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Noncitizens on voter rolls in Democrat-run state exposed as RNC chair pledges secure elections

June 8, 2026 6:00am EDT / Fox News

Most noncitizens were registered as Democrats and discovered their status while pursuing naturalization, RNC chairman says

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6397660511112

RNC Chairman Joe Gruters discusses finding noncitizens on the voter rolls in New Jersey

The head of the Republican National Committee says noncitizens are removing themselves from the voter rolls after they claim they were accidentally registered to vote.

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EXCLUSIVE —Noncitizens in a key blue state were on the voter rolls for years — and some even voted in prior elections, according to documents obtained via public records request.

The New Jersey Republican Party (NJGOP) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) requested voter rolls from all 21 counties in the Garden State and found multiple instances of noncitizens seeking naturalization asking to be removed from the rolls, claiming they were unknowingly registered to vote. Most were registered as Democrats.

Noncitizens cannot vote in state or federal elections, and the candidates for citizenship worried that being on the rolls would disqualify them.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill casts her ballot at a polling location inside Hillside Elementary School in Montclair, N.J., on Nov. 4, 2025, during the New Jersey gubernatorial election.(John Lamparski/Bloomberg)

In official letters viewed by Fox News Digital from Atlantic County, Superintendent of Elections & Commissioner of Registration Maureen Bugdon certified that noncitizens came to her asking to be removed.

FOUR NONCITIZENS CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY VOTING IN 2020, 2022 AND 2024 FEDERAL ELECTIONS IN NEW JERSEY

“Please allow this letter to confirm that on today’s date, the below referenced individual came before this office to confirm her registration and voter status,” the typical letter reads. “She relayed that she did not wish to be a New Jersey registered voter and does not understand how she became registered through the Department of Motor Vehicles, allegedly.”

Most of the letters confirmed that the noncitizens did not have a voting record, but not all.

One noncitizen, who the county said was removed from the rolls in 2015, voted several times in 2000 and 2001, and in the 2008 general election. Another voted in a primary election in 2005 and a municipal election in 2000.

A letter showing Atlantic County Election Commissioner Maureen Bugdon certifiying that a New Jersey noncitizen was on the voter rolls and wished to be removed.(Obtained by the RNC and NJGOP)

TRUMP ADMIN BLOCKS CITIZENSHIP FOR ILLEGAL MIGRANT VOTERS

Other documents showed noncitizens directly asking to be removed from the rolls through a state voter registration cancellation form.

When prompted about why they wished to be removed, the vast majority of the unknowingly registered voters checked a box labeled “other” and wrote that they were not citizens.

In Atlantic County alone, Fox News Digital reviewed more than 50 documents from noncitizens attesting that they were registered to vote unknowingly.

OVERSIGHT GROUP SEEKS DOCS FROM WALZ’S MINNESOTA AS DOJ REBUKES VIRGINIA VOTER-ROLL MAINTENANCE

A noncitizen on the New Jersey voter rolls used this removal form to request to be unregistered.(Obtained by the RNC and NJGOP)

RNC Chairman Joe Gruters says the group found hundreds of noncitizen registrants in New Jersey who are likely only the tip of the iceberg, but that New Jersey and other Democrat-run states are unwilling to disclose information about their voter registration list maintenance processes. The organization has requested that information from 48 states.

“I mean, it’s really incredible because here the Democrats are saying that, you know, noncitizens never vote, that, this is a non-issue, but every county we’re finding people that are self-reporting now, and I’m glad we’re doing these records request because it’s really eye-opening, because this is just the people that have self-reported,” Gruters told Fox News Digital.

“You want a democracy that’s secure and elections that are free and safe and that people can depend upon, and people have full confidence in,” he said.

Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters is claiming victory over Democrat efforts to block efforts to kick noncitizens skipping out of North Carolina jury duty from the state’s voter rolls.(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)

RNC LAUNCHES MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH IN 17 STATES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

The RNC in 2024 made a full-throated election integrity push to ensure, one that continues to this day, according to Gruters.

He told Fox News Digital that the group is “bringing the hammer down” and that it has “boots on the ground” across the country to ensure even more diligence in November.

“We have staffers already in 17 states working on these issues to make sure that, like I said, it goes back to having a safe and secure election that’s free and fair,” he said.

RNC GETS DAY AT SUPREME COURT TO CHALLENGE LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS

Gruters is also optimistic about another RNC battle on the election integrity front.

The Supreme Court is soon set to decide on the case of Watson vs. RNC, a challenge to laws that allow ballots to be cast by mail on election day, but counted days later. The RNC’s goal is eliminate the practice, which Gruters highlighted as California continues to count ballots from Tuesday night’s primary elections almost a week after polls closed.

Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas waited to leave the stage at the conclusion of inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Chip Somodevilla/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

He said a win in that case could be “one of our biggest election victories ever .”

“I mean, just what’s happened with Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt should open your eyes, and you should be sick to your stomach,” he said. “This should not be allowed in America.”

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Gruters said that when elections have an “open-ended target date,” it opens the doors for potential manipulation.

“We’re fighting hard to put an end to this, and this, like I said, this could be probably our biggest win ever from an election integrity standpoint by stopping this and making sure that election day means exactly what it says, election day.”

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mickie Sherrill’s office did not return a request for comment. Neither did the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission or Atlantic County officials.

A spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles said it’s rare that noncitizens end up on the rolls.

“MVC, together with state and local partners across New Jersey, uses rigorous processes to ensure eligible individuals register to vote through the MVC. Consistent with all applicable laws, individuals who apply to register to vote through the MVC affirm their citizenship. While it is exceedingly rare that non-citizens claim citizenship or other voter eligibility through the MVC, such instances are taken extremely seriously by this agency.”

SEE THE FULL CACHE OF DOCUMENTS HERE:

Peter D’Abrosca is a reporter at Fox News Digital covering politics.

Follow Peter on X at @pmd_reports. Send story tips to peter.dabrosca@fox.com.

Exclusive: Political pressure threatens to undercut EPA science evaluating chemical safety for consumers, sources say

2026-06-08T10:00:08.241Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/08/politics/trump-epa-chemicals-political-pressure

Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper.

Multiple current and former career employees at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention recounted being pushed by supervisors to downplay the potential risk of chemicals that are already used in products on shelves.

With President Donald Trump’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, scientists are also being told to stop considering the impact a chemical may have on specific racial groups, according to the employees, who spoke on the condition that they remain anonymous for fear of retribution.

While the EPA told CNN it wants testing that reflects real-world exposure, some veteran employees say they have been pressed to make chemicals appear safe by coming up with test parameters that aren’t realistic.

“What we’ve been told is: ‘Let’s look at alternative scenarios,’” one employee said. If putting two hands in a chemical shows risk, this person said a supervisor might ask, “What if you dip one hand? What if you dip one finger?” in search of the smallest amount of contact needed to call it safe.

“We are considering scenarios we don’t have any basis for,” the employee said.

The EPA’s chemical safety office conducts health risk assessments for a slew of chemicals because of concerns over potential impacts on human health, such as cancer, endocrine disruption, birth defects and reproductive harm.

The concerns from scientists about their chemical review process come as Trump’s EPA has rolled back environmental and climate regulations and his administration has installed former chemical industry insiders and lobbyists to lead key agency offices overseeing chemical regulation.

The current and former employees who spoke to CNN said finding risks during chemical safety reviews can lead to regulation. Conversely, when risk disappears, so does the need to regulate, they say.

“Every decision is going to the political level, down to the smallest detail. That is abnormal,” a scientist who recently left the agency’s chemical division told CNN.

Scientists say they no longer feel safe pushing back, pointing to termination of federal union contracts and the suspension of employees who signed dissent letters.

“You have to follow instructions,” one career employee said. “Otherwise, that’s insubordination.”

In a statement to CNN, the EPA defended its science.

“EPA is implementing the President’s Executive Order on Restoring Gold Standard Science across its risk evaluations,” the statement said.

“In practice, that means using realistic exposure scenarios rather than defaulting to compounded worst-case assumptions, being transparent about the assumptions and uncertainties in every analysis, and ensuring conclusions are testable and reproducible,” the agency said in an email to CNN.

The agency also added that its “top priority is protecting the health of all Americans, and every chemical safety decision the agency makes is grounded in gold-standard science: peer-reviewed literature, validated test methods, real-world monitoring data, and fit-for-purpose exposure and fate modeling.”

But career employees described a growing gap between career staff and the Trump administration’s political appointees over how health dangers should be defined. The appointees, they say, want to narrow what counts as risk.

Some senior scientists have been reassigned to administrative roles where they no longer oversee important health risk assessments, several sources said. Less experienced, newer staff who lack institutional knowledge are being put into those roles instead, and scientists are feeling forced to defend the science they’re using to superiors, they added.

In previous administrations, “there was a level of respect and trust that the scientists were relying on the best science,” the scientist who recently left the agency said.

But now, “subject-matter experts having to explain to political appointees why they chose a particular science approach, being scrutinized for what they did, and if asked to think about it differently there’s little you can do to push back if you’re meeting with the top person.”

Thousands of chemicals in everyday products currently on the market have never been fully assessed for their impact on human health or the environment.

For example, one chemical being reviewed, a silicon compound known as D4, is used in products including deodorant, hair spray and cosmetics. Up to 500 million pounds of the solvent is produced in the US every year, but it has been banned by the European Union because it has been shown to be toxic and linked to infertility.

When the nation’s first chemical safety law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, was adopted in 1976, some 62,000 chemicals were already in production or on the market and were grandfathered in with no requirement for EPA to conduct a health risk review.

Many remain in consumer products today.

Environmental advocates say that’s because the original law lacked teeth; it was nearly impossible for the EPA to effectively review already existing chemicals.

In 2016, the law was updated, requiring the EPA to review existing chemicals on the market to assess the potential human health risks.

Since early this year, the EPA has been under court-ordered deadlines to complete risk assessments for certain high-priority chemicals after environmental groups and the chemical industry sued the agency, prompting efforts to speed up the process.

The EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is tasked, among other things, with assessing and regulating these chemicals.

The agency proposed a new rule last year with respect to the Toxic Substances Control Act that streamlines the review process, which advocates said would weaken oversight, shorten reviews and discount real-world exposures that threaten communities across the country.

Now, pressure is being applied at multiple points in the assessment process, three of the sources said. They describe a pattern of internal meetings rapidly convened by superiors at the first sign of potential health risks for a chemical in the early stages of scientists’ review process, where scientists feel forced to defend preliminary findings before the analysis is complete . Some of these meetings are attended by political appointees the administration has placed in leadership roles in the chemical assessment office.

“They don’t even let you finish” the risk analysis, one EPA staffer said. “It’s like you’ve got to brief immediately on the risk that you found.”

“It’s more like, ‘How can we fix this? What can we do to make this risk go away?’” the staffer said.

A second career employee echoed that experience: “Basically, the moment you calculate risk, there’s some sort of meeting and they push you to figure out how we can make the risk disappear .”

EPA employees also told CNN that agency leadership is effectively ignoring how certain racial groups could be more susceptible to harm from a particular chemical because of higher rates of underlying health conditions or physiological or genetic factors.

They said that type of analysis was deemed “DEI” and removed from assessments, a characterization scientists dispute, saying it reflects longstanding scientific methods for evaluating risk across populations.

“You can’t put any kind of racial comments in there,” one of the career EPA employees said. “Which is ridiculous because we know certain races have predispositions to certain diseases.” That predisposition may make them more sensitive to certain chemicals.

Michal Freedhoff, who was assistant administrator for the EPA’s chemical safety office under then-President Joe Biden and helped lead negotiations to revise the chemical safety law in 2016, told CNN: “The law explicitly requires an assessment of risk to potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations – if there was direction to categorically ignore that part of the law for some or all subpopulations, that could leave people less safe and create legal vulnerabilities for the agency. ”

The EPA did not comment when asked about allegations of ignoring racial considerations.

Among the top officials fueling these changes, sources said, are several former chemical industry lobbyists who run the offices that regulate and conduct safety reviews of existing chemicals and new ones coming on the market.

One EPA employee described the political appointees as “putting their thumbs on the scales” for the reviews in an industry friendly direction.

For example, Nancy Beck, now the principal deputy assistant administrator, previously held senior positions at the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group.

According to the source, Beck was the driving force behind revising a risk assessment of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.

EPA’s human health risk assessment of the chemical “was finalized in December 2024 before she came, and she specifically reopened it,” the source said.

Once the assessment was reopened, the Trump EPA proposed late last year nearly doubling what’s considered safe exposure levels of formaldehyde – a big win for the chemical industry. Beck’s name appears in the EPA’s notice seeking public input.

The agency has yet to issue final regulations.

Beck did not respond to CNN’s email asking her directly about the formaldehyde issue.

“Nancy Beck is in the weeds. She reads every word. Looks at every science research. And so there is absolutely political pressure, because she’s in there looking at everything,” the employee who recently left the agency’s chemical division added.

“The level of scrutiny of scientists’ work and the granular details is unprecedented,” the person said.

The EPA did not comment when asked about allegations of political interference.

Several employees pointed to a February training session as evidence of changes to the risk assessment process. A video of that session was obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and shared with CNN. PEER is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of public employees and whistleblowers on environmental issues.

The training was intended to be a reset for how the chemical safety division does its work, and a primer for newly reassigned EPA scientists following the Trump administration’s reorganization.

A human health risk assessment for a chemical is supposed to ask how much harm a chemical could cause, under what circumstances, and what risk management should be done.

In the training, staff were told: “Risk is not a number; risk assessment is a process. It’s a narrative,” which those who spoke to CNN believed was another attempt to find “more wiggle room,” and to “explain away any risk.”

One career employee told CNN they felt some remarks amounted “explicit instruction to make your chemical pass.”

“I’ve never seen us try to work backward to a preordained outcome,” the person said. “If anything, that’s what they’re doing now. They want the outcome to be that the chemical is safe.”

In a statement, the EPA pushed back on the staffers’ interpretation of what was said in the training, saying they lacked “technical context.”

“Any suggestion that EPA is engineering assessments toward predetermined outcomes is false,” the EPA said. The statements about “refining” risk assumptions and portraying risk as “a narrative” are“standard risk-assessment practice, not a departure from it,” the EPA said.

Even Freedhoff, the Biden EPA official who criticized some risk assessment changes, viewed the video and said she did not think the session on its face instructs scientists to alter their conclusions.

But EPA staff who spoke to CNN say the shift in the agency’s culture goes beyond the video. Kyla Bennett of PEER said she worries the changes are significant and could extend beyond the Trump administration.

“The culture within these agencies outlives the people,” she said. “That culture will far outlast this administration.”

In a memo last month, the EPA also said it would move away from relying on a standalone scientific program within the agency, Integrated Risk Information System, or IRIS, that has traditionally been used to evaluate whether a chemical is a toxin.

The evaluations done by scientists within IRIS have, for decades, been used to underpin chemical risk assessments.

In its memo, the EPA says it will instead allow individual program offices, which are run by political appointees, to make scientific determinations about chemical hazard.

The memo, seen by CNN, also raises questions about past assessments completed under the old system, saying EPA departments that used IRIS as part of regulatory decision making “should review how that information was employed” and “determine if any updates or changes are warranted.”

Replacing IRIS’s scientific hazard assessments with analyses that weigh economic and other factors could make the science more vulnerable to political influence, one EPA staffer told CNN.

Since Trump took office, the EPA has made a slew of moves seen as industry friendly.

The agency recently announced it would “rescind and restart” regulations on four PFAS – chemicals found in drinking water and in common nonstick, stain-resistant and water-repellent products.

