AFP USA

New York’s JFK airport is an overlapping patchwork of open terminals, giant building sites and burgeoning infrastructure, wedged in by thousands of homes on one side and the ocean on the other.Passengers and project executives alike describe the $19 billion mega-project to completely overhaul the United States’ largest global aviation gateway as “organized chaos” — even as the airport remains open and passenger numbers grow.”For me, it’s the most complex project I’ve ever worked on,” said Gina Bigler, a senior engineer of construction at the JFK Redevelopment Program to entirely remodel the airport that handles more international passengers than any other in North America.Around her, temporary bridges redirected roads to make space for new permanent crossings and flyovers, while giant excavators shifted sandy earth near two brand new terminals in varying stages of completion.”There’s multiple different contractors and the fact is the passenger volume is way higher than other projects,” said Bigler, wearing a hardhat and high-vis jacket as she watched the delivery of plastic piping to the site of a new parking garage.”We have the constant push and pull of who’s going to go first. There’s tons of conversations.”A complex web of contractors, terminal tenants, investment consortiums and airlines all coordinate with the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey (PANYNJ) which oversees every aspect of the project, from what art will be displayed in terminals to the tiles selected for the bathrooms.- Political headwinds -Despite the Coronavirus disruption and the project’s scale and complexity, currently the largest of its type in the US, the redevelopment remains on budget and on schedule.Collaboration between the airport owner and private businesses guaranteed “oversight from a public oversight perspective,” said JFK Millennium Partners CEO Steve Thody, responsible for the airport’s new Terminal Six.”But it allows you to bring private money into the deal, which allows you to advance infrastructure probably at a faster pace than you could do otherwise.”PANYNJ executive director Rick Cotton said that approach — with no taxpayer money involved — meant the airport redevelopment was insulated from political headwinds as it did not depend on federal funding.The way Cotton’s agency was structured meant it could “prioritize the transportation priorities of the region — and it was precisely intended to have political considerations take a back seat.”Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from states and cities that do not bend to his will, like Illinois over immigration sanctuary policies.At the airport, the new Terminal Six is long but narrow, wedged in to the limited space available between runways and a people-mover track.The largest piece of the puzzle is the entirely new Terminal One. Measuring 2.5 million square feet (232,000 square meters), the cavernous $9.5 billion megastructure is shaped like a butterfly taking flight and used as much steel as five Eiffel Towers.Financing came from an unprecedented public-private tie-up that reportedly included a $6.5 billion bank loan.- Environmental concerns -Ultimately, the goal is to create airy new terminal space and eradicate the massive traffic jams currently plaguing approaches to the airport.Recognizing the proximity to dense neighborhoods and businesses, the airport has worked to reduce dust, noise and traffic at the sprawling construction project.But campaigners are critical of green initiatives around inherently polluting sites like airports, with aviation accounting for two to three percent of total current global human-induced carbon emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Cotton, of the PANYNJ, acknowledged that “obviously, the transportation sector generates a lot of greenhouse gasses.”But he said redeveloped JFK would offer airlines more sustainable fuel, as well as electrifying airside vehicles and installing New York’s largest solar array.It has also made use of giant barges to ship in construction material and steel for the terminals and new bridges, taking some 300,000 truckloads off the congested local roads according to project leaders.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to extend its rate cut pause on Wednesday as it seeks to chart a path through the economic turbulence unleashed by President Donald Trump’s on-again, off- again approach to tariffs. Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has ramped up levies on top trading partners including Canada, China, and Mexico — only to roll some of them back — and threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on other countries, spooking US financial markets, which have slumped in recent weeks.Many analysts fear Trump’s tariffs, civil service job cuts, and immigration plans could push up inflation and hamper economic growth, and complicate the Fed’s plans to bring inflation down to its long-term target of two percent while maintaining a healthy labor market.As inflation remains too high, Fed policymakers are likely to hold rates steady at between 4.25 and 4.50 percent, and to signal they will wait for more clarity on the economic impact of the new administration’s policies before contemplating a cut. “There’ll be no change in the interest rate, and there’s a good reason for that,” former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren told AFP. “It’s quite unclear how high the tariffs will get, how widespread they will be, and how long they will last,” he said. “And it’s very hard to estimate what the impact on inflation or unemployment is going to be until they get a little more visibility into that.”Policymakers on the Fed’s rate-setting committee will also publish updated economic forecasts on Wednesday, with many analysts anticipating trade uncertainty could cause them to increase their inflation outlook slightly, and to downgrade their predictions for economic growth. – Slowing economy – Until recently, the hard economic data had pointed to a fairly robust American economy, with the Fed’s favored inflation measure showing a 2.5 percent rise in the year to January — above target but down sharply from a four-decade high in 2022.  