Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is demanding that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resign after multiple senior officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention departed the agency.

The Trump administration announced the removal of CDC Director Susan Monarez earlier this week, less than a month after she was confirmed, after she refused Kennedy’s directives to adopt new limitations on the availability of some vaccines, including for approvals for COVID-19 vaccines.

Four other senior CDC officials resigned in protest after Monarez’s ouster, pointing, in part, to anti-vaccine policies pushed by Kennedy. Hundreds of workers at the agency also walked out of the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta in support of their former colleagues.

In response to the departures, Sanders wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that Kennedy is ‘endangering the health of the American people now and into the future’ and accused the secretary of firing Monarez because she refused ‘to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous policies.’

‘Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts,’ Sanders wrote in the piece published Saturday.

‘It is absurd to have to say this in 2025, but vaccines are safe and effective,’ he added. ‘That, of course, is not just my view. Far more important, it is the overwhelming consensus of the medical and scientific communities.’

Sanders also noted that vaccines for diseases like polio and COVID-19 have saved hundreds of millions of lives around the world.

Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate’s health committee, opposed Kennedy’s confirmation earlier this year. The secretary was sworn in back in February. Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill was selected to be the acting director of the CDC after Monarez’s termination.

The Trump administration has defended Monarez’s ouster, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Thursday the president has the ‘authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.’

‘The president and Secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC by ensuring their leadership and their decisions are more public-facing, more accountable, strengthening our public health system and restoring it to its core mission of protecting Americans from communicable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect and respond to future threats,’ Leavitt told reporters.

Sanders earlier this week called for an investigation into Monarez’s ouster, criticizing the move as ‘reckless’ and ‘dangerous.’

In the op-ed, he wrote that Kennedy ‘has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines,’ adding that the secretary is now ‘using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself.’ 

He also said it will become harder for Americans to obtain ‘lifesaving vaccines’ with Kennedy leading HHS.

‘The danger here is that diseases that have been virtually wiped out because of safe and effective vaccines will resurface and cause enormous harm,’ Sanders wrote, stressing that the U.S. needs to be better prepared in the case of another pandemic.

‘Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger, and he must resign,’ Sanders wrote. ‘In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a C.D.C. director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people, not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories.’

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Dr. Sohan Dasgupta, appointed earlier this year as the political head of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), told Fox News Digital he is stepping down after a four-month sprint, declaring his mission to preserve and reposition the U.S. agency as a strategic foreign policy tool as ‘accomplished.’

Created by Congress in 2004, MCC delivers five-year infrastructure and energy compacts to developing nations that meet strict governance standards. Unlike traditional aid, its investments are structured to drive long-term economic growth and open markets for U.S. companies.

Since its creation under President George W. Bush, MCC has often been grouped with other U.S. aid programs. 

Career staff have long emphasized development goals like poverty reduction, education, and infrastructure, but unlike USAID, MCC was established as a corporate body with a fiduciary duty to ensure effectiveness.

A White House official, speaking on background to Fox News Digital, argued the agency too often presented itself as aid rather than investment before President Donald Trump took office.

Dasgupta pushed staff to adopt a different lens, pressing them to evaluate projects based on the return on investment for the United States, the degree of strategic alignment with partner countries, and whether MCC compacts could be used to strengthen U.S. leverage in negotiations.

A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report this spring argued that MCC is not a traditional aid agency but an ‘investment’ tool uniquely suited for an ‘America First’ agenda. 

The authors warned shuttering it would hand China ‘diplomatic and economic wins’ while leaving half-built projects abroad, and noted Trump-era partner selections, from Nepal to Côte d’Ivoire to the Pacific Islands, were strategically chosen to counter Chinese influence. 

‘The United States and the world are safer, stronger, and more prosperous with the MCC model than without it,’ the report concluded.

MCC’s current portfolio under Trump includes some of its largest-ever compacts: a $500 million deal in Nepal funding nearly 200 miles of transmission lines, a $480 million compact in Sierra Leone expanding electricity access and a $202 million program in Kosovo focused on grid-scale battery storage. Other investments include $536 million in Côte d’Ivoire, $537 million in Mozambique and a water compact in Mongolia.

