A 41-year-old man allegedly fleeing sex-assault charges in Maine was arrested Sunday at Philadelphia International Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Germany, authorities said.
Matthew Thomas Cooley, of Solon, Maine, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the departure gate where he attempted to board a flight to Frankfurt on a one-way ticket, the federal law enforcement agency said Wednesday.
Cooley was transferred to the Tinicum Township Police Department to initiate extradition proceedings.
Court records show no attorney listed for Cooley, who was being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County.
In April, detectives from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office in Maine went to Cooley’s home to arrest him in the sexual-assault case and Cooley allegedly pepper sprayed the detectives, CentralMaine.com reported.
Detectives began investigating Cooley after a 31-year-old woman alleged that Cooley sexually assaulted her twice last year, the news outlet reported. The woman also gave investigators videos and photos of multiple firearms and hundreds of boxes of ammunition kept in Cooley’s home.
Cooley was charged in Maine with two counts of gross sexual assault, one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, and one count of domestic violence stalking. Cooley also was charged with two counts of assault on an officer, and one count of refusing to submit to arrest.
Elliott N. Ortiz, area port director in Philadelphia for Customs and Border protection, said in a statement: “Customs and Border Protection officers will always leverage our border security authority to help victims of sexual assault seek justice by capture dangerous fugitives attempting to flee the United States.”
Ortiz added: “Capturing dangerous fugitives is one way in which CBP works with our law enforcement partners to help keep our communities safe.”
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military on Wednesday announced its first criminal investigations into troop conduct in Gaza, focusing on the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and of 15 Palestinian paramedics.
The military said it would not probe three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders. It said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza and made decisions on the five cases.
Chef José Andrés, founder of U.S.-based World Central Kitchen, condemned the decision on X as “wrong and painful.”
The investigations involve killings that drew a heavy international outcry. Hind was trapped in a vehicle with her slain relatives, pleading for help by phone before she too was killed in February 2024. After the shooting of the 15 medics in March 2025, troops then bulldozed their bodies into a mass grave.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, including tens of thousands of women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Rights groups and U.N. commissions have said the campaign amounts to genocide and that Israeli forces have committed a litany of war crimes, including indiscriminate use of force and deliberate killings of civilians.
Israel denies accusations of genocide and war crimes and says it is targeting Hamas after its October 2023 attack on southern Israel. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group operates in populated areas in the tiny, overcrowded strip.
Israeli officials contend its justice system can address any violations by its troops, but rights groups say soldiers are almost never held accountable.
Wednesday’s statement did not mention many other high-profile killings that Israel has pledged to investigate, such as its strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press and other news organizations.
The 5-year-old was the last alive in a stranded car
Hind’s grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told the AP by phone that the Israeli investigation into her killing is not enough.
“An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable,” she said. “We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children.”
The military in Wednesday’s statement admitted to firing at the car carrying the 5-year-old, four of her cousins, and her aunt and uncle as they fled an Israeli invasion of Gaza City.
As gunfire sprayed around them, the girl’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamada, called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic center, telling them her family had been killed. Seconds later, more gunshots were heard, and Layan’s screaming stopped, according to the Red Crescent recording of the call.
Palestinian paramedics dispatched an ambulance to rescue Hind and stayed on the line with her until contact was lost. Hind, her five relatives, and two medics from the ambulance were found dead 12 days later.
The military admitted Wednesday that troops had fired toward that ambulance, killing the two medics.
Dyab Abou Jahjah, director of the Belgium-based Hind Rajab foundation, told Al-Jazeera he considered the military investigations a “charade meant to whitewash the culprits instead of convicting them.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent also insists on an international investigation, said Raed al-Nims, a spokesman for the organization in Gaza. “Israeli measures are not enough,” he told the AP.
A movie docudrama about Hind’s death, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” won international awards and was nominated for an Oscar.
The 15 medics had been trying to reach casualties
In the paramedics’ killing, Israeli troops fired on an ambulance driving to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah, then fired on other emergency vehicles that came looking for the first one, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings. Fifteen medics and emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Gaza’s Civil Defense were killed.
Troops then bulldozed over the bodies and vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.
The Israeli military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on troops without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked after the footage emerged, showing the teams driving slowly with their emergency lights flashing and logos visible. A deputy commander was directed to step down over the killings.
“We are not obligated to prove the truth because it is already proven to the whole world,” Eid Azizi, a Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson, told the AP in a phone call. “We shouldn’t have reached this point if they respected and followed the international humanitarian law.”
Israel will not criminally probe World Central Kitchen strike
The military said it had decided against a criminal investigation into April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven staffers.
The aid group, which distributes food in Gaza, said at the time it had coordinated with the military over the convoy’s movement. The vehicles, which had the group’s logo on their roofs visible from the air, were left incinerated and mangled.
Wednesday’s military statement said individuals in the vehicles were mistakenly identified as armed Hamas operatives. But it concluded that the commanders’ decisions “did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” At the time, two officers were removed from their positions and three others reprimanded.
World Central Kitchen responded in a statement saying the military’s account of the strike was untrue, “conflates different timelines and events, muddies the story and shifts the blame.” It called for an independent investigation.
The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four staffers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate instances in November 2023 and February 2024.
What happens next?
Military investigators will now take up the probes and present their findings to military prosecutors. The military advocate general can then decide to keep investigating, indict any soldiers involved or decline to charge them.
Any action will take a long time, if it comes at all, said Tal Steiner, head of the Israeli rights group HaMoked.
Indictments are very uncommon and convictions even more so, she said, recalling only one soldier who had spent time behind bars since Oct. 7, 2023, for alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners. That soldier was imprisoned for seven months under a June 2025 plea bargain.
“It’s very rare that soldiers accused of harming Palestinians even go to court … and even rarer that they get a severe punishment,” Steiner said.
Just 0.17% of all military investigations launched during three Gaza operations from 2014 to 2022 led to prosecution, according to an analysis by Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
The war’s toll keeps growing
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others.
Israeli strikes have continued in Gaza since a ceasefire deal came into effect in October, killing at least 1,270 people, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children constitute about half of the dead.
The former Pennsylvania State University student accused of running a cocaine trafficking ring out of fraternity houses surrendered to law enforcement Tuesday morning, the state attorney general’s office announced.
Agostino Abbatiello, 24, is charged with orchestrating cocaine sales at Penn State over 2023 and 2024, while he was a student there. He eventually became known as the main cocaine dealer on campus, according to a criminal complaint.
Abbatiello and another defendant in the case, Thomas Robinson, 23, allegedly were the two key suppliers for the ring and made regular trips to Philadelphia and New York to purchase large quantities of cocaine.
They arranged for the drugs to be brought to two off-campus fraternity houses, Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi, where it was packaged for distribution to other Penn State students, according to the complaint. For some fraternity members, preparing the cocaine for sale became part of their indoctrination to the fraternity, Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement on Monday.
Police began investigating in September 2024, and used informants to purchase cocaine, allegedly from Robinson. After Robinson was arrested in December 2024, he told police he had purchased large quantities of cocaine from Abbatiello, including as much as $22,000 for one kilogram at a time, according to the complaint.
Old Main on Penn State’s University Park campus in State College, Pennsylvania.Georgianna Sutherland / For Spotlight PA
Abbatiello, of Long Island, N.Y., is charged with felony counts of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, conspiracy, and related offenses. District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker denied bail at Abbatiello’s arraignment on Tuesday.
Abbatiello’s attorney, Philip M. Masorti, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Penn State has placed Delta Upsilon on interim suspension while it investigates, the university said in a statement Monday. Sigma Chi is not a registered student organization and receives no support from Penn State, it said.
A total of 14 people have been charged in the case. Abbatiello, Robinson, and three others were charged with felonies related to the alleged cocaine operation and have been arraigned. Eight others were charged with misdemeanor drug possession.
All are current or former Penn State students, except for Paul Robinson, Thomas’ father. Paul Robinson is charged with tampering and concealing evidence related to law enforcement’s investigation. No lawyers for the Robinsons were listed in court records.
WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center has told a federal court that it would not attempt to return President Donald Trump’s name to the building’s facade before at least Sept. 8 as another legal battle over the performing arts venue’s future takes shape.