Economic growth was relatively robust through the end of 2024, while the labor market has remained fairly strong, with healthy levels of job creation, and an unemployment rate hovering close to historic lows. But the mood has shifted in the weeks since Trump returned to the White House, with inflation expectations rising, and financial markets tumbling, since the stop-start rollout of tariffs. “We do not need to be in a hurry, and we are well positioned to wait for greater clarity,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at an event this month, alluding to the uncertainty about the effect of Trump’s economic plans. – ‘Disaster’ -While Fed officials have sought to avoid criticizing the new administration, some analysts have been less restrained. “US President Donald Trump’s management of economic policy has been a disaster,” Michael Strain, the director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a recent blog post. “Previously, it would have been unfathomable for a president –- including Trump during his first term –- to inflict so much harm on the economy deliberately,” he said. In its December economic outlook, Fed policymakers penciled in two quarter-point rate cuts for this year. Amid the trade uncertainty, economists at Barclays wrote in a recent note that they expect policymakers to dial that back to just one cut this year.”Fed officials want to be careful not to overreact,” Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic told AFP, adding she expects the Fed to pencil in two cuts this year in its forecasts, but to ultimately make just one. “There’s so much uncertainty,” she said, adding that she hoped to have more clarity on the US economy after the planned rollout of Trump’s retaliatory tariffs on April 2. 

Home at last: After an unexpected nine-month stay in space, a pair of NASA astronauts finally returned to Earth on Tuesday, concluding a mission that captured global attention and became a political flashpoint.A SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — alongside fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a gentle splashdown off the Florida coast at 5:57 pm (2157 GMT).Ground teams erupted in cheers as the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft named Freedom, charred from withstanding scorching temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) during re-entry, bobbed steadily on the waves beneath a clear, sunny sky.”What a ride — I see a capsule full of grins,” said Hague.As fast boats raced to the capsule for initial safety checks — an unlikely escort arrived in the form of a playful pod of dolphins. Soon after, a larger recovery vessel hoisted Freedom aboard. Teams opened the hatch, and one by one, the astronauts were helped out onto mobility aids, waving and flashing thumbs-up signs.Next, they will be flown by helicopter to Houston, where they will be able to meet their families in another day or two, and begin a physical rehabilitation program.”PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT,” the White House posted on X, repeating a contentious claim that President Donald Trump’s administration had accelerated the recovery timeline.- ‘Unbelievable resilience’ -The quartet left the International Space Station early Sunday, beginning their 17-hour journey home after final farewells and hugs with the remaining crew.Wilmore and Williams, both ex-Navy pilots and veterans of two prior space missions, flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.However, propulsion issues rendered the spacecraft unfit for their return, forcing it to return empty.They were subsequently reassigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a reduced crew of two — rather than the usual four — to accommodate the pair, who had become widely referred to as the “stranded” astronauts.With Crew-10 docking Sunday, Crew-9 was finally cleared to depart. Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the typical six-month ISS rotation but ranks sixth among US records. Frank Rubio holds the longest single-mission U.S. stay at 371 days, while Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov retains the world record at 437 days.Despite the challenges of prolonged spaceflight — including muscle and bone loss, vision issues, and balance readjustment — experts say their nine-month stay is manageable in terms of health risks. However, the unexpected nature of their extended mission, initially without sufficient supplies, sparked public sympathy.”If you found out you went to work today and were going to be stuck in your office for the next nine months, you might have a panic attack,” Joseph Keebler, a psychologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.”These individuals have shown unbelievable resilience.”- Political flashpoint -It also became a political lightning rod, with President Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk — who leads SpaceX — repeatedly suggesting former president Joe Biden abandoned the astronauts and refused an earlier rescue plan.Such accusations have prompted an outcry in the space community, especially as Musk offered no specifics, and the fundamental NASA’s plan for the astronauts’ return has remained unchanged since their Crew-9 reassignment.Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, confirmed during a post-mission press conference that there had been no discussions about deploying a relief crew sooner — and that the most recent scheduling delays were due to SpaceX’s own scheduling adjustments.Trump has also drawn attention for his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, who holds the US record for the second-longest cumulative time in space, as “the woman with the wild hair” and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.”They’ve been left up there — I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know,” he said during a recent White House press conference.