Dasgupta told Fox News Digital that his role was to press MCC staff to think in terms of U.S. national security and economic benefits. ‘Reforming MCC into a vital national security and foreign policy asset’ was how he described his ‘mission accomplished’ moment.

A May 9 email from the White House Liaison to MCC staff, obtained by Fox News Digital, shows Dasgupta was appointed as a Schedule C Senior Advisor ‘assuming political leadership for the agency.’

MCC’s Fiscal Year 2026 Candidate Country Report, released this month, lists Kosovo, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Mongolia, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga among its eligible partner nations.

‘Service has many forms. My goal was to carry out particular projects and missions, then make way for others,’ Dasgupta said.

On China, he added: ‘Critical minerals and rare earth elements are a vital part of American strength … MCC has really understood that.’

Kosovo’s ambassador to the U.S., Ilir Dugolli, praised Dasgupta’s responsiveness. ‘We worked closely soon after he arrived at MCC … I respect him enormously for the way he handled his portfolio and how professional he was,’ Dugolli told Fox News Digital.

On energy security, Dugolli said: ‘Kosovo fully aligns with U.S. foreign policy … Batteries are extremely important, especially after last year’s terrorist attack on the Iber-Lepenc canal. The compact is the single most critical investment for our country’s energy security and economic resilience.’

Dasgupta’s departure also comes as the Trump administration pursues cuts to traditional U.S. foreign aid programs and seeks to reframe America’s global engagement under its ‘America First’ policy. 

While agencies such as USAID have faced reductions and restructuring, Dasgupta argues the MCC has been preserved as a leaner, investment-driven tool aligned with the administration’s emphasis on strategic deals and competition with China.

Analysts estimate China controls about 70% of global rare earth mining and nearly 90% of processing capacity, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. 

Between 2023 and 2025, China imposed export restrictions on strategic minerals, according to CSIS. Dasgupta argues MCC’s work in allied nations can help diversify supply chains and strengthen resilience, though MCC has not publicly described critical minerals as a formal focus of its work.

‘Quick wins’ like Kosovo’s battery project and Nepal’s power lines, Dasgupta said, show how American aid can advance prosperity abroad while reinforcing security at home.

With his departure, MCC continues compacts in dozens of countries worldwide. 

The MCC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle panned the White House’s move to cancel billions in foreign aid funding as illegal, and warned that it could have dire consequences on the fast-approaching deadline to fund the government.

The White House on Thursday notified Congress of the administration’s intent to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding through a ‘pocket rescission.’

‘Last night, President Trump CANCELED $4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid using a pocket rescission,’ the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said on X. ‘[President Donald Trump] will always put AMERICA FIRST!’

The pocket rescissions package obtained by Fox News Digital includes cuts to a variety of foreign aid programs over several fiscal years that the administration argued did not comport with Trump’s agenda.  

Included are roughly $520 million in cuts to Contributions to International Organizations account, over $390 million in cuts to the Contributions for International Peacekeeping Activities account, $322 million from the Democracy Fund, $445 million from the Peacekeeping Operations account and over $3 billion from Development Assistance.

The rescissions process allows the president to make a request to Congress to cancel already approved funding within a 45-day period. Lawmakers successfully went through that exercise earlier this year when they approved $9 billion to be slashed from public broadcasting and foreign aid.

However, a pocket rescission is designed to skirt that 45-day window by coming so close to the end of a fiscal year that lawmakers wouldn’t have time to weigh in. And the White House’s maneuver is already giving Senate Republicans and Democrats heartburn.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement that the move was an ‘apparent attempt to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval.’

She also argued that the Government Accountability Office found that under the Impoundment Control Act, the law that governs rescissions, this style of pocket rescission was illegal.

‘Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,’ she said.

‘Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process,’ Collins continued. ‘Congress approves rescissions regularly as part of this process.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the OMB and the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Lawmakers will also have to grapple with how the pocket rescissions will affect negotiations to keep the government open. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., already warned that further attempts to claw back congressionally approved funding would be a bridge too far for Democrats.

Prior to the announcement, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., imploring both to meet with them to discuss the looming Sept. 30 deadline. 

In the letter, they specifically asked if more rescissions were coming.

Now, Schumer charged that the ‘unlawful ‘pocket rescission’ package is further proof President Trump and Congressional Republicans are hellbent on rejecting bipartisanship and ‘going it alone’ this fall.’