In a status report filed late Tuesday, opponents of the move said members of the Kennedy Center’s Trump-aligned board “seem intent” on defying an earlier court order requiring the Republican president’s name to be removed from the building. The Kennedy Center said it would not move forward with the plans until after Labor Day “at the earliest” to allow time for legal arguments.
Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who is an ex officio member of the board, pressed U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper for an earlier ruling, arguing there is “every reason to believe that Defendants will attempt to effectuate some or part of this latest unlawful resolution at the earliest opportunity after September 8.”
A board meeting this month that was expected to largely focus on options to close the Kennedy Center for renovations instead transformed into another push to attach Trump’s name to the building, part of a broader move by the president and his supporters to leave a physical mark on the nation’s capital.
The board passed a resolution to name the plaza in front of the building after Trump and add his name to the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” In the filing, Beatty said the board also agreed to add an additional reference to the president if the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million.
In that event, the facade would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The board also voted to back a two-year closure for renovations, while some of the institution’s signature programming, including the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, would take place at off-site locations. The National Symphony Orchestra announced this week it would split its upcoming season between six venues in and around Washington.
Cooper ruled in May that letters affixed to the building spelling out Trump’s name were added illegally and he ordered their removal, a decision that the administration failed to persuade courts to overturn. Since then, a tarp has covered the area where the letters were once installed, frustrating those who sought to remove the president’s name from the building.
Kennedy Center makes no commitment to removing tarp
In the latest filing, the Kennedy Center made no commitment to remove the tarp, saying the covering was in place to facilitate the removal of Trump’s name and is part of a broader system needed for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang.”
More broadly, Beatty’s lawyers, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, questioned the integrity of the board’s vote this month, echoing concerns Cooper raised when he called a March vote to shutter the building “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.”
Heading into the August meeting, the Kennedy Center’s management said it would provide the board with three options, including a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”
In Tuesday’s filing, the Kennedy Center said a Delta Consulting Group analyst concluded that a partial closure that would play out over four years “would increase the length and cost of construction and lead to substantial safety concerns.”
The analyst “recommended that the Board proceed with a full closure for two years, which would minimize total cost, minimize the amount of time that programming would be subject to disruptions from construction, and best preserve the Center’s reputation as world-class performing-arts venue,” the Kennedy Center said.
Eisen and Zelinsky, however, noted that materials were provided to the board just two days before the meeting. They said some documents appeared to have been created before Cooper’s May ruling and referred to the Kennedy Center’s closure that was initially set to take effect on July 6.
The August vote to close the Kennedy Center, Beatty’s lawyers argued, “exhibits the same flaws as the first vote.”
The Abington Township Police Department is ending its contracts with the fast-growing surveillance start-up Flock Safety over data security concerns, officials said this week.
“We’re sensitive to the issues surrounding Flock,” Lt. Joe Blei said, but the cameras also “bring a lot of value to what we do.”
The suburban police department is seeking a supplier to replace Flock, a network of private and public surveillance cameras that log the license plates and other vehicle features, like bumper stickers, of every car that passes them.
Abington has one permanent Flock camera up in the township and a few cameras the department keeps at the station and deploys as needed, Deputy Chief Ed Quinn said.
One of the department’s two contracts expired this month, and Abington will let the second contract expire in February 2028.
The contract expiring this month cost the township $9,225 per year for two years, Blei said, and the three-year contract ending in 2028 costs $10,500 annually.
The department is currently negotiating with other vendors to replace Flock, Blei said Wednesday, and a future contract would need approval from the township commissioners.
Abington concerned about Flock camera data
Flock has raised privacy concerns with civil liberties groups because the network captures every vehicle that passes its cameras, and police can access data from cameras outside their jurisdiction.
The network also uses artificial intelligence to identify cars that frequently drive together, and allows officers to search for vehicles by behavior, rather than plate number.
Thousands of Abington’s searches have appeared in public data dumps on sites like HaveIBeenFlocked.com, which is sponsored by the nonprofit Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, and 404 Media, which reported on a large dataset that anonymous researchers gleaned from a records request to Danville, Ill., police.
Searches from other local departments, including Cheltenham, appear in some of the same datasets. Lt. Joseph O’Neill said Cheltenham has no contracts with Flock, but can access the national network through subscriptions held by businesses in the township with their permission for investigations.