A private US lander has captured eerie high-definition images of a lunar sunset, which NASA hopes will help unravel the mystery of a strange haze first observed on the Moon in the 1960s.Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which published the pictures on Tuesday, became the first private company to land a robotic spacecraft upright on the Moon earlier this month. Its Blue Ghost lander — roughly the size of two rhinos side by side — touched down on March 2 at Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature within Mare Crisium on the Moon’s northeastern near side, and operated until March 16 when it powered down with the onset of the lunar night.One of the new images shows the Sun glowing just above the horizon, its halo tinged with green. Above it, a small dot marks Venus, while Earth’s bright reflection appears almost as large as the Sun at the top of the frame. Another view reveals the setting Sun bathed in a green glow, as seen from a west-facing camera.”We are taking time to have scientific specialists go over all the imagery,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “One of the things they will be looking for is to see if they can identify ‘horizon glow’ or a mechanism called ‘dust lofting.'”Scientists believe lunar dust particles may become electrically charged due to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, causing them to levitate above the surface. The phenomenon was first spotted by NASA’s Surveyor probes in the 1960s and later observed by Apollo astronauts.Kearns noted that scientists will compare the images with complementary readings from Blue Ghost’s instruments, including electromagnetic field and radiation sensors, to refine existing theories.”The images themselves are beautiful, they’re really aesthetic,” he said.The west-facing image, in particular, shows soil in front of the lander illuminated by light reflected from mountains behind it. The picture’s level of detail could help scientists refine models of how light scatters on the lunar surface.Earlier in the mission, Blue Ghost also captured high-definition imagery of a total solar eclipse from the Moon on March 14.The mission was part of a NASA-industry collaboration aimed at cutting costs and supporting Artemis, the program to return astronauts to the Moon and use lessons learned there to go to Mars.Firefly Aerospace’s spaceflight program director, Ray Allensworth, said the company is already applying lessons to future flights, including Blue Ghost-2 and Blue Ghost-3.”The lander is absolutely not designed to survive the extreme cold of lunar night, so I think the probability is very low that we will power back on — but this lander has surprised me,” she added.

The US National Archives on Tuesday released the final batch of files related to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy — a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.The move follows an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January directing the unredacted release of the remaining files related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother, former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.”In accordance with President Donald Trump’s directive… all records previously withheld for classification that are part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection are released,” the Archives said in a statement on its website Tuesday evening.The National Archives has released millions of pages of records over the past decades relating to the assassination of then-president Kennedy in November 1963, but thousands of documents had been held back at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing national security concerns.The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.Kennedy scholars have said the documents that were still held by the archives were unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.Oswald was shot by a strip club owner, Jack Ruby, on November 24, 1963 — two days after the Kennedy assassination — while being moved to a county jail.Many of the records already released were raw intelligence, including scores of reports from FBI agents following up leads that led nowhere.Much of what they contain was also previously known, such as that the communist-obsessed CIA cooked up several outlandish plots to murder Cuba’s Fidel Castro.Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 but returned to the United States in 1962.Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK” have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals the Soviet Union or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon Johnson.The release of the documents follows an October 26, 1992 act of Congress which required that the unredacted assassination records held in the National Archives be released in full 25 years later.

