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--:-- Leila Fadel: President Trump says this about Tylenol. Taking Tylenol is not good. I'll say it. It's not good. He linked it to autism, but the science does not prove that claim.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Leila Fadel, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Jimmy Kimmel will be back on some ABC channels tonight, But the broadcaster that owns the largest number of affiliates says it won't air the Late Night Comedian's program.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And President Trump will address world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly today.
--:-- Leila Fadel: I'm going to meet with a lot of the leaders at the U.N., probably 20. Everybody wants to be, but I'm one person.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He speaks as more and more U.S. allies recognize a Palestinian sovereign state. It's a position the U.S. refuses to take.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from BetterHelp. It's only human to ask others for advice, like turning to your barista, hairdresser, or a taxi driver for life advice. But when you're looking for help about relationships, anxiety, depression, or other clinical issues, they may not have all the right answers. Instead, get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This message comes from NPR sponsor AARP. Where do you see your career in 12 years? What are you doing now to help you get there? The sooner you start enhancing your skills, the sooner you'll be ready. That's why AARP has management, finance, and small business reskilling courses, all to help your income live as long as you do. Because the steps you choose to take today will help you love what you do in the future. Learn more at aarp.org slash skills.
--:-- Leila Fadel: President Trump blamed the active ingredient in Tylenol for causing autism, and he especially warned pregnant women to avoid the drug. Science, though, doesn't back him up. And you shouldn't take it during the entire pregnancy.
--:-- Michelle Martin: They may tell you that toward the end of the pregnancy, you shouldn't take it during the entire. And you shouldn't give the child the Tylenol every time he goes. He's born and he goes and has a shot.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Trump also suggested that a cancer drug might relieve some symptoms of autism, and he repeated a favorite talking point that vaccines are harming children.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Joining me now to break down the president's advice is NPR science correspondent John Hamilton, who's with me in the studio.
--:-- John Hamilton: Good morning, Michelle. Good morning to you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So first, exactly how does the president expect to get people to go along with these recommendations?
--:-- John Hamilton: Largely through changing the labels on these drugs and also changing payment policies. So for acetaminophen, that's the active ingredient in Tylenol, Trump said the Food and Drug Administration will now require the label to warn pregnant women about a risk of autism. The FDA, however, later issued a statement that was a bit less strident than the president's remarks that we just heard. It says the pain drug may be associated with an increased risk, and it said it was reasonable for pregnant women to take acetaminophen in certain scenarios.
--:-- Michelle Martin: As for the cancer drug, which is a form of vitamin B, the label will now list autism as one of the approved uses. And Trump says Medicaid will now cover it for this purpose.
--:-- John Hamilton: It is worth noting that there has been no formal process for any of this like an FDA hearing and they are making the labeling changes anyway.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Okay, so we heard that the science doesn't back it up. There's been no formal process. So to say the least, this is controversial advice.
--:-- John Hamilton: Is there good science at all supporting either of these recommendations?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, let's start with the cancer drug, which is called leucovorin or folinic acid. It seems to help get a form of vitamin B into the brain. But it's not clear how many people with autism actually have a deficiency of that vitamin in their brains. And there are really only anecdotal reports that the drug reduces the symptoms of autism.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And what about Tylenol? There is some evidence, but it's not the sort that federal agencies usually require before making recommendations.
--:-- John Hamilton: The government likes a randomized controlled trial studying something showing cause and effect. What they've got here is some studies of pregnant women that found a potential association between taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and an increased likelihood that a child would later be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Other studies, though, have not found this association. And the reason for these inconsistent results may have to do with a person's genes, which are far and away the most powerful predictor of autism.
--:-- John Hamilton: I spoke with Jonathan Sabat. He's a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. There have been a number of more recent studies of acetaminophen that actually account for familial genetic factors. So they look at siblings and other first-degree relatives. And when you do that, the correlation with acetaminophen really weakens.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Are there any credible scientists, John, who think Tylenol might contribute to autism?
--:-- John Hamilton: There are some, but they generally disagree with Trump on vaccines. And they are a lot more measured in how they express the risk from acetaminophen. I spoke with Ann Bauer, an epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts. The case is closed on vaccines. The case is still open on acetaminophen.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Bauer says women should know about the potential risk, but she says they should also know that there is still a lot of uncertainty about that risk.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Jimmy Kimmel Live will be back on the air tonight, nearly a week after the late-night show was pulled off the air.
--:-- Michelle Martin: During his monologue last week, Kimmel made fun of Trump's reaction to the Charlie Kirk killing and accused MAGA of using his death to score political points. The chair of the Federal Communications Commission made what seemed to be a public threat to ABC over the comments, and some affiliates urged the corporation to do something. Kimmel's show was yanked. Now the show is back on, but not everywhere.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Joining us to talk about all the back and forth is NPR's Mandelette Del Barco, who is with us from Los Angeles.
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: Good morning, Michelle. Good morning.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So for people who might not know, the Walt Disney Company owns ABC. So what did Disney say about putting Kimmel's show back on the air?
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: Yeah, the Walt Disney Company said in a statement that it originally suspended the show because they felt some of Jimmy Kimmel's comments were, quote, ill-timed and insensitive. And they wanted to, in their words, avoid further inflaming a tense situation and an emotional moment for our country.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But after days of thoughtful conversations with Kimmel, Disney decided to return the show on air. But you know even so one of the larger broadcast affiliate owners Sinclair says it will not air Jimmy Kimmel Live on its ABC stations in 30 markets.
