How RFK Jr. has overhauled U.S. health care

Summary

Apple News Today: Episode Summary
Title: How RFK Jr. Has Overhauled U.S. Health Care
Release Date: May 6, 2025
Host: Shemitah Basu

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1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Key Actions and Impacts:

• Massive Staff Reductions: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has eliminated 20,000 full-time positions within HHS, a move that has significantly impacted the department's operational capacity.

• Program Cancellations: Numerous longstanding research programs have faced funding cuts, including:

  • Diabetes Prevention Program: A vital three-decade initiative tracking type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, supporting approximately 38 million Americans. NBC News health reporter Aria Bendix explained the repercussions:

    “[...] researchers now say they can't do blood work, brain scans, urine samples, all the things that are necessary to study patient outcomes.” (01:25)

  • Genetic Disorder Testing Advisory Committee: This committee provided recommendations on testing newborns and children for genetic disorders, detecting potentially life-threatening conditions for about 14,000 babies annually. Bendix questioned the rationale behind these cuts:

    “These are really severe and debilitating childhood diseases that often don't result in survival beyond the teen years unless a child has access to early treatment.” (02:28)

  • Infant Sleep Safety Program: Funding for programs educating new parents on preventing sleep-related infant deaths, credited with saving thousands of lives since 1994, has been terminated.

• LGBTQ+ Health Grants Cuts: Over $800 million in grants aimed at improving health outcomes for the LGBTQ+ community have been canceled. This includes efforts to prevent HIV among adolescents and young adults and potentially eliminating the National Suicide Hotline for LGBTQ youth. Bendix noted:

  “A lot of the grants were terminated on the grounds that they don't align with the new administration's priorities.” (03:33)

Administrative Justifications and Opposition:

• Government Reduction Goals: The HHS administration claims these cuts are part of a broader strategy to reduce the size of the federal government.
• Advocates' Response: Health advocates argue that these cuts undermine critical health initiatives without significantly impacting the federal budget.

Upcoming Developments:

• Senate Testimony: Next week, Kennedy is slated to appear before a Senate committee to defend his overhaul of HHS, with his budget requiring congressional approval.

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2. Israel's Expanded Military Operations in Gaza

Current Situation:

• Military Zone Expansion: Since breaking the ceasefire in March, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have declared over 70% of Gaza as either a military or evacuation zone, displacing more than 420,000 people—approximately one-fifth of Gaza's population.

Recent Developments:

• Security Cabinet Approval: Israel's security cabinet recently approved a plan to forcibly displace thousands more Palestinians and take control of humanitarian aid distribution.
• Humanitarian Blockade: Since March 2, Israel has imposed the longest total blockade ever, restricting food, medicine, and other supplies. The UN reports widespread hunger and that 90% of Palestinians lack access to safe drinking water.

Implementation Challenges:

• Aid Distribution Control: Israel plans to relocate Gaza's entire food supply to a military-guarded area in the south, monitored by U.S. security contractors. This would leave only 4 to 10 aid distribution hubs for over 2 million people, many of whom are too weak or injured to travel.
• Facial Recognition Technology: To prevent Hamas members from receiving aid, Israeli officials intend to use facial recognition technology, raising concerns about impartiality in humanitarian assistance.

Expert Insights:

• Jerry Shih, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, highlighted the impracticality of complete military control:

  “The military leadership has so far resisted that idea, saying that this is completely infeasible. The amount of manpower required would be tens of thousands, sort of upward or exceeding 60,000 reservists.” (04:16)

International Concerns:

• Humanitarian Violations: International organizations fear that Israel's actions may violate principles of impartiality and accessibility in humanitarian aid distribution.
• Previous Attempts: A former U.S. official mentioned that a similar aid plan was proposed during the Biden administration but was rejected.

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3. President Trump's Proposed 100% Tariff on Foreign Movie Productions

Announcement and Industry Reaction:

• Tariff Threat: On Sunday night, President Trump announced a potential 100% tariff on movies produced outside the United States, citing national security threats.
• Immediate Reversal: Hours later, the White House clarified that no final decisions had been made, and Trump expressed intentions to consult with industry officials.

Industry Impact:

• Hollywood Response: Meg James, senior entertainment industry reporter for the Los Angeles Times, reported that major studio executives were caught off guard by the announcement:

  “None of the major studio executives I talked to were expecting this. They were all caught very much off guard.” (08:01)

• Job Losses: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees indicated that about 18,000 jobs have been lost in the past three years, primarily in California, due to reduced local film and television production.

