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Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died of natural causes about a week after his wife’s death, a medical examiner said Friday, ending more than a week of mystery surrounding the death of one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars.The bodies of “The French Connection” star and his wife were found on February 26 in their home in New Mexico after emergency services were called to their property.”The cause of death for Mr. Gene Hackman, aged 95 years, is hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributory factor,” Heather Jarrell, the chief medical examiner for the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, told reporters.”The cause of death for Miss Betsy Hackman, aged 65 years, is hantavirus, pulmonary syndrome. The manner of death is natural.”Neither body showed any sign of trauma, nor any indication of carbon monoxide poisoning, which had been an initial suggestion.Hantavirus presents as a flu-like disease, with symptoms including fever, muscle aches, cough, sometimes vomiting and diarrhea that can progress to shortness of breath and cardiac or heart failure and lung failure, Jarrell said.”This occurs after a one- to eight-week exposure to excrement from a particular mouse species that carries hantavirus.”Jarrell said data from Hackman’s pacemaker showed its last activity over a week before his body was found when maintenance workers were unable to access the couple’s sprawling Santa Fe property.”Based on this information, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Hackman probably died around February 18. Based on the circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Miss Hackman passed away first, with February 11 being the last time that she was going to be alive,” said Jarrell.First responders found the door unlocked and open, and pills scattered next to Betsy Hackman’s body, which was in the bathroom.Gene Hackman’s body was found in another room, fully clothed, with sunglasses nearby, indicating a sudden fall.Investigators suggested it could be the case that the elder Hackman had not realized his wife was dead in the bathroom, given his advanced age and neurodegenerative disease.”He was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s, and it’s quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased,” the medical examiner said.A Hackman family spokesperson had previously denied reports of his Alzheimer’s disease.In addition to the deceased couple, a dog was found dead in the bathroom, and two other healthy dogs were at the house.Along with the autopsies, the investigation had focussed on piecing together a timeline of the couple’s last days, which detectives said had been complicated by their low profile and their preference for privacy.Hackman, a two-time Academy Award winner, was credited for intense performances inspired by his troubled upbringing, notching up dozens of movie credits extending into his 70s.He is perhaps best known as vulgar New York cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller “The French Connection” — for which he won an Oscar for best actor.He won another golden statuette two decades later for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the brutal small-town sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in the 1992 western “Unforgiven.”

Greenland votes Tuesday in legislative elections following a campaign largely focused on when — not if — to cut ties with Denmark without falling into the clutches of the United States.President Donald Trump’s at-times threatening remarks about seizing Greenland have lent fresh momentum to the self-governing territory’s independence movement.Many of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants insist they want to be neither American nor Danish — just Greenlandic.”Donald Trump has kind of sparked the issue of independence again,” University of Greenland political scientist Maria Ackren told AFP.”It’s nothing new for Greenlanders … But it is giving the Greenlandic decision-makers and politicians momentum now to actually maybe reach some goals that haven’t been available lately,” she said.The issue of independence has featured predominantly in the campaign, alongside education, social affairs, fisheries — which account for 90 percent of the vast Arctic island’s exports — and tourism.Almost all of the parties represented in parliament support the idea of full sovereignty for the massive ice-covered island, 50 times the size of Denmark yet 100 times less populated.Clusters of building cranes towering over the capital Nuuk are a sign of Greenland’s rapidly modernising society, one that has left some of its mainly Inuit population — mostly hunters and fishermen — by the wayside.While visible on the streets, the social woes are even more glaring in the statistics: Greenland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, more abortions than births and a life expectancy for men under 70 years.  – Fast track? -While most parties vying for the 31 seats in parliament back independence, their views differ on the timeline. Some prefer a “fast track” while others want to take it slow.Among the most impatient is the opposition nationalist Naleraq party, which has been highly prominent in the campaign.It wants the independence process to begin immediately. In the previous 2021 election, it won 12 percent of votes.”The interest that we’re seeing, not only from the United States but basically from the whole world, which has been there for quite some years now, is turning out to be in our favour,” Juno Berthelsen, one of Naleraq’s most prominent candidates, told AFP.When does he think independence will happen?”We could try and predict that it’s going to be within one or two election cycles” of four years each, he said.But “it depends on how the negotiations are going to go between Greenland and Denmark”.Colonised by Danes more than 300 years ago, the island was granted home rule in 1979, with Copenhagen maintaining control over matters such as foreign and defence affairs.Since 2009, a law has enabled Greenland to unilaterally initiate the independence process.The law stipulates that negotiations be held between the Danish and Greenlandic governments to reach an agreement, which must be approved by the Greenlandic parliament, endorsed by a referendum on the island and voted on by the Danish parliament.