Iran calls for end to Western impunity for ‘Israel’ after ICJ ruling
Al Mayadeen | October 25, 2025
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has called for an end to the “chronic impunity” granted to “Israel” and its supporters, following a new International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion that sharply censures Tel Aviv for breaching international humanitarian law and obstructing UN aid operations in Gaza.
The ICJ opinion, issued on October 22, reaffirmed that as an occupying power, “Israel” is legally obliged to cooperate with UN agencies, including UNRWA, to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip. The court stressed that “Israel” is “under a negative obligation not to impede the provision of these supplies,” and found that its restrictions on food, water, and medicine violate international law.
The judges further concluded that “Israel” failed to substantiate its allegations that UNRWA employees are affiliated with Hamas, and that the agency remains indispensable to humanitarian operations in Gaza. The opinion reiterated “Israel’s” obligations under the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect civilians and ensure the population’s basic survival needs.
Ending Impunity
In a post on X, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the ICJ’s ruling once again exposes “the undeniable truth that the Israeli regime continues to be the tremendous violator of each and every norm of international humanitarian law.” He noted that the court reaffirmed “Israel’s” duty to guarantee access to essential goods and services for Palestinians under occupation and “must not obstruct the provision of such supplies.”
Baghaei added that “Israel’s” persistent defiance of international rulings reflects a broader culture of impunity sustained by Western powers. “The chronic impunity granted by the powers that support and defend Israel must come to an end,” he said, calling for international accountability.
He also referred to the ICJ’s earlier opinions, including the July 2024 ruling that declared “Israel’s” occupation of Palestinian territories “unlawful” and demanded its immediate cessation. The court is currently reviewing South Africa’s case accusing “Israel” of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention through its conduct in Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, “Israel’s” war since October 7, 2023, has killed 68,519 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 170,000 others.
BIRTH CONTROL BACKLASH
The HighWire with Del Bigtree | October 23, 2025
Pfizer faces over a thousand lawsuits from women after its popular birth control drug, Depo-Provera, was linked to brain tumors. As the UN releases a report on the global fertility crisis, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is moving to allow pharmacists to dispense birth control without a doctor’s prescription.
US as Israel’s indispensable partner and accomplice in Gaza genocide
By Elham Abedini | Press TV | October 24, 2025
In the aftermath of the Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza that began on October 7, 2023, mass demonstrations across the United States shattered any remaining illusions about Washington’s ironclad relationship with Israel.
Protesters openly condemned US economic and military assistance to the Israeli regime, the extensive trade between the two, and Washington’s all-encompassing and unconditional political support for Tel Aviv.
This is an issue the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has repeatedly highlighted in recent years.
In his most recent speech, he reminded the world that “without a doubt, the United States is the principal partner in the Gaza war.”
He has previously referred to the US and the Zionist regime as a “criminal gang,” describing Washington as a definitive accomplice to Israel’s genocidal crimes.
This statement reflects a broader historical pattern: Washington’s deep and evident complicity in Israel’s wars—military, financial, political, intelligence-based, and even in shaping the narratives.
It is important to examine the various aspects and layers of this partnership.
Military partnership
Since the launch of the genocidal war on Gaza over two years ago, Washington has acted not as a neutral mediator but as a direct military partner of Israel.
According to ABC News, the United States has provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel since October 2023.
In May 2025, Israel’s ministry of military affairs confirmed that 90,000 tons of weapons and equipment had been delivered from the US via 800 cargo flights and 140 ships, a supply line that sustained the bombardment of Gaza.
Israel remains one of the world’s largest aggregate recipients of American arms.
As of April 2025, it held 751 active Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases with a total value of about $39 billion, and it alone enjoys a special exemption allowing the use of US grant money to buy from Israeli rather than American contractors.
Before the latest war, American aid constituted roughly 20 percent of Israel’s military budget. Both sides also co‑finance $500 million annually in joint missile‑defense projects—Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow I‑III, Iron Beam—at every stage from research and development to production. Lockheed Martin’s participation in Iron Beam epitomizes this fusion.
Only days after the genocidal war began on October 7, 2023, American carriers Gerald R. Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower moved into the eastern Mediterranean.
During the twelve‑day war of aggression imposed on Iran, US naval and air‑defense assets even intercepted missiles aimed at the Zionist entity, expending 20 percent of America’s THAAD stockpile—nearly $800 million in cost.
