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Trump nominates former deputy surgeon general to lead embattled CDC – US politics live | Trump administration

Published

2 months ago

April 16, 2026

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Trump nominates former deputy surgeon general to lead embattled CDC

Donald Trump has nominated Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general during his first administration, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“She is a STAR!” the president wrote on Truth Social. Schwartz will need to be confirmed by the Senate before she can officially takeover the agency that has been without a permanent director for eight months and been beset by chaos.

The agency’s last Senate‑confirmed director, Susan Monarez, took over in July but was fired less than a month later after clashing with Kennedy over his vaccine agenda. Since then, the CDC has seen an exodus of senior public health officials, many of whom accused the health secretary of politicizing the agency and stripping leaders of their independence.

Jay Bhattacharya – who also runs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – has served as interim chief of the CDC since February.

Trump also announced that Sean Slovenski will become the CDC’s deputy director, while Jennifer Shuford will serve as the agency’s chief medical officer.

Key events

Here’s a recap of the day so far

Donald Trump has nominated Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general during his first administration, to lead the embattled Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “She is a STAR!” the president wrote on Truth Social. Schwartz will need to be confirmed by the Senate before she can officially takeover the agency that has been without a permanent director for eight months and been beset by chaos.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Robert F Kennedy Jr defended his healthcare agenda and plans to slash the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) budget by $15bn. At a committee hearing, Democratic lawmakers grilled the health secretary over his vaccine rollbacks in a hearing that quickly became heated. More here.
By a vote of 224-204, the House passed a bill to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants living in the US. Ten lower chamber Republicans joined all Democrats to advance the legislation. The Trump administration has sought to end most enrollment in the program – and tried to remove the status from a string of countries. However, a district court judge blocked the administration from stripping TPS from up to 350,000 Haitians earlier this year. The legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where it would need the support 60 lawmakers in order to clear the filibuster.
The House of Representatives backed Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran on Thursday, narrowly voting to block a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the war until hostilities are authorized by Congress. The measure was defeated by 214 to 213 in the Republican-majority chamber, a day after a similar measure was blocked in the Senate for the fourth time.
Donald Trump’s design for a 250ft triumphal arch moved a step forward on Thursday after a key agency reviewed the proposal for the first time. The US Commission of Fine Arts voted to approve the concept design for the arch. The seven commissioners, all appointed by Trump, will review an updated version of the design before taking a final vote at a future meeting. The arch is part of the president’s legacy-building quest during his second administration, which includes a White House ballroom.

Trump nominates former deputy surgeon general to lead embattled CDC

Donald Trump has nominated Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general during his first administration, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Jay Bhattacharya – who also runs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – has served as interim chief of the CDC since February.

Trump also announced that Sean Slovenski will become the CDC’s deputy director, while Jennifer Shuford will serve as the agency’s chief medical officer.

The president also insisted that he is “not fighting” with Pope Leo XIV.

Trump said it’s “very important” for the pope to understand that Iran is a threat to the world, before falsely claiming the pontiff said the Iranian regime “can have a nuclear weapon”.

Leo did not say that, in fact he initially said that the war was being fueled by a “delusion of omnipotence” without naming Trump. In response, the president launched a social media spat, calling the pope “weak on crime” and catering to “radical left lunatics”.

Trump also said he would be “OK” with public hearings for more Epstein survivors, as suggested by first lady Melania Trump last week.

“But I understand the women didn’t want to go under oath. That’s what I heard,” the president told reporters today. “So Melania felt strongly about it, because she was accused that I met her through Epstein. But it turned out to be totally false.”

Trump says first lady issued surprise statement about Epstein because of ‘fake news’

As the president left Washington, to travel to Las Vegas, he spoke to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

When asked why first lady Melania Trump issued an apparently umprompted televised statement last week that she “never had a relationship” with Jeffrey Epstein or his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Donald Trump said she made her remarks because “the fake news said she did, and she had none, and I think that’s been proven.”

The president said his wife was “bothered” by the “fake news being the fake news” and she “just wanted to clarify”

House passes bill to extend TPS for Haitian immigrants

By a vote of 224-204, the House passed a bill to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants living in the US. Ten lower chamber Republicans joined all Democrats to advance the legislation, which was brought to the floor via a discharge petition on Wednesday.