- ‘Jail’ -The outgoing government coalition, made up of Prime Minister Mute Egede’s green-left Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) and the social democratic Siumut party, also support independence.But despite internal divisions, they are in less of a rush to attain it.They have insisted the island must first gain economic independence. It currently receives around $565 million from Copenhagen in annual subsidies, equivalent to around a fifth of its GDP.”The independence talk is always on the table. That’s the end goal for a lot of us from Greenland but it will be in 10, 20 years or more,” said Aaja Chemnitz, a member of IA and one of two Greenlandic representatives in the Danish parliament.”It’s important to talk about the economic development of Greenland and how we do this in a way that’s much more sustainable,” she said.Siumut party leader Erik Jensen, the outgoing finance minister, expressed frustration that the independence issue has eclipsed — at least in Danish and international media — issues affecting Greenlanders’ daily lives. “It’s also an important part of our programme but everyone here in Greenland talks about health, schools and kindergarten,” he told AFP.In the chilly, windy streets of Nuuk, residents swing between wanting to break free and economic realism.”Of course we want to have independence from Denmark, because we are seen as lower-ranking people,” said Peter Jensen, an entrepreneur.But with its subsidies, Copenhagen has “kept us in this ‘jail’,” he said.The exploitation of Greenland’s mineral resources, often seen as an economic springboard to independence, is in its infancy.”We should think about how we can become self-sufficient in our food and fuel. Because everything we’ve got is from abroad,” added Ole Moeller, a middle manager at a transport company.”And as you can see right now, the world is not very safe right now.”

A South Carolina man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat was put to death by firing squad on Friday in the first such execution in the United States in 15 years.Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed by a three-person firing squad at the Broad River Correctional Institution in the state capital Columbia, South Carolina prison spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said.Shain said the fatal shots were fired at 6:05 pm (2305 GMT) and Sigmon was pronounced dead by a physician at 6:08 pm (2308 GMT).Journalists who witnessed the execution from behind bulletproof glass said Sigmon was wearing a black jumpsuit with a small red bullseye made of paper or cloth over his heart and was strapped into a chair in the death chamber.In a final statement read out by his attorney, Gerald “Bo” King, Sigmon said he wanted to send a message of “love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty.”A hood was then placed over Sigmon’s head. About two minutes later, the firing squad — volunteers from the South Carolina Department of Corrections — fired their rifles through a slit in a wall about 15 feet (five meters) away.Anna Dobbins of WYFF News 4 TV station said the shots “were all fired at once” like it was “just one sound.””His arms flexed,” Dobbins said. “There was something in his midsection that moved — I’m not necessarily going to call them breaths, I don’t really know — but there was some movement that went on there for two or three seconds.””It was very fast,” she said. “I did see a splash of blood when the bullets entered his body. It was not a huge amount, but there was a splash.”Sigmon, who confessed to the 2001 murders of David and Gladys Larke and admitted his guilt at trial, had asked the Supreme Court for a last-minute stay of execution but it was denied.South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster also rejected his appeal for clemency.- ‘Impossible’ position -“Brad’s death was horrifying and violent,” King, his lawyer, said in a statement. “It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle.”Sigmon had a choice between lethal injection, the firing squad or the electric chair.King said Sigmon had chosen the firing squad after being placed in an “impossible” position, forced to decide how he would die.The electric chair “would burn and cook him alive,” he said, but the alternative was “just as monstrous.””If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September,” King said.The last firing squad execution in the United States was in Utah in 2010, which also carried out two others, one in 1996 and one in 1977.The 1977 execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was the basis for the 1979 book “The Executioner’s Song” by Norman Mailer.The vast majority of US executions have been carried out by lethal injection since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.Alabama has carried out four executions recently using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane. The execution is performed by pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.Three other states — Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma — have joined South Carolina and Utah in authorizing the use of firing squads.There have been six executions in the United States so far this year following 25 last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

Scientists rallied in cities across the United States on Friday to denounce efforts by the administration of US President Donald Trump to eliminate key staff across multiple agencies and curb life-saving research.Since Trump returned to the White House, his government has cut federal research funding, withdrawn from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, and sought to dismiss hundreds of federal workers working on health and climate research.In response, researchers, doctors, students, engineers and elected officials took to the streets in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin to vent their fury at what they see as an unprecedented attack on science.”I have never been so angry,” said Jesse Heitner, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who joined more than 1,000 people demonstrating in the US capital.”They’re lighting everything on fire,” Heitner told AFP at the Lincoln Memorial.He felt particularly incensed about the appointment of noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.”If you put someone in charge of NASA who’s a ‘Flat Earther,’ that’s not okay,” he said.