A lot happened in the Russia-Ukraine war on Sunday, and as the dust settles from Ukraine's major drone attacks which struck airbases and destroyed strategic bombers deep inside Russian territory, details of other parallel, devastating alleged 'sabotage attacks' are emerging.
Two bridges have collapsed in Russia’s western regions bordering Ukraine on Sunday morning, which derailed trains and left at least seven people dead, and dozens more injured.
"It was not clear on Sunday morning whether the two incidents — which both involved trains — in neighboring Bryansk and Kursk were related, or what exactly caused the separate collapses," CNN reports.
Railway authorities said of the Bryansk incident that "illegal interference" was the cause, with regional governor Alexander Bogomaz saying a bridge had been "blown up".
CNN details that "The bridge came down in the region’s Vygonichi district, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Ukrainian border, crushing the moving train and injuring at least 66 people, including three children, Russian authorities reported."
Russian state media is giving 'sabotage' as the reason for the train derailments:
Videos circulating in Telegram show a crushed train carriage with passengers being evacuated through shattered windows, and emergency services responding at the scene. The collapse also reportedly affected vehicles on the bridge, which fell onto the railway below.
Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) reported that fire and rescue units are actively working at the site of the bridge collapse. “All necessary assistance is being provided to the victims. Additional MChS forces, emergency rescue equipment, and lighting towers for nighttime operations have been deployed to the area,” the ministry noted in an official statement.
Russian media sources published videos of bystanders of the scene of a major train derailment:
New vid of CHAOTIC moments after Bryansk region bridge collapse
Apparently this wasn't the first effort to blow up train tracks, in a brazen act of targeting civilian transport infrastructure. RT writes that--
"Just days earlier, a freight train in Russia’s Belgorod Region ran over an explosive device planted under the tracks, causing a powerful blast. According to the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, the explosion damaged the railway’s contact network but caused no casualties."
Several different scenes of twisted metal and train 'accidents' emerged Sunday.
CNN says there was even a third train incident, which occurred Saturday night:
In a third incident on Saturday night, a Russian military freight train was blown up near the occupied city of Melitopol in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, according to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine.
“As a result of the explosion, the train with fuel tanks and freight cars derailed on the railway track,” the intelligence service said.
The freight train was moving towards Russian-occupied Crimea via a “key logistical artery” often used by Russian forces, the authority added.
Mystery as Russia is rocked by 3 train crashes in one night after bridges collapse & tracks ‘blown up’ leaving 7 dead https://t.co/7Ud9UqusR4
The timing of these attacks suggests likely coordination with the huge drone swarm attacks on Sunday out of Ukraine.
Kiev officials have already long described that they want to make life chaotic and dangerous inside Russia, in hopes that society could be destabilized which could in turn destabilize the government and Putin's rule.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has drawn intense criticism—much of it deserved—for his stance on vaccines. But lost in the uproar is a surprising fact: many of his ideas for improving American health align with mainstream medical thinking.
As a medical school professor and former senior official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I understand the dangers of vaccine misinformation. Yet I’ve also watched Kennedy be vilified for promoting views long embraced by public health professionals. This raises a legitimate question: are his ideas the real problem—or is it the messenger?
Last week, officials appointed by Kennedy to lead the FDA called for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of new vaccines. Critics were quick to label the proposal unethical, dangerous, or anti-science. But demanding rigorous evidence is the foundation of science, not a betrayal of it.
Take COVID-19 vaccines. Five years into the pandemic, only 23% of U.S. adults have received the latest booster, despite strong government recommendations. One reason may be growing public skepticism about the strength of the supporting evidence. Pew surveys show that 60% of Americans plan to skip the 2024–2025 shot. That skepticism isn’t entirely baseless. Over 83% of healthcare workers declined the 2023-2024 COVID booster.
Many of the updated COVID boosters were authorized based on limited preclinical data, sometimes just small animal studies. When human trials were conducted, they often included fewer than 50 participants. At the same time, boosters have been recommended across all age groups, despite the fact that serious COVID complications are overwhelmingly concentrated among older adults. CDC data show that 95% of Americans over age 50 have already received at least one dose, while children and young adults, who face much lower risk, are still encouraged to receive additional shots. Broad recommendations invite reasonable scrutiny.
Some argue that the science was “settled” by the original Pfizer and Moderna trials in 2021, which reported 95% efficacy. But those results referred only to mild, symptomatic infections. COVID occurred in less than 1% of participants in either group—0.05% in the vaccine group and 0.87% in the placebo group. The claim that the trials demonstrated a mortality benefit is incorrect. Among over 73,000 participants, there was just one COVID-related death, in the placebo group—not enough for meaningful statistical inference. Worse, two months after the data were reported, both trials unblinded participants and offered the vaccine to those in the placebo group, ending any chance to assess long-term outcomes.