A reminder that TPS provides relief to people already in the US if their home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary events. The Trump administration has sought to end most enrollment in the program – and tried to strip the status from a string of countries, including Haiti, Somalia and Venezuela – saying it runs counter to US interests. However, many of these attempts have been challenged and blocked in federal court.

In February, a district court judge blocked the Trump administration from stripping TPS from up to 350,000 Haitians in the US.

The bill, however, faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where it will need the support 60 lawmakers in order to clear the filibuster.

Fisa bill remains in limbo as Johnson tries to convince hardliners

A bill to extend section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) remains in limbo in the US House, as Republican speaker Mike Johnson tries to rally his fractured conference to pass the bill which authorizes intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign nationals outside the US, without the need for warrants or court orders.

Without an extension, the provision will expire next week. Johnson told Punchbowl News that the splintered GOP will have “a conclusion on that” shortly. “We’re working through a couple remaining issues,” he added. A number of hardline Republicans and many Democrats have pushed back against the Fisa bill, arguing that any extension must protect Americans’ privacy and are demanding reforms.

It’s unclear whether Johnson will tee-up a procedural vote on the bill today, or hold off as negotiations continue with members of this own party. Donald Trump, for his part, has weighed in, calling for Republicans to “unify” and pass a “clean” extension of section 702, despite lambasting the provision in the past.

Joseph Gedeon

The Trump administration has moved to formally enlist foreign governments in a sweeping reorientation of global development policy, directing American diplomats worldwide to seek official support for a “trade over aid” declaration before its introduction at the United Nations later this month.

This would mean a move away from direct aid to poor nations in favor of increased trade, led by private companies.

Principal deputy spokesperson at the state department Tommy Pigott confirmed the initiative on Wednesday, framing it as a rejection of what he called a failed aid model. “The idea that trade and free market capitalism is the surest path to prosperity has been proven by the facts and by history,” Pigott said, adding that those calling for “aid not trade” were “really arguing for lining the pockets of a corrupt NGO industrial complex”.

The new posturing was first reported by the development publication Devex on Tuesday, and the full internal US diplomatic cable was obtained by the Washington Post on Wednesday. The initiative described in the cable is an attack on the obligation of wealthy nations to provide tens of billions of dollars in annual foreign assistance, alongside what the Trump administration characterizes as an endorsement of free-market principles as the primary vehicle for global development.

Ambassador Mike Waltz also previewed the effort during testimony before the Senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday.

Suozzi pushes Kennedy on White House proposal to cut health department budget

Representative Tom Suozzi, the moderate Democrat from New York, grilled Kennedy about the White House budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which seeks to cut more than $15bn for the 2027 fiscal year, while asking for $441bn more in defense department funding.

“The president is making a lot of tough decisions, and he’s making tough decisions because of problems that he inherited,” Kennedy said, defending the blueprint that will kickstart appropriations talks on Capitol Hill.

“You say he’s not cutting Medicaid. Nobody buys that,” Suozzi replied. “I want to be bipartisan. I want to work together. I’ve applauded you on some of the things that you’re doing that are good, but how does it square that he’s increasing the defense budget by 500 billion and cutting money for NIH and CDC?”

The health secretary insisted that Donald Trump has done “more to protect public health any president” and blamed Democrats for what he describes as a “chronic disease epidemic”.

“All happened in the past four years of the Biden administration?” Suozzi snapped back

Melody Schreiber

Kennedy’s hearing before the House Ways and Means committee is back from recess. An explosive moment took place a short while ago. Representative Steven Horsford, a Democrat from Nevada, spoke about his constituents’ struggle to access health care. “Calm down, congressman,” Kennedy said.

“Don’t tell me to calm down. Health care is personal to me,” Horsford said. “If you can’t answer basic questions, then maybe come prepared next time.”

Kennedy responded that Horsford was getting upset because he didn’t “have much to say”.

RFK Jr’s hearing is now in recess so lawmakers can cast votes.

Earlier, the health and human services secretary had a heated exchange with Democratic representative Terri Sewell, of Alabama, who pressed Kennedy on his reported remarks that black children would benefit from “wellness farms” where they could be “re-parented” while weaning off psychiatric medications.

“Every black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, on SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented, to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens,” Kennedy reportedly said on the 19Keys podcast in June 2024. “You’ll actually have to talk to people.”

