Category: Full Text Articles – Audio Posts

A Pennsylvania priest admonished an audience of Democratic Party leaders at a town hall at his church on Thursday, saying he was misled about an event billed as a discussion about Medicaid that turned into a Democratic “stump speech.”

DNC chairman Ken Martin, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), and other Democrats appeared at a “People’s Town Hall” event held at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pa., located in the district of freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.

Though the event was touted as a discussion about funding for Medicaid, the Democratic guests used the pulpit to attack President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Mackenzie. Martin, who was elected DNC chair last month, called Trump and Musk “cowards” and accused them of “throwing seniors on the streets.” Raskin offered similar remarks and went through a litany of grievances about the Trump administration. “We will fight them in the cities, we will fight them all over America, and we’re going to win,” Raskin said.

That sparked a stunning reprimand from the Very Rev. Jon Stratton, the dean and rector of the Bethlehem church.

“I was told that this was going to be a town hall about Medicaid and not a stump speech for the Democratic Party, and I am upset about that right now,” Stratton said after Raskin’s speech.

“I hope that this, this goes back to a discussion about Medicaid, ’cause this is not a partisan place,” he added. “Do you understand?”

The prospect that Democrats misled a church to host a political event comes as the party faces its lowest approval rating in decades. Just 27 percent of registered voters hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party, according to an NBC News poll released this week. Thirty-nine percent of voters had a positive view of the Republican Party.

The church event is not the first Democrat-sponsored town hall to blow up in the party’s face. Democrats and groups like Indivisible, funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, have increasingly used town hall events to highlight what they say is a bipartisan, grassroots backlash against the Republican Party. Indivisible, which cosponsored the town hall in Bethlehem, was revealed to have offered to reimburse protesters for anti-GOP events, going as far as providing funding for protesters to wear chicken suits, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Democrats have also organized town hall events as a way to suggest that Republican incumbents are ducking voters. The organizers of the Bethlehem church event set up an empty chair reserved for Mackenzie, the Republican. Martin, the DNC chairman, called Mackenzie “cowardly” for skipping the event. But Mackenzie, who was holding a telephone conference call for constituents at the time, did receive some support at the town hall.

Dawn Godshall, the executive director of Community Action Lehigh Valley, praised Mackenzie for meeting with her earlier this month in Washington, D.C., to discuss federal funding for her organization.

“He was very kind,” Godshall said. “He said that if we were having difficulty accessing funding that was already promised to us … he would be willing to assist us in that area.”

Mackenzie, who defeated Democrat Susan Wild in November, said the priest’s rebuke shows the Democratic Party “has gone off the rails.”

“Shame on the Lehigh Valley Democrats for pulling such a stunt in a house of worship,” he said.

The DNC did not respond to a request for comment.

The post ‘I Am Upset’: Priest Says Dems Misled Him About Town Hall Held at His Church appeared first on .

Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong addressed the move in a letter titled, Sharing Progress on Our Priorities. She called it “a privilege to share our progress and plans.”

“Our response to the government agencies outlines the substantive work we’ve been doing over the last academic year to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus,” she wrote. “In the spirit of great American universities, we expect Columbians to engage in robust debate and discussion about our way forward, and we welcome it as an opportunity to shape the future of Columbia.”

While the policy changes put Columbia one step closer to restoring its fiscal relationship with the federal government, the road remains long. The administration issued its demands as “preconditions” for “long-term” negotiations, and Leo Terrell, who heads the Trump administration’s task force to combat anti-Semitism, has said Columbia is “not even close” to getting funds back.

“They’re not even close, not even close to having those funds unfrozen,” Terrell said during a Thursday night interview. “There is no closeness of getting that $400 million back.”

“Columbia has to make sure that Jewish American students on their campus are not prevented from going to school,” he added. “They are to be treated like every American in this country, that they be allowed to go to school and get their money’s worth when they go to a school like Columbia.”

Of all the policy changes, those impacting the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies are perhaps the most contentious within Columbia. Putting a department in receivership is a rare move that has caused concern among faculty, who say Columbia is permitting the federal government to influence its curriculum. The department’s new provost will “conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of programs in regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East.” Among the programs being reviewed are the Center for Palestine Studies and the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. The provost’s priorities include ensuring these offerings are “comprehensive and balanced” and vetting the “hiring of non-tenured faculty.”

The current Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies chair, Gil Hochberg, has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “his gangsters” of being “children killers” and “psychopathic monsters,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. Hochberg has also expressed admiration for former Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi, who blamed Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israeli “settler colonialism” and “apartheid.”

The mask ban, along with other policy changes beefing up disciplinary actions over illegal protests, also comes as a crucial blow to Columbia’s anti-Semitic groups. Agitators often used face coverings to conceal their identity while engaging in anti-Semitic or illegal actions, such as the storming of Hamilton Hall last spring. Participants in the storming as well as the illegal encampments dodged discipline until recently, after the Trump administration began cracking down on campus anti-Semitism.

The university agreed to incorporate a definition of anti-Semitism that Columbia’s own anti-Semitism task force recommended in August. Under that definition, anti-Semitism will encompass “prejudice, discrimination, hate or violence directed at Jews, including Jewish Israelis.” It will also include “targeting Jews or Israelis for violence or celebrating violence against them; exclusion or discrimination based on Jewish identity or ancestry or real or perceived ties to Israel; and certain double standards applied to Israel.”