Side effects were common. Compared to those receiving a placebo, vaccine recipients were 35 times more likely to experience a fever over 100.4°F, 5.6 times more likely to report injection site pain, and 5.6 times more likely to experience severe fatigue. A controversial reanalysis published in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine found approximately one serious adverse event for every 800 vaccinated individuals. For context, the 1976 swine flu vaccine was pulled from the market after it was linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome at a rate of about 1 in 100,000.
Yes, observational studies suggest that vaccines reduce hospitalizations and deaths. But these studies are vulnerable to selection bias. People who choose vaccination often differ from those who decline it in many ways—age, education, income, health status, and political beliefs. Only randomized trials can adequately isolate the true effect of a vaccine, free from such confounding factors.
RCTs are the gold standard in medicine. We require them to test treatments for cancer, hypertension, and heart disease. Why should vaccines—especially those developed and authorized in record time—be exempt?
The FDA’s updated policy reflects the current understanding of COVID-19 risk, which is highest among adults over age 65. In response, the agency now recommends annual COVID-19 boosters for older adults, aligning U.S. guidelines with those of other high-income countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Vaccines will remain available for both older adults and individuals with underlying health conditions that increase the risk of severe illness. For healthy individuals between 6 months and 64 years of age, the potential risks of vaccination may outweigh the benefits; therefore, further clinical trials will be encouraged to better assess vaccine safety and effectiveness in these groups.
Let me be clear: I’m not opposed to COVID boosters. I’ve taken them all, on schedule. People should have access to vaccines and make decisions in consultation with their physicians. But we also owe the public clear, current, and rigorous evidence. Conducting well-designed randomized trials isn’t fringe—it’s standard scientific practice.
Kennedy’s call for more rigorous science shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand simply because of who he is. Martin Makary and Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s newly appointed leaders, are both academic physicians with unusually distinguished research records. While not without controversy, they bring serious scientific credentials to the discussion.
If the latest vaccines and boosters are as effective and safe as claimed, high-quality trials will confirm it. If not, we deserve to know. Either way, public trust depends not on ideology, but on transparent, credible evidence.
Treatment with casdatifan, a HIF-2a inhibitor, plus cabozantinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, showed a confirmed overall response rate (ORR) of 46% in patients who reached a minimum of 12 weeks (two scans) of follow-up
The combination had a manageable safety profile, and there was no meaningful overlapping toxicity for the two drugs
These data support the initiation of PEAK-1, a Phase 3 study that will evaluate casdatifan plus cabozantinib in immunotherapy-experienced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients, and eVOLVE-RCC02, a Phase 1b/3 study in first-line ccRCC patients, both of which will begin shortly
Arcus will host a conference call to discuss these data at 5:00 AM PT / 7:00 AM CT on Monday, June 2, 2025
Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO) presented promising Phase 1 TRAVERSE trial data for ALLO-316 in treating advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The study demonstrated a 31% confirmed response rate in patients with CD70 TPS ≥50%, with four out of five confirmed responders maintaining ongoing responses, including one lasting over 12 months. The trial enrolled 22 heavily pretreated patients, with 20 receiving ALLO-316 treatment. Using the proprietary Dagger technology, patients received standard lymphodepletion followed by a single dose of 80 million AlloCAR T cells. The safety profile was manageable, with main adverse events including cytokine release syndrome (68%, no grade ≥3), neutropenia (68%), and decreased white blood cell count (68%). The treatment showed particular efficacy in patients with high CD70 expression, marking a significant advancement in allogeneic CAR T therapy for solid tumors.
As a sales rep for drug manufacturers Questcor, Lisa Pratta always suspected the company’s business practices weren’t just immoral but illegal, too, as she explains in “False Claims — One Insider’s Impossible Battle Against Big Pharma Corruption” (William Morrow).
Lisa Pratta at her home In New Jersey. In 2011, Pratta began to spy on her employer Questcor, which she believed was overcharging patients by thousands of dollars for their medication Acthar.Stephen Yang
At a patient event in Freehold, NJ, in August 2011, a young woman walking with a cane asked Pratta if the drug she sold, Acthar, could help with her multiple sclerosis. When the woman mentioned she was a mother to two babies and also had been diagnosed with lymphoma, Pratta broke down.
“I couldn’t say anything,” Pratta tells The Post. “I just went to the ladies’ room and cried.
“And that was the turning point. I knew my days of keeping my mouth shut were over.”
Pratta began working for Questcor in 2010 as the sales rep in the Northeast region for Acthar, a drug which helped relieve autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. “If prescribed correctly, Acthar could help people walk again. And talk again,” writes Pratta.
But, she adds, “Questcor made more money when it was prescribed incorrectly.”
From paying doctors to prescribe it to using bogus research studies proclaiming its miraculous efficacy, they were so successful that Achtar’s price rose from $40 per vial in 2000 to nearly $39,000 in 2019 — an increase of 97,000%.
Pratta’s determination to do the right thing was partly the result of a traumatic childhood tainted by physical and sexual abuse.
Acthar’s price rose from $40 per vial in 2000 to nearly $39,000 in 2019 — an increase of 97,000%.Acthar
“I had to fight for myself and develop that inner strength,” she says. “I needed tenacity.”
