TRUMP REGIME

The Guardian - One of Donald Trump’s new executive orders, which claims there are only two genders, quietly incorporates tenets of fetal personhood – the legal doctrine, pushed by the anti-abortion movement, that life begins at conception and that embryos and fetuses therefore deserve full legal rights and protections.

“‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” reads the order, which was issued just hours after Trump took office on Monday. “‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”

The words “at conception” have set off alarm bells among abortion rights supporters. If fully enacted, fetal personhood would have sweeping repercussions for all US law; not only would it outlaw abortion nationwide, but it could even lead governments to treat abortion as murder and treat people who undergo the procedure as murderers.

NBC News - Nearly all scientific communication coming from the CDC, FDA and other federal health agencies has been stopped until further notice pending a review from Trump’s team. 

NBC News - In his efforts to do away with DEI initiatives, Trump this week revoked an executive order that was aimed at banning discrimination by federal contractors and subcontractors. In addition, federal employees received emails yesterday warning that they could face “adverse consequences” if they do not report on coworkers who work in DEI positions that might have gone unnoticed by government supervisors.  

Daily Beast -States may end up bearing the brunt of natural disaster management instead of benefitting from the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday.“All it does is complicate everything,” Trump said of the agency during a Fox News interview conducted by Sean Hannity in the Oval Office. The topic was raised during a segment on the Los Angeles wildfires, with Trump baselessly claiming that Democrats want federal funds appropriated there but that “they don’t care about North Carolina” in the wake of Hurricane Helene last September.

 NPR - The National Institutes of Health canceled key meetings, leaving researchers across the country concerned. The moves come after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services employees were told on Tuesday to halt all public communications until a Trump appointee could review them.

The meetings include different institutions and timetables and are not easily rescheduled, Dr. Chrystal Starbird, a cancer researcher, told NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin. A delay in these meetings can result in a negative impact on important cancer research. The extent of the cancellations is not clear at this point, but many scientists are worried that biomedical research of all kinds could be disrupted.