Israel Hayom confirmed hundreds of aerial refueling missions performed by US tankers to sustain Israeli fighter jets attacking Iran, while over 30 additional KC‑135 and KC‑46 aircraft were redeployed from bases in Europe and the US to that theater.
At the same time, the Al‑Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the biggest American military base in West Asia, functioned as a command‑and‑control hub transferring early‑warning data from its AN/TPY‑2 radars directly to Israeli systems.
Economic reinforcement
Economically, Israel has long been the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid, surpassing $300 billion (inflation‑adjusted) in total assistance.
After the events of October 7, 2023, US Congress adopted three packages worth $16.3 billion in additional support. These included the April 2024 supplemental of $8.7 billion and annual $3.8 billion tranches under the 10‑year MOU framework, of which $6.7 billion funded missile systems.
US has also offered $9 billion in sovereign loan guarantees, facilitating Israel’s issuance of $5 billion in “war bonds”—purchased by US state and municipal investors—at below‑market rates to finance operations in Gaza.
Meanwhile, through USAID and the US Department of Energy, Washington intensified joint ventures in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and defense technology, effectively underwriting Israel’s economic and tech sustainability.
Political patronage
Politically and diplomatically, the US has provided a protective shield to the child-murdering regime, wielded its veto in the UN Security Council at least six times (most recently September 2025) to block calls for ceasefire, humanitarian access, or accountability. This ensured Israel’s strategic freedom of action.
When the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former military affairs minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, Washington imposed sanctions on five ICC judges and prosecutors (February 2025) and later warned member states against executing the warrants, threatening economic retaliation.
Trump administration simultaneously withdrew US funding from several UN bodies—including the Human Rights Council, UNESCO, and UNRWA—under the pretext of “anti‑Israeli bias,” while pressing Arab and Muslim governments to normalize ties with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords framework.
One of its first acts was rescinding sanctions on violent settler groups in the occupied West Bank.
Intelligence collaboration
Immediately afterthe events or October 7, Pentagon sent US Special Operations units and intelligence officers to the occupied territories to assist in missions to rescue captives and targeted killings of top Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar.
During the twelve‑day war on Iran, Israeli intelligence officers were reported inside the Pentagon command center itself, participating in classified briefings and, according to Tucker Carlson’s October 2 2025 broadcast, even issuing directions to American personnel—an extraordinary breach of protocol.
Throughout the war, US intelligence sharing intensified, providing Israel with real‑time surveillance, satellite imagery, and SIGINT.
The private sector also joined in: Microsoft confirmed delivering AI and cloud‑computing services to Israel’s ministry of military affairs as “limited emergency support.”
Media and narrative warfare
Despite the Israeli-American war resulting in nearly 60,000 fatalities in Gaza, and even the UN confirming it’s a genocide, American officials and media figures persist in exonerating Israel, whitewashing its horrendous war crimes.
On CBS 60 Minutes (October 2025), Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner denied that the Gaza bombing campaign constituted genocide—illustrating continued moral cover for Israel’s actions.
In the early days of the war, major US media outlets disseminated fabricated atrocity claims, including the infamous story of “40 beheaded babies.”
Then US-president Joe Biden himself echoed false allegations that Hamas rockets caused the Al‑Ahli Hospital explosion—statements later disproved.
Through repetition of such false narratives, Washington’s political and media elites built a moral firewall around Israel’s conduct, transforming deliberate mass violence into the rhetoric of “self‑defense.”
Across all dimensions—military, economic, political, intelligence, and media—the evidence is overwhelming. US is not a neutral actor but a principal architect and enabler of Israel’s genocidal aggression.
Its resources sustain the war machine, its vetoes erase accountability, its intelligence sharpens the targeting, and its narratives neutralize outrage.
The direct financial commitment in the past two years alone is quantified at over $21.7 billion in direct military aid, supplemented by sovereign guarantees of $9 billion and diplomatic insulation that has prevented any meaningful international intervention or sanctioning mechanism from taking hold.
The structural integration is so deep that the cessation of US support would necessitate an immediate and dramatic operational pause by the Israeli occupation forces due to supply chain dependency on American components.
In moral, political, and legal terms, Washington stands shoulder to shoulder with Tel Aviv, as an indispensable accomplice in war crimes.
Elham Abedini is a Tehran-based international relations analyst.