Today, Kennedy said he doubted he said that, adding that he didn’t know what “re-parent” means.

“Our nation has a long and painful history of separating Black children from their families,” Sewell said, referring to slavery, Jim Crow laws and systemic racial discrimination in policing and child welfare.

House Republicans narrowly block latest bid to rein in Trump Iran war powers

The House of Representatives backed Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran on Thursday, narrowly voting to block a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the war until hostilities are authorized by Congress.

The measure was defeated by 214 to 213 in the Republican-majority chamber, a day after a similar measure was blocked in the Senate for the fourth time. The vote was almost exclusively along party lines, with every Republican except one (Thomas Massie) opposing the resolution, and one (Warren Davidson) voting present. One Democrat (Jared Golden) voted against it.

Federal law requires congressional approval to continue military actions for more than 60 days. The US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February. Some Senate Republicans signaled yesterday that they may reassess their thinking on this issue if the war reaches 60 days.

Further to that, Trump has said he’s invited the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to the White House for the countries’ first high-level talks since 1983.

He wrote on Truth Social:

In addition to the statement just issued, I will be inviting the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, and the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, to the White House for the first meaningful talks between Israel and Lebanon since 1983, a very long time ago.

Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly!

Trump announces Israel-Lebanon 10 day ceasefire

A short while ago, Donald Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon will begin a ten-day ceasefire from 5pm EST.

In a post on Truth Social, he said he had spoken to the leaders of both countries today and claimed this would be the “tenth war” he has “solved”.

He wrote:

I just had excellent conversations with the Highly Respected President Joseph Aoun, of Lebanon, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel. These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE at 5 P.M. EST.

On Tuesday, the two Countries met for the first time in 34 years here in Washington, D.C., with our Great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. I have directed Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Razin’ Caine, to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a Lasting PEACE.

It has been my Honor to solve 9 Wars across the World, and this will be my 10th, so let’s, GET IT DONE!

Israel, meanwhile, has no plans to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon during the ceasefire, an Israeli security official has told Reuters.

Israel’s punishing bombing campaign and ground invasion of Lebanon has killed more than 2,100 people, injured over 7,100 and displaced over 1.2 million.

My colleague Tom Ambrose is blogging all the latest developments:

Melody Schreiber

Back at Robert F Kennedy Jr’s hearing, representative Blake Moore, a Republican from Utah, spoke of his 10-year-old, Winnie, who is neurodivergent.

When the Trump administration incorrectly said Tylenol use in pregnancy causes autism, he said, “My wife was hurt.” She felt responsible, though they don’t recall if she even took the pain reliever during pregnancy.

“That was a hurtful moment for her,” Moore said, before encouraging Kennedy to continue looking for the causes of autism, which research shows has a strong genetic component.

During his hearing before House lawmakers, Robert F Kennedy Jr faced questions about the decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to end the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

Congresswoman Judy Chu, a California Democrat, pushed the health secretary about the move, calling it “incredibly harmful”. Many doctors, including Republican senator Bill Cassidy, a liver specialist by training, have warned that universal innoculation is incredibly effective since hepatits B is very infectious for children and can lead to long-term complications.

Kennedy, however, maintained that babies “essentially have zero risk unless their mother is infected”.

The health secretary said that “parents can assess the risk themselves” and the “state should not make that choice for them”.

Medical experts warn that a negative test result during pregnancy does not guarantee the child will not be infected with the hepatitis B. They point to both false negative results, but also the posibilty that mothers could contract the virus after screening.

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Arrest over push of woman into bus's path in 2017

Published

58 minutes ago

June 15, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

A 44-year-old man is in custody over the incident where a woman appeared to be shoved into the path of a bus.

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World Cup 2026: Fifa urged to remove official over hand gesture; teams hit back at Ceferin; Iran arrive in US – live | World Cup 2026

Published

2 hours ago

June 15, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

Key events

More now on the hand gesture story mentioned earlier. Fifa’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup has called for a video assistant referee to be removed for appearing to make a hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign.

“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” the Fare network, a longtime partner of Fifa and Uefa, the European football governing body, to monitor racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games, said in a statement. “Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” Fare said in a statement, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”

Kick-off times are more friendly for the UK viewer today. Spain v Cape Verdi at 5pm and Belgium v Egypt at 8pm. But we need to think globally so that’s 3pm for Cape Verdi viewers cheering on their team while in Egypt it’ll be 10pm for those tuning in to see if Mo Salah can inspire his team to victory over the Belgians.

