Kerry Kennedy, sister of Robert F Kennedy Jr, has expressed her profound disappointment and disgust at her brother’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump. She said “If my father were alive today, he would detest almost everything Donald Trump represents,” as quoted by CNN.
Kerry Kennedy criticized Trump’s actions, calling out his “lying, selfishness, rage, cynicism, hatred, racism, fascist sympathies, deliberate misinformation about vaccines, criminal felony convictions, and contempt for ethics and democracy.”
Kerry Kennedy went on to say, “I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother’s embrace of Donald Trump.I love my brother, but this is an outrage.”

This reaction comes in the wake of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s announcement on Friday that he was suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing Donald Trump. During the press conference, Kennedy Jr acknowledged the difficulty of his decision, saying, “In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory.”
Despite their differing views, Kennedy Jr. highlighted areas of common ground with Trump, particularly regarding the health of America’s children and environmental concerns. “Our children are the unhealthiest, sickest in the world. Don’t you want healthy children? Don’t you want the chemicals out of our food?” he asked, noting that Trump shared these concerns.

Kennedy Jr’s endorsement has been met with strong opposition from his family. A statement released by his relatives described the endorsement as a “betrayal” and criticized the alliance with Trump as “a sad ending to a sad story.” Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F Kennedy, took to social media, accusing RFK Jr. of being “for sale” and aligning with Trump for personal gain.
The endorsement marks a significant shift in Kennedy Jr’s political journey, which began with his candidacy for the Democratic nomination before transitioning to an independent run. His campaign has been marred by controversy, including accusations of amplifying conspiracy theories, particularly regarding Covid-19. Despite suspending his campaign, Kennedy Jr will remain on the ballot in some states.

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Nasa said on Saturday that it would use a spacecraft from billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX rather than Boeing to bring home two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who were supposed to return to Earth two months ago, will now come back in February aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon rather than the Boeing CST-100 Starliner they travelled to the space station with that subsequently suffered technical difficulties.

“Space flight is risky,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson. “A test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine, and so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety.”

Nasa and Boeing engineers are now reconfiguring the Starliner in order for it to return to Earth in September without a crew. While Nasa officials said they still expected to use the spacecraft on crewed missions, it is another blow to the reputation of a company that has been heavily scrutinised in recent years for engineering and manufacturing failures.

Mark Nappi, the manager at Boeing overseeing Starliner, said in a message to employees on Saturday that he knew this was “not the decision we had hoped for, but we stand ready to carry out the action’s necessary to support Nasa’s decision. The focus remains first and foremost on ensuring the safety of the crew and spacecraft.”

Boeing said it was continuing to focus “on the safety of the crew and spacecraft . . . and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return”.

Boeing and SpaceX are part of Nasa’s commercial crew programme, which was developed to encourage private sector suppliers to compete to ferry astronauts to the space station. SpaceX launched its first successful crewed mission in 2020.

When Williams and Wilmore blasted off aboard the Starliner on June 5, the capsule already was billions of dollars over budget and had experienced delays on earlier planned launches.

The mission to test the capabilities of the new spacecraft was scheduled to last eight days. But helium leaked from the spacecraft, and five of its thrusters functioned improperly, causing engineers and scientists at Nasa and Boeing to run tests to determine whether Starliner was the safest option to shuttle the astronauts back to Earth.

There was ultimately “too much uncertainty” around thrusters potentially failing during a tight piloting sequence, said Steve Stich, manager for Nasa’s commercial crew programme.

“It was just too much risk,” he said.

The decision was made in the context of past disasters, Nelson said. The explosions of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles killed a total of 14 astronauts, partly because the agency’s climate prevented engineers from raising “obvious mistakes” with top officials.

Boeing and Nasa viewed the uncertainty of the data differently, said Nasa associate administrator Jim Free. Fellow Nasa colleague Ken Bowersox said there were “tense discussions because the call was close”, adding that the agency was “committed to continuing to work with Boeing”.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former top U.S. infectious disease expert, spent time in the hospital after being infected with West Nile virus and is now recovering at home, a spokesperson confirmed Saturday.

Fauci is expected to make a full recovery, the spokesperson said on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

West Nile virus is commonly spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. While most people don’t experience symptoms, about 1 in 5 can develop a fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 out of 150 infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, illness.

CBS News’ chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jonathan LaPook, wrote in a social media post that he spoke Saturday with Fauci, who said he was likely infected from a mosquito bite that he got in his backyard.

“Dr. Fauci was hospitalized about ten days ago after developing fever, chills, and severe fatigue,” the post on X said. It said Fauci spent a week in the hospital.

As chief White House medical adviser, Fauci was the public face of the U.S. government during the COVID-19 pandemic, a role that made him both a trusted voice to millions and also the target of partisan anger. He left the government in 2022 but was back before Congress in June to testify as part of Republicans’ yearslong investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. response to the disease.

Fauci last summer joined the faculty at Georgetown University as a distinguished university professor.

There are no vaccines to prevent West Nile, or medicines to treat it. As of Aug. 20, the CDC had recorded 216 cases in 33 states this year. It’s best prevented by avoiding mosquito bites.