These chemicals have been linked, to varying degrees, to cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage, hormone disruption, and damage to the immune system.

There are nearly a dozen more chemicals to be evaluated by February 2027, and thousands more in the future.

With changes in how the EPA is carrying out assessments, one scientist warned there could be an “explosion of bad health impacts” years from now.

CNN’s Sandee LaMotte contributed to this story.

美国加快AI在国安领域研发应用 不会用于非法监控

2026年6月8日 18:16 / 联合早报

五角大楼今年3月正式将Anthropic列为供应链风险名单，原因是它拒绝撤回Claude人工智能不得用于自主性武器与大规模美国监控的禁令。 （示意图 / 路透社）

（华盛顿综合电）美国政府将加快人工智能（AI）在国家安全领域的研发与应用，同时强调这项技术不应被用于非法监控。

随着华府对强大的新AI系统安全性疑虑升高，美国政府本周较早时说 ，将要求主要AI开发商在公开发表最强大的模型前，自愿提交给政府进行资安测试。

美国总统特朗普星期五（6月5日）在国安备忘录中说：“在政府领导下，美国能够且将依照美国的价值观，负责地加速AI在情报与作战领域上的应用。”

根据备忘录，战争部长赫格塞斯必须在90天内更新有关武器系统自主性的指令，以确保AI系统的使用符合指挥链原则。

特朗普说，AI技术不应被国家安全体系用于审查言论自由，或进行未经授权或非法的监视活动。

延伸阅读

特朗普签AI行政令 鼓励顶尖AI模型发布前接受测试 五角大楼与七公司合作 推动AI优先作战战略

备忘录也指出，美国国家安全机构应同不止一家AI供应商合作，以避免对单一公司形成依赖。

备忘录也要求确保，一旦AI工具被嵌入国家安全系统，政府运作不会因此中断，并指示各机构终止与那些试图破坏指挥系统的公司合作。

这份备忘录是在AI实验室Anthropic与五角大厦爆发冲突后发布。

今年3月，五角大楼正式将Anthropic列为供应链风险名单，原因是它拒绝撤回Claude人工智能不得用于自主性武器与大规模美国监控的禁令。

五角大楼说，只要符合美国法律，战争部应能根据需要使用这项技术。五角大楼过去一直仰赖Anthropic支援军事行动，包括在伊朗的行动。

特朗普星期五告诉媒体，他有兴趣让美国政府持有主要AI开发商的股权，并计划最快下周与相关公司高管会面。

特朗普说，他已经就此想法与相关公司进行沟通，但并未透露具体细节。

针对有关政府将把这些股票纳入政府运营的主权财富基金，并将部分收益重新分配给公众的报道，特朗普说，他对这一想法持开放态度。“我们正在讨论如何让美国人民从AI的成功中受益。这将是一件美好的事情，而且它还能让美国人民致富。”

美国加快AI在国安领域研发应用 不会用于非法监控

2026年6月8日 18:16 / 联合早报

五角大楼今年3月正式将Anthropic列为供应链风险名单，原因是它拒绝撤回Claude人工智能不得用于自主性武器与大规模美国监控的禁令。 （示意图 / 路透社）

（华盛顿综合电）美国政府将加快人工智能（AI）在国家安全领域的研发与应用，同时强调这项技术不应被用于非法监控。

随着华府对强大的新AI系统安全性疑虑升高，美国政府本周较早时说 ，将要求主要AI开发商在公开发表最强大的模型前，自愿提交给政府进行资安测试。

美国总统特朗普星期五（6月5日）在国安备忘录中说：“在政府领导下，美国能够且将依照美国的价值观，负责地加速AI在情报与作战领域上的应用。”

根据备忘录，战争部长赫格塞斯必须在90天内更新有关武器系统自主性的指令，以确保AI系统的使用符合指挥链原则。

特朗普说，AI技术不应被国家安全体系用于审查言论自由，或进行未经授权或非法的监视活动。

备忘录也指出，美国国家安全机构应同不止一家AI供应商合作，以避免对单一公司形成依赖。

备忘录也要求确保，一旦AI工具被嵌入国家安全系统，政府运作不会因此中断，并指示各机构终止与那些试图破坏指挥系统的公司合作。

这份备忘录是在AI实验室Anthropic与五角大厦爆发冲突后发布。

今年3月，五角大楼正式将Anthropic列为供应链风险名单，原因是它拒绝撤回Claude人工智能不得用于自主性武器与大规模美国监控的禁令。

五角大楼说，只要符合美国法律，战争部应能根据需要使用这项技术。五角大楼过去一直仰赖Anthropic支援军事行动，包括在伊朗的行动。

特朗普星期五告诉媒体，他有兴趣让美国政府持有主要AI开发商的股权，并计划最快下周与相关公司高管会面。

特朗普说，他已经就此想法与相关公司进行沟通，但并未透露具体细节。

针对有关政府将把这些股票纳入政府运营的主权财富基金，并将部分收益重新分配给公众的报道，特朗普说，他对这一想法持开放态度。“我们正在讨论如何让美国人民从AI的成功中受益。这将是一件美好的事情，而且它还能让美国人民致富。”

Health experts to screen US wastewater for disease outbreaks during World Cup

2026-06-08T10:01:42.192Z / Reuters

June 8 (Reuters) – Epidemiologists will be busy this summer sifting through sewage and social media with the goal of keeping soccer fans and the public safe from severe illness during the World Cup, one of the largest and most globally diverse mass gatherings ever anticipated.

A public health squad based in Washington, D.C., plans to monitor wastewater and internet chatter to detect and track infectious diseases should they emerge in any of the U.S. or Canadian cities hosting World Cup players, their matches, and millions of spectators, organizers said.

Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here.

The 39-day event kicks off in Mexico on Thursday. More than 6.5 million soccer fans are expected to travel from over 100 countries to witness 104 games in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The scale of the event and the globe-spanning travel involved pose a heightened risk of rapid disease transmission at a time when strained U.S. public health resources are coping at home and abroad with outbreaks of measles, Ebola and hantavirus, health security experts say.

Budget and staffing cuts under the Trump administration, along with the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization, have exacerbated those challenges, according to organizers of the new disease-tracking initiative.

GENETIC STRANDS

Stepping in to provide real-time data about potential threats, the newly formed team of public health experts has converted a Georgetown University laboratory into an epidemiological command post. The facility brings together academic institutions, non-profit organizations and private companies working in support of government agencies.

The team is already preparing a daily status report to flag emerging risks and any immediate need for action to hospital emergency managers and public health authorities at the local, state, federal and international level, as well as FIFA, soccer’s governing body and organizer of the World Cup.

The operations center, launched in collaboration with the MedStar Health regional hospital chain, is also a trial run for future events, including the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. MedStar hosts one of the nation’s 13 biocontainment units.

Advanced wastewater analysis, using DNA and RNA sequencing to find genetic strands from a range of microbes without requiring laboratory culture, is a key element in monitoring infectious disease threats, said Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security and head of the new disease surveillance effort.

“It’s incredibly powerful,” Katz said. Her team is currently receiving such data from collection sites in the U.S. and Canada, as well as from various other health monitoring sources in all three World Cup host countries.

FROM EBOLA TO MEASLES

Detecting disease-causing microorganisms in wastewater can signal an outbreak in the making, giving health officials time to warn medical clinicians to look out for symptoms of diseases that might otherwise be misdiagnosed, and to urge the public to take precautions.

Considerable media attention has focused on the current Ebola crisis in Africa. But Katz said the often-fatal hemorrhagic fever poses a “very low risk to the general public” in North America. The World Cup team and support staff from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, have been undergoing a precautionary quarantine in Belgium before traveling to the United States, although most of the players were in Europe at the time of the outbreak.

Katz said her team would be paying special attention to the spread of measles, which is approaching a record for U.S. case numbers this year – around 2,000 so far – and has resurged in parts of Mexico and Canada.

Additional risks are posed by mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, also known as “breakbone fever,” and a close cousin, chikungunya. Both originate in the tropics and can be carried by infected travelers and then be transmitted by mosquitoes.

Katz enlisted 20 colleagues along with pro bono support and assistance from 30 other entities for her operations center. They include several wastewater surveillance companies that are collecting and screening sewage samples and sharing their data with Katz’s team without charge.

SOCIAL LISTENING

Other key tools include tracking anonymized data from electronic health records and scouring open-source social media platforms for information pointing to transmission clusters, Katz said.

She cited a past example of public health officials pinpointing an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness from social media chatter about a sudden uptick in sales of toilet paper.

The Georgetown team will augment the work of several U.S. agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, Katz said.

Financial support for the center has come from a small family foundation and Georgetown, along with in-kind contributions from such partners as the University of Nebraska.

Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; editing by Donna Bryson and Rosalba O’Brien

美国就业市场持续强劲，高盛因此撤回美联储今年降息预期。 （路透社）

在美国劳动力市场表现强于预期的背景下，高盛经济师已不再预计美国联邦储备局会在今年启动降息。

彭博社报道，高盛最新报告显示，对美联储“最后两次”降息的时间点，从先前预估的2026年12月和2027年3月，顺延至2027年6月和12月。

不过，高盛首席美国经济师梅里克尔（David Mericle）在上周发布的报告中强调，鉴于通胀“难以自行形成持续上行的动力”，美联储重启加息的可能性仍然很小。

此前公布的美国5月非农就业数据明显好于预期，显示劳动力市场韧性十足，也推高了市场对美联储今年加息以压制伊朗战争所引发通胀压力的押注。

债券市场目前预计，美联储在今年底前有一次25个基点加息的可能，这一预期也在上周五引发纳斯达克100指数大跌5%。

延伸阅读

强劲非农报告巩固加息预期 美联储主席沃什面临考验
美联储褐皮书：伊朗战争推高通胀 消费支出贫富分化加剧

高盛判断，加息的几率依旧不高，但在美联储官员表态愈发偏“鹰派”，加之经济活动持续稳健的情况下，将“小幅加息”的概率从10%上调至20%。

美联储新任主席沃什将于6月16日至17日主持任内首次货币政策会议。美国总统特朗普则公开放话，认为加息是“错误之举”。

特朗普接受美国国家广播公司（NBC）采访时说，如今“好数据一出，股市反而下跌”，因为市场预期要加息，“但其实根本没有理由加息”。

高盛在报告中指出，美联储过去一年公布的“长期利率点阵图”基本保持稳定，多数与会官员仍将当前政策立场描述为“略具限制性”，并预期一旦通胀回落，货币政策将进一步“正常化”。

在此基础上，高盛的基线情境仍是：明年有两次各25个基点的降息，但实现概率已从此前的40%下调至30%。

报告指出，美联储按兵不动的时间拖得越久，越会强化一种市场印象，即当前利率“已接近合理水平”。同时，与人工智能（AI）相关的强劲投资需求，或为更长时间维持较高借贷成本提供理由。因此，高盛认为，“利率不变、维持高位更久”，是除基线预测之外，另一种相当合理的情境。

高盛也小幅下调了对今年美国失业率的预测，从4.6%调低至4.4%。

美国就业市场持续强劲，高盛因此撤回美联储今年降息预期。 （路透社）

在美国劳动力市场表现强于预期的背景下，高盛经济师已不再预计美国联邦储备局会在今年启动降息。

彭博社报道，高盛最新报告显示，对美联储“最后两次”降息的时间点，从先前预估的2026年12月和2027年3月，顺延至2027年6月和12月。

不过，高盛首席美国经济师梅里克尔（David Mericle）在上周发布的报告中强调，鉴于通胀“难以自行形成持续上行的动力”，美联储重启加息的可能性仍然很小。

此前公布的美国5月非农就业数据明显好于预期，显示劳动力市场韧性十足，也推高了市场对美联储今年加息以压制伊朗战争所引发通胀压力的押注。

债券市场目前预计，美联储在今年底前有一次25个基点加息的可能，这一预期也在上周五引发纳斯达克100指数大跌5%。

高盛判断，加息的几率依旧不高，但在美联储官员表态愈发偏“鹰派”，加之经济活动持续稳健的情况下，将“小幅加息”的概率从10%上调至20%。

美联储新任主席沃什将于6月16日至17日主持任内首次货币政策会议。美国总统特朗普则公开放话，认为加息是“错误之举”。

特朗普接受美国国家广播公司（NBC）采访时说，如今“好数据一出，股市反而下跌”，因为市场预期要加息，“但其实根本没有理由加息”。

高盛在报告中指出，美联储过去一年公布的“长期利率点阵图”基本保持稳定，多数与会官员仍将当前政策立场描述为“略具限制性”，并预期一旦通胀回落，货币政策将进一步“正常化”。

在此基础上，高盛的基线情境仍是：明年有两次各25个基点的降息，但实现概率已从此前的40%下调至30%。

报告指出，美联储按兵不动的时间拖得越久，越会强化一种市场印象，即当前利率“已接近合理水平”。同时，与人工智能（AI）相关的强劲投资需求，或为更长时间维持较高借贷成本提供理由。因此，高盛认为，“利率不变、维持高位更久”，是除基线预测之外，另一种相当合理的情境。

高盛也小幅下调了对今年美国失业率的预测，从4.6%调低至4.4%。

Why Trump picked Bill Pulte to lead US intelligence as critics question his qualifications

June 8, 2026 7:39am EDT / Fox News

Former FBI agent Rep Brian Fitzpatrick and ex-Senate leader Mitch McConnell among those pushing back on the selection

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich has the latest on President Donald Trump appointing Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William ‘Bill’ Pulte on ‘Special Report.’

President Donald Trump’s selection of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of National Intelligence elevates a housing finance regulator and former social media philanthropist to one of the government’s most sensitive national security posts.

Before entering government, Pulte was best known as the grandson of the founder of homebuilding giant PulteGroup and for building a large following through social media philanthropy campaigns that distributed money to followers online. He later became a prominent figure in conservative social media circles before Trump tapped him to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Trump announced the selection in a Truth Social post, praising Pulte’s leadership of the housing finance system and his experience managing “the most sensitive matters in America.”

The White House declined to tell Fox News Digital whether Trump is considering Pulte for the position on a permanent basis. But expectations for Pulte became clearer Friday when Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he wants the acting intelligence chief to begin reducing the size of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

TRUMP NAMES BILL PULTE ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the newspaper, describing the agency as “unnecessary and/or too big.” Asked whether he wants Pulte to fire employees, Trump said he wants him to “start the process.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., quickly endorsed the effort, arguing that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has expanded far beyond the mission Congress envisioned when it created the office after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“President Trump is right: the ODNI has grown far beyond its original mandate,” Cotton wrote on X. “I’ve long advocated for downsizing, if not outright eliminating, this bureaucracy.”

Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte walks outside the White House, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The appointment immediately generated pushback from lawmakers and former officials who argued that Pulte lacks the experience for the role.

But Trump allies, many of whom spent years railing against an intelligence “Deep State” they believed was working to undermine Trump insisted he would dutifully carry out the president’s agenda.

“There is still very much so – I would say – internally a battle between different intelligence agencies,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said. “Half the battle in these intelligence positions is the fact that you want someone that will not obstruct the declassification order but assist in locating documents, and that is something that Bill will do.”

TRUMP’S DRASTIC NSC CUTS SPARK DEBATE: DOES FIGHTING THE ‘DEEP STATE’ PUT NATIONAL SECURITY AT RISK?

“Bill Pulte is a great American and Patriot who will always fight for President Trump and his agenda,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X. “This is an important time in our country, and Bill has the required energy and focus to achieve great things in this new position.”

Pulte’s selection follows a period of public friction between Trump and outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard, who leaves the role on June 30.

Gabbard entered the role as a critic of the intelligence establishment, but her assessment that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon became a point of contention with the president as the administration moved toward military action against Tehran. Trump publicly rejected her assessment, saying “I don’t care what she said” and later declaring that she was “wrong.”

Neither Trump nor his allies have defended Pulte’s selection by pointing to any intelligence or national security experience. Instead, supporters have emphasized his management experience, willingness to challenge bureaucracy and commitment to advancing administration priorities.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats on March 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The White House declined to tell Fox News Digital whether Trump is considering Pulte for the position on a permanent basis. The distinction could prove significant, as acting officials can wield most of the authorities of Senate-confirmed officeholders while serving in a role intended to be temporary.

“Very few Senate-confirmable positions come with statutory eligibility requirements. There are good reasons why the Director of National Intelligence is one of them,” former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

“Anyone performing this role of such immense public trust must have the extensive national security experience required by statute, and no nominee who falls short of this requirement will earn my vote,” McConnell added.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., similarly argued that Pulte lacks the qualifications envisioned for the position.

“The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience’ required by statute,” Warner said. “It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., similarly argued that Pulte lacks the qualifications envisioned for the position.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a former FBI agent who now chairs the House Intelligence Committee’s CIA Subcommittee, was similarly blunt.

“He shouldn’t be there,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s got no background in intelligence.”

Not all intelligence overseers were critical of the appointment, however. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, R-Ark., defended Trump’s selection and dismissed concerns about Pulte’s résumé.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“Maybe you should think about something else,” Crawford said. “This guy, whether anybody knows him or not, at least is not guilty of trying to orchestrate a coup against a sitting president.”

Pulte did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier in 2026, Pulte said the FHFA had referred alleged Chinese and North Korean nationals to the Justice Department after discovering they had been working at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while allegedly posing as other individuals.

5 things to know for June 8: Penn Station, UFC fight, war escalates, Philippines earthquake, strengthening ties

2026-06-08 06:28 AM ET / CNN

More than 144 years after its construction began, Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Família has finally reached its full height. This week, the world’s tallest church will inaugurate its long-awaited final tower with a blessing by Pope Leo XIV.

Here’s what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.

Police and firefighters respond to the Penn Station stabbing in New York City on Sunday.

Jeenah Moon/Reuters

1️⃣ Penn Station

President Donald Trump is expected to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight at New York’s Madison Square Garden — just one day after a stabbing at Penn Station directly below the arena injured six people. While the suspect is in custody, the attack has heightened security concerns around the venue before thousands of fans are expected to arrive in the coming hours. Read more.

2️⃣ UFC fight

A new lawsuit filed over the weekend aims to stop the UFC fight President Trump plans to hold at the White House on June 14. The suit argues that the structure being built on the South Lawn requires congressional approval and an environmental review. It also claims the event will financially benefit UFC President Dana White and Trump himself, citing a spring report that Trump has bought stock in UFC’s parent company. Read more.

MEANWHILE:Thunderstorm may impact historic UFC White House card

3️⃣ War escalates

Israel and Iran are trading strikes in their worst escalation since the April truce. It comes after President Trump told Israel to hold off on retaliating against Iran, according to a US official. Trump urged the countries to “stop ‘shooting’” in an early morning social media post today. As the Iran war reaches the 100-day mark, Trump said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he does not plan to withdraw the roughly 50,000 US troops involved until “we have a completion” of the war. Read more.

WATCH:Trump’s NBC interview ends abruptly

4️⃣ Philippines earthquake

At least a dozen people are dead after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the southern part of the Philippines early Monday morning local time, according to the US Geological Survey. Video shows collapsed buildings and damaged roads across General Santos City in Sarangani province. Read more.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/08/us/5-things-to-know-for-june-8-penn-station-ufc-fight-war-escalates-philippines-earthquake-strengthening-ties

7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes off coast of Philippines

0:44

5️⃣ Strengthening ties

Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in North Korea today for his first visit in seven years, where he was greeted with a lavish welcome by leader Kim Jong Un. The trip highlights Beijing’s ambitions to cast China as a versatile, global power broker at a moment of intense geopolitical flux. Read more.

https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/loops/stellar/prod/16×9-loop-xi-kim-pyongyang.mp4?c=original&q=w_480%2Cq_auto%2Cfl_keep_dar

CCTV

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Here’s what you need to know before the world’s biggest sporting event kicks off on Thursday.

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And finally…

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/08/us/5-things-to-know-for-june-8-penn-station-ufc-fight-war-escalates-philippines-earthquake-strengthening-ties

From picket fences to privacy walls. Are we shutting ourselves in?

5:14

▶️ America’s new dream comes with higher walls

From taller fences to denser hedges, Americans are paying a premium to keep their neighbors out of sight — and out of mind. Are we shutting ourselves in

Today’s edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN’s Andrew Torgan.

US election betting boom to test prediction markets’ insider trading controls

2026-06-08T10:01:51.114Z / Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – Prediction market watchdogs may struggle to police betting on the U.S. midterm elections, with thousands of races offering ever more ways for insiders to make a quick buck on a rising number of platforms, according to experts and new data.