- ‘Inexcusable’ -“Fund science, not billionaires” and “America was built on science,” read some of the signs brandished at the Washington protest.”What’s happening now is unprecedented,” said Grover, a university researcher in his 50s who declined to provide further personal details due to professional constraints. Dressed in a white lab coat and wielding a pink sign that read “Stand Up for Science,” he told AFP his employer had urged staff to keep a low profile, fearing financial retribution in the form of suspended or cancelled federal grants. “I’ve been around research over 30 years, and what’s going on has never happened,” he said, adding that the “inexcusable” actions by the federal government would have “long-term repercussions.”- Brain drain? -Many researchers told AFP about their fears about the future of their grants and other funding.The suspension of some grants has already led some universities to reduce the number of students accepted into doctoral programs or research positions. For those just getting started in their careers, the concern is palpable. “I should be at home studying, instead of having to be here defending my right to have a job,” said Rebecca Glisson, a 28-year-old doctoral student in neuroscience. Glisson is due to defend her thesis at her program in Maryland next week, but feels apprehensive about her future beyond that, as funding for the laboratory she had planned to work for has been cut.Chelsea Gray, a 34-year-old environmental scientist working on shark preservation, had dreamed of working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the federal agencies under particular threat over its climate research. Instead, she has begun the process of obtaining an Irish passport. “I did everything right and set myself up for success, and I’ve watched my entire career path crumble before my eyes,” Gray told AFP. “I want to stay and serve the United States as a United States citizen,” she said.”But if that option is not available to me, I need to keep all doors open.”

The anti-abortion movement in the United States has set its sights on a new target: doctors sending pills across state lines to help women end unwanted pregnancies.Since the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal protection of the right to an abortion, states like Texas and Louisiana have adopted tough anti-abortion laws.Women seeking to end pregnancies, even victims of rape or incest, are now obliged to travel long distances or to seek the delivery of abortion pills from other jurisdictions.And that measure is now under attack.Texas and Louisiana are launching a legal case against a doctor in New York, a state which in turn has passed a “shield law” to protect its physicians from outside prosecutions.  “These are the first kind of cross-border fights that we’ve seen since Roe was overturned,” said California legal scholar Mary Ziegler, referring to the 2022 Supreme Court decision.”And those are just, I think in some ways, the tip of the iceberg. We’re likely to see a lot more of these cross-border fights.”From Texas or Louisiana’s standpoint, they’re saying: ‘Why is this doctor mailing pills into our state?'” explained Ziegler, a professor at the law school at the University of California, Davis.”And from New York’s standpoint, they’re saying: ‘Our doctor wasn’t doing anything wrong. Why are you trying to prosecute her?'”- ‘Chilling effect’ -In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton declared that “out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.”Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor and a co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, was ordered to stop sending pills to Texas and fined $100,000.  In Louisiana, she faces criminal charges and the state has demanded her extradition, to which New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded: “Not now, not ever.”Hochul said the state’s shield law was designed to “anticipate this very situation.”According to #WeCount, an initiative that collates abortion statistics nationwide, 10 percent of abortions in the second quarter of 2024 were conducted under the protection of shield laws.This accounts for approximately 10,000 women each month. In Louisiana, this was the solution chosen by 60 percent of women — about 2,500 — to terminate pregnancies in the second half of 2023, #WeCount estimates.Now, abortion rights activists fear that individual doctors will be targeted.”The tactic of going after providers, patients and helpers through the courts is definitely something that we are going to see them try more of,” Amy Friedrich-Karnik, of the Guttmacher Institute, told AFP.”And I think the goal is both to, you know, scare those individuals… and there’s a chilling effect from that,” said Friedrich-Karnik, a policy director at the pro-abortion rights think tank.The legal battles will be long, and the results are far from certain. Some cases may get to the Supreme Court, and it is not clear whether President Donald Trump’s administration will attempt to intervene. “This is a long-lasting debate, even if it goes to the Supreme Court,” Ziegler said.”Because then what would happen is the next case that comes along will be different enough that whatever the Supreme Court has to say about these cases won’t give us the answer necessarily,” she said. “There’s not… going to be one clean solution that the Supreme Court reaches that resolves this once and for all.”- Procedure rejected -Meanwhile, the attorneys general of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri have demanded that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) end prescriptions of the pill via online medical visits — effectively restricting access nationwide.A similar request was nevertheless rejected by the Supreme Court in 2024.”There’s uncertainty about what Trump is going to do. There’s uncertainty about what power states have to project power outside of state lines. There’s uncertainty about what the FDA is going to do,” Ziegler said. “Simply not knowing can impact patients and doctors. But that’s the scenario right now — there’s a big question mark around a lot of it.”

