RFK Jr defends downsizing health department as protesters disrupt Senate hearing – as it happened

Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:

• Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will not attend what may be the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years, scheduled for Thursday, Reuters reports. Instead, the Kremlin will send a team of technocrats. A US official said the US president would not attend, despite earlier comments suggesting he was considering the trip.

• Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr described the downsizing of his department as necessary cost-cutting measures as he defended his spending plans under Donald Trump’s budget proposal. The plans include an $18bn cut to National Institutes of Health funding and $3.6bn from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy’s back-to-back testimonies before House and Senate committees were his first appearances before lawmakers since his confirmation in February.

• Protesters interrupted Robert F Kennedy Jr’s opening remarks before the Senate health committee this afternoon, shouting: “RFK kills people with Aids!” The health secretary was visibly startled and jumped from his chair when protesters began shouting, before being removed by Capitol police.

• Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, has fired the two highest-ranking officials at the National Intelligence Council just weeks after the council released an assessment that contradicted Donald Trump’s justification for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process. Mike Collins was serving as acting chair of the National Intelligence Council before he was dismissed alongside his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof. They each had more than 25 years of intelligence experience.

• A Russian-born researcher at Harvard University who has been held for weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana has been criminally charged with attempting to smuggle frog embryo samples into the US. Federal prosecutors in Boston announced the smuggling charge against Kseniia Petrova, 31, hours after a federal judge in Vermont heard arguments in a lawsuit she filed that argues the Trump administration has been unlawfully detaining her.

• The Trump administration’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his family have had extensive business interests linked to El Salvador, whose authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has grown close to the White House and who has courted controversy by imprisoning people deported from the US in an aggressive immigration crackdown. El Salvador also plays host to a booming cryptocurrency and new media industry, which has numerous ties to Donald Trump allies who are seeking to make money from various ventures which have sometimes drawn the attention of authorities or ethics watchdogs.

• Donald Trump has doubled down on why he wants to accept a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar, a country where he traveled to today to negotiate business deals, with the US president portraying the $400m aircraft as an opportunity too valuable to refuse. “The plane that you’re on is almost 40 years old,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an Air Force One interview on the Middle East trip, where he is also visiting Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

• Congressional Republicans advanced elements of Donald Trump’s sweeping budget package on Wednesday after a debate that lasted through the night, as a key committee voted along party lines to approve tax cuts that would add trillions of dollars to the national debt. The 26-19 vote by the tax-writing House ways and means committee amounts to an initial victory for Republicans, who still have many hurdles to clear before they can get the sprawling package of tax cuts, spending hikes and safety-net reductions to Trump’s desk to sign into law.

A Russian scientist held in Ice jail was charged with smuggling frog embryos into US.

Cy Neff brings us the full story on the Harvard scientist facing smuggling charges and the possibility of being deported:

A Harvard scientist who has been held in US immigration detention for months was charged on Wednesday with smuggling frog embryos into the United States, and likely faces deportation.

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist and research associate working at Harvard University, was originally detained by immigration officials in February after attempting to enter the United States at Boston Logan international airport.

In a 14 May press release, the US district attorney’s Massachusetts office said smuggling charges can bring sentences of up to 20 years and fines up to $250,000. The press releases alleges that Petrova’s text messages show she knew of the requirement to declare the embryos before entering the United States. Petrova has spent the last three months in a Louisiana detention facility.

Petrova’s lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, called the case “meritless” and questioned the timing of her being transferred into criminal custody, saying it happened after the judge in her lawsuit set a 28 May bail hearing to consider releasing her.

“The charge, filed three months after the alleged customs violation, is clearly intended to make Kseniia look like a criminal to justify their efforts to deport her,” he said in a statement.

Petrova detailed her research and detention experience in a New York Times op-ed this week. Petrova said that she left Russia after being arrested for protesting against the Ukraine war, and found “a paradise for science” at the Harvard Medical School in 2023. Petrova, who also shared Facebook posts supporting the impeachment of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said that she fears deportation to Russia due to her political stances.

