MAHA wake-up call: America got a report on our children’s health yesterday, and the diagnosis is horrific. The Make America Healthy Again Commission, chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., released a 68-page report: “Make Our Children Healthy Again: Assessment.”

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We now have the most obese, depressed, disabled, medicated population in the history of the world, and we cannot keep going down the same road. … What the report says is that the next generation of children will live shorter lives than their parents.
—Marty Makary, food and drug commissioner

Our children are suffering from an epidemic of chronic disease:

• Over 40 percent of America’s 73 million children (up to age 17) have at least one chronic health condition: e.g. asthma, allergies, obesity, autoimmune diseases, behavioral disorders.
• Three quarters of 17-to-24-year-olds are unqualified for military service because of poor health.

The report highlights four reasons for the crisis:

• Bad food: Nearly 70 percent of children’s calories come from ultra-processed foods, linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
• Chemical exposure: Pesticides like glyphosate are found in 87 percent of tested children’s urine, along with microplastics and dioxins.
• Lack of exercise, stress: Declining physical activity, excessive screen time (nearly nine hours daily for teens), and chronic stress ravage mental and physical health.
• Overmedicalization: Children today receive 72 vaccine doses by age 18. In 1986, that number was just three. Besides questioning the childhood vaccine schedule, the report raises concerns about the long-term effects of medications like antidepressants and adhd stimulants.

The amount of medication we are giving our children is outrageous.

• adhd prescriptions jumped 250 percent between 2006 and 2016.
• Antipsychotic medications surged 800 percent between 1993 and 2009.
• Antidepressant prescriptions multiplied 1,400 percent between 1987 and 2014.

All the drugs are not helping our kids. Studies have shown that adhd prescriptions do not improve outcomes long term. The more we medicate, the sicker they get.

This is the diagnosis, Kennedy said—the prescription is coming within the next 100 days. It is far easier to recognize the problems than to find and implement solutions. And with as much money as the relevant industries are swimming in, and as tightly as people cling to bad habits, we can expect aggressive pushback on whatever recommendations the maha commission makes.

Thankfully, you can make your own choices! Pay attention to what maha exposes and look out for your own children. They don’t have to be on the wrong side of these horrifying statistics. Cut out ultra-processed foods, get them moving, eliminate environmental toxins, and keep them off drugs. Help your children live “the clean life.”

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passes—and it makes our debt even worse: America is hurtling toward bankruptcy, and Trump’s Washington is fine with that. In an early morning session yesterday, House Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with a margin of one vote. What’s in it?

• The good news: Over the next decade, the bill includes $1.6 trillion in spending cuts to programs like Medicaid, Student Aid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
• The bad news: Those cuts don’t even come close to covering the costs. The bill reinstates and expands Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, throws money at several new programs and infrastructure investments, and drastically increases defense spending.

The net effect: The Big Beautiful Bill adds $3.8 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. Since the gross federal debt was projected to hit $59.2 trillion in 2035 before the bill, that means it will now likely exceed $63 trillion by that date.

Balancing the federal budget should be one of Congress’s highest priorities, even if it means defense cuts and tax hikes. On its current trajectory, America’s debt-to-gdp ratio will hit 200 percent within 50 years. But the nation will go bankrupt long before then without drastic action to get its house in order.

Trump vs. Europe: The president announced 50 percent tariffs on all European Union imports on Truth Social this morning. He called the EU “very difficult to deal with” and said negotiations were “going nowhere.”

On “liberation day,” April 2, Trump announced a 30 percent tariff on the EU—10 percent general tariff on all imports plus an extra 20 percent. This was later paused for 90 days.

He said the EU “was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on trade.” That assertion is debatable, but Europe certainly has taken advantage of the U.S.—not only with tariffs but also with regulatory barriers, fines on U.S. companies and by keeping Germany’s currency cheaper than it would be without the dollar.

Germany’s economy depends heavily on exports, so 50 percent tariffs is close to catastrophic. Volkswagen and bmw shares dropped 4 percent almost immediately. However, President Trump has reversed course so many times, it is easy to foresee him not following through on this threat.

Ironically, this move does offset some of the problems caused by the Big Beautiful Bill. The interest rate on long-term U.S. debt was soaring at its highest rate in 18 months, indicating investors’ skepticism about America’s ability to pay its debt. But with this tariff announcement, fear of an imminent financial crisis sparked by a trade war brought rates back down as investors rushed for safe assets.

Part of the EU’s struggle to make a deal with Trump is it lacks a single government that can negotiate on all the issues. Responsibility is splintered between EU and national governments. Regardless of whether they want to bargain with Trump or oppose him, they need the decision-making clarity that only a more centralized government can bring.

“Donald Trump’s victory is certain to create more urgency in Germany to resolve its political crisis,” wrote Mr. Flurry in January, pointing to a New York Times headline: “Missing in Europe: A Strong Leader for a New Trump Era.” This trade war is just one factor activating that urgency.

IN OTHER NEWS

Japan is trying to build an anti-China alliance, but it’s tough without America’s help. In our feature story this morning, Ezekiel Malone describes Japan’s decades-long ties with the U.S. and animosity toward China. Trump’s tariffs are straining that status quo and prompting Japan to look for help elsewhere. Bible prophecy shows how this story turns out.

The U.S. left a power vacuum in Myanmar, and Russia and China are filling it, our In Brief reports. Both nations are arming and funding the military dictatorship that overthrew the elected government. It is another component in the broad Asian alliance rising as the U.S. steps back from global leadership.

China upgraded its free-trade deal with asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, our In Brief reports. This is another unintended consequence of Trump’s tariffs: China enhancing its relations even with historically anti-China, pro-U.S. nations.