The biggest test for the UK viewer today is Iran v New Zealand at 2am BST. In Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch that’ll be 1pm while in Tehran, Mashhad and Karaj it’s a less palatable 4.30am.

Thanks Sarah. As for World Cup songs, this one from the German 1990 squad always sticks in my mind. While England took the genre to a new level with New Order and John Barnes’ rap, the Germans very much went down the traditional route. A singer that looks like a cross between Chris de Burgh and Thomas Muller, Karl-Heinz Riedle on maracas, one or two playing air saxophone. Pleasingly dreadful.

The Germans’ response to New Order

I am off to grab some food and so I leave you in the hands of Dave Tindall who will take you through the next few hours of news. I’ll be back later on.

From requests of your favourite football songs to another on if you live in a World Cup host city. We want to hear from you if you have football teams in town from the atmosphere to how it is affecting business. Use the form on this page to get in touch:

We have another shout for the best/worst football song and I can’t decide which side of the forward slash this one belongs on. Graeme Neill said:

Timely given yesterday evening’s match. Japan’s Cornelius and his utterly bonkers Ball in Kick Off is worth a listen:

France will kick-off their tournament against Senegal on Tuesday and to say they have attacking quality is an understatement. The team boasts players like the captain, Kylian Mbappé, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Cherki but they all have a role to play, according to Adrien Rabiot. Read more:

Jacob Steinberg

The cat is well truly out of the bag. Nobody expected the conversation to be quite so revealing when Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers sat on the Lions’ Den sofa last week. Content controlled by the Football Association was an unlikely place for Bellingham to drop a few truth bombs, but the England midfielder was not minded to hold back when it was time to discuss his experience at Euro 2024.

“It didn’t feel like there was any kind of hierarchy,” the 22-year-old said. “I think at the Euros we got some things a little bit wrong off the pitch. I don’t feel like the group connected as well as it could have – for a number of reasons.”

Fifa urged to remove official over hand gesture

Fifa have been urged to remove a video review official who appeared to make a white supremacy hand gesture during Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao.

The governing body’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup called for Shaun Evans from Australia to be removed from the tournament.

The gesture was also spotted by several fans who posted about it on social media.

“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” the Fare network said.

Fifa are yet to comment on the situation.

There have been some sights at the World Cup but Scotland fans taking over Fenway Park is one that has been one of the most surreal. The Boston Red Sox lost 6-4 to the Texas Rangers but Scotland fans stayed long after the game was over singing “super John McGinn” and during the match there was a rendition of “yes sir, I can boogie”.

Photograph: Mark Stockwell/AP

Anil Patel has emailed:

This absolute banger wasn’t attached to any particular team but is one of the best themes out there.

This is a great shout and a fun fact for you about it, it was initially written to be a baseball anthem. Some baseball news coming your way soon…

If anyone is unsure of the song I referenced, here it is:

Football songs can be iconic or occasionally cringey, that one with Dizzee Rascal and James Cordon comes to mind for the latter for me. What are your best/worst anthems for a major tournament? Get in touch and let me know.

England may have banished some penalty shootout demons in the last few major tournaments but the question of who would step up to take one is one that will always be asked. One such player who said he would take on is Eberechi Eze, despite missing one in the Champions League final. Have a read of what he said:

There will be many questions raised at this World Cup. Who will win the trophy? Who will claim the Golden Boot? What will the next standout moment be? But there is another question that has been answered in the following piece: Where have the WAGs gone?

Matt Hughes

Fox will not face any punishment from Fifa for breaking the governing body’s advertising rules during the opening game of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa last week.

The US broadcaster broke Fifa’s strict guidelines for showing commercials during hydration breaks on the first occasion they were in operation by returning to the live action 10 seconds after play had resumed during the second half at Mexico City Stadium.

Fifa’s tournament regulations, which were given to all rights holders two months ago, state that while broadcasters can show ads during hydration breaks they must return to the match 30 seconds before play resumes.