Why the Putin-Trump summit cancelation is terrible news for Ukraine
By Tarik Cyril Amar | RT | October 24, 2025
There was – or seemed to be – hope for peace for a brief moment. And how deceptive it turned out to be. I was among those cautiously optimistic when we were told just over a week ago that the presidents of Russia and the US, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, had a long and useful phone conversation and were planning to meet in person again.
The ‘Alaska 2.0 summit’, to take place in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, has been called off before it was even properly scheduled, and Russia-US relations have taken further severe hits. Washington has initiated unprecedented sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, which had not been sanctioned before, and dozens of their subsidiaries. All of this accompanied by what seems to be deliberately condescending and offensive rhetoric blaming Russia and its president – and them alone – for the persistent impasse in finding a negotiated solution to the Ukraine conflict – that is, the Western proxy war against Russia.
In reality, of course, it is Washington that can’t stop making U-turns that mess up what could have been a rational if difficult process of making peace. Witness the rather silly way in which Trump and his team have just oscillated between demanding that Ukraine surrender territory not yet taken by Russia and reverting to the pre-Alaska-summit dead-end position that a ceasefire must precede a full peace.
In addition, the Trump administration has been ambiguous at best about another escalation: Trump has denied it rather implausibly, but in reality, Washington seems to have permitted Kiev to carry out long-range strikes with European missiles – in particular, the British Storm Shadow – which include US parts and involve American targeting data: Another serious and provocative escalation.
The one piece of reasonable restraint still in place in Washington at this point is the refusal to transfer Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine (via an eagerly paying NATO-EU Europe, of course). Again, given the second Trump administration’s short but disappointing history, there is no reason to consider this refusal dependable and permanent. Ukraine’s dated leader, Vladimir Zelensky, has already boasted that he has “not yet” got his hands on the Tomahawks. It’s as if Trump enjoys being paraded as fickle and playable by the same man he regularly humiliates in public. What an odd relationship.
The NATO-EU Europeans, meanwhile, have stalled on their much-vaunted plan for an interest-free ‘loan’ – not really the right term for money that will never be paid back – of yet another €140 billion, using frozen Russian assets as pseudo-collateral.
‘Pseudo’, because the dirty little not-quite-secret of the scheme is that in the end, it will be EU taxpayers once again who will really foot the bill. Indeed, for those with eyes to see, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has long admitted as much, if in a venue most of his voters do not read and in terms clearly chosen to obfuscate: “budgetary guarantees from member states… [to] be replaced by collateralization under the EU’s long-term budget.” Translation: You, EU citizens, will pay, but in a way we make obscure enough for you to miss.
For now, the fortuitous inability of the EU to agree on how to spread the rather insane financial and political risks of this double-steal move – from Russia and from EU taxpayers – and ultra-corrupt Ukraine’s brazen demand to get this money in no-questions-asked-just-trust-us mode have delayed the realization of the scheme. That, too, like the US refusal to deliver Tomahawks to Kiev, is a tiny remnant of reason that may not last long. The new deadline set for a decision is December. If Eastern European hardliners and Russophobes, such as Poland’s Donald ‘I love terrorist attacks on vital infrastructure as long as they hit Germany’ Tusk, keep setting the tone, the loan operation to bury the euro’s credibility is likely to go ahead soon.
The EU has certainly not lost its appetite for measures that prolong a meat-grinder war for Ukrainians and damage the economy and general well-being of the inhabitants of NATO-EU-land. The 19th sanctions packet has been launched and hardball methods have been used to cajole resisters inside the EU – Hungary and Slovakia – to submit to a total cut-off of Russian gas and oil. These methods may very well already include more Nord Stream-style terrorist attacks, with refineries processing Russian oil blowing up at an astonishing pace now.
In sum, while official Kiev may celebrate, the news for ordinary Ukrainians is horrible: With the US fully reverting to a proxy-war course and the EU never even thinking about abandoning it, the war is now set to continue into next year. Unless there are further major reversals, Ukraine faces a terrible winter, and after that, a spring that will see renewed Russian ground offensives (at the latest).
Meanwhile, NATO figurehead and professional Trump sycophant Mark Rutte, comfortably seated next to his US boss, has said, in essence, that he does not give a damn about the fact that less than a quarter of Ukrainians want this war to continue. Former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller recommends shipping young male Ukrainians who have fled to Poland off to the front. In short, the cannon fodder must flow.
