism — a complex condition connected to brain development that many experts believe occurs for predominantly genetic reasons — has been a pet cause of Trump’s controversial health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Earlier this year the head of the US health department — well-known for his anti-vaccine views and penchant for conspiracy theories — vowed he would release findings regarding autism’s cause by September 2025.Trump teased the forthcoming announcement, scheduled for 4 pm local time, as “one of the most important news conferences I’ll ever have.””I think we found an answer to autism, how about that?” he said, speaking to a huge crowd at the memorial of Charlie Kirk, the slain right-wing activist.The administration’s recent initiative to uncover autism’s roots has been widely criticized, not least due to reports that the health department hired vaccine skeptic and de-licensed physician David Geier to lead the charge.The Trump government’s expected focus on Tylenol is also likely to meet broad critique.For decades acetaminophen has been considered the safest option for pain relief and fever reduction during pregnancy.Another common over-the-counter pain reliever, ibuprofen, is generally considered unsafe for pregnant people, especially after the 20th week.- ‘Nuanced and uncertain’ -A literature review published last month concluded there was reason to believe a possible link between Tylenol exposure and autism existed — but other studies have found an opposite result.Researchers behind the August report cautioned that more study is needed and that pregnant people should not stop taking medication without consulting their doctors.”Untreated pain or fever can also harm the baby,” said co-author Diddier Prada, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, at that time.David Mandell, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told AFP that research suggests the possible risks posed by taking Tylenol while pregnant seem “to be lower than the risk of having an uncontrolled infection during pregnancy.”The professor of psychiatry also emphasized that digging into the interaction of genetic and environmental factors is an area of critical research, but that to take on those studies with rigor demands decades of study and funding.”They said it was going to happen by September. And so there’s an incredible like, pressure and urgency to come up with something,” he said of the administration’s push.That’s led to a “cherry-picked” justification of pre-formed conclusions rather than “an honest appraisal of the data,” he added.Ahead of the White House announcement the Coalition of Autism Scientists echoed those concerns.”It is highly irresponsible and potentially dangerous to claim links between potential exposures and autism when the science is far more nuanced and uncertain,” the group said in a statement.”Secretary Kennedy’s announcement will cause confusion and fear. He seems to be cherry-picking old data rather than looking at the body of research as a whole.”

At the memorial event for slain US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on Sunday, President Donald Trump and his supporters celebrated the 31-year-old’s life using the language of religious fervor.”He’s a martyr now for American freedom,” Trump said of Kirk, who was killed on September 10 at a Utah university campus.Trump was the final speaker to address nearly 65,000 people at the event, held at a stadium in the southwestern US state of Arizona, with people coming from far and wide to pay their respects.”I look at him as a Christ martyr, definitely,” said Monica Mirelez, a 44-year-old nurse who drove more than 12 hours from Texas to attend Kirk’s memorial.Mirelez told AFP she watched Kirk’s videos on Instagram every day. “He was a perfect example of what we should be doing as Christians, we should be bold and speak up,” she said.”It’s so sad that he was silenced like this,” Mirelez continued, adding that “it feels like losing a brother.”The crowd at Kirk’s memorial was decked out in red, white, and blue, greeting Trump and other speakers with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”In keeping with the religious tone of the event, Christian rock songs were performed between speeches, with many in the crowd singing along.- ‘Biblical principles’ -Mirelez said she supported Kirk as a fellow Christian, finding that “his political views were basically backed up by the Bible.””He stood up for biblical principles, against the LGBTQ community… That brought him a lot of hate from a lot of people, but I think he was misunderstood,” she said. Another attendee, 15-year-old high school student Nick Chisholm, said he was shocked by the reaction of some of his classmates to Kirk’s death, saying “they laughed, they said he deserved it.””Whatever he said, he didn’t deserve to be killed for speaking his opinion and his beliefs,” Chisholm told AFP.Speakers and attendees also expressed a sense of solidarity in the wake of Kirk’s killing.”You have no idea the dragon you have awakened,” top Trump advisor Stephen Miller told the audience. “You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West.”- ‘We’re all Charlie Kirk now’ -Welsley Inglis, a 61-year-old mechanical engineer from California, told AFP he believes the shooter was influenced primarily by the rival Democratic party. “They’re the ones that have really pushed blending the genders, no male, no female, transgender, get rid of that dichotomy,” he said. He added that he appreciated how Kirk was “was bringing the youth back to the church and changing their minds.””When I was a child, the churches were filled. By the time I became an adult, churches were empty,” Inglis said.He said threats made by the Trump administration to crack down on left-wing activists accused of funding political violence were a hint of what was to come. “We can’t just crack down on dissent, there would have to be proof, it has to be done by the books… But personally, I think they have proof, it just hasn’t been released yet,” Inglis said. Another Trump supporter, Jeremy Schlotman, preferred a more cautious approach. The 21-year-old practicing Catholic, who recently joined Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA, said he forgave the alleged killer — a sentiment also expressed by Kirk’s widow Erika during her speech on Sunday.”I think that’s the best response to what the shooter did,” Schlotman said.”Kill one, and a thousand more will rise. That’s what’s happening, the shooter just created a generation of new Charlies. We’re all Charlie Kirk now.”

