White House Asks Supreme Court to Lift Restrictions on Deportations to Third CountriesThe Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court order restricting the Department of Homeland Security from deporting illegal immigrants to nations other than their home countries.

“On behalf of a nationwide class of aliens with final orders of removal, the district court issued an extraordinary preliminary injunction that restrains DHS from exercising its undisputed statutory authority to remove an alien to a country not specifically identified in his removal order (i.e., a ‘third country’), unless DHS first satisfies an onerous set of procedures invented by the district court to assess any potential claim under the Convention Against Torture,” the Justice Department said in a filing on Tuesday.

The administration said it had been removing individuals to South Sudan, but was blocked by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts. Murphy has issued multiple orders over the past few months blocking potential deportations. In April, he said that individuals should be given a chance to explain why deportation to a new country would “likely result in their persecution, torture, and/or death.” (More)

CDC Stops Recommending COVID Vaccine for Healthy Children, Pregnant WomenHealth officials on Tuesday said they’re no longer recommending the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video on social media platform X that the vaccines will be removed from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule.

The latest versions of the vaccines were cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 2024 without any clinical data. The CDC previously advised pregnant women and children to receive at least one dose of the currently available formulations of the shots, even if they had previously been vaccinated.

Those recommendations came “despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children,” Kennedy said. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said in the video: “That ends today. It’s common sense, and it’s good science.” Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner, added: “There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today, and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.” (More)

China CDC Designates New Primary COVID-19 VariantAs the international community closely monitors the global spread of Omicron variant NB.1.8.1, China announced on May 23 that it is the primary variant spreading in the country. On the same day, a World Health Organization advisory group classified NB.1.8.1 as a variant under monitoring, due to its increasing detection in monitoring efforts around the globe.

The WHO said it currently considers the NB.1.8.1 variant, first detected in January this year, to have a low risk to public health “at the global level.” As of May 18, 518 sequences of the new variant had been submitted by 22 countries to GISAID, a global influenza and COVID-19 virus genome sequence database, accounting for 10.7 percent of global sequences in for the week of April 21–27.

NB.1.8.1’s dominance is particularly pronounced in Asia—China’s immediate neighbors. China last month reported a sharp increase in reported COVID cases, mostly driven by the NB.1.8.1 variant, with residents reporting symptoms including severe burning throat pain, cough, and fever. (More)