MicroWave

joined 2 years ago
 

A federal court injunction on Monday put a check on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s rapid assault on U.S. vaccine recommendations, but months of turmoil and misinformation have sown doubt about vaccines that will be hard to reverse.

“The ​genie is out of the bottle. We’re going to have to live with that,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease ‌Research and Policy.

The decision, issued in a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and others against Kennedy and the Health Department, reverses key parts of Kennedy's moves to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including reducing the number of shots routinely recommended for children.

 

President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday France would never take part in operations to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, pushing back on comments by Donald Trump that Paris was ‌willing to help.

"We are not party to the conflict and therefore France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context," Macron said at the start of a cabinet meeting to discuss the conflicts in the Middle East.

France has been pushing ⁠on with its own efforts to put together a coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the security situation stabilises and without a U.S. role, French officials have said.

 

Two young people have died amid an outbreak of invasive meningococcal disease in southern England, with 11 other cases also confirmed.

The outbreak is linked to student populations in the city of Canterbury, Kent, according to a statement from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) sent to CNN on Monday.

One of the victims was a high school student at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Faversham. “We are all absolutely devastated,” Headteacher Amelia McIlroy said in a statement sent to CNN on Monday.

 

Iran's new supreme leader has rejected de-escalation proposals conveyed to Tehran by intermediaries, demanding Israel and the United States first be "brought to ​their knees", a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had ‌held his first foreign policy session since being named supreme leader, and had taken a stance for revenge against the U.S. and Israel that was “very tough and serious”, the official said, ​without clarifying whether the leader attended in person or remotely.

The senior official, ​who asked not to be identified, said two intermediary countries had ⁠conveyed proposals to Iran's Foreign Ministry for "reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States". The ​official did not give further details of the proposals or the intermediaries.

 

Trump supporters who backed his promise to avoid new Middle East wars worry Iran’s attacks on shipping are pushing the U.S. toward escalation — and maybe even boots on the ground.

When the U.S. started firing Tomahawk missiles at Iran late last month, many of Donald Trump’s allies hoped it would be a quick, surgical operation, similar to last year’s strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities or the ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January.

Though uneasy, they were reassured by the belief that Trump’s open-ended objectives gave him the flexibility to declare victory whenever he saw fit.

Now, more than two weeks into the campaign, some of those allies believe the president no longer controls how, or when, the war ends. They fear Iran’s attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which have rattled global crude markets and threaten broader economic distress, are boxing Trump into a situation where escalating the conflict — potentially even putting American boots on the ground — becomes the only way to credibly claim victory.

 

“This is not Europe’s war,” the EU tells Washington in a bruising rebuke on Iran even as oil prices rise.

Europe's message to Donald Trump on Monday was clear: We're not helping you secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Foreign ministers from the 27 EU countries gathered in Brussels to discuss the American president’s call for European countries to help secure the narrow waterway, a vital oil shipping channel that Iran has largely blocked in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.

Among the ideas floated was expanding the mandate of the EU’s naval mission — Aspides — to allow European warships to be sent to patrol the strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

 

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has done well in the first round of local elections. But the second round is its Achilles heel, as rivals can team up against it.

The far-right National Rally had reason to hope this month’s French municipal elections would show it now has an unstoppable momentum before the presidential race in 2027.

After all, the party has been on a steady upward trajectory during this election cycle, with polls showing Jordan Bardella, the party’s president, as the frontrunner ahead of next year’s campaign.

But while its candidates did very well in Sunday’s first round, particularly in important southern cities such as Marseille and Toulon, it looks like Marine Le Pen’s troops are still falling short of the decisive breakthrough they seek.

 

Cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm identified as ‘likely source’ of infections across multiple states

Cheese from the country’s largest raw milk distributor have been linked to a multistate E coli outbreak.

Raw cheddar cheese from the California-based company Raw Farm has been identified as the “likely source” of several E coli O157:H7 infections in California, Florida and Texas, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PBS News reported, though no Raw Farm products have tested positive for E coli.

The bacteria strain can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps and acute kidney failure in rare cases, leading to hospitalization and possibly death.

So far, 7 people have fallen ill between September 2025 and February. The majority of illnesses were in children aged three and younger.

 

Exclusive: Fixing a leak can be simple and equivalent to closing a coal power station, making lack of action maddening, say analysts

The world’s worst mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane in 2025 have been revealed by an analysis of satellite data.

The super-polluting plumes from oil and gas facilities have a colossal heating impact on the climate but often result from poor maintenance and can be simple to fix. The assessment found dozens of mega-leaks, each having the same global heating impact as a coal-fired power station.

The researchers said it was “maddening” that such easy action to fight the climate crisis was not being taken, and said people should be angry. Stopping the leaks can even be free, given that captured gas can be sold – methane is the “natural gas” that fires power stations.

 

If confirmed, death would make Larijani the most senior Iranian figure to be killed since Ali Khamenei on first day of war

Israel says it has killed a linchpin of Iranian politics, the national security chief, Ali Larijani, in overnight strikes, a claim that if confirmed would make him the most senior Iranian figure to die in the war since the supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on its first day.

Iran has yet to comment on either claim. If confirmed, Larijani’s death would remove a pivotal figure at the heart of the regime’s political and security establishment at a moment of acute crisis and represent devastating blow.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said a separate strike killed the Basij paramilitary force commander, Gholamreza Soleimani, along with other senior Basij figures.

 

Two players from the Iranian women’s soccer team have joined a practice session with a professional club in Brisbane in their first publicly-shared appearance since it emerged they had been granted asylum in Australia.

Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were pictured smiling and wearing the club’s colors as they posed alongside a women’s elite squad in photos posted to Instagram by the Brisbane Roar on Monday.

The update came as the rest of Iran’s soccer delegation left Malaysia bound for Oman, apparently capping a tumultuous episode that saw Australia’s government offering most of the squad humanitarian visas after the team was knocked out of the Women’s Asian Cup. Seven women initially accepted the asylum offer before five changed their minds and said they would return to Iran.

[–] MicroWave@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

Thanks for this comment. News about Iran seems to bring out extreme personalities lately it seems like.

[–] MicroWave@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Thanks! Appreciate the recognition.

[–] MicroWave@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thanks officer

[–] MicroWave@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Thanks, that’s nice to hear from a fellow longtimer.

[–] MicroWave@lemmy.world 27 points 6 months ago (4 children)
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