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: That means the show will be unavailable to viewers in many parts of the country mostly in the South and the Midwest. And for now, at least, Sinclair will replace Jimmy Kimmel Live with news programming.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You know, people may remember that President Trump had celebrated the decision to suspend Kimmel's show, And the chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, reportedly threatened affiliates that he might take their licenses or fine them if they kept it on the air. But yesterday, apparently he had a different message?
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: Yeah, so last week, Carr was on a podcast saying that pulling Kimmel off the air could be done the easy way or the hard way. But yesterday, Carr said that those comments were not meant as a threat to ABC affiliates. And on his ex-account, he posted what he said at a global affairs forum called the Concordia Summit.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The reality is there's a lot of Democrats out there that are engaged in a campaign of projection and distortion. And distortion is they're completely misrepresenting the work of the FCC and what we've been doing.
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: You know, Ana Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, had said Kimmel's suspension was an alarming attack on the First Amendment. She celebrated Kimmel's return, and she thanked Americans from across the audiological spectrum for speaking out.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So, Mandelette, what about other reaction, you know, elsewhere to the news about Kimmel?
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: Yeah, before the show was reinstated yesterday, nearly 500 entertainers, that include Pedro Pascal, Selena Gomez, and Olivia Rodrigo, had signed an open letter asking for Kimmel's return. Protesters around the country, including some conservatives, had been worried about what taking the show off the air meant for free speech in this country. And Kimmel's fellow late-night hosts had backed him up.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Last night, Jon Stewart celebrated the news of his return, and he asked President Trump's defenders to join in fighting for the Constitutional Republic.
--:-- Mandelette Del Barco: In his monologue, Stephen Colbert cheered, saying, our long national late nightmare is over. Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to air on ABC tomorrow, Tuesday night. Come on! Woo! Woo! Yes, sir. As well as you should be.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This is, I just couldn't, this is wonderful news from my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff. So Colbert, whose show is being canceled by CBS, joked that he's once again the only martyr in late night.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And now many people are waiting to see what Jimmy Kimmel has to say when he returns later today.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Trump is in New York this morning, where he will address world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly and meet privately with some in the afternoon.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm going to meet with a lot of the leaders at the U.N., probably 20. Everybody wants to be, but I'm one person.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This comes as Trump is finding the U.S. increasingly isolated at the U.N., where there is a growing push to recognize a Palestinian state.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Here to tell us more about all this is White House correspondent Franco Ordonez Franco.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Good morning, Michelle. Good morning.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So how is this move by the UK and Canada and others to recognize a Palestinian state having an impact? I mean well it really kind of boxes them out I mean those leaders want to put more pressure on Israel to end its attacks on Gaza But Trump sees this as a mistake and says the leaders like others are rewarding Hamas.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: He wants the hostages released first. And this morning, he's going to press allies to take more action.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So we just heard the president say he's going to meet with a lot of leaders. Who is he meeting with?
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Yeah, he's got a big group meeting today with eight allies from the Middle and Muslim world, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. He's also got one-on-one meetings scheduled with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina, and the European Union.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And I expect him here to talk about how the war in Ukraine continues to frustrate him. And I'll be very interested to see if that frustration manifests itself into action, because he's threatened tougher sanctions on Russia, but he's always or often backed off saying Europe needs to do more first.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Speaking of Russia, as we've been reporting, Putin continues to test NATO allies. Three Russian jets were intercepted flying into Estonia's airspace on Friday.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Any sense of how that is going to play out this week in New York?
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Yeah, I mean, NATO has really, really struggled to come up with a proper response to those incursions. Estonia actually called an emergency meeting at the U.N. Security Council to talk about it. And analysts I speak with warn that allies actually risk emboldening Russia if they don't take strong action and soon.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So say a little bit about Trump's relationship with the U.N.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Yeah, I mean, he's really never had much use for the U.N. I mean, he cut U.S. funding for the body earlier this year. He's long questioned the usefulness of these group talks, these group diplomatic talks. And he really, really likes negotiating one on one.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And I think we'll hear more about his feelings about the U.N. in this speech. The White House says that part of this speech this morning will center on the problems with what they called globalist institutions and how they have, quote, decayed the world order.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: And what is he planning to do after all these meetings?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, I mean, this is really the start of a busy week of foreign affairs. On Thursday, back at the White House, he's going to be meeting with President Erdogan of Turkey. They're expected to talk trade, but I'll be interested to see how much Russia is discussed.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Turkey is obviously a NATO member and one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil. So I'll be listening to see if Trump puts more pressure on Erdogan to stop buying oil as he has other NATO countries.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And next week, Trump is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And I think you can expect Trump and Netanyahu to together push back against this international pressure for Palestinian statehood.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That is White House correspondent Franco Ordonez Franco. Thank you.
--:-- Franco Ordonez Franco: Thank you, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's Up First for Tuesday, September 23rd. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Fadel.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The NPR Network includes the work we do here at NPR and the work of reporters at stations across the country. Support that reporting at donate.npr.org slash Up First.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Amina Khan, Kevin Drew, Roberta Rampton, Mohamed Elbardisi, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was produced by Ziad Bunch, Ana Perez, and Christopher Thomas.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Zach Coleman, and our technical director is Carly Strange.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.
