Second State Bans Fluoride in Water in Huge Win for RFK Jr.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida Farm Bill into law Thursday, officially banning fluoride from public water.

The bill does not call out the enamel-strengthening ingredient by name but effectively ends its inclusion in Florida drinking water by banning “certain additives in a water system.” The law goes into effect July 1.

“Yes, use fluoride for your teeth, that’s fine, but forcing it in the water supply is basically forced medication on people,” DeSantis said while announcing the new law. “They don’t have a choice, you’re taking that away from them.”

In making S.B. 700 law, Florida has become the second state in the nation to ban the naturally occurring mineral. Utah took the lead by banning fluoride in March. Their law just went into effect last week.

But not everyone in Florida wants the fluoride gone. When Miami-Dade County voted to strip fluoride from their drinking water last month, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava overrode it with a veto, citing public interest and the recommendations of medical experts.

“Medical experts also stress that there are serious public health risks of ending fluoridation that go beyond dental care,” Levine Cava said in a statement. “Removing fluoride will have long-term consequences for children’s health, especially for our most vulnerable children who lack access to regular dental and medical care.”

“Water fluoridation is a safe, effective, and efficient way to maintain dental health in our county—and halting it could have long-lasting health consequences, especially for our most vulnerable families,” she added. County commissioners voted to override her veto last week.

Fluoride was first introduced to U.S. water in 1945 as part of a public health decision to reduce cavities and tooth decay in adults and children. It was remarkably successful, dropping the cavity and decay rate in both groups by as much as 25 percent, according to the American Dental Association. In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed water fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements in the twentieth century, for that reason.

Furthermore, fluoride levels in public water are lower than they’ve been in decades. In 2015, the Obama administration dropped the maximum level of fluoride per liter of water to 0.7 milligrams from the previous guidance issued in 1962, which allowed levels to range between 0.7 and 1.2 milligrams per liter in an effort to further waylay instances of dental fluorosis (discoloration and poor mineralization of the tooth.)

“The benefits of fluoride for oral health considerably outweigh the risks,” Rodrigo Lacruz, a professor at New York University’s College of Dentistry, said in 2020 after he published a study on the effects of high fluoride ingestion.  

But research hasn’t stopped conspiracists from doubting the dental aide. Under Donald Trump’s helm, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has sworn to remove fluoride from all public water systems. Last month, Kennedy said he was assembling a task force on the issue, with plans to tell the CDC to end its fluoridation program for good.

Georgia’s LIFE Act is killing at least one family, as it keeps a brain-dead woman on life support against the wishes of her family—all because she was nine weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

Atlanta mother Adriana Smith has been transformed into a human incubator due to Georgia’s heartbeat law, which bans abortions once a heartbeat is detected in the fetus. That can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy, making it one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation. One in three people discover they’re pregnant at the sixth week of pregnancy or later, according to the University of California San Francisco’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.

Smith, a 30-year-old registered nurse for Emory University Hospital, was declared brain-dead more than 90 days ago. In early February, she began experiencing intense headaches and sought treatment at Northside Hospital, where she was given medication and released.

“They gave her some medication, but they didn’t do any tests. No CT scan,” Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told 11AliveNews. “If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.”

Smith woke up the following morning gasping for air. Two hospital trips later, CT scans at Emory University Hospital revealed multiple blot clots in her brain.

“They asked me if I would agree to a procedure to relieve the pressure, and I said yes,” Newkirk said. “Then they called me back and said they couldn’t do it.”

Smith had been declared brain-dead, but the state is the one not letting her go—and her family is having to foot the mounting hospital bills.

Smith’s medical team is legally required to keep her alive until they believe the fetus can survive outside of the womb, at approximately 32 weeks’ gestation. Doctors advised Smith’s family that they are not legally allowed to consider alternatives, reported 11Alive. Newkirk said Smith is currently 21 weeks pregnant.

“I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision,” said Newkirk, who described seeing her daughter’s still-breathing body as “torture.”

“And if not, then their partner or their parents.”

Georgia’s LIFE Act bestows legal personhood on unborn fetuses. It was passed in 2019 and went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022.

Pro-abortion activists have long warned that fetal personhood, an ideology that calls for providing equal human rights to a fetus (even if it’s just a cluster of cells), will effectively strip pregnant people of their own rights. The legal language behind fetal personhood also effectively categorizes any person receiving an abortion at any stage as a murderer.

“How many different ways can they prove to us that they do not see us as human beings?” asked abortion columnist Jessica Valenti in a video reacting to the news of Smith’s situation. “You are a vessel, you are an incubator, but you are most certainly not a human being.”

