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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday agreed to halt all efforts to freeze funds intended for a Maine child nutrition program after initially suspending those dollars due to a disagreement between the state and Trump over transgender athletes.

In response, the state will drop its lawsuit that had been filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey announced.

The top US health department plans to require placebo testing for all vaccines in an effort to offer "straightforward" public health information, but experts say such testing could limit availability and raise ethical concerns.

In a statement first given to the Washington Post, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said this week, "All new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure — a radical departure from past practices".

The agency did not provide details on which "new vaccines" would be included.

But officials have suggested that updated Covid-19 shots may be included, which vaccine experts say could slow down vaccine access.

Peter Lurie, a former official with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said "it's hard to tell exactly what is being proposed."

"But, broadly, if they mean that every modification to an existing vaccine would require a new placebo-controlled trial, they are treading in ethically dubious territory and likely to deny Americans life-saving vaccines at some point."

HHS has not offered details on the timing of the placebo plan or specify the vaccines involved.

An HHS spokesperson told the BBC in a statement that health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's goal of "radical transparency" means being "honest and straightforward about what we know — and what we don't know — about medical products, including vaccines".

The statement said none of the childhood vaccines recommended in the US - except the Covid shot - had undergone "inert placebo" testing, meaning "we know very little about the actual risk profiles of these products".

But public health experts say the statement is misleading, as childhood vaccinations, including ones for Hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, polio and the mumps, were all initially tested against a placebo. In fact, all new immunizations already go through the trials - a type of random testing where one test group receives the immunization, and the other gets a placebo, like a saline shot.

But newer versions of the shots may not go through the same process, because it is considered unethical to withhold a shot known to be safe from a particular group, and because the shot is only being tweaked in a minor way, vaccine experts said.

An Illinois man has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for the 2023 fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy.

Wadee Alfayoumi was stabbed 26 times and his mother more than a dozen in the Oct. 14, 2023, attack inside their home in the Chicago suburb of Plainfield.

Their landlord, 73-year-old Joseph Czuba, was convicted in February on multiple murder charges, as well as attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime counts. A Will County jury found Czuba guilty of all counts after deliberating for less than two hours.

Prior to the sentencing on Friday in Joliet, the judge denied a motion from the defense team to overturn the jury verdict that claimed he did not receive a fair trial, Chicago ABC station WLS reported.

The defense has filed a motion to reconsider the sentencing, with a court appearance scheduled for May 7, WLS reported.

Czuba faced a mandatory prison sentence of 20 to 60 years up to a possible life sentence.

Authorities said he targeted his tenants because they were Muslim and in response to the war between Israel and Hamas that had just ignited after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Wadee's great uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, addressed the sentencing outside the courthouse, telling reporters, "It doesn't matter what numbers are. He took a life from us. He took a future."

Sean "Diddy" Combs on Thursday formally rejected the government's offer to plead guilty and spare himself the possibility of a prolonged prison sentence.

"Yes I do, your honor," Combs said after Judge Arun Subramanian asked him whether he rejected the offer federal prosecutors made.

Combs, 55, is scheduled to stand trial beginning Monday with jury selection on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution that allege he coerced women into prolonged sexual encounters he called "freak-offs."

Defense attorneys for alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione said Thursday in a new court filing that the murder indictment a state grand jury returned against him should be dismissed due to double jeopardy and other alleged violations.

The indictment should be dismissed "because concurrent state and federal prosecutions violate the Double Jeopardy Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause and Mr. Mangione's constitutional rights against self-incrimination, to meaningfully defend himself, to a fair and impartial jury and to the effective assistance of counsel," defense attorneys wrote.

Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said in the filing that "prosecutorial one-upmanship" resulted in Mangione facing state and federal charges in New York and separate charges in Pennsylvania.

• US tariff exemption for low-value items from China ends Friday
• Ecommerce goods from China face jump to 145% tariffs
• Some online retailers stop serving US over tariffs
• Shein seeks to reassure shoppers in Instagram post

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - With the end of a U.S. tariff exemption for small parcels on Friday, some retailers have stopped selling to customers in the United States while others are seeking temporary workarounds in the hope the tariff rate may be reduced.

The removal of "de minimis" - duty-free treatment of e-commerce packages worth less than $800 - for products originating from China and Hong Kong exposes those goods to tariffs of 145% on most Chinese goods following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last month. The move upended global trade and triggered retaliation from Beijing.

British beauty products retailer Space NK has paused e-commerce orders and shipping to the United States "to avoid incorrect or additional costs being applied to our customers' orders", the company said in a notice on Wednesday.

