News Wrap: Vaccine panel declines to recommend COVID shots this fall

William Brangham:

The day's other headlines begin in Atlanta, where HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s overhauled panel of vaccine advisers declined to recommend COVID-19 shots for the fall.

Instead, the advisers recommended that individuals decide for themselves whether to get the vaccine, and they urged the CDC to adopt stronger language around the supposed risks of vaccination. The panel narrowly voted against recommending a prescription for the COVID vaccine. Previously, the vaccine was routinely recommended and provided to almost anyone who wanted one.

Turning overseas, Estonia says three Russian fighter jets violated its airspace today. It marks the third attempt by Moscow to test NATO's Eastern flank this month alone. The Russian MiG-31 jets breached Estonian airspace near a small island in the Gulf of Finland, staying there for about 12 minutes. NATO jets from Italy scrambled to respond.

Estonia's foreign minister called today's incursion unprecedentedly brazen. This all comes just one week after NATO planes shot down Russian drones over Poland.

The U.N. is set to reimpose tough sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program after the Security Council today opted not to give Iran any relief.

Sangjin Kim, South Korean Deputy Ambassador to United Nations: The draft resolution has not been adopted, having failed to obtain the required number of votes.

William Brangham:

The vote paved the way for so-called snapback sanctions to take effect at the end of the month. That's a return to sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Iran called today's action pressure and intimidation, but said it was still open to diplomacy. Tehran still has eight days to try and reach a deal to delay those sanctions.

Just in time for the U.N. General Assembly next week, the Senate confirmed former National Security Adviser Michael Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Waltz was quietly dismissed from his previous job in may for mistakenly adding a journalist to a private Signal chat where sensitive military plans were being discussed.

Waltz now fills the last vacancy in President Trump's Cabinet after the prior nominee, Representative Elise Stefanik, was withdrawn from consideration so that she could help preserve a slim Republican majority in the House.

President Trump signed two proclamations today related to foreign visas. One of them restricts entry under the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers unless the applicant pays a $100,000 fee. In the Oval Office this afternoon, the president also signed an executive order allowing expedited visa treatment via a new Gold Card program that will cost entrants up to $2 million.

A federal judge has for now tossed out President Trump's $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. In a scathing ruling, Judge Steven Merryday wrote: "A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective or a protected platform to rage against an adversary."

He noted the lawsuit didn't even get to the first defamation count against The Times until page 80. The president's team has been given a month to refile its suit.

Separately, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to halt a judge's order that let transgender and nonbinary people pick their preferred gender on their own passports. It's been the Trump administration's policy to require stating a person's sex at birth on passports.

And, on Wall Street, stocks ended the week hitting new all-time highs after the Federal Reserve moved to cut interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average reached a new record for the second straight day. So too did the Nasdaq, which climbed 0.7 percent. And the S&P 500 closed out its sixth positive week in less than two months.

Still to come on the "News Hour": an FCC commissioner weighs in on the suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel; David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart give their analysis on the week's political headlines; and a Utah festival focuses on mental health in the music industry.