The West started its systematic and reckless policy of exposing Ukraine at the Bucharest summit in 2008, almost 20 years ago. What we see now is that it will not change course even in the face of the horrendous fiasco that policy has already predictably incurred. The mad and vicious strategy of sacrificing Ukraine to damage Russia continues. Worse, the more it fails, the more it is being escalated, in the manner of compulsive gamblers who cannot stop until they have lost absolutely everything. Ukraine’s tragedy is that it is its land and its people they are betting.
Tarik Cyril Amar is a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.
Trump’s Russia sanctions could backfire – former Biden adviser
RT | October 24, 2025
New US sanctions on Russian oil producers could end up benefiting Moscow by driving up global energy prices, a former White House energy adviser has said.
The administration of US President Donald Trump announced this week that it is sanctioning Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, while warning of secondary penalties for companies that continue to do business with them.
Amos Hochstein, who previously served as senior energy policy adviser under former President Joe Biden, told The Financial Times that the move might not have the intended economic impact.
“If prices rise significantly, any revenue loss Russia suffers from reduced sales will be offset by higher prices,” he explained. “And if prices climb too much, Russia profits while American consumers and our allies end up paying more.”
According to the FT, Trump likely sees the sanctions as a less risky alternative to approving deliveries of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. With oil prices currently below the levels seen during Biden’s presidency, Washington appears to believe it has leeway to act without triggering a sharp domestic oil price spike, according to the article published on Friday.
Commenting on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that as a major producer, Russia plays a crucial role in maintaining stability in the global energy markets, calling the current supply-and-demand balance beneficial to both producers and consumers.
“Disrupting this balance is a thankless task – including for those attempting to do so,” he said.
Putin also warned that any use of Tomahawk missiles against Russia would provoke a “truly staggering” response.
Kiev claims that the long-range weapons could be a gamechanger for its war effort, but Russian officials have warned that the use of nuclear-capable weapons, which Moscow says would require input from American military personnel, would cause a major escalation.
Volkswagen faces chip crisis after Chinese factory seized by EU state – Bild
RT | October 23, 2025
Germany’s largest carmaker, Volkswagen, could stop production at a key plant due to a shortage of semiconductors caused by the seizure of a Chinese-owned chipmaker by the Netherlands, Bild has reported, citing anonymous sources.
The Dutch government took control of the Nexperia factory in Nijmegen late last month, citing intellectual property and security concerns. The New York Times reported last week after reviewing documents from an Amsterdam court that the move had been made following pressure from US officials. Nexperia’s parent company, Wingtech, was blacklisted by Washington in 2024 as part of an ongoing trade war with China.
Beijing responded in early October by banning Nexperia from exporting finished chips from China, which are widely used in the electronic control units of VW vehicles.
Bild reported on Wednesday that Volkswagen – which also owns the Skoda, Seat, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Bentley brands – does not currently appear to have an alternative to Nexperia chips.
Sources in the company told the paper that due to the lack of semiconductors it plans to stop production at its plant in Wolfsburg from next Wednesday. Volkswagen Golf models will be affected first, followed by other vehicles, they said.
If the situation does not improve, work could also be halted at Volkswagen’s facilities in Emden, Hanover, Zwickau, and elsewhere, a person familiar with the matter said.
According to the report, the carmaker has started talks with the German authorities about a state-backed reduced working hours scheme for tens of thousands of its employees.
Bild warned that the chip crisis could also impact other carmakers in the country. Representatives for BMW and Mercedes told the paper that they were analyzing the situation. The German automobile industry has already been suffering due to high energy costs as a result of EU sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict and increased US tariffs.
A spokesman for Volkswagen’s Zwickau plant told AFP that the report by Bild was “incorrect.” However, according to an internal letter seen by the media, the company acknowledged that “impact on production cannot be ruled out in the short term” due to a semiconductor shortage.
Russia-US summit postponed – Putin
RT | October 23, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that the planned Budapest summit with US counterpart Donald Trump is being postponed. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, he noted that the proposal was initially made by the American side.
The Russian leader admitted that it would have been a mistake to approach the summit without the necessary preparations, suggesting that a meeting might still take place at a later date. Putin emphasized that dialogue is always better than confrontation, arguments, and the continuation of war.
A Russia-US summit, which was planned to be held in the Hungarian capital, was announced last week by both the Kremlin and the White House after a phone call between Trump and Putin. On Wednesday, however, Trump announced that the meeting would be postponed. On the same day, Washington imposed sanctions on two major Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.
