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Gene Hackman’s wife was protective of his health for years. She died of hantavirus and days later, he was gone
For years, actor Gene Hackman’s doting wife Betsy Arakawa would do whatever she could to help keep him healthy, whether it meant wearing a mask everywhere she went or encouraging him to stay fit by riding his bike or doing yoga on Zoom.
In late February, the couple was found dead in their New Mexico home, a heartrending end to the life they shared. Arakawa, 65, died of hantavirus and days later, Hackman, 95, died of heart disease, the New Mexico medical investigator’s office revealed Friday.
Authorities, working to lay out a timeline of what happened, said Hackman had Alzheimer’s disease and may have not realized he was alone in the days before he died.
Clues as to what the couple’s life looked like before their tragic deaths could be gleaned from their last interactions with loved ones. Close and longtime friends of the couple say they seemed to be in good health at their most recent encounter.
“Last time we saw them, they were alive and well,” Daniel Lenihan told CNN’s Erin Burnett last week. Barbara, Lenihan’s wife, said she had last seen Arakawa a few weeks ago at a home decor shop the two had opened together in Santa Fe.
“They were so delightful to be around,” Barbara said, adding how proud Hackman and Arakawa were of each other. “Probably never seen a couple that got along and enjoyed each other so much.”
Using evidence gathered from their home, authorities pieced together what they now believe happened, answering many of the questions behind what began as a mystery.
Investigators believe she died first
Arakawa’s last known interactions were on February 11. She had a short email exchange with her massage therapist that morning and later visited a Sprouts Farmers Market, CVS pharmacy and a dog food store before returning to her gated community at around 5:15 p.m., Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. After that, there was no other known activity or outgoing communication from her, the sheriff said.
“Numerous emails were unopened on her computer on February 11,” Mendoza said.
Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare disease that results from infection through contact with rodents, according to Dr. Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner for the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator. Pills found scattered on the bathroom floor near Arakawa’s body were prescription thyroid medication and not related to her death, Jarrell said. Zinna, one of the animal-loving couple’s dogs, was found dead in a crate in the bathroom near her body.
“Based on the circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Arakawa passed away first,” Jarrell said.
What Hackman’s days looked like after his wife of more than 30 years left his side has yet to be fully pieced together, but the end came in a matter of days.
Hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease took the acting legend’s life, likely on February 18 when his pacemaker last recorded his heartbeat, according to Jarrell. The device recorded Hackman was experiencing atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm.
Santa Fe County deputies remain outside the house belonging to Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa where the couple was found dead. – Roberto E. Rosales/AP
His body was discovered on the ground near the kitchen, with a walking cane and sunglasses next to him, on February 26.
Authorities said he was “in a very poor state of health.” Hackman had “advanced” Alzheimer’s disease, which was “a significant contributory factor” in his death, and it was possible the actor was “not aware” his wife had died several days earlier, Jarrell said.
Alzheimer’s, a brain disorder caused by damage to nerve cells in the brain, begins with mild memory loss and can lead to the inability to carry out daily activities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease, estimated to affect nearly 7 million Americans, was the seventh-leading cause of death in the US in 2022, according to the CDC.
“As people advance in the sequence of their Alzheimer’s disease, they become more and more reliant on a caregiver,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, medicine and surgery professor at George Washington University, told CNN’s Sara Sidner Friday night.
It’s unclear whether Arakawa was his primary caregiver or if Hackman had other caregivers. If Arakawa was his principal caregiver, “she would be responsible for giving Mr. Hackman his medications, for cleaning him, for helping him to the bathroom and for feeding him,” Reiner said. With Arakawa’s sudden death, “one can see how, sadly, that could lead to his death,” he said.
Other findings paint a grim picture of Hackman’s last days. Investigators have found no signs Hackman was communicating with anyone. They also did not find any food in his stomach, “which means he had not eaten recently,” the medical examiner said.
Some questions may remain unanswered
Officials said it is going to be “hard to tell” if Arakawa was feeling sick in the days leading up to her passing. It is possible she had been ill for weeks before she died, though Arakawa did not appear to be sick or struggling in surveillance camera footage captured on February 11.
“She was walking around, she was shopping, she was visiting stores,” Mendoza said of the surveillance video. “My detectives didn’t indicate that there was any problem with her or struggle of her getting around.”
The CDC has been notified of the case of hantavirus authorities said led to Arakawa’s death, according to New Mexico State Public Veterinarian Erin Phipps. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome does not spread from person to person.
Symptoms can take up to two months to show up after contact with an infected rodent, often starting with fatigue, fever and muscle aches that can develop into coughing and shortness of breath within a few days. More than a third of people who develop respiratory symptoms may die from the disease, according to the CDC.
Health officials searched the couple’s property for signs of rodents, Phipps said. They found the risk of exposure inside the home was low, but they did find evidence rodents had entered other structures on the property.
Authorities are also awaiting necropsy results to determine how the couple’s kelpie mix died. Starvation could have been a cause of death but officials are still unsure, Phipps said, noting that dogs do not get sick from hantavirus. Zinna underwent a procedure on February 9, which could explain why the dog was in a crate, according to Mendoza. The couple’s other two dogs were found alive and had been able to go in and out of the house through an open door, authorities said.
As they work to complete a timeline surrounding the high-profile deaths, investigators are still searching Hackman’s and Arakawa’s cell phones for information that could shed light on their locations or other communications they had before they died.
“We’re pretty close to the timeline,” Mendoza said at a Friday news conference, noting the investigation will remain open until a few more “loopholes” are finalized.
“I think a lot of the questions have been answered,” Mendoza said. “We are waiting on the cell phones, but (it is) very unlikely that the cell phones are going to show anything else.”
Neither Hackman nor Arakawa had any internal or external signs of trauma, the medical investigator said. Both also tested negative for Covid-19, influenza and other common respiratory viruses, she said.
A postmortem CT examination on Hackman “showed severe heart disease, including multiple surgical procedures involving the heart, evidence of prior heart attacks and severe changes to the kidneys due to chronic high blood pressure,” she said.
Chief Medical Examiner Heather S. Jarrell speaks during a news conference to provide an update on the investigation into the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa in Santa Fe, New Mexico. – Sam Wasson/Sipa/AP
A love story spanning three decades
Hackman and Arakawa “met while she was working part-time in a California fitness center,” according to a 1989 New York Times Magazine story. Hackman, then 59, had enjoyed three decades as a successful actor in Hollywood, while Arakawa was a classic pianist who found her love of music growing up in Hawaii.
“They share a two-bedroom adobe house on a wide brown plain outside Santa Fe,” the story stated of their residence at the time. “He paints and sketches, solitary hobbies, and tools around in one of his two pickup trucks.”
Hackman and Arakawa married in 1991. The pair enjoyed watching “DVDs that my wife rents; we like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce,” he told Empire in 2020.
Barbara Lenihan told The New York Times Arakawa also helped her husband in his literary pursuits, typing up longhand written versions of his books on the computer, while also assisting with edits and sharing her opinions about the characters.
“She was very involved with what he did,” Lenihan said. “She made it very possible for him to do it.”
Because of their health concerns following the Covid-19 pandemic, friends had seen less of the couple in the last few years, according to Lenihan.
Arakawa took measures like masking to ensure her husband wouldn’t get sick. Until a year ago, Hackman was still riding his bicycle and Arakawa “had him doing yoga and different things at home on Zoom and trying to stay very fit,” she said.
“Betsy was a wonderful wife. They were very close, and she was a good cook and really, really took good care of him,” Lenihan said. “They ate very well. He had had a triple bypass, maybe around (age) 60, and he’d been in really good health since then, and I’m sure she was one of those factors.”
Daniel and Barbara Lenihan described the couple as “very easy people to get along with.”
When the pair would host the Lenihans at their home, Hackman would often ask Arakawa to play classical pieces on the piano, and she was equally supportive of his accomplishments, Barbara Lenihan said. They loved to travel and were well-liked in their community, she said.
The couple also shared a love of animals. While Hackman was filming “The Replacements” in Baltimore in 1999, two stray dogs wandered onto the set. Hackman took them to a shelter, where one of them was named after him. Later, Hackman and Arakawa adopted the dog named Gene.
Daniel Lenihan said he’ll remember Hackman as an “interesting, funny, very intelligent man,” while his wife described Arakawa as “clever and witty and fun.”
CNN’s Lisa Respers France, Elizabeth Wolfe, Alaa Elassar, Rebekah Riess, Elise Hammond and Tori B. Powell contributed to this report.
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All but one of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities last year were in Asia, a new study shows.
The majority of these cities – 13 – are in the world’s most populous country, India, where booming economic growth is fired largely by coal and where hundreds of millions live in traffic-clogged and congested megacities.
Another four are in neighboring Pakistan, with one in China and Kazakhstan respectively.
