US senators question Robert F Kennedy Jr at heated confirmation hearing
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 30th of January, these are our main stories. U.S. senators have been questioning President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a heated confirmation hearing. Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are reported to be continuing their advance after capturing most of the key city of Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Israel says it's received a list from Hamas of eight hostages due to be freed from Gaza on Thursday. Also in this podcast, scientists say samples collected from an asteroid have given them new clues as to how life began here on planet Earth.
It enables us to answer these really, really big questions about where life began and who doesn't want to know about how life started here.
President Trump's controversial choice to be the new U.S. health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faced hostile questioning from Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing. One Democrat on the panel, Rob Wyden, accused him of embracing, quote, conspiracy theories, quacks and charlatans because of his past strident anti-vaccine statements. Another, Michael Bennett, asked him a series of questions about his views.
Did you say that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets black and white people but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?
I didn't say it was deliberately targeted. I just quoted an NIH study that showed that... I'll take that as yes.
I have to move on. Did you say that Lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon?
I probably did say that. Did you say that?
I want all of our colleagues to hear it, Mr. Kennedy. I want them to hear it. You said yes. Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender? No, I never said that. Okay, I have the record that I'll give to the chairman, and he can make his judgment about what you said.
Mr Kennedy, whose raspy voice is the result of a medical condition, was interrupted by protesters as he tried to convince senators that he was not against vaccines despite his past statements.
News reports have claimed that I'm anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety. I am pro-safety. I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish. And I believe that vaccines play a critical role in healthcare. All of my kids are vaccinated. I've written many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, the first line of it is, I am not anti-vaccine, and the last line is, I am not anti-vaccine.
Ahead of the hearing, his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, who's the daughter of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, made a rare intervention, urging senators to reject him as unfit to serve in such an important role. Our correspondent in Washington, Nomia Iqbal, is following the hearing.
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Speakers
19 identified
Janet Jalil 8 min
Rebecca Murrell 3 min
Vivian van der Peer 2 min
Philippa Roxby 2 min
Rob Watson 2 min
Julia Tuma 2 min
Nomia Iqbal 2 min
Jessica Parker 1 min
Oscar Piastri 1 min
Advertisement voice 1 min
Guy Gratton 1 min
Evan Davis 1 min
Robert Luna 1 min
Scientist 1 min
Michael Bennett 1 min
Electra Naismith 1 min
James Menendez
Landon Harris
Peter Bowes
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