The President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, elected this Thursday the former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his conspiracy theories about vaccines, as the new Secretary of Health.

Trump stressed on his social network, Truth Social, that ensuring the health of citizens is the most important position of the Administration and stressed that “for too long Americans have been crushed by the industrial food system and pharmaceutical companies that have been involved in deception and misinformation with regard to public health.”

Elected Robert Kennedy Jr. to guarantee health rights

The future president promised that the Ministry of Health will play an important role in ensuring that the population is protected “from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming health crisis” in the country.

Kennedy Jr., in his opinion, will ensure that those agencies return to the mandates of science “to end the epidemic of chronic diseases and make the United States great and healthy again.”

At a rally in New York at the end of the election campaign, Trump had already advanced that if he won on November 5 to the vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, he would allow Kennedy Jr. to “go crazy” with health.

The son of the former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, both murdered in the sixties, is in Trump’s opinion “a fantastic guy” and with good knowledge about pesticides and the environment.

Alternative in the US elections.

Before giving his support to Trump, Kennedy Jr. began his failed presidential career on the Democratic side.

In April of last year he presented himself as the alternative to President, Joe Biden, and announced his aspirations to be the candidate of that party, but in October he pointed out that he was leaving that formation to run as an independent, something that he finally ended up failing.

Much of the Kennedy clan had turned its back on him for the conspiracy theories he began to spread during the pandemic about vaccines and COVID-19, such as that this virus aimed to attack Caucasians and blacks and that the most immune people are the Chinese and the Askenazi Jews.

Kennedy Jr. has also linked mass shootings in schools with antidepressants such as Prozac, has denounced that Democrats receive much more money from pharmaceutical companies than Republicans and is convinced that vaccines cause autism.

Trump had assured him that he would have a position related to Health in his future Executive: “Promise fulfilled,” said this Thursday in X the eldest son of the former president (2017-2021) and New York tycoon, Donald Trump Jr.

His appointment joins the controversial list with which Trump is supporting his second term, which includes as attorney general the far-right legislator Matt Gaetz, accused of sexual trafficking of a minor, the owner of X, Elon Musk, as head of government efficiency or Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth as head of the Pentagon.

Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.

The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.

Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.

The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.

Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.

The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.

Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.

The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.

The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.

Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.

Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.