RFK Jr. Now Has to Deal With Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak

An “explosive” diarrhea virus is tearing through the Midwestern United States, presenting yet another challenge for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the weakened Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC initially only reported 145 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis last month in the U.S. But on July 1, Michigan health officials confirmed 100 more cases in only nine days, a troubling spike.

The cyclosporiasis infection—caused by “a one-celled parasite too small to be seen with the naked eye”—has impacted nearly 700 people in Michigan and Illinois. It can be found in contaminated water and unwashed leafy produce, and is most active in the spring and summer.

Symptoms begin with diarrhea, then can include appetite loss, bloating, nausea, cramping, and fatigue. Confirmed cases include those aged five to 86, with over 60 percent of them being women. There have been no deaths, although 20 people have been hospitalized. While this parasite appears every year, this many cases is certainly abnormal. Last year there were only 50 confirmed cases in Michigan, according to NBC Chicago.

“Outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been occurring across the United States and now here in Michigan,” the state’s chief medical executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, said in a statement. “Based on the unusual number of cases we have identified in a little over a week, we anticipate additional cases of illness being reported. We recommend Michiganders contact their health care provider if they experience sudden, ongoing diarrhea and reach out to their local health department if additional members of their family are suffering from the same symptoms.”

The temperature is extremely high in many parts of the United States, and public trust in the CDC is extremely low. The next few weeks will be a significant test on their ability to manage outbreaks like this.

Republicans are rushing to Mitch McConnell’s defense as rumors swirl that the former Senate majority leader might be dead.

Conservative commentator Scott Jennings wrote on X that he spoke to his “old friend” Tuesday morning.

“He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the [Teddy Roosevelt] Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history,” Jennings said. “I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.”

McConnell also reportedly spoke with Senator John Barrasso earlier in the day, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday, according to NOTUS’s Al Weaver.

“Leader Thune spoke with Senator McConnell yesterday by phone,” a Thune spokesperson told Weaver. “They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security.”

But lawmakers on the other side of the conservative caucus weren’t so confident. At least one MAGA-aligned legislator, Utah Senator Mike Lee, shared online that most of Congress had stayed mum on the subject because they were completely and utterly in the dark as to the state of McConnell’s health.

“Many of us aren’t speaking about Mitch McConnell’s condition because we know nothing about his condition,” Lee wrote on X Tuesday.

Rumors about McConnell’s health spiked late Monday, when far-right influencer Laura Loomer claimed on X that an unnamed “high level source close to the White House” told her that McConnell is “officially brain dead.” In a separate post, Loomer claimed that McConnell is in organ failure, and that the White House had been told he “isn’t ever coming back.”

Shortly afterward, the reporter that first broke the story that McConnell had gone into cardiac arrest in mid-June—Desirée Townsend—said that her sources had shared the same information.

Within hours, far-right influencers were demanding proof that McConnell was still alive, questioning why his office had not shared a video of the 84-year-old lawmaker if he was able to talk. McConnell’s office has not yet done so. In the weeks since McConnell was hospitalized, his team has released only vague and repetitive statements that have failed to acknowledge the senator’s condition or why he was receiving care.

An Afghan man who worked with the United States military for more than a decade died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody due to an allergic reaction—but the release of his death certificate brings more questions than answers.

Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal suffered “an adverse drug reaction” to an unidentified substance, which triggered anaphylaxis and exacerbated his asthma, according to his death certificate. The document was certified on June 25 and released Monday, three months after his death.

AfghanEvac, an advocacy group, reported that the death certificate falsely states that Paktiawal died on March 12—a day before he was even taken into custody. It also lists the effects of methamphetamine, which Paktiawal’s friends and family say he did not use.

“If my brother never used that drug in his life, how did it get into his body while he was inside an ICE building?” said Naseer Paktiawal, the deceased’s brother.

The family has still not received an autopsy report explaining Paktiawal’s death certificate. In a June 24 letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said it would continue to withhold his full autopsy report because of a pending federal criminal investigation.

Paktiawal was detained by federal immigration agents in Richardson, Texas, on March 13 while dropping off two of his children at preschool. After 24 hours with ICE, he was dead.

The evening of his arrest, Paktiawal complained of shortness of breath and chest pain while being held in the ICE’s Dallas field office. He was then transferred to Parkland Hospital, where he received treatment and remained for observation. The next morning, medical staff observed that his tongue had become swollen. Later, after cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other lifesaving measures, Paktiawal was declared dead.

Before emigrating to the United States in 2021, Paktiawal was a member of the Afghan special forces who were hired by the U.S. government. He worked with them for more than a decade.

According to ICE, Paktiawal was “paroled into the U.S. by an immigration officer,” or granted temporary permission to enter the country under Operation Allies Refuge, an evacuation effort for allied Afghan nationals that took place under the Biden administration.

