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Rescue personnel walk near a building that collapsed after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday, March 28, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Major earthquake strikes Southeast Asia, Israel passes judicial reform, Fox News wins advertisers, Pollution kills, HHS sees massive job cuts, Suspected US strikes hit Houthis
7.7: Two disastrous earthquakes, the first of 7.7 magnitude, struck Myanmar on Friday, destroying vital infrastructure across Southeast Asia. Videos of a collapsed bridge in Mandalay, Myanmar, and a fallen building in Bangkok, Thailand, have emerged. The number of casualties isn’t yet known, although several are feared trapped under a fallen skyscraper in the Thai capital. At least 144 people have been confirmed dead.
71,000: Israel’s right-wing government on Thursday passed a contentious law to allow politicians greater sway in judicial appointments, despite some 71,000 opposition amendments. The move is a part of the judicial overhaul that protesters have been fighting for over a year and comes amid Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
125: Since the US election, Fox News has gained 125 new high-profile advertisers as Rupert Murdoch’s cable network continues to draw soaring viewership during President Donald Trump’s second term. Businesses such as Amazon, GE Vernova, JPMorgan Chase, Netflix, and UBS have recently run ads on Fox News for the first time in over two years.
5.7 million: According to a new World Bank study, 5.7 million people are killed annually by air pollution. The global institution is calling on countries to take an integrated approach to halve the number of people breathing unhealthy air by 2040 and points to places like Mexico City, which has successfully curbed pollution, and Egypt and Turkey, which have put financing mechanisms in place to support emission reduction.
20,000: The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will cut 20,000 positions from the Department of Health and Human Services – 10,000 from job cuts and 10,000 from voluntary departures – as part of a major restructuring that its chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says “will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.” RFK says the reorganization is intended to help the department prioritize the fight against chronic diseases, but critics fear it could hinder the critical agency, which includes Medicare and the Federal Drug Administration. And throughout the federal government, officials are planning for between 8% and 50% staff cuts, according to an internal White House document obtained by the Washington Post.
19: Two weeks after the Trump administration dropped its first bombs on Houthi rebels in Yemen — details of which were revealed over the now-infamous Signal chat — the United States is believed to have attacked again early Friday, firing at least 19 strikes. The extent of the damage is unclear, although the intensity of the bombardment has increased since the Biden administration first started pounding the Houthis.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in January.
RFK Jr. guts HHS, cutting 10,000 positions
Last week, Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education after firing or laying off half its workforce, around 2,000 people. Now, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced his department of Health and Human Services will eliminate 10,000 full-time positions in addition to the 10,000 who’ve left voluntarily through early retirement offers. The HHS roster will drop from 82,000 to 62,000 employees, and its divisions will go from 28 to 15.
The Trump administration has promised to reduce the size of government, and it’s proceeding at pace. Kennedy is citing cost savings, at $1.8 billion a year, and streamlining a “dysfunctional” bureaucracy as reasons for the job cuts. But critics like Larry Leavitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a health policy organization, warn that such deep cuts affect the department’s capacity for oversight and program or service delivery.
Kennedy has set out to remake US health policy in line with his Make America Healthy Again movement. Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, has said the MAHA movement is “a worldview that blends concerns about corporate influence on healthcare with skepticism towards mainstream medicine.” It also leans heavily on vaccine hesitancy, conspiracy theory, and alternative medicine.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl,” Kennedy said in a statement about the restructuring. “We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” he added, confirming that MAHA is firmly the order of the day at HHS.Linda McMahon testifies before the Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee during a nomination hearing as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC, USA, on Feb. 13, 2025.
Education Dept’s future in question as McMahon begins confirmation process
McMahon said that she would present a plan for downsizing the department that Republican senators would be able to get on board with. She said that while there were areas of the DOE that could be eliminated, states would still receive federal funding for schools. Project 2025 has laid out a plan for moving the core responsibilities of the DOE – like civil rights enforcement, student loans, and research – to other federal agencies in order to dismantle the department without fully eliminating it, a step that would require congressional approval.