Columbia also announced a candidate search to expand “intellectual diversity among faculty.” And despite pressure from anti-Semitic student groups to end Columbia’s ties to Israel, the university touted its upcoming launch of the Columbia Tel Aviv Global Hub.

The administration first sent Columbia a letter on March 13 spelling out the “immediate next steps that we regard as a precondition for formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.” It set a March 20 deadline to comply. The administration then granted Columbia a one-day extension until close of business on Friday after the school “requested two additional days” to respond.

The letter came shortly after the administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia, an institution grappling with anti-Semitism scandals in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. It slashed another $30 million in grants late last week, the Free Beacon reported.

The Trump administration’s demands have pit professors at Columbia’s left-wing journalism school against each other, according to Breaker. At internal meetings discussing the demands, one professor, Nina Berman, alleged that her colleagues had engaged in “doxxing,” while another, former journalism school dean Nick Lemann, physically collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

The post Columbia Caves to Trump in First Stage of $430 Million Funding Fight appeared first on .

On Friday, federal officials ordered prominent activist and Cornell University graduate student Momodou Taal to surrender to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Taal’s attorneys confirmed to The Intercept. 

Taal, a dual Gambian and British citizen in the U.S. on a student visa, is currently suing the Trump administration to block its targeting of international students protesting in support of Palestinian rights.

Along with another Cornell graduate student and professor, Taal sued the Trump administration for violating their First Amendment rights, arguing that the targeted deportations of pro-Palestinian activists has a chilling effect on free speech. The suit challenged two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders used to crack down on people advocating for Palestine.

“Nothing has changed except for the fact that we have filed this lawsuit.”

Taal’s lawyers are now arguing that the Trump administration’s request for Taal to turn himself in to ICE is a retaliation for his lawsuit and for his pro-Palestinian beliefs.

Eric Lee, an attorney representing Taal in the lawsuit called the government’s demand for Taal to turn himself in “extremely unusual” and “very concerning.”

“These types of things do not happen in a democracy where people have the right to seek redress of grievances of the government,” Lee said.

Chris Godshall-Bennett, the legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee who is also part of Taal’s team on the lawsuit, called the move “outrageous.” 

“There is no basis for his removal,” said Godshall-Bennett. “Nothing has changed except for the fact that we have filed this lawsuit — so it really is just an outrageous situation that should be treated as such.”

Midnight Email

In a midnight email sent to Taal’s attorneys, a lawyer with the Department of Justice relayed a request from ICE demanding Taal’s detention, inviting Taal “to surrender to ICE custody” at the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations office in Syracuse, New York, according to the attorneys and court filings, which include a copy of the email. 

Attorneys representing Taal argue that the order only further strengthens their claims that the Trump administration is targeting activists for speaking out.

The government’s demand constituted “an unlawful attempt” to use deportation “in retribution” for the lawsuit against the Trump administration, according to an emergency letter sent to the court on Friday by Taal’s lawyers. (Neither ICE nor the Department of Justice immediately responded to requests for comment.)

Federal District Court Judge Elizabeth Coombe responded to the emergency letter by ordering the government to address by Saturday whether its attempts to detain Taal are based on the very Trump executive orders at the center of his lawsuit. 

Taal’s lawyers also noted in their emergency letter that the Trump administration’s demands were unprecedented.

They wrote, “The undersigned are not aware of any other instance in which the government has attempted to initiate service of an NTA” — a notice to appear — “through the Department of Justice in response to the noncitizen filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of presidential action.”

ICE’s Order

Before receiving the order to turn himself over, Taal expressed concerns that he was being watched, claims his attorneys corroborated in their recent filings. According to eyewitness testimonies submitted in the court filings on Wednesday, a law enforcement vehicle — the driver flashed a badge to the witnesses — was parked outside of Taal’s home in Ithaca, New York, on Wednesday. They were not able to identify what agency the official was from.

Taal’s attorneys filed a temporary restraining order the same day as the witness testimonies asking the courts to prevent the government from detaining or deporting their client before his scheduled March 25 hearing. Dozens of protesters gathered at Cornell on Thursday in support of Taal, chanting “Hands off Momodou.”

 

Just after midnight on Thursday, government lawyers responded by sending an email to Taal’s attorneys requesting that he turn himself to ICE agents. 

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has asked us to convey to you the following,” Ethan Kanter, an attorney with the Department of Justice wrote in an email with the subject line “Re: Momodou Taal et al v. Trump, 25-cv-335 (NDNY).” “ICE invites Mr. Taal and his counsel to appear in-person at the HSI Office in Syracuse at a mutually agreeable time for personal service of the NTA and for Mr. Taal to surrender to ICE custody. Accordingly, if you are interested in proposing such a date and time, we will promptly forward it to ICE for consideration.”

Notices to appear are often the first step in the process of deporting people from the country. The government did not set a deadline for Taal and his attorneys to schedule the surrender.

The government’s email did not mention on what grounds it wanted to detain Taal. A report from the right-wing website Washington Free Beacon claimed that the government had revoked Taal’s student visa, citing an unnamed State Department official. Taal’s attorneys, however, disputed the report and said they had not received a notice of revocation. (The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Growing Crackdown

The government’s mounting pressure against Taal comes several weeks after the Trump administration attempted to deport recent Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil over his participation in anti-genocide protests last spring. 

