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Update: Two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed in D.C. What to know.
Thu, 22 May 2025
Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were shot and killed outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last night. The man and woman — a couple — had been attending a reception for young diplomats. CBS has the latest.The FDA announced a change in its framework for approving new COVID vaccines for healthy individuals under 65. Usha Lee McFarling, a national science correspondent with Stat, discusses the impact of the move, while NPR reports on how some of the CDC’s main channels for communicating health information to the public have gone silent.Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson join this week’s Apple News In Conversation to talk about their book ‘Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.’Plus, the House passed Trump’s massive tax-and-spending-bill, what to know about his contentious meeting with South Africa’s president, and the Defense Department officially accepted a Qatari jet to serve as Air Force One. Also, how the 10 richest Americans got significantly richer in the past year — and how they stand to gain more from the GOP tax bill. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu. Correction: A previous version of this episode cited comments the U.N. humanitarian chief made to the BBC that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die in the next 48 hours if they do not receive aid. The BBC has since updated that reporting to reflect that a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification estimates that 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition could occur among children in Gaza ages 6 to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026.
Chapter 1: What happened at the Israeli Embassy event?
But first, two staff members at the Israeli embassy were shot and killed outside an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. last night. The man and woman were a young couple named Yaron Lashinsky and Sarah Milgram. In a statement to the press after the incident, D.C.
Police Chief Pamela Smith said a suspect is in custody and identified him as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago.
Prior to the shooting, the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun, and opened fire, striking both of our decedents. After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security. The suspect chanted, free, free Palestine, while in custody.
Chapter 2: Who were the victims of the shooting?
Milgram was an American who worked in the embassy's public diplomacy department. Lashinsky was a German-born Israeli citizen who worked in the embassy's political department. He described himself on his LinkedIn as being dedicated to, quote, expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbors.
The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, told journalists the couple was about to be engaged.
Chapter 3: What statements were made by officials regarding the incident?
The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. I will say this, we are a resilient people. Together we won't be afraid, together we'll stand, and we're going to overcome moral depravity of people who think that they're going to achieve political gains through murder.
On social media, President Trump called for an end to anti-Semitism, writing that, quote, hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement saying he is outraged by the killings. D.C.
embassies in particular have been a focal point for demonstrations against the war in Gaza, where over 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas's October 7th attack. Israel is in the midst of its latest offensive to press Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
Netanyahu said recently he believes at least 20 hostages are still alive, and his military goal is to take full control of Gaza and force Palestinians out. Also this week, after widespread international condemnation, Netanyahu permitted a minimal amount of aid into Gaza after an 11-week blockade.
Chapter 4: What changes are being made to COVID vaccine approvals?
Around 100 trucks carrying flour, baby food and nutritional supplements entered the enclave late on Wednesday. But U.N. officials say as of this morning, because of distribution issues, none of that aid has so far reached Palestinians in need.
Last night's shooting took place at an event intended to bring Jewish and non-Jewish communities together in an attempt to build common ground and, quote, turn pain into purpose. An organizer of the event told NBC News it was painfully ironic that as they were trying to build bridges, quote, somebody came in with such hate and destruction. This is a developing story.
Chapter 5: How will the new vaccine guidelines affect the public?
You can check the Apple News app for updates throughout the day. We learned this week that the group of people eligible to get a COVID shot is set to be restricted after the Food and Drug Administration issued new guidance.
The FDA said it would no longer approve new vaccines for healthy people under 65 years old unless pharmaceutical companies run additional trials to test their safety and benefits. Right now, anyone can get a booster.
Under the new restrictions, boosters would be available to those who have a medical condition that elevates the risk of severe disease, such as obesity, pregnancy, or a history of smoking. The head of the FDA's vaccine program, Dr. Vinayak Prasad, stressed that higher-risk people would see no changes to accessing COVID shots.
At-risk Americans can be reassured that they will be covered by such approvals. At the same time, we want more evidence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We want to know more about what these products are doing, especially as we enter the seventh, eighth, and ninth dose.
We have launched down this multi-year campaign of booster after booster after booster, and we do not have gold standard science to support this for average risk, low risk Americans.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the CDC's communication changes?
Chapter 7: What concerns do experts have about the new vaccine policy?
At-risk Americans can be reassured that they will be covered by such approvals. At the same time, we want more evidence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We want to know more about what these products are doing, especially as we enter the seventh, eighth, and ninth dose.
We have launched down this multi-year campaign of booster after booster after booster, and we do not have gold standard science to support this for average risk, low risk Americans.
Last year, just 23 percent of adults had a booster shot, with many of those in the over-65s bracket, which the FDA says will remain eligible. This is a major shift in policy, but it's hard to know if it'll make a dramatic effect to infection rates overall. It's also not entirely unusual by global standards.
Some countries in Europe restrict free boosters, or at least limit their official recommendations to those vulnerable to severe illness. But even there, it's usually possible for healthy, younger people to choose to get a shot and pay out of pocket if they want to. Usha Lee McFarlane, a national reporter with STAT, told us that's been the gist of the criticism of this move.
A lot of people really just want choice. They say, well, don't take away my choice to have the vaccine. Maybe I live with my grandmother who has cancer and I want to get it to protect her.
She notes that the announcement has left some physicians confused as to who might be eligible this fall and what it means for people hoping to continue getting boosters and wondering when clinical trials will make that approval possible.
The problem is that these trials take a long time, months, and can be quite expensive. Vaccines are not very profitable, certainly not compared to drugs like Ozempic, for example. So one concern is that vaccine manufacturers just may say, well, it's just not worth it.
ABC News reports that it's traditionally the CDC that sets these kinds of recommendations, while the FDA determines which vaccines to approve, making this a departure from precedent. It's another indication of the ways our public health apparatus is changing under the current administration.
Meanwhile, NPR reports that many of the ways the CDC previously distributed health and outbreak alerts, like newsletters, have gone silent. The agency's main social media channels are now run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Cases of measles, salmonella, listeria, and hepatitis A and C have continued to rise.
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