The only city outside of Asia featured on the list is N’Djamena, the capital of Chad in central Africa – which was named the country with the worst air pollution.
Meanwhile the cities with the worst pollution in North America were all in California.
The report by IQAir, a Swiss company that tracks global air quality, looked specifically at fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, one of the smallest but most dangerous pollutants.
PM2.5 comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires. It is so tiny – 1/20th of a width of a human hair – that it can travel past your body’s usual defenses into your lungs or bloodstream.
The particles cause irritation and inflammation and have been linked to respiratory problems and chronic kidney disease. Exposure can cause cancer, stroke or heart attacks and has been associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
A bird flies through a thick layer of smog in New Delhi, India, on November 20, 2024. – Manish Swarup/AP/File
N’Djamena, Chad, was ranked as the most polluted city in 2024. – Irem Demir/Anadolu/Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) says average annual levels of PM2.5 should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
Byrnihat, an industrial town in northeast India recorded a PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 last year – more than 25 times the WHO’s standard.
“It feels very sad and helpless that Byrnihat keeps topping the list ,” Suman Momin, 26, who lives in the city of around 70,000, told CNN.
She blamed factories around the town and a booming construction industry and trees being felled as contributing to the toxic air.
“The pollution is particularly bad right now, visibility is not great, there is dust everywhere, my eyes also burn,” she said.
“I do not leave home without a mask.”
Twelve other cities in the top 20 are in India.
Its capital New Delhi featured as the world’s most polluted capital for the sixth consecutive year, with a PM2.5 concentration of 91.8. The report also listed six satellite cities – Faridabad, Loni, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Greater Noida – making the list.
Just last November, a throat-searing blanket of smog settled over Delhi, disrupting flights, blocking buildings from view and prompting the city’s chief minister to declare a “medical emergency.”
But overall, India – the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people dropped from third to fifth place from the previous year, according to the report.
But the report said air pollution “remains a significant health burden… reducing life expectancy by an estimated 5.2 years.”
A man wears a mask as he walks past a small iron factory in Lahore, Pakistan, on January 16, 2024. – K.M. Chaudary/AP
India’s neighbors Bangladesh and Pakistan – together home to some 400 million people – were second and third-most polluted countries globally in terms of PM2.5 molecules, according to the report.
China – which used to dominate global rankings of the world’s worst air – noted a small improvement, the report said.
Its national annual average PM2.5 concentration decreased from 32.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 31, with air quality improving in megacities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the report said.
China is the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter but in recent years has waged a campaign against air pollution, particularly in the cities that have fuelled its economic growth, and has pushed a massive expansion in solar and wind power.
But last month two clean-energy groups raised alarm over what they said were plans by China’s power industry to build nearly 100 gigawatts of new coal plant capacity last year, the most in nearly a decade.
All 20 of the world’s most polluted cities last year exceeded WHO PM2.5 guidelines by over 10 times, the IQ Air report showed.
Data gaps
“Air pollution remains a critical threat to both human health and environmental stability, yet vast populations remain unaware of their exposure levels,” said Frank Hammes, Global CEO of IQAir.
Iran and Afghanistan did not feature in this year’s report due to a lack of data availability.
Air quality monitoring in Southeast Asia is also a problem, with nearly all countries having “significant gaps in government-led initiatives,” the report found.
Vehicles drive amid high levels of air pollution in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 5, 2024. – Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images
In 2024, 173 out of 392 cities in the region lacked government monitoring stations, while Cambodia had none, it said.
Those problems are likely to be exacerbated after the US announced earlier this month that it would stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates worldwide due to “funding constraints” the Associated Press reported.
“Air quality data saves lives,” said Hammes.
“It creates much needed awareness, informs policy decisions, guiding public health interventions, and empowers communities to take action to reduce air pollution and protect future generations.”
Worst cities in North America
Only 17% of 8,954 cities analyzed globally by IQAir recorded air quality which met WHO pollution guidelines, the report said.
The cities with the worst air pollution in North America were Ontario, Bloomington and Huntington Park – all in California, the report said.
Overall the United States saw a significant reduction in PM2.5 levels last year, with the annual average dropping 22% from 2023.
Northern America has long boasted vigorous air quality monitoring systems, contributing 56% of the total number of ground-based air quality monitoring stations included in the IQ Air report – helping scientists with their continued research on air quality and aiding policymakers to make decisions about public health.
Only 12 countries, regions, and territories recorded PM2.5 concentrations below the WHO guidelines, most of which were in the Latin America and Caribbean or Oceania region.