The arrest sparked widespread condemnation over Trump’s brazen attack on free speech rights and the movement for Palestinian liberation. 

Attorneys continue to fight for Khalil’s release, in part, to be with his wife, Noor Abdalla, who is expected to give birth in April. Earlier this week, a judge allowed for Khalil’s case to be transferred to New Jersey, thwarting the government’s attempts to move the case to Louisiana, though Khalil remains detained in the state. 

ICE has said it also arrested another former Columbia student, Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian who took part in pro-Palestinian protests and had overstayed her student visa, as well as a Georgetown University graduate student, Badar Khan Suri, who was detained outside his Arlington, Virginia, home on Monday, and accused by the government of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”

As in Khalil’s case, Taal had been punished by Cornell for a pro-Palestine protest. When Taal was suspended last year, the school said it planned to terminate his student visa, but reversed the decision after pushback from students and faculty.

Since Trump again took office, both activists have become the target of far-right pro-Israel groups, including one that sent their names to the administration for deportation.  

“It’s time that we exercise our rights to access the court to stop what’s happening in this country,” said Lee, Taal’s attorney. “Trump is attempting to establish a dictatorship and if we can’t fight that in the courts, what can we do?”

The post He Sued Trump Over Free Speech. Then ICE Demanded He Turn Himself In. appeared first on The Intercept.

The reservation of the Kashia Pomo Tribe, based in Sonoma County, Calif., is nearly two hours away from the nearest hospital or center providing critical medical services. 

Reno Keoni Franklin, chairman emeritus of the Kashia Pomo Tribe, says the long commute is just one of several inconveniences impacting American Indians, whose medical care is funded by federal dollars. Funding for Indian Health Service (IHS), the agency that provides Native Americans with medical care, is under threat by slashes to national spending imposed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which tribal leaders say could worsen their situation.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“These cuts are jeopardizing a system that’s working. The notion by DOGE is that it’s of no real value… They don’t know what these workers do to provide essential services,” says Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. “They’re an essential pipeline to help the community. We do what we can to make a difference. And we’re still struggling.”

Tribal reliance on federal funds for medical care is part of the existing legal trust obligation to provide certain services, including health care, to Native Americans because the government took over Indigenous land. 

But looming DOGE cuts could upend the already-underfunded IHS. For fiscal year 2025, IHS received a budget of some $8 billion, far below its estimated need. The IHS National Tribal Budget Formulation Workgroup recommended the agency receive $73 billion—nine times the amount allotted to the agency. Administrators for tribal public health boards are able to supplement lack of funding by applying for federal grants—which are also being gutted by DOGE—and other third-party revenue reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid. While President Trump has said that Medicaid and Medicare will not be cut, Congressional Republicans have pledged to make massive cuts to their budget, and constituents fear the two programs will be affected.

Read More: Top Democrats Probe Whether DOGE Is Operating ‘Outside the Bounds’ of U.S. Law

The medical care system for American Indians is complex. Tribes can opt in to receive direct services from IHS—meaning the agency runs and oversees the clinics and services they provide tribes—or they can take the funds that would have been allotted to them and assume responsibility for the management of their own health care, typically through a tribal public-health board.   

“DOGE is starting to look at all of these inefficiencies across Indian Country, closing down facilities or limiting the amount of staff that can be hired at each one. It sounds like this is going to be a trickle-down effect; it’s not. It’s a tidal-wave effect. It happens instantly,” says Franklin, who is also the chair of the California Rural Indian Health Board.

DOGE has shut down at least 12 IHS offices or facilities in the U.S. At least two of these locations provided essential services, including water and sewage inspection, and inspection of kitchen facilities where food is prepared for local nutrition programs, according to Franklin. “Our drinking water system is in need. Our wastewater system is in need of updating and modernization. And those field offices, those engineers, were working to get that done for us,” he says.

Neither the White House nor IHS responded to TIME’s request for comment regarding the closure of these offices.

Health care leaders argue that the lack of funding for the IHS limits improvement to medical tools and systems, which affects the quality of care. “It’s about making sure that the facilities are up to date, making sure that we have the latest equipment,” says Locklear. “So much changes in the medical field that it’s hard for facilities to keep up, so that’s probably one of the biggest barriers and burdens.”

Read More: Measles Is Back. And a Lot More People Are at Risk

The IHS funding gap also deters people from becoming health care workers or staying in these jobs. The vacancy rate for IHS professionals stands at about 30%, and 36% for physicians, according to the NIHB. The U.S. at large is already experiencing a physician shortage. 

“What’s Sec. [Kennedy’s] proposal in terms of how will he address the trust and treaty trust obligations with our sovereign nations, if he has less people to do more work?” says Allen. “How would that not be a breach of trust responsibilities?”

Current DOGE cuts put IHS at imminent risk of losing some 2,500 employees, A.C. Locklear, interim CEO of the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), told Native News Online. IHS clinics and facilities, even those that are self-run by tribes, already only  provide basic services. Tribal leaders in Sonoma County and the Great Plains say that their facilities—and those of other tribes—are not open overnight. Many elsewhere do not offer any emergency aid, meaning American Indians and Alaska Native must travel to the nearest hospital when in need of urgent care. Several tribes also do not provide any local obstetric care, limiting the access to maternal health and wellness services. “One percent [in funding] can make an extreme difference in the ability to provide care,” says Locklear. “It can make the difference between having one physician to two physicians.”

