SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Two former senior officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including one fired by the Trump administrationwill join California as public health consultants, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday.

Susan Monarez was fired as the CDC’s director and Dr. Debra Houry resigned as the agency’s chief medical officer and deputy director over disputes about changes at the agency. The two will work with California’s public health department to help build trust in “science-driven decision-making,” Newsom’s office said.

“We’re not just wringing our hands right now — we’re fighting back,” Newsom said at a news conference. “This is a substantive response to what is not happening in Washington.”

California has increasingly positioned itself as a counterweight to federal health policy, and Newsom has amped up his criticisms of President Donald Trump and challenged the Republican’s policies in court. The governor’s final term ends in just over a year, and he’s gearing up for a possible presidential run in 2028.

California joined Washington and Oregon — two other states with Democratic governors — to launch an alliance in September to establish their own public health guidance and vaccine recommendations, as the Trump administration makes sweeping changes to vaccine and health policy.

California state Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican, said the initiative announced Monday is an example of Newsom prioritizing his national political ambitions over the state.

“California has serious problems, and we need serious solutions from a serious leader,” Strickland said in a statement.

The White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to emails seeking comment on the Monarez and Houry hirings.

Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have repeated falsehoods about vaccines, and the administration has given health recommendations this year that experts say were not backed by science.

Trump in September urged pregnant women not to take Tylenolsaying it could pose a risk of autism to their babies, remarks medical experts said were irresponsible. The CDC website was changed last month to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism. A federal vaccine advisory panel voted earlier this month to reverse decades-old guidance recommending that all U.S. babies get immunized against the liver infection hepatitis B on the day they’re born. The vaccine is credited with preventing thousands of illnesses.

Monareza former director of a federal biomedical research agency, was named acting director of the CDC in January. Trump later nominated her to serve as director. She was confirmed by the Senate in July, making her the first nonphysician to serve in the role. But she was fired by the Trump administration in August after less than a month in the post.

Kennedy has said Monarez was fired after she told him she was untrustworthy. But Monarez said that was false in congressional testimony and that she was fired after refusing to endorse new vaccine recommendations that weren’t backed by science.

Monarez, in her new role, will advise California on advancing health technologies, state officials said at the news conference.

“California is leading the way to no longer sit on the sidelines and hope for a better future,” Monarez said. “California is investing and innovating now to build the public health systems that will protect lives, strengthen communities and create a future in which all Californians can thrive.”

Houry, who spent more than a decade at the CDC, was among a handful of top officials at the agency who resigned around the time Monarez was fired. Houry said in August she was concerned about the rise of vaccine misinformation during the Trump administration, as well as planned budget cuts, reorganization and firings at the CDC.

Houry, who will serve as a regional and global public health adviser as part of the California initiative, said the effort will “serve as a model for how states can lead together in an era of shifting federal priorities, constrained resources and evolving health threats.”

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Associated Press writer Trân Nguyễn contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.

The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021” in order to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”

The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.

The BBC said it would defend the case.

“We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” it said in a statement.

The broadcaster apologized last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.

BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.

The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”

“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn’t say, and they’re beautiful words, that I said, right?” the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. “They’re beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn’t say that, but they put terrible words.”

The president’s lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.

Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the U.S. given that the documentary was not shown in the country.

The lawsuit alleges that people in the U.S. can watch the BBC’s original content, including the “Panorama” series, which included the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.

The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets’ ballpark in Queens. A Bronx golf course once operated by President Donald Trump ’s company. A slot parlor on a horse racing track near John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The three disparate sites, located far from the tourist hub of Manhattan, will become the future homes of New York City’s first Las Vegas-style resort casinos.

The state Gaming Commission on Monday awarded the three projects licenses to operate in the lucrative metropolitan-area market during a meeting at a riverside park in upper Manhattan.

The panel approved the licenses with the condition that the companies each appoint an outside monitor that would report regularly to the commission to ensure they meet their financial and legal obligations, as well as the promised investments they made to local communities.

Brian O’Dwyer, the commission’s chair, said the state looked forward to the promise of jobs, infrastructure improvements and gaming revenue being realized.

“You all have an important charge ahead of you, and you can be assured that this commission takes our responsibility to keep your feet to the fire with great respect,” he said to the project representatives in attendance.

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement the projects would pump billions of dollars into the state’s transit and education systems and create tens of thousands of jobs.

But a handful of protesters opposed to billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Hard Rock plan vowed to continue their fight in court. They and other casino opponents worry the projects will only increase gambling addiction.

“You picked a billionaire over New Yorkers! Shame on you!” the group shouted as they walked out of the meeting.

Cohen and Hard Rock’s proposal calls for an $8.1 billion casino complex on a parking lot next to the Mets’ Citi Field that would include a performance venue, hotel and retail space.

Bally’s has proposed a roughly $4 billion casino at the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx that would include a hotel, event center, meeting spaces, restaurants and other amenities.

And Resorts World has proposed investing more than $5 billion to expand its slots parlor at Aqueduct Race Track in Queens into a full casino with a hotel, dining and entertainment options.

The projects bested several other proposals that fell by the wayside during the high-stakes competition.

Among them were three casinos proposed for Manhattan that were rejected by local boards, including a Caesars Palace in the heart of Times Square backed by rapper Jay-Z. A plan for a resort on Coney Island’s iconic boardwalk in Brooklyn was also defeated by local opposition, and MGM abruptly pulled out of the once-crowded sweepstakes, despite local support.

The state gaming commission was authorized to license up to three casinos in the New York City area after voters approved a referendum in 2013 opening the door to casino gambling statewide.

Four full casinosall upstate, now offer table games. The state also runs nine gambling halls without live table games, many of them also miles away from Manhattan.

Monday’s decision, in some ways, was largely a formality. Millions of dollars in gambling revenues are already factored into the state budget.

A state panel charged with vetting the proposals for the commission also recommended awarding a license to all three remaining proposals earlier this month.

The Gaming Facility Location Board, in its written decisionargued that the region’s dense and relatively affluent population, combined with high tourism, would be able to support all three plans, despite their relative proximity to each other.

The panel said its consultants conservatively estimated the casinos would generate a combined $7 billion in gambling tax revenues from 2027 to 2036, plus $1.5 billion in licensing fees and nearly $6 billion in state and local taxes.

Monday’s decision also means Trump could stand to claim a substantial prize. When Bally’s purchased operating rights for the city-owned Ferry Point golf course from the Trump Organization in 2023, it agreed to pony up an additional $115 million if it won a casino license.

Spokespersons for the Trump Organization didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Monday on the expected windfall.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo