Tuesday, Mar 24th
Last update07:48:53 AM GMT
It’s Jackie Robinson Day on Tuesday, with every player wearing No. 42, teams holding ceremonies, ballparks showing video tributes, and Major League Baseball reminding America that he helped spearhead the Civil Rights movement in 1947 with the integration of its sport.
Yet, here we are 78 years later, and the African-American player population on opening-day rosters and injured lists this season is 6%. There are three Black managers. There is one Black general manager.
Harvard University is very rich. On that, most people agree.
Whether it’s rich enough to get through the next four years unscathed is less certain.
On Monday, the Ivy League school’s leaders took the bold step of publicly rejecting a sprawling list of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration. Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, rebuked the government’s ultimatum, which directed the university to overhaul its admissions, hiring and teaching practices – or risk losing billions in federal funding.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber wrote in a public statement. “No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
The consequences of Harvard’s defiance were swift.
The head of a U.S.-funded Arabic-language television and online news outlet that claims a 30 million-strong audience in the Middle East and North Africa terminated most staff and curtailed TV programming Saturday, accusing the Trump administration and Elon Musk of having “irresponsibly and unlawfully” cut off funding.
In notices to Al Hurra news staffers about their dismissals, chief Jeffrey Gedmin said he had given up on the U.S. administration’s freeze lifting anytime soon for the congressionally approved money for Al Hurra and its U.S.-funded Arabic language sister organizations.
Gedmin accused Kari Lake, President Donald Trump’s appointee to the American government agency overseeing Al Hurra, Voice of America and other U.S.-funded news programming abroad, of dodging his efforts to speak with her about the funding cutoff.
Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said he does not “have the power to return him to the United States.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
An Israeli air strike Sunday hit one of Gaza's few functioning hospitals, resulting in the death of a child according to the World Health Organization, as Israel warned it would expand its offensive if Hamas does not release hostages.
Since the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have suffered severe damage in the ongoing hostilities.
"A child died due to disruption of care" at the Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza after a strike, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
"The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy were destroyed," he added. "The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals. 40 critical patients couldn't be moved."
In the past six months, two babies in Louisiana have died of pertussis, the disease commonly known as whooping cough.
Washington state recently announced its first confirmed death from pertussis in more than a decade.
Idaho and South Dakota each reported a death this year, and Oregon last year reported two as well as its highest number of cases since 1950.
While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak concentrated in the small, dusty towns of West Texas, cases of pertussis have skyrocketed by more than 1,500% nationwide since hitting a recent low in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths tied to the disease are also up, hitting 10 last year, compared with about two to four in previous years. Cases are on track to exceed that total this year.
Doctors, researchers and public health experts warn that the measles outbreak, which has grown to more than 600 cases, may just be the beginning. They say outbreaks of preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and the Trump administration slashing spending on the country’s public health infrastructure.
Israel's defence minister has announced its military will soon "vigorously" expand its offensive throughout most of Gaza.
Israel Katz also said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had completed the takeover of a "security zone" in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, separating the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Israel's military also issued evacuation orders for Khan Younis and its surrounding areas, saying it was preparing to carry out strikes in response to the launch of projectiles from Gaza, which Hamas has claimed responsibility for.
Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas on 18 March following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire.
Henrry Jose Albornoz Quintero was scheduled to attend an immigration court hearing in El Paso Thursday. He didn’t. The immigration judge presiding over his case was not happy.
“He just disappeared? What happened?”
The Trump administration lawyer either could not say — or would not.
“All I can disclose at the moment is that he’s no longer in ICE custody,” the lawyer said, according to the notes of Albornoz Quintero’s attorney, who attended the hearing.
The attorney believes his client is languishing at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the Salvadoran mega-prison where the United States sent hundreds of migrants last month. The Trump administration has sent some people to the prison under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime power; Trump claims alleged Tren de Aragua gang members are the equivalent to an invading army.
Others were sent to CECOT after receiving standard deportation orders from immigration judges.
Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys on Thursday blasted a court filing from Secretary of State Marco Rubio claiming he has the ability to remove noncitizens for their speech and beliefs, a filing that came after an immigration judge demanded the government present evidence against the former Columbia University student as it seeks to deport him.
In his memo, obtained by The Associated Press, Rubio cited a rarely used provision of law that says the secretary of State can deport a noncitizen if they pose a threat to foreign policy.
Rubio argues if Khalil remains in the country, it would harm “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
The memo came after Louisiana Judge Jamee Comans ordered the federal government on Wednesday to produce evidence against Khalil within 24 hours, saying she would make a ruling on whether or not he could be deported on Friday.
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