American Indian and Alaska Natives, who account for more than 11 million people in the U.S., face serious health risks. These groups have the lowest life expectancy at birth when compared to all other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. Nearly a fifth of the American Indian and Alaska Native population reported being in fair or poor health in 2023.   

The future of the IHS is also threatened by a federal hiring freeze. While IHS medical professionals are exempt, hospital administrators have been affected by budget cuts. Because tribes rely so heavily on third-party revenue, administrators play a big role in ensuring the clinics receive money in exchange for the services provided. An estimated 31.5% of American Indians and Alaska Natives are enrolled in Medicaid, with another 12.8% enrolled in Medicare, according to the NIHB.

Still, some tribal leaders who have participated in meetings with IHS officials and other government leadership are hopeful that Trump Administration officials will listen to their concerns. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously spoke about his commitment to the Indigenous community and met with tribal leaders in late February, promising to make “Indian Country a priority.” Some tribal leaders are hopeful. Franklin notes that his tribe upgraded from a well system to a septic system thanks to legislation introduced by Kennedy’s late uncle, the former President John F. Kennedy, after he visited the reservation.

“Secretary Kennedy is aware and understands the [legal] trust responsibility to American Indian tribes from the federal government,” says Franklin. “Now, is he going to be able to act on it or advise the President and his budget to include these increases that are needed? I’m hoping so.” 

But fears from a potential impact still loom over officials. A January memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed agencies to pause any federal financial assistance programs, on which many tribal public health boards rely. 

“We have an agreement with the federal government to provide these public health services and implement these grants to provide services to relatives in the Great Plains area,” says Jerilyn Church, president and CEO for the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board. The potential impact of the OMB memo, without a court order, could have been devastating for the Oyate Health Center, which she runs. “It would have brought to halt all of the services and programs that we were providing through our grants.”

In the Great Plains, tribal leaders are able to fund care for substance abuse—a problem that Native Americans have historically faced—and food assistance programs. 

HHS recently issued a memo offering employees a $25,000 buyout for early retirement. Church identified at least 22 employees—including administrators—who received a letter from HHS offering the early retirement buyout, which she says would cause the Oyate Health Center to lose the most-experienced nurses and employees. In total, the hospital has some 20 providers that care for 24,000 patients. At least one individual confirmed to Church that they will be leaving the clinic due to the buyout. “We also know that typically the voluntary employment offer is rolled out ahead of involuntary, so we’re concerned about that,” says Church. 

While leaders remain optimistic, they still feel wary about what could come next, and believe DOGE should act with better caution before they act. “There are administrative costs to the Indian Health Service that I think need to be looked at first before just doing a blanket invitation to leave the health system to reduce the workforce,” says Church. 

“Tribes paid in full with their land, with their resources, and entered into agreements with the government to provide for health, among other things,” says Locklear. “There is a history of broken treaties that has been acknowledged time and time again.”

“We want to make sure that they are aware that shutdowns and appropriations decisions and funding decisions can have substantial impacts to the lives of American Indian and Alaska Native people and their ability to be healthy.”

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Residence.

Executive producer Shonda Rhimes is taking a break from the world of Bridgerton to serve up something with a little less romance and a lot more red herrings: The Residence.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Created, written, and produced by showrunner Paul William Davies (Scandal, For the People), the new Netflix murder mystery series, all eight episodes of which are now streaming, centers on the investigation and subsequent Senate committee hearings surrounding the death of White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) on the night of a state dinner President Perry Morgan (Paul Fitzgerald) and First Gentleman Elliott Morgan (Barrett Foa) were hosting for Australia.

After Elliott’s mother discovers A.B.’s body in the third-floor Game Room, idiosyncratic detective Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba)—an avid amateur birder in her spare time—is brought in by Maryland Police Department Chief Larry Dokes (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) to take on the case. Over the course of the next seven episodes, the show jumps back and forth between the night of the murder and the hearings to illuminate what happened that evening from the perspectives of a number of different White House residents, guests, and staff members.

The Residence keeps viewers guessing right up until the near end, only revealing the true culprit and their motivations in the final stretch of its feature-length finale.

Read More: The Residence Is an Overstuffed White House Whodunit With a Delightful Detective

Who killed A.B. Wynter?

The eighth and final episode of The Residence, aptly titled “The Mystery of the Yellow Room,” opens by rehashing the night of the state dinner from the perspective of A.B. himself, right up until the moment he walked into the Yellow Oval Room, where he was killed.

Then, in the present-day, Cordelia finally appears before the Senate committee overseeing the hearings to relay the story of how she solved the murder. After discovering some new clues at the White House that she realized she missed the night of the state dinner, Cordelia gathered her full roster of suspects and walked them through what she had already figured out.

Although A.B. was killed in the Yellow Room, engineer Bruce Geller (Mel Rodriguez) had moved A.B.’s body from the Yellow Room to the Lincoln Bedroom before carrying him up the stairs to Room 301, the room undergoing a fake renovation, and placing him next to a sleeping Tripp Morgan (Jason Lee), the president’s degenerate brother. Bruce did all this thinking he was covering up the crime of his lady love, housekeeper Elsyie Chayle (Julieth Restrepo), who had gotten into a fight with A.B. earlier that evening. When Tripp woke up next to a dead A.B., he panicked and moved the body down the hall to the Game Room. Then, fearing he’d be blamed, Tripp stole a knife from the office of pastry chef Didier Gotthard (Bronson Pinchot) and used it to slit A.B.’s wrists in order to make his death look more like a suicide.

