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Nearly half of an elite US epidemiology program known as the “disease detectives” were dismissed by the Trump administration on Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter, dealing a blow to public health efforts as fears rise over bird flu.The sackings come as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushes to downsize the federal government and as newly-confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr vows to overhaul the nation’s health agencies. “I’m so angry,” a senior epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who supervised some of those affected by the cuts told AFP. “We’re on the verge of potentially another pandemic and we’re firing the people who have probably more expertise than anyone else in the country collectively.”The cuts, first reported by CBS News, are part of broader efforts to remove employees still in their probationary periods, who can be dismissed more easily.Established in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service is a two-year post-doctoral training program whose officers have been on the frontline of investigating outbreaks from the first Ebola cases in Africa in the 1970s to the earliest case reports of Covid-19 in the United States. “Without those officers we would not have eliminated smallpox from the globe,” the official said. “We had people fanning across countries, wading through mud and navigating rivers on boats to eliminate smallpox.”- ‘Directly impact health security’ -Known colloquially as the “disease detectives,” the researchers are hired annually through a competitive process that each year whittles down hundreds of applicants — including doctors, nurses, scientists and more — to a class of a few dozen.While some are stationed at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, others are posted around the country. Several former CDC directors began their careers as EIS officers, highlighting the program’s role as a pipeline for leadership in public health.There are approximately 140 officers across two classes. On Friday, the class of 2024 was informed they would receive termination emails that afternoon, while the class of 2023 was informed that their status was still under review.Around 30 officers from both classes were hired through a different mechanism under the US Public Health Service, meaning they remain unaffected for now.In total, nearly 1,300 CDC employees — roughly 10 percent of the agency’s workforce — were dismissed, according to CBS News.”The Epidemic Intelligence Service is one of the most storied and prestigious programs of the CDC,” infectious disease physician Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University told AFP.  “Any attempts to end this program will directly impact the national and health security of the US.”Health Secretary RFK Jr. has made no secret of his disdain for infectious disease research, suggesting recently that it should be paused entirely for eight years while the focus shifts to addressing chronic conditions. Beyond his well-known anti-vaccine stances, Kennedy has also expressed skepticism about widely accepted infectious disease science, questioning whether germs cause disease and whether HIV causes AIDS.

Mudslides blocked roads around Los Angeles on Friday after heavy rain pounded areas burned by last month’s wildfires, sending denuded hillsides tumbling.Parts of Los Angeles got as much as 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) of rain in a day, leaving areas flooded and burn scars in Pacific Pallisades and Altadena strewn with fire debris and rubble.The Pacific Coast Highway — a once picturesque road where multi-million dollar properties were razed by January’s blazes — was shuttered, with thick mud blocking the way.The torrent of water also washed a Los Angeles Fire Department vehicle into the ocean, where it remained Friday, with authorities saying they hoped to pull it out of the surf later in the day.The fire department official who had been driving the SUV at the time escaped with minor injuries, a spokesman said.In the Hollywood Hills, home to a mixture of movie stars and working class people, a large mudslide left around 8 inches of debris all over a main road.And in Altadena, where thousands of buildings were destroyed by the fierce fires last month, a number of vehicles were stranded in debris that washed onto the streets.The damage came despite extensive preparations by local authorities who had placed sandbags and concrete barriers in places thought to be at risk from the strongest storm of California’s winter.While the area badly needed the rain — until February there had been no significant precipitation for eight months — it was always going to be a problem in places affected by the deadly fires.Hillsides where anchoring vegetation has burned away are not able to absorb water quickly.The heat of the fires also has the effect of baking and hardening the soil, meaning rain just washes off.