It is not alone. Understance, a Vancouver-based company that sells bras and underwear manufactured in China, told customers in an Instagram post that it would no longer ship to the United States due to the tariffs, saying it will resume once there is clarity.

"We're going from zero to 145%, which is really untenable for companies and untenable for customers," said Cindy Allen, CEO of Trade Force Multiplier, a global trade consultancy.

"I've seen a lot of small to medium-sized businesses just choose to exit the market altogether," she added.

PRICE HIKES UNDERWAY

Players willing to continue to access the U.S. market are forced to hike their price tags.

Oh Polly, a British clothing retailer, has increased prices in the U.S. by 20% compared to its other markets, and may have to consider further price increases because of the higher tariffs, said managing director Mike Branney.

Singapore-based fast-fashion giant Shein sought to reassure customers in a post on its U.S. Instagram account on Thursday, saying: "Some products may be priced differently than before, but the majority of our collections remain as affordable as ever." Shein sells clothes mostly manufactured in China, and the U.S. is its biggest market.

Temu, the international arm of Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings (PDD.O) , prominently featured products already in U.S. warehouses on its website, labelled 'Local', and a pop-up informed customers there would be no import charges for local warehouse items.

"All sales in the U.S. are now handled by locally based sellers, with orders fulfilled from within the country," Temu said in a statement, adding that its pricing for U.S. customers "remains unchanged".

But items imported before the May 2 change will eventually run out. Both Shein and Temu have slashed their U.S. digital advertising spending in the past weeks as they prepared for the change that is likely to hit their sales.

Shein did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"E-commerce companies have had it really good for a really long time, and this is a seismic shift in how trade works," said Hugo Pakula, customs expert and CEO of trade automation platform Tru Identity. "If your inventory is not already in the U.S., selling to the U.S. is going to hurt."

Gov. JB Pritzker and three other Democratic state chief executives on Tuesday night called for Democrats to mobilize and protest outside Republican congressional offices to oppose President Donald Trump’s administrative actions following his first 100 days in office.

“If you’re not out there protesting in front of a Republican congressman’s office, or out in the street making your voice heard, or calling your friends in another state to have them do it, or showing up in Washington, D.C., in front of their offices, those Republican congressmen, then you’re not doing what’s necessary to put pressure on them to vote the right way,” he said.

Pritzker was joined by Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the unsuccessful 2024 vice presidential nominee, Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Kathy Hochul of New York in an hourlong, live-streamed question-and-answer event hosted by the MeidasTouch Network. The online site has used its social media platforms and other channels to sharply criticize Trump and Elon Musk, the presidential adviser who heads up the Department of Government Efficiency.

The governors were asked about formulating a new messaging strategy following the party’s poor showing last November and current public polling indicating dissatisfaction with Democrats for failing to address kitchen table issues and for not helping working families — once a core constituency.

The forum comes as Democrats also are trying to reconcile divisions between the party’s progressive wing and more moderate Democrats who feel the party’s leftward drift was a major factor to last year’s election results.

Of the three other governors, Hochul was the most vocal in echoing Pritzker’s call for Democrats to take their objections of Trump and Musk directly to members of the Republican-controlled House — with an eye toward the 2026 midterm elections.

“I believe that we all ought to be mobilizing. The best way for us to get across what we really believe is that you show up at your Republican congressman’s office and let them know: Quit shutting down veteran services. Quit taking away Social Security and Medicaid — and we know that’s what they’re about to do,” the New York governor said.

A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to El Salvador, ruling the removal violated a court settlement protecting some young migrants with pending asylum claims, according to an order issued Wednesday.

The person deported was part of a class action case filed in 2019 on behalf of individuals who arrived in the US as unaccompanied minors and later sought asylum. A settlement in that case determined they could not be removed from the United States until their claims were fully adjudicated.

US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who was nominated to the post by President Donald Trump, issued the order directing the government to work with Salvadoran authorities to return the man to the United States. The man is referred to only as “Cristian” in court filings. Gallagher also barred the removal of other individuals covered by the settlement agreement, which was finalized in November 2024. According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Cristian was removed on March 15 and sent to a prison in El Salvador.

The judge’s ruling marks a second order directed to the Trump administration to secure the return of a man from El Salvador to the US and illustrates an increasing showdown between the administration and the federal judiciary over how much power courts have in resolving disputes concerning immigration.