However, none of those people were the true culprit. After realizing that a large painting had been moved into the Yellow Room to try to cover up the fact that a door to a passageway that led to the neighboring Treaty Room had recently been sealed and hidden away by a new wall, Cordelia was at long last able to deduce who the killer was: White House social secretary Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs).

Rich heiress Lilly hated not only the White House itself, but everything it represented: the history, the traditions, the staff. She had wanted to reinvent the residence and, to her, that meant tearing it down both literally and figuratively. So she hated A.B. because he represented what the White House represented, and he loved and cared about the house and the people who lived and worked there. After finding A.B.’s journal in the library, Cordelia figured out he had not only been documenting Lilly’s bad behavior, but had been keeping a record of all the money she had misappropriated as well as the various criminal statutes and ethical codes she had violated securing contracts, trading favors, and much more.

On the night of the state dinner, Lilly had found out A.B. was planning to expose her and had tried to rip the journal out of his hand. When she realized that the scrap of a page she had come away with could be read as a suicide note, she formed a plan to kill A.B. and frame it as a suicide.

First, she went to the White House gardening shed and secured some poison in the form of the pesticide paraquat. She then called A.B. and told him to meet her in the Yellow Room for a chat before calling the Secret Service, impersonating the First Gentleman, and telling them to clear the second floor. After giving A.B. the page of journal back and watching him put in his pocket, she slipped him some poison in a glass of scotch. However, she quickly realized he hadn’t drunk enough to die and ultimately ended up bashing him over the head with a large clock she grabbed off the room’s mantle. She then escaped into the Treaty Room passageway and stuffed the clock into a secret storage drawer before the rest of the night’s events unfolded.

It’s a bit of a convoluted ending but still works to get across the point the show seems like it’s trying to make: that the institution of America that A.B. represents and believes in is worth fighting for. Whether viewers will necessary agree with this optimistic take at this particular moment in time is another matter.

As measles cases in West Texas are still on the rise two months after the outbreak began, local public health officials say they expect the virus to keep spreading for at least several more months and that the official case number is likely an undercount.

But there’s a silver lining, officials say: More people have received a measles, mumps and rubella vaccination this year in Texas and New Mexico, which also has an outbreak, compared to last year — even if it’s not as high as they would like. And pharmacies across the U.S., especially in Texas, are seeing more demand for MMR shots.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

As of Friday, the outbreak in Texas was up to 309 cases and one measles-related death, while New Mexico’s case count was up to 42 and also one measles-related death. Forty-two people have been hospitalized across the two states.

Read More: The Pandemic Turns 5. We Are Still Not Prepared for the Next One

Texas’ outbreak, which has largely spread in undervaccinated Mennonite communities, could last a year based on studies of how measles previously spread in Amish communities in the U.S. Those studies showed outbreaks lasted six to seven months, said Katherine Wells, director of the public health department in Lubbock, Texas. Lubbock’s hospitals have treated most of the outbreak’s patients and the public health department is closely assisting with the response.

“It being so rural, now multistate, it’s just going to take a lot more boots on the ground, a lot more work, to get things under control,” Wells said during a media briefing this week. “It’s not an isolated population.”

The outbreak includes 14 Texas counties, two New Mexico counties and four probable cases in Oklahoma, where health officials said the first two were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases. The way it spreads makes it especially hard to contain and outbreaks can have multiple peaks, said Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Many people spread the measles virus unknowingly for days before the telltale rash appears. The virus also can hang in the air for up to two hours after a sick person has left a room.

“Within this community, it’d be perfectly reasonable to think probably another couple months before things die out,” Lessler said. “But if it gets into another community, you just potentially start that clock over again.”

If the outbreak goes on until next January, it would end the United States’ status of having eliminated measles, which is defined as 12 months without local virus transmission, said Dr. William Moss, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center.

“We’re only three months in. I think if we had a strong response where the messaging was clear that measles vaccination is the way to stop this outbreak, I would be surprised if it went for 12 months or more,” said Moss, who has worked on measles for 25 years, mostly in Africa. “But we’re not seeing that type of response, at least from the federal government.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. instead has sown doubt about the measles vaccine, which has been safely used for more than 60 years and is 97% effective after two doses. In an interview with Fox News last week, Kennedy said MMR shots cause “deaths every year,” although he later added that vaccinations should be encouraged.

Vaccinations are up in Texas and New Mexico

Still, there are signs the outbreak has had an effect on vaccinations, especially locally.

Between Feb. 1 and March 18 last year, New Mexico Department of Health registered 6,500 measles vaccines. During that timeframe this year, more than 11,600 measles vaccines were administered in New Mexico — about half given to adults and half to children.

Southeast New Mexico, where the outbreak is located, represents a large portion of the count, with 2,369 doses administered.

In Texas, at least 173,000 measles doses were given from Jan. 1 to March 16, compared to at least 158,000 over the same timeframe last year, according to the state health department. That includes more than 340 doses in given by public health in the West Texas outbreak area as of March 11.

Texans must opt-in to the state’s immunization registry, so most people’s vaccinations are not captured in the Texas Department of State Health Services numbers, department spokeswoman Lara Anton said.

“We don’t know if more people are opting in or if this is a true reflection of an increase in vaccinations,” Anton wrote in an email. “It may be both.”

