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Chapter 1: Who supports NPR and its mission?
Support for NPR and the following message come from American Jewish World Service, committed to the fight for human rights, supporting advocates and grassroots organizations worldwide working towards democracy, equity, and justice at AJWS.org.
Chapter 2: What is President Trump's plan for the U.S. Department of Education?
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump will soon begin the process of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. This afternoon, Trump is scheduled to sign an executive action that aims to deliver on his campaign promise to shutter the federal agency. Doing so will require an act of Congress.
The White House says the action will not cut key federal funding streams that help schools serve low-income students. kids with disabilities, and rural communities. The administration says it wants to return education authority to the states. Earlier today, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said the closure is also a national security issue.
When you look at how students around the world, particularly in China, are being educated, American students are falling behind. We're not keeping up with our allies or our adversaries, and that's a major problem for our country. And the president is fixing it today.
A week after sweeping layoffs, the department will soon be down to roughly half the size it was when President Trump took office. Immigration officials have detained a second person in connection with pro-Palestinian protests. Badar Khan Suri was arrested in his Virginia home earlier this week under the same authority used to arrest Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
Chapter 3: Why was Badar Khan Suri detained by immigration officials?
NPR's Jimena Bustillo has more.
Kansuri, a national of India, is in the US on a student visa, which allows him to teach and study as a Georgetown University researcher. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him and moved him to a detention center in Louisiana, according to a detention database. Kansuri's lawyers have petitioned for his release.
The government says that he was detained under an immigration law that allows the Secretary of State to deport non-citizens the government sees as a threat to U.S. foreign policy. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Homeland Security, said on social media that Khan Suri was, quote, actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media. Ximena Bustillo, NPR News.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the U.S. withdrawing from the WHO?
The administration has cut funding for a worldwide network of more than 700 labs that test for measles. NPR's Gabriella Manywell has the details.
The Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network is funded by the U.S., but run by the World Health Organization. In January, President Trump decided to withdraw from the WHO and pulled funding, including for these labs.
And so this lab network is now under severe threat of collapse.
Kate O'Brien is with the WHO.
It would mean many, many more outbreaks, many, many more deaths, and many, many more cases.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said funding for domestic measles labs continues. The WHO says it's looking for other sources of support for the global network. The price tag? $8 million annually. Gabriela Emanuel, NPR News.
U.S. stocks are trading lower this hour. The Dow is down 38 points, the S&P is off 20, and the Nasdaq is down nearly 100 points. This is NPR News. New details today about the plane crash at Toronto's Pearson International Airport last month. Aviation authorities in Canada say the Delta Airlines regional jet descended too quickly at a rate of more than 1,100 feet per minute when it crash landed.
The country's Transportation Safety Board says in its preliminary report today that the rate of descent was nearly twice as fast as it should have been. All 80 people on board survived, but two people were seriously injured. Ramadan. It can be a lonely experience for Muslim youth in non-Muslim homes.
The Muslim Foster Care Association in Michigan has held an iftar to bring some of those youth together to break their fast. Nargis Rahman of Member Station WDET has more.
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