“Corpses have more rights than a pregnant person in these states with abortion bans,” Valenti continued. “How many families are they going to devastate?”

The language of “fetal personhood” has already reached the national stage by way of sneakily drafted executive orders. One of dozens of executive orders signed by Donald Trump the evening of his inauguration cemented language at the executive level to delegitimize transgender identities. But within the fold of that order, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government,” the Trump administration also decided to legally brand a person’s gender identity as beginning “at conception.”

“‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” the order read in part. “‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”

New York University is penalizing student commencement speaker Logan Rozos for condemning Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by withholding his diploma while the school pursues “disciplinary actions.”

In his remarks Wednesday, Rozos started out by nervously saying, “As I search my heart today in addressing you all, my moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.”

This was met with heavy applause from the crowd, but Rozos wasn’t done.

“I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” Rozos continued, his voice cracking at times.

“I do not wish only to speak to my own politics today but to speak for all people of conscience who feel the moral injury of this atrocity, and I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide,” Rozos continued, receiving a warm response from the audience.

NYU’s response to his remarks wasn’t warm at all.

“NYU strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation today—one of over 20 school graduation ceremonies across our campus—to misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views,” the university said in a statement Wednesday. “He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules.”

It doesn’t make sense to describe what human rights organizations and the International Criminal Court have described as a genocide and crimes against humanity as “one-sided,” but NYU appears to be adopting the tack of many universities in trying to shut down any protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

That may be because they are wary of provoking Trump, who has already withdrawn federal funding from other universities, such as Columbia and Harvard, for failing to abide by the White House’s executive orders against supposed antisemitism. But NYU’s decision to withhold Rozos’s diploma is wildly excessive and goes against the right to free speech, as well as academic freedom. He should be lauded for his courage, not punished for his dissent.

Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey warned Thursday that shoppers could begin to feel price increases on consumer goods as soon as next month as a result of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“We’re wired for ‘Everyday Low Prices,’ but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb,” Rainey told CNBC. “It’s more than any supplier can absorb. And so I’m concerned that the consumer is going to start seeing higher prices. You’ll begin to see that, likely towards the tail end of this month, and then certainly much more in June.”

The CFO explained that Walmart imports a third of its merchandise and food from other countries, with China being the largest supplier, followed by Mexico, Canada, India, and Vietnam. The retail giant is therefore vulnerable to supply chain disruptions sparked by Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariff policy.

Rainey said that it wouldn’t be easy to adapt to changes in demand sparked by fluctuations in pricing.

“We’ve not seen a period where you’ve had prices go up this high, this quickly. We’re well equipped and experienced in dealing with elasticities or price increases that are going up 2 or 3 percent, but not 30 percent,” Rainey said.

He promised the company would “keep prices as low as we can, for as long as we can.”

Rainey also told CNBC that while Walmart had yet to cancel any orders as a result of the president’s tariffs, they had reduced some on occasion.

CNBC reported that Walmart is not giving guidance for second-quarter operating income due to the wide range that it would have to give, because it uses a cost-to-sales price ratio that would be nearly impossible to predict. The company still held its annual operating income predictions. Rainey did warn that there could be “sharper swings in margins and earnings” as a result of quickly changing prices.

“Keep in mind, just a week ago we were at 145 percent tariffs. Now, we’re very appreciative of the progress the administration has made to get them down to this level, but I would say it’s still too high for consumers. We’d like to see them come down more,” he added.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Monday that U.S. tariffs on China would temporarily decrease from 145 percent to 30 percent for the next 90 days. On the flip side, China said it would lower its import tariff on American products to 10 percent from 125 percent. While the announcement caused investors to breathe a sigh of relief, market experts were wary that the agreement was not an actual deal—and the agreed rate was far lower than the ones Trump had been spouting for weeks.

The Qatari government used Trump to pawn off a hunking chunk of metal that it had been trying to get rid of for five years, according to reporting from Forbes.

The president—easily swayed by gifts—likely just saved this foreign government thousands if not millions of dollars in storage fees and maintenance by accepting the “palace in the sky,” a super-luxury Boeing 747 that the Qatari government has been trying to sell since 2020. Trump intends to use it as a “temporary Air Force One.”

“Qatar, like many modern states, is shifting toward leaner, more versatile aircraft, which offer better economics and more discreet presence for official travel,” said Linus Bauer, a managing director of aviation consulting firm BAA & Partners. Qatar’s decision to give the plane to Trump is “a creative disposal strategy” and “a farewell to a bygone model of geopolitical theater in the skies.”

