Trump's USA

Judiciary
US Supreme Court limits judges' power to block presidential orders

The US Supreme Court is limiting judges' power to block presidential orders, US media reports.

This comes after a district judge blocked an order from Donald Trump to revoke the constitutional right to American citizenship for everyone born in the country, according to AFP.

The Supreme Court wrote in its decision that the ruling does not rule on whether Trump's order violates the constitution as the district judge claimed, but focuses on whether individual judges in lower courts can rule on orders from the executive branch at all. 

Trump promises "lots" of new orders after Supreme Court decision

US President Donald Trump intends to issue a number of new orders after the Supreme Court stopped the possibility for lower courts to block his decisions. He said this during a live press conference on Friday afternoon.

– Now we can quickly continue with our policies and the orders that have been wrongly stopped ... we have a lot, he says.

First of all, he wants to make a new attempt to repeal the constitutional birthright, which gives children born in the United States the right to citizenship in the country. Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court overturned a judge's decision to block a presidential order to repeal the right.

Other presidential orders that have been blocked by courts will also be reissued, Trump said at the press conference.

Health Policy
Kennedy's vaccine panel wants to stop preservatives

A newly appointed vaccine panel in the United States has issued a recommendation to make it illegal to use the preservative thiomersal in flu vaccines. The Guardian reports. Such a change could have global consequences and affect future vaccine availability.

The panel has recently been completely reorganized by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy JR, who has repeatedly spread unscientific messages about vaccines. The previous 17 members were replaced by eight who are all ideologically allied with the minister.

There are no demonstrable negative effects of thimerosal, according to the Swedish Public Health Agency. The agency writes that medicines with thimerosal contain about 25 micrograms of mercury, which is equivalent to two or three servings of freshwater fish. Today, thimerosal is often avoided in vaccines for environmental reasons. 

US ends support for global vaccination alliance

The US is ending support for the international vaccine alliance Gavi. This is reported by several media outlets.

The announcement comes after US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy JR, a long-time vaccine skeptic, gave a sharp speech at a donor conference for Gavi. There he accused the health organization of ignoring the risks of vaccines, according to Politico, which has seen the speech.

Kennedy claimed, among other things, that Gavi and the WHO silenced dissenting opinions during the pandemic. He also expressed doubts about vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, which research has found to be safe and effective.