‘As the country stares down next month’s government funding deadline on September 30th, it is clear neither President Trump nor Congressional Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and entirely unnecessary shutdown,’ Schumer said in a statement.

‘In fact, it seems Republicans are eager to inflict further pain on the American people, raising their health care costs, compromising essential services and further damaging our national security,’ he continued. 

A controversial pro-Palestinian gathering in Detroit is drawing scrutiny for featuring speakers with extremist views—including two former Israeli prisoners released in a Hamas deal—alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a prominent anti-Israel congresswoman.

The second annual ‘People’s Conference for Palestine’ conference, which is being organized by a dozen different pro-Palestinian groups, will begin Friday afternoon and will end on Sunday.

Rep. Tlaib will speak alongside several individuals accused of espousing antisemitic rhetoric, including a professor who has compared Jews to Nazis, a journalist who quipped about Hamas kidnapping ‘several dozen hipsters’ at ‘some sort of rave’ on Oct. 7, 2023, and a high-profile activist who once said Israel is ‘built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else’ and lost her position on the board of a major philanthropic organization amid antisemitism complaints.

Tlaib, herself, has been no stranger to criticism about her anti-Israel views either. She was censured in 2023 by her colleagues in Congress over alleged inflammatory rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war. The censure followed several comments from Tlaib that drew backlash, including her use of the phrase ‘From the river to the sea,’ a slogan that many Israel supporters consider a call for the destruction of Israel. 

Tlaib also came under fire in 2023 for being part of a secret Facebook group for many years that glorified terrorists following the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The congresswoman will be joined at the conference by two former prisoners held by Israel who gained their freedom through an Israeli prisoner swap with Hamas. One of those individuals, Hussam Shaheen, was sentenced by Israeli authorities to almost 30 years in prison during the early 2000s for murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The other former prisoner, Omar Assaf, was formerly an official of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The DFLP is not a U.S.-designated terror group, but it has been targeted by U.S. sanctions.

Other attendees of this weekend’s conference include Raja Abdulhaq, who is listed on the conference’s website as the co-founder of the Quds News Network (QNN), which was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for alleged ties to terrorism, a company spokesperson reportedly told the Times of Israel. Subsequently, other major social media platforms, like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, all took steps to restrict QNN’s presence on their platforms. 

Wesam Ahmed, another speaker, is listed as a ‘human rights advocate’ with Al-Haq, an entity accused by the Israeli government of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Meanwhile, Michigan-area activist and former candidate for Congress, Huwaida Arraf, is also slated to speak. Arraf is known for being a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which has previously been investigated by the FBI for possible ties to terrorists. In 2021, Arraf also penned an article which promoted using violent tactics against Israelis. 

‘The Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics — both nonviolent and violent,’ she wrote at the time. ‘But most importantly it must develop a strategy involving both aspects.’

However, when reached for comment, Arraf shot back at criticism that she may be antisemitic, arguing any accusations of such are ‘meant to smear and silence Palestinians and anyone who dares to speak up for their rights.’ 

‘My record is clear,’ she added. ‘I have spent my life opposing all forms of racism, discrimination, and oppression. Conflating criticism of a government with hatred of a people is dishonest and dangerous—it weaponizes antisemitism instead of confronting it.’

A Michigan high school principal was forced to apologize to students and parents in 2023 after Arraf went off script at a ‘diversity assembly’ and reportedly attacked Israel.

Multiple university professors accused of antisemitism will also be at the event with Tlaib. One of them, Hatem Bazian, came under fire by his university, the University of California – Berkley, in 2017 after he shared an anti-Israel cartoon that drew widespread backlash for comparing Jews to Nazis, among other tropes.

‘Mom, look! I is chosen! I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians yay #Ashke-Nazi,’ read the caption of a political cartoon shared by Bazian, the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine and the co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine.

The caption was layered over an image of an orthodox Jewish individual who was juxtaposed next to an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un wearing a kippah and other traditional Jewish garb. That photo was also layered with its own caption: ‘Donald Trump: Now my nukes are legal & I can annex South Korea & you need to start paying me 34 billion a year in welfare.’

