U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that autism is linked to the use of Tylenol during pregnancy in a report expected to be released this month, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will also likely suggest that low levels of the vitamin folate also contribute to autism. The report will propose that a form of folate called folic acid, or leucovorin, can be used to treat symptoms of the disorder, according to the WSJ.

Acetaminophen, the ingredient found in hundreds of prescription and over-the-counter medicines — including Tylenol products — is routinely recommended for fever reduction and the relief of mild to moderate pain. Pregnant women commonly take it.

The drug has long been linked to liver toxicity, and several studies over the last decade — including one published last month by researchers at Harvard Medical School — have found that children exposed to the drug during pregnancy may be more likely to develop neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

Shares of Tylenol, made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Kenvue, declined nearly 11% Friday after the WSJ published its report.

“Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products,” a Kenvue spokeswoman told the WSJ. “We have continuously evaluated the science and continue to believe there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says Tylenol is safe to use in pregnancy. In 2021, as more evidence of the link was emerging, the organization published a statement opposing a consensus statement supported by a group of 91 scientists in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology. The scientists said that a growing body of research suggests that prenatal exposure to the drug may alter fetal development and increase the risks of neurodevelopmental, reproductive and urogenital disorders.

“ACOG and obstetrician-gynecologists across the country have always identified acetaminophen as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant individuals during pregnancy,” the pharmaceutical industry-sponsored medical organization insisted.

An estimated 1 in 31 (3.22%) 8-year-old children had an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis in 2022 — up from 1 in 36 (2.8%) in 2020, and 1 in 1,000 children in the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest study, published earlier this year.

Studies have also linked Tylenol use in children with permanent impairments in cognition and socialization in susceptible children, including when administered after vaccination.

“The body of evidence around acetaminophen and autism really suggests that the highest risks are not prenatal but neonatal and postnatal,” according to Children’s Health Defense Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker.

“If I were to rank the risk periods, neonatal would be the highest, postnatal next and prenatal the least, given that pregnant women will be able to help detox the acetaminophen, reducing the burden on the developing unborn child,” Hooker said.

Kennedy announced in April that the public health agencies had launched a “massive testing and research effort” to determine what causes autism.

He said the effort involves hundreds of scientists globally and promised results by this month. Kennedy said that once the environmental causes of autism are identified, “We’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

Last month, Kennedy told President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting that his agency was on track to announce the findings of an ongoing study on the causes of autism in September.

“We’re finding interventions, certain interventions now that are clearly almost certainly causing autism, and we’re going to be able to address those in September,” Kennedy said.

Reuters reported that researchers have submitted more than 100 proposals to participate in the Trump administration’s $50 million study into possible causes of autism. A list of 25 grant winners is expected to be announced at the end of the month.

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/hhs-to-announce-autism-link-tylenol-use-pregnancy-wall-street-journal/

Fight for the Pacific

Al Jazeera (2025)

Film Review

Typically (for Al Jazeera), this documentary is very pro-Western in its perspective. It mainly expresses concerns about China replacing the US and Europe as the primary influence in the South Pacific. It appears to support continued French occupation of New Caledonia to counter Chinese influence.

New Caledonia

It focuses heavily on New Caledonia, one of the few Pacific nations still under European (French) control. Its residents are extremely bitter about their continued colonization by France, as well as French military repression and high food prices and rents.

The New Caledonian independence movement, continues steady growth begun in the 1960s with the Kanak (indigenous Melanesian people of New Caledonia) Awakening. A unilateral decision by French president Macron to change the electoral roll (to minimize Kanak representation) led to widespread riots on May 13, 2024.

The French responded by deploying 7,000 troops and killing scores of Kanaks, including several on customary land reserved for indigenous Melanesian. The UN condemned the extreme violence of the French response.

The riots also severely disrupted the tourist industry, causing many Kanak to lose their jobs and become homeless.

Years of nickel mining exploitation has led many white New Caledonian resident sto look to China for economic support. In 2011, Caledonia exported 6.9% of their nickel to China. By 2022, this had increased to 63%.

Chinese diplomats object to claims by Western leaders that they just want to colonize and exploit New Caledonia and other Pacific nations. As a founding member of BRICS and the Shangai Cooperation Organization, China is firmly committed to a multipolar world order in which sovereign nations respect the sovereignty of other nations for their mutual benefit.