That tenacity was put to the test when Pratta began to uncover the extent of Questcor’s corruption.
Some sales reps were making up to $4 million a year and, in turn, kept the physicians doing their bidding in a life of luxury. “The greed had just taken over. They took them on scuba diving trips and bought clothes and shoes for their wives. One guy bought his doctor a brand new Armani suit and expensed it to Questcor,” she recalls.
“And I’m going to TJ Maxx to buy my shoes.”
Though she had deliberated about exposing Questcor, Pratta worried about the ramifications. “That’s all I could think about,” she says. “I was a single parent, mother of a special needs son and had a ton of debt from my divorce.
“The last thing I needed was to be fired and homeless.”
The impetus to act came from former colleague, Pete Keller, who, also concerned about Questcor’s methods, had decided to tell the authorities.
According to attorney Ross Begelman, Pratta served as a “relator,” feeding information from her company to the Federal government.Javerbaum Wurgaft
Now he needed Pratta, who was still working there, to act as a “relator” and feed information to lawyers, including health care fraud attorneys Marc Orlow and Ross Begelman.
To make the case, Pratta compiled as much evidence as possible, surreptitiously making notes at sales meetings and patient programs.
“I used to write notes on the palm of my hand under the table,” she explains. “If I was at a cocktail party and somebody confessed what they were doing was bribery, I would write it on a napkin in the bathroom or even on my pants.
“I ruined a lot of suits.”
Given the financial might of the industry she was battling, Pratta became acutely aware of her own safety.
Before she turned whistleblower, Pratta researched other relators to see what happened to them. “Just to see if anybody was murdered,” she explains. “You know, a mysterious accident or a car blowing up.”
In 2012, the Department of Justice began an investigation into Questcor.AP
Consequently, she become hyper-vigilant.
“I would see cars sitting at the end of my block and I just got paranoid,” she says. “I was watching even more when I went in stores or the parking lot. I got a dashcam, too.”
In January 2012, the Department of Justice began a preliminary investigation into Questcor. Soon, federal agents began calling at Pratta’s colleagues’ homes and she had to feign shock. But, she writes, “If I was the only one in the company who didn’t get an early-morning visit from the Feds, that wasn’t exactly helping me keep my cover.”
Soon, Pratta’s clandestine role became second nature to her. “It didn’t feel like I was still working for the government. It was like being married to my ex — they were never around, and there was no communication,” she writes.
After Questcor was acquired by Irish pharma-giant Mallinckrodt in 2014, pressure to deliver even higher sales increased exponentially and with it came even greater disregard for ethics.
After Questcor was acquired by Irish pharma-giant Mallinckrodt in 2014, pressure to deliver even higher sales increased exponentially and with it came even greater disregard for ethics. AP
In 2017, after she was repeatedly bullied by her boss, Pratta went to HR to complain but was fired soon after, although they maintained it was a corporate restructure, just to avoid a wrongful termination case.
“Ironically, I wasn’t fired because I was a double agent feeding information to the Department of Justice. Instead, they got rid of me for the offense of daring to speak out about an abusive manager,” she writes.
In March 2019, the Department of Justice served a 100-page lawsuit against Mallinckrodt, alleging illegal marketing of Acthar, bribing doctors to boost sales and defrauding government health care programs
It also mentioned Pratta’s role in the case, meaning her long-held anonymity was now public knowledge.
“I didn’t mind that my former bosses knew; I just wished I could have seen their faces when they put it all together. I hoped they felt that their lives were suddenly out of their control.
“The way the Acthar patients felt.”
In the wake of the lawsuit, Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy, a move which immediately halted all legal action against them, much to Pratta’s frustration.
Worse still, a member of the New Jersey plumbers’ union with MS had his union file a class action lawsuit against Mallinckrodt — and, as Pratta’s identity was now revealed, and she was a New Jersey resident, he named her in it.
While four of the five defendants were companies, Pratta was the only individual named.
“The plumbers’ union was not messing around,” she writes. “They were pissed, and rightly so. In 2018, they’d paid $26,100.28 for one dose of Acthar for one of its members.”
While that lawsuit against Pratta was ultimately thrown out, “by the time it was finally dismissed, I was left with almost $42,000 in attorneys’ fees,” she says.
Nor did Pratta receive anywhere near the amount of compensation she could have been entitled to as a whistleblower.
When Mallinckrodt settled out of court in March 2022, agreeing to pay just $26.3 million for violating the False Claims Act — far less than the amount had the case reached trial — it meant Pratta’s percentage share was even smaller.
Worse still, it would now be paid in installments, once a year for the next eight years. “In reality, if I averaged it all out, it was as if I’d just stayed employed for another ten years instead of losing my job,” she reflects.
Pratta at her home in Jew Jersey with many of the documents and files that supported her cause against Questcor.Stephen Yang For Pratta, though, the long, expensive journey to justice had been worth all the anxiety and sleepless nights.
In fact, she has no regrets whatsoever about doing what she did.
