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Trump Plans to Fire F.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary

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Trump Plans to Fire F.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary

President Trump has signed off on a plan to fire Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, after a series of clashes over vaping, oversight of the abortion pill and a series of new drug application denials that rattled biotech companies, according to a person briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Dr. Makary had a high profile for an F.D.A. commissioner, appearing frequently on television and podcasts to sell the work he was doing at the agency on improving the food supply, speeding up some drug approvals and trying to restore agency morale after thousands of staff members left.

He tried to walk the tightrope between the business-friendly Make America Great Again movement, pledging to get rid of regulations that slow down innovation and to attract more drug trials to the United States. He was an ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make American Healthy Again supporters, voicing the skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry and authorizing natural food dyes.

Ultimately, Dr. Makary’s efforts were not enough to overcome the grievances of a growing band of enemies focused on selling tobacco, opposing abortion and seeing biotech therapies authorized.

Mr. Trump’s decision to dismiss him was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

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The decision could still change, given Mr. Trump’s propensity to change his mind Dr. Makary has also proven persuasive with Mr. Trump in beating back previous efforts to oust him.

Leaving the White House Friday evening, Mr. Trump dismissed the idea that Dr. Makary would be fired.

“I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it,” he said.

The White House has pressured Dr. Makary for months to authorize flavored e-cigarettes, according to a person close to the conversations. The approvals were a top wish of major tobacco companies that have been top donors to Mr. Trump. In March, the F.D.A. issued a memo saying that it would only authorize e-cigarettes in flavors such as mint, tea and spices. The memo said the fruit and candy flavors would be unlikely to pass muster, given their appeal to young people.

Pressure continued, though, and on Tuesday the F.D.A. authorized blueberry and mango flavored e-cigarettes by Glas, a small company based in Los Angeles.

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Abortion foes including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have continued to turn up the heat on Dr. Makary, reiterating their call for his firing on Thursday. The group’s leaders and others view Dr. Makary as dragging his feet on a safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone, which they viewed as a way to highlight what they believe are dangers of the drug. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who also opposes abortion rights, amplified criticism of Dr. Makary on social media as well.

The administration has been under pressure from conservatives to tighten regulations on the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone. The Supreme Court is reviewing a federal appeals court ruling that temporarily blocked abortion providers from prescribing the drug through telemedicine and sending it to patients by mail.

Biotech companies and their investors have also raised alarms with the White House about agency decisions to reject a series of treatments for rare diseases. The F.D.A. typically turns down about 20 percent of the applications it receives for drug approvals from companies.

Dr. Makary has been aggressive in defending the decisions, which he said came from career scientists who found the medications ineffective.

Dr. Makary also had to contend with a health secretary who seemed to view the F.D.A. as an avenue for getting his favored products authorized, exemplified by Mr. Kennedy’s social media post saying that the agency would end its “war on” stem cell treatments, peptides and raw milk. Mr. Kennedy pushed the F.D.A. to reverse a 2023 ban and allow the use of a number of peptides, unproven compounds purported to offer anti-aging or muscle-recovery benefits.

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Before leading the F.D.A., Dr. Makary was a cancer surgeon and health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was also the author of several books about the health care system.

Some of Dr. Makary’s more popular moves included encouraging broader use of hormone replacement products for women and lifting the F.D.A.’s warnings on them. He helped speed some promising drugs to market, including a pancreatic cancer therapy and the pill form of the popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

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Video: Crowds Flood New York City Streets for First Day of Manhattanhenge

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Video: Crowds Flood New York City Streets for First Day of Manhattanhenge

new video loaded: Crowds Flood New York City Streets for First Day of Manhattanhenge

People filled the streets of New York on Thursday to get a glimpse of this year’s first Manhattanhenge. The spectacular view of the sun setting, flanked by the city’s streetscapes, will also occur on Friday and July 11 and 12.

By James McManagan

May 29, 2026

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Oxnard man smuggled baby crocodiles, among 1,700 reptiles, gets 5 years

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Oxnard man smuggled baby crocodiles, among 1,700 reptiles, gets 5 years

An Oxnard man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for smuggling at least 1,700 reptiles worth more than $739,000 into the U.S. over six years, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.

The animals, including baby crocodiles and Yucatán box turtles, were bought and sold over social media and came from Mexico, Hong Kong and elsewhere, an investigation led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service revealed.

From January 2016 to February 2022, Perez and co-conspirators brought in wild animals without the permits required by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — and without declaring them, the Justice Department said.

In August 2022, Jose Manuel Perez pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of smuggling goods into the country and one count of wildlife trafficking.

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The animals smuggled from Mexico were advertised on social media, with defendants posting photos and videos of the reptiles being captured in the wild.

People working with Perez would collect the reptiles including Mexican box turtles and Mexican beaded lizards, at from an airport in Ciudad Juárez, then move them by car over the border to El Paso.

According to federal authorities, Perez paid people a “crossing fee” each time they traversed the border. Payment depended on how many animals they trafficked, the size of the package and the level of risk they faced.

Sometimes Perez and another person would traveled to Mexico to buy animals taken from the wild to smuggle into the U.S. Once shipped, they were transported to Perez’s home, in Missouri and then California after he moved there.

When the sentence came down, Perez was already serving nine years for felony possession of firearms. Due to convictions in Ventura County Superior Court for “street terrorism” and assault with a deadly weapon, he is not allowed to have firearms, the department said.

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According to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, illegal wildlife trafficking is the second-largest threat to species after habitat loss and the world’s fourth-most-lucrative trafficking industry.

“Illegal wildlife trafficking not only diminishes the populations of targeted wildlife species, it also impacts related species, their interconnected ecosystem, local and global economies, and has the potential to impact the health of people through zoonotic disease transmission,” the alliance says on its website.

Reptiles get caught in the fray. Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced that a Daly City man suspected of purchasing and exporting hundreds of poached turtles from Florida was facing federal wildlife trafficking charges.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of California and a section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, assisted federal wildlife officials with the investigation into Perez’s dealings. The case was prosecuted in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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Video: Blue Origin Rocket Explodes on Florida Launchpad

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Video: Blue Origin Rocket Explodes on Florida Launchpad

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Blue Origin Rocket Explodes on Florida Launchpad

A rocket built by the Jeff Bezos-owned space company, Blue Origin, blew up during a test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

“Oh, no, that’s an explosion.” (explosion erupts) “That is crazy.” “What?” “Oh, my God!”

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A rocket built by the Jeff Bezos-owned space company, Blue Origin, blew up during a test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

By Nailah Morgan

May 29, 2026

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