Commenting on the sanctions, Putin described them as an “unfriendly move” that does not boost Russia-US relations.
At the same time, he noted that the new restrictions would not have a significant impact on the Russian economy.
Putin also stated that the US sanctions are yet another attempt by Washington to exert pressure on Moscow and stressed that “no self-respecting country ever does anything under pressure.”
He further suggested that there are certain people in the US administration that have been encouraging Trump to restrict Russian oil exports and called for considering who these individuals actually work for.
Putin insisted that Russia and the US actually have many areas in which they could cooperate if they would move away from pressure tactics and toward serious conversations about the long term.
George Beebe: US-Russia Agreement to End NATO Expansionism or Accept an Ugly Russian Victory
Glenn Diesen | October 23, 2025
George Beebe is Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute, and the former CIA Director for Russia Analysis. Beebe argues that the window of opportunity for an agreement that ends NATO expansionism is closing, and the alternative will be an ugly Russian victory.
City Health Officials Tied to Soros Urge Public to ‘Get Vaccinated,’ Blame Policy Shifts for ‘Deadly Outbreaks’
By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | October 22, 2025
A coalition of city public health officials with ties to pharma investor George Soros is urging the public to “get vaccinated.”
In an open letter, the Big Cities Health Coalition accused federal officials of driving down vaccination rates and fueling an increase in dangerous infectious disease outbreaks by making “repeated false claims” about vaccines.
They wrote:
“Vaccines have eradicated devastating diseases and saved millions of lives. They keep classrooms safe and schools open. They allow children to spend time with friends and enjoy their favorite activities. They help parents and caregivers work to support their families.
The letter also addresses recent changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended vaccine schedule for children and adults, though it does not mention U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or President Donald Trump by name.
The coalition, which represents 35 U.S. cities and about a fifth of the U.S. population, “has been working together to exchange ideas and address public health threats for more than two decades,” according to CNN, which first reported on the letter Monday.
Participating cities include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Seattle.
The group’s financial documents reveal support from billionaire financier Soros. Soros has also invested heavily in the pharmaceutical industry, including COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and Gilead Sciences, which produces remdesivir, a controversial antiviral treatment frequently given to COVID-19 patients.
Coalition attempted to scrub funding from Soros- and Gates-linked groups
The Big Cities Health Coalition was founded in 2002, according to a now-deleted webpage. The current version of its website contains little more than the group’s recent letter.
Links to the organization’s 2023 and 2024 annual reports are no longer active, but can be found on the Internet Archive and elsewhere. The reports show that Soros and other major healthcare-related organizations, including groups connected to Bill Gates, finance the coalition.
According to its 2023 annual report, the Open Society Foundations, founded by Soros, funded the coalition. Other funders include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente and the CDC Foundation.
In 2022, the Soros Economic Development Fund, an extension of the Open Society Foundations, partnered with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and MedAccess, a pharma-industry broker connected to the U.K. government, to invest $200 million in developing COVID-19 vaccines.
The Gates Foundation is a major funder of Gavi.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has financially supported FactCheck.org, which previously flagged COVID-19-related “misinformation” for Facebook.
The CDC Foundation’s donor list includes the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and vaccine manufacturers including Pfizer, Merck and Johnson & Johnson.
According to internal medicine physician Dr. Clayton J. Baker, the coalition’s annual reports reveal clear conflicts of interest.
“It’s informative to look into the funding of organizations like the Big Cities Health Coalition,” Baker said. He noted that Kaiser Permanente paid patients $50 to get COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic and fired employees who refused the shots, then tried to rehire them later when short-staffed.
According to the coalition’s Form 990 for fiscal year 2023, the organization spent $875,540 on “communications,” including engaging with “media, and federal policymakers about the importance of supporting local public health and health equity.”
The group also spent $433,703 on its “urban health agenda” and $147,397 on “equity/racial justice.”
The coalition’s members “meet periodically with Congressional staff” and “other federal government officials,” the filing states.
The organization’s schedule of contributors is listed as “restricted” in the filing.
Coalition blames unvaccinated for ‘deadly’ and ‘more frequent’ outbreaks
In its letter, the coalition blamed “declining” vaccination rates for “deadly outbreaks of diseases like measles and polio” and claimed that the outbreaks are “becoming more frequent.”