Read More: Measles Is Back. And a Lot More People Are at Risk

Pharmacy chains Walgreens and CVS told The Associated Press that they’re seeing higher demand for MMR vaccines across the U.S., especially in the outbreak areas.

Texas health officials say they’d like to see more uptake in the communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, especially in Gaines County — where the childhood vaccination rate against measles is 82%. That’s far below the 95% level needed to prevent community spread, and likely lower in the small religious schools and homeschooling groups where the early cases were identified.

Prasad Ganji is a pharmacist in Seminole, the biggest town in Gaines County. He said he ordered a 10-dose box of the MMR vaccine as cases started to spread.

He can give vaccines to people older than 14. But he still has doses left.

“The uptake for vaccines been definitely been a struggle,” Wells said of Gaines County, “I want to be honest with that.”

One morning, Bay Ridge resident Zak Turner noticed his computer screen at work looked blurry. He figured it might be time for glasses. What happened next was something he never expected.

Months after first experiencing blurry vision, Turner, 25 at the time, sat beside his girlfriend — now his wife — waiting for the doctor to come back into the room.

The doctor let them know Turner had tested positive for a rare gene linked to Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a condition that would cause him to rapidly lose his eyesight over the next six months, leaving him with only peripheral vision.

As his condition became more severe, Turner feared he would lose his job, his independence, and the life he had built for himself.

“A lot of the next six months. It was kind of like that ‘why me’ mentality, I don’t deserve this,” Turner told Brooklyn Paper. “I always prided myself on pushing through things, but this was one obstacle [and] I was like, oh my gosh, this is tough.” 

Turner was used to pushing himself — he grew up playing football, basketball, baseball and soccer. He went on to play college football at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

But now, just a few years later, he had lost all central vision in his eyes.

“ There was something in the back of my head where people thought I couldn’t do things anymore because I’m legally blind,” Turner. “There’d be times where I would sign up for something, and my wife would be like,’ Zak, nobody thinks you can’t do something. But it was like this internal motivation.” 

He decided to return to sports, starting with tandem biking and then guided running. Turner admits that when he began his running journey, he could barely finish a mile.

“If I never lost my eyesight, who knows, I may never have run a marathon,” he said.

Turner runs with a “guide” who leads him using a tether. The freedom he found in running became a spark that would change the next few years of his life.

“ A lot of my days are walking around with caution, making sure I don’t miss a step or walk into someone,” he said.

But when he’s running with someone, it’s a different story.

“I feel free like I don’t need to tiptoe [or] make sure I don’t miss something,” he said. “There’s some times where I will just close my eyes, and I’ll tell my guide this is the best feeling ever.”

Turner runs with the support of his wife, his sister-in-law Christine, a marathon runner, and Achilles International, a running group that supports runners with disabilities.

One mile became easy to run, Turner said, and soon, three miles felt like one. This progress led him to the starting line of the 2022 New York City Marathon.

“I remember vividly, I was so emotional right before I started. I was just crying to Christine because I was so happy,” he said. “I used to joke people who run marathons are nuts, and then I’m at the start line about to approach mile one, and I’m like, this is unbelievable.”

Friends and family came out to cheer on Turner and his sister-in-law Christine, who ran side by side for 26.2 miles. Around mile 16, exhaustion set in, slowing their pace, but they promised each other they would finish the race no matter how long it took.

“I run with someone the whole time, and I’m so fortunate for that,” Turner said. “Whether we’re talking, pushing each other, or getting through the tough times, there’s a lot of people out there on the course doing a marathon by themselves.”

They eventually reached the finish line, where their friends and family were waiting for them.

“We just both were so emotional, just crying because we were in so much pain, but so happy we finished,” said Turner. 

Turner said his first marathon was one of the hardest things he had ever done. Within a year, he was ready to do it again at the 2023 Boston Marathon. 

As a runner, Turner has exceeded what he once thought was possible as a visually impaired athlete. He said he loves the trust and communication involved in guided running and enjoys working with guides who are new to the process, coaching them along the way.

He has found spots in his Bay Ridge neighborhood where he can run independently.

Beyond running, Turner has expanded his life in ways he never expected before his LHON diagnosis. He still has the same job he had before his disability but has also begun speaking at conferences and events, sharing his running journey.

Now, he is preparing for his next race — the New York City Marathon in November. This year, he faces a new set of challenges: finding time to train, aiming to beat his previous marathon times and caring for his newborn child.

“My whole goal is to get more awareness around the visually impaired blind community, but also, to inspire others to push themselves outside their comfort zones,” Turner said. “That’s what I’m doing and I want to set an example.”

(The Hill) — The United Kingdom updated its advice for travel to the United States on Thursday, warning of harsh consequences for British passport holders who violate U.S. immigration laws.

The notice comes just a day after Germany updated its travel advice after three of its citizens were detained trying to enter the U.S.

The U.K. foreign office confirmed earlier this month that it was providing support to a British national detained in the U.S. after reports circulated of a woman detained at the border, Reuters reported.

In its updated advice, the U.K. foreign office told citizens to “comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry.”

“The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly,” the office said. “You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”

According to archived versions of the U.K. website, guidance in early February only stated that U.S. authorities “set and enforce entry rules,” Reuters reported.

Germany this week said it was investigating the cases of three of its citizens being denied entry and placed in detention when they tried to enter through the U.S. southern border.

