Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday that the Trump administration is preparing to roll out new national dietary guidelines this December, part of an aggressive effort to combat the country’s soaring obesity rates and improve public health.
“We’re about to release dietary guidelines that are going to change the food culture in this country,” Kennedy declared during an event held at the White House.
The updated recommendations had originally been scheduled for release by the end of October, but that timeline was derailed by the government shutdown. According to officials, the revised target date for publication is now December, with both the Department of Agriculture and HHS coordinating the rollout.
Kennedy said the forthcoming changes are intended not only to reshape Americans’ eating patterns but also to align national nutrition policy with his Make America Healthy Again initiative. The new approach, he emphasized, aims to bridge the gap between modern dietary trends and long-term wellness.
The federal guidelines, which undergo revision every five years, play a crucial role in shaping everything from school lunch menus to food assistance programs. Kennedy has repeatedly argued that decades of poor eating habits have contributed heavily to the nation’s worsening health crisis.
He has also hinted that the updated recommendations will promote a stronger focus on whole foods and advocate for the inclusion of more natural saturated fats derived from dairy and meat.
Kennedy’s comments came as President Donald Trump announced a separate agreement with pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to expand access and lower costs for the obesity treatments Zepbound and Wegovy—an initiative closely tied to the administration’s broader health agenda.
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In a decisive ruling, a federal judge has mandated that the Trump administration fully fund November’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by Friday, rebuffing the government’s proposal to issue only partial payments during the ongoing federal shutdown.
“People have gone without for too long,” declared Judge Jack McConnell during Thursday’s hearing in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, as he delivered his order compelling immediate action.
The judge’s decision followed urgent pleas from the plaintiffs—representing a coalition of cities, non-profit organizations, labor unions, and business groups—who argued that partial funding would leave millions of low-income Americans struggling to put food on the table.
The administration had previously announced that it would not draw from a congressionally approved $4.65 billion contingency fund to finance SNAP for November. Full benefits for the month are estimated to cost about $8 billion, far exceeding what the government had planned to cover.
Because Congress has yet to pass a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government, many federal programs, including SNAP, have been left without appropriations. Traditionally, however, prior administrations have maintained SNAP funding during shutdowns to prevent disruptions in food assistance.
The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of municipalities and advocacy organizations, sought to force the administration to release funds from the contingency reserve and explore additional financial resources to sustain the program in its entirety.
At a hearing last Friday, Judge McConnell had already prevented the administration from suspending the food stamp payments, ordering officials to utilize the contingency fund “as soon as possible” and to identify any other available funding sources to meet the full cost.
In response, the administration informed the court on Monday that it intended to cover only 50% of the November benefits from the contingency fund, rejecting the idea of reallocating roughly $4 billion from the Child Nutrition Program or other reserves.
By Wednesday night, officials revised their proposal again, saying they would now cover 65% of benefits — a plan the judge ultimately deemed insufficient, insisting instead that full payments be made to the 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP.
{Matzav.com}The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Trump can move forward with his directive requiring passport applicants to list their gender exactly as it appears on their birth certificates. This ruling overturns a lower court injunction that had temporarily stopped the policy and allowed individuals to choose whether to mark M, F, or X on their passports.
Gender markers were first introduced on U.S. passports in 1976. For more than three decades, the government has permitted citizens to align their passports with their gender identity rather than the designation listed at birth. The “X” option — representing those who do not identify as male or female — was introduced in 2021 during President Biden’s administration.
A coalition of plaintiffs led by Ashton Orr, who was accused of presenting a false passport because it still displayed a female gender marker, challenged the Trump policy in court. They argued that the rule would unfairly target “transgender and non-binary people,” undermine identification accuracy, and stem from unconstitutional bias in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.
“The challenged policy undermines the very purpose of passports as identity documents that officials check against the bearer’s appearance,” Orr’s attorneys wrote. “It is aimed at the rejection of the identity of an entire group — transgender Americans — who have always existed.”
The Justice Department brought the issue before the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit declined to reinstate Trump’s rule. In its emergency petition, the administration said the injunction “injures the United States by compelling it to speak to foreign governments in contravention of both the President’s foreign policy and scientific reality.”
By lifting the hold on the rule, the Supreme Court signaled support for the administration’s reasoning, allowing the birth-gender policy to be implemented while litigation continues. The ruling does not resolve the underlying legal questions but enables enforcement during ongoing proceedings in lower courts.
The justices divided 6–3 along ideological lines. The unsigned order stated, “Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth, in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored the dissent, joined by the court’s other liberal members, calling the decision a “pointless but painful perversion of our equitable discretion.”
“This Court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification,” she wrote.
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President Donald Trump hailed the announcement of Nancy Pelosi’s retirement, calling it “a great thing for America” and branding the longtime Democrat leader “corrupt.”
After the 85-year-old California congresswoman revealed on Thursday morning that she will not seek reelection and will retire at the end of her 20th term, Trump wasted no time responding sharply. Speaking with Fox News, he said, “The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America. She was evil, corrupt, and only focused on bad things for our country. She was rapidly losing control of her party and it was never coming back. I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice. Nancy Pelosi is a highly overrated politician.”
The animosity between Trump and Pelosi has been one of the most bitter rivalries in modern American politics. Their clash reached a notorious high point at the 2020 State of the Union, when Trump declined to shake Pelosi’s hand, and she retaliated by dramatically tearing up his speech in front of the cameras.
