August

NEW YORK — Two Democratic senators are launching an investigation into whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to Congress about his reason for a 2019 trip to Samoa after the Associated Press and the Guardian published documents in August refuting his testimony.

The new inquiry is one of a vast array of investigations planned into the Trump administration after Democrats regained control of the House and the Senate from Republicans in the midterm elections.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said in a letter Wednesday to Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group known for anti-vaccine activism that was formerly chaired by Kennedy, that they were starting an investigation.

The lawmakers asked the group for a broad range of documents related to Kennedy’s Samoa travel, his 2024 presidential campaign and his Senate confirmation process. The letter also requested all communications between the group and federal government officials since President Trump’s second term began in January 2025. The senators gave the group a deadline of Dec. 4 to comply.

AP and Guardian reporting in August showed that while Kennedy repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that his visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines,” a letter he sent to the Samoan prime minister ahead of the trip on Children’s Health Defense letterhead showed otherwise. In the letter, Kennedy used the words “vaccine” or “vaccination” eight times.

“We intend to hold Secretary Kennedy accountable for the grave harm he has caused to vulnerable children,” Wyden and Alsobrooks wrote in their letter. “We also intend to hold him accountable for any false statements made to Congress, a crime that undermines the Senate’s ability to fulfill its constitutional duties.”

The Department of Health and Human Services has maintained that the Samoa visit “was unrelated to vaccines.” In response to an AP inquiry in August, it said “any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory.”

Kennedy was not under oath during his confirmation hearing. Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence regardless of whether a person is under oath, though it is rarely prosecuted.

Spokespeople for Children’s Health Defense and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Wyden is expected to chair the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight into Kennedy’s health department, when Democrats retake Congress in January. Alsobrooks serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which also oversees the department.

The same senators on Wednesday announced a separate investigation into hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts reportedly given last year to Kennedy by a donor and former employee.

Swenson writes for the Associated Press.

The only grandchild of celebrated civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King just voted for the first time, and she says she wants to lead the way her grandparents did.

Yolanda Renee King took a break from her social justice studies at Columbia University in New York City to return to her hometown of Atlanta to vote in the 2026 midterm elections alongside her parents, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King. The occasion was a momentous one for Yolanda, who turned 18 in May. “It’s such a full-circle moment,” she told ABC. “Finally, I can actually go.

“For such a long time, I would always tell people the importance of voting, but I could never participate myself as a voter firsthand,” she said. “But now I think it’s so special that I have a say.”

Yolanda King, who penned the children’s book “We Dream a World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents” back in 2024, has been especially busy this year, putting out calls to action for fellow teens who are now eligible to vote — in the media, on Instagram, and even at the Lincoln Memorial in August, for the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington, where she spoke during the “Defend the Vote” rally.

According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, close to 50 million youth ages 18 to 29 are eligible to cast ballots, including more than 8 million newly eligible voters since the 2024 election. Although data are still being collected, at the time this article was published, 66% of that group of voters cast their ballot for a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, compared with 31% for a Republican candidate. And 11% of all votes in the 2026 midterms were cast by young voters.

In an op-ed published by Teen Vogue on Monday, King wrote of the unique challenges she sees her generation facing including inflation, immigration enforcement, climate change, the rising cost of education paired with dwindling hopes for homeownership, restrictive voting policies and more. “The cost of living is reaching a breaking point, as a war in Iran continues with seemingly no solution in sight,” she wrote. “And the rise of AI brings a kind of uncertainty to jobs and the environment that no one has known before.

“This doesn’t take anything away from what came before us,” she continued. “My grandparents’ generation faced segregation, violence, and jail cells, and their challenges were staggering. But our time is ours, and so is what we feel living through it.”

King said that she felt the weight of those challenges in August, when she spoke at the same place, on the same day, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. “It wasn’t just about using my voice; it was about my first vote,” she wrote. “And it felt like my grandparents were right there with me, whispering: ‘It’s your turn.’

“I want to lead the way they did. But know I am still learning.”

King’s mother posted CNN coverage of her daughter’s first vote on Instagram, writing alongside the clip that the election day was a personal one for the family. “The little girl whose hand we held is stepping into a responsibility her grandparents — and so many others — sacrificed so much to secure. … There is something deeply moving about watching your child take her place in a story that began long before her.”

King’s father commented on the post as well, sharing words from his own dad: “My father said, ‘A voteless people is a powerless people.’ When [Yolanda] was little, we took her to the polls with us, and she’d wear our ‘I voted’ stickers and pretend she’d voted too. This morning on CNN, she shared why she’s finally ready to use her own voice, especially now that the Voting Rights Act has been hollowed out. There is nothing more powerful than our vote.”