In 2015, Bazian, whose SJP group has fueled anti-Israel riots on college campuses, raised alarm bells when he called for an ‘intifada in this country that changes fundamentally the political dynamics in here,’ which is widely interpreted as calling for violence against Jews. He went on to say, ‘They’re gonna say some Palestinian being too radical – well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet.’

Another speaker at the event, journalist Eugene Puryear, has been slammed for trivializing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed over a thousand innocent Israelis.

‘As you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,’ Puryear said on Oct. 8, one day after the attack, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.

Linda Sarsour, who had to walk-back her remarks after stating Israel ‘is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else,’ and lost her seat on the board of the Women’s March amid allegations of antisemitism, will make an appearance as well on Friday afternoon. Sarsour previously denied the allegations of antisemitism that came during her time with the Women’s March.

‘Ask them this, how can you be against white supremacy in America and the idea of being in a state based on race and class, but then you support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else,’ Sarsour asked a crowd in 2019, according to Israeli news outlet Haaretz.

Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student who the Trump administration tried to deport for allegedly inciting anti-Israel violence on his campus, will also be in attendance.

In addition to the speakers, the organizers added special programming geared for kids. ‘We’re proud to introduce a two-day Children’s Program for ages 6–12, featuring engaging activities and an educational curriculum that explores Palestinian history, culture, and resistance,’ the conference’s website says.

Fox News Digital reached out to the conference for comment on its list of speakers, but did not immediately receive a response. Fox News Digital also reached out to several of the speakers for comment but, with the exception of Arraf, did not immediately hear back.

Fox News’ Cameron Cawthorne and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, has signed a new congressional map into law, securing an additional five Republican-leaning U.S. House districts ahead of competitive midterm elections expected in 2026. 

Abbott’s signature on Friday marks the culmination of a partisan redistricting debate that has captivated the country’s attention and inspired an eye-for-an-eye effort by California Democrats. 

‘Today, I signed the One Big Beautiful Map into law,’ Abbott said on X. ‘This map ensures fairer representation in Congress. Texas will be more RED in Congress.’

The Republican-controlled Texas House and Senate passed the new map through their respective chambers last week, following weeks of Lone Star State Democrats breaking quorum and fleeing the state to avoid a redistricting vote. 

And Republicans in the state were not shy about the reason why they wanted to tweak the map. 

Sen. Phil King, R-Texas, who carried the map in the Senate, contended that while the map created more competitive districts, he believed they would be won by Republicans during the 2026 midterm election cycle. 

‘[House Bill 4], I believe, should elect more Republicans to the U.S. Congress, but I’m here to tell you, there are no guarantees,’ he said.

Texas Democrats aren’t shy about their plans to challenge the map in court, either. 

Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder lauded state Democrats for their attempts to block the process and charged that Texas Republicans ‘have effectively surrendered Texas to Washington, D.C.’

‘This isn’t over — we’ll see these clowns in court,’ Scudder said. ‘We aren’t done fighting against these racially discriminatory maps, and fully expect the letter of the law to prevail over these sycophantic Republican politicians who think the rules don’t apply to them.’

Abbott pushed for the creation of a new map to adhere to President Donald Trump’s desire to not see a repeat of the 2018 election cycle, when Democrats handily regained the majority in the House and acted as a foil to the president’s legislative goals toward the end of his first term. 

The Texas map seeks to maintain the Republican majority in the U.S. House next year. Republicans managed to pass Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ through Congress this year, fulfilling many of his 2024 campaign promises, including immigration and green energy reform and tax cuts. Democrats are already using the megabill as fodder for their 2026 campaigns, particularly on Medicaid cuts. 

Repeating a similar legislative achievement for Trump would face even more hurdles if Democrats win control of the House. 

But Abbott and the Texas GOP’s effort could be in vain, given that California Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats passed their own new map, which added five new Democratic-leaning seats in a bid to cancel out Trump’s demands. 

However, the new California map is not yet official, and must be approved by voters in November to be enacted. 

‘The People of California will be able to cast their vote for a Congressional map. Direct democracy that gives us a fighting chance to STOP Donald Trump’s election rigging,’ Newsom said on X. 

While Republicans control a supermajority in deep-red Texas, Democrats were still needed to create a quorum in the House to actually move the process along.