A surge in suspicious trades ​on Kalshi and Polymarket, the two largest players, has stoked fears that these fast-growing markets are creating new avenues for insider trading.

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Kalshi in April suspended three congressional candidates for betting on their own races, and regulators are ‌investigating whether former congressman George Santos engaged in potential insider trading on the platform.

That may prove to be the tip of the iceberg, said insider trading experts. With at least 6,590 state and federal legislative seats up for election this year, an expected betting bonanza will test safeguards in a novel marketplace where insider trading remains a legally murky concept and its regulator is stretched, the people said.

“We may see a slow response or we may see no response if and when insider trading happens in the midterms,” said Ilya Beylin, a professor at Seton Hall Law School who has studied prediction market oversight. Suspicious trades ​would undermine Americans’ faith in democracy at a time when polls show many already worry the system is in danger, he added.

Kalshi, Polymarket and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the commodity derivatives regulator which is pushing for jurisdiction over prediction markets, say ​they are equipped for the challenge with various monitoring tools and other resources.

The platforms are also bolstering controls, with Kalshi blocking election trades by politicians and campaign workers and Polymarket cracking down on trading ⁠on private information. In April, the U.S. Senate banned members and staff from prediction market betting.

Combined monthly global trading volumes on Kalshi and Polymarket surged nearly fivefold from September to reach about $24 billion in April, compared to roughly $14 billion a month wagered through legal ​sportsbooks in the United States last year on average, according to Pew Research Center.

“As innovation expands the reach and complexity of our markets, we are continuing to grow alongside it, both operationally and technologically,” a CFTC spokesperson said, adding the agency will “enforce the law aggressively.”

A ​lawyer for Santos declined to comment.

GROWING INFORMATION ASYMMETRY

Prediction markets allow traders to buy and sell binary “yes” or “no” contracts on the outcome of an array of events.

Traders can bet, for example, on which party will control Congress or a state legislature, as well as on individual races, and events around those contests and their candidates.

In addition to roughly 470 congressional races, 6,122 state and territorial legislative seats are up for election this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, on top of local races for district attorney, mayor, the judiciary and other offices. Each candidate generates insiders – campaign workers, pollsters, fundraisers, ​donors, friends and family.

While insider trading is banned in commodity derivatives markets, there have been relatively few cases, said legal experts. And when it comes to elections, there is a smorgasbord of potentially relevant nonpublic information, from unpublished polling data to a brewing scandal, ​some of which may not be well-understood by regulators, said Beylin.

“They will need to learn, and that learning process often involves trial and error,” he added.

That pool of potential inside information is expanding as election bets become more esoteric. During 2024, a major election year, Polymarket listed 1,293 ‌related markets, with $7.26 ⁠billion in trading volume, according to the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, a nonprofit research group.

With few major contests last year, the number of U.S. election markets on Polymarket fell, but the ratio of markets to races rose seven-fold to 17.4, indicating election markets are becoming more granular, according to Michelle Kendler-Kretsch, an ACDC researcher.

Increasingly, they focus less on the winners and losers, and more on the variables of a race, such as voter turnout, margin of victory and when candidates may drop out, according to ACDC’s analysis, which has not previously been reported.

Last year, for example, Polymarket listed multiple markets on the share of “inactive” ballots, or those ranking candidates who have since been eliminated, in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.

That trend “creates a more significant information asymmetry, while the number of potential insiders grows and the risk of insider trading ​increases,” said Kendler-Kretsch.

BOLSTERING CONTROLS

Besides Kalshi and Polymarket, there are at ​least four other U.S.-authorized platforms offering election contracts, a handful ⁠of brokers providing access to the products, and several other players hoping to launch. As with traditional markets, the companies are the first line of defense.

Polymarket recently launched a U.S. operation, but its main exchange is not U.S.-regulated and has not generally mandated “Know Your Customer (KYC)” identity checks. While it bars U.S. residents, authorities have flagged concerns that those controls can be easily bypassed.

“We maintain a comprehensive market integrity ​framework” and the company is focused on transparency, a spokesperson said.

Thanks to internal surveillance, Polymarket has referred nearly 100 user wallets to law enforcement, including one allegedly used by a U.S. soldier ​to place an inside bet on the ⁠removal of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, the spokesperson said.

Kalshi defines an insider as anyone in a position to directly influence a contract’s outcome, said Robert DeNault, the company’s head of enforcement. Aside from KYC checks, Kalshi uses public records to identify federal politicians and campaign staffers before they trade, and plans to do the same for local elections where data is available. It also monitors trades for anomalies.

It can then home in on a subset of suspicious activity, said DeNault. “You can leverage the tools … to gather a lot of information,” he said. Although the workload ⁠can be large, it ​is manageable, he added.

As powerful as such tools are, each lead has to be investigated by humans, said Aitan Goelman, who was CFTC enforcement director from ​2014 to 2017. The cases Kalshi flagged in April, for example, showed humans had to conclusively identify the users.

With CFTC enforcement staffing at 105 positions, which budget data shows is its lowest level for at least 20 years, and many experienced investigators having left, the agency may not have the manpower to probe a ​lot of referrals, said Goelman.

The agency spokesperson said it was relying on experienced personnel and had been hiring continuously since December.

Goelman, though, argued its resources were “not even close” to meeting the agency’s needs.

Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; editing by Michelle Price and Nick Zieminski