Though Abington’s Flock search logs are legally available through Right-to-Know requests, details of criminal investigations would normally be redacted.
“We don’t want anybody’s personal data getting out into the public without their knowledge or permission,” Blei said. “The privacy concerns of American citizens are also of concern to us.”
Abington has guardrails and oversight in place to prevent officers from misusing the cameras, Blei said.
How Abington police use Flock cameras
The network-connected cameras have been credited with tracking cross-county crime in Pennsylvania.
Last year, a Berks County township’s camera flagged a stolen Bucks County license plate on a vehicle that was tied to a Montgomery County bank robbery.
“They still are a great investigative tool,” Quinn said. “We can link together crimes we wouldn’t otherwise have known were linked.”
That includes stalking and missing persons cases, Blei and Quinn said.
“We have multiple cases of violent crime — shootings, armed robberies,” Quinn said. “It’s helped us make arrests.”
All Abington officers who search Flock data have their own ID, Blei said. Flock keeps logs of officers’ searches that the department can audit as needed, though the department does not have a set schedule for auditing searches. Abington officers can search the cameras only for specific investigative purposes, Quinn and Blei said.
Other police departments nationwide with Flock contracts also had access to Abington’s Flock cameras, the officers said, but the department no longer approves those requests now that it has become aware of the data risks.
Abington does not have agreements in place with businesses to access private Flock cameras, Quinn said.
The department approves access only for criminal investigations, Blei said, and would not allow access for civil matters, such as an immigration-related request from the Department of Homeland Security.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
JUBA, South Sudan — At least 36 humanitarian workers and contractors have been killed in South Sudan since January, surpassing the 31 killed in all of 2025, as violence persists in the country that’s one of the most dangerous for aid workers, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator there said Wednesday.
“These are not just statistics,” Ramanathan Balakrishnan said in a statement marking World Humanitarian Day, adding: “Every killing must be investigated, and those responsible held accountable. The continued loss of humanitarian personnel, overwhelmingly South Sudanese nationals, is unacceptable.”
More than 450 incidents of violence against humanitarian workers and assets were reported between January and July, more than double the number recorded during the same period last year, according to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan.
Renewed fighting between government forces and opposition fighters has forced aid organizations to relocate from some areas, further restricting access to vulnerable communities in a country of about 12 million people that has struggled with both conflict and the effects of climate change since independence from Sudan in 2011.
Humanitarian organizations are calling on the South Sudan government and all parties to the 2018 peace agreement meant to end civil war to protect aid workers, investigate attacks and ensure safe and unhindered access to people in need.
Around 10 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance this year, including more than 7.5 million facing high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the U.N.
Last week, the U.N. refugee agency and World Food Program warned that more than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan risk losing access to lifesaving food, nutrition and other assistance because of severe funding shortages.
A restaurant group in Idaho is determined to reclaim what it insists was theirs to begin with: a world record involving cheesesteaks.
On Sunday, Happy Day Restaurants — a company with a slate of eateries across the Gem State — is hosting an event where they’ll attempt to assemble the longest cheesesteak.
It was only earlier this year that Philadelphia claimed that record with a massive event at Philadelphia International Airport, piling nearly 1,000 pounds of rib-eye atop Amoroso rolls as far as the eye could see.
Philly ended up setting an official Guinness World Record that fateful March day, with about 1,291 cheesesteaks stretching out about 1,271 feet. It’s worth noting that Philly’s cheesesteak line was the inaugural record for that category, according to a Guinness World Records adjudicator who spoke with The Inquirer.
But, over the years, others have attempted unofficial cheesesteak records — including Idaho.
Main Street Grill in Lewiston, Idaho, made a 700-foot cheesesteak on August 26, 2023. Until March, it held the unofficial world record for the longest cheesesteak.Frank Webster
In 2023, the Main Street Grill in Lewiston, Idaho, (operated by Happy Day Restaurants) completed a 722-foot line of cheesesteaks as part of a fundraiser event for the regional Boys and Girls Club. Locals took bragging rights and observers (including The Inquirer) admitted at the time that the sandwich line appeared to be a record-holder. But it was all under “unofficial” terms.
Now, let’s fast-forward to this week.
The bad news: Lewiston, Idaho, is coming for Philly’s newly established “longest cheesesteak” world record. The good news: It’s still unofficial and the proceeds are going to charity — which is kind of hard to bash.
According to a statement from Happy Day Restaurants, participants are aiming to break Philly’s record with an attempt of a 1,350-foot Philadelphia cheesesteak (notably, not called an Idaho or Lewiston cheesesteak).
The event will again benefit the local Boys and Girls Club with $10 sandwich tickets. In 2023, the fundraiser raised more than $10,000 for the organization.
This year’s attempt is also an effort to showcase local agriculture and food production infrastructure.
All of the cheesesteak ingredients, from the beef and veggies (including — gasp — peppers!!!) to the rolls, are being sourced locally for Sunday’s installation.
“It’s a demonstration of what our local food system can do,” the restaurant group said in a statement. “The hardest part of farming isn’t always growing the food. For small and medium-sized farms, one of the biggest challenges isn’t necessarily production. It’s finding someone who will reliably buy what they grow.”
The Lewiston cheesesteak line will include:
1,350 rolls with regenerative grain from Cottonwood, Idaho.
720 pounds of beef processed at a local USDA butcher shop (a 50/50 blend of Idaho beef and supplemental supply, citing summer heat impacting processing capacity).
275-plus pounds of onions and peppers grown regionally in Lewis-Clark Valley.
64 gallons of “cheese sauce” (their words not ours).
From left: Clarence LeJeune, Dana Krawchuk, marketing and guest experience manager for Marketplace PHL, and Mel Hannah, vice president and general manager of Marketplace PHL, with the award from Guinness World Records for a record-setting cheesesteak assembled at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Asked for comment on Lewiston’s attempt to break Philly’s record, PHL sends its regards.
“As the first and current official Guinness World Record holder for ‘Longest Line of Cheesesteaks,’ MarketPlace PHL and the 18 restaurants serving cheesesteaks at Philadelphia International Airport send our very best wishes to Lewiston, Idaho,” Dana Krawchuk, MarketPlace PHL’s marketing manager who organized the airport’s spring record-breaker, said. “In partnership with all the Philly purveyors who supplied ingredients for 2026’s National Cheesesteak Day celebration honoring TSA workers at PHL and making Philly history … We just gotta ask the people of Lewiston, wit or witout?”
BUNIA, Congo — The Ebola outbreak in Congo has reached 5,000 cases, government data showed Wednesday, as responders warn it is spreading at an unprecedented speed, outpacing efforts to slow it in one of the country’s remotest regions.
Data from Congo’s Ministry of Health showed the outbreak had so far recorded 5,021 cases, including 2,378 deaths as of Sunday, as it rages in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable fueled by insecurity, displacement and intense population movements.
The outbreak has infected and killed more people at a greater speed than any other outbreak in history. The World Health Organization estimates it will likely surpass the outbreak of 2014 to 2016 across West Africa, which was the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record with more than 11,000 deaths.
Starting from the first detected case, the current outbreak has spread about three times faster than the deadliest on record.
The outbreak “has spread rapidly and the risk of further national and international spread remains high,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday at a meeting convened by the agency.
Thérèse Anyiya, a nurse working in Ituri’s capital Bunia, said she is exhausted by the work demands and poor working conditions. Some health workers have gone on strike after not being paid.
“If the managers don’t take things seriously, we too will end up withdrawing. The way this epidemic is being managed is exhausting,” Anyiya told The Associated Press.
A key challenge has been the lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus, which is responsible for the current outbreak. Most new cases are being reported outside of the people being monitored, showing it has spread quickly and left surveillance teams racing to catch up.
Lack of information in Ituri causes attacks on health workers
Ituri, the province that has been hit the worst by the outbreak, has become a primary location for violence that has limited the response as health workers are targeted.
Residents on Monday attacked a health team in the territory of Aru after a suspected case was reported there. A mob set fire to an ambulance and damaged two other vehicles, according to Michael Wani, president of the Union of Cultural Associations for the Development of Ituri.
Dr. Martin Cwinyay, who is involved in the Ituri response efforts, explained it is “essential to bring the response closer to the people, particularly in rural, mining and displacement areas.”
