Top 5 US news stories

White House Warns Against Tylenol Use in Pregnancy, Drawing Criticism from Some Medical Experts

Kimmel Returns to ABC, But Faces Potential Blackout From Some Affiliate Stations

Catholic Church Faces Worsening Priest Shortage as Seminary Enrollment Plummets

In Defiance of Sanctions, Chinese Vessel Repeatedly Docks in Russian-Occupied Crimea

Kyiv's Drone Campaign Disrupts Over a Million Barrels of Russia's Daily Refining Capacity

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1. White House Warns Against Tylenol Use in Pregnancy, Drawing Criticism from Some Medical Experts

WASHINGTON—President Trump warned that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is a potential cause of autism, as his administration touted the little-known drug leucovorin as a way to help alleviate autism symptoms in some people. “Taking Tylenol is not good. I’ll say it,” Trump said, adding that women should consult with their doctors about taking the medication while pregnant. “Don’t take Tylenol.” Flanked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal health leaders, Trump said the Food and Drug Administration would warn doctors that pregnant women shouldn’t take acetaminophen, unless it is medically necessary, such as to treat a high fever. “If you can’t tough it out, if you can’t do it, that’s what you’re gonna have to do,” Trump said. Kennedy said the FDA would move to update the label for acetaminophen and conduct an awareness campaign about the potential link to autism. Kennedy and Trump also warned against Tylenol use for young children. “Prudent medicine suggests caution,” Kennedy said. Trump’s White House comments, during which he at times acknowledged he was getting ahead of his health advisers, swung far from where many medical professionals say scientific consensus sits on Tylenol. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says acetaminophen is safe to use during pregnancy but advises patients to talk about it with their doctors, as with any medicine. “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,” said a spokeswoman for Kenvue, the parent company of Tylenol’s maker. “We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”

WSJ

2. Kimmel Returns to ABC, But Faces Potential Blackout From Some Affiliate Stations

Jimmy Kimmel is coming back. ABC said on Monday that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return to its airwaves on Tuesday, ending an impasse that began last week. Disney did not say whether all ABC affiliates, some of which balked at carrying “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week, would carry Tuesday’s show. At least one television group that owns some ABC affiliates said on Monday evening that it would not broadcast it. Sinclair, a company that owns roughly two dozen ABC affiliates, said on Monday that it would not air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday across its stations, and would instead replace it with news programming. The company said that discussions with ABC “are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.” Nexstar, another television group that publicly criticized Mr. Kimmel, did not return a request for comment. Sinclair and Nexstar control just over 20 percent of ABC affiliates combined, according to BIA Advisory Services, a research firm.

NYT

Imagine you’re the CEO of ABC. You’ve paid Jimmy Kimmel over $150 million in the past 10 years, but he’s lost 50% of his viewership in that time. His contract is up in a few months, and he’s recently caused even more damage to the brand. Do you fire him? pic.twitter.com/x1GD8RNMlC

— Apple Lamps (@lamps_apple) September 18, 2025

3. Catholic Church Faces Worsening Priest Shortage as Seminary Enrollment Plummets

The Catholic Church has a manpower problem, and it’s getting worse. A sharp, decadelong decline in the number of young men who want to become priests has only accelerated since the pandemic. The lure of other career options and a growing wariness about a lifelong—and celibate—commitment is leading Catholics to turn away from a once honored path, even in the faithful global South. “We live in a culture caught in the paralysis of endless options, where choosing one path feels like closing the door on countless others,” said Pietro Ferrera, a 30-year-old seminarian in Italy who has a degree in physics. It has had a cascading effect. Since 1970, the global Catholic population has doubled, but the number of priests has dipped. As aging clergy die, the ranks of those waiting to take their place has dwindled, leaving some parishes with no leader. Seminaries are closing or merging across the Church’s European heartland, which for centuries trained most of the world’s priests and sent them to evangelize the furthest corners of the globe. Seminary enrollment in the West has atrophied for decades as the culture became more secular. In the past five years, the number of young men entering seminary to become priests has also consistently declined in Latin America and Asia, leaving Africa as the only region still growing. Globally, the number of seminarians tumbled by some 14,000 between 2011 and 2023 to 106,495.

WSJ

4. In Defiance of Sanctions, Chinese Vessel Repeatedly Docks in Russian-Occupied Crimea

A Chinese cargo ship has visited the Russian-occupied port of Sevastopol in Crimea — making an unprecedented series of stops by a major foreign vessel to one of the Ukrainian ports seized by Russia. The use of Sevastopol has been barred by western sanctions since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. Allies of Kyiv have sought to prevent Moscow from exploiting the occupied regions and third parties from treating the territories as part of Russia. While China has not adopted the western sanctions regime against Russia, its commercial ships have previously avoided Russian-held ports. The Heng Yang 9 — a Panama-flagged ship that is owned and operated by the Guangxi Changhai Shipping Company, based in Guangxi — has been spotted docking in Crimea at least three times in the past few months, according to Ukrainian officials. The Financial Times has been able to independently verify the most recent of these trips in September using optical satellite imagery, radar imagery, transponder data and conventional photographs.

FT

5. Kyiv's Drone Campaign Disrupts Over a Million Barrels of Russia's Daily Refining Capacity

Ukraine’s campaign of drone strikes against Russia’s oil refineries has left Russian fuel exports approaching their lowest level since 2020, disrupting a key source of revenue for the Kremlin. Sixteen of Russia’s 38 refineries have been hit since the start of August, some of them multiple times, including one of Russia’s largest fuel-processing facilities, the 340,000 barrel-a-day plant at Ryazan, close to Moscow. The strikes have disrupted more than 1mn barrels a day of Russia’s refining capacity, according to Energy Aspects, a research group. Diesel exports, if they maintain the current rate, will fall to the lowest monthly total in September since 2020, according to both OilX and Vortexa, which track cargoes. “It seems to be the most effective campaign that Ukraine has carried out so far,” said Benedict George, head of European petroleum products pricing at Argus, which reports commodity prices. Russia is the second-largest diesel exporter in the world, with about half its cargoes going to Turkey, followed by other markets in west and north Africa and Brazil — as the EU and UK do not directly import the Russian fuel. While Moscow has imposed export bans on Russian gasoline for the most part of this year, its diesel sales abroad have so far been unrestricted.

FT

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Sources

1. https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/trump-autism-report-announcement-eb7c90c8?mod=article_inline
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/business/media/jimmy-kimmel-returns-abc.html
3. https://www.wsj.com/world/catholic-church-problem-priest-numbers-42b6140b?mod=hp_lead_pos7
4. https://www.ft.com/content/93c21290-7d1c-42bd-b36d-ef4eeafa0107
5. https://www.ft.com/content/8f8caa82-0792-4d4e-b350-c484e024d725