US President Donald Trump imposed vast tariffs this week on key partners Canada and Mexico, roiling cross-border ties before offering temporary relief to manufacturers — but with more levies kicking in next week, the respite may be fleeting.US companies faced a series of duties starting Monday, with Trump doubling an additional levy on Chinese goods before allowing 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports to take effect Tuesday.The moves rattled markets, sending major Wall Street indexes down, and the president on Thursday announced exemptions for Canadian and Mexican goods entering the United States under a North American trade pact.But some 62 percent of Canadian imports are still hit by the new levies, even as much of them are energy resources covered by a lower 10 percent tariff.For Mexican goods, this proportion is around half, the White House estimates.”It’s surprising because it’s such a self-destructive policy,” said Philip Luck, director of the economics program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).Referring to the initial imposition of 25 percent Canada and Mexico tariffs, Luck called it “economic kryptonite.”Although Trump partially rolled back levies — taking into consideration heavily integrated North American auto supply chains — the fact that tariffs came on has lingering effects, Luck said.”The damage was done for the week they were on, and the damage continues to be done in terms of the fact that we just have a much more uncertain trade environment,” he told AFP.- Steel, aluminum hit -Looking ahead, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs across steel and aluminum imports are due to take effect next Wednesday.Trump has said he would not modify the levies.These tariffs will also affect Canada and Mexico, both of whom export steel to the United States, alongside other trading partners like Brazil, South Korea and European countries.But even as Washington seeks to help domestic steel producers, experts warn that targeting the metals harms various other industries.Steel and aluminum are inputs to construction, data centers and automobiles, said Luck of CSIS.And it is unclear if such tariffs do more good than harm.In 2002, the George W. Bush administration placed tariffs on imports of certain steel products to guard the domestic sector.But Luck noted that more jobs were lost in steel-consuming industries than the total number employed by the American steel industry itself.Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), estimates that existing steel and aluminum tariffs currently cover less than half of all such US imports.But Trump’s moves next week are “essentially a reset” of levies to 25 percent. – Cost concerns -To guard against volatility from upcoming tariffs, some manufacturers will look to source more products domestically or renegotiate their import contracts, said Paul of AAM.Businesses may also delay orders, and others are likely stocking up on inventory, he told AFP.No matter what, there will be an “adjustment period” for firms, he said.The speed of policy rollout now, Paul added, means a “rapid reset” of trade ties — a sharp contrast to the slow spread of deindustrialization over decades previously.This week alone, he said, the additional 20 percent tariff targeting China raises the effective average rate on Chinese products to about 30 percent.”When you look at what’s actually been put into place so far, from a tariff point of view, the focus has certainly been China,” he said.”I don’t think they’re done yet,” he added, referring to the world’s second biggest economy.Industries are on edge as they eye the possibility of more levies to come — with Trump promising “reciprocal tariffs” as soon as April 2.On Friday, trade association the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) expressed concern that “the continued threat of tariffs will make it harder for builders and their customers to move ahead with new construction projects.””With the nation facing a housing affordability crisis, we continue to believe that critical construction materials should be exempt from any future tariffs,” said NAHB chairman Buddy Hughes.

