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Showdown at CDC as director refuses to leave post, amid pressure from Trump administration

August 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez said Wednesday evening that she would not leave her post as a top public health official, despite attempts by White House officials and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to oust her for “protecting the public” over “a political agenda.”

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” Monarez’s lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said in a statement.

The showdown began as a disagreement over demands from Kennedy and Stefanie Spear, his principal deputy chief of staff, for Monarez to support changes to COVID vaccine policy and the firings of high-level staff, a source familiar with the conversations told ABC News, which Monarez would not commit to.

HHS then announced that Monarez was “no longer director” of the CDC, which touched off a wave of high-level resignations from CDC officials in protest and, ultimately, a fiery response later Wednesday evening from Monarez’s lawyers, who said she wouldn’t resign.

Kennedy, on Fox News on Thursday morning, would not comment on Monarez and argued that the priorities at the CDC need to be re-examined.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on a personnel issue,” Kennedy said. “What I will say is President Trump has very, very ambitious hopes for what for CDC right now. CDC has problems. You know, we saw the misinformation coming out of covid. They got the testing wrong. They got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures that did so much harm to the American people.”

Asked about Monarez’s lawyer statement saying that she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” and the resignations that followed, Kennedy said he was not caught off guard by what happened and continued to claim that the CDC is “in trouble.”

“And we are fixing it, and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” Kennedy said.

The White House, which has the authority to dismiss Monarez, followed up late Wednesday night with a statement from spokesperson Kush Desai, who said Monarez was indeed “terminated.”

“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC,” Desai said.

But Monarez’s lawyers again pushed back, arguing that because Monarez was appointed by President Donald Trump to the post — the first CDC director to go through a Senate confirmation process — Trump had to personally dismiss her.

“For this reason, we reject the notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position,” Zaid and Lowell said in a statement.

Monarez, the recently sworn-in director of the CDC, was confirmed by the Senate just four weeks ago.

Monarez was the second nominee for the position, after Trump’s first nominee, Dave Weldon, didn’t appear to have the votes for a Senate confirmation, in part because of his history of vaccine skepticism.

Monarez, during her confirmation hearing, was clear about her support for vaccines: “I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,” she said in July.

But over the last few months, her boss, Kennedy, has made significant changes to vaccine policy, particularly for COVID vaccines, that have the potential to limit access to the shot.

Earlier Wednesday, Kennedy’s FDA narrowed the scope for who will be approved to get the updated vaccines available this fall and winter.

The latest vaccines were only approved for elderly people — adults aged 65 and older — and for younger people if they have at least one underlying condition that puts them at higher risk for severe illness, departing from the prior guidance that everyone 6 months and older should get vaccinated.

The FDA decision will come before the CDC later this month, where Monarez and a committee of advisers, recently all replaced with handpicked choices by Kennedy, would’ve had the chance to weigh in — and Monarez would’ve ultimately needed to sign off.

In March, Kennedy also oversaw a change to the pediatric vaccine schedule, shifting to a “shared clinical decision making” model that leaves the decision to vaccinate children against COVID to parents, alongside advice from a doctor.

Kennedy has defended the vaccine policy changes as advancing “science, safety, and common sense.”

Following HHS’s statement about Monarez’s departure, four other senior career officials at the CDC also resigned, according to emails obtained by ABC News.

Deb Houry, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science at CDC, Dan Jernigan, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, sent emails to colleagues on Wednesday night informing them that they’d submitted their resignations, each mentioning changing policies at CDC.

Jennifer Layden, Director for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, resigned as well.

“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health,” Daskalakis wrote in his departure email to colleagues.

“You are the best team I have ever worked with, and you continue to shine despite this dark cloud over the agency and our profession,” he said.

Houry, who has worked at CDC through Democrat and Republican administrations, said “the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations.”

“I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency. This is a heartbreaking decision that I make with a heavy heart,” Houry wrote.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has oversight of HHS as chair of the Senate committee focused on health, committed Wednesday night to looking into the high-profile departures.

The wave of departures comes during a tumultuous time for the CDC, just a few weeks after a shooting on the main campus in Atlanta that hit multiple buildings. Authorities said they found the alleged shooter had been harboring years-long grievances with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Monarez’s departure was first reported by the Washington Post.

Minneapolis shooting suspect attended Annunciation Catholic School, motive under investigation

August 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MINNEAPOLIS) — As police search for a motive in the deadly mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP obtained a yearbook entry from the school describing suspected shooter Robin Westman as a member of the class of 2017.

“We believe he had been a student here,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told KSTP, adding, “His mom had worked here in the past.”