Faulty instruments and communication problems may have caused a passenger jet and army helicopter to collide in the worst US air disaster in two decades, flight safety investigators said Friday.The airliner was coming in to land at Reagan National Airport — just a few miles from the White House — when it collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk on a training mission, killing 67 people.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told a news conference it had established a timeline of events leading to the January 29 crash, although the full investigation could take up to a year.NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said air traffic control had warned the Black Hawk pilot several minutes before disaster struck that the American Eagle airline craft was circling.But data pulled from the helicopter’s wreckage showed that the message was muffled and the word “circling” was obscured.The Black Hawk’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR) then appears not to have picked up crucial instructions to veer out of the Bombardier CRJ-700’s path seconds before the collision.”At 8:47:42 — or 17 seconds before impact — a radio transmission from the tower was audible on both CVRs directing the Black Hawk to pass behind the CRJ,” Homendy told reporters.”CVR data from the Black Hawk indicated that the portion of the transmission that stated ‘pass behind the’ may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew.”Those words appear to have been muted by the mic key on the Black Hawk’s radio as it was communicating with the tower, she said.President Donald Trump has repeatedly tied the causes of the crash to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, none of which was mentioned as a factor.Homendy and Sean Payne, branch chief of the NTSB’s vehicle recorder division, said investigators would look into discrepancies between the real altitude of the Black Hawk and what its crew were apparently seeing. The passenger plane recorded its altitude at 313 feet (95 meters) two seconds before collision.”Now we’re confident with the radio altitude of the Black Hawk at the time of the collision. That was 278 feet,” she said.”But I want to caution, that does not mean that’s what the Black Hawk crew was seeing on the barometric altimeters in the cockpit. We are seeing conflicting information in the data.”Aviation experts had homed in on whether the helicopter crew could see through military night-vision goggles.Homendy said there was nothing to suggest that the crew had removed their goggles, and that testing was underway to establish what both crews were able to see at the time of the collision.

The White House said Friday it was indefinitely blocking Associated Press journalists from Air Force One and the Oval Office, escalating a row with the US news agency over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.””The Associated Press continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said in a post on X.”While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One,” Budowich said.Instead of AP, he said, “that space will now be opened up to the many thousands of reporters who have been barred from covering these intimate areas of the administration.”AP reporters have been barred since Tuesday from attending President Donald Trump’s events in the Oval Office over the agency’s refusal to follow his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.AP editor-in-chief Julie Pace has called the administration’s stance a “plain violation” of AP’s protected free speech rights and “an incredible disservice to the billions of people who rely on The Associated Press for nonpartisan news.”In a style note last month, AP noted that “the Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years” and said Trump’s executive order “only carries authority within the United States.”In making the case for using Gulf of America, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the US secretary of interior had officially designated the new name, and Google and Apple had made the change on their popular maps.The White House Correspondents’ Association has called AP’s exclusion from Trump events “outrageous.””The attempted government censorship of a free press risks a chilling effect on journalists doing their job without fear or favor on behalf of the American people,” the group’s president Eugene Daniels said in a statement.”This is a textbook violation of not only the First Amendment, but the president’s own executive order on freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.”Budowich, the White House official, said that while AP would be barred from the Oval Office and the Air Force One presidential plane, AP journalists and photographers will retain their credentials to the White House complex.

A growing measles outbreak in west Texas has infected 48 people, according to official state data released Friday — the latest sign that the once-vanquished childhood disease is making a comeback as vaccination rates decline.The outbreak comes as vocal vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who has repeatedly and falsely linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism — was confirmed as the United States’ health secretary, a position that grants him significant authority over immunization policy.The patients are overwhelmingly children, all were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status, and 13 have so far been hospitalized. Health officials expect additional cases to emerge.Childhood vaccination rates have been declining across the United States, a trend that accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, when concerns over the rapid deployment of mRNA vaccines, coupled with mountains of misinformation, further eroded trust in public health institutions.”There are pockets in the US that are susceptible, and it’s not surprising to me that it’s occurring in a county where there are the lowest rates of vaccination in the state — these are kindling for such outbreaks,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP.The bulk of the cases occurred in Gaines County, which reportedly has a high rate of exemptions to vaccines — often granted on religious grounds. Nationwide, vaccination coverage among kindergarteners dropped below 93 percent during the 2023–24 school year, remaining under the federal target of 95 percent for a fourth consecutive year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The United States reported 285 measles cases last year, per the CDC. The worst recent outbreak was in 2019, when 1,274 cases — largely concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey — drove the highest national total in decades.Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness best known for its rash, but it can also cause pneumonia, brain infections, and other severe complications. It remains a major global killer, claiming tens of thousands of lives each year.”It really is mind-boggling that people in the United States have decided not to take this vaccine,” Adalja said.”When you think about infectious disease, there should be steady progress to make it less and less of an issue. But what we see in the case of measles is that it’s see-sawing.”Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary has alarmed many in the medical community, including Adalja.”Measles and RFK Jr. go together,” he said.”When you have the chief propagandist for the anti-vaccine movement in the highest position of government power when it comes to health, the only thing that benefits from that is measles.”

