babysandpiper

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More than 50 years after NPR and PBS first hit the airwaves, the two public broadcasters with hundreds of member stations face millions in budget cuts after Republican senators voted to claw back previously appropriated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds public media like NPR and PBS.

The House cleared the measure after midnight Friday, sending it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Republicans have framed the spending cuts bill as part of an effort to target purported "waste, fraud and abuse" in government-funded programs. GOP lawmakers have accused NPR and PBS of having a liberal bias, and in March, Republicans claimed that they were "anti-American airwaves."

 

Brazil's supreme court has ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to wear an ankle monitor.

The decision came as the former president's home and party headquarters in Brasilia were searched on Friday.

Members of Bolsonaro's right-wing Liberal Party said he was also ordered to stop using social media and end communications with diplomats.

 

The 27 European Union member states have agreed on an 18th round of sanctions targeting Russia for invading Ukraine. The measures are intended to further reduce Moscow's income from the export of oil to non-EU countries.

 

CVI is common among older adults, but requires a thorough checkup to rule out more serious causes of leg swelling

Donald Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, the White House said on Thursday, after he noticed swelling in his legs.

Chronic venous insufficiency, or CVI, happens when veins in the legs cannot properly carry blood back to the heart. That can lead to blood pooling in the lower legs. In addition to swelling, usually around the feet and ankles, symptoms can include legs that are achy, heavy-feeling or tingly, and varicose veins. Severe cases could trigger leg sores known as ulcers.

Doctors must rule out serious causes of leg swelling, such as heart problems, kidney disease or blood clots.

 

Cristosal says decision to relocate employees was because of organisation being targeted by President Nayib Bukele

El Salvador’s top human rights organisation, Cristosal, announced on Thursday it is leaving the country because of mounting harassment and legal threats by the government of President Nayib Bukele.

The organisation has been one of the most visible critics of Bukele, documenting abuses in the strongman’s war on the country’s gangs and the detention of hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in an agreement with the US president Donald Trump.

Bukele’s government has long targeted opponents, but Cristosal’s executive director, Noah Bullock, said things reached a tipping point in recent months as Bukele has grown empowered by his alliance with Trump.

 

Governor condemns Texas effort to redraw maps to pick up more seats and says Democrats should respond in kind

Seeking to offset a Republican plan to pick up congressional seats in Texas, California Democrats say they are prepared to redraw the state’s 52 congressional districts in a longshot and controversial effort to pick up Democratic seats.

Governor Gavin Newsom, seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2028, has been leading the threat in recent days. And Democratic members of California’s delegation in the US House appear to be on board.

“We want our gavels back,” Representative Mark Takano, a California Democrat, told Punchbowl News. “That’s what this is about.” Democrats hold 43 of California’s 52 seats and reportedly believe they can pick up an additional five to seven seats by drawing new maps.

 

Officials let ICE access health data to locate migrants, alarming experts who warn of civil rights and health risks

Medicaid officials have reportedly made an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to allow agents to examine a database of Americans’ personal information – including home addresses, social security numbers and ethnicities.

The data sharing agreement will allow Ice to find “the location of aliens”, according to an agreement obtained by the Associated Press. Medicaid is the nation’s single largest health insurer, providing coverage for 79 million low-income, disabled and elderly people.

“This is about the weaponization of data, full stop,” said Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic US representative from Washington state, who has worked extensively on US healthcare, in a statement on social media.

 

As more Black families opt out of public schools, they’re confronting the racist materials dominating the home education market and building alternatives

Extremists have taken advantage of limited regulation. Home school materials, particularly from Christian publishers, have been known for teaching creationism versus evolution.

Some home schooling material has described slave masters as “caregivers” for enslaved people and the practice of slavery as “Black immigration”.

Rightwing material remains a baseline throughout home schooling education, with some parents sharing even more hateful material with their children.

In February 2023, the Ohio department of education investigated a group of home schooling parents who reportedly dispersed pro-Nazi material in a local home schooling group.

 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that she had spoken with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and that the two had agreed to strengthen trade collaboration, particularly in light of the tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump set to go in effect on August 1.

"We both agreed that the (U.S.-Canada-Mexico) trade agreement needed to be respected, and we shared our experiences about the letter than we received from President Trump," Sheinbaum said in her daily morning press conference.

Trump has sent a flurry of letters in recent days, threatening to slap a range of tariffs on U.S. trade partners.

 

Alberta has now confirmed more measles cases than the entire United States has reported this year.

The province has been battling outbreaks since March and as of noon Monday, total case counts in the province had ballooned to 1,314. The latest update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that country has amassed 1,288 cases this year.

It is widely believed by experts and health officials that Alberta's case counts are higher than the confirmed numbers reflect. A standing exposure advisory remains in effect for the entire south zone and parts of the north due to widespread transmission.

 

Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and is former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter, was fired Wednesday from her job in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

 

Stories of monks behaving badly are not uncommon in Thailand, but the scale of a recent scandal has sparked questions about wealth and privilege

The disappearance of a respected monk from his Buddhist temple in central Bangkok has revealed a sex scandal that has rocked Thailand, with allegations of blackmail, lavish gifts and a string of dismissals raising questions about the money and power enjoyed by the country’s orange-robed clergy.

Investigations into the whereabouts of senior monk Phra Thep Wachirapamok unexpectedly led police to a woman who the police suspect conducted intimate relationships with several senior monks, and then blackmailed them to keep the liaisons quiet.

When police searched her home this month they found mobile phones that reportedly contained tens of thousands of compromising photos and videos of the missing monk, and several other senior Buddhist figures. Police also tracked her finances, which they said showed links to temples.

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