Westman, 23, who was born Robert Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Driver’s license information reviewed by ABC News described Westman as a female, born on June 17, 2002. A name change application for a minor born on the same date, June 17, 2002, was approved by a district court in Minnesota in 2020, changing the name of a Robert Westman to Robin Westman, explaining the minor child “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

Two children — an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old — were killed and 17 people were injured when the shooter opened fire through the windows of the Minneapolis school’s church on Wednesday morning.

Fourteen of the injured victims were children ages 6 to 15, and the three adults who were shot were parishioners in their 80s, police said.

All injured victims are expected to survive and some victims have already been released from the hospital, O’Hara said late Wednesday.

Officers recovered three guns — one rifle, one shotgun and one handgun — at the scene, all of which are believed to have been fired in the attack, police said. All were purchased legally by Westman, police said.

Electronics related to Westman have been recovered, but no other firearms, the chief said.

The suspect had no criminal history, police added.

O’Hara said additional police patrols will be provided as children return to school across the Minneapolis area.

ABC News’ Mariama Jalloh, Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Sasha Pezenik and Michael Pappano contributed to this report.

Kyiv hit by ‘massive’ Russian missile, drone attack, officials say, with 18 killed

August 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine came under a major combined missile and drone attack overnight into Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, with at least 18 people — four of them children — killed in the capital.

“Kyiv is under massive attack,” the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Timur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram. At least 48 people were injured across the city, the military administration said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 598 drones and 31 missiles into the country overnight, of which 563 drones and 26 missiles were shot down or suppressed. Impacts were reported across 13 locations, the air force said, with falling debris reported in 26 locations.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post to Telegram that it was “a terrible night” for the capital. He reported “many damaged buildings” across five city districts.

“These include both non-residential buildings and high-rise apartments,” Klitschko said. “Educational institutions, transport infrastructure. Emergency services are working on site everywhere.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes represented “a clear response to everyone in the world who for weeks and months has been calling for a ceasefire and real diplomacy. Russia chooses ballistics over the negotiating table. It chooses to continue the killings rather than end the war.”

“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 closes its eyes to the killed children and looks for excuses for Putin.”

Zelenskyy urged a response from nations like China and Hungary, which have expressed sympathy with Russia’s position. “It is definitely time for new tough sanctions against Russia for everything it is doing,” he added.

“All deadlines have already been missed, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy have been spoiled. Russia must feel its responsibility for every strike, for every day of this war,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the overnight strikes also damaged damaged the building housing the European Union mission to Ukraine in Kyiv. “We insist on strong international reactions to Russia’s brutal strike on Kyiv and other cities,” Sybiha wrote in a post to X.

European Council President Antonio Costa confirmed the damage to the building in a post to social media, describing the attack as a “Russian deliberate strike.” No injuries were reported at the building.

“Horrified by yet another night of deadly Russian missile attacks on Ukraine,” Costa wrote. “The EU will not be intimidated. Russia’s aggression only strengthens our resolve to stand with Ukraine and its people,” he added.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the attack served as “another grim reminder of what is at stake.” She added, “It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorize Ukraine.”

The latest barrage continued the nightly tempo of Russian strikes, though the scale of the attacks through August have so far been smaller than in July and June. In August so far, Russia has launched a daily average of around 118 drones and four missiles into Ukraine, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News.

The daily averages for July were around 201 drones and six missiles, and in June 181 drones and eight missiles.

Wednesday night’s strike was the largest on Ukraine since Aug. 21 and the first major strike on Kyiv for several weeks.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the strikes, which continue despite White House efforts to broker a peace deal.

Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Ukrainian officials will meet with members of the Trump administration in New York on Friday. On the agenda are security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent future Russian aggression — a key element of the negotiations that took center stage when Zelenskyy and a slate of European leaders visited the White House last week.

“The task is to accelerate as much as possible so that this too becomes a lever – a lever of influence: the Russians must see how seriously the world is determined and how dire the consequences will be for Russia if the war continues,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 102 Ukrainian drones overnight.

ABC News’ Nataliia Popova, Natalia Kushniir, Oleksiy Phemyskiy and Guy Davies contributed to this report.

Girl shot in head at Minneapolis school asked bystander, ‘Please just hold my hand’

August 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MINNEAPOLIS) — When Pat Scallen heard gunshots around the corner from his Minneapolis home, “I didn’t know exactly what it was at first, but after about the 10th shot, I knew something was wrong,” he recalled.

Scallen raced to the Annunciation Catholic School, where he said he saw a magazine on the ground by the church.

“It was eerily quiet. And then I immediately turned and ran to the front of the church, and right at that time everyone was coming out. And it was chaotic,” Scallen told “Good Morning America” on Thursday.