A measles outbreak in the southwestern United States has killed two people and infected more than 200, prompting a top health agency to issue a travel warning.As of Friday, Texas had reported 198 cases and New Mexico 30, bringing the total to 228. Each state confirmed one death, and both were unvaccinated.The Texas patient was a child while the New Mexico patient was an adult who tested positive for measles after death. Although the official cause of the adult’s death has not been released by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified it as a measles-related fatality.”More cases are expected as this outbreak continues to expand rapidly,” the CDC warned in a Health Alert Network advisory to healthcare workers, public health officials, and potential travelers.”With spring and summer travel season approaching in the United States, CDC emphasizes the important role that clinicians and public health officials play in preventing the spread of measles,” the agency said.”They should be vigilant for cases of febrile rash illness that meet the measles case definition and share effective measles prevention strategies, including vaccination guidance for international travelers.”Measles is highly contagious, spreading through respiratory droplets and lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. The disease causes fever, respiratory symptoms, and a rash — but can also lead to severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation, and death.Vaccination remains the best protection. The measles vaccine, required for children 12 months and older, confers 93 percent lifetime immunity after one dose, rising to 97 percent after two.But immunization rates have been declining in the US, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic fueled a surge in vaccine misinformation. The CDC recommends a 95 percent vaccination rate for herd immunity, but nationwide coverage among kindergartners had slumped to 92.7 percent by 2023-2024.Religious exemptions are on the rise and the epicenter of the oubtreak is a west Texas county with a large Mennonite religious community that has historically shown vaccine hesitancy.Current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism — a claim thoroughly debunked by scientific research. Since the outbreak expanded, he has softened his stance, recommending vaccination while simultaneously promoting treatments such as vitamin A and steroids.While these treatments are medically valid, experts warn that emphasizing them may divert attention from the urgent need to boost immunization rates.Before this outbreak, the last US measles-related death was in 2015, when a Washington state woman died from virus-induced pneumonia while on immunosuppressive medication. The previous fatality was in 2003.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he could impose reciprocal tariffs on Canadian dairy and lumber within days — a move set to fuel tensions with Ottawa just days after an earlier wave of levies.Since taking office in January, Trump has unleashed a series of tariffs and threats targeting US allies and adversaries, including duties of up to 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico.On Thursday, he provided the vital trading partners temporary reprieve, exempting goods coming in from both countries under a North American trade pact.But he has vowed broader “reciprocal tariffs” as soon as April 2, aimed at remedying practices that Washington deems unfair.Trump also signaled that reciprocal levies could come as soon as Friday: “Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products.””They’ll be met with the exact same tariff unless they drop it, and that’s what reciprocal means,” the president added.”We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait till Monday or Tuesday,” he said of the two sectors which have long been affected by trade disputes between the neighbors.Economists warn that blanket levies could weigh on US growth and raise inflation, adding that they also weigh on business and consumer sentiment.But Trump kept the pressure up on Canada on Friday: “It’s not fair. Never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly.”- Rising tariffs? -In an earlier interview with Fox Business, Trump said that tariffs affecting Canada and Mexico could rise in the future.Asked if companies might get more clarity on his trade policies, Trump said: “I think so. But, you know, the tariffs could go up as time goes by.”White House senior counselor Peter Navarro told CNBC in a separate interview he rejected the idea that there was uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policies.”The uncertainty is created by the fact that people don’t take President Trump at his word,” he said.Trump’s move to back off some tariffs on Canada and Mexico came after stock markets tumbled as his levies of up to 25 percent took effect this week.On Thursday, the White House said adjustments exempting goods under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) recognize “the unique impact that these tariffs could have on American automotive manufacturers.”A White House official told reporters that about 62 percent of Canadian imports will still face the fresh levies, though much of them are energy resources slapped with a lower 10 percent rate.For Mexico, the proportion of imports affected is around 50 percent, the official added on condition of anonymity.However, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s secretary of economy, said 90 percent of its exports to the United States fall under the three-nation trade pact and will be exempted from tariffs until April. “Under the agreement, we estimate that we will reach very close to 90%…of all types of products,” he told a press conference.