Read the full story here:

Avelo Airlines, a budget carrier based in Texas, is under fire from both customers and employees for its new contract with the Trump administration to operate deportation flights, Reuters reports.

As part of his immigration crackdown, Donald Trump has ordered the deportation of Venezuelan migrants – whom he accuses of gang affiliation – to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Avelo, which has been struggling financially, signed a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security last month to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside the US.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents Avelo’s crew, has urged the company to reconsider its decision, which it said would be “bad for the airline”.

“Having an entire flight of people handcuffed and shackled would hinder any evacuation and risk injury or death,” the union said. “We cannot do our jobs in these conditions.”

Anne Watkins, a New Haven, Connecticut, resident, said she has stopped flying with Avelo. She launched an online petition urging travelers to boycott the airline until it ends its Ice flight operations. The petition has garnered more than 38,000 signatures.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, wants his state to stop enrolling more low-income immigrants without legal status in a state-funded healthcare program starting in 2026 and begin charging a monthly premium the following year to those already enrolled.

It is one of several measures proposed by Newsom on Wednesday to help close an additional $12bn deficit, a budget shortcoming the Democratic governor squarely placed on the shoulders of the “Trump slump”.

The decision to cut in the state insurance program is driven by a higher-than-expected price tag on the program and economic uncertainty from federal tariff policies, Newsom said in a Wednesday announcement. The Democratic governor’s move highlights his struggle to protect his liberal policy priorities amid budget challenges in his final years on the job.

California was among one of the first states to extend free healthcare benefits to all poor adults regardless of their immigration status last year, an ambitious plan touted by Newsom to help the nation’s most populous state inch closer to a goal of universal healthcare. But the cost for such expansion ran $2.7bn more than the administration had anticipated.

Here’s more on the measure proposed by the California governor:

RFK Jr orders a mifepristone review as anti-abortion groups push for a ban.

Robert F Kennedy Jr said on Wednesday that he had directed the FDA to review the regulations around the abortion pill mifepristone.

The review, he said, was necessary due to “new data” – data that emerged from a flawed analysis that top US anti-abortion groups are now using to pressure the Trump administration to reimpose restrictions on the abortion pill, if not pull it from the market entirely.

“It’s alarming,” Kennedy told the Missouri senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, during a congressional hearing. “Clearly, it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed.”

The analysis, which has not been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal, came after the Food and Drug Administration commissioner said he was open to reviewing new safety data on the pills, which are used in nearly two-thirds of abortions nationwide.

The conservative organizations are rallying behind a paper published on 28 April by a rightwing thinktank, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which claims there are higher complication rates from taking mifepristone than previously known.

The paper has attracted scrutiny for appearing to dramatically overstate what it characterizes as “serious adverse effects” associated with the pill, according to medical experts. For example, it counts ectopic pregnancies – when an embryo implants somewhere other than the uterine lining – as a serious complication.

Read the full story by Susan Rinkunas here:

Donald Trump and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa are scheduled to meet at the White House on 21 May, following the US president’s allegations – denied by South Africa – that white farmers are facing “genocide” in the country.

The meeting, announced on Wednesday by the South African government, comes shortly after the US granted refugee status to 59 white South Africans, part of what the Trump administration describes as a broader resettlement effort for minority Afrikaner farmers it says are being persecuted.

South African officials reject the allegations, saying white citizens are not being targeted.

Ramaphosa will be in the US from Monday through Thursday, with the White House visit scheduled for Wednesday. His office said the trip aims to “reset the strategic relationship” between the two countries.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will not attend what may be the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years, scheduled for Thursday, Reuters reports.

Instead, the Kremlin will send a team of technocrats.

The Russian president had proposed the talks in Istanbul “without any preconditions” but, as of late Wednesday, confirmed he would send presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky and deputy defense minister, Alexander Fomin, to lead the Russian delegation.