Dozens of Texas Democrats fled the state to stall the process, creating a national media frenzy and generating support from Democratic donors, including groups linked to George Soros and Beto O’Rourke, to help pay for their fines, travel and lodging.

But Texas Republicans Attorney General Ken Paxton and House Speaker Dustin Burrows sought nationwide civil arrest warrants for the Texas House Democrats who broke quorum, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, requested the FBI track them down and the DOJ launch an investigation into the political action committees funding their escape.

Democratic leaders announced early last week they would return for the second special session following California’s plan to redraw its maps to soften the blow from the Lone Star State, ending the blockade and allowing Republicans to charge ahead. 

Texas House Democrats accused the GOP of crafting a map that was illegal and racially discriminatory, and they tried and failed on the House floor to add amendments to the bill that would have halted the process. Despite Democrats’ best efforts, Texas House Republicans shot down a dozen amendments to the bill and passed it last Wednesday evening.

‘Members, it breaks my heart to see how this illegal and rigged mid-decade redistricting scheme is dividing our state and our country,’ Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat, said. ‘This is Texas, it’s not Washington D.C. The impulses of outside politicians and their billionaire backers shouldn’t dictate what we do in this chamber, in this House.’

Rep. Todd Hunter, a Republican who wrote the bill for the new map, countered that four of the five new districts were ‘majority-minority Hispanic,’ noting that each of the new districts now trended Republican. Still, he had no qualms as to why Republicans were pursuing changes to the congressional maps. 

‘The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward, [to] improve Republican political performance,’ he said. 

The Democrats’ blockade ended last week, when Abbott called for a second special session after their demands for California to also begin a redistricting cycle were met in an effort to nullify the map Texas Republicans were creating.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Ukrainian officials in New York City Friday for ‘very productive and constructive’ talks ahead of Kyiv’s emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, Fox News Digital has learned.

Witkoff met with Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s office of the president and chief of staff, and Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s ambassador extraordinary.

Senior administration officials familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital that Yermak and Kyslytsya gave Witkoff a status update on the war with Russia and Moscow’s most recent attacks.

Russia launched a large-scale attack on Kyiv Wednesday night, killing at least 17 people, wounding 48 others and damaging buildings, officials in Ukraine said. 

The Ukrainian officials invited Witkoff to visit Ukraine in the future, a senior official told Fox News Digital.

Witkoff is continuing talks with Ukrainian officials, who say they are making progress.

The meeting, according to Trump administration officials, was a status update and a reaffirmation of the goal of getting both Ukraine and Russia to meet to ultimately reach an agreement to end the war.

Witkoff’s diplomatic approach in the highly sensitive talks has been met with praise by Trump Cabinet officials and foreign officials alike. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also touted Witkoff’s work, saying he is ‘a key member of President Trump’s team and plays an indispensable role in advancing the president’s priorities.’

Rubio told Fox News Digital that Witkoff’s ‘unique perspective and innovative approach open new opportunities for diplomacy that were previously unavailable.’ 

‘It’s been remarkable to see him in action and a privilege to call him a colleague,’ Rubio told Fox News Digital.

National Security Advisor to the United Kingdom Jonathan Powell also praised Witkoff’s style.

Powell reflected on his more than 30 years of experience in peace negotiations, telling Fox News Digital that ‘there is a lot of snobbery in diplomacy — that peace can only be made in grand chandelier rooms, with a delegation of tens of officials and decades of diplomatic experience.’

‘But in my experience, the people who are actually successful at making peace operate on their own and concentrate on building trust between key leaders on either side and moving quietly to cut a deal,’ Powell said. ‘Steve Witkoff is exactly that sort of person.’

Powell told Fox News Digital that Witkoff’s experience of ‘making deals in a completely different field,’ along with his ‘charm and optimism, unburdened by the tens of reasons why an initiative cannot work, and a steely focus on getting to a lasting agreement.

‘In the court of this year, Steve has been able to open doors that no one else could and make peace possible in a series of different conflicts which would otherwise have remained insoluble.’

And Jared Kushner, a former senior adviser to Trump during his first administration, told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration’s ‘small, focused teams with the right leadership can achieve great results.’

‘Coming from the deal world, managing several complex deals at the same time is not uncommon,’ Kushner said, touting Witkoff’s ‘commitment, creativity and determination to solve some of the world’s most complex problems.’