Streaming from the church were children suffering emotional and physical wounds, he said, adding that he saw a boy and a girl who had been shot in the head as well as a girl shot in the neck.

“They were very frightened. They wanted their mom and dad,” he said. “And I just, I sat them down and just tried to keep them calm, and I was watching them close to see if there’d be any change in their status.”

Scallen said the girl shot in the head asked him, “Please just hold my hand.”

“I did,” he said.

An 8-year-old and 10-year-old who were sitting in pews were killed and 17 others were injured in the Wednesday morning mass shooting, police said. The shooter opened fire through a church window during a Mass that marked the first week of school.

Fourteen of the injured victims were children ages 6 to 15, and the three adults who were shot were parishioners in their 80s, police said. All of those injured are expected to survive, police said.

The shooter, identified by the FBI as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. A motive remains under investigation.

Scallen said the Annunciation Catholic School is “one of the premiere schools in the city and state” and is “integral to the neighborhood.”

“There’s a spirit here, and I know they’ll be grieving for awhile, but this place, they’ll come back,” he said.

Arrest made in Philadelphia cold-case mob hit near scene of the crime: Officials

August 27, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(PHILADELPHIA) — More than 26 years after a man was gunned down outside his Philadelphia home in what police described as a mob-style killing, a suspect was arrested this week, a block from the crime scene, authorities said.

Federal prosecutors announced on Tuesday the arrest of 60-year-old Richard Leidy in the 1999 ambush that left Guerino “Gino” Marconi dead and his 31-year-old girlfriend, Patricia Miley, wounded.

According to documents filed in Philadelphia federal court, Leidy is charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a prohibited firearm. Leidy is also charged with simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, possession of an instrument of crime with intent and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Leidy was arrested on Monday at his home in South Philadelphia, which is about a block from where the fatal shooting of Marconi unfolded on South 20th Street in South Philadelphia, authorities said. It was unclear if Leidy was living at the same residence when Marconi was killed.

Leidy was arraigned on the charges on Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, according to court records. A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for Sept. 15, which, according to court documents, will be Leidy’s 61st birthday.

Details of what led investigators to arrest Leidy in the cold-case killing were not immediately disclosed.

Leidy is being held in federal custody without bail.

At the time of the killing, 42-year-old Marconi was described in media reports as a low-level associate of Joseph Salvatore “Skinny Joey” Merlino, then reputed boss of the Philadelphia crime family.

On the night of April 10, 1999, Marconi and Miley were both shot by an assailant wielding a rifle, who confronted them outside Marconi’s home, the Philadelphia Police Department said at the time.

Marconi was shot once in the head and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the Philadelphia Daily News reported at the time. Marconi’s girlfriend, Miley, was shot three times in the attack and critically injured, but survived the shooting, the Daily News reported.

Before fleeing the scene, the gunman torched a van that was parked in front of Marconi’s home and set other vehicles on fire, according to police.

A motive for the shooting was not immediately disclosed.

Marconi, who grew up in South Philadelphia, owned an auto body shop in South Philly at the time of his death, the Daily News reported, citing property records.

The newspaper said Miley worked as a billing clerk for a Philadelphia law firm.

Immigration facility ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ will have no detainees in the next few days, Florida official says

August 27, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(OCHOPEE, Fla.) — The controversial immigration facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will soon have no detainees in it, according to an email obtained by ABC News.

The email was sent by Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, to the interfaith community.

“We are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” Guthrie wrote.

The detention center was the subject of lawsuits, one of which halted new detainees from being transported to the facility.

President Donald Trump and top Homeland Security brass visited the facility, which they have testified in court is expected to cost about $400 million.

The South Florida Interfaith Community wrote to the FDEM about allowing access to faith services at the facility in recent days.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced that his administration is opening a new immigration detention facility in the state dubbed “Deportation Depot.”

Chip giant Nvidia beats revenue expectations, defying fears of AI ‘bubble’

August 27, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Chip giant Nvidia delivered more revenue than expected over a recent three-month period, the company said on Wednesday, defying concern among some prominent figures about a possible bubble in the artificial intelligence industry.

The California-based company recorded $46.7 billion in sales over three months ending in July, which exceeded analyst expectations of $46.2 billion. The jump in revenue marked 56% growth compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

The fresh data offered the latest window into the health of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which in recent years has become a key engine for stock market gains and economic growth.

Nvidia, the $4 trillion company behind many of the chips fueling AI products, has expanded at a breakneck pace since an AI boom set off by the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. The California-based company saw its stock price soar nearly 700% over the ensuing two years.