A measles outbreak in the southwestern United States has killed two people and infected more than 200, prompting a top health agency to issue a travel warning.As of Friday, Texas had reported 198 cases and New Mexico 10, bringing the total to 208. Each state confirmed one death. Both were unvaccinated, and the New Mexico patient tested positive for measles posthumously. Although their official cause of death has not been released, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified it as a measles-related fatality.”More cases are expected as this outbreak continues to expand rapidly,” the CDC warned in a Health Alert Network advisory to healthcare workers, public health officials, and potential travelers.”With spring and summer travel season approaching in the United States, CDC emphasizes the important role that clinicians and public health officials play in preventing the spread of measles,” the agency said.”They should be vigilant for cases of febrile rash illness that meet the measles case definition and share effective measles prevention strategies, including vaccination guidance for international travelers.”Measles is highly contagious, spreading through respiratory droplets and lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. The disease causes fever, respiratory symptoms, and a rash — but can also lead to severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation, and death.Vaccination remains the best protection. The measles vaccine, required for children 12 months and older, confers 93 percent lifetime immunity after one dose, rising to 97 percent after two.But immunization rates have been declining in the US, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic fueled a surge in vaccine misinformation. The CDC recommends a 95 percent vaccination rate for herd immunity, but nationwide coverage among kindergartners had slumped to 92.7 percent by 2023-2024.Current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism — a claim thoroughly debunked by scientific research. Since the outbreak expanded, he has softened his stance, recommending vaccination while simultaneously promoting treatments such as vitamin A and steroids.While these treatments are medically valid, experts warn that emphasizing them may divert attention from the urgent need to boost immunization rates.Before this outbreak, the last US measles-related death was in 2015, when a Washington state woman died from virus-induced pneumonia while on immunosuppressive medication. The previous fatality was in 2003.

Donald Trump on Friday doubled down on his embrace of cryptocurrencies as he hosted top industry players at the White House, while making investments in the field.US crypto investors were major supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the deep skepticism of the previous Democratic administration toward digital currencies.”Last year, I promised to make America the bitcoin superpower of the world and crypto capital of the planet, and we’re taking historic action to deliver on that promise,” Trump told the assembled room of executives.Once hostile to the crypto industry, Trump has already taken significant steps to clear regulatory hurdles and has money invested.Trump has partnered with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launched the “Trump” memecoin in January.First Lady Melania Trump announced a memecoin of her own, $MELANIA, one day before her husband’s January 20 inauguration.The prominent founders, CEOs and investors, along with members of a Trump working group, assembled Friday to help craft policies aimed at accelerating crypto growth.On the eve of the event, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” that would audit the government’s bitcoin reserves, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures.”Unfortunately, in recent years, the US government has foolishly sold tens of thousands of additional bitcoin that were worth billions and billions of dollars had they not sold them,” Trump said in his opening remarks.”From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin investor knows very well: never sell your bitcoin.”Bitcoin, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, is heralded by advocates as a substitute for gold or a hedge against currency devaluation and political instability.Trump donor and Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, the administration’s “crypto czar,” said that if previous administrations had held onto their digital holdings over the past decade, rather than selling them, they would be worth $17 billion today.- ‘Like criminals’ -The summit’s guest list included twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto platform Gemini, as well as Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Michael Saylor, the boss of major Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy.In a gesture to the industry, Trump has already appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.Under Atkins, the SEC has dropped legal proceedings against major platforms like Coinbase and Kraken that were initiated during former president Joe Biden’s term.Biden’s administration had implemented restrictions on banks holding cryptocurrencies — which have since been lifted — and allowed former SEC chairman Gary Gensler to pursue aggressive enforcement.Sacks said the Biden administration treated the industry “like criminals” and launched investigations when there were no clear rules of the road.”We never thought that we would get attacked the way we did in our own backyard after trying to do the right thing for so many years,” Cameron Winklevoss told the meeting.For believers, cryptocurrencies represent a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralized authorities while offering individuals an alternative to traditional banking systems.Critics meanwhile maintain that these assets function primarily as speculative investments with questionable real-world utility that could leave taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up if the market crashes.The proliferation of “memecoins” — cryptocurrencies based on celebrities, internet memes, or pop culture items rather than technical utility — presents another challenge.Much of the crypto industry frowns upon these tokens, fearing they tarnish the sector’s credibility, amid reports of quick pump-and-dump schemes that leave unwitting buyers paying for assets that end up worthless.Asked about the risky nature of crypto investing, Sacks said that the government’s embrace of the industry did not amount to investment advice and warned that digital currencies were highly volatile, encouraging Americans to talk to an advisor before entering the market.”My job is not to encourage people to buy crypto. My job is to create an innovation framework for the United States,” he added as he arrived at the White House.