By Katherine Dillinger, CNN

(CNN) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially abandoned universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns on Tuesday, signing off on its vaccine advisers’ recommendation for individual decision-making — a move that experts and researchers say will lead to more illness.

The changes are the most significant yet by the members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, who were handpicked by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he removed all 17 previous members this summer.

Hepatitis B vaccination had been recommended for all infants in the US since 1991, a move that helped slash infections in children from an estimated 18,000 cases per year to about 20. Before the new recommendations, the CDC vaccine schedule advised the first dose at birth, a second dose at 1 month or 2 months, and a third at 6 months to 15 months.

The CDC will now recommend shared decision-making with health care providers for mothers who test negative for the virus and are deciding when to have their children vaccinated against hepatitis B, including at birth. If the vaccine isn’t given at birth, they suggest waiting until a child is at least 2 months old.

“This recommendation reflects ACIP’s rigorous review of the available evidence,” acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill said in a statement Tuesday. “We are restoring the balance of informed consent to parents whose newborns face little risk of contracting hepatitis B.”

The CDC is still reviewing the advisers’ vote in favor of testing children for immunity to hepatitis B when parents and health care providers are determining whether the child might need subsequent vaccine doses.

However, hepatitis B vaccination shortly after birth has never been mandatory, and doctors argued it was already a discussion between providers and parents. Universal vaccination for newborns is still recommended by major medical groups such as the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Since the ACIP voted to downgrade the recommendation for a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine, pediatricians are already reporting more parents declining to give their child this critical dose,” AAP President Dr. Susan Kressly said in a statement. “As a pediatrician, this is heartbreaking when we have a vaccine that can prevent so many infections, and it is deeply disappointing to see the continued dismissal of expertise to inform recommendations that have broad implications on the health of America’s children.”

Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by an extremely infectious virus. It’s transmitted through blood or genital fluids from an infected person and can be passed easily during childbirth from a woman to her child during either a vaginal delivery or C-section. However, it can also spread through bites or scratches, such as when children are playing.

After an acute hepatitis B infection, many adults clear the viru

Por CNN en Español

El politólogo venezolano Nicmer Evans, director del medio digital Punto de Corte, fue detenido presuntamente por funcionarios del Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (Sebin), sin que hasta ahora se conozca dónde está, según denunció su familia.

Martha Cambero, esposa de Evans, dijo el lunes a periodistas que la detención ocurrió el sábado, cuando —relató— supuestos integrantes del Sebin acudieron a su casa, le dijeron que le harían una “entrevista” y se lo llevaron.

“No sabemos el paradero de él. Sabemos que fueron unos funcionarios del Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional Bolivariana, Sebin, que lo llevaron a una entrevista y hoy, a 48 horas de haber salido de su hogar, no ha regresado”, expuso Cambero, luego de entregar un recurso de habeas corpus ante el Tribunal Supremo de Justicia. Cambero también difundió un comunicado al respecto.

CNN intenta contactar al Sebin para pedir información sobre el tema. También contactó al Ministerio Público y al Tribunal Supremo de Justicia para pedir comentarios y espera respuesta.

El sábado, Evans difundió en redes sociales un video en el que dijo que una comisión que se había “identificado como del Sebin” había llegado a su casa. El video no muestra a esta supuesta comitiva.

“Dicen que van a realizar una entrevista. Yo voy a ir voluntariamente a esa entrevista. Esperemos ver cuáles son las consecuencias de esto, ya había habido algunas advertencias en este sentido, y bueno, voy a dar la cara, no tengo nada que temer. La libertad de expresión es así, y nosotros los que defendemos la libertad de expresión y la democracia en el país estamos permanentemente dispuestos a dar la cara en cualquier momento”, señaló.

Evans apoyó al movimiento encabezado por el entonces presidente Hugo Chávez hasta que este murió en 2013, según la agencia EFE. Desde entonces, ha hecho diversas críticas al Gobierno del mandatario venezolano Nicolás Maduro e incluso ha dicho que se arrepiente de haber apoyado a Chávez, agrega EFE.