Alongside continued growth, the company is weathering new challenges. President Donald Trump barred the sale of chips to China earlier this year, before revoking the ban in July. A month later, Trump struck an agreement with Nvidia allowing the company to sell chips in China if the firm hands over 15% of revenue generated by the exports to the U.S.

Speaking at the White House earlier this month, the president recounted the agreement with Nvidia.

“I said, ‘If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release,'” Trump said.

In May, the company said it expected to suffer an $8 billion loss as result of restrictions imposed upon chip exports. Earnings released on Wednesday said the company did not sell any H20 chips in China over the most recent quarter, but the firm did not mention any losses related to the policy.

In recent weeks, some prominent figures have warned of an AI bubble, casting doubt on the sustainability of the sector’s gangbusters growth. Torsten Sløk, chief economist at Apollo, said last month that the AI bubble may exceed the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, suggesting that the top firms are overvalued.

In an interview earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also said the AI industry had become a bubble.

“Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes,” Altman told tech publication The Verge.

Still, the AI sector remains a bright spot for the U.S. economy. AI-related spending added a 0.5 percentage point boost to annualized gross domestic product growth over the first half of 2025, Pantheon Macroeconomics found.

Pope calls for an end to violence in Gaza, supports churches that will not evacuate

August 27, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Leo XIV said on Wednesday he supports the statement put out by the last remaining churches in Gaza City, which called for an end to the war and said they will not evacuate amid Israel’s ramped-up military action and threats to destroy Gaza City.

“I return today to address a strong appeal to both the parties involved and to the international community to put an end to the conflict in the Holy Land that has caused so much terror, destruction and death,” the pope said in Italian on Wednesday at his weekly audience. “In particular, the obligation to protect civilians and the prohibitions on collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population.”

The churches said Tuesday that the clergy and nuns have decided they will “remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds,” the churches said in a joint statement to the Israel Defense Forces.

Hundreds of civilians — including women, children and elderly — have been seeking refuge in the Greek Orthodox compound of Saint Porphyrius and the Holy Family compound since the outbreak of the war and the Latin compound has been hosting people with disabilities who have been under the care of the Sisters Missionaries of Charity for many years, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement Tuesday.

“Like other residents of Gaza City, the refugees living in the facilities will have to decide according to their conscience what they will do. Among those who have sought shelter within the walls of the compounds, many are weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last months. Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence. For this reason, the clergy and nuns have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds,” the churches said.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Gaza City could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas that were destroyed earlier in the war, unless Hamas agrees to Israel’s terms for a ceasefire.

This came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would approve the IDF’s plan to seize Gaza City.

The churches criticized Israel’s plans surrounding its decision to take control of Gaza City, saying, “There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge.”

“We echo what Pope Leo XIV said a few days ago: ‘All peoples, even the smallest and weakest, must be respected by the powerful in their identity and rights, especially the right to live in their own lands; and no one can force them into exile,'” the churches said.

The churches called for an end to the war and the “spiral of violence.”

“There has been enough devastation, in the territories and in people’s lives. There is no reason to justify keeping civilians as prisoners and hostages in dramatic conditions. It is now time for the healing of the long-suffering families on all sides,” the churches said.

Israel began the first stages of its attack on Gaza City last week, calling up 50,000 to 60,000 reservists for the operation to occupy the city, according to IDF spokesman Eddie Defrin and an Israeli military official.

Mass protests against the military action on Gaza were seen across Israel on Tuesday, with protesters demanding the Israeli government get a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would secure the release of the remaining hostage held there.

Israel is also facing criticism for Monday’s attack on a hospital in Khan Younis that killed five journalists and 15 medical workers, according to their media organizations and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Netanyahu called the attack a “tragic mishap.”

The IDF released an initial report on Tuesday, which concludes that “six of the individuals killed were terrorists, one of whom took part in the infiltration into Israeli territory on October 7th.”

Despite a famine determination in Gaza, delivering desperately needed aid remains elusive, experts say

August 27, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said last week that famine was determined in parts of Gaza for the first time.

The IPC report projected that famine would expand in the region by the end of September and more than 100,000 children under age 5 were at risk of death from acute malnutrition through June 2026.

In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office called the IPC’s determination of famine “an outright lie” and “a modern blood libel.”

Humanitarian experts and doctors described the report as unsurprising — a situation they have warned about for months — but “appalling” nonetheless.

“The situation itself is appalling,” Scott Paul, director of peace and security for the non-governmental organization Oxfam America, told ABC News. “I think if anyone is surprised by this news, then they haven’t been paying attention to the repeated warnings of local communities, Palestinian organizations, international organizations and other states and humanitarian donors.”