Sweet and loving, it wasn’t.The Valentine’s Day message sent by the White House on Friday was instead a threat to potential migrants thinking of heading to the United States without the required visas and paperwork.”Roses are red, violets are blue. Come here illegally, and we’ll deport you,” read the pink card released on social media by the official White House account.The image was decorated with hearts, and the stern faces of President Donald Trump and his border chief Thomas Homan.Trump has not yet publicly wished his wife Melania a happy Valentine’s Day.His predecessor Joe Biden often exchanged loving messages on social media with his wife Jill on February 14 while they were in the White House.Trump returned to office pledging a crackdown on migrant arrivals and the largest deportation campaign in US history.Homan last week told Pope Francis to “stick to the Catholic Church” after the pontiff criticized the new US hard-line immigration agenda.

US retail sales plunged by the most in almost two years in January — a bigger drop than forecast and one that follows an unexpected uptick in inflation that President Donald Trump has vowed to tame.The fall in sales came as cold weather hit much of the country alongside wildfires in California, data showed Friday, reflecting broad declines across different product categories.Households have also been drawing down on savings, grappling with stubborn inflation and facing uncertainty over Trump’s threats of tariffs on goods from major US trading partners.Retail sales fell 0.9 percent between December and January to $723.9 billion, partly due to slumping auto sales, the Commerce Department said.This was the biggest month-on-month drop since early 2023 and a significantly larger decline than the 0.2 percent fall predicted by economists polled by the Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.Analysts generally expect growth in the world’s biggest economy to cool this year, and are closely eyeing the strength of consumption — a key economic driver.Experts warn that blanket duties, if imposed for a prolonged time, would mean importers face higher costs that could be passed on to consumers.Although Trump has threatened sweeping levies on both US allies and adversaries, tariff hikes have largely not taken effect as countries negotiate with Washington.Out of 13 categories logged by the Commerce Department, only four saw month-on-month growth including sales at gas stations and those at restaurants and bars.Sales at autos and parts dealers in particular dropped by 2.8 percent last month, while those at clothing stores, building material dealers and furniture shops also slid.Excluding motor vehicles and parts, retail sales still fell 0.4 percent from December to January.But from a year ago, retail sales in January were up 4.2 percent, the Commerce Department added.- Cooling momentum -“The sharp decline in January retail sales was due in large part to the extreme wintery conditions and California wildfires last month,” said Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic in a note.While she expects a “healthy rebound” in February, she added that “the strong momentum for consumer spending has softened.”Corporate economist Robert Frick of the Navy Federal Credit Union believes that although the drop was dramatic, “there’s no cause for alarm” for now.Retail sales tend to be volatile at the turn of the year and consumption “still looks fundamentally healthy,” added EY senior economist Lydia Boussour.But spending could lose steam “as softer labor market conditions, still elevated prices and rates constrain households’ spending power,” she said.Looking ahead, Carl Weinberg and Mary Chen of High Frequency Economics expect the retail report will cause forecasters to lower estimates of US GDP growth.Consumer spending has been a driver of growth in recent years, they said in a note.While one data point will not change the course of central bank policy, Weinberg and Chen added that the report likely fuels expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.”Any sign of consumer weakness is not good news for markets, even though expectations of lower interest rates and inflation may help stocks,” they added.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday offered to sell state-of-the-art fighter jets to India as he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to ramp up trade, rekindling a bond that defies the new US administration’s punitive approach to much of the world.Modi, only the fourth world leader to visit the White House since Trump’s return, described the fellow nationalist as a friend and told him he was adopting a take on his “Make America Great Again” slogan.Trump said that he found a “special bond” with Modi and India and, in an uncharacteristic if ironic show of humility, complimented Modi as being a “much tougher negotiator” than he is.Successive US administrations have seen India as a key partner with like-minded interests in the face of a rising China, and Trump announced that the new administration was ready to sell one of the top US military prizes — F-35s.”Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars,” Trump told a joint news conference with Modi.”We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump said.India would join an elite club of countries that include NATO allies, Israel and Japan that would be allowed to buy the F-35, which can operate without detection at supersonic speeds.India currently relies on an ageing fleet of Russian fighter jets as well as a small number of French-made Rafale aircraft.India’s arch rival and neighbour, Pakistan, however said it was “deeply concerned” about the sales. “Such steps accentuate military imbalances in the region and undermine strategic stability. They remain unhelpful in achieving the objectives of durable peace in the region,” said Shafqat Ali Khan, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.- Dangling tariffs -Continuing a push from his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump said that the two countries also planned investment in ports, railways and underseas cable to “build one of the greatest trade routes in all of history,” running from India to Israel to Europe and beyond.Trump has dueled with both friends and foes on economic issues. Hours before meeting, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, including India.Speaking next to Modi, Trump called India’s “unfair, very strong tariffs” a “big problem” but said that the two countries would hold negotiations to close a trade deficit in India’s favor.Modi said that the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies would work on a “mutually beneficial trade agreement” to be sealed “very soon,” with a focus on oil and gas.Joining Trump’s meeting with Modi was SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump’s right-hand man to overhaul the US bureaucracy.Modi also met one-on-one with Musk, raising questions over whether the world’s richest man was meeting the Indian leader in an official or business capacity.The Indian premier posted pictures of himself shaking hands with the beaming Musk, with several children on Musk’s side of the room, and Indian officials on the other.- Courting Trump -Modi offered quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, with New Delhi slashing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US manufacturer whose struggles in India have irked Trump.India has already accepted a US military flight carrying 100 shackled migrants last week as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown. The treatment drew protests from India’s opposition which accused Modi of sacrificing the dignity of citizens to please Trump.Trump in turn announced the United States would extradite to India a suspect in the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai, whom he called “one of the very evil people in the world.” Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin who was based in Chicago, was convicted in 2011 and later sentenced to 13 years in prison.Modi and Trump share much in common, with both campaigning on promises to promote majority communities over minorities and both doggedly quashing dissent.In 2020, Modi delighted Trump by inviting him before a cheering crowd of more than 100,000 people to inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium in his home state of Gujarat.Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of the Quad — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.burs-dk-sct/bfm/stu

