🤝 Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand become BRICS partners - Russian Foreign Ministry.

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💬 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will speak by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday for the first time in nearly two years, Bloomberg reports, quoting sources.

Meanwhile, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said Scholz and Putin have already held a call.

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RFK Jr.’s daunting task: What will ‘Make America Healthy Again’ pledge mean in practice? (Part 1 👉 Part 2)

Donald Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) – the top advisor to the president on health-related matters, and watchdog and administrator overseeing the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Medicare and Medicaid.

⚪️ US health crisis in numbers:

▫️obesity epidemic - over 70% of American adults are obese or overweight;

▫️addiction scourge - 15% use illicit drugs, 20% suffer from alcohol dependency;

▫️prenoscription drug crisis - 66% use at least one prenoscription medication;

▫️contaminated drinking water - a concern for nearly half of the population;

▫️skyrocketing autism - affecting 1 in 36 children, compared to about 1 per 1,000 in the 1980s.

Kennedy has recognized the gargantuan scope of the challenge before him, saying in a recent interview that the US health care system as it’s presently set up means there’s “nothing more profitable” than keeping Americans sick “for life,” with chronic disease a big business he estimates to be worth some $4.3 trln (i.e. about five times the size of the US’s 2024 defense budget).

⚪️ Kennedy has yet to lay out the details of his agenda, but has dropped hints in recent interviews and speeches about:

▫️negotiating with drug companies on medication costs;

▫️barring Big Pharma from spending billions on advertising, which he has characterized as disguised lobbying;

▫️ending vaccine mandates for federal agencies and the military, while preserving Americans’ rights to an informed choice;

▫️reforming vaccine research standards. Kennedy has been outspoken in his criticism of former chief presidential medical advisor Anthony Fauci and others at the NIH over US-funded gain of function research thought to have ultimately given rise to Covid.

👉 Part 2

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RFK Jr. vs. Big Food, conflicts of interests, and looming confirmation battle (Part 2 👉 Part 1)

The HSS Secretary job requires Senate approval, meaning Kennedy’s selection could be an uphill battle, especially if Big Pharma and Big Food use their lobbying muscle. Battlelines are already being drawn, with GOP senators promising to give him a shot, calling his selection “a bad day for Big Pharma.”

⚪️On the food safety front, Kennedy may:

▫️encourage municipalities to get rid of fluoride in tap water, citing its long-suspected impact IQ levels in children;

▫️push to ban artificial food coloring, additives and chemicals;

▫️restrict processed foods in school lunches, and roll back subsidies for corn and soy;

▫️end FDA overregulation on “stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma,” as he suggested in a recent X post.

⚪️What are his other plans?

▫️federally-funded medical schools to focus more on nutrition, and to create a national fitness standard like the one promoted by his uncle – President John F. Kennedy;

▫️taking on conflicts of interest between regulators and the entities they’re meant to be regulating – citing money given to the FDA by Big Pharma, and corporate links to health and dietary advisories.

Senior officials from agencies Kennedy would be tasked with overseeing have already called him out, with Clinton-era HHS chief Donna Shalala saying he’s “totally unqualified” and “dangerous” to America and the world.

Kennedy preempted the latter kind of criticism in an X post last month, writing “if you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

👉 Part 1

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❗️The German cabinet confirms that Scholz held a phone conversation with Putin.

Scholz told Putin that the conflict in Ukraine must be resolved, the German government says.

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THROWBACK TO 2023: It would be better to invite Russia to join NATO than Ukraine, said Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump's pick for US Attorney General.

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