Aid organizations have said the next steps after such a report are securing an immediate, and permanent, ceasefire and opening border crossings to allow unhindered access of humanitarian aid and medical supplies.

While some experts told ABC News it’s not too late to increase aid and ready-to-eat therapeutic food for cases of malnutrition, others are less optimistic that the report will result in meaningful change.

“What will be done will be nothing,” Dr. John Kahler, a pediatrician and co-founder of MedGlobal, who has been on multiple medical missions to Gaza, told ABC News. “There’s plenty of money and plenty of resources available. It’s 100% access. And so, this [famine determination] won’t do a thing to move that needle.”

He added, “I’m in a difficult position with organizations at large, because they think the production of yet another document has some dramatic meaning. We knew this.”

To determine if a famine is happening, three thresholds have to be met: 20% of households must be facing an extreme food shortage, 30% of children must be acutely malnourished and either two adults or four children must be dying every day per 10,000 people, according to the IPC.

A termination is separate from a declaration. The IPC itself doesn’t issue official declarations of famine, but its findings can inform governments and bodies such as the U.N. to make a famine declaration.

Humanitarian experts have said there is no legal mechanism that a government body or the U.N. would have to go through to formally declare a famine.

“Governments or international organizations might have their own sort of processes internally to go into famine mode, but I don’t think that anyone should be holding their breath for a piece of paper that says ‘famine declaration’ on the top, because that likely won’t come,” Paul, of Oxfam America, said.

He noted that the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator already addressed the famine determination during a press conference with reporters on Friday and acknowledged it in the wake of the IPC classification.

“This isn’t the penultimate step. This is it. We have arrived at famine,” Paul said.

Kahler agreed, adding that the IPC report should not be taken as a warning — rather that the warning should have occurred months ago with previous reports.

“The health system’s collapsed, the educational system’s collapsed, the public health system’s collapsed,” he said. “I’m not sure what else to warn people about.”

Paul said normally what would follow would be an immediate “all hands-on deck” effort from the U.S. government and others to influence the Israeli government to secure a ceasefire and increase the flow of aid, which he said should have been done with prior warnings of emergency levels of food insecurity famine warnings.

Since May, the U.S. has participated in providing aid to Gaza through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which set up designated aid distribution sites rather than delivering aid throughout the strip. Palestinians and aid organizations reported incidents of people being shot at while trying to retrieve aid as well as general chaos at the sites, which continues to be an ongoing issue.

The Israel Defense Forces has previously said it only fires “warning shots” toward people who are allegedly “advancing while posing a threat to the troops.” The Israeli government has also previously claimed that Hamas shoots people waiting in food lines and films the events for propaganda videos. Hamas has denied these claims.

Israeli officials have argued there are hundreds of truckloads of aid sitting at the border for the U.N. and its partners to distribute. The U.N., however, said it can’t deliver the aid safely.

“One of the things that is not well understood is how complex it is for the United Nations to do our work here in the Gaza Strip,” Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for UNICEF who is currently in Gaza, told ABC News. “I think what is not well understood is the challenges that we face on a daily basis that impede our work. It’s like a game of ‘Snakes and Ladders.’ We take one step forward and then we have to take two steps backwards because there are constantly hurdles in front of us that we have to overcome, and many of these hurdles do not need to be there.”

These threats include poor road conditions, lack of route alternatives, poor telecommunications, large crowds of desperate people and unpredictable supply lines, according to the U.N.

Paul noted that a prior IPC report, issued at the end of July, found that a “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding in Gaza.

“It was less than a few weeks ago that the same technical body on hunger issued a very clear warning [on] famine, which is about as close as they can come to an official confirmation without doing it,” he said. “The situation will get worse, and famine will continue to spread as long as all routes for humanitarian assistance … is not immediately opened up.”

Chip giant Nvidia to report earnings as some warn of AI ‘bubble’

August 27, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — An earnings report to be released by chip giant Nvidia on Wednesday will offer a window into the health of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which in recent years has become a key engine for stock market gains and economic growth.

Analysts expect Nvidia to record $46.2 billion in revenue over three months ending in June, which would amount to a 53% jump compared to a year earlier. That would mark robust growth but it would come in well below a 122% spike in revenue enjoyed in the same quarter a year ago.

Speaking at the White House earlier this month, the president recounted the agreement with Nvidia.

“I said, ‘If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release,'” Trump said.

In May, the company said it expected to suffer an $8 billion loss as result of restrictions imposed upon chip exports.

In an interview earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also said the AI industry had become a bubble.

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