This plane, of which the Qatari government owns three, has been phased out of air fleets across the world for the last decade due to its unreasonable gas guzzling and the security risk that its ginormous size presents.

“These things are big targets,” said aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia. “There are a lot more airports you can get into if you have a narrow body, and many more still if you have a traditional business jet.”

The temporary jet will need to be disassembled and searched for bugs before it is reinforced to the level Air Force One is required to be. Former Air Force acquisitions chief Andrew Hunter estimated it could cost tens of millions to do a full security sweep of the plane.

“I can’t imagine any well-trained senior Air Force officer saying this is a good idea,” Aboulafia said.

The Trump administration’s blatant disregard for court orders is not winning it any favor with the Supreme Court.

Justice Elena Kagan called out the government’s attorneys Thursday, flaming Justice Department officials for being “dead wrong,” while asking the administration to explain why they would bring a case they had uniformly lost in lower courts to the nation’s highest judiciary.

“Why would you take the substantive question to us? You’re losing a bunch of cases,” Kagan said, referring to the government’s emergency application to proceed with its attempts to ban birthright citizenship. “Why would you ever take this case to us?”

“Well in this particular case we deliberately have not presented the merits to this particular court on the scope of remedies, because of course that makes it a clean vehicle where the court doesn’t have to look at—” started U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

“You are ignoring the import of my question,” Kagan interrupted. “I’m suggesting that, in a case in which the government is losing constantly, and nobody else is going to appeal, it’s up to you to decide whether to take this case to us. If I were in your shoes, there’s no way I’d approach the Supreme Court with this case.

“So you just keep on losing in the lower courts, and what’s supposed to happen to prevent that?” she continued.

“We have an adversarial system,” Sauer said, claiming that another circuit court could take the case.

But Kagan appeared offended by the idea, noting that nobody opposing the administration is going to lose this case—so long as they can afford to bring the case at all.

“You need somebody to lose, but nobody is going to lose in this case. You’re going to have individual by individual by individual, and all those individuals are going to win, and the ones who can’t afford to go to court, they’re the ones who are going to lose,” Kagan said. “This is not a hypothetical. This is happening out there, right? Every court has ruled against you.”

Birthright citizenship is baked into the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to everyone born or naturalized on U.S. soil. Donald Trump attempted to end the constitutionally enshrined right, mere hours after he was sworn in, by claiming that children born to immigrants on temporary visas or who are in the country illegally should not be entitled to birthright status. Trump’s unconstitutional order has since been blocked by multiple judges in multiple court circuits.

The Justice Department’s case is an effort by the administration to curb their lower court rulings, hoping to stymy their losses on birthright cases by winning a ruling that judges can only block orders related specifically to the people or areas involved.

Kagan further pressed the government to explain—in a “hypothetical” situation, in which it issued an illegal executive order—how the court system could stop it. Sauer suggested that a class action could be certified in the case, though Kagan rebutted that the government would argue there is no appropriate class to certify under the federal rules of civil procedure. Sauer agreed.

As another option, Sauer suggested that the government would have every individual affected sue the action, drawing the shock of the court.

Sauer’s arguments drew contempt from justices on both ideological sides of the court—even the ones appointed by Trump himself. Justice Brett Kavanaugh pressed Sauer into a corner, forcing the solicitor general to admit that the Trump administration doesn’t even know how it would enforce its birthright citizenship order.

The solicitor general also threw Justice Amy Coney Barrett into disbelief as Sauer argued that Trump has the “right” to disregard legal opinions that he doesn’t personally agree with.

“Did I understand you correctly that the government reserved its right to not follow a Second Circuit precedent, say, in New York, because you might disagree with the opinion?” asked Barrett.

“Our general practice is to respect those precedents, but there are circumstances when it is not a categorical practice,” Sauer said.

“This administration’s practice? Or the long-standing practice of the federal government? And I’m not talking about in the Fourth Circuit. Are you going to respect—I’m talking about within the Second Circuit, and can you say that it’s this administration’s practice or long-standing?” Barrett said.

“As I understand it, long-standing practice at the Department of Justice,” Sauer said, eliciting surprise from the conservative justice.

“Really?” asked Barrett.

The U.S. State Department is interfering with foreign countries on behalf of Elon Musk’s satellite internet business, according to a sweeping report published Thursday by ProPublica.

