Business
RFK Jr. spreads vaccine misinformation during congressional testimony
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Donald Trump’s 2026 health care agenda, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doubled down on false claims about vaccines during his Senate testimony on Wednesday, as senators grilled him on his sweeping changes to immunization policy and federal health agencies.
Kennedy said he supports a statement made by a newly appointed member of a key government vaccine panel that mRNA vaccines pose a dangerous risk to people. Numerous studies have demonstrated that shots using mRNA technology, including Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, are safe and effective, and serious side effects have happened in extremely rare cases.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., noted that the committee member Dr. Retsef Levi has said that evidence is mounting that mRNA vaccines cause “serious harm, including death, especially among young people,” apparently referring to a post pinned on Levi’s X account. Kennedy appointed Levi to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine recommendations and insurance coverage.
Kennedy said he wasn’t aware of Levi’s comments, but added, “I agree with it.”
Kennedy’s comments before the Senate Finance Committee come after he repeatedly promised the panel in January that he would do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it more difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines. Since then, he has canceled funding for mRNA shot development and made other vaccine policy changes that could limit access to immunizations, including gutting the CDC vaccine panel and dropping Covid shot recommendations for certain groups.
His comments also follows a leadership shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The White House last week fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, and four senior agency officials resigned shortly after, with some of them citing the politicization of the agency and a threat to public health. In an opinion piece on Thursday, Monarez accused Kennedy of “a deliberate effort to weaken America’s public-health system and vaccine protections.”
Kennedy touted skepticism around Covid vaccines, despite evidence of their safety and effectiveness.
“We were told again and again the vaccines would prevent transmission, they prevent infection. It wasn’t true. They knew it from the start,” Kennedy said.
He also said he does not know how many people died of Covid and whether the vaccines prevented deaths from the virus.
“I would like to see the data and talk about the data,” Kennedy said.
But data is readily available from dozens of studies. One paper in August estimates that Covid vaccines saved more than 2 million lives, mostly among older adults, worldwide between 2020 and October 2024.
The CDC website also says that Covid vaccines from the 2023 to 2024 season reduced the risk of severe illness from Covid by almost 70% in the first two months after vaccination in adults ages 18 and older, with protection gradually decreasing over time.
Those shots also decreased the risk of hospitalization due to Covid by around 50% in the first two months of vaccination in that same population. The Covid vaccines showed similar benefits in older adults.
Kennedy also defended his decision to fire all 17 previous members of the CDC vaccine panel, saying he didn’t politicize the committee.
“What we did is we got rid of the conflicts of interest. … We depoliticized and put great scientists on it from a very diverse group,” the HHS secretary said. “They are very, very pro-vaccine.”
But a new analysis published last month from USC researchers found that conflicts of interest on that panel had been at “historic lows for years” before Kennedy restacked it with new members, some of whom are widely known vaccine critics.
New Delhi: As per RBI holiday list, bank branches will be closed for certain days on account of Diwali and related festivities like kali puja, kati bihu, Bhai dooj, across the nation. Bank branches in several cities will be closed on account of Diwali Balipratipada today, 22 October 2025.
When will bank branches be closed over the next few days?
Bank branches will be closed on various accounts in different parts of the country on various days between 21 and 23 October for Diwali festivities. Here’s the detailed list.
Banks will be closed for Diwali (Bali Pratipada)/Vikram Samvant New Year Day/Govardhan Pooja/Balipadyami, Laxmi Puja (Deepawali) on October 22 in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar.
Banks were closed in Assam for Kati Bihu on october 18. In several cities –Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir–banks were also closed for Diwali Amavasya (Laxmi Pujan)/Deepawali/Govardhan Pooja on October 21
Bhai Bij/Bhaidooj/Chitragupt Jayanti/Laxmi Puja (Deepawali)/Bhratridwitiya/Ningol Chakkouba: October 23
In the remaining days of October, banks will be closed for the following festivities
Chath Puja (Evening Puja): October 27
Chath Puja (Morning Puja): October 28
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s Birthday: October 31
Apart from the above bank holidays, the second and fourth Saturdays, Sundays of the month are falling on the following dates:
Sunday: October19
Fourth Saturday: October 25
Sunday: October 26
Holidays of the mentioned days will be observed in various regions according to the state declared holidays, however for the gazetted holidays, banks will be closed all over the country.