Germany then updated its advisory to warn that entry through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or a U.S. visa, was not guaranteed, and U.S. border control has the final say in allowing people into the country.

A Canadian woman also said she was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently, The New York Times reported.

The detainments are causing international concern among allied countries as the Trump administration vows to crack down on migration into the U.S.

Eggs are a staple for cooking and baking. But if you’re scrambling for a replacement, your kitchen is full of dupes, from ground flaxseed to canned pumpkin. Many offer health benefits that make them comparable or even superior to actual eggs.

Depending on what you’re making, eggs can contribute structure, moisture, flavor, and color, or act as a binding agent (holding ingredients together) or leavening agent (helping baked goods rise and become light and airy). So when you’re considering egg substitutes, it’s important to think through what purpose any replacement will serve in your recipe: “Do you need it as a binder, or as more of a fluffy agent? Is it in a baked dish?” asks Rebecca Russell, a functional medicine registered dietitian in Denver. Seeds tend to be great binders, for example—they’re perfect in meatballs and burgers—while applesauce and silken tofu are just right for baking.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

We asked registered dietitians for their favorite swaps.

Ground flaxseed

Meet “flegg,” also known as ground flaxseed that’s gelatinous enough to sub for eggs in baked goods. To make it, mix 1 tablespoon of flaxseeds with 3 tablespoons of warm water, and let the concoction sit for about 5 minutes until it thickens. It works as a one-to-one substitute for eggs, Russell says. While you can technically use whole flaxseeds, grinding them up makes them easier to digest and improves their texture, she adds.

Read More: What’s So Great About Cottage Cheese?

Expect a mild, nutty flavor with lots of health benefits. “Flaxseeds are a great source of soluble fiber, which is important for gut health, blood sugar balance, and even weight loss,” Russell says. She likes using flegg in pancakes, banana bread, and other breakfast pastries. Because it’s a great binding agent, it also works well in dense dishes like meatloaf. Unlike many of her clients, “I can tolerate eggs just fine,” she says. “But I often still use flegg for the added benefit of the fiber.”

Chia seeds

When you combine 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 3 tablespoons of water, you get a “chia egg,” which replaces one traditional egg in all kinds of recipes. The mixture, which is thick and more gelatinous than flegg, has a neutral taste but can be texturally grainy. Russell recommends using it as a binding agent in poppy seed muffins, or baked goods that have walnuts or pumpkin seeds, all of which can help conceal its texture. Chia egg also works well in veggie burgers. 

Russell often recommends it to her clients because it’s a great source of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. “Chia seeds are great for brain health, heart health, and inflammation,” she says.

Applesauce

A quarter cup of applesauce is an easy swap for one egg in recipes that require moisture. It works especially well in structured baked goods like muffins, breads, brownies, and cakes, says Kaytee Hadley, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Richmond, Va. (You wouldn’t want to use it in a fluffy meringue.) Because applesauce is naturally sweet, consider slightly tweaking your recipe. “You’re going to be getting a decent amount of sweetness, so you might want to cut back on whatever added sugar you’re using,” she suggests. “It’s a nice natural alternative—plus, you’re getting the fiber that’s in there, which is great for heart health and gut health.”

Read More: 6 Things to Eat to Reduce Your Cancer Risk

“Bean water”

The liquid that comes in a can of chickpeas is often discarded—but can actually be repurposed as an excellent egg replacement. Officially, it’s called aquafaba, but Russell thinks of it as “bean water.” When it’s whipped, it takes on a light, fluffy texture similar to egg whites, she says, and works well in recipes that call for aeration, such as chocolate mousse, meringues, and homemade mayonnaise. Simply substitute 3 tablespoons per egg. “It’s virtually tasteless,” Russell says, which means it works well in both sweet and savory dishes.

Next time you use a can of chickpeas, pour the aquafaba into an ice cube tray or small container and freeze it for up to four months; that way, you’ll have some on hand when you need it. You can either thaw it in the fridge the night before, or microwave it for a minute or two.

Silken tofu

Silken tofu—unlike its firm cousin—has a creamy, yogurt-like consistency that makes it ideal for baking as well as dishes such as quiche and frittatas. A quarter cup replaces one egg, and Russell recommends blending it first to make sure it’s as smooth as possible. She often encourages clients with dairy intolerance to experiment with silken tofu, since it’s so versatile. “It can soak up any sauces, seasonings, herbs, or whatever you put on it, because it has a super mild flavor,” she says. Plus, it packs a nutritional punch: Tofu is a complete protein, which means it provides all nine essential amino acids, and it’s rich in nutrients like calcium, iron, and magnesium.

Greek yogurt

What can’t you do with Greek yogurt? Add “egg replacement” to its long list of uses: a quarter cup is a convenient substitute for one egg. It adds moisture, creaminess, and a slight tang to baked goods, keeping them soft and tender, says Russell, who also uses it in pancakes. The only caveat, she adds, is that not everyone is wild about its taste. “You can try it out, and if you don’t like it, maybe go to something like a flaxseed or chia seed egg,” she says.

Read More: Why You Should Eat a Dense Bean Salad Today

Pumpkin puree

If you’re the type who longs for pumpkin spice lattes year-round, you might enjoy this swap, which calls for replacing one egg with a quarter cup of pumpkin puree. “You get a little bit of pumpkin color, and a little bit of that flavor,” says Maggie Michalczyk, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Chicago. (She also happens to be the author of the cookbook Once Upon a Pumpkin, which is all about creative uses for the festive squash.) Pumpkin puree works particularly well in baked goods like breads, muffins, and cookies, she says. In addition to its pleasing taste, she gives it bonus points for adding vitamins A, C, and E to your recipe, as well as potassium and fiber.