Home at last: After an unexpected nine-month stay in space, a pair of NASA astronauts finally returned to Earth on Tuesday, concluding a mission that gripped global attention and became a political flashpoint.A SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — alongside fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a gentle splashdown off the Florida coast at 5:57 pm (2157 GMT).Ground teams erupted in cheers as the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft named Freedom, charred from withstanding scorching temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) during re-entry, bobbed steadily on the waves beneath a clear, sunny sky.Fast boats raced to the capsule for initial safety checks, soon to be followed by a recovery vessel that will retrieve the crew before they are flown to Houston to begin a 45-day rehabilitation program.”What a ride — I see a capsule full of friends here,” Hague said.The quartet left the International Space Station roughly 17 hours earlier after exchanging final farewells and hugs with remaining crew members.Wilmore and Williams, both ex-Navy pilots and veterans of two prior space missions, flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.But the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly them back, instead returning empty.They were subsequently reassigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a reduced crew of two — rather than the usual four — to accommodate the pair, who had become widely referred to as the “stranded” astronauts.Early Sunday, a relief team called Crew-10 docked with the station, paving the way for the Crew-9 team to depart.- ‘Unbelievable resilience’ -Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.That makes it “par for the course” in terms of health risks, according to Rihana Bokhari of the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.Challenges such as muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts that can lead to kidney stones and vision issues, and the readjustment of balance upon returning to a gravity environment are well understood and effectively managed.”Folks like Suni Williams are actually known for their interest in exercise, and so I believe she exercises beyond what is even her normal prescription,” Bokhari told AFP.Still, the unexpected nature of their extended stay — away from their families and initially without enough packed supplies — has drawn public interest and sympathy.”If you found out you went to work today and were going to be stuck in your office for the next nine months, you might have a panic attack,” Joseph Keebler, a psychologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.”These individuals have shown unbelievable resilience.”- Trump weighs in -Their unexpected stint also became a political lightning rod, with President Donald Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk — who leads SpaceX — repeatedly suggesting former president Joe Biden abandoned the astronauts and refused an earlier rescue plan.Such accusations have prompted an outcry in the space community, especially as Musk offered no specifics and NASA’s plan for the astronauts’ return has remained largely unchanged since their Crew-9 reassignment.Trump has also drawn attention for his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, a former Navy captain who holds the US record for the second-longest cumulative time in space, as “the woman with the wild hair” and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.”They’ve been left up there — I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know,” he said during a recent White House press conference.

Washington is expected to present US trading partners on April 2 with a number representing their tariff and other barriers, as it unveils reciprocal levies tailored to each country, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.President Donald Trump has promised reciprocal duties — on both US allies and competitors alike — from April 2, though his administration has yet to release the exact details of the plan.”What’s going to happen on April 2 — each country will receive a number that we believe represents their tariffs,” Bessent told Fox Business.”We are going to go to them and say, look, here’s where we think the tariff levels are, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression,” he added on “Mornings With Maria.”With just over two weeks until April 2, he did not say whether those calculations would be complete for all nations by the deadline, but left open the door to some avoiding reciprocal tariffs on that date.If countries stop their practices, Bessent said, “we will not put up the tariff wall.”Some duties “may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated,” he said, or because countries swiftly approach Washington for talks once they receive their number.Trump said Monday on social media that April 2 would be “Liberation Day for America,” promising to “start taking back some of the vast wealth that has been taken from us.”- ‘No reason’ for recession -The president’s tariff plans and the uncertainty surrounding them have shaken markets in recent weeks, fanning fears that an economic ebb could be in the cards.But Bessent told Fox Business that he saw “no reason we need to have a recession,” saying “the underlying economy is healthy.”He dismissed the premise of guaranteeing there will not be a downturn in the world’s biggest economy.The former hedge fund manager raised the idea of a “pause” as the economy transitions away from “unsustainable” levels of government spending, pledging that the Trump administration would rein in expenditures and bring manufacturing home.The president has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.On Tuesday, Bessent stressed that Trump has identified “critical industries” — like steel and aluminum among manufacturing sectors — for which he hopes to bring production back to the United States.He added that “we’re going to take in substantial revenues,” pointing to these as a means to offset the government deficit.Economists note that while tariffs raise revenue for the government, they also shift demand towards domestic industries that make the protected goods.They caution that this does not always mean a net expansion of demand.Bessent also said Tuesday that the Treasury is working with Congress on further outbound investment rules: “We will make sure that our outbound investment doesn’t turn around and get used against us.”