Google faces a fresh federal court test on Monday as US government lawyers ask a judge to order the breakup of the search engine giant’s ad technology business.The lawsuit is Google’s second such test this year after the California-based tech juggernaut saw a similar government demand to split up its empire shot down by a judge earlier this month.Monday’s case focuses specifically on Google’s ad tech “stack” — the tools that website publishers use to sell ads and that advertisers use to buy them.In a landmark decision earlier this year, Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that Google maintained an illegal grip on this market.Monday’s trial is set to determine what penalties and changes Google must implement to undo its monopoly.According to filings, the US government will argue that Google should spin off its ad publisher and exchange operations. The DOJ will also ask that after the divestitures are complete, Google be banned from operating an ad exchange for 10 years.Google will argue that the divestiture demands go far beyond the court’s findings, are technically unfeasible, and would be harmful to the market and smaller businesses.”We’ve said from the start that DOJ’s case misunderstands how digital advertising works and ignores how the landscape has dramatically evolved, with increasing competition and new entrants,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs.In a similar case in Europe, the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust enforcer, earlier this month fined Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.47 billion) over its control of the ad tech market.Brussels ordered behavioral changes, drawing criticism that it was going easy on Google as it had previously indicated that a divestiture may be necessary.This remedy phase of the US trial follows a first trial that found Google operated an illegal monopoly. It is expected to last about a week, with the court set to meet again for closing arguments a few weeks later.The trial begins in the same month that a separate judge rejected a government demand that Google divest its Chrome browser, in an opinion that was largely seen as a victory for the tech giant.That was part of a different case, also brought by the US Department of Justice, in which the tech giant was found responsible for operating an illegal monopoly, this time in the online search space.Instead of a major breakup of its business, Google was required to share data with rivals as part of its remedies.The US government had pushed for Chrome’s divestment, arguing the browser serves as a crucial gateway to the internet that brings in a third of all Google web searches.Shares in Google-parent Alphabet have skyrocketed by more than 20 percent since that decision.Judge Brinkema has said in pre-trial hearings that she will closely examine the outcome of the search trial when assessing her path forward in her own case.These cases are part of a broader bipartisan government campaign against the world’s largest technology companies. The US currently has five pending antitrust cases against such companies.