If you keep a track of these holidays, you would be able to plan bank transaction activities in a better way. For long weekends, you can even plan your holidays well.
Business
Asian stocks today: Markets slide as US-China tensions intensify; HSI falls 1%, Nikkei sheds over 260 points – The Times of India
Asian equities slipped on Wednesday as investors took a step back following recent gains, while gold and silver tumbled for a second straight day, halting their recent rally. The pullback came after US President Donald Trump suggested that a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping might not go ahead. Markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Wellington, Taipei and Manila all fell. Tokyo also saw a decline, with profit-taking after a strong rally triggered by Japan’s easing political tensions.Nikkei was down 269 points or 0.55%, reaching 49,046 after conservative Sanae Takaichi was elected as Japan’s new prime minister.Hong Kong’s HSI trimmed 342 points or 1.32% to trade at 25,684. Shanghai and Shenzhen also slipped 0.44% and 0.81%, respectively.Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kospi traded flat, adding 3 points to reach 3,827 at 9:26 AM IST.In commodities, gold, which has surged more than 60% since the start of the year and hit multiple records, fell sharply. At one point on Wednesday it dropped to $4,000 an ounce, down from Tuesday’s record peak of $4,381.51. Silver, which has been riding gold’s rally, also fell. The gold rally had been driven by a weaker dollar, expectations of interest rate cuts, falling bond yields and central bank buying. Lingering concerns about the global economy and a fear of missing out also boosted its safe-haven appeal. Trump’s remarks added to market caution. He said on Tuesday that he expected a “good” trade deal with Xi at the APEC summit in South Korea next week. “I think we’re going to have a very successful meeting. Certainly, there are a lot of people that are waiting for it.” He then added, “Maybe it won’t happen. Things can happen where, for instance, maybe somebody will say, ‘I don’t want to meet. It’s too nasty’. But it’s really not nasty.”
Jonah FisherEnvironment correspondent
Getty ImagesFining English water companies for spilling raw sewage will soon become quicker and easier, the government has said.
New proposals would see automatic fines of up to £20,000 issued for some minor offences and make it simpler to punish more serious ones.
In recent years data from the water industry’s own monitoring equipment has shown how frequently rules are broken around sewage spills. But the regulator, the Environment Agency, has by its own admission struggled to act.
“I want to give the Environment Agency the teeth it needs to tackle all rule breaking,” said Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, announcing the proposals.
“With new, automatic and tougher penalties for water companies, there will be swift consequences for offences – including not treating sewage to the required standard, and maintenance failures,” she said.
The plans will be put to a six-week public consultation starting on Wednesday.
The English water companies welcomed the proposals, with a spokesperson for trade body Water UK saying: “It is right that water companies are held to account when things go wrong.”
Getty ImagesFor the most serious pollution offences, the enforcement system remains the same. The EA has to take water companies to court and prove to a criminal standard that an offence has been committed “beyond a reasonable doubt”. If that prosecution results in a conviction the company could have to pay a large fine, possibly in the millions of pounds.
The new proposals are focused on more minor offences which happen frequently and have in the past gone largely unpunished.
The plans would see automatic financial penalties of up to £20,000 introduced for rule breaches such as failure to report a significant pollution incident within four hours, failure to report spill data properly or if emergency overflow outlets discharge sewage more than three times in a year.
For some more serious offences the government wants to make it easier for the EA to take action.
So it’s proposing that the burden of proof be reduced from “beyond all reasonable doubt” – the norm for criminal proceedings – to “on the balance of probabilities”, which is used in civil cases. The fines which the EA can impose without going to court could be increased to a maximum of half a million pounds.
The reduced burden of proof for some offences is already written into law, having been part of the Water (Special Measures) Act which received Royal Assent in February 2025. This six-week consultation is to determine which offences should be included, and the level of the fines.
“Fines of £500,000 are pocket change to billion-pound companies like Thames Water,” says James Wallace, the CEO of campaign group River Action.
“Higher penalties and urgent, wholesale reform are essential to prevent negligent firms polluting our rivers and short-changing their customers.”
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