By THOMAS BEAUMONT and LAURA UNGAR

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Thursday reasserted the unproven link between the pain reliever Tylenol and autism, and suggested people who opposed the theory were motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump.

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During a meeting with Trump and the Cabinet, Kennedy reiterated the connection, even while noting there was no medical proof to substantiate the claim. He also mistakenly described a pregnant woman’s anatomy and linked autism to circumcision.

“Anybody who takes the stuff during pregnancy unless they have to is, is irresponsible,” Kennedy told Trump and fellow Cabinet members. “It is not proof. We’re doing the studies to make the proof.”

Kennedy has long espoused unconventional beliefs about public health, which have prompted concern among medical experts that, as health secretary, he could upend the country’s evidence-based health policies.

Kennedy noted during the meeting that he had seen a TikTok video on Thursday, which he said featured a pregnant woman “gobbling Tylenol” and cursing Trump. “The level of Trump derangement syndrome has now left the political landscape and now in the realm of pathology,” he said. Kennedy also said the woman was taking Tylenol “with a baby in her placenta.”

A fetus develops in the uterus, not the placenta. The placenta is a temporary organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy and provides oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to the growing fetus.

Kennedy’s statement came two weeks after he stood with Trump in the White House as the president used his office to promote unproven and, in some cases, discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism.

Tylenol pain-relief pills are shown in La Habra, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Kennedy also said Thursday that infant boys who are circumcised have double the rate of autism because they are given Tylenol after the procedure.

This claim seems to refer to a study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine from 2015, which looked at ritual circumcision and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in boys under the age of 10 in Denmark.

It found that those who had undergone the procedure, which involves the removal of the foreskin from the penis, were more likely to develop autism than other boys in the study. Researchers suggested a potential link might be due to the pain of the procedure. Researchers noted that they had no data on painkillers or anesthetics used, and thus couldn’t address whether Tylenol was linked to autism.

Other researchers pointed out that the Denmark study looked at correlation, not causation. They also point to other studies that found no evidence to support a link between circumcision and autism.

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 JONEL ALECCIA

A California company has recalled nearly 245,000 pounds of pre-cooked pasta linked to a deadly listeria outbreak and potential contamination of dozens of products sold at grocery stores nationwide.

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Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California, recalled thousands of cases of linguine, fettucine, penne and other pastas sold to large producers of heat-and-eat meals and pasta salads on Sept. 25, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration notice posted Thursday.

The move came after tests showed that pasta made by Nate’s Fine Foods contained the same strain of listeria found in chicken fettucine Alfredo and meatball linguine products linked to an outbreak that has killed four people and sickened 20 since August 2024. The most recent illness reported occurred on Sept. 11.

FreshRealm, the San Clemente, California, company that produced those meals, used genetic sequencing to confirm the link to the outbreak.

Several grocery stores have recalled products made with pasta from Nate’s Fine Foods. The FDA and the U.S. Agriculture Department have warned consumers not to eat the foods and to discard them or return them to stores for refund.

Here are the recalls to date:

1. Sprouts Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad sold from the deli service counter or Grab & Go section with best-by dates from Oct. 10 to Oct. 29. 2. Giant Eagle smoked mozzarella pasta salad — expiration dates Sept. 30 through Oct. 7. 3. Kroger stores recalled deli bowtie and penne pasta salads — sold Aug. 29 through Oct. 2. 4. Scott & Jon’s Shrimp Scampi with Linguini Bowls 9.6-oz — best if used by dates of March 12 and 13 and March 17 and 21 2027. 5. Trader Joe’s Cajun Style Blackened Chicken Breast Fettucine Alfredo 16-oz plastic tray packages with “best if used by” dates Sept. 20, Sept. 24, Sept. 27, Sept. 28, Oct. 1, Oct. 3, Oct. 5, Oct. 8 and Oct. 10. 6. Albertsons stores recalled store-made deli pasta salads — sell thru dates from Sept. 8 to Oct. 4. 7. Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce 12-oz. — best-by dates of Sept. 22, Sept. 24, and 25 and Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. 8. Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccine 12.3-oz – best-by date of June 26, 2025, or prior; and 32.8-oz — best-by date of June 27, 2025, or prior. 9. Home Chef Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo 12.5-oz — best-by date of June 19 or prior.

Westbound Interstate 94 between Interstate 35E and Dale Street and eastbound I-94 between state Highway 280 and University Avenue E. in St. Paul will be closed starting at 10 p.m. on Friday through 5 a.m. on Monday.