Trish Newport, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said not all the people in the impacted areas have the essential information they need.
“The community needs to be aware about the outbreak. They need to be involved in the response. They need to know what the signs and symptoms are and what to do if they get sick,” Newport said.
Limited care is resulting in more deaths
Experts believe the virus began spreading from the mining town of Mongbwalu as early as February, months before authorities declared the outbreak on May 15.
Responders racing to catch up are also battling several other challenges including threats by rebel groups, anger from communities that have been traumatized for years and bad roads into the affected territories.
Although the 2014-2016 outbreak is considered the deadliest among the virus types that causes Ebola disease, government data shows this Bundibugyo outbreak has killed a higher percentage of people as care and support are not getting to patients quickly enough, while many are not reporting symptoms or doing so late.
The situation also varies across the six affected provinces. While the case fatality rate is so far 47.4%, it is far worse in some places where response efforts are more challenging, such as in North Kivu province where the fatality rate is 70%.
WASHINGTON — Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
Overton is a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president’s goals.
If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans, and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Marty Makary. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants, and COVID-19 shots.
Referring to her as “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Kennedy posted on X that Overton has “exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline and an unwavering commitment to the American people.”
Overton has promoted Trump’s health priorities
Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before joining Trump’s second administration, she was the chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.
In recent months, she has appeared with the president to announce major projects, including some of his “most favored nation” deals with drug companies to lower prices to those of other developed countries and his recent vaccine order that sought to split the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate immunizations — against the advice of medical groups.
At an Oval Office event to promote that order, she stood by Trump as he falsely suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder. Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.
Overton has been critical of abortion pills and, if confirmed, would be positioned to roll back FDA rules that made them more accessible. U.S. abortion opponents have expressed frustration that the administration has not acted to stem the flow of such pills prescribed online, a situation they view as undermining state abortion bans.
Mifepristone is typically used with misoprostol in medication abortions that make up close to two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. Medical professionals call it “among the safest medications” ever approved by the FDA.
To be confirmed, Overton must seek approval from a narrowly Republican-led Senate and face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Its chair, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, has been a vocal critic of some of Trump’s actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the MMR order.
Democratic senators slammed the nomination on social media.
“Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA,” posted Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a committee member.
Makary’s replacement will face challenges he left behind
Before he left the FDA, Makary had drawn complaints from health industry executives and anti-abortion activists. The frustration with him came to a head over the agency’s lack of movement on flavored e-cigarettes. Companies such as R.J. Reynolds are seeking to market to adult smokers, but sweet-flavored vapes have long been blamed for the trend of teenage vaping. FDA scientists have hesitated to endorse those products to curb adult smoking.
Pharmaceutical companies will be looking for changes at the agency, too, after rejections or reversals of biotech drugs intended for rare diseases. Complaints from biotech companies, investors and patient groups have grown and been taken up by conservative lawmakers.
Makary tried to assuage industry grievances, in part by announcing new programs designed to streamline or accelerate drug approvals. Some of those initiatives, however, have meant new headaches for the agency.
Several of Makary’s deputies also exited the agency.
Vinay Prasad, the vaccine and biotech chief, stepped down in April following intense criticism from drugmakers, patients and investors. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who was involved in scrutinizing the safety of antidepressants, COVID-19 vaccines, and other widely used therapies, was replaced as FDA’s acting drug center director.
MAHA has high expectations of FDA’s next head
Overton would also need to tend to the priorities of Kennedy’s health movement, some members of which are already skeptical of her.
Kelly Ryerson, an activist critical of pesticides who is known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” told The Associated Press that Overton parroted pesticide manufacturer Bayer’s talking points in a MAHA roundtable at the White House in April.
“I was stunned by the blatant, undisguised corruption,” Ryerson said.
One major decision for the next commissioner is what to do about peptide regulation. A panel of federal health advisers selected by Kennedy recently recommended easing access to several peptides that are popular with wellness influencers and celebrities, despite warnings from FDA scientists that the chemicals have not been shown to be safe or effective.
The agency recently proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods. But it is still working with the White House to finalize a first-of-its-kind definition of ultraprocessed foods, which Kennedy blames for elevated rates of diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.