‘Steve is quick to seek out advice and expertise when he is assessing a situation and evolves his perspectives as the facts change,’ Kushner said.

Reports this week, however, quoted anonymous sources who said Witkoff didn’t have enough experience to handle the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Vice President JD Vance, though, told Fox News Digital that Witkoff has ‘made more progress toward ending the bloodshed in Ukraine than all his critics combined.’

‘He’s a natural diplomat, an experienced negotiator and a true humanitarian,’ Vance said.

Vance blasted those who have criticized Witkoff for simply being ‘threatened.’ 

‘These smears are coming from lifelong bureaucrats who are threatened by Steve’s success and who are basically opposed to a productive peace process,’ Vance said.

Meanwhile, Witkoff’s meeting with officials in New York City comes just hours after Ukraine requested an emergency open briefing at the U.N. Security Council following Russia’s overnight aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine. 

Council members Denmark, France, Greece, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia and the United Kingdom supported the meeting request. 

Reports say Russia used nearly 600 drones and more than 30 ballistic and cruise missiles in the attack this week. 

Russia’s continued attacks come after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska earlier in August. Putin proposed Ukraine cede some territory in exchange for peace. 

Days later, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several European heads of state at the White House, and he urged Ukraine to accept a land swap deal with Russia. Trump has argued that it is the most efficient way to end the war. 

Trump hosted Zelenskyy along with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. 

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also attended the meeting at the White House. 

Trump is coordinating the next steps in brokering an end to the war and is encouraging Putin and Zelenskyy to meet. 

Trump has said that after Putin and Zelenskyy meet, he will host a ‘trilat,’ which will be a meeting between Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump. 

‘After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself,’ Trump said last week. ‘Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine.’ 

But after the latest attack, Zelenskyy blasted Putin, saying Russia ‘chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table. It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.

‘And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences,’ Zelenskyy added. ‘Russia still takes advantage of the fact that at least part of the world turns a blind eye to murdered children and seeks excuses for Putin.’ 

Zelenskyy added that it is ‘definitely time for new, tough sanctions against Russia for everything it is doing.

‘All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined,’ he said. ‘Russia must feel accountable for every strike, for every day of this war. Eternal memory to all victims of Russia.’

Bipartisan anger is brewing over the drama that unfolded at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), with the top members of the Senate’s healthcare panel forming a united front in the midst of the turmoil.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., and the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., dove head first into the issues stemming from the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, which spurred a string of departures from the agency.

Monarez was abruptly fired from her position by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), less than a month after being confirmed by the Senate. Her removal, which her lawyers rejected, appeared to stem from disagreements over vaccines with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic.

Cassidy was the deciding vote during Kennedy’s confirmation hearing earlier this year.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president and Kennedy were ‘committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC.’ 

‘We’re going to make sure that folks that are in positions of leadership there are aligned with that mission,’ she said. 

Cassidy agreed with that sentiment. 

‘The president and secretary are right,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘We need radical transparency. We need to protect the health of our children. The two go together. I am committed to the president’s vision, which is why the HELP Committee will conduct oversight.’

Monarez has since refused to leave the post, with her lawyers arguing that she had neither resigned nor been fired and had not received notification from the president of her removal.

Following news of her ouster, a string of top officials at the CDC announced their resignations, too, including National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Daniel Jernigan, Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Demetre Daskalakis and Director of Public Health Data, Science, Technology Jennifer Layden.

In response to their resignations, Cassidy demanded that the federal government’s vaccine advisory panel, which was filled with Kennedy’s handpicked replacements after he recently booted the original panel members, postpone its scheduled meeting in September.

His demand marks the second time this year that Cassidy called on the panel to halt its meeting.

Cassidy argued Thursday that there were ‘serious allegations made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] meeting.’

‘These decisions directly impact children’s health, and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted,’ Cassidy said in a statement. ‘If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.’

Daskalakis posted his reason for resigning on X, where he charged that he was ‘unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.’

Meanwhile, Sanders demanded a congressional investigation be opened into the Trump administration’s decision to fire Monarez.

‘We need leaders at the CDC and HHS who are committed to improving public health and have the courage to stand up for science, not officials who have a history of spreading bogus conspiracy theories and disinformation,’ Sanders said Thursday.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.