Nvidia chief Jensen Huang on Tuesday showcased cutting-edge chips for artificial intelligence and new applications for the technology, shrugging off talk of China’s DeepSeek disrupting the market and dangers from US President Donald Trump’s trade wars.Huang gave a hotly anticipated keynote presentation at Nvidia’s annual developers conference that packed the SAP Center in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose, home of the Sharks NHL hockey team.Billing the event as an AI “Super Bowl,” the Taiwan-born tech titan was greeted by an audience of more than 20,000 who sat through his two-hour-plus address announcing the company’s latest updates.”The difference is that everyone is a winner at this Super Bowl,” he said, promoting the universal benefits of AI technology.Huang used the annual speech to unveil developments and tie-ups at the company he co-founded more than three decades ago. Nvidia has seen stratospheric growth, with the AI frenzy stemming largely from the company’s core product: graphics processing units (GPUs).Huang spotlighted the updates to Nvidia’s latest Blackwell line of GPUs, as well as new hardware and software for robotics and telecommunications.The announcements included a partnership with General Motors focused on developing driverless vehicles that would feature an Nvidia-made, in-vehicle computing system that can deliver up to 1,000 trillion operations per second.He also unveiled a telecoms project, involving T-Mobile and Cisco Systems, where Nvidia will help create AI-ready hardware for wireless 6G networks, the successor to today’s 5G.- Stock pressure -The AI boom has propelled Nvidia stock prices to historic levels, though it saw a steep sell-off earlier this year triggered by the sudden success of DeepSeek and the instability of Trump’s tariff battles with key trading partners.Trump has threatened to slap extra tariffs on imports of computer chips to the United States, which will heap pressure on Nvidia’s business, which depends on imported components mainly from Taiwan.High-end versions of Nvidia’s chips face US export restrictions to the major market of China, part of Washington’s efforts to slow its Asian adversary’s advancement in the strategic technology.Against those headwinds, Nvidia stock, one of the most traded on Wall Street, is down more than 17 percent since Trump took office and the release of DeepSeek, an AI model, in January.China-based DeepSeek shook up the world of generative artificial intelligence with the debut of a low-cost, high-performance model that challenges the hegemony of OpenAI and other big-spending behemoths.Several countries have questioned DeepSeek’s handling of data and believe that the secretive company may be subject to the control of the Chinese government.Nvidia high-end GPUs are in hot demand by tech giants building data centers to power artificial intelligence, and some say a low-cost option could weaken the Silicon Valley chip star’s business.But Nvidia and others argue that cheaper AI models will spur their wider expansion, increasing the needs for computing and Nvidia’s technology.”In essence, Nvidia’s chips remain the new oil or gold in this world for the tech ecosystem as there is only one chip in the world fueling this AI foundation… and it’s Nvidia,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.Riding the AI wave, Nvidia has ramped up production of its top-of-the-line Blackwell processors for powering AI, logging billions in sales in just months.Huang on Tuesday presented the Blackwell Ultra, an upgraded version, which will be supplanted by yet another line in 2026, the Vera Rubin, a new GPU named after the US astronomer who discovered dark matter.Nvidia reported it finished last year with record high revenue of $130.5 billion, driven by demand from cloud computing giants including AWS and Microsoft.