ICE claimed they had no record of his military service, and said his parole expired in August 2025. The agency also claimed that Paktiawal had previously been arrested for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program fraud and theft.

More than 50 people have died in ICE custody since President Donald Trump returned to office—a marked increase from past administrations—but Paktiawal’s death is the first to be ruled an accident.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s old firm recently cut a $1.6 billion rare earth metals deal, and Democrats in Congress are investigating his role in the apparent conflict of interest. 

Bloomberg reports that the deal, finalized last month, likely benefited Lutnick’s two sons, who took over Cantor Fitzgerald after their father left to join the Trump administration. The financial services company served as a placeholder agent for the deal between the Department of Commerce and USA Rare Earth, or USAR, and Democrats expressed their concerns in a letter to Brandon Lutnick, Howard’s younger son and the firm’s chairman, dated Monday. 

“It is imperative your company provide complete transparency about the substantive conflict of interest concerns raised by the circumstances of this investment,” said the letter, written by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Ron Wyden in addition to Representative Zoe Lofgren. “Secretary Lutnick appears to have played a part in facilitating the USAR deal with Commerce.”

Wyden, Warren, and Van Hollen all serve on the Senate Finance Committee, with Wyden serving as its ranking member. Lofgren is the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. They also sent a letter to USAR detailing their concerns.  

In January, the Trump administration agreed to take a 10 percent stake in USAR, and the Commerce Department offered the company funding and loans. These terms “raise serious questions about Secretary Lutnick’s exposure to federal conflicts of interest and bribery laws,” the legislators wrote in the letter. 

One year ago, USAR was a much smaller company. After meeting with Secretary Lutnick and other administration officials, it secured government help in January and has since purchased a rare earth mine in Brazil and acquired, either in partial stakes or in totality, processing businesses in France and the United Kingdom. 

These Democrats are hoping to get details about the meetings between Cantor Fitzgerald and the Commerce Department. But, even with congressional hearings, they may not get much in the way of answers, considering how much the president and his administration traffic in corrupt, self-serving business deals. 

It’s been six months since a federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, yet virtually nothing has come of the federal investigation into the incident thus far.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross was caught on tape—from multiple angles—sidestepping the front of Good’s red Honda Pilot before advancing toward the driver side door, aiming his gun at Good, and firing his weapon.

The 37-year-old was a mother and an award-winning poet. In the immediate moments after her death on January 7, the federal government’s response seemed to be normal. The FBI mobilized to investigate the crime scene, and local authorities received assurances from the government that the probe would proceed as a joint investigation.

But by that evening, Washington had completely shut out Minnesota police and law enforcement in Hennepin County. The FBI shuttled Good’s SUV to a storage facility before Minnesota authorities got a chance to look at the evidence.

“I was on the phone with the U.S. attorney, and everybody agreed this would once again be a joint investigation. And then suddenly the [Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] was kicked off the case,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told the Pod Save the People podcast in June, referring to the state local law enforcement agency.

“And so we realized then and there it was going to be a different situation,” Moriarty continued. “They took away Renee Good’s car. It’s shrink wrapped. It’s still sitting in a warehouse somewhere. They won’t share any evidence that they collected or got from any statements.”

The restricted access to critical evidence meant that the Justice Department was the only agency left capable of conducting a full investigation into the incident. But Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ Civil Rights Division, had no interest in doing so, The New York Times reported in January.

Three current and former department officials told the Times that Dhillon would not consider opening an investigation into whether Ross had violated the law. Instead, the department considered investigating Good and her widow, Becca Good, regarding their supposed ties to activist groups. The unusual request prompted the mass exodus of several federal prosecutors.

But the push to shield Ross went all the way to the top. Then–Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that there was “no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation” into Ross.

Shortly afterward, Donald Trump and his allies began to slander Good as a “domestic terrorist,” preemptively attempting to sentence her in the court of public opinion. Meanwhile, the day after Good was killed, Vice President JD Vance practically promised Ross’s freedom: “That guy is protected by absolute immunity,” Vance told reporters at the time. “He was doing his job.”

As of now, very little has been materially done to investigate Good’s death or hold her killer accountable. In a statement to The Atlantic, the Department of Homeland Security both confirmed that it was still looking into the circumstances of the shooting and echoed Vance’s comments that Ross had “acted in self-defense” after Good had “weaponized her vehicle against him.”

The magazine noted in a story Monday that the word choice was “not particularly indicative of an agency keeping an open mind as to what happened.”

In lieu of legitimate action from the federal government, state and local law enforcement have started to try to gain access to the evidence in their own ways, including legal action to demand federal agents hand over the protected material.

Good’s widow has also filed her own lawsuit, asking for the return of the car so that Minnesota investigators can take a look at it.

The family’s legal team “continues to take all aggressive offensive measures and is fiercely committed to pursuing truth and accountability,” Antonio Romanucci, the family’s attorney, said in an emailed statement to The Atlantic.