Vanuatu

Vanuatu (which was never invaded by Japan) has never really recovered from World War II, when it served as a base of operations for 100,000 US troops and engineers. The latter simply abandoned all their military vehicles, leaving behind massive pollution, from petroleum products, rusting vehicles, etc which persists to this day. Vanuatu gained independence from a joint Anglo-French condominium in 1980.

Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands were a British colony until 1978. Recently they have moved closer to China with the hope of reducing unemployment and improving their standard of living. There’s even a Chinese Communist Party in the Solomons, and the filmmakers briefly interview their leader. In 2021, there were anti-Chinese riots led by Daniel Suidani, who served as the Premier of Malaita Province from June 2019 until his ouster in a no confidence vote in February 2023. He was subsequently charged with unlawful assembly. At the time of filming his trial was ongoing.

During Suidani’s tenure as Premier of Malaita Province, the Solomon Islands government officially switched diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People’s Republic of China. Suidani was highly critical of this decision, alleging that the Chinese government offered him bribes in exchange for political allegiance. Suidani, in turn, ha been accused of accepting bribes from the Taiwanese government.

Suidani is also concerned about a 2022 security agreement the Solomons signed with China that would allow them to have a military presence there.

China’s envoy to the Solomons scoffs at accusation China wishes to establish a “quasi” military base there. He points out that the US has 800 military bases (the real number is over 1,000) with 400 in the Pacific Islands.

The Israeli army has bombed another high-rise in Gaza City after telling Palestinian residents to evacuate or face being killed amid its ongoing siege and imposed mass starvation in the enclave.

The Israeli military designated more high-rise towers as targets in a map released on Saturday. Shortly after releasing the map, it bombed the 15-storey Soussi Tower, which is located opposite a building belonging to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood.

“These attacks are causing panic amongst the people, especially considering the time they are given to evacuate. Half an hour or an hour is not enough time for people to escape from these buildings,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said, reporting from Gaza City.

The Israeli military said in a statement, without offering evidence, that the buildings struck were used by Hamas to gather intelligence to monitor the locations of the Israeli army. It also said armed Palestinian groups planted “numerous explosive devices” and dug a tunnel in the area.

Gaza’s Government Media Office rejected the claims and called them “part of a systematic policy of deception used by the occupation to justify the targeting of civilians and infrastructure” and forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes. It said 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel.

The targeted buildings were near the 12-storey Mushtaha Tower, which on Friday was similarly bombed and razed to the ground, as Israel moves to seize Gaza City despite international criticism.

At least 68 Palestinians were killed and 362 wounded across the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military over the past day, the enclave’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday afternoon.

The toll includes 23 aid seekers killed and 143 wounded by Israeli forces. At least six more Palestinians also died of Israeli-induced starvation, bringing the total number of starvation deaths during nearly two years of war to 382, including 135 children.

At least 64,368 Palestinians have been killed and 162,367 wounded by Israel since the start of the war in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Sources at Nasser Hospital, located in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera that at least two Palestinians were killed and many wounded in an Israeli air strike on a tent housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi area.

While this area was designated as a “humanitarian” or “safe” zone by the Israeli army early in the war, it has been repeatedly bombed, leading to the deaths of hundreds of displaced civilians.

Hours before the latest bombings, the Israeli army had announced the establishment of another similar zone in al-Mawasi, which runs along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. It claimed the area will have infrastructure such as field hospitals, water lines, desalination facilities and food supplies.

Reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Palestinians do not trust the so-called humanitarian area as tents in similar zones have been attacked by Israel many times before and nowhere is safe.

But people in Gaza City have few options: If they stay, they risk being killed, and if they leave, they face dangers on the road and may have to spend considerable money to move their belongings south.

Those who have returned to their homes in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, where Israeli forces withdrew recently after weeks of ground assaults, have found everything they owned destroyed.

“What we have built in 50 years was flattened in five days,” resident Aqeel Kishko told Al Jazeera. “Nothing remains standing – buildings, roads and infrastructure. We are walking not only on ruins but also on dead bodies of our loved ones.”

Nohaa Tafish said it would be impossible for Gaza’s largest urban centre to be revived.

“What would people return to? There is nothing to return to,” she said.

Ahmed Rihem also had his home in Gaza City reduced to rubble. “It is as if the entire Zeitoun neighbourhood was hit with a nuclear bomb,” he said.

[…]

Via https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/6/israel-bombs-more-gaza-city-high-rises-after-forced-evacuation-orders