State Department officials both in Washington and in Gambia have been aggressively pushing for the West African country to approve a license for Starlink, which is owned and operated by SpaceX, of which Musk owns a $150 billion stake.

In one February meeting between Sharon Cromer, the ambassador from the United States to Gambia, and Lamin Jabbi, the Gambian minister of communications and digital economy, the American diplomat reportedly pressured the Cabinet member to approve the use of Starlink.

Hassan Jallow, Jabbi’s top deputy, told ProPublica that Cromer issued a thinly veiled threat by stressing the many ways that the U.S. has been financially supporting Gambia. “The implication was that they were connected,” Jallow told the outlet.

In mid-March, Jabbi and Jallow traveled to Washington to attend the World Bank summit and were subjected to a meeting organized by the State Department that quickly turned contentious. The meeting was with Ben MacWilliams, a former U.S. diplomat now in charge of Starlink’s expansion efforts in Africa, who accused Jabbi of kneecapping the country’s development, according to Jallow and four others who attended the meeting.

When the conversation ended without Jabbi acquiescing, his following meeting with U.S. government officials at the State Department headquarters was canceled. Starlink told Jabbi that “there was no more need” for a meeting, Jallow recounted to ProPublica.

It was then that Cromer sent an “important request” about approving Starlink over Jabbi’s head and straight to Gambian President Addama Barrow. She urged him to go around his communications minister to “facilitate the necessary approvals for Starlink to commence operations.”

While the U.S. state officials had previously worked with Starlink during the Biden administration, efforts have only intensified since Donald Trump entered the White House, bringing Musk along with him. Starlink has fiercely sought to expand its market in Africa, already getting five new African countries to approve licenses, setting the total at 15.

Musk’s apparent leverage within the Trump administration may play a hefty role in negotiations, particularly after the State Department was reportedly planning to close many of its embassies throughout the region—including the one in Gambia.

A spokesperson for the State Department released a statement responding to the report. “Starlink is an America-made product that has been a game changer in helping remote areas around the world gain internet connectivity. Any patriotic American should want to see an American company’s success on the global stage, especially over compromised Chinese competitors,” the statement said.

Musk is clearly using his proximity to the Trump administration to boost his many businesses. While attending an investors’ conference in Saudi Arabia with Trump Tuesday, Musk announced that the Gulf nation had also approved the use of Starlink. While chatting with the Saudi communications minister, Musk and Trump managed to plug every single one of the former’s businesses.

The State Department is only the latest federal agency to potentially help Musk enrich himself. Democratic lawmakers have also accused Trump’s Department of Commerce of going to great lengths to line the billionaire’s pockets by, among other things, begging Americans to buy Tesla stock.

It looks like Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t traveling to Istanbul for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, dashing Donald Trump’s hopes.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov poured cold water on the idea Thursday, calling Zelenskiy “pathetic.” Lavrov isn’t attending the meetings in Turkey either, with only lower-level Russian officials making the trip.

“On the meetings in Istanbul, I conclude by what I started with. At first Zelenskiy made some statements that he is demanding for Putin to arrive in person. Well, [Zelenskiy’s] a pathetic person. For everyone, it is clear, except maybe him and those who puppet him,” Lavrov said.

“Then, his high-ranking colleagues explained to him that he doesn’t have to act so stupid and that the talks are needed,” Lavrov added.

Zelenskiy has said that he will not meet with any Russian official except Putin, and is sending Ukraine’s defense minister to the talks. Trump has said that “nothing is going to happen until” he personally meets with Putin, and said Thursday, “If something happened, I’d go on Friday if it was appropriate.”

The prospects for a peaceful resolution in the Ukraine-Russia war are seemingly stagnant at the moment, making Trump’s campaign proclamation that he could solve the crisis on “day one” terribly off. The president has even tried to backtrack and say he was joking.

Trump has tried and failed to explain away his failure to get Putin to negotiate, and that hasn’t been helped by his administration’s clear disdain for Zelenskiy, exceeded only by Putin’s. It’s highly likely that the weekend will pass without any positive developments, barring any crazy development.

MAGA Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Lawler are trading verbal jabs over a funding disagreement on Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill.

This began when Lawler, along with four other House Republicans, came out against the bill for setting a $30,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. This quickly set off the perpetually charged Taylor Greene.

“Mike Lawler usually isn’t the guy in the conference with the best ideas, after all we lost a Republican held seat to a Democrat the last time Republicans voted for one of his ‘great’ [strategies],” Taylor Greene wrote. “Now Mike Lawler is a NO on Trump’s big beautiful bill because he won’t accept a SALT cap increase from $10K to $30K per year.

“With the median income of $118,882 in Lawler’s district the SALT cap of $30,000 should be an easy YES for Mike Lawler. The rest of America doesn’t want to and shouldn’t have to make up the difference!!!!!” she continued. “And Mike Lawler has a toss up seat. What’s the point in Republicans fighting to protect and keep re-electing ‘Republicans’ if they constantly undermine the agenda America voted for???”

Lawler hit back.

“Shockingly the ‘Jewish Space Laser’ lady once again doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about,” he replied on X. “By the way, the reason you enjoy a gavel is because Republicans like me have won our seats. Good luck being in the Majority if we don’t.”

“Here is Mike Lawler claiming HE gave us the majority NOT President Donald Trump!!! Did you all vote for Mike Lawler and his agenda???” MTG replied unrelentingly. “Or did America vote for President Trump and his MAGA America First agenda? Tell Mike Lawler what you voted for.”

“MTG ran almost 10 points behind President Trump in one of the most Republican districts. I ran 6.5 points ahead of President Trump in a district won by Kamala Harris,” Lawler replied. “I’m 1 of only 3 Republicans in a district won by Harris. I know math is difficult, but: 220-3=217.”

This internal beef feels like yet another example of the lengths that some Republicans—especially those legislating in deep blue strongholds like Lawler—will or won’t go to for Trump and the hardline MAGA agenda.

Missouri Senate Republicans have decided to work against their electorate.

The state’s conservative lawmakers shut down a Democrat-led filibuster Wednesday by leveraging a rarely utilized procedural maneuver. Senate Republicans used the rule—in which 10 members sign a motion to force an immediate vote, also known as “calling the previous question” or simply “P.Q.”—to overturn the state’s abortion rights amendment.

Missourians voted directly to enshrine abortion access in their state constitution in November, undoing the state ban by safeguarding a woman’s choice up to the point of viability.

But what 53.2 percent of the state wanted was apparently not on the minds of Missouri Senate Republicans Wednesday evening. Senator Adam Schnelting from St. Charles pushed for the P.Q. after 5 p.m., advancing the abortion amendment by 5:30 p.m. Doing so killed the Democrats’ filibuster and forced a vote on the new measure, which passed and must now be approved by voters in a statewide referendum.

This means that Missourians must vote again on abortion rights, either in 2026 or earlier if the governor calls a special election. The new proposed ban would repeal the newly instated constitutional right to abortion and allow for exceptions in case of rape, incest, or medical emergencies.

Before 6 p.m., the caucus had approved another bill, repealing a sick leave law that state residents had similarly voted for and that only went into effect May 1, reported the Missouri Independent.

Democrats torched the conservative caucus for forcing the action, declaring that there would be no more goodwill or cooperation between the two parties for the rest of the year.

“Nothing will happen, nothing,” said Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, according to The Independent. “The banner year that everybody had in this place? That is over with.”

Protests erupted from the Senate gallery as Republicans motioned to vote on the abortion ban. Lawmakers had the gallery cleared of both protesters and press and then wrapped their work a couple of hours later.

Republicans’ use of the P.Q. was the first time that the rule had been used in the state Senate since 2020. P.Q.s are often utilized in the House, according to The Independent, but have traditionally been looked down upon in the state Senate, where lawmakers expect to be able to engage in extended discourse on bills. Senator Stephen Webber, a Democrat from Columbia, told The Independent that Republicans’ reliance on a P.Q. to advance a vote was a “failure of the Senate.”

“Today, Senate Republicans said they don’t give a damn what voters think by moving to repeal both,” Democratic House Minority Leader Ashley Aune said, in a statement. “Missourians will not accept their fundamental rights being stripped away and their decisions ignored. The majority party has ignited a political firestorm that will scorch them.”

But it’s not the only anti-abortion effort currently making its way through the Missouri legislature. Missouri House Bill 807, called the “Save MO Babies Act,” is intended to target people “at risk for seeking abortion services” and to “reduce the number of preventable abortions.” If passed, a registry of such people would start on July 1, 2026, and would be managed by the Maternal and Child Services division of the state’s Department of Social Services, according to the bill text. The bill does not specify the scope and scale of such a registry or exactly how “at risk” individuals would be identified.

Lack of access to abortion care has actually made pregnancies drastically less safe. In Texas, where abortion hasn’t been permitted despite the legislature’s medical emergency clause, sepsis rates have skyrocketed by as much as 50 percent for women who lost their pregnancies during the second trimester, according to an investigative analysis by ProPublica.