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Dr. Ralph Abraham, who as Louisiana’s surgeon general ordered the state health department to stop promoting vaccinations and who has called Covid vaccines “dangerous,” has been named the second in command at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Department of Health and Human Services did not announce the appointment, and many C.D.C. employees seemed unaware of it. But the C.D.C.’s internal database lists Dr. Abraham as the agency’s principal deputy director, with a start date of Nov. 23. The appointment was first reported by the Substack column Inside Medicine. (Mandavilli, 11/25)

The Trump administration on Monday asked a federal court to overturn a Biden-era rule limiting deadly soot pollution. In a court filing, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) argued that the Biden-era rule tightening limits was procedurally flawed and therefore should be vacated. It said that the Biden administration took a “shortcut,” making the rule stricter “without the rigorous, stepwise process that Congress required.” (Frazin, 11/25)

The US Agriculture Department’s top economist is departing from the agency to lead the University of Missouri’s food and agricultural policy institute. Seth Meyer has been the USDA’s chief economist since 2021, helming an office whose responsibilities include the market-moving monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. Meyer will be leading the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute starting Jan. 1, succeeding Pat Westhoff, who is retiring in March, the University of Missouri said in a Tuesday release. (Peng, 11/25)

As US-India relations began to sour earlier this year, drug-control experts briefed officials in the Trump administration on how the South Asian nation fit into the murky trade in chemicals used to make fentanyl. Among the topics of discussion was whether India’s growing role in supply chains of the deadly opioid could be used to justify new tariffs on the nation’s goods, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the consultations were confidential. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on those discussions. (Strumpf and Palepu, 11/26)

Health experts are warning that the Trump administration’s new “America First Global Health Strategy” could further damage public health systems already reeling from billions of dollars in foreign aid cuts following the destruction of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and while some say the new system could bring benefits, there is agreement it marks a radical change in approach from decades of US policy. (Kent and Hansler, 11/26)

Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, has been urging people for the past week to dress and comport themselves better as a way of restoring “civility” to air travel. On Tuesday, he added another item to his list of concerns: the quality of the snacks handed out on commercial flights. In an interview posted Tuesday on the conservative news site Blaze Media, Mr. Duffy said he would prefer that airlines offered options that are not heavy on butter, sugar or what he described as “crap.” He finds the standard choices of cookies or small bags of pretzels lacking, he said. (Walker, 11/25)

President Trump has always used his stamina and energy as a political strength. But that image is getting harder for him to sustain. (Rogers and Freedman, 11/25)