Up First from NPR - Autism and Tylenol, Jimmy Kimmel Returns, Trump At The UN

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

President Trump promotes unproven links between Tylenol, vaccines, and autism, and moves to change drug labels despite scientists warning the evidence isn’t there. ABC reverses course and reinstates Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after suspending him over comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And Trump heads to the U.N. General Assembly, where growing recognition of Palestine is testing U.S. diplomacy.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Amina Khan, Kevin Drew, Roberta Rampton, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ana Perez and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Zac Coleman. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump says this about Tylenol. Taking Tylenol is not good. All right, I'll say it. It's not good. He linked it to autism, but the science does not prove that claim. I'm Leila Faudil. That's Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. 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 comedians program.

And President Trump will address world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly today. I'm going to meet with a lot of the leaders at the U.S. probably 20. Everybody wants to be put on one person. He speaks as more and more U.S. allies recognize a Palestinian sovereign state. It's a position the U.S. refuses to take. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

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Hey, it's Rachel Martin. I'm the host of Wildcard from NPR. For a lot of my years as a radio host, silence sort of made me nervous. That pause before an answer, because you don't know what's going on on the other side of the mic. But these days, I love it. Hmm. Ah. Gosh.

Give me a minute. Yeah, yeah. Think. Listen to the Wild Card podcast only from NPR. 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. 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 to Tylenol every time he goes. He's born, and he goes and has a shot. 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. Joining me now to break down. down the president's advice is NPR science correspondent John Hamilton, who's with me in the studio. Good morning, John. Good morning to you. So first, exactly how does the president expect to get people to go along with these recommendations? 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. 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. 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. 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. Is there good science at all supporting either of these recommendations? Well, let's start with the cancer drug, which is called leukovorin or philinic 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. And what about Tylenol?

There is some evidence, but it's not the sort that federal agencies usually require before making recommendation. 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 a Cidaminifin during pregnancy and an increased likelihood that a child would later be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. 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. I spoke with Jonathan Sabud. He's a professor

of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. There have been a number of more recent studies of acetaminopin 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 the acetaminifin really weakens. Are there any credible scientist, John, who think Tylenol might contribute to autism? 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 acetaminopin. I spoke with Ann Bauer and epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts. The case is closed on vaccines. The case is still open on acetymenephine.

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. NPR health correspondent John Hamilton. Thank you, John. You're welcome. Jimmy Kimmel Live will be back on the air tonight, nearly a week after the late night show was pulled off the air. 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. Joining us to talk about all the back and forth is NPR's Mandalay-Dil Barco, who is with us from Los Angeles. Good morning, Madelaide. Good morning.

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? 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 in an emotional moment for our country. But after days of thoughtful conversations with Kimmel, Disney said it decided to return the show on air. But even so, one of the larger broadcaster Philipsy,

owners, Sinclair, says it will not air Jimmy Kimmel Live on its ABC stations in 30 markets. 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. 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 find them if. if they kept it on the air. But yesterday, apparently he had a different message?

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 Concordius Summit. The reality is there's a lot of Democrats out there that are engaged in a campaign of projection and distortion. distortion is they're completely misrepresenting the work of the FCC and what we've been doing. You know, Anna 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. So, Madela, what about other reaction, you know, elsewhere to the news about Kimmel? Yeah, before the show was reinstated yesterday, nearly 500 entertainers, that include Pedro Pascal, Salina 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. Last night, John Stewart celebrated the news of his return, and he asked President Trump's defenders to join in fighting for the Constitutional Republic. 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! Yes, sir. As well he should be. This is, I just couldn't, I just wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff. They get into the show. So Colbert, whose show is being canceled by CBS.

joke that he's once again the only martyr in late night, and now many people are waiting to see what Jimmy Kimmel has to say when he returns later today. That is. NPR's Mandalay-Tel-Barkat. Madali, thank you. Thank you. 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. I'm going to meet with a lot of the leaders at the U.N., probably 20. Everybody wants to be put on one person. 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. Here to tell us more about all this is White House correspondent Franco or Donius Franco.

Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So how is this move by the U.K. 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. He wants the hostages release first, and this morning he's going to press allies to take more action. So we just heard the president say he's going to meet with a lot

of leaders. Who is he meeting with? Yeah, he's got a big group meeting today with eight allies from the Middle East and Muslim word, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. He's also got one-on-one meeting scheduled with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina, and the European Union. 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. 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. Any sense of how that is going

to play out this week in New York? 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 UN 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. So I'll be watching, see how Trump addresses that. So say a little bit about Trump's relationship with the UN. 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. 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. And what is he planning to do after all these meetings? 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. 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. And next week, Trump is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyi. And I think you can expect Trump and Netanyahu to together push back against this international pressure for Palestinian statehood. That is, White House correspondent, Franco, Ordenius Franco. Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle. And that's up for us for Tuesday, September 23rd. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faldin. 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 upfirst. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Amina Khan, Kevin Drew, Roberta Ramton, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Ellis Wolfley.

It was produced by Zian Bunch, Anna Perez, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zach Coleman, and our technical director is Carly Strange. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. Thank you.