By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is to appear before a congressional committee Thursday, where he is expected to face questions about turmoil at federal health agencies.

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has called Kennedy to a hearing about his plans to — according to Kennedy’s slogan — “Make America Healthy Again.”

But the health secretary is expected to face questions about layoffs and planned budget cuts that detractors say is wrecking the nation’s ability to prevent disease.

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That may include having Kennedy speak to the events of last week, when the Trump administration fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention less than a month into her tenure.

Several top CDC leaders resigned in protect, leaving the agency in turmoil.

The ousted director, Susan Monarez, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Kennedy was trying to weaken public health protections.

“I was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric,” Monarez wrote. “It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected.”

In a statement last week, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon — the highest ranking Democrat on the committee — said Kennedy must “answer to the public and their representatives about the chaos, confusion, and harm his actions are inflicting on American families.”

Republicans including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and vaccines supporter, are also likely to press Kennedy.

Asked if he has confidence in the health secretary, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said he wants to hear from Kennedy in person.

“He’s got to reconcile what he said during his confirmation process with what we’ve seen over the past few months, particularly on vaccine policy,” Tillis said.

In May, Kennedy — a longtime leader in the anti-vaccine movement — announced COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, a move opposed by medical and public health groups.

In June, he abruptly a panel of experts that had been advising the government on vaccine policy. He replaced them with a handpicked group that included several vaccine skeptics, and then shut the door to several doctors groups that had long helped form the committee’s recommendations.

A number of medical groups say Kennedy can’t be counted on to make decisions based on robust medical evidence. In a statement Wednesday, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and 20 other medical and public health organizations issued a joint statement calling on Kennedy to resign.

“Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue, not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe,” the statement said.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and SAMUEL PETREQUIN, Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders met in Paris on Thursday with the U.S. envoy appointed by President Donald Trump to mediate peace talks, discussing security guarantees for the war-torn nation as allies seek to ensure long-term military support and continued American backing once the conflict ends.

Zelenskyy held a closed-door meeting with Steve Witkoff, according to presidential press secretary Serhii Nikiforov.

Witkoff was invited to participate in the so-called “coalition of the willing ” meeting to discuss aid for Ukraine, including sketching out plans for military support in the event of a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war to deter future Russian aggression.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, left, shakes hand with France’s President Emmanuel Macron during a summit on Ukraine at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who lead the group, have insisted that any European “reassurance” force in Ukraine needs the backing of the United States.

Starmer’s office said after the meeting that the British prime minister “emphasized that the group had an unbreakable pledge to Ukraine, with President Trump’s backing, and it was clear they now needed to go even further to apply pressure on (Russian president Vladimir) Putin to secure a cessation of hostilities.”

Starmer’s office also mentioned a decision from the coalition to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine “to further bolster the country’s supplies.”

Macron said ahead of Thursday’s meeting that preparatory work on the security guarantees had been done and should now be approved at political level. He did not provide details.

“We Europeans are ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine and the Ukrainians on the day peace is signed,” Macron said.

It is unclear what members of the coalition are willing to contribute, including troops on the ground.

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said Thursday after meeting Witkoff and other national security advisers that the security guarantees “must be strong and effective — in the air, at sea, on land and in cyberspace.”

Positive signals

In a policy shift earlier this month, the U.S. sent positive signals over its readiness to support security guarantees for Ukraine that resemble NATO’s collective defense mandate, Zelenskyy said. It is unclear what that support would look like in practice. Ukraine is hoping for continued U.S. intelligence sharing and air support.

Some leaders took part in person in the Paris talks while others joined virtually. They were set to speak with Trump over the phone after the meeting.

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NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who attended the meeting virtually, said that a broad coalition of nations is needed to support Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression, but also to strengthen Europe to deter further military action by Moscow.

Citing European military and intelligence officials who have warned of Russian plans to strike within the decade other European countries, most of them in the military alliance Rutte helms, he said that “we have to make sure that our deterrence is such that they will never try, knowing that our reaction will be devastating.”

Rutte also called for the world to “not be naive about Russia.”

“We know what Putin tries to do and and the evidence is there in Ukraine as we speak,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia fired 112 strike and decoy drones across the country overnight Thursday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force morning report. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 84 drones, the statement said.

Russia on Thursday announced that it was expelling an Estonian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move after Estonia declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata last month.

Petrequin reported from London. Associated Press reporters from across the globe contributed to this report.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits rose modestly last week, suggesting that employers are still retaining workers even as the economy has showed signs of slowing.

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Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 30 rose by 8,000 to 237,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s more than the 231,000 new applications economists were expecting.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.

While layoffs are low, hiring has also weakened as part of what many economists describe as a “no hire, no fire” economy. Still, the unemployment rate remains a historically low 4.2%.

On Wednesday, the government reported that U.S. employers were advertising 7.2 million job openings at the end of July, fewer than economists had forecast and the latest sign of weakness in the U.S. labor market.

Last month’s grim July jobs report, which showed job gains of just 73,000 and included massive downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiraling.

President Donald Trump fired the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data.

The government issues its August jobs report on Friday, with economists expecting that U.S. employers added a slim 80,000 private non-farm jobs.

New jobs numbers are being closely watched on Wall Street and by the Federal Reserve as the most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring. Job gains have averaged just 35,000 a month in the three months ending in July, barely one-quarter what they were a year ago.

Growth has weakened so far this year as many companies have pulled back on expansion projects amid the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. Growth slowed to a 1.3% annual rate in the first half of the year, down from 2.5% in 2024.

The sluggishness in the job market is a key reason that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled last week that the central bank may cut its key interest rate at its next meeting Sept. 16-17. A cut could reduce other borrowing costs in the economy, including mortgages, auto loans, and business loans.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 2,500 to 231,000.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 23 fell by 4,000 to 1.94 million.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from houses destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan last week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday.

A 6.0 magnitude quake struck several provinces of the mountainous and remote east on Sunday night, levelling villages and trapping people under rubble. The majority of casualties have been in Kunar, where many live in steep river valleys separated by high mountains.

Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, who provided the updated casualty figure of 2,205, said rescue and search efforts were continuing. “Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing.”

Afghans injured in a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, lie on beds at Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

The rough terrain is hindering relief efforts. Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help survivors. Aid workers have reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall.

Funding cuts are also having an impact on the response.

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The Norwegian Refugee Council said it had fewer than 450 staff in Afghanistan whereas it had 1,100 in 2023, the date of the last major quake in the country. The council only had one warehouse remaining and no emergency stock.

“We will need to purchase items once we get the funding but this will take potentially weeks and people are in need now,” said Maisam Shafiey, the communications and advocacy advisor for the council in Afghanistan. “We have only $100,000 available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of $1.9 million.”

Humanitarian organizations have called the latest disaster a crisis within a crisis.

Afghanistan was already struggling with the impact of climate change, particularly drought, a weak economy and the return of some 2 million Afghans from neighboring countries.