It’s official: Former entertainment power couple Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff are ending their marriage.

“The Substance” star Qualley and Bleachers rocker Antonoff filed papers for an “uncontested joint divorce” on Friday in Kings County Supreme Court in New York. Representatives for Qualley, 32, and Antonoff, 42, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The Emmy-nominated actor and the Grammy-winning musician, also known for collaborations with pop stars Taylor Swift and Lorde, separated in the summer. A source close to the couple confirmed to People at the time that the estranged partners were going through a “rocky” period.

“They share a deep affinity and love for one another, and though their romantic partnership is ending, they will absolutely be lifelong friends,” the source told the outlet.

Speculation about the pair’s split began in July, with internet fans noticing that Qualley — daughter of actor Andie MacDowell and Paul J. Qualley — appeared to delete photos featuring Antonoff (formerly of rock bands fun. and Steel Train) from her Instagram page. Among the scrubbed photos were reportedly wedding pictures she shared in March to promote the musician’s song “dirty wedding dress.”

Qualley and Antonoff married in August 2023, a little over a year after they got engaged and two years after first sparking up a romance in August 2021. Lana Del Rey, then-item Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum, and Swift were among the attendees at their nuptials at Parker’s Garage on Long Beach Island.

News of the Qualley-Antonoff split arose days after the latter was spotted attending Swift and Travis Kelce’s lavish wedding bash at New York City’s Madison Square Garden without his wife. Antonoff’s ex-girlfriend, “Girls” creator and “Famesick” author Lena Dunham, was also in attendance.

Antonoff has been on the road for the Bleachers Forever tour since June and recently performed at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. He kicks off the European leg of the tour next week in Italy. He spoke to the Guardian in an interview published this week about still performing music inspired by his romance with Qualley. “It’s beautiful,” he said.

“I don’t rewrite the past, I have no shame about the things I’ve said. My life has been dedicated to making it impossible for me to rewrite the past, because I’m standing there, singing about how I felt during the good times,” he said, “so when the bad times hit I can’t look myself in the mirror and pretend that those times didn’t exist. I would rather live through something publicly than even escape it privately.”

The FBI Tuesday morning raided a mansion in Beverly Hills in connection with an investigation into former Congressman Eric Swalwell, sources told The Times.

Swalwell, a Democrat from Dublin, dropped out of the California governor’s race and resigned from Congress in April after allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staffer and acted inappropriately with other young women, which he denied at the time. Before he dropped out of the race, polls indicated that Swalwell was among the front-runners.

On Tuesday, FBI agents were in Beverly Hills executing a search warrant on North Roxbury Drive in connection with the probe.

“We are executing a search warrant. Court documents are sealed. No arrests are planned,” said FBI spokesperson Lourdes Arocho.

The raid is taking place at the home of billionaire Stephen Cloobeck, sources confirmed to The Times.

Swalwell stayed at the home several times while campaigning and used it for political events before he was kicked out in April after the allegations against him became public. In one of his last acts there, Swalwell filmed a video denying the rape and sexual assault.

Cloobeck, 64, is a one-time California gubernatorial candidate and a well-known figure in Democratic politics. He got rich in the timeshare industry, eventually selling his Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts company to a private equity firm for $2.2 billion. He immersed himself in Nevada Democratic politics, growing close with the late U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, and later launched his long-shot bid for California governor.

He quickly faded in the crowded field, failing to garner above 1% in any poll, and then threw his support behind Swalwell. More recently, he has found himself in the news for being embroiled in a criminal case with Adva Lavie, an OnlyFans model accused of seducing rich men for money.

In August, agents seized Swalwell’s electronic devices and raided his Washington home, even briefly holding the former lawmaker at San Francisco International Airport, a person familiar with the inquiry told The Times.

The source said Swalwell was held in August at SFO for search purposes and released the same day. Federal prosecutors are using civil rights law to pursue an inquiry into his conduct as a member of Congress. Authorities in New York and Los Angeles County are conducting separate investigations.

His home was also searched during the summer, the source added, based on a warrant in connection with a civil rights investigation concerning the sexual assault allegations.

Investigators sought to seize Swalwell’s white iPhone and MacBook Pro, according to court records.

They sought the devices as part of their inquiry into whether Swalwell violated a federal law that makes it a crime for anyone acting under official government authority to willfully deprive a person of their constitutional rights, according to the court filings.

Swalwell has denied any wrongdoing, but the accusations upended the California governor’s race and shook Capitol Hill, where both parties reckoned with a culture of secrecy and silence around sexual impropriety.