Pelosi’s tenure as House Speaker was defined in part by her repeated efforts to remove Trump from office. She led two impeachment drives against him — in 2019 and again in 2021 — both of which were ultimately rejected by the Senate.
This week’s exchange between the two figures added yet another chapter to their feud. Just two days before her retirement announcement, Pelosi attacked Trump during an interview on CNN, saying, “He’s just a vile creature. The worst thing on the face of the earth. Because he’s the president of the United States and he does not honor the Constitution of the United States. In fact, he’s turned the Supreme Court into a rogue court. He’s abolished the House of Representatives, he’s chilled the press … he’s scared people who are in our country legally but making them smashing into their cars and the rest.”
Pelosi’s decision to step down comes as many in her party urge older leadership to make way for a younger generation, especially as progressive factions continue to dominate Democrat politics. Those calls intensified during President Joe Biden’s shaky 2024 campaign, when Pelosi reportedly advised him to rethink his bid for reelection.
Her exit also follows California’s recent approval of Proposition 50 — a controversial Democrat-driven redistricting initiative that conservatives decry as an attempt to secure more congressional seats and offset Republican advances in red states such as Texas.
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President Donald Trump announced on Thursday a landmark agreement with pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to broaden the availability and reduce costs for their in-demand obesity medications Zepbound and Wegovy.
These treatments belong to the latest class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which have gained immense popularity in recent years.
However, many patients have struggled to gain consistent access, largely due to high monthly costs—about $500 for higher-dose regimens—and fragmented insurance support.
According to administration officials, the coverage expansion will include Medicare beneficiaries beginning next year, and some patients without insurance will benefit from phased-in price reductions. If approved, the initial doses of new oral versions of the medications will be priced at $149 per month.
“[It] will save lives, improve the health of millions and millions of Americans,” said Trump during the Oval Office announcement, where he referred to GLP-1s as a “fat drug.”
This most recent development is part of Trump’s broader push to curb soaring drug costs amid voters’ concerns about the cost of living. In earlier moves, companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca agreed to lower drug prices for Medicaid after an executive order in May set a deadline for voluntary price cuts or government-negotiated limits.
As with previous deals, it remains unclear how deeply consumers will feel the price reductions, given that drug costs depend heavily on insurance plans and market competition.
The obesity-treatment medications work by influencing appetite- and fullness-regulating hormones in the gut and brain; in trials, they helped users lose between 15% and 22% of their body weight — in many cases amounting to 50 pounds or more.
Because obesity is treated as a chronic condition, patients typically begin on lower dosages and escalate over time; doctors emphasise that continued use is required to maintain weight loss, otherwise the weight may return.
These quickly-growing treatments have been especially lucrative for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Lilly recently reported that sales of Zepbound have tripled this year, surpassing $9 billion.
Yet despite the booming market, for many Americans the hefty cost has placed the therapies out of reach.
At present, Medicare — the federal insurance programme for most Americans aged 65 and over — covers these drugs for conditions like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but not solely for weight loss.
Under the previous administration, President Joe Biden had proposed a rule last November to change that coverage policy, but the Trump administration shelved the change last spring.
Few state- or federally-funded Medicaid programmes (for low-income individuals) offer coverage, and commercial insurers and employers have been cautious about covering the medications because of the potentially large patient pool.
Doctors say the approximately $500 monthly cost for higher-dose treatments remains prohibitive for those without insurance.
In the broader context, the effort to reduce cost barriers for GLP-1 drugs comes as the White House seeks to show that President Trump is attentive to Americans’ concerns over rising expenses for food, housing, healthcare and other necessities.
“Trump is the friend of the forgotten American,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at Thursday’s announcement. “Obesity is a disease of poverty. And overwhelmingly these drugs have only been available for people who have wealth.”
Kennedy, who had previously expressed scepticism about GLP-1s in the treatment of obesity and related illnesses, praised Trump for advancing broader access to the drugs.
According to a senior administration official speaking under the condition of anonymity, the previous Democratic administration’s proposal was seen as a boon to Big Pharma because it lacked significant price concessions from the manufacturers. In contrast, the Trump deal was described as a “belt and suspenders” strategy designed to ensure Americans do not bear undue cost for pharmaceutical innovation.
Another senior official said that from next year, Medicare will start covering the medications for individuals with severe obesity and for those who are overweight or obese and face major health issues; those who qualify will face $50 copayments.
The officials revealed that non-covered patients will see lower prices via the administration’s TrumpRx programme, permitting direct purchases from manufacturers. Beginning in January, starting doses of the new oral treatments will cost $149 per month. They also said state and federal Medicaid plans will receive lower prices, and that average TrumpRx drug prices will begin around $350 and decline to about $245 over two years.
Speaking from Watertown, Wisconsin, obesity-medicine specialist Dr Leslie Golden said she treats roughly 600 patients on one of these medications and estimates that more than 75 % struggle with cost despite coverage. “Every visit it’s, ‘How long can we continue to do this? What’s the plan if I can’t continue?’,” she said. “Some of them are working additional jobs or delaying retirement so they can continue to pay for it.”
Both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk already cut prices on their treatments—Lilly earlier this year said it would lower the cost of initial Zepbound doses to $349.
Dr Angela Fitch, founder and chief medical officer of Knownwell, a weight-loss and medical-care company, said she sees the deal as potentially the first step toward broader affordability. “We need a hero in obesity care today,” she said. “The community has faced relentless barriers to accessing GLP-1 medications, which has ultimately come down to the price, despite the data we have supporting their effectiveness.”
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