Operational Challenges:

• Complex Production Processes: Large movie productions often involve international collaborations. For instance, the latest Marvel film "Thunderbolts" included scenes filmed in Malaysia, relying on specialized firms worldwide.
• Tariff Application Uncertainties: Questions arise on how tariffs would be applied to different components of film production, such as whether they would be based on budget or extend to television shows.

Future Considerations:

• Industry Discussions: The Motion Picture Association has yet to respond publicly. The issue is expected to be a key topic at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, where films like Tom Cruise's "The Final Reckoning"—shot globally including in the UK, South Africa, and Norway—are premiering.

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4. Other News Highlights

Pulitzer Prizes Amid Press Freedom Challenges:

• Awardees:

  • Washington Post for coverage of the assassination attempt on Trump's life.
  • Reuters for exposing lax regulations facilitating fentanyl distribution.
  • Wall Street Journal for reporting on Elon Musk's alignment with the MAGA movement.
  • ProPublica for documenting deaths of pregnant women in states with restrictive abortion laws.

• Press Freedom Under Threat: The Trump administration has increased pressures on media outlets, including banning the Associated Press from the White House press pool and threatening funding for public media.

Springfield Airport (Assumed Newark Airport) Issues:

• Operational Delays: Newark Airport is experiencing daily delays and cancellations due to air traffic control staffing issues and equipment failures.
• FAA Challenges: The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that its outdated air traffic control system is contributing to workforce shortages, with 3,000 air traffic controllers missing nationwide.
• United Airlines Impact: United Airlines has canceled 35 flights daily out of Newark, approximately 10% of its operations there.

Real ID Deadline:

• Final Day: May 6 is the last day to obtain a Real ID required for domestic air travel with just an ID card.
• Alternative Identification: Travelers without a Real ID can still fly using a passport, permanent resident card, or certain DHS trusted traveler cards.
• Common Misconceptions:
  • Driving: You can continue to drive without a Real ID.
  • International Travel: Real IDs do not replace passports for international travel, including cruises.

Additional Story Preview:

• Senator John Fetterman's Fitness to Serve: New York Magazine reports concerns from his advisors about his mental health and fitness for office, a story available via the Apple News app.

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Conclusion:
This episode of Apple News Today delved into significant developments affecting U.S. health care under RFK Jr.'s leadership, Israel's intensified military actions in Gaza, and the potential ramifications of President Trump's proposed tariffs on foreign movie productions. Additional news segments covered critical issues like press freedom, airport operational challenges, and the Real ID deadline, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of current events shaping the national and international landscape.

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For more detailed coverage and additional stories, please refer to the Apple News app.

Transcript

[Shemitah Basu]

Good morning. It's Tuesday, May 6th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Israel's plans to take more control of the Gaza Strip, how Trump's tariffs could impact your favorite movies, and what to know about tomorrow's Real ID deadline. But first, attorneys general from 19 Democratic states plus Washington, D.C. are suing the Trump administration over efforts to overhaul the Department of Health and Human Services. So far, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Has eliminated 20,000 full time positions at HHS and has canceled funding for a number of long standing research programs that support millions of Americans. One is the Diabetes Prevention Program, which has been tracking people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes for three decades and it also works to better understand associated diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia. Around 38 million people in the US have diabetes and the CDC estimates that 1 in 5 people don't know that they have it. NBC News health reporter Aria Bendix told us about the impact of canceling this program.

[Aria Bendix]

Columbia University was one of the sites participating in the study and it handled the bulk of the funding. So the researchers now say they can't do blood work, brain scans, urine samples, all the things that are necessary to study patient outcomes. And they're also really worried about the ability to preserve the data sets that they've already collected.

[Shemitah Basu]

These cuts come as Kennedy says that tackling chronic disease is a cornerstone of his Make America Healthy Again agenda. Another long running program. HHS terminated an advisory committee that makes recommendations on how to test newborns and children for genetic disorders. HHS says it's part of the administration's broader goal of reducing the size of the federal government.

[Aria Bendix]

But advocates say this was a low cost, high reward effort that won't make much of a dent in the federal budget.

[Shemitah Basu]

Genetic screenings detect potentially life threatening or life altering conditions for roughly 14,000 babies every year. Again, Bendix told us it's hard to square this with RFK's larger goals.

