By Peter Aitken is a Newsweek Politics Editor based in New York. His focus is domestic U.S. politics, but he has experience covering Foreign Affairs, Business and Technology. Peter joined Newsweek in 2024 from Fox News Digital and had previously freelanced at Business Insider. He has interviewed such notable figures as Benjamin Netanyahu, Gen. David…
Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith excoriated Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for suggesting that antidepressants could have caused the deadly shooting at a church in Minneapolis. “I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do,” Smith wrote. “Just shut up….
The National Institutes of Health is bucking DOGE in a move that could mark a sign of Elon Musk’s fading influence in Washington. An email sent to NIH staff Thursday instructed employees to ignore the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to measure worker productivity and limit travel and purchases on company cards, Politico reported. The…
The DOJ has launched a civil fraud investigation into UnitedHealthcare over its billing practices in the Medicare Advantage program, according to the Wall Street Journal. The investigation focuses on whether the healthcare giant artificially inflated patient diagnoses to increase its monthly payments from the government. In a statement, UnitedHealth Group called reporting by the Journal…
Even though we’ve lately had a surfeit of voting results and dissections thereof, here come some more. In last week’s Attention-Whore Index competition, top honors went to the incoming First Felon, Donald Trump (44.3 percent). Two increasingly bizarre objects of Trump’s bromantic affections were next, Elon Musk (17.1 percent) and Tucker Carlson (14 percent). It’s…
Former President Mike Pence is urging Senate Republicans to block Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s nomination as the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary. President-elect Donald Trump, Pence’s former running mate, announced Kennedy’s nomination on Thursday, a decision that has raised concerns from public health experts. Kennedy, a former 2024 presidential candidate who went on to…