A US official later said the US president would not attend, despite earlier comments suggesting he was considering the trip.

Missouri lawmakers have approved a referendum seeking to repeal an abortion-rights amendment passed by voters six months ago.

The newly proposed constitutional amendment would go back to voters in November 2026, or sooner, if Republican governor Mike Kehoe calls a special election before then.

Republican senators used a series of rare procedural moves to cut off discussion by opposing Democrats before passing the proposed abortion-rights revision by a 21-11 vote. The measure passed the Republican-led House last month.

Immediately after vote, protestors erupted with chants of “Stop the ban!” and were ushered out of the Senate chamber.

Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the two highest-ranking officials at the National Intelligence Council, just weeks after the council released an assessment that contradicted President Donald Trump’s justification for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.

Gabbard fired Mike Collins, the acting chair, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, on Tuesday, CNN reported.

The dismissals come after the NIC authored an assessment that found it unlikely that Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, is helping the criminal activities of Tren de Aragua in the US.

The latest round of intelligence firings comes as Gabbard and her team aim to eliminate what they view as bias and inefficiency within the intelligence community. On X, Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, said the NIC officials, whom she referred to as “Biden holdovers”, were removed for “politicizing intelligence.”

The Georgetown academic Badar Khan Suri was released from Ice detention hours after after a Virginia federal judge’s order on Wednesday.

Khan Suri was among several individuals legally studying in the US who have been targeted by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestinian activism. He has spent two months in detention.

US district judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, said that the ruling was effective immediately with no conditions and no bond. She added that Khan Suri’s release was “in the public interest to disrupt the chilling effect on protected speech” during the hearing. The judge explained in her ruling how the government did not submit sufficient evidence on several of its claims.

A large crowd of demonstrators outside the courthouse reportedly cheered upon hearing the news of the ruling.

Badar Khan Suri will go home to his family in Virginia while he awaits the outcome of his petition against the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the first amendment and other constitutional rights.

He is also facing deportation proceedings in an immigration court in Texas.

Read the full story by Marina Dunbar:

Elon Musk shows he still has the White House’s ear on Trump’s Middle East trip

Over the course of an eight-minute interview, Elon Musk touted his numerous businesses and vision of a “Star Trek future” while telling the crowd that his Tesla Optimus robots had performed a dance for Donald Trump and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, to the tune of YMCA. He also announced that Starlink, his satellite internet company, had struck a deal for use in Saudi Arabia for maritime and aviation usage; looking to the near future, he expressed his desire to bring Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis to the country.

“We could not be more appreciative of having a lifetime partner and a friend like you, Elon, to the Kingdom,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of communications and IT, Abdullah Alswaha, told Musk.

Although Musk has pivoted away from his role as de facto leader of the so-called “department of government efficiency” and moved out of the White House, the Saudi summit showed how he is still retaining his proximity to the US president and international influence. As Musk returns to his businesses as his primary focus, he is still primed to reap the rewards of his connections and political sway over Trump.

Starlink diplomacy

Musk’s Starlink announcement comes after a spate of countries have agreed to allow the satellite communications service to operate within their borders. Several countries that have approved Starlink did so after US state department officials mentioned the company by name or pushed for increased satellite services in negotiations over Trump’s sweeping tariffs, according to internal memos obtained by the Washington Post.

Concerns over whether Musk and the Trump administration are leveraging their power to force countries into adopting Starlink has prompted calls for a state department inspector general investigation into whether there is undue influence at play in these agreements. On Wednesday, a group of Democratic senators issued a letter requesting a broad review of the state department’s alleged efforts to assist Starlink.

Read the full analysis by The Guardian’s Nick Robins-Early here:

A Russian-born researcher at Harvard University who has been held for weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana has been criminally charged with attempting to smuggle frog embryo samples into the United States, Reuters reports.