[Aria Bendix]

These are really severe and debilitating childhood diseases that often don't result in survival beyond the teen years unless a child has access to early treatment. So it's unclear why something like this would be cut.

[Shemitah Basu]

The administration also eliminated funding for a program that helps new parents learn more about sleep related infant deaths and how to prevent them. It's been credited with saving thousands of babies lives since 1994. 4 and HHS has made or is considering a number of cuts that impact the LGBTQ+ population, a community that nearly 10% of American adults are part of Hundreds of grants focused on improving health outcomes for LGBTQ people have been cut, including one that works toward preventing HIV in adolescents and young adults. The Washington Post also reports that the administration is considering eliminating the National Suicide Hotline for LGBTQ youth. According to a New York Times estimate, more than $800 million in grants for this population were canceled as of early May.

[Aria Bendix]

A lot of the grants were terminated on the grounds that they don't align with the new administration's priorities.

[Shemitah Basu]

Next week, Kennedy is expected to appear before a Senate committee to testify about his overhaul of hhs. His budget will ultimately need Congress's approv Now to Gaza, where Israel plans to expand its military operations and seize even more territory from Palestinians.

[Jerry Shih]

There have been many voices in the Israeli political establishment, particularly on Israel's far right, who would like to see the military eventually control the entire Gaza Strip.

[Shemitah Basu]

Jerry Shih is the Jerusalem bureau chief for the Washington Post.

[Jerry Shih]

Now the military leadership has so far resisted that idea, saying that this is completely infeasible. The amount of manpower required would be tens of thousands, sort of upward or exceeding 60,000 reservists. So we've sort of arrived at this kind of middle solution where what the Israeli military will do is eventually, gradually, over the course of the coming weeks and months, take more and more and more of Gaza and stay there indefinitely.

[Shemitah Basu]

Since Israel broke the ceasefire In March, the IDF has declared more than 70% of Gaza either a military zone or an evacuation zone. It's displaced more than 420,000 people. According to the UN that's roughly a fifth of Gaza's population. And in this plan approved by Israel's security cabinet over the weekend, thousands more Palestinians would be forcibly displaced. Israel would also take control of humanitarian aid distribution. Since March 2, Israel has allowed no food, medicine or other supplies to enter Gaza. It's the longest total blockade ever imposed. The UN says hunger is widespread and nine out of 10 Palestinians do not have access to safe drinking water.

[Jerry Shih]

From what we can tell, aid has reached basically a non existent level.

[Shemitah Basu]

Israel says the current blockade on aid is meant to force Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages. And Israel says taking full control of aid distribution is the only way it will consider lifting the blockade. According to officials who spoke with the Post. It also plans to move Gaza's entire food supply to a military guarded area in the south under the protection of US Security contractors forcing people in northern Gaza to travel there. But the challenges would be immense. There would be only 4 to 10 aid distribution hubs serving a population of over 2 million people and many people are too weak or injured to make the journey.

[Jerry Shih]

This has obviously raised serious concerns from many of the international organizations who say that this would violate a lot of the principles governing international humanitarian activities. For one thing, their rules often require impartiality when it comes to distributing aid. That aid should arrive in conflict zones unfettered and be given to anybody who.

[Shemitah Basu]

Needs it, she told us. Israeli officials are saying they will use facial recognition technology to screen people seeking aid to prevent members of Hamas from receiving it.

[Jerry Shih]

That raises the question of who exactly is Hamas? Israel has been known to sort of implement a very wide net when it comes to describing people who have worked for the civilian government in Gaza as being affiliated with Hamas.

[Shemitah Basu]

NPR spoke to a former US Official who said Israel tried to implement a version of this aid plan while former President Joe Biden was in office, but his administration rejected it. The Trump administration didn't offer any immediate comment on Israel's plan on Monday, but Trump does plan to visit the region next week. Let's turn now to the latest tariff threat from the White House. On Sunday night, President Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the United States, saying that international production amounts to a national security threat. Then, just hours later, the White House said no final decisions had been made, and Trump said that he would meet with industry officials to make sure that they liked the plan.

[Meg James]

None of the major studio executives I talked to were expecting this. They were all caught very much off guard.

[Shemitah Basu]

That's Meg James, senior entertainment industry reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

[Meg James]

What President Trump has said is that he wants to make Hollywood great again. He has identified three Hollywood ambassadors, including actor Jon Voight, who are concerned about the number of major films that are being shot or produced in overseas locales.

