Q: Is it true that if President Donald Trump hadn’t defunded the National Weather Service, the death toll in the Texas flooding would have been far lower or nonexistent?
A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS but did reduce the staff by 600 people. Those staffing cuts did not cause the high number of deaths in the flash floods on July 4, experts said. Local forecasting offices were sufficiently staffed and issued timely warnings.
A CDC advisory panel vote to recommend against use of seasonal influenza vaccines containing small amounts of thimerosal followed a presentation that misled on the risks of the rarely used preservative. There isn’t evidence that thimerosal in vaccines is harmful, and studies assessing a variety of health problems, including neurological conditions, have supported its safety.
Q: Are FEMA funds being used to construct an immigrant detention facility in the Everglades?
A: Yes, the immigrant detention facility in Florida, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is being “funded largely” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. The funding does not come from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.
As the Republican budget bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, nears the July 4 deadline set by the White House, lawmakers have been ramping up the rhetoric. We referee the claims from both sides.
In a June 27 ruling, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to partially halt nationwide injunctions blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for certain people born in the U.S. We look at what that may mean for the president’s order going forward.
The location of some enriched uranium is still in question after the U.S. bombed three key nuclear facilities in Iran, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and experts on arms control and global security.
The chair of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly constituted vaccine advisory committee announced in his first meeting that the panel will revisit the longstanding practice of vaccinating all babies against hepatitis B, questioning whether it was “wise” to administer shots “to every newborn before leaving the hospital.” Experts, however, say there are valid reasons to vaccinate babies against hepatitis B, and that it has proven to be safe and very effective.
In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, numerous Democrats claimed the president’s actions were unconstitutional and a violation of the War Powers Resolution. It is a contentious and hotly debated issue not only in Congress but also in academia.
The bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 21 by American B-2 aircraft damaged the sites and set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, but didn’t completely destroy the sites or Iran’s nuclear capabilities, according to experts we spoke with and a classified U.S. intelligence report released on June 24.
Treasury Department data show that revenue from tariffs on imported foreign goods increased substantially in April and May, setting monthly records. But the total is less than half the figure President Donald Trump has cited. At least twice this month, the president has wrongly claimed that the U.S. “brought in $88 billion” from tariffs in “two months.”
