In a sweeping interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments.

He issued a muffled call for vaccinations in the affected community, but said the choice was a personal one. He suggested that measles vaccine injuries were more common than known, contrary to extensive research.

He asserted that natural immunity to measles, gained through infection, somehow also protected against cancer and heart disease, a claim not supported by research.

He cheered on questionable treatments like cod liver oil, and said that local doctors had achieved “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries with steroids or antibiotics.

The worsening measles outbreak, which has largely spread through a Mennonite community in Gaines County, has infected nearly 200 people and killed a child, the first such death in the United States in 10 years.

Another suspected measles death has been reported in New Mexico, where cases have recently increased in a county that borders Gaines County.

The interview, which lasted 35 minutes, was posted online by Fox News last week, just before President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. Segments had been posted earlier, but the full version received little attention.

Trump vows more targeting of activists

President Donald Trump warned Monday that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first “of many to come” as his administration cracks down on campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza.

Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident who was a graduate student at Columbia until December, was detained Saturday by federal immigration agents in New York and flown to an immigration jail in Louisiana.

Homeland Security officials said Khalil’s arrest was a result of Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

Khalil’s detention drew outrage from civil rights groups and free speech advocates, who accused the administration of using its immigration enforcement powers to squelch criticism of Israel.

His lawyers filed a lawsuit challenging his detention. A federal judge in New York City ordered that Khalil not be deported while the court considered his case.

NASA eliminating its chief scientist

NASA is eliminating its chief scientist and other roles as part of efforts by the Trump administration to pare back staff at the agency’s Washington headquarters.

The cuts affect about 20 employees at NASA, including Katherine Calvin, the chief scientist and a climate science expert. The last day of work for Calvin and the other staff members will be April 10.

That could be a harbinger of deeper cuts to NASA’s science missions and a greater emphasis on human spaceflight, especially to Mars. During President Donald Trump’s address to Congress last week, he said, “We are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.”

The administration sent notice to Congress on Monday that NASA was abolishing the Office of the Chief Scientist and the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy.

“This is shortsighted and hugely alarming,” Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the ranking member on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said. “Trump’s assault on science continues. If you wanted a playbook on how to lose to China in every technological race, this is it.”

White House: U.S. will exit climate fund

Formalizing another withdrawal from both climate and foreign aid programs, the Trump administration has told world financial institutions that the U.S is pulling out of the landmark international climate Loss and Damage Fund.

Climate analysts Monday were critical of the Treasury Department’s decision to formally pull out from the fund designed as compensation for damage by polluting nations to poor countries especially hurt by the extreme storms, heat and drought caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas. A Treasury official said in a letter last week that the U. S. board members of the fund were resigning.

“Consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements, the United States has withdrawn from the Fund for Responding for Loss and Damage,” a Treasury spokesperson said in an email Monday. “We have informed all relevant parties of our decision.”

When the fund was agreed upon in 2022, then-President Joe Biden pledged that the U.S., the world’s biggest historic carbon dioxide emitter, would contribute $17.5 million.

Energy secretary vows ‘180’ pivot on climate

Before a packed crowd of oil and gas executives on Monday, Chris Wright, the new U.S. energy secretary, delivered a scathing critique of the Biden administration’s energy policies and efforts to fight climate change and promised a “180-degree pivot.”

Wright, a former fracking executive, has emerged as the most forceful promoter of President Donald Trump’s plans to expand American oil and gas production and dismantle virtually every federal policy aimed at curbing global warming.

“I wanted to play a role in reversing what I believe has been a very poor direction in energy policy,” Wright said as he kicked off the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, the nation’s biggest annual gathering of the energy industry. “The previous administration’s policy was focused myopically on climate change, with people as simply collateral damage.”

Wright’s speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause.

Climate nonprofit sues EPA for funding

A nonprofit that was awarded nearly $7 billion by the Biden administration to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects has sued President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, accusing it of improperly freezing a legally awarded grant.

Climate United Fund, a coalition of three nonprofit groups, demanded access to a Citibank account it received through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a program created in 2022 by the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act and more commonly known as the green bank. The freeze threatens its ability to issue loans and even pay employees, the group said.

“The combined actions of Citibank and EPA effectively nullify a congressionally mandated and funded program,” Maryland-based Climate United wrote in a Monday court filing.

Asylum phone app now aids ‘self-deportation’

The Trump administration has unveiled an overhauled cellphone app once used to let migrants apply for asylum, turning it into a system that allows people living illegally in the U.S. to say they want to leave the country voluntarily.

The renamed app, announced Monday and now called CBP Home, is part of the administration’s campaign to encourage “self-deportations, “ touted as an easy and cost-effective way to nudge along President Donald Trump’s push to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.

“The app provides illegal aliens in the United States with a straightforward way to declare their intent to voluntarily depart, offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences,” Pete Flores, the acting commissioner for U.S Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement.

GOP spending bill cuts $1 billion from D.C.

The stopgap spending bill that Republicans are pushing to avert a shutdown at the end of the week would effectively slash the District of Columbia’s budget by roughly $1 billion over the next six months, a change that local leaders warn would force dramatic cuts to essential services.

The reductions are under consideration because of a series of legislative quirks that Republicans are using to force the District, a Democratically run and predominantly Black city with a significant number of federal workers, to absorb the same freeze to its local budget that they are applying across the federal government. President Donald Trump, who has demonized government employees, has said he wants to “take over” D.C.

Under a law that established “home rule” in Washington more than 50 years ago, Congress maintains power over the city, including final approval over its laws and annual budget.

— News service reports