The Gulf’s most-indebted nation needs to “accelerate the program of fiscal reforms” while keeping fiscal policy “tight,” said Jihad Azour, IMF Middle East and Central Asia director.
The Trump administration on Thursday announced new measures to target hospitals and doctors providing care to trans youth. Under the new rules unveiled by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, the government would strip federal funding for any hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. The new rules were announced a day after the House of Representatives narrowly approved a bill that aims to criminalize providing gender-affirming medical care for any transgender person under 18 and subject providers to hefty fines and prison time. “This is a drastic departure from any concern about science, concern about parents and their rights,” says Chase Strangio, co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “It is putting hospitals in an impossible situation, and just another example of this administration undermining and threatening all of our health and welfare.” We also speak with Dr. Jeffrey Birnbaum, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist who works with transgender youth in New York City. He says the families he works with are “terrified right now,” but vows to continue his work. “I refuse to stop providing this care, knowing that I could potentially face 10 years in prison and a felony charge. I’m willing to go down that route, if necessary.”
The agreement comes after separate efforts to leverage frozen Russian assets in order to help Kyiv stumbled.
By Joshua Scheer This post was originally intended as a year-in-review from BreakThrough News, covering major developments in Venezuela and Latin America—from the freeing of certain drug lords to U.S. interventions in countries Trump targets. In late November, Trump took to social media, warning airlines, pilots, and others to avoid Venezuelan airspace, declaring it “closed […]
The bill, approved by the Indian parliament Thursday, is poised to unlock a new source for the country’s energy mix
The weapons include missiles, drones, and artillery systems.
Even progressives who disliked the deal to end the shutdown said the party is not talking about plunging into another one.
Germany has a duty to approach this moment with historical seriousness and honesty. On that score, recent rhetoric and policy choices fall dangerously short.