The report called on governments to dedicate funding for renewable energy projects and “strengthen emission limits for vehicles and industrial activities.”
Advice Suman wishes authorities in Byrnihat would take to save her city from appearing at the top of the most polluted list again next year.
“People around have developed breathing issues over the years as well,” she told CNN.
“This is my birthplace. I am a local. I do not want to leave this area. We want the governments to do more, come together and work for us.”
Aishwarya S Iyer contributed reporting
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By Karen Lema
MANILA (Reuters) – Former Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte left Manila on a jet on Tuesday bound for The Hague, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, hours after he was arrested at the request of the International Criminal Court over a “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
Duterte, a firebrand ex-mayor and former prosecutor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was arrested at a Manila airport early on Tuesday, in a major step in the ICC’s investigation into thousands of killings in an anti-drugs crackdown that caused shock and condemnation around the world.
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“I am confident the arrest was proper, correct and followed all necessary legal procedures,” Marcos told a press conference confirming Duterte had left the country bound for the Netherlands.
“We did not help the International Criminal Court in any way. The arrest was made in compliance with Interpol.”
The “war on drugs” was Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial crime-buster to power and he soon delivered on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug pushers and users.
Duterte has long insisted he instructed police to kill only in self-defence and has always defended the crackdown, repeatedly telling his supporters he was ready to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of drugs.
Veronica Duterte, the 79-year-old’s youngest daughter, said on Instagram her father had boarded the jet but the family had not been informed of its destination.
“The airplane used to kidnap my dad just left minutes ago,” she posted.
Duterte could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
RIGHTS GROUPS
His arrest follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court’s founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic murders of drug dealers on his watch.
The ICC, a court of last resort, is probing alleged crimes against humanity and says it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes that took place while a country was a member.
Duterte and his family and allies expressed fury at the arrest, calling it unlawful.
A lawyer petitioned the Supreme Court on Duterte’s behalf on Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent authorities from complying with the ICC’s request.
A copy of the warrant, seen by Reuters, said Duterte is accused of criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019, which would include time when he served as mayor of southern Davao City.
Human rights groups and families of victims said his detention was a key step towards accountability for the killings of thousands of people in the Philippines, where police investigations have moved at a snail’s pace. Duterte has not been charged with any crimes locally.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations under Duterte’s presidency that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with many thousands more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists”, killed in mysterious circumstances.
The prosecutor of the ICC has said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals.
Police have rejected allegations from rights groups of systematic murders, staged crime scenes and fabricated incident reports.
(Reporting by Karen Lema, Adrian Portugal and Mikhail Flores; Additional reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alison Williams)
Three people died after a medical transport helicopter crashed in Madison County, Mississippi, on Monday afternoon, according to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The aircraft was a Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter, which crashed into a wooded area around 1:15 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement.
It was owned and operated by Med-Trans, UMMC said.
PHOTO: Gravelines Nuclear Power Station (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)
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UMMC confirmed that no patients were on board, and that the victims were two crew members and a pilot. Their families were being contacted, the medical center said.
“Earlier this afternoon, AirCare 3, our Columbus-based medical transport helicopter, had an accident in rural Madison County, north of the Reservoir,” UMMC said in a statement on Facebook. “Sadly, there were no survivors.”
MORE: DC plane crash marks first major commercial crash in US since Buffalo crash in 2009
The FAA was investigating in the immediate aftermath of the crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was “launching a go-team to investigate” starting Tuesday.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves released a statement on X saying, “It’s a tragic reminder of the risks Mississippi’s first responders take every day to keep us safe. Our state will never forget the sacrifice of these heroes.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Stein and T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.
Medical transport helicopter crash leaves crew members, pilot dead originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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New details emerge in search for missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic
Missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki’s clothes were found on the Dominican Republic beach where authorities believe she was last seen going for a swim, two police sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News on Monday.
The 20-year-old Konanki, a legal permanent U.S. resident and an Indian citizen, vanished early Thursday while she and a group of students were on a spring break trip to a resort in Punta Cana, according to the Loudoun County, Virginia, Sheriff’s office.
Konanki and one of her traveling companions were Loudoun County residents, the sheriff’s office said.
PHOTO: Sudiksha Konanki is seen in this undated photo shared to Meta. (Sudiksha Konanki via Meta)
Konanki’s clothes were discovered on a portable beach bed close to the beach where she went missing, the sources told ABC News. Police have found no evidence of violence, according to the sources.