Under Kennedy, the FDA has set up extra hurdles for vaccine testing and blocked the publication of research into the effectiveness of COVID-19 shots. Kennedy stood by Trump recently as the president signed the executive order aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S. despite unprecedented financial and logistical challenges.
The FDA also has an ongoing review of widely used antidepressants, including whether they may increase the risk of autism and other disorders when used during pregnancy. The medicines have long been a target of Kennedy, who was a leader in the anti-vaccine movement before joining the government.
In recent weeks, the agency has been investigating two summertime foodborne illness outbreaks: a cyclospora outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands of people and a multistate salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers.
A series of human and oversight failings is being eyed by federal investigators as possible contributors to the fatal crash of a medical jet in Northeast Philadelphia last year, according to documents filed by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The federal agency does not identify a cause of the Jan. 31, 2025, crash of the Mexican-owned medical transport that crashed near the Roosevelt Mall just after takeoff, killing all six people onboard and twoon the ground.
But among the factors it has found during a 1½-year probe are possibly fatigued pilots who had never flown in or out of the airport, an improper setting on the Learjet tail’s elevators, and a lack of Federal Aviation Administration safety checks on a workhorse foreign-owned carrier.
Images released by the NTSB as part of their investigation show the scene along Cottman Ave. where a medical plane that crashed, in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan 31, 2025.Courtesy of NTSB
Upon impact, the 1982 Learjet 55 erupted into flames that spread to homes and cars in the heavily populated area. At least 24 people were reported injured. The jet took off just after 6 p.m. that Friday and within a minute had begun a swift nosedive into the sidewalk near Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.
On board were 11-year-old Valentina Guzmán Murillo, who had just received care at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia before returning home to Mexico; her mother; a pilot; a copilot; a flight physician; and a paramedic.
Investigators going through the debris on Cottman Avenue Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Philadelphia. A medical jet with six people on board crashed Friday evening near the Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
Potentially fatigued pilots and potential training weaknesses
As investigators try to piece together what might have gone wrong in the cockpit, they are focused on the two pilots.
One factor that could have played a role was their workload in the days leading to the fatal crash. They had flown multi-leg trips all four days before the accident.
NTSB investigators also looked into the effects of “spatial disorientation,” a phenomenon pilots experience when their perception of motion and relation to the Earth’s surface becomes mismatched.
During the ascent from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, the pilots rolled the plane to the right by 12 degrees. Air traffic controllers then communicated with the pilots, and the pilots responded just as the plane began to rotate back to zero degrees. According to the NTSB, within 10 seconds of their last communication with the air traffic tower, the plane continued rolling to the left at a rapid speed until the plane stopped climbing.
“Pilots who are properly trained and current in instrument flying can normally use instrument information to overcome misleading sensations, however, even well-trained pilots experience sensory illusions from time to time,” NTSB investigators wrote.
When there is a delay, it can take a few seconds or more for a pilot to regain spatial awareness. But during that delay, a pilot may make inappropriate control inputs that place an airplane in “an unrecoverable trajectory.”
In interviews with the pilots’ most recent training instructors at Flight Safety International in Tucson, Ariz., the pilot in command demonstrated a “tendency to react before thinking through a problem,” the report says. The instructor noted that the same pilot would select modes of operation when the autopilot system was off, something the pilot in command is supposed to delegate to the second-in-command pilot.
“That allows the pilot to concentrate on actually flying the aircraft. So what happens is, if the autopilot’s off and the pilot flying goes to select modes of operation, it’s distracting him from flying the aircraft, which typically results in deviations of altitudes, speeds, and headings,” said the flight instructor, who was not identified in the report.
Images released by the NTSB as part of their investigation show the wreckage of a medical plane that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan 31, 2025.Courtesy of NTSB
The second-in-command pilot’s training report also showed that his lack of recent experience in flying a similar-model Learjet “was evident.”
A spokesperson for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the Learjet 55’s operator, could not be immediately reached Wednesday for comment on the new release of documents.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB investigator, wondered if the low visibility that night, made more hazardous by overcast and lightly choppy weather conditions, could have exacerbated a phenomenon called somatogravic illusion.