When US President Donald Trump berated an Australian reporter for asking an unpleasant question, his colleagues took that as a warning.With the administration planning to slash correspondent visas and issuing not-so-veiled warnings, foreign journalists find themselves under pressure in the United States.Earlier this week, a journalist from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation asked Trump about his business dealings while in office. Trump was visibly irritated.”In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump told the reporter, John Lyons. “Your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m gonna tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”The exchange was widely discussed in Washington media circles. One foreign correspondent, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Trump’s hostility toward the media was not concentrated on foreigners.”When Trump insults a journalist, it doesn’t matter to him whether it’s a foreigner or not,” the correspondent said.What worries the reporter much more is the administration’s plan to slash journalists’ visas to a renewable 240-day period, down from five years — or just 90 days for Chinese media workers.”How am I supposed to rent a flat? To get a driver’s license? To put my kids in school with a 240-day visa?” the correspondent wondered, adding that it takes time to build a network of sources in the country.”It’s going to be a nightmare.”- Working ‘without fear’ -Another journalist, a correspondent for a European media outlet, said that “the precariousness of foreign journalists doesn’t make them prime targets for this administration,” but “is part of a very worrying overall picture.”The White House prefers journalists, wherever they come from, “who are committed to its stories or self-censor enough to normalize what’s happening,” the European correspondent said.AFP contacted several foreign journalists for this article. Only a few responded, and each of them did only on condition of anonymity.”The shortened timeframe for I-visa renewals creates a framework for possible editorial censorship in which the Trump administration can trade access for compliance in reporting,” Katherine Jacobsen with the Committee to Protect Journalism said in a statement.Mike Balsamo, president of the Washington-based National Press Club echoed that view, adding that such actions could lead to reprisals against American journalists working abroad.”A free press doesn’t stop at America’s borders. It depends on correspondents who can work here without fear their time will run out,” he wrote on X.While the correspondents interviewed for this story did not notice any particular hostility from the White House itself toward them, they pointed out that political figures in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement have not hesitated to target foreign journalists.A close associate of Donald Trump, former ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, recently called for revoking the visa of a journalist from the German television channel ZDF.”This radical Lefty German keeps calling for violence against people he politically disagrees with,” Grenell said on X, criticizing the journalist’s interview with influential White House adviser Stephen Miller. “He poses as a journalist in Washington, DC. His visa should be revoked. There is no place in America this type of inciter.”- A warning to foreigners -Following last week’s assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk — a close associate of the American president — a senior official issued a broad warning to foreigners who are seen “praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event.””Feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on X.But Trump’s return to power has not been bad news for all foreign media outlets. Some news organizations who are known for sharing views similar to Trump’s in their home countries have been embraced by the White House.British television channel GB News, whose stars include far-right leader Nigel Farage, was recently welcomed into the Oval Office, and its journalist was given a coveted seat on the US presidential plane during Trump’s visit to the UK this week.When Trump appeared in the press box, the journalist said that the channel’s viewers had asked if he wanted to “swap jobs” with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan could be among the investors who will take control of TikTok in the United States.The United States has forcefully sought to take TikTok’s US operations out of the hands of Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons.Since returning to power in January, Trump has repeatedly delayed implementation of the ban while a deal has been sought.He has negotiated with Beijing to sell the platform’s US operations to a consortium of investors he describes as “patriots,” including ally and tech giant Oracle’s boss Larry Ellison, and entrepreneur Michael Dell. On Sunday, he added more names to that list.”I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved… Lachlan Murdoch, I believe,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.”And Rupert is, is probably going to be in the group. I think they’re going to be in the group. Couple of others, really great people, very prominent people.”Earlier this month, right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s children reached a settlement in their long-running legal dispute over control of the media empire, cementing his eldest son Lachlan’s leadership.Lachlan Murdoch, who officially took control of Fox News and News Corp as part of the deal, is Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son.The elder Murdoch built a right-wing conservative media empire spanning the United States, Britain and Australia. On Saturday, the White House said the board of the new company that would control TikTok’s US operations would be dominated by American citizens, and that a deal could be signed “in th coming days.”

Erika Kirk, the 36-year-old widow of slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, said she forgives the man accused of killing him, as she delivered a deeply religious speech at a memorial event Sunday for her deceased husband. “My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life,” she told the crowd of more than 60,000 attendees, including US President Donald Trump, at a packed stadium in the southwestern state of Arizona. “That man, that young man. I forgive him,” Kirk said, her voice choking. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did. And it’s what Charlie would do,” she continued. “The answer to hate is not hate.” Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot and killed on September 10 during a public debate event at a Utah university campus. The activist used his millions of social media followers, the massive audience of his podcast and appearances at universities to bolster Trump with young voters and fight for a nationalist, Christian-centric political ideology. Authorities say the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, justified the attack by citing the “hatred” he accused Kirk of spreading, according to investigators. Kirk advocated for conservative Christian political values, and often made vitriolic statements targeting minorities, including transgender people, Muslims, African Americans and others.Robinson faces seven charges for the shooting, including aggravated murder, and prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty in his case.