Morning Brief: Organ Harvesting Scandal Blows Up, Idaho Killer Gets Life, UK Faces Immigration Backlash

An HHS investigation reveals dozens of organ transplant patients showed signs of life before organ harvesting, prompting calls for reform. University of Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger is sentenced to life in prison after being confronted by the families of his victims in emotional court statements. Protests erupt in the U.K. over the country’s immigration policies after an asylum seeker allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl.

It’s Thursday, July 24, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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Organ Harvesting Horror Sparks Calls For Reform

Topline: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding major reforms to the nation’s organ transplant system after a shocking investigation found that dozens of patients showed signs of life while being prepped for organ harvesting.

An investigation by HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration found “horrifying” results and a “systemic disregard for the sanctity of life.” The review of 351 organ donation cases in Kentucky found that 103 showed “concerning features,” including 73 patients who displayed neurological signs “incompatible with organ donation.” At least 28 of those patients may not have been dead when the organ procurement process began; some later recovered enough to leave the hospital.

The investigation placed significant blame on the ethics of Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs), which are non-profits that coordinate transplants. The inquiry was sparked by a 2021 case in Kentucky where an OPO coordinator allegedly pressured hospital staff to move forward with a donation from a man who had overdosed. A doctor ultimately stopped the procedure when the patient “cried, pulled his knees to his chest and shook his head.” That patient is still alive today.

In response, HHS is demanding OPOs adopt new procedures, including formal “hard stops” that allow any staff member to halt a donation due to safety concerns. Kennedy has threatened to decertify any OPOs that fail to comply with corrective actions. The revelations have caused some of the estimated 170 million registered organ donors in the United States to express discomfort online, with some saying they will not feel safe being donors until the system is fixed.

Kohberger Gets Life After Facing Victims’ Families

Topline: Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Wednesday for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, after hearing emotional and searing statements from the victims’ families.

Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student in criminology, stabbed Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin to death in an off-campus house in November 2022. He recently changed his plea to guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary to avoid the death penalty.

During the sentencing hearing, Kohberger sat stone-faced as the victims’ loved ones spoke directly to him. Alivea Goncalves, sister of victim Kaylee, told her sister’s murderer to “sit up straight” before asking, “What’s it like needing this much attention just to feel real? … You didn’t win. You just exposed yourself as the coward you are.”

Steve Goncalves, the father of Kaylee Goncalves, physically turned the lectern to face Kohberger and said, “Today you’ve lost control. Today we are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families.”

Dylan Mortensen, a roommate who survived the attack, called Kohberger a “hollow vessel, something less than human.”

In a striking moment of grace, Kim Kernodle, Xana Kernodle’s aunt, told Kohberger she had forgiven him. “I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,” she said. Kohberger declined the opportunity to speak at the hearing.

U.K. Immigration Backlash Intensifies

Topline: Protests have erupted in a British town after an asylum seeker allegedly sexually assaulted a local girl, highlighting growing national frustration over the U.K.’s immigration policies.

More than a thousand protesters have taken to the streets in Epping, a town near London, after a 14-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker living in a nearby hotel. Guy Dampier of the Prosperity Institute told Morning Wire that the U.K. government’s failure to stop small boat crossings has resulted in more than 100,000 asylum seekers being housed in hotels across the country over the past seven years, creating widespread anger.

Dampier noted that the mood in the country is “changing enormously,” with protests now spreading from traditionally poor northern towns to “very leafy,” middle-class areas like Epping. He stated that mass immigration is “changing the face of the country at a speed that people are very uncomfortable with.” As an example, he cited a report indicating that there are more than 2,000 schools in Britain where the majority of pupils do not speak English as their first language.

Economic concerns also fuel the backlash. Dampier argued that instead of being a “financial boon,” immigration has become a “massive welfare magnet.” He pointed to recent reports showing that 1.3 million foreigners now claim Universal Credit, the U.K.’s main welfare benefit, costing taxpayers close to a billion pounds a month. That monthly cost, annualized, would account for more than half of the £22 billion “black hole” in public finances that the government cited as a major crisis last year.