A federal judge ordered an immediate halt on Tuesday to the shutdown of the main US aid agency by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk and DOGE’s dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways,” District Court Judge Theodore Chuang said.Chuang issued his ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by current and former USAID employees and contractors challenging the legal authority of the billionaire tapped by President Donald Trump to slash federal government spending and jobs.They argued that under the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution, Musk needed to be confirmed by the Senate in order to exercise his authority.The judge agreed, saying that allowing Musk to continue to wield enormous power over the government “would open the door to an end-run around the Appointments Clause” and reduce it to “nothing more than a technical formality.”Chuang said the actions by Musk and DOGE had violated the authority of Congress to decide when and how to close down USAID, where most of the workers have been placed on leave or fired since January. The agency was created by Congress in 1961.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the United States was cancelling 83 percent of programs at USAID, which distributes humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.The judge’s ruling was the latest legal setback to Trump’s cost-cutting and government staff reduction drive. Another judge recently ordered the rehiring of thousands of probationary workers in multiple agencies who had been fired by Musk’s DOGE.Chuang ordered that access to email and other electronic systems be reinstated to current USAID employees and contractors.He said the agency should also be allowed to reoccupy its Washington headquarters unless the court receives confirmation from the acting administrator of USAID or another authorized officer of the United States that the building is being permanently closed.Trump signed an executive order in January demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid to allow time to assess overseas expenses.

Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr is off to a turbulent start as US health secretary as he grapples with a deadly measles outbreak, resignations among his staff and a snub in the Senate.Kennedy took over in mid-February facing a major health crisis, with an outbreak of the highly contagious disease that had previously been declared eradicated in the United States.More than 300 people, mostly children, have now been infected with measles in Texas and New Mexico and two unvaccinated people have died — the first US fatalities from the disease in a decade.”Some years we have hundreds of measles outbreaks, measles outbreaks every year,” the man known as RFK Jr. said in a recent interview with Fox News at a fast food restaurant.In recent weeks he has alarmed and angered medical professionals with comments downplaying the gravity of the crisis, and ambiguous remarks on vaccination and others promoting alternative remedies.”He couldn’t do a worse job than he’s doing,” said Paul Offit, a renowned pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology.”People assumed that when he became secretary of health and human services he would become somewhat more responsible to the public health, and they were wrong,” Offit told AFP.- Crisis management -In an opinion piece published early this month by Fox News, Kennedy said: “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”Still, he has raised doubts and stirred anger by continuing to question the safety of vaccines.He claimed on Fox News in mid-March that the measles vaccine itself causes deaths “every year.””It causes all the illnesses that measles itself cause, encephalitis and blindness, etc. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.”Offit disagreed. “He says that the measles vaccine can cause blindness and deafness. He says that measles immunity fades so that adults are no longer protected. All of those things are false, clearly and plainly false,” he said, also rejecting Kennedy’s suggestion of using vitamin A as an alternative treatment against measles.Kennedy’s crisis management skills have reportedly been criticized even within his own staff, with US media reporting one of his spokespersons resigned, and even by some Republicans.Last week the White House withdrew at the last minute the candidacy of David Weldon, a close associate of Kennedy, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — the main public health agency in America — after concluding he would lose a Senate confirmation vote.- Transparency and beef fat -Measles is making a comeback amid a decline in vaccination rates as more and more Americans, wary of the safety of vaccines, ignore warnings from health authorities to get shots.Kennedy is accused of contributing to this problem by arguing that there is a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism — a debunked theory that came from a study based on manipulated data and disproven by later research.Still, Kennedy’s health department recently ordered a new study of this alleged link. A spokesman told AFP, “the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed. CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening.”That pledge of transparency is a kind of mantra for Kennedy, a nephew of the late president John F. Kennedy, as he promises to make Americans healthy again, in part by fighting against consumption of heavily processed food.Kennedy has set out to toughen rules on food additives but has also endorsed a fast food chain that cooks its French fries in beef tallow, or rendered fat, which had been phased out in America as unhealthy decades ago.As for transparency, Kennedy critics say he has achieved just the opposite by doing away with a policy that let the public voice comments on health policy.Under Kennedy, expert level meetings have been cancelled and new policies have been announced with no internal discussion in the department. Nate Brought, who used to work for a US health agency but resigned last month, criticized Kennedy’s management style.”The way things are being handled is very much not transparent,” he told AFP. “Everybody is intentionally being kept in the dark.”