[Shemitah Basu]

Often, Hollywood producers choose to make certain content in countries that have generous tax incentives.

[Meg James]

What that has meant, particularly here in Los Angeles, is a really big slowdown in the amount of feature film production and even television production that we are seeing here locally.

[Shemitah Basu]

According to the International alliance of Theatrical stage employees, about 18,000 jobs have been lost in the last three years, primarily in California.

[Meg James]

Many crew members, special effects workers, have been calling for greater attention to this loss of filmmaking, the loss of expertise here in Hollywood and beyond. And so in some ways, what President Trump has done is really raised an awareness of an industry that has sectors that are hurting.

[Shemitah Basu]

But a major question is how this would work. Large movie productions are kind of like manufacturing a car. Components can come from all over the world. Even though a lot of American movies are written, cast and edited largely in the United States. It's increasingly common for some work to happen abroad. For example, a major scene in the latest Marvel film Thunderbolts involves a leap from the world's second tallest building in Malaysia. According to the New York Times, one superhero movie like that might rely on half a dozen or more specialized firms across the world. And it's extremely unclear how tariffs would apply in these kinds of cases.

[Meg James]

How are they going to judge what part of a movie being produced overseas qualifies for a tariff? Is the tariff going to be based on the film budget? Is it going to apply to television shows? There are so many unanswered questions that no one really seems to have a handle on.

[Shemitah Basu]

So far, the Motion Picture association, which represents the biggest Hollywood studios in Washington, hasn't responded to outlets for comment on the matter. But their most recent economic report showed that the film industry netted gains for every major global market. As the White House discusses all of this with Hollywood executives, James told us it's sure to be a subject of conversation at next week's most celebrated international film festival in Cannes. Among the films being premiered is Tom Cruise's latest impossible movie, the Final Reckoning. Scenes for that movie were filmed all over the world, including in the UK South Africa and Norway.

[Aria Bendix]

Foreign.

[Shemitah Basu]

Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday. They come at a moment when press freedoms are under attack, with the Trump administration banning the Associated Press from the White House press pool, threatening to cancel critical funding for public media, and with Trump filing lawsuits against several for profit media outlets. Among yesterday's Pulitzer winners are the Washington Post for their coverage of the assassination attempt on Trump's life, Reuters for an expose on lax regulation that makes fentanyl so easy to get, and the Wall Street Journal for their reporting on Elon Musk's embrace of the MAGA movement. ProPublica also won for its work documenting deaths of pregnant women in states with restrictive abortion laws. Last fall, we spoke with one of those journalists, Cassandra Jaramillo, about her reporting on a young woman who died while experienc a miscarriage in Texas. When she first shows up to the hospital, they tell her that there's nothing that they can do, that it would be illegal to intervene because her fetus.

[Meg James]

Although she was going to lose that.

[Shemitah Basu]

Pregnancy, still had a heartbeat. We'll link to a collection of those stories in our show. Notes in other news, Newark airport, the nation's 14th busiest airport, is seeing day after day of delays and cancellations because of air traffic control staffing issues and equipment failures. A union official said yesterday that a number of staffers are taking leave after a stressful incident last week in which controllers briefly lost all communication with aircraft under their control. Bloomberg says controllers were left in the dark for about 90 seconds on April 28th. The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged in a statement on Monday that, quote, our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our workforce. United Airlines, which has a hub in Newark, announced last week it would start canceling 35 flights. That's about 10% of its flights every day out of Newark Airport. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a press conference that the FAA is short about 3,000 air traffic controllers nationwide. And finally, one other travel note to leave you on. Today is the deadline to get your real ID card. That's an upgraded driver's license or a state identification card that you'll need if you want aboard an airplane domestically with just your ID card. As of the end of last week, nearly 20% of travelers still hadn't gotten their real ID. If you're one of those people who still doesn't have it, don't panic. You can still travel using a passport, a permanent resident card, or certain Department of Homeland Security trusted traveler cards. Also, there's a lot of bad information on social media right now about this whole process. So here are some quick fact checks. Yes, you can still drive a car if you don't have a real ID. And no, real IDs will not replace passports for international travel. That includes cruises. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. New York Magazine spoke with some of Democratic Senator John Fetterman's closest advisors, including his former chief of staff. And they say based on behavior they have observed, they're concerned his mental health is getting worse and they're questioning if he is fit to serve as a US Senator. He has defended himself and says he's in good health. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.