Taiwan will boost investment in the United States and on its own defences, President Lai Ching-te said Friday, as Taipei seeks to head off US President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs on its semiconductor chips. The self-ruled island is a global power in the manufacturing of chips, which are used in everything from smartphones to missiles and are a key driver of its economy.Trump has accused Taiwan of stealing the US chip industry and recently threatened to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the product in an effort to drive companies to shift manufacturing to the United States.Taiwan would “expand investment and procurement in the United States to promote bilateral trade balance”, Lai told reporters after a high-level national security meeting on US trade and tariffs.Taiwan’s trade surplus with the United States soared about 83 percent to a record US$64.9 billion in 2024.When it came to Trump’s concerns about Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, Lai said the government would respond “prudently”.”I would like to emphasise that Taiwan, as the world’s most powerful semiconductor country, has the ability and willingness to cope with the new situation,” Lai said.Taiwan was willing to work with democratic partners such as the United States to build a “more resilient and diversified semiconductor supply chain”, Lai said.Taiwan’s TSMC, which is the world’s largest chipmaker, has long been under pressure to move more of its production away from Taiwan, where the bulk of its fabrication plants are located.TSMC’s new factories overseas include three planned in the United States and one that opened in Japan last year.To show its determination to protect the island, the government will also prioritise “special budgets” to increase defence spending to more than three percent of gross domestic product, Lai said, compared with about 2.5 percent last year.Taiwan lives under the constant threat of an attack by China, which claims the island as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.While Taiwan has a homegrown defence industry and has been upgrading its equipment, it relies heavily on US arms sales to bolster its security capabilities.Asked if he was concerned Taiwan could become “a pawn” in US-China competition, Lai said the island was “an indispensable member of the world and the region”.”We are a player, not a pawn,” he added.