After going to a nightclub on Wednesday night, Konanki and a group of people went to the beach about 4 a.m. local time on Thursday, the sources said. The other women traveling with Konanki went back to their hotel about 5:55 a.m. and were captured on security camera returning to their rooms, the sources noted.
A man stayed behind with Konanki on the beach, according to a Dominican Republic investigative police report. The man, whose name was not released, told police that he and Konanki went for a swim and got caught by a big wave, the police report said.
MORE: Mother of 2 dies mysteriously while on flight back from Dominican Republic
The man, according to sources, told police that when he got back to the beach he threw up and went to sleep on a beach bed. When he woke up, Konanki was nowhere to be seen, the sources said.
Security video showed the man coming back to his hotel room at 9:55 a.m., according to the sources.
The man is not considered a suspect in Konanki’s death, the chief of the Civil Defense in the Dominican Republic told ABC News on Monday.
Right now, the investigation is being treated as an accident, the chief said.
MORE: 2 bodies found confirmed as New York couple missing in Dominican Republic
Law enforcement authorities are increasing the perimeter of the search area of beaches and water in the ongoing operation to find Konanki, according to the chief.
Three Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News over the weekend that Konanki is believed to have drowned in the ocean.
The last time Konanki was seen on the beach on security camera footage was around 4:15 a.m. Thursday, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.
The Public Ministry was first contacted by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic on Friday, the Ministry said.
Officials said Konanki’s friends who were with her around the time of her disappearance were questioned by police and have not been charged with crimes.
A joint investigation Konanki’s disappearance is being conducted by the FBI, the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican National Police and the Dominican Prosecutor’s office, sources close to the investigation told ABC News.
The investigators will question everyone involved in the incident again, including hotel employees and the man Konanki’s friends say she was with before she disappeared, the sources said.
All security camera footage since the day Konanki and her five friends arrived on the island is now being analyzed, sources said.
New details emerge in search for missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The National Institutes of Health will cancel or cut back dozens of grants for research on why some people are reluctant to be vaccinated and how to increase acceptance of vaccines, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post on Monday.
The email, titled “required terminations – 3/10/25,” shows that on Monday morning, the agency “received a new list … of awards that need to be terminated, today. It has been determined they do not align with NIH funding priorities related to vaccine hesitancy and/or uptake.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, has disparaged vaccines for years. He gained national notoriety over the past two decades by promoting misinformation about vaccines and a conjectured link to autism, drawing widespread condemnation from the scientific community.
It is unclear if Kennedy had a role, directly or indirectly, in the move to cancel these grants. But his ascendancy to HHS leadership has caused a stir in the research community. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another part of HHS, was asked by the Trump administration to launch a study into a possible connection between vaccines and autism, despite repeated research that shows no link between the two.
Spokespeople at NIH and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Monday’s email was sent by Michelle Bulls, director of the Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration. It instructed NIH officials who dispense money to researchers around the country to send termination letters by the close of business Monday. It did not specify where the order originated.
For some studies that are partly about vaccine hesitancy and uptake, officials can offer the option of defunding only those activities, the email shows.
The termination notice should include the following language, according to the email: “It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment. … Therefore, the award is terminated.”
The email flagged more than 40 grants, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the new order.
It is an especially fraught time to be canceling research into vaccine hesitancy, some experts argued, with more than 200 cases of measles in 12 states and two deaths from the disease. Measles vaccination rates have declined among kindergartners in the United States since 2019. All states and the District require measles vaccinations for schoolchildren, but more parents are requesting exemptions, citing medical, religious or philosophical reasons.
“There is an urgent need to enhance vaccine acceptance behavior, especially due to the potential resurgence of measles and covid-19 still looming,” said Manoj Sharma, a professor of social and behavioral health at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, who had a CDC grant that ended last year to evaluate vaccine hesitancy.
Delesha Carpenter, a professor at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has had an NIH grant to focus on coronavirus vaccine hesitancy for three years, along with partners at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of South Carolina.
She has been bracing for the work to be upended, but she had not heard Monday afternoon whether her funding has been terminated.
“If we take away research on vaccine hesitancy, we’re also going to be taking away the ability to provide people with the best information about whether the vaccine is in their best interest,” Carpenter said. “They still have the decision to make.”
Michael Bronstein, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said his grant from the National Institute of Mental Health has not been affected, as far as he knows.
“From a public health perspective, preventing people from dying should be a government goal,” he said. “Vaccine hesitancy is one barrier to that.”