Federal prosecutors in Boston announced the smuggling charge against Kseniia Petrova, 31, hours after a federal judge in Vermont heard arguments in a lawsuit she filed that argues the Trump administration has been unlawfully detaining her.

The Trump administration intends to deport Petrova back to Russia, a country she fled in 2022, despite her fear that she will be arrested there over her protest of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the New York Times reports.

About a dozen labor unions have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in an effort to overturn sweeping cuts to the nation’s occupational health agency.

The suit was brought by the United Mine Workers of America, the American Federation of Teachers, National Nurses United and 10 other unions.

The case centers on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which was massively downsized this year following layoffs that eliminated about 850 of its 1,000 employees, according to the Associated Press.

At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Robert F Kennedy Jr said he is reversing the firing of about 330 Niosh workers. But the lawsuit seeks to reinstate all Niosh staff and functions, arguing that the cuts flouted express directives from Congress and are illegal.

Republicans have propose prohibiting US states from regulating AI for 10 years.

Republicans in US Congress are trying to bar states from being able to introduce or enforce laws that would create guardrails for artificial intelligence or automated decision-making systems for 10 years.

A provision in the proposed budgetary bill now before the House of Representatives would prohibit any state or local governing body from pursuing “any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems” unless the purpose of the law is to “remove legal impediments to, or facilitate the deployment or operation of” these systems.

The provision was a last-minute addition by House Republicans to the bill just two nights before it was due to be marked up on Tuesday. The House energy and commerce committee voted to advance the reconciliation package on Wednesday morning.

The bill defines AI systems and models broadly, with anything from facial recognition systems to generative AI qualifying. The proposed law would also apply to systems that use algorithms or AI to make decisions including for hiring, housing and whether someone qualifies for public benefits.

Many of these automated decision-making systems have recently come under fire. The deregulatory proposal comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by several state attorneys general against the property management software RealPage, which the lawsuit alleges colluded with landlords to raise rents based on the company’s algorithmic recommendations. Another company, SafeRent, recently settled a class-action lawsuit filed by Black and Hispanic renters who say they were denied apartments based on an opaque score the company gave them.

Read the full story here:

Harvard University announced that it will allocate $250 million of its own funds to support researchers after the Trump administration froze nearly $3 billion in federal grants and contracts in recent weeks, the Harvard Crimson reports.

The elite Ivy League institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has become a frequent target of President Donald Trump, who has launched an aggressive campaign to reshape private colleges and universities across the country. He accuses them of promoting anti-American, Marxist, and “radical left” ideologies.

“We understand the uncertainty that these times have brought and the burden our community faces,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote. “We are here to support you.”

Still, Garber acknowledged that the university would not be able to fully absorb the cost of the suspended or canceled federal awards. He warned that the funding freeze could disrupt long-running projects, delay scientific progress, and force unpopular decisions across Harvard’s schools, according to the student-run outlet.

“While there will undoubtedly be difficult decisions and sacrifices ahead, we know that, together, we will chart a path forward to sustain and advance Harvard’s vital research mission,” he wrote.

Robert F Kennedy Jr said that the “central focus” of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be on studying ultra-processed foods, sugars and food additives.

“The central focus of NIH, is going to be looking at – and FDA – looking at ultra-processed foods, and sugars, and the 10,000 additives that are in our food,” Kennedy said during a Senate committee on health, education, labor & pensions hearing.

Among those interrupting Robert F Kennedy’s testimony at the Senate hearing were Aids activists, protesting mass terminations and cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services. The reductions have gutted programs that focus on child support services and international HIV treatment initiatives.

In a statement, Asia Russell of Health Gap said:

Kennedy and Trump are massacring America’s global and domestic HIV responses … People will die as a result of their senseless decisions. Congress has a duty to intervene now and reject Kennedy’s deadly budget proposal, and work urgently to reinstate what he is demolishing.

All federal experts on HIV prevention in children overseas were fired last month as part of the reduction in force. At least $759m worth of federal grants for HIV research have been cancelled so far.