Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed Washington Sen. Patty Murray during a Tuesday Senate hearing for allegedly "presiding over the destruction" of Americans' health across her more than 30 years in the upper chamber. 

"You've presided here, I think, for 32 years. You presided over the destruction of the health of the American people. Our people are now the sickest people in the world," Kennedy said to Murray during a tense back and forth Tuesday morning. 

Murray began her tenure in the Senate in 1993. 

"Seriously?" Murray interjected. 

WATCH: RFK JR. REBUKES DEM SENATOR FOR PLAYING POLITICS WITH CANCER-STRICKEN CONSTITUENT: 'YOU DON'T CARE'

"What have you done about it? Kennedy shot back. What have you done about the epidemic of chronic disease?"

As the two continued talking over one another, the subcommittee chair, Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, asked Kennedy to "hold back and let the senator ask the questions."

"Mr. Secretary, I'm asking you a question about child care," Murray continued. "I'm asking you who made the decision to withhold child care and development block grant funding?"  

"That was made by my department," Kennedy responded. 

BEN & JERRY'S CO-FOUNDER ARRESTED PROTESTING SENATE HEARING: 'RFK KILLS PEOPLE WITH HATE'

Kennedy appeared before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday morning to answer questions related to HHS' budget proposal for fiscal year 2026. The hearing comes just after Kennedy joined lawmakers in both a Senate hearing and a House hearing, both of which included fiery exchanges between Kennedy and Democrat lawmakers. 

Murray continued in her questioning that the HHS was making vast cuts to scientists at the agency, which Kennedy dismissed, citing that he does not "trust" Murray's information. 

"And you said last week, quote, ‘we were not cutting thousands of scientists," Murray continued. "We are not cutting clinical trials.’ But I want you to know, in the last four months, you fired or pushed out nearly 5,000 NIH staff and terminated more than 1,600 NIH grants. That includes more than 240 clinical trials across the country. So whose decision was it to fire scientists and terminate these NIH grants and the clinical trial?" 

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"Senator, I don't trust your information with all due respect," Kennedy responded, continuing that Murray's previous remarks in a recent hearing were not correct. "You told me what, three days ago or four days ago, that we had cut a clinical trial in your state and … what you said turned out to be completely untrue. And you knew it was untrue because you corresponded with (Director of the National Institutes of Health) Jay Bhattacharya before that." 

"You came here to argue with me," Murray added. "I came here to ask you questions about your budget request. Your budget request is asking us to cut dramatically. But I am also making the point that Senator Baldwin made, that what you are doing right now is enacting your budget, that Congress has not passed, by cutting critical funding across the board." 

The Washington Democrat previously exchanged barbs with Kennedy Wednesday, when Murray accused Kennedy and the Trump administration of delaying critical cancer care for one of her constituents. 

"Mr. Secretary, one of my constituents … she's a mom of two from Bainbridge Island in Washington state," Murray said in her opening line of questioning Wednesday. "She has been fighting aggressive stage four colorectal cancer for nearly five years now. Her best hope now is a clinical trial she's participating in at the [National Institutes of Health's] Clinical Center." 

FDA'S LATEST MAHA MOVE WOULD WIPE OUT KIDS' FLUORIDE PRESCRIPTIONS AS HEALTH RISK EVIDENCE MOUNTS

"But because of the thoughtless mass firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS that you carried out, Natalie's doctors at that clinical center have told her they have no choice but to delay her treatment by an additional four weeks."

"I can't tell you that now, Sen. Murray," Kennedy responded. "What I can tell you is that if you contact my office tomorrow, I'll look specifically into that." 

However, that answer from Kennedy was "not acceptable" to the senator.

"That is not acceptable," Murray shot back, eventually demanding Kennedy provide her an update on Natalie's case within 24 hours. "I want an answer." 

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Kennedy added during Tuesday's hearing that Murray's constituent had qualified for the clinical trial "this week," adding that "we shouldn't be talking about patients' private information," with Murray agreeing. 

Fox News Digital's Alec Schemmel contributed to this article. 

Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka is no longer facing a federal trespassing charge over an incident earlier this month at Delaney Hall, a privately operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in his city.

"After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward," acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba said in a statement on Monday evening.

"In the spirit of public interest, I have invited the mayor to tour Delaney Hall. The government has nothing to hide at this facility, and I will personally accompany the mayor so he can see that firsthand," she continued.

DHS SAYS ‘ARRESTS ARE STILL ON THE TABLE’ AFTER NEW JERSEY HOUSE DEMS CAUGHT ON CAMERA ‘STORMING’ ICE FACILITY

However, Rep. LaMonica McIver is being charged for allegedly "assaulting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement." Fox News has learned that McIver must turn herself in as soon as possible, though it is up to the magistrate on the specifics of when she must turn herself in and how.

"I am glad that the U.S. Attorney has agreed that this case should be dismissed," he said. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

"I have had strong relationships with prior U.S. Attorneys, and I plan to speak with the current U.S. Attorney about issues on which we can cooperate. As to Delaney Hall, I will continue to advocate for the humane treatment of detainees, and I will continue to press the facility to ensure that it is compliant with City of Newark codes and regulations."

NEWARK MAYOR ARRESTED AT ICE FACILITY CLAIMS HE WAS 'TARGETED' AFTER COURT HEARING

"I understand that the U.S. Attorney has chosen to charge Congresswoman LaMonica McIver with assaulting law enforcement," Baraka continued. "Congresswoman McIver is a daughter of Newark, past Newark Council President, a former student of mine, and a dear friend. I want to be clear: I stand with LaMonica, and I fully expect her to be vindicated."

Baraka and three congressional lawmakers – McIver, Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman – were outside the ICE facility earlier this month with a group of protesters when the gates opened to allow an ICE bus in. All four officials then allegedly rushed through the gates past security, according to officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

"If it was a typical U.S. citizen, and they tried to storm into a detention facility that's housing dangerous criminals or any person at all, they would be arrested," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told "Fox News Live" host Kevin Corke earlier this month. "Just because you are a member of Congress or just because you're a public official, does not mean you are above the law."

BLUE STATE POLITICAL BATTLE INTENSIFIES AFTER DEM MAYOR'S ARREST AT ICE FACILITY: 'OUTRAGED'

Baraka’s arrest triggered a local political firestorm, as he is also in the Democratic primary for governor. He appeared in court last Thursday for a status conference, where the case was expected to proceed to trial at the time for the class C misdemeanor charge. The court appearance led supporters of Baraka to rally outside the Newark federal courtroom, and Habba personally showed up to the conference. 

Fox News' Greg Wehner and Alexis McAdams contributed to this report. 

Nebraska is the first state to receive a federal waiver to ban the purchase of soda and energy drinks under the benefit program for low-income Americans long known as food stamps.

The move, announced Monday by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, would affect about 152,000 people in Nebraska enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps families pay for groceries.

"There's absolutely zero reason for taxpayers to be subsidizing purchases of soda and energy drinks," Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement. "SNAP is about helping families in need get healthy food into their diets, but there's nothing nutritious about the junk we're removing with today's waiver."

ARKANSAS MOVES TO BAN 'JUNK FOOD' FROM SNAP PROGRAM: 'DEFINITION OF CRAZY'

Six other states — Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia — have also submitted requests for waivers banning certain foods and drinks or, in some cases, expanding access to hot foods for participants, according to the USDA.

The push to ban sugary drinks, candy and more from the SNAP program has been a key focus of Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Rollins called Monday's move "a historic step to Make America Healthy again."

MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN: TIMELINE OF THE MAHA MOVEMENT

Details of Nebraska's waiver, which takes effect Jan. 1, weren't immediately available. Anti-hunger advocates criticized it, saying it adds costs, boosts administrative burdens and increases stigma for people already facing food insecurity.

The waiver "ignores decades of evidence showing that incentive-based approaches — not punitive restrictions — are the most effective, dignified path to improving nutrition and reducing hunger," said Gina Plata-Nino, a deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.

SNAP is a roughly $100 billion program that serves about 42 million Americans and is run by the U.S. Agriculture Department and administered through states.

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The program is authorized by the federal Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which says SNAP benefits can be used "for any food or food product intended for human consumption," except alcohol, tobacco and hot foods, including those prepared for immediate consumption.

Over the past 20 years, lawmakers in several states have proposed stopping SNAP from paying for everything from bottled water and soda to chips, ice cream and "luxury meats" like steak.

Until now, USDA rejected the waivers, saying there were no clear standards to define certain foods as good or bad. In addition, the agency had said restrictions would be difficult to implement, complicated and costly, and would not necessarily change recipients' food purchases or reduce health problems such as obesity.

Civitai, an AI model sharing site backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that 404 Media has repeatedly shown is being used to generate nonconsensual adult content, lost access to its credit card payment processor.

According to an announcement posted to Civitai on Monday, the site will “pause” credit card payments starting Friday, May 23. At that time, users will no longer be able to buy “Buzz,” the on-site currency users spend to generate images, or start new memberships. 

“Some payment companies label generative-AI platforms high risk, especially when we allow user-generated mature content, even when it’s legal and moderated,” the announcement said. “That policy choice, not anything users did, forced the cutoff.”

Civitai’s CEO Justin Maier told me in an email that the site has not been “cut off” from payment processing. 

“Our current provider recently informed us that they do not wish to support platforms that allow AI-generated explicit content,” he told me. “Rather than remove that category, we’re onboarding a specialist high-risk processor so that service to creators and customers continues without interruption. Out of respect for ongoing commercial negotiations, we’re not naming either the incumbent or the successor until the transition is complete.”