Vegan egg replacements

You can now find commercial egg alternatives at almost any grocery store. JUST Egg, for example, makes plant-based substitutes that are similar to traditional eggs in taste, texture, and function but made from ingredients like mung bean protein and canola oil. Hadley, who is not affiliated with the company, eats its products every morning. “You can scramble it, or you can bake it into a nice egg dish,” she says. “The texture is shockingly similar, and it’s super convenient and mess-free.” Since it tastes somewhat mild, she recommends adding black salt to ratchet up its egg-like flavor. (The condiment’s sulfur content gives it an authentic eggy taste.)

Hadley also enjoys Crackd, a plant-based product made out of pea protein, which doesn’t have any saturated fat or cholesterol. “You can cook it in a skillet or microwave, and use it in baking as an egg replacement,” she says. 

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has become a leading champion of small economies in global climate discussions. And so I took note at last year’s United Nations climate conference when she said she thought countries should engage then-President elect Trump to try to explain the importance of climate work. 

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

“I am not one of those who will come out and say immediately that with the election of President Trump all is gloom and doom,” she said at a fireside chat last November. “We need to find mechanisms… to have the conversations.”

Mottley’s position has evolved since then. Trump entered office in January with an aggressive agenda to attack clean energy and end collaboration on climate change. Last week, as delegates from around the world gathered in Barbados for a sustainable energy conference, Mottley instead insisted that small countries would need to find their own way forward. “You don’t spend time or energy praying over what could have been,” she said. “But we deal with the world as it is.”

Across three days of talks at the SEforAll Global Forum in Barbados, Trump barely came up explicitly. It’s not that anyone there underestimated the consequences of his election for global climate progress. Rather, his election has finally sunk in, and attention has turned to paving a path forward—without the U.S. 

It’s a telling glimpse at how climate discussions may be shifting. The gravitational pull of the U.S. should not be dismissed; some countries will inevitably follow his lead. Nonetheless, if the conversations in Barbados provide any indication, many emerging and developing economies remain eager to forge their own clean energy path.  

The U.S. shadow has always loomed large over international climate collaboration. As the world’s largest economy and only superpower, climate negotiators had to adjust language carefully to respond to the U.S. political context. 

With the Paris Agreement in place, conversations have largely focused on finance—getting money flowing to energy transition projects, particularly in developing and emerging economies. But despite the central role the U.S. played in setting up the system, U.S. public money never came to represent the lifeblood of international climate finance—even as developing countries and climate advocates insisted that the country owed it to the rest of the world to pay up because of its historical emissions. Even in the climate-friendly Biden Administration, it took significant wrangling for the White House to commit to $11 billion in annual international climate finance. To put that in perspective, developing countries left last year’s U.N. climate talks disappointed that their wealthier counterparts committed only to a total $300 billion in annual climate finance.

In other words, on the finance front, the U.S. isn’t leaving that big of a gap to fill. So where will the money come from? One key area under discussion at the SEforAll forum, where I spoke with officials in the public and private sectors based everywhere from Fiji to Sierra Leone, was so-called south-south collaboration. Instead of looking to the U.S. and Europe to pony up capital, developing and emerging market countries can work together—providing the goods and finance without the help of their wealthier counterparts.  

According to research from the Brookings Institution, trade between Global South countries recently surpassed trade between Global North countries. “This is a great signal of progress,” Arancha González, a former foreign minister of Spain who is now the dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, told me on a panel I moderated at the forum. “It tells us that there is a new world out there.”

Potential sources of finance include development banks located in large emerging economies like Brazil and South Africa. Institutions like the New Development Bank, formed in 2014 by the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, have financed billions in clean energy development. And, of course, it’s impossible to talk about this financial picture without talking about China. The country’s Belt and Road Initiative has been a source of more than $1 trillion in capital for infrastructure since its inception in 2013. In recent years, the country has increasingly focused its funding on green projects.     

Many developing countries have also focused on raising capital locally to fund projects—pushing savings and pension fund money to invest in the local market rather than looking abroad for higher returns. 

And then there are the new methods of what is often called blended finance. Traditionally, the term refers to a combination of public and private capital where the public money lowers the risk for private investors. More recently, philanthropy has entered the blended finance conversation, playing an increasingly important role providing money

“We have what we call strange bedfellows, where… institutional investors are partnering with a philanthropic organization, and together coming up with a blended finance solution that is innovative in approach,” says Ije Ikoku Okeke, who runs catalytic climate capital for the Global South at RMI, a clean energy non-profit.

A right-wing populist might not object to this new dynamic. In such a world view, American money should support Americans—leaving other countries to their own devices. But is the U.S. really better off if the rest of the world builds a coalition with Americans on the sidelines? 

Putting U.S. strategic interests aside, it is a little refreshing to hear a conversation about clean energy in the Global South that doesn’t get bogged down in whether the U.S. is going to live up to its moral responsibility as the world’s biggest historic emitter and instead focuses on solutions.

To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter here.

TIME receives support for climate coverage from the Outrider Foundation. TIME is solely responsible for all content.