Conservatives have sought to get rid of the DOE since it was created in 1979, arguing that educational decisions should be made by the states alone. The department doesn’t control curriculums or teachers, but it does provide outsized financial support for low-income areas and helps cover the higher costs of educating students with greater needs.
Meanwhile, the Senate officially confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary in a largely party-line vote on Thursday. All Democrats opposed his nomination, while all Republicans supported it, except for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. McConnell, who survived polio as a child, broke with his party due to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance.Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, January 30, 2025. She is a controversial nominee due to her previous suggestions of support for autocrats and U.S. adversaries, including the recently toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Senate hearings: Gabbard and RFK Jr. make it out of committee
Two of Donald Trump’s more controversial cabinet picks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, made it through key committee votes on Tuesday, moving closer to securing confirmations when the full Senate votes.
Vaccine skeptic, environmentalist, and health secretary pick RFK was confirmed in a party-line vote by the Senate Finance Committee. His only potential Republican holdout, former doctor and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, said he decided to support RFK after a series of conversations with him about “the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda.”
Ahead of her hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, secured two yeses from key Republicans who had been on the fence about her nomination – Sens. Todd Young and Susan Collins. While Tulsi made it out of the committee thanks to a party-line vote, there are still several Republican senators who have not committed to voting for her when it comes time for her full Senate vote, including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and John Curtis.
We will be watching the Senate tomorrow as it convenes to hold a full vote to confirm Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department as attorney general.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Jan. 30, 2025.
Trump’s rockiest Cabinet picks get spicy hearings
It was a rough few days for Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The day before the confirmation hearings got underway, his cousin, Caroline Kennedy called him a “predator” and said the Senate should reject his nomination.
RFK Jr. went on to struggle through his appearance in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, botching answers to questions on Medicare and raising questions about his chances of being confirmed. In a second appearance on Thursday, this one in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he had another rough go, clashing with Sen. Bernie Sanders over vaccine safety and effectiveness and stumbling over Medicare questions once again.
FBI head nominee Kash Patel had his own raucous hearing on Thursday, though he tried to smooth over some concerns about his fitness to lead by distancing himself from conspiracy theories he’d previously sympathized with, like QAnon. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse tore into Patel, saying “There is an unfathomable difference between a seeming facade being constructed around this nominee here today and what he has actually done and said in real life when left to his own devices.”
Nonetheless, both Kennedy and Patel could squeak through the Senate. If they do, Republicans would still face their biggest confirmation challenge. Director of National Intelligence pick Tulsi Gabbard was also put through the wringer on Thursday in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. She faces, perhaps, the longest odds of any Trump Cabinet pick, and the GOP will likely struggle to confirm her in the days to come.Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tenn., on July 26, 2024.
RFK Jr. to endorse Trump
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the strongest third-party US presidential candidate in a generation, has reportedly decided to leave the race and cash in his chips – with Donald Trump.
The eccentric, conspiracy-minded, anti-corporate crusader – best known for his vaccine skepticism – polls around 5% nationally and in key swing states. He has drawn outsized support from Black, Latino, and young voters.
RFK Jr. is expected to formally announce his withdrawal in a big speech in Arizona on Friday and is in talks with the Trump campaign about a formal endorsement. Trump, who is also campaigning from the Grand Canyon state that day, has said he’d be open to giving RFK a position in his administration if he wins.
How will this affect the race? RFK’s endorsement would certainly counterprogram the climax of the DNC and could deliver Trump a few extra points worth of voters that he’ll need in a tight election. Polling has consistently shown RFK drawing more Trump-leaning voters than Biden-leaning ones.
Still, bringing aboard RFK – a conspiracy-theory aficionado whose brain has been eaten by a worm and who recently admitted to a bizarre bear-killing cover-up – could also play into one of the Democrats’ main strategies, says Clayton Allen, the US director at Eurasia Group.
“If he joins the Trump campaign,” says Allen, “that may exacerbate the Democrats’ “weird” attacks.”
Talibans and their supporters gather in front of the American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 14, 2024, to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the take over. They decided to celebrate according to the Afghan calendar.