The announcement tells users that they can “stock up on Buzz” or switch to annual memberships to prepare for May 23. It also says that it should start accepting crypto and ACH checkout (direct transfer from a bank account) within a week, and that it should start taking credit card payments again with a new provider next month.

“Civitai is not shutting down,” the announcement says. “We have months of runway. The site, community, and creator payouts continue unchanged. We just need a brief boost from you while we finish new payment rails.”

In April, Civitai announced new policies it put in place because payment processors were threatening to cut it off unless it made changes to the kind of adult content that was allowed on the site. This included new policies against adult content that included diapers, guns, and further restrictions on content including the likeness of real people. 

The announcement on Civitai Monday said that “Those changes opened some doors, but the processors ultimately decided Civitai was still outside their comfort zone.”

In the comments below the announcement, Civitai users debated how the site is handling the situations. 

“This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think you need to get rid of all celebrity LoRA [custom AI models] on the site, honestly,” the top comment said. “Especially with the Take It Down Act, the risk is too high. Sorry this is happening to you guys. I do love this site. Edit: bought an annual sub to try and help.”

“If it wasn't for the porn there would be considerably less revenue and traffic,” another commenter replied. “And technically it's not about the porn, it's about the ability to have free expression to create what you want to create without being blocked to do so.”

404 Media has published several stories since 2023 showing that Civitai is often used by people to produce nonconsnesual content. Earlier today we published a story showing its on-site AI video generator was producing nonconsensual porn of anyone.

Dubai, UAE, 20th May 2025, Chainwire

The post Wall Street Ponke Launches with AI Tools, Learning Hub, and Over $300K Raised in Hours first appeared on Tech Startups.

• Elon Musk won't be dissuaded from his fight against OpenAI.
• Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, has accused the AI company of abandoning its nonprofit mission.
• OpenAI has said it will keep its nonprofit control, dismissing Musk's lawsuit as bad-faith.

Elon Musk is charging ahead with his legal fight against OpenAI, extending his long-running feud with its CEO Sam Altman.

During a video interview at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO once again said OpenAI has fundamentally changed from its original intent — which was to be an open-source, nonprofit that produced AI for the good of humanity.

"And now they're trying to change that for their own financial benefit, into a for-profit company that is closed source," Musk said.

Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018 and later went on to start his own competing AI company, xAI, says he invested around $50 million in OpenAI when he co-founded it with Altman in 2015.

"So this would be like, let's say you funded a nonprofit to help preserve the Amazon rainforest, but instead of doing that, they became a lumber company, chopped down the forest, and sold the wood," Musk added. "You'd be like, wait a second, that's not what I funded. That's OpenAI."

Musk first filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last year, before withdrawing it and replacing it with another suit claiming the company had "betrayed" its mission when it created a for-profit arm in 2019 and expanded its partnership with Microsoft in 2023. And in September of last year, OpenAI announced that it would be transitioning from a nonprofit into a for-profit company.

The ChatGPT maker then abandoned that commitment earlier this month, announcing that its nonprofit would stay in control of its for-profit division.

But, Musk and his legal team remain unconvinced by that pivot. His lawyers said in a filing earlier this month that OpenAI's turnabout is "a façade that changes nothing," arguing that it does little to restore the nonprofit's original goal to serve the public.

An OpenAI spokesperson told BI in a statement that, "Elon continuing with his baseless lawsuit only proves that it was always a bad-faith attempt to slow us down."

xAI and a lawyer for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Former Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gadi Kinda died, his club Maccabi Haifa FC announced Tuesday. He was 31.

Son Heung-Min has said Harry Kane will be "the biggest Spurs fan" when Tottenham play Manchester United in Wednesday's Europa League Final.

I/O 2025 kicks off today as Google’s biggest event of the year to showcase what’s new for end users and developers. Gemini and AI will undoubtedly be the big focus. Join us as we live blog the two-hour keynote.

more…

According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will announce at WWDC on June 9 that it will open its Apple Intelligence AI models to third-party developers.

A new software development kit and related frameworks will allow apps to integrate and build upon the same large language models that Apple uses across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

more…

Collin Morikawa never got going at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, and he didn't hold back about his play after the tournament.

"I think the chance of inflation going up and stagflation is a little higher than other people think," Jamie Dimon said on Monday.

Wyndham Clark apologized to the golf world after his dangerous outburst in the final round of the 2025 PGA Championship.

JCPenney will permanently close seven mall-based stores on May 25.

"Omg so happy for you! you totally deserve the hype!," commented one TikTok user after the internet solved the mystery.

"Ruth López collaborated in the theft of funds from state coffers," the Attorney General's Office said in its post on X.

"That's it, you're his mom!!!!" one user commented, while another viewer added: "NO DNA TEST NEEDED."

Legislation was introduced after a 62-year-old Putnam County mail carrier was mauled to death by five dogs in 2022.

The 'Today with Jenna & Friends' anchor shared the birthmark for the first time publicly while talking with Savannah Guthrie

The 20-year-old music video has come to mean quite a bit to this family of four