Backlash as White House chooses Robert F Kennedy Jr deputy to run CDC – US politics live

Senators’ fury at developments at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Jim O’Neill picked to replace Susan Monarez

• White House picks Kennedy deputy to replace fired CDC chief

A visit to Taiwan by two US senators has drawn criticism from China, which claims the island as its own and objects to any contact between officials of the two sides.

The chair of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, and the Nebraska senator Deb Fischer arrived in Taipei on Friday for a series of high-level meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy in lieu of formal diplomatic relations with the self-governing island democracy.

A thriving democracy is never fully assured … and we’re here to talk to our friends and allies in Taiwan about what we’re doing to enhance worldwide peace. Continue reading...