This work is a part of an ongoing repair project on nine bridges over I-94 and I-35E in St. Paul.

Traffic this weekend on westbound I-94 will be detoured from northbound I-35E to westbound state Highway 36 to southbound state Highway 280. Traffic on eastbound I-94 will be detoured to northbound state Highway 280 to eastbound state Highway 36 to southbound I-35E.

The closing is a part of the rebuilding of the John Ireland Bloulevard bridge over I-94 between Kellogg Boulevard and Rice Street in St. Paul. Work on the bridge work started Oct. 6 and is expected to conclude August of 2026

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St. Paul: I-94, I-35E closures this weekend, also John Ireland Blvd. bridge work in October

This project will mean additional weekend closures of I-94 and partial bridge closures. For more information go to the project website at mndot.gov/metro/projects/johnirelandbridge.

By EDITH M. LEDERER and FARNOUSH AMIRI

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations said Thursday that 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid is ready to enter Gaza and that it is seeking a green light from Israel to massively increase help for more than 2 million Palestinians following a deal to pause the war.

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In the last several months, the U.N. and its humanitarian partners have only been able to deliver 20% of the aid needed to address the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said. Following the announcement Wednesday of a ceasefire deal, he said all entry points to Gaza must be opened to deliver aid at “a much, much greater scale.”

“Given the level of needs, the level of starvation, the level of misery and despair, will require a massive collective effort, and that’s what we’re mobilized for,” Fletcher said. “We are absolutely ready to roll and deliver at scale.”

The deal announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump marks the first time in months that U.N. officials have been hopeful about their ability to scale up deliveries after two years of war, expanding Israeli offensives and restrictions on humanitarian aid have triggered a hunger crisis, including famine in parts of the territory.

The conflict sparked by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people has devastated Gaza, left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, sparked other conflicts in the region and isolated Israel on the world stage, including at the U.N.

UN hopes to bring more aid to Gaza soon

Speaking to U.N. reporters virtually from Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, he said the U.N. has been “asking, demanding, imploring for the access, which we hope that in the coming days we will now have.”

Israel accused Hamas of siphoning off aid — without providing evidence of widespread diversion — and blamed U.N. agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed into Gaza. It replaced the U.N. aid operation in Gaza in May with an Israeli- and U.S.-backed contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as the primary food supplier.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that he was not aware of any role for GHF during the ceasefire.

Fletcher said the U.N. is being guided by the 20-point ceasefire plan put forward by the United States, which stresses “the importance of the U.N. role at the heart of the humanitarian response.”

These are the UN’s priorities during the ceasefire

In the first 60 days of the ceasefire, Fletcher said, the U.N. would aim to increase the number of trucks with aid entering Gaza to between 500 and 600 daily as well as scale up food deliveries to 2.1 million people and 500,000 who need nutritional supplements.

“Famine must be reversed in areas where it has taken hold and prevented in others,” he said, adding that special rations for those facing acute hunger would be distributed, and bakeries and community kitchens would be supported.

Fletcher said the U.N. aims to deliver medicine and supplies to restore Gaza’s decimated health system; to scale up emergency and primary health care, including mental health and rehabilitation services; to support medical referrals and medical evacuations; and to deploy more emergency teams.

The U.N. also aims to restore Gaza’s water grid and improve sanitation by installing latrines in households, repairing sewage leaks and pumping stations, and moving solid waste from residential areas, he said.

Ahead of winter and with most housing destroyed, Fletcher said, the United Nations also is planning to bring in thousands of tents every week in addition to heavy-duty waterproof tarpaulins.

As for education, he said, the U.N. plans to reopen temporary learning spaces for 700,000 school-age children and “provide them with learning materials and school supplies.”

Fletcher said the U.N. can deliver this plan as it has done before, but it needs to ensure protection for civilians, especially women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence, and to identify where unexploded ordnance is to reduce the risk of deaths and injuries.

It also needs Israel to allow the entry of the U.N.’s partners from humanitarian and other organizations, and it needs money — lots of it.

Fletcher warned that the 170,000 tons of aid ready to enter Gaza is just the tip of the iceberg for what is needed, and he called on developed countries to scale up contributions to the aid effort.

“Every government, every state, every individual who has been watching this crisis unfold and wondering, ‘What can we do? If only there is something we can do.’ Now is the time to make that generosity count,” he said.