Sometimes a team needs a player to have some standout performances to jump start a tournament and Jordan Henderson believes that player for England will be Jude Bellingham. Henderson said:

I’m sure he will have a big impact for us in this tournament. I can remember five years ago I gave him his first cap, it was away at Middlesbrough. How much he’s grown, as a player and as a person since then, is incredible really. I had a good idea when I first saw him playing and training, and the way he was.

I think everybody forgets how young he is. We do rondos and it’s the youngest in, and there’s people that I think should be going in before him, but he’s always one of the first in the middle to go in. It just reminds us how young he is. I honestly couldn’t speak highly enough of him.

Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

The travel at this tournament has grabbed more than a few headlines so far and there is another one pertaining to Australia. The Socceroos beat Turkey 2-0 in their opening game with their second against one of the co-hosts, the US, on Friday. Their focus will be on that game but recovery is also high on their list. Read more here:

There have already been so many historic moments at this tournament, including Scotland’s first World Cup win in 36 years. Mo Salah is hoping to replicate the moment and end Egypt’s long wait of 92 years for a victory at the tournament. The team have their first game against Belgium today to try and make history:

Spain, who start their campaign today against Cabo Verde, are among the favourites to win the World Cup after their European Championship success in 2024. Here’s a piece on how the team are embracing the tag and how they are using one trophy-winning tournament to potentially lift another:

Uruguay will take on Saudia Arabia later today but their travel was delayed amid challenges across the tournament.

The team’s initial flight from Mexico was cancelled with their replacment delayed. The Uruguay captain, José María Giménez, described the situation as “difficult”.

There are more games to be played today with another four in store. The details for those kick-off times and match-ups are below but do get in touch to let me know what your World Cup routine is. Are you having to get up early to watch the games? Or are you in a time zone where you can get home from work and watch back-to-back football until it’s time for bed? Email me and let me know, here are today’s fixtures:

Spain v Cabo Verde (5pm BST, 12pm ET, 9am PT)
Belgium v Egypt (8pm BST, 3pm ET, 12pm PT)
Saudi Arabia v Uruguay (11pm BST, 6pm ET, 3pm PT)
Iran v New Zealand (2am BST, 9pm ET, 6pm PT)

So what happened in the matches yesterday? Four took place with the biggest win coming in Germany’s 7-1 dismantling of Curaçao. The island nation will be disappointed with the result but they also made history as they scored their first-ever World Cup goal. That came from Livano Comenencia, who plays his club football for Zürich. Have a read of that report and others for all the latest action on pitch:

Čeferin criticised for ‘uninteresting’ comment

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin was criticised by multiple nations from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean after reportedly saying the expanded World Cup creates “uninteresting” matches.

According to Zurnal 24, the boss said at a conference last Monday: “We have a huge number of matches that are completely uninteresting.”

The associations of Cape Verde, Congo, Curaçao, Haiti, Jordan and Uzbekistan released a joint statement, which was in solidarity with the federations of Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

It said: “Football does not belong to a select group of nations. Its strength comes from its universality,” the statement said. “For many countries, participation in the FIFA World Cup is not only a sporting achievement. It is a moment that inspires a generation, accelerates football development and creates memories that last a lifetime.”

Photograph: Toya Sarno Jordan/FIFA/Getty Images

Ben Fisher

The Iran striker Mehdi Taremi has said the controversy and disruption surrounding their involvement at the World Cup undermines Fifa’s message of peace and conceded he felt the tension before arriving in Los Angeles on the eve of their opener, hours before a peace deal was announced. For the first time since the competition’s inception, a host nation has received a country with which it is at war.

On Sunday Iran flew to LA from Tijuana, Mexico, where they were relocated amid an ongoing row over visas, but are expected to face opposition from Iranians, many of whom believe the national team do not represent the country. Iran has been beset by problems in the buildup to the tournament, with several officials denied entry to the US.

Preamble

Hello and welcome to today’s World Cup news blog where we bring you the latest updates from the global event being hosted across the US, Canada and Mexico.

Any breaking news, team updates or reflections on what has happened so far will be all here for you to feast on, no matter what you are doing with your Monday.

Please do get in touch too, we always like to hear from readers. Potentially on the best underdog story at the World Cup or any quirky predictions you may have for the tournament.

Amongst several stories surrounding the competition today is Iran’s arrival in the US. The team landed on Sunday before they take on New Zealand.

More details on that story will be with you shortly, as well as the reports from the games that took place yesterday to catch up on all the latest action.

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