Hard Numbers: Taliban fires baby-faced cops, EU slaps tax on Tesla, Morocco pardons cannabis cultivators, Panama starts deportations, RFK Jr in signature scandal
281: Taliban security forces have found themselves in a hairy situation: 281 of them have been dismissed for failing to grow beards, which the fundamentalist religious group says is in accordance with Islamic laws. The crackdown came from Afghanistan’s morality ministry, which has detained more than 13,000 people for “immoral acts” over the last year.
19: The European Commission said Tuesday it will place a 19% tax on sales of Tesla automobiles manufactured in China — a steep surcharge, but far from the worst-case-scenario. Though the proposed tax is 9 percentage points higher than the levy applied to most foreign-made cars, it is far less than the 47% rate Brussels applies to Chinese EV manufacturers.
5,000: Legaliiiize it! Moroccan King Mohammed VIpardoned roughly 5,000 people convicted or wanted for illegal cannabis cultivation. Morocco is an odd bird in the weed world, as it is a major producer of marijuana, and cultivation, export, and medical use are all legal — but recreational use and cultivation for such use are not. The King hopes the pardons will encourage farmers to stick with legal cultivation efforts.
29: Panama on Monday began deporting undocumented migrants on US-funded flights, sending home 29 Colombians with criminal records. Panama and the US agreed in July to work together to stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing northward through the perilous Darien Gap, which lies along the Colombia-Panama border.
110,000: Fringe presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in hot water in Arizona after the revelation that the 110,000 signatures meant to give him ballot access in that state were not collected by his own campaign. Rather, they were gathered by a PAC backing Kennedy, which may violate laws forbidding PACs and campaigns from coordinating.Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Alsu Kurmasheva, who is in custody after she was accused of violating Russia's law on foreign agents, attends a court hearing in Kazan, Russia May 31, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Russia jails another US journalist, Latinos warm to RFK Jr., Paris tightens security for Olympics, India looks to roll in the deep, HIV prevention milestone for Africa
6.5: A Russian court revealed on Monday that Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced on Friday to 6.5 years in prison for “spreading false information” about the Russian army. Kurmasheva, a dual citizen who works for the US-funded Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe service in Prague, was arrested while visiting her family in Russia in October. Her husband says the charges relate to a book of profiles of anti-war Russians that Kurmasheva edited. She is the second American journalist that Russia has sentenced to a lengthy prison term in the past four days alone.
24: ¿Latinos por Roberto? A new poll shows 24% of US Hispanic voters support third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That’s nearly 10 points above the national average. Respondents were split 36 to 36 on Biden vs. Trump. The poll was taken before Biden dropped out of the race, but it illustrates the increasingly uphill battle that Democrats face in keeping the support of a traditionally blue voting group. Read our in-depth look at the “Latino vote” here.
30,000: France is not messing around when it comes to security for the Paris Olympics, which begin later this week. Authorities will deploy 30,000 police throughout the event, rising to 45,000 during peak times. Alongside them will be 15,000 French military personnel and nearly 2,000 foreign police. Security officials have already conducted hundreds of raids, arresting members of far-right, far-left, and jihadist groups suspected of planning attacks. At least two plots have reportedly been broken up already.
4: India wants to get into the deep-sea mining game as it tries to secure supplies of rare minerals critical for its economy and energy transition. New Delhi has already won several licenses for the Indian Ocean, but it’s eyeing a bigger prize: a vast swathe of the Pacific between Mexico and Hawaii. Experts say it will take India at least four years to develop the required skills and technology to compete with Asian rival China. In the meantime, international authorities are still working out rules for deep-sea mining.
56: For the first time ever, a majority of new HIV infections occurred outside of sub-Saharan Africa, a UN report says. The milestone, based on numbers from 2023, reflects sustained progress against the disease by governments in Africa – where new infections have fallen 56% since 2010. Globally, new infections have fallen 39% during that time. But experts warn that case numbers are currently rising elsewhere in the world, particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and north Africa.