Citing the precedent of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the government admitted was wrongly deported, Gallagher wrote in her opinion: “Like Judge (Paula) Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this Court will order Defendants to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties’ binding Settlement Agreement.”

Donald Trump’s unilateral effort to reshape election processes is an attempt to “short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order,” a federal judge in Washington, D.C. wrote Thursday afternoon.

In a 120-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked the Trump administration from requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and ordering that election officials “assess” the citizenship of anyone who receives public assistance before allowing them to register. She also barred the Election Assistance Commission from withholding federal funding from states that did not comply with the order.

“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections,” she wrote. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday offered rare criticism of Vladimir Putin, urging the Russian leader to “STOP!” after a deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Russia struck Kyiv with an hourslong barrage of missiles and drones. At least 12 people were killed and 90 were injured in the deadliest assault on the city since last July.

Trump’s frustration is growing as a U.S.-led effort to get a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia has not made progress.

The comments about Putin came after Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday and accused him of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014.

A number of party leaders are frustrated that Hogg, who has a leadership position in the party, is pushing primaries against some incumbents in deep-blue seats.

Democratic party leaders Thursday morning admonished officers to not take sides in primaries, addressing a situation involving activist and Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg.

"Let me be unequivocal. No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger," DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a press call. "Voters should decide who our primary nominees are, not DNC leadership. Our role is to serve as stewards of a fair, open and trusted process, not to tilt the scales."'

As of now, however, the DNC does not have the power to remove Hogg if he refuses to stand down on funding primary challenges through a separate PAC — unless the body changes its rules, a senior DNC official told NBC News.

“Under the present bylaws, there is no action that can be taken against David Hogg without changing to the bylaws to extend that policy of neutrality to all primaries," DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge told NBC News. "There is no codified, legal way to remove an officer for doing what David Hogg has done because it only extends to the presidential race. "

Korge said that, as of now, the situation is to be addressed at a future meeting, likely in August.

Korge said he believed it was imperative for the body to formally change its bylaws because the party division the Hogg situation has caused harkens to an old ghost Democrats don't want to revisit.

“It smells like 2016, when progressives said the DNC had it in the bag for Hillary Clinton," Korge said, referencing angst in the party that the DNC had its thumb on the scale to block Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from the presidential nomination. "No party official, no officer of the DNC, should do anything that would result in the division that was created by the perception that existed back in 2016."

On Thursday, Martin went on to say he had spoken to Hogg about what he perceived as a conflict but he did not expound on whether he gave him an ultimatum.

"I understand what he's trying to do," Martin continued in the press call. "As I've said to him, 'If you want to challenge incumbents, you're more than free to do that. But just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be a neutral arbiter. We can't be both the referee and also the player at the same time. You have to make a decision.'"

In pushing back on Thursday, Hogg cited Trump's power clashes with institutions in saying the party needed to take more aggressive actions. He added that he had not violated any DNC bylaws.

"They’re trying to change the rules because I'm not currently breaking them. As we’re seeing law firms, tech companies, and so many others bowing to Trump, we all must use whatever position of power we have to fight back. And that’s exactly what I'm doing," Hogg said in a statement.

An alleged leader of violence during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 has been living in an exclusive enclave on Long Island as a beekeeper. He was arrested Thursday and accused of concealing his role in horrific violence and human rights violations by making false statements in his applications for a visa, green card and for U.S. citizenship, according to the Justice Department.

Faustin Nsabumukunzi is charged with visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud for allegedly lying on his application for a green card and for U.S. citizenship.

Nsabumukunzi was arrested at his home in Bridgehampton and pleaded not guilty Thursday in Islip federal court. He was released on $250,000 bond with home detention and GPS monitoring and will be allowed to keep working as a gardener for a private equity entrepreneur on Long Island who signed his bond.

“As alleged, Nsabumukunzi repeatedly lied to conceal his involvement in the horrific Rwandan genocide while seeking to become a lawful permanent resident and citizen of the United States,” said United States Attorney John Durham. “For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate, a luxury that his victims will never have, but thanks to the tenacious efforts of our investigators and prosecutors, the defendant finally will be held accountable for his brutal actions.”

According to officials, Nsabumukunzi served as a local leader with the title of “Sector Councilor” in Rwanda in 1994 when the genocide began. Between April 1994 and July 1994, members of the majority Hutu population persecuted the minority Tutsis, committing acts of violence, including murder, rape and sexual violence. During the three-month genocide, an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.

According to the indictment, Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position as Sector Councilor to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local sector of Kibirizi and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis. He set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and participated in killings and violence, according to court documents.