CNN reported that measles exposure at a South Carolina school led authorities to quarantine over 100 unvaccinated students, illustrating “one of the many reasons why Big Cities Health Coalition emphasizes the importance of vaccination.”
Research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., said that invoking measles and polio is a “manipulative framing device.” He said:
“Outbreaks of these diseases occur almost exclusively in highly vaccinated populations where immunity has waned, or where sanitation and migration variables are misattributed as ‘vaccine refusal.’
“By portraying every outbreak as proof of anti-vaccine rhetoric, the coalition seeks to recapture moral high ground based on presumptions of safety, without addressing the underlying immunologic and ecological data.”
The coalition’s letter also warned of a potential uptick of COVID-19 and flu infections in the “rapidly approaching” cold and flu season.
However, Baker said the coalition’s letter “contains absolutely zero genuine evidence” to support its claims. He said:
“The coalition’s statement is embarrassingly inane. They say, ‘We are united behind a simple message: get vaccinated.’ Vaccinated with what? They make no distinction between necessary or unnecessary, safe or unsafe, effective or ineffective shots. Just ‘get vaccinated.’ That’s like saying ‘get medicated.’ This is the asinine level of rhetoric to which vaccine fanatics are currently reduced.”
Emily Hilliard, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), dismissed the coalition’s concerns.
“HHS is restoring the doctor-patient relationship so people can make informed decisions about their health with their providers,” Hilliard told The Defender.
Letter rooted in data, not ‘political ideology,’ coalition members say
Coalition members told CNN their letter is an attempt to restore public trust in science, not an effort to politicize public health recommendations.
“We have to make our public health decisions based on data and not on political ideology,” Dr. Philip Huang, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department, told CNN. “We have to be the voices for that science and reason.”
Huang said the current CDC administration “seems more driven by political ideology than actual data and science, so it undermines the trust.”
Lyons-Weiler disputed the coalition’s claims, calling the letter “the opening salvo in an attempt to rebuild centralized narrative control over immunization policy.”
“Language such as ‘talk with your doctor’ and ‘tune out political noise’ is designed to sound apolitical while reinstating top-down message discipline,” he said.
CDC changes to vaccine policy spark pushback across U.S.
The coalition “is the latest group to take a strong public stand in support of vaccination as a direct response to concerns that the federal government is limiting access and raising doubts,” CNN reported.
Earlier this month, the CDC updated the childhood immunization schedule to recommend individual-based decision-making regarding COVID-19 vaccination for children 6 months and older, following the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) unanimous vote to adopt the recommendation.
Last month, ACIP also voted to recommend limiting the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, or chickenpox) vaccine to children ages 4 and older. And in June, the committee voted to stop recommending flu shots containing thimerosal — a preservative linked to neurodevelopmental disorders.
In response, 15 Democratic governors launched the Governors Public Health Alliance last week to coordinate their public health efforts independently of national public health agencies.
Previously, four Western states announced the formation of the West Coast Health Alliance, which aims to issue its own immunization guidelines.
In August, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued “evidence-based” recommendations calling for COVID-19 shots for infants, young children and children in “high-risk” groups. In July, the AAP and five other medical organizations sued Kennedy over new COVID-19 vaccine guidance.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
Ukraine conflict now belongs to Trump – ex-Russian president
RT | October 23, 2025
The Ukraine conflict has effectively become US President Donald Trump’s war now that he has positioned himself as an adversary of Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the comment after Trump scrapped plans for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin and imposed new sanctions on Russian oil companies – measures the US leader described as a means to pressure Moscow into concessions.
Writing on social media on Thursday, Medvedev suggested that Trump’s next move would likely involve approving the delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kiev, claiming the US president is “now firmly on the warpath against Russia” and “completely aligned with mad Europe” in that regard.
He argued that Trump had likely been pressured by both domestic and international hawks into taking a hardline stance, rather than acting out of ideological conviction as was the case with his predecessor, Joe Biden. “But now it’s his conflict,” Medvedev concluded, adding that Russia must focus on achieving its objectives militarily rather than through negotiations.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Biden for the escalation of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, insisting that the conflict “would never have happened” had he been in office in 2022.
The US president has a record of abrupt foreign policy reversals, including in his handling of the Ukraine crisis. Hungary, where Trump and Putin had agreed to meet for a new summit, has said that preparations for the meeting remain on track despite the recent tensions.