That happens when rapid acceleration or deceleration, or other changes in gravity, can cause pilots to falsely believe a plane is pitching up or down when it is not.
“When you look at those four things — the low cloud ceiling, nighttime conditions, high velocity descent, less than a minute after takeoff — that could be consistent with spatial disorientation,” he said. Add in other distractions, like changing radio frequencies, and even experienced pilots have lost their bearings while relying solely on their instruments to navigate, Guzzetti said.
Images released by the NTSB as part of their investigation show the medical plane that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan 31, 2025.Courtesy of NTSB
Investigators search the jet
The extreme impact, and a debris field scattered across more than a dozen city blocks and a shopping center, has hampered the investigation. Nearly all parts of the plane, from its engines to the mechanical and electrical systems that controlled the jet, were found in damaged condition.
Even so, the NTSB has reported that the jet’s pitch trim, which would have aided the angle of flight and airspeed, was not in optimal position. That meant the pilots would have had to exert up to 50 pounds of force against the controls during takeoff and 12 pounds for level flight, investigators said.
Arthur Alan Wolk, a Philadelphia-based aviation attorney and pilot, was dubious. “They blame the pilot for the trim,” he said. “I don’t think you can rely on that record” because the impact makes interpreting the damaged parts difficult.
Wolk also said the pilot could have corrected for this by hitting an electrical trim switch. “Could it have happened? Yes. Is it a factor? In my opinion, I don’t think so.”
The investigation devoted extensive research into tanks filled with oxygen and other gases the medical jet had on board, which could have led to a fire or impaired the flight crew. Investigators said cameras that caught the airplane’s descent did not show trailing smoke or any visible internal fire.
In all, 11 gas cylinders were recovered with various states of damage. In previous incidents, investigators noted, flight crews had become incapacitated by carbon dioxide exposure. The Learjet’s carbon dioxide tank was found with its valve stem fractured, though the NTSB did not say if it believed there had been a leak prior to the crash.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulancetold the NTSB that the company had no record of the raft for this jet and believed it was installed by a crew member without authorization.
Despite the NTSB stating in March 2025 that the cockpit voice recorder had not worked in years, investigators were able to repair its analog tape and listen to the audio. But the recordings were of a prior landing.
The report did not say why the device failed to record the final takeoff. This jet was not required to carry or maintain a cockpit voice recorder, though it was listed on the preflight checklist.
The NTSB also examined the Learjet’s logbooks and maintenance reports and found they were largely in order, though they could not determine if any new maintenance was done prior to the final flight.
From left Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, Sean Patrick Duffy, United States Secretary of Transportation turning to acknowledge Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s work at press conference. These three and others tour the scene of medical jet crash, Cottman Avenue on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. The plane crashed Friday evening, Jan 31, 2025.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Lack of FAA oversight
A major piece of the investigation rests on the FAA’s Dallas International Field Office, which oversaw the U.S. operations of the medical jet operator.
Because the operator flew unscheduled, non-U.S. registered flights, FAA personnel said they were limited to performing “ramp checks,” or unannounced inspections of the aircraft and crew on the ground, as a safety measure. But when investigators searched the FAA’s safety assurance system for any record of ramp checks, they found none prior to the fatal crash.
Asked by NTSB investigators if there was a requirement to perform ramp checks or other surveillance on operators like Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the primary inspector stated: “Oh, I’m not sure.”
The primary inspector continued that there was no surveillance plan in place before the time of the crash and that FAA staff in charge of Jet Rescue Air Ambulance’s operations had no knowledge of the operator’s previous crashes. The operator experienced a fatal accident in November 2012 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a nonfatal accident in February 2019 in Toluca, Mexico, and a fatal accident in November 2023 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance was not on the FAA’s Heightened Surveillance List, which would have flagged the operator for additional inspections.
Unscheduled operators like Jet Rescue Air Ambulance are required to notify the Dallas FAA field office before operating in the United States, which the FAA would use todetermine when inspections are needed. But Jet Rescue Air Ambulance did not notify the office of its operations before the accident flight, according to the NTSB findings.
The NTSB release of evidence comes as federal probers complete their investigation phase and prepare their final report, followed by a review process that can take up to six months.