NIH, the world’s largest sponsor of biomedical research, has terminated more than a dozen grants related to China and transgender research, according to social media posts by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which is leading government efforts to sharply cut spending and the size of the federal workforce.
Documents obtained by The Washington Post showed that last week, grants management staff were given guidance on how to terminate funding related to diversity, equity and inclusion. That guidance included “language provided to NIH by HHS providing examples for research activities that NIH no longer supports.”
Those topics included funding to Chinese universities; for diversity, equity and inclusion; and for transgender issues. The language used in the notices created anguish within NIH, according to several people familiar with the notices.
There are two active grants to Chinese universities listed in an NIH database.
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WASHINGTON – The shrill, metallic banging noises of a jack hammer echoed around the White House on Monday as crews started removing the large, yellow Black Lives Matter mural down the street from the president’s home.
The city erected the artwork in 2020 amid sweeping, nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by Minneapolis police.
But Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to replace the mural last week after Republican lawmakers threatened to revoke millions of dollars in transportation funding for the capital city if it wasn’t removed.
The move comes as President Donald Trump and his fellow GOP leaders have widely targeted diversity efforts – in the federal government, schools, private businesses and more.
As the sun beat down on Monday afternoon, a crew of around seven men in yellow safety vests tore up pavement and uprooted black barricades that surrounded the 50-foot-wide artwork.
Most of the people who stopped to watch the work told USA TODAY they were sad to see the installation go. Sitting on a nearby bench, Karen Long, a former D.C. resident who moved back to neighboring Arlington, Virginia, two years ago, described the construction scene as “somber.”
Long, 55, said she heard about the demolition on the morning news and needed to see it for herself. Although disheartened by the effort, Long said she viewed the mural’s removal as part of the long “moving process” of change.
Black lives, she said, would matter regardless of yellow paint on the ground.
More: Donald Trump says he isn’t considering pardoning Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s murder
“There was a movement, and there’s still going to be a movement,” she said. “This is not the end of it. This is just somebody saying, ‘Hey, I don’t like that symbol being there’ because they feel some kind of way about it, so let them have it.”
Sharifa Ganthier, a DJ, walked to the mural with her husband Marvin from their home near D.C.’s Union Market. When the mural was constructed in 2020, Ganthier, 37, said it brought a bit of “togetherness” to a city that saw turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic and protests over racial injustice.
But Trump – and his fellow Republicans who control the House and Senate – have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion pushes, many of which were ushered in during the demonstrations after Floyd’s death.
“We have ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military,” Trump said during his joint address to Congress last week. “And our country will be woke no longer.”
Crews begin the process to remove the yellow Black Lives Matter mural that was erected one block from the White House during racial justice protests in 2020 on Monday, March 10, 2025. The mural is being removed after congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump have threatened to interfere with the city’s management. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced legislation that would require the city to repaint and rename the plaza or else lose millions of dollars in transportation funding.
Bowser ordered the painting of the mural in June 2020. It came after protesters were removed from the area with smoke canisters and pepper spray just before the president, who was in his first term, walked through Lafayette Park to pose for photographs at a nearby church.
The mayor’s chief of staff at the time said she wanted to make it “abundantly clear” the street belonged to the city and its residents. The plaza quickly became a symbol of defiance for Democrats against the Trump administration in the deep-blue capital.
‘Distraction’
Not all of Washington’s residents were happy with the artwork, however. And not all of the mural’s critics came from the right.
The D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter has long criticized the artwork, calling it in 2020 “a performative distraction from real policy changes” and alleging Bowser was not doing enough to help Black people in the city.
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Black Lives Matter D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the mural’s demolition.
Many Republican lawmakers have also been critical of Black Lives Matter Plaza, though for different reasons. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., recently introduced legislation that would require the city to repaint and rename the plaza or lose federal funding, alleging the Black Lives Matter movement is corrupt.
“Our capital city must serve as a beacon of freedom, patriotism, and safety — not wokeness, divisiveness, and lawlessness,” Clyde said in a statement announcing the bill.
Marvin Ganthier, 37, said he couldn’t understand criticisms of the mural while standing nearby on Monday.
“I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with it,” said Ganthier, a DJ alongside his wife and a lifelong resident of the district. “They’re not saying your lives don’t matter.
Taking down the mural was a “waste of resources,” that would be better used to fix broken sidewalks elsewhere in the city, he argued.
Removing the mural near the White House is expected to take about six weeks. Bowser said the plaza will be repainted as part of a citywide mural project for the country’s 250th birthday next year.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DC begins removal of Black Lives Matter mural near White House
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