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VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – A 35-year-old ride-share driver from Bakersfield has been arrested in connection with a November sexual assault of an unconscious woman in Camarillo.

In November of this year, an investigation into allegations of a sexual assault revealed that a ride-share driver, later identified as a 35-year-old Bakersfield man, picked up a 21-year-old woman in Thousand Oaks and drove her to Camarillo stated a press release from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

According to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, the woman was intoxicated and unconscious when they reached her ride-share destination, and the driver then proceeded to drive her around Camarillo and sexually assaulted her.

On Dec. 15, detectives arrested the 35-year-old for rape of an unconscious person and he was booked into the Pre-Trial Detention Facility with bail set at $500,000 noted the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

The Bakersfield man remains in custody and is next scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 17 shared the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

The investigation into the driver is ongoing and anyone with more information is asked to contact Detective Mitchell Peterson at 805-384-4745 or via email at [email protected].

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VENTURA, Calif. (KEYT) – A county jury convicted Leonardo Palofax from Ventura, 37, for killing two dogs and injuring a driver after a crash on Feb. 6, 2025, according to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

Palofax drove a blue truck on Thompson Boulevard in Ventura when he ran a red light at the intersection of Thompson and McMillan Ave, according to the VCDAO.

Palofax missed a pedestrian at a crosswalk, but killed their two dogs and injured a driver inside a stopped car at the red light in the opposite lane, according to the VCDAO.

Palofax fled the scene before officers later found his truck abandoned without license plates and dog hair on the damaged front of the car, according to the VCDAO.

Forensic analysis later matched DNA from the steering wheel of the truck, registered to his cousin, to Palofax at the time of the accident, according to the VCDAO.

Palofax remains in custody and is being held without bail, facing a maximum of four years and four months in state prison for the following charges, according to the VCDAO:

• VC 20001(a) – Leaving the scene of an accident
• (2 counts) PC 597(b) – Cruelty to an animal
• PC 135 – Destroying/concealing evidence
• (2 counts) VC 20002(a) – Hit-run drivin

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By Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a proclamation expanding the list of countries with full or partial travel restrictions to 39, increasing from the previous list of 19 countries, according to the White House.

The proclamation adds seven new countries to the full travel ban list: Laos, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria. Laos and Sierra Leone had previously been subject to partial restrictions.

The expanded list also includes 15 new countries facing partial restrictions: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

CNN first reported earlier this month Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recommended the Trump administration expand the list to between 30 to 32 countries.

Nationals of countries on the list face restrictions on travel to the United States. The White House said the listed countries demonstrate “severe deficiencies in screening, vetting, and information-sharing.”

The Tuesday proclamation also applies travel limitations on individuals holding Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents, and it lifts a ban on nonimmigrant visas for citizens of Turkmenistan, “while still maintaining suspended entry for Turkmen nationals.”

The proclamation makes exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories and individuals whose entry serves US national interests.

The official expansion comes as President Donald Trump has ramped up his immigration crackdown citing the shooting in Washington, DC, that killed one National Guard member and critically wounded another.

The shooting suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who previously worked with the US in Afghanistan, resettling in Washington state under the Biden administration and then being granted asylum under the Trump administration.

Trump has since halted or significantly tightened every legal and illegal form of foreign entry into the US, in addition to his ongoing mass deportation campaign. Other policy shifts include a pause on asylum decisions, a review of cases under the Biden administration, and a “reexamination” of certain green-card holders.

In his first term, Trump barred travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations from coming to the US, a policy that saw court challenges. The Supreme Court upheld the third version of Trump’s travel ban that was issued in 2017. It restricted entry in varying degrees from Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela.

President Joe Biden ultimately repealed it when he took office in 2021.

With Trump’s